Spare Notes

Had Jeni Magaña on recently, and her band is Magana. She’s a multi-instrumentalist and producer who is always creating and releasing art into the world. Her EP Bad News came out earlier this year. She also plays bass in Mitski and has another band called Pen, Pin. I think that if the world shut down again, her innate desire to create would probably produce so many albums within a year, as much of her life is spent on tour, and the ...

From the importance of enjoying your creations and the nature of music, to getting down ideas and making art, Alexei Shishkin and I delve into ideas of taking advantage of time and moments to make music, because sometimes it’s hard to know what you’re gonna get done. Having created up to almost a dozen LP’s out, up-to-date, Shishkin is no stranger to getting it done. His latest record, “Good Times’ is out September 5th. We explore ...

Tuxis Giant has an album coming out this week called “You Won’t Remember this, and I had a chat with Vocalist, guitar player, Matt O’Connor about it. We got into the contrast of joy and tragedy, Midwest family feels, dove into some lyrics, and talked about Huey Lewis, as one of the songs on the record is named Huey. It was nice having Matt O’Connor on for a second time!

Tuxis Giant:

INCREDIBLE INTERACTIVE Music Video for "Huey" HERE:...

In this interview, I was joined by writer, musician, and professor, G’Ra Asim, the author of Boyz in The Void: a mixtape to my brother. His nonfiction book reflects on his own identity while navigating Blackness, and I’m taking this from the descriptions of the book, while blending music and cultural criticism and personal essay to explore race, gender, class, and sexuality as they pertain to punk rock and straight edge culture. Us...

I recently interviewed Brendan of the band Tiberius. They’re releasing their new album Troubador this fall in November. Right, they have a single called “Sag” that’s out. There’s a fun Music vid on YouTube for it too! Link Below

We talked about how Tiberius creates music together, the music communities in Allston/Brighton neighborhoods of Boston, the importance of the DIY music community, ego death, Rutland, Vermont, and what ambiti...

I recently interviewed Sara Mae Henke of The Noisy. They’re releasing a deluxe edition of their debut album, The Secret Ingredient is More Meat, and the Deluxe version is called The Secret Ingredient is Even More Meat. Comes out in October. Some things Sara Mae and I talk about are, but not limited to, sharing the love of silly things, performance as a clown, fighting feelings of inadequacy, creating art that fights patriarchal exp...

I spoke with Rachel Cholst, a music journalist from New York City who has been writing about the queer country music community for the last 9 years. You may have already seen her work in magazines like No Depression, The Boot, and Wide Open Country. Currently, she is the editor of Rainbow Rodeo Magazine, and as far as she knows, Rainbow Rodeo is the first print publication devoted to queer country music.

There are interviews, review...

I worked with Eleanor Henderson for a year at Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY, during the 2022/2023 school year. She was the chair of the Writing department at the time, and I was a lecturer. We had a lot of conversations about teaching, writing, and ideas. We've stayed in touch since, and still to this day, talk about said things, while keeping each other up to date as our lives keep moving on through new milestones. I was so excited...

I met Misha Tentser at graduate school in Syracuse, New York, four years ago and we became friends not long after. He's a poet, writer, and teacher, and it's always a pleasure to talk to him! We get deep into dream logic, mental health, the figurative weight of objects, being nerdy about your art, emotional confrontation of the self, psychogeography, and what it's like to be a writer.

Here are some links to Misha's published work!

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Gory and I had a nice talk about what it's like for her bing a nomadic musician. She's from Panvel, Maharashtra, India, and it's difficult to play there as a musician unless you are performing covers. This spurned her musical journey. We talked about the challenge of finding a place to play at home, while finding so much by way of traveling to play. Not just artists to colaborate with, but the joy and comfort of becoming a part of ...

I think I fell in love with winded sometime in 2022. I used to play "Swallowing Hair" and "I know it's Thin" on repeat during my drives from Syracuse, NY, to my job in Ithaca, NY. Mostly rolling hills and farms, and deep green walls of trees and fields, calm scenery. The songs soaked into my veins with their melancholic, grunge-infused, lonely, haunting guitars, and outbursts of crunchy, searing melodic static.

It was great to have ...

Matt O'Connor recently started a record label inspired by the need to help trans youth, creating Worry Beads Records' first release, a compilation of 18 different bands called True Names: A Benefit for Trans Youth. We talked about how we can create space to honor and support trans youth, while not only with fundraising, but also through the impact of literature and music. We also talked about literature, the origin of True Names, a...

I tracked down David Schellenberg after listening to the new record of his band Tunic, A Harmony of Loss Has Been Sung. Listening to the album was an intense experience and a pleasure for me. I liked listening to this record in my car the best, surrounded by the dark tones, the grief and pain in the lyrics, and the absolutely stunning composition of instruments, dragging me into the depths of this loss. The deep bass, the wretched ...

In this interview, I hang out with Ian Kelly, a versatile rapper and storyteller from Oakland, California. We talk about community, the artist's evolution, intentionality, and of course, all of this involves music.

As I’ve continued to talk to artists recently, I’ve noticed that there are certain things a few have in common in their growth. It’s part of being intentional and part of letting go. This can seem strange because it’s con...

I recently reviewed Friedman's debut album, New Thing, in Post-Trash magazine. Knowing she had limited time because it was the week of the album's release, I came up with three questions that focused mainly on community and performance.

This interview with my OLYMPUS Digital Voice Recorder VN-7200 was recorded over the phone, so it's fuzzy. To me, it feels like one of those voice memos on a Midwest emo song, where someone is playin...

In the early 2000s, I lived in Ypsilanti, Michigan, a few blocks away from Mark Paffi. Through friends of friends, I ended up going to these Wednesday night parties Paffi threw, hosting friends in the community. I remember meeting John Gaviglio there, and we were sitting on a couch. We talked about music, and he told me he was in a band named Bear vs. Shark. I was excited when he mentioned that one of their many influences was At t...