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 seem to be fine, making life happen as best I can in my apartment at the Fred Dowling Co-op here downtown.
What have you been up to since March or so?
As an educational content delivery drone, I have found myself quite busy delivering my courses online. It has gone reasonably well, but I'm finding that teaching music online is similar to watching a streamed concert - it's ok, but better to be in the room with other humans as you take in music together. The preparations for online delivery have really monopolized my time, leaving me little leftover time to do any music. Plus my eyes are exhausted by all the the computer time so my usual composing/recording practices are less appealing than they might otherwise be. So it's time to develop some work/life balance and more analog composition practices.
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 have been putting together some new music digitally with my group Stranger Still (Rob Clutton, Randi Helmers, Mim Adams and myself). I wrote new music for this band in the spring, and as we can't rehearse we have all been recording our parts separately in our home "studios", and then I've been knitting them together. These recordings will just be demos, a kind of socially distanced rehearsing to prepare us for whenever we can actually get together in a recording studio. We've also done a few Zoom/phone chats about the music, which have been nice. I find it helpful to set up situations for social interaction where the pandemic has little chance of becoming a topic of discussion; these "rehearsals" fill that function for me. It's been a fun process.
Any works of art that have been a light for you in these times? Anything that's just been a good diversion?
I've been diving deeply into the Hubro Records discography, finding some serious joy and inspiration on some of their records. It seems that Bergen is the place for me at the moment, as many of the sounds that have excited me lately are from musicians from there. I've also been reading through the works of N.K. Jemisin, which were recommended to me by Mike Smith. I read the Broken Earth Trilogy, and am now half way through the earlier Inheritance Trilogy. Great stuff.
How are you feeling about 2021?
Time is a flat circle, so I feel the same about 2021 as I do 2020. I'm holding out until 2112, when all of the planets of the Solar Federation will finally be rescued from chaos.
Anything else we'd chat about if we bumped into each other?
I'd like to know more about Joe's walking daily routine, so I would ask about that.
Editor's note: Pete didn't bring it up, but some sweet See Through musics came out earlier this year:
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