GLFCAM -- Rain, unreal and biblical
Formerly pretty solitary when I was still a Bay Area urbanite, the reality of the climate crisis has had me creating more local community than I have ever done. That’s not necessarily comfortable for me but I think the crisis will only be effectively addressed en masse.
GLFCAM -- NoMowMay
Those with a lawn are encouraged to mow less, and to not mow at all in the month of May, a critical time especially for butterflies, bees and other bugs to feast on wild flowers. Sadly, we seem to be the only people participating in our neighborhood. Next year, I hope we can have a #NoMowMay sign put in our yard, both to let the neighbors know why our house looks like a meadow, and to spread the word and hopefully encourage others to consider doing the same.
GLFCAM -- Sustainable practices: the discipline of rest
As a musician I feel that I have been cultured to believe in hard work, achievement, etc. “Become an excellent musician so that you can receive attention, money, respect, or even more dire so that you can survive, make a living, not have to work a side hustle that (potentially) crushes your soul.” The artistic purpose of “personal-achievement” seems divisive and destructive to me.
GLFCAM -- Finding Purpose
Writing music gave me great joy, but I questioned if there was a purpose for it that was equally wholesome. The question lingered, could composing music enact change as a doctor treating a patient, an attorney representing a client, or a senator voting for public policy?
GLFCAM -- Wrong. I would love to be that
I’ve been compiling a list of questions that I’ve received over these past 18 months in various interviews, panels, etc., since I began publicly communicating my environmental alarm in earnest, not just casually.
GLFCAM -- The Tale of Hillman Estates
My earliest memory is December 1982, my second birthday, which we celebrated at the Dandridge Road home. Hillman Estates was a come-home-before-the-street-lights-come-on type of neighborhood.
GLFCAM -- Following the Interspecies Gaze in Shaun Tan’s Illustrated Stories
I think the idea of telling a story with images alone reminded me of the challenge that composers face when writing instrumental music: how can we weave a narrative without words?
GLFCAM -- New Day
If you use your time well on the first day of the year, that may just give you the momentum you need to make it through the rest of the year.
GLFCAM -- A Maxwell Tape
Christmas was already a day or two past, and I didn’t immediately follow when Mom gave me an old shoebox, nonchalant-like. The contents rattling around inside turned out to be Maxwell cassette tapes, the kind from the 70s with the extra boxy cases and orange stripes. For years, I had been nagging my folks to find home audio recordings from my girlhood… I remembered my Dad’s old player, still functioning from his college years pre-Peace Corps and Perú where he met Mom, and how Dad would casually slip in a tape when he thought things were about to get good.
GLFCAM -- Reflections on Rockefeller’s Ghosts
I took a week-long trip to the Appalachian mountains with a group of student activists, and that trip was a formative experience. I fell into conversation with an activist photographer who had made it his primary work to document the effects of mountaintop removal coal mining. He asked me a bit about who I was and what I did, and I explained to him that I was a college student studying both jazz piano and environmental studies and felt myself being pulled in two opposing directions. He asked me why I couldn’t pursue both.
GLFCAM -- Is it alright to make joyful art while the world burns?
I love finding joy in my music, yet I feel an incredible anger because of the ways in which human created climate change affects the acequias and the Sage Grouse. The snow melt is unpredictable, and the irrigation season is shorter than ever. Fracking and drilling not only warm the planet but destroy habitats that the birds rely on. What is beautiful or joyful about not knowing how to fix this with my music?
GLFCAM -- To lay down in a bed of yesteryear
The Cabrillo Music Festival admin asked, in a Zoom with my agent, if I’d write something about the wildfires and I blurted out yes. But I underestimated the time needed to figure out how to address the CA wildfires. In truth, I had been putting off the work, rusty from COVID disuse, but also apprehensive to tackle the subject. I have been living in near constant terror here in rural Boonville. Yet, something inside, deep in one’s spirit, simply perseveres while surrounded by unimaginable chaos.
dublab -- Notes from the Archipelago
I wanted to offer this playlist as an intentionally unkempt, unruly, sprawling overview of works that have made an impression on me over the past twenty-five years of research in this field. I have preserved works I loved as a teenager, works I loved as a graduate student, works I loved while I was studying in Germany, works I have learned to love in the past seven years, works I continue to investigate, and works I perhaps myself may not love, but think are nonetheless deserving of recognition.
dublab -- The Current Landscape in Composition, Film Scoring and Publishing
Warp Composers’ Sen Moreira is joined by producer and composer Casey MQ in a conversation about the current landscape in the world of composition, film scoring, and publishing in an ever changing music industry.
dublab -- Colloboh live performance at dublab for NewMusicBox
A live performance captured on video by Los Angeles based composer, Colloboh. This performance took place at the dublab studios and features new compositions utilizing modular synthesizers.
dublab -- Staying True in the Film Industry
Dublab Radio DJ Chandler Poling of Studio Soundtracks interviews film composer Chanda Dancy about her musical upbringing, her inspirations, and her creative contributions to the Sony Pictures’ feature film Devotion. Together they discuss the public perception of what a composer is and how Chanda’s work challenges that perspective.
dublab -- BAE BAE - Hood Rave Mix
The mix is the kind of set you will hear at Hood Rave, the underground party BAE BAE curates in LA. The hyperbolic black femme, she translates her empathy to the decks, blending r&b, house, club, jungle, garage, dancehall and more, foregrounding black music genres and sensuality.
dublab -- The Future of Composition: From the Ivory Tower of Academia to the Basement of Electronic Sound
Max Alper, more commonly known by his handle “la meme young” is without a doubt singularly unique even if just with regards to his maverick pedagogic tendencies. But he’s not a sonic arts anomaly. He belongs to a whole confederation of deep listeners and practitioners who inhabit a virtual landscape of infinite (and infinitesimal) proportions. That is to say, no sound is too simple or small. No composition, too unintelligible or unorthodox.
dublab -- Qur'an Shaheed: live performance at dublab for NewMusicBox
A live performance by Qur’an Shaheed, a pianist, poet, singer and songwriter based in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, CA. Shaheed has been playing piano since the age of four, trained extensively in classical and contemporary music. Since 2012 she has been developing her practice as a songwriter alongside her solo piano and ensemble work.
dublab -- Samora and Elena Pinderhughes in conversation exploring the boundaries of creation
Samora and Elena Pinderhughes in conversation around the blurred boundaries between composer, musician, instrumentalist, producer and songwriter. The musical multi-hyphenates dive deep into anecdotes, personal narratives and a bit of philosophy around their processes, their truths and the ways they’ve evolved as creators. They converse with a depth only collaborators who are also siblings can reach.
dublab -- Compositional Curiosities
Listen to Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh and visionary artist Beatie Wolfe talk about the art of composition and other creative curiosities their worlds collide with, including their viral campaign Postcards for Democracy.
dublab - Composing for Film: A Conversation with Emily Rice
For this edition of dublab x New Music USA, join Elyn Kazarian and film composer Emily Rice as they discuss the process behind composing, collaborating with directors, finding your own voice, and ways to build a strong financial foundation. The first hour of the program will include a 30 minute mix of songs from various film scores composed by women.
dublab - Composing to the Tempo of Time: The Philosophy of Musical Transcendence in the Ancient Griot World
The implications of the surge in interest in West African traditional griot music in the United States, Europe, and throughout Africa in the past decade offer much in this analysis of how these cultures intersect and relate to the study and experience of music.
dublab - Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer: a live performance at dublab
This live performance by Jeremiah Chiu and Marta Sofia Honer took place at the dublab studios featuring some of the music they composed together as part of their recent album, Recordings from the Åland Islands, out now on International Anthem.
