talking about music @ sunday brunch collective

A chief tenet of this blog is bringing the URL to IRL and vice versa. The internet offers so much to enrich life, as does going to things in person, and when they can be safely combined, the results can be magical.

I've been to a couple of events thrown by Sunday Brunch Collective, a music and arts collective that puts on excellent shows and parties in the Los Angeles Area, including one last summer that I blogged about. When I saw SBC's Beverly Steel was looking for vendors for an upcoming Once Upon a Time in Hollywood party, I reached out to see if I could become a strange blog-vendor—essentially sitting at a table and talking about music with people, which is one of my favorite things to do—and she said yes!

I got to talk to so many musicians and music-enjoying folks at this party. It was awesome. Everyone was also so pleasant about being interviewed and photographed, and I also had some great off the record conversations too—like one with musician and audio engineer Josh Salgado, who later sent me a video of a dance party he DJ'd in a military bunker?? People are so cool.

Below are some shortened bits of conversations I had with music people. Their work is linked throughout, please check it all out. Also if you're an event-thrower in the L.A. area and there's room for an I Enjoy Music booth...call me. Read on for tour bus sleep deprivation, harmonizing with your mom, rave visuals, The Strokes bass parts, and

HARRISON FLYNN

How long have you been playing music?

Since I was 12. I’m 29 now.

How's the L.A. music scene for you?

I think L.A.'s got an amazing music scene. It takes a few years to find your niche, your crew.

Do you remember the first show you played in L.A.?

I think it was actually in West Covina. It was in a restaurant. I remember it because it was George Harrison’s birthday. 

Do you have a favorite George Harrison song?

"Run Of The Mill."

Anything you want to plug?

I'm working on an album now, should be out early next year.

MARS HORNER

What do you play?

I play bass in Harrison’s band. I play in a lot of different bands, so I don’t know if I should list...

I want the list!

I play bass in Harrison's band, I play guitar for a dream poppy, kind of shoegaze band called Siam Jem. I play bass in Eroica. I play bass for an artist called Forest. I’m a yes man, I say yes to everything until I literally can’t. 

What music have you been listening to lately?

Right now, I’m going through another phase of listening to the Strokes.

Hell yeah. That's fun bass music!

That’s what I was thinking. People ask me who my favorite bassist is, and I think of Nikolai Fraiture…but then I’m like, Julian wrote all the bass parts…me and Harrison [Flynn] started playing in a Strokes cover band a while ago.

Sick. What is it called?

Reptilia. You have to choose a song name.

Anything you'd like to plug, anything you're looking forward to?

The band I'm in, Siam Jem, we’re about to do a little tour in Japan.

Whoa!!

It’s a self-put-together tour so it’s not with a label or anything. But we’re playing some nice venues, playing Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto. Regardless of what happens, it’s going to be fun.

SAMANTHA JANE / SAM SWEETS

What type of music do you play?

I like to say it’s like PJ Harvey, if she was a little more self-aware. Because I also do comedy. I don’t like to call it “comedy music,” because everyone then thinks of "bad music." A lot of comedy music is: isn’t it funny if I sing really bad? I like to have it where people can listen to the songs.

And you also do burlesque—how does music fit into your burlesque show?

I dance in a group called Empowerment in Heels, and they do open stages, like open mics. I’ve tried, a couple times, playing my guitar and stripping in between. I just have to really time the pauses, so I can take off my pants. I had my friend carry the microphone around the room so I could work the room. I’m looking forward to cracking this fully!

Anything you want to plug?

I run a show called Comedy Gogo!—we're on hiatus, and we’re currently looking for venues, so if you have a venue, hit me up.

MIKA STAMBLER

Are you a solo performer, or do you play with a band?

I was a solo act for a while, and I recently put a little band together. I play folk punk music.

What’s the band name?

We’re deciding. We were thinking Timothy Treadwell would be a good name. But... do I want to make that pivot? 

It’s a commitment!

My dad’s a journalist, and during that period when Timothy Treadwell was still alive, my dad had to go camp with him in Alaska for the story.

Oh my god! You have a personal connection to the story. Your dad was in there with the bears?

Yeah. One degree of separation.

That’s wild. So what would you say is the hardest thing about going from being solo to being in a band?

I think it actually it makes everything easier in a lot of ways. It makes me feel more confident onstage.

Anything you want to plug?

My song “Forgetting Everything I Said” is out now!

JOE YUHRE

You play in Mika's band. How’d you get linked with her?

I met her at a Sunday Brunch event. And then I wanted to work on my studio guitar playing, so I asked around who wanted to record, and she was like, "I’m down!"

Do you play solo as well?

Yeah, I’m also a solo artist. I'm having my first show with my own band at Hotel Cafe. And I work at School of Rock.

Oh shit. What do the kids want to play these days?

A lot of girls want to play Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter. They’re also assigned stuff. We had a Woodstock show so they learned songs for that. We had an indie rock show, so they learned “Blister in the Sun." I’m going to play that at my show too. I played it with a bunch of 11-year-olds and it was fun, so I was like, I’m adding this to my set.

UNIDENTIFIED FRIEND*

So you were recording music today?

I was. Actually I wasn’t. I was going to and then I decided to eat Indian food. We did listen to music and we talked about it.

What type of music do you play?

Diary music.

What made you start wanting to play music?

I picked up a guitar, somehow. And then I just had to start writing, and now I can’t stop, or I go insane.

What music are you listening to these days?

Ravyn Lenae. And Babehoven!

MAGGIE MCKELVEY

What music have you been listening to lately?

I’ve been in my jazz era recently. Elori Saxl—she’s from the east coast, I found her by chance from Spotify surfing. She does experimental jazz and ambient music, and it's some of the most amazing stuff.

How do you all know each other?

We go to school together at CalArts. We’re experimental animators.

Not to be all ‘what do you want to do after school’ but...what do you want to do after school?

My most marketable skill is stop motion animation. Stop motion’s having a bit of a resurgence right now. He [Angus] does rave visuals…

What?? Get over here!!

ANGUS OAKES

Tell me about the rave visuals!

I don't do it professionally, I just do it for my friends. They produce a range of genres. We’ve got house, techno, dubstep, riddim, trap. 

Which is the most fun to do visuals for?

Techno. It’s really fast and it’s really consistent, so you can mess around but always be on time.

*not an artist name, their name wasn't audible on my recorder! - if this is u, pls...get in touch!

BEN SCOTT

What do you play?

I play guitar and bass, and I sing.

What kind of gigs do you generally play?

I love house shows, bars, whatever. Back on the East coast before I was really focused on my solo stuff, I was touring with a lot of other artists.

What was that like?

Incredible. We would do two week tours, travel the East coast from West Virginia to Maine. I’d love to do it with my own music. It’s a gritty lifestyle, you have to adjust to living on a bus with people you may or may not always get along with, but you have to work with them. It’s really the sleep deprivation that gets to you on tour.

What kind of music do you listen to?

Classic rock is home base. It’s gotta be late '60s, early '70s for me. 

Anything you'd like to plug?

Follow @ben.scott.music, and stream Ben Scott!

SANDALWOOD

How have you been? How are the gigs going these days?

I did a tour up to Portland the last two weeks of July. We did nine shows up the coast.

What was the best show and what was the worst show?

Best show was probably Portland. We played with another opener, Alexx Skyy, and he brought a bunch of people, and we had friends that came out. We had 40 or 50 people, a nice crowd. Really good sound, we all had our own stage monitor.

Wow, they really care! What was this venue?

Alberta Street Pub. It's a bar with a venue in the back. And worst show? Weirdest show, we did a show in Blue Lake, California. It was at the one bar in town, and the owner didn’t tell the bartenders we were playing, so we got there and they didn't have anything prepped. But it worked out.

What else are you excited about musically these days?

My album came out in January, so I've been playing a lot of live shows in L.A. and the tour was kind of the cap of all that. I've been writing a lot. For the next album, I want to have 20 songs that I love and then narrow it down. The last album was all my songs.

worn out joy, by sandalwood

10 track album

sandalwoodsandalwood

MACY GOLLER

How long have you been playing music?

Maybe always? Guitar is fairly new. I play folk music..

What instrument did you play first?

Piano. And we'd sing a lot. My mom loved showtunes, but also '70s folk rock music: Crosby, Stills & Nash, Joni Mitchell.

Did you harmonize together?

We would. We practiced in the car. I'd be like, "How are you doing that?"

Harmony is something that, when you first encounter it, you’re like, how does this even work??

And you want to do it because it’s such a cool way to interact with a song. But it’s very mysterious at first. 

What kind of music are you listening to these days?

I'm exploring a lot of indie folk, and modern folk. Huge Big Thief fan. But I’m having a lot of fun going back and listening to older folk. I love John Prine. John Fahey, have you listened to him? He's a baller guitarist, his music is instrumental. Great fingerpicking.

Thank you to to Sunday Brunch Collective and everyone I talked to!!

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