Bumping Into... is a series of mini-chats with a variety of peeps that you might run into in some of our local music communities. (There's a bit of an intro and my thoughts behind the series here.)
How are you? Where are you?
I'm good! Quite good in fact, arguably the best I've felt in a long time. I'm here in the city, hanging out in a cozy new apartment to myself.
What have you been up to since March or so?
I've been doing a lot of reflecting and asking questions. Probably why I feel so great, this has been an important time of self-care for me, something I guess I've always claimed to be too busy for and wasn't entirely sure how to do. It literally was just sitting still with myself and resting lots, being good to myself.
I dove into the world of home recording which I've been meaning to do for a long time and am happily making things that may or may not see the light of day, doesn't matter, very pleased with what's been coming from it. Playing lots of guitar and bass (ready for our next Ruster gig!) and rolling around on the floor (I love telling people this, because it's true! All this sitting hurts my body but THE FLOOR IS AMAZING, check it out if you haven't already hahah)
Have you found any new ways to do old things? How are you feeling about the shifts in how music is being made/shared/listened to?
I've only recently started playing more saxophone and clarinet again... I think for much of the earlier pandemic I didn't really feel compelled to 'express' anything and those instruments are very much my expressive voice, I guess I just didn't have much to 'say'. But then I got tired of picking up the sax for a recording or odd thing I was asked to do and feeling like it was a ghost limb, a foreign entity, so I started back up again and am happily tootin' away just for the sake of feeling and hearing it again.
I feel pretty complex about it! But not necessarily negative. There is so much to live performance and gathering that I love so dearly that no alternative available right now can quite cut it. I'm happy to wait, and have really relished the few opportunities that have popped up once in awhile which have some resemblance to what once was. I feel like in this time where I can't DO the things I usually can, I've chosen this time to MAKE things instead and that's been a fulfilling thing - not at all meant to replace what I had but to shift to another mentality. The space of recording, as an improviser who is used to thinking of it as a means for documentation, has been a very interesting one... learning lots about what I can or can't let go, how I make decisions, what my tendencies are. Similar things that I would have found I think, composing on paper but this medium seems to suit me well, to hear possibilities and happy mistakes as they are created. I'm having a ball, but that didn't stop me from tearing up a bit when I walked into the Tranzac last Friday for the first time since March... I miss parts of our old life very much, and other parts I hope will change forever.
Any works of art that have been a light for you in these times? Anything that's just been a good diversion?
I ALSO dove into Twin Peaks for the first time, what a vibe!!! That and I've been playing guitar every day, learning some Fahey stuff and pretty chord melody ballads. Highly recommend listening to Elizabeth Cotton while rolling around on the floor.
How are you feeling about 2021?
Honestly, I haven't been able to summon up any concrete feelings about it... in this time where it is eternally present and today I've just been coasting along with that vibe. I wonder sometimes about what it'll look like, how it will feel, what I'll choose to do... and there are just so many uncertain factors I figure, I will meet it, in the way I can, when the time comes, and leave it at that.
Anything else we'd chat about if we bumped into each other?
Nah... I'd just give you a good long hug my friend xo
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