Nancy was kind enough to answer some of our questions on the album, as well as their other musical projects, the work of Grimalkin Records, and wider questions on the state of the music scene.

Your latest release, Live, while not a live album in the usual sense, is very much influenced by how you perform these songs live. How is this different to your recorded releases?

What you are hearing outside of all the transition pieces is what my live sets sound like for the most part. I play stripped down versions of my songs and tried to keep the main parts of the songs much like I sound live. I also recorded the songs with my electric guitar which I rarely use these days when recording. I typically use my classical guitar in recordings but I play my live sets using my electric. I imagined that the transition pieces could be played during my sets between songs and the video that Rafa (Rafael de Toledo Pedroso da Silveira) and I created to go with the songs could be used as a backdrop when playing out.

Is playing live something you have learned to enjoy, or is it still nerve-wracking?

I started playing out in January of 2019 and was playing out quite often up until the beginning of March 2020 when everything shut down due to the pandemic. Playing out was scary to me and I never really thought I would do or enjoy it but I pushed myself to get out of my comfort zone. I figured the first step would be just being comfortable playing stripped down versions of just guitar and vocals and imagined once I mastered that, I would start adding things in. The last show I played before the pandemic was probably my best one yet and I was just starting to feel a lot more comfortable. It was still nerve-wracking, and probably always will be, but I was getting more comfortable with it. I felt like people responded to it positively, and I actually enjoyed it. I felt like I got a lot out of it personally and musically.

Playing out is different because I was practicing every day since I started doing it and I was really sitting with songs for much longer lengths of time than I was used to previously, and so as I played them out, I would start settling into the songs and they would slightly change over time. I was writing new songs and would introduce them into sets and that was a different way to develop a song. I would rework older songs and add them or rotate them into my sets so it was just a very different way about working on my music. Once the pandemic hit and I could no longer play out, I decided to make an album of what I imagined a future set might sound like if I had kept playing out.

You have begun to go back and remaster your old releases, an experience that has been both nostalgic and bittersweet. Has this period of revisitation changed your approach to making new music?

The main thing that was really great about going back and remastering songs is remembering and rediscovering some of the songs I’ve written that still stood out to me. That inspired me to start rotating some of them into my sets and reworking them. I’ve been recording and writing for a long time now and so every once in a while I’ll find a bunch of songs I forgot about. I just recently found over 100 songs from 1997-2007 that I forgot about. Most of it was crap but I found a bunch that were decent and I just finished mastering and releasing those on my Bandcamp. I have a few albums of songs like that now (Thoughts, Olden, Backwards, and 13). Those albums are songs that I found later on and were never really meant to be albums.

This set is called 13 (my lucky number) because I narrowed them down to the best 13 songs in this recent set of found songs. When I go back and listen to old stuff, sometimes it brings back the memories of those feelings when I wrote them. That can be overwhelming. Writing and recording has always been therapeutic for me but sometimes that means the songs are just too personal or painful for me to share with others. I left the really heart wrenching ones off 13.

How do you feel your music has changed since those early releases?

Almost all of these songs were never released anywhere. I would just write and record for myself. I would make tapes and CDs for friends sometimes or upload songs to Myspace but for the most part, I wasn’t thinking of the listener. Now I do more so. I write music with the intention that I am going to release the ones I like or I am intentionally writing albums, but for most of my music-making life, that wasn’t even a consideration at all. The benefit of that is nothing is hidden, censored, or held back because the idea of releasing them wasn’t a consideration.

The downside is that many of the recordings are imperfect or unfinished ideas. I didn’t have the same care involved in the recording process as I do now. There are a lot of good ideas though in that older stuff and can evolve into better songs over time. I think that’s what I like the most about going back through all my old stuff. Relistening now is like going back and taking a piece of myself and seeing it through what I hope are wiser and clearer eyes. I can learn and take from that and mold things into the present.

Your label/collective Grimalkin Records continues to go from strength to strength, and it has been great to see artists like Backxwash getting coverage in large publications. What are you plans going forward?

I hope we keep growing and expanding in new ways. Mutual aid is at the focus of most of what we do. That has been growing and we are excited about that. We hope to be able to grow more as an international collective as well.  I was laid off the end of March and so Gr has become my sole focus and it’s my full time job now- it’s like more than one full time job really. We’ve picked up a lot since the pandemic in terms of support and also work and so I couldn’t even keep up with the level of work Gr has become doing the job I had before I was laid off. It was never intended to be my sole job, but here we are.

At first I was devastated when I was laid off. My job was really important to me, but now I see it was a blessing and I feel like a lot of the disability advocacy work I was doing with my job is something that we can bring into Grimalkin. Almost all of us in the collective have disabilities or are on the spectrum, and so really Gr has become all encompassing for me. I feel like it has all of my loves and passions, and after getting laid off and investing myself even more into this work, I feel like it’s everything I’m supposed to be doing.

The collective also really believes in what we are doing and so what I felt initially was a pipe dream really now seems like a possibility. It helps a lot to have people believing in you. We really are trying to create something different and special within the music community and show others that there is a different way. You can forge and create new ways. You don’t need to exploit and profit off the backs of artists. There are better and more sustainable ways built on mutual aid and support. We never profit from artists so the only way I will ever be able to do this as a job and also pay others for more than just freelance work is by patrons, Bandcamp subscriptions and grants, and it does seem like that may be possible one day. I guess time will tell.

What role do you believe music/art can play in these difficult times?

This is a difficult question to answer because I am dissatisfied with the main stories that have been told through art and music, with the people telling those stories and controlling those stories, with the people who own art and music and with the people who decide what is of value and what should be heard and seen and remembered. Grimalkin strives to create something outside of those constructs.

Of course I think art and music is incredibly important, but more than anything, we need to create spaces that are outside the structures that exist now. That may sound weird when we are becoming something like a LLC but that choice was mainly made to legitimize what we are doing so that we can’t be easily shut down by the government. I’m not a fan of working within these systems. I used to believe in that bullshit (working within the system to change it), but I no longer do at all, but still in order to survive you do have to work around the systems and structures that exist in order to survive.

White people control the music and art world and that needs to change. People need to relinquish their power and do more to support others. I believe white people with means and power in art and music need to make real amends. Reparations need to be paid with time, money and labor. I strongly believe in the value and reward of being in the service of others. Grimalkin’s role is forging a path for a better way and hopefully setting an example for others and inspiring others to do the same or in finding their own new ways for creating supportive spaces in their own communities.

Art and music can be many things to people, especially during difficult times. We all need to listen and learn from others, especially from marginalized people. From there you can begin to see the change you hope for, and from there you need to do the work within yourself. I want people, especially white and cis people, to stop talking the talk and performing bullshit and get serious about what it is going to take for us to have a better and more just world.

I always have hope though even when I feel like I don’t. It is okay, especially now, to feel like quitting somedays or like we will never have the change we need, and maybe the whole planet will be extinct before we get there, but all I can do is focus on the present and be mindful by envisioning and investing in the future I hope for. We can each work on ourselves and hopefully inspire others. If you’re digging deep enough inside yourself and doing the work and practicing it in your daily life and then taking that energy to meet and organize with others, even if it is small like what we are doing with Grimalkin, then that is something.

Grimalkin cannot take on the shitty music world all alone but we can carve out a space and make something real, and hopefully that will keep growing and inspire others, and then hopefully that will keep on growing and slowly affect change within the music world, and hopefully that will also grow and branch into other things since music isn’t all that we are doing in Grimalkin. Even if we can’t change the world today or even tomorrow, we can at least make the one we are in right now more livable and sustainable

Live by Spartan Jet-Plex is out now and available via Bandcamp, including on the cool VHS edition you can see below. Also head to the Grimalkin Records Bandcamp page to see other forthcoming releases, their website for more information and consider becoming a patron via Patreon.

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The latest Spartan Jet-Plex album, Resurrected, released on Halloween, sees Kells re-animate songs from previous releases. These new and alternate takes feel like a conjuring trick, Kells taking the personal, social and political themes that form the bedrock of their music, and bending them into new, hallucinatory forms. If you’re already familiar with these songs, then the effect is one of a dream-like paradox in which everything feels unrecognised but oddly familiar.

‘Fear’ begins with a grandly somber patience, the overall atmosphere one of a misty midnight graveyard as things begin to story beneath the earth. This feel is exacerbated by the susurrant ‘Clown (Spell)’, wordless vocals gathering like fingers of fog across the leaf-strewn ground. ‘Meant’ is the closest thing the record has to a conventional folk song, stripped back to acoustic guitar and Kells’s vocals, subtly atmospheric synths curling around the foot of the song like tendrils of fog.

There’s a similar feel on ‘Stop’, the patient and beguiling track that first appeared on Godless Goddess, what I’ve previously called “a hit pop song slowed just slightly, giving it a before unheard dreamy majesty.” The swirling haze of the original is cut entirely, replaced by gentle guitar, but the emotion of the track is somehow concentrated, Kells sounding purposeful and confident in the simplified setting.

Resurrected has two brand new tracks too. ‘Material’ is perhaps my favourite, electrified with sharp jags of guitar that illuminate the song stark and white like forks of lightning, Kells’s voice skating above like wisps of cloud. The other new one is ‘Parallel’, which begins in disorientating vocal loops before switching into crunchy lo-fi folk. Both songs hint at another side to Spartan Jet-Plex, dark and magnetic folk rock in the vein of Jason Molina or Neil Young.

Resurrected is out now and you can get it on LP, cassette or download from the Spartan Jet-Plex Bandcamp page.

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Today marks the fifth anniversary of Fox Food Records, and to celebrate James Smith has gathered a large number of the label’s artists for a special compilation, Something’s There But You’re Not Sure What. Essentially a who’s who of the Fox Food roster, the release represents a celebration of what truly independent labels can offer—a diverse group of people from all over the world linked not by a specific sound and style but rather the spirit within.

Opening with an acoustic version of Oh Rose‘s ‘Prom’, Something’s There But You’re Not Sure What features a whole host of our favourites. Nice Legs stop by with another slice of delightfully warm fuzz pop, Spartan Jet-Plex provides an alternate take on single ‘Meant’ and Monarch Mtn returns with his characteristically intimate and melancholic whisper-folk.

Dana Gavanski joins Kaiya Cade on the haunting ‘Garden’, Fazed on a Pony serves up a dose of wonky nostalgia and Goodbye Max welcomes us back into his wistful warmth with the modest wonder of ‘Search Party.’ Then there’s the icy pop of Bloodhype, the whimsical momentum of Plant Food, not to mention the playful hush of Lewtrakimou and cool swagger of Saint Charles. Mixing things up, Henoheno and Fair Mothers offer different takes on patient, sprawling music—the ethereal gloom of the former matched in mood and scope by the foreboding creep of the latter.

Elsewhere, Unisex offer a carefree sway with ‘Let the Tide Take You’, Fairy Godmother a garage rock washed with dreamy haze and the likes of Ratbath, Hairpins, Suzy Jivotovski (of GRNDMS) and Deer Scout all provide stellar examples of intimate bedroom folk. Then, in a fitting finale, Smith’s own Good Good Blood teams up with Astral Social Club for mammoth closer ‘Heathen Astronaut’.

With ambient textures and electronic beeps and glimpses of sincere emotion peeking through the fog, the track acts as a kind of summary of the compilation and therefore the Fox Food Record’s mission as a whole. Heartfelt, experimental, bound not by expectation or convention but rather some gut-level intuition. Together, the elements coalesce into an intangible yet sustained sense of spirit, something far more powerful and lasting than anything done alone. This might not be something than can be adequately put into words, but that it exists is a testament to Smith’s judgement and effort. Because something is there, even if you’re not sure what.

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Tracklist:

Act Of – I am Fungus
Static Animal – See You Around
Skirts – Brite Boy (Alex G cover)
Space Mountain – Cloud
Alexander – Going To Sleep
German Error Message – Murmuring
Thelma – Take Me To Orlando
Jeffrey Silverstein – Make Yr Peace (And Have It Too)
camp counselor – museum of broken relationships
Spartan Jet-Plex – Stop
Lala Lala & Why? – Siren 042
Shrimpwitch – Leerers
Sir Babygirl – Flirting With Her
Spielbergs – Five On It
Stella Donnelly – Lunch
Mentalease – Avert a Gaze
Priests – The Seduction of Kansas
Mike Pace and The Child Actors – Hazy, Hot & Humid
Swim Camp – Circle K
BURLY – Kent Lame
Miserable chillers – Cider Palace
Imp of Perverse – Tripping Thru a Hallway On Fire
Go Fever – Olivia
Polyan – Dan Song
Morning River Band – Bury Me
Nigel Wright – Overcast
Denmark – I Know
Sister Wanzala – I Went Whaling in My Gap Year
Body Meat – Nairobi Flex
Derek Piotr – Repeating Bloom (Simon Whetham Remix)
Michael Chinworth – Good As It Gets
Mesa Luna – Dispel
yot club – jaded

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Having followed Kells’s releases pretty closely for the last few years, it’s interesting to watch as her music develops. As the above descriptions suggests, Spartan Jet-Plex has never been afraid to experiment, and has utilised all manner of layering and atmospherics to evoke feelings impossible through words alone. However, her latest release, Godless Goddess, sees that reigned in a little, proving to be perhaps the most focused and minimalistic Spartan Jet-Plex album to date.

In demonstration of this, first track ‘Stop’ is patient and beguiling, a hit pop song slowed just slightly, giving it a before unheard dreamy majesty. The themes are well worn and universal, that age old struggle between dark and light, of pushing against past pain and trying to be okay.

I’ve got to stop, turning me around
don’t know what’s in my mind
sometimes I’m doing fine

Kells is joined by Berko Lover for the gauzy quirk of ‘Chronostasis Interlude’, before ‘Fear’ puts down roots with its subtle guitar and richly emotive vocals. The song is prime example of the willingness to dial back on the experimentation in favour of slightly more conventional songwriting. The individuality that makes Spartan Jet-Plex is still present, but bestowed with a new lucidity.

Which is not to suggest that the inventive weirdness of previous releases is excised entirely. ‘Baubo’ burbles with electronics and great tidal washes of white noise, like some future robot’s attempt to reimagine a past organic world. Then things get unsettling, as disembodied laughter fills the air and the song fades out, and the effect is as recognisable as it is hellish—the subcutaneous itch of dread that will arise when one is surrounded by laughter but not in on the joke.

Stripping things right back to the bare bones, ‘Everything’ is basically an acoustic folk song built of strummed guitar and subtle church-like keys. ‘Entrance’ begins by following a similar pattern, a stark and richly felt love song made ethereal with susurrant backing vocals. That threatens to change around the halfway mark, although the electronic breakdown proves little more than an interlude. The decision to include this little break, aside from again showing how Kells is uninterested in following conventional song structures, has the effect of making the rest of the song seem brighter, like a painter placing complementary colours side by side to make them both stand out.

An instrumental interlude, ‘Trust and Believe (Survivors)’ sounds like the soundtrack to some ominously mind-bending sci-fi scene, although, as the title suggests, its message lands a lot closer to home. Then finale ‘Light’ leaves us with crystalline atmospherics and wittering birdsong, eventually morphing into acoustic guitar and Kells’s vocals. It might be the closest thing to a warming ballad Spartan Jet-Plex has ever made, and sees a return to the dichotomy of the first song—the search for light and good in what can be a very dark and troubled world.

What can you or I give life
be what it may there’s always light in this life

Godless Goddess is out now via Grimalkin Records on vinyl and cassette and you can get it from the Spartan Jet-Plex Bandcamp page.  Grimalkin has launched a new Patreon campaign too, so do consider subscribing to that.

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Various Swell Sounds is a new collaborative playlist series from Shana Hartzel of Swell Tone, Jon Chin of Cereal and Sounds, and myself. Instead of constantly exchanging tracks amongst each other, we have decided to work together to bring them to more ears. Every month, we will match a selection of our old and brand new favourites to a specific theme, as decided on a revolving basis month by month.

It only comes around every four years, so this month we’ve hopped aboard the World Cup hype train. We encountered a bit of a hitch when realising that there aren’t a wealth of football/soccer related indie tunes, especially when 2/3 of the curating team reside in the US. Thus, Beautiful Games was born, a playlist that widens the net to encompass all sports, and plays a little loose with the sound and style, meaning this might not the most cohesive list you’ll ever get from us. Still, that’s cool. The World Cup is all about a diverse clash of styles, after all.

Find the tracklisting below, though due to Spotify’s limited library, that version isn’t quite complete.

1. Parquet Courts – Total Football
2. Speedy Ortiz – Basketball
3. Ex Hex – Don’t Wanna Lose
4. Amyl and The Sniffers – Cup of Destiny
5. Queen Moo – Goals
6. Darla – Hey Ref, Let the Boys Play!
7. Varsity – Smash
8. Gulfer – Baseball
9. The Lagoonas – Beach Golf Course
10. Summer Flake – Shoot and Score
11. Methyl Ethel – Shadowboxing
12. John Maus – Touchdown
13. The Fall – Kicker Conspiracy
14. Slow Ref – Playing the Game
15. Stephen Malkus and The Jicks – Chartjunk
16. Hello Shark – Big Game
17. The Mountain Goats – Song for Sasha Banks
18. Another Michael – Football
19. Deerhoof – Basketball Get Your Groove Back
20. Super Furry Animals – Venus & Serena
21. Sports Coach – I’d Trade My Whole Team for a Dog
22. Ian Sweet – #23
23. Mothers – No Crying in Baseball
24. Spartan Jet-Plex – Sport
25. Strange Ranger – Sioux Falls
26. Her’s – Speed Racer
27. Frog – Nancy Kerrigan
28. Belle & Sebastian – The Stars of Track and Field
29. Natalie Prass – Short Court Style
30. Songs: Ohia – The Big Game is Every Night

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As ever, Kells has been busy. Not content with her work with Grimalkin Records (the queer, trans, nb/gender nonconforming, poc & women focused record label which releases the wonderful Friends For Equality benefit albums), she has also been working on new music, and has a brand new full-length album, titled STFU, due for release on 18th May. Kells says these songs are “mainly about growing older and the current state of our world/country,” and they promise to be every bit as unique and incomparable as previous Spartan Jet-Plex releases.

The album is at least partly inspired by Kells’s relationship with her older brother, with whom she has reconnected and become close, an experience that has shone a light on getting older and the strange ways life often works. “It makes you feel less alone in this world to have someone in it that came from the same place you did and shared many of the same experiences and witnessed many of the same things that you have as a child,” Kells says. “It is difficult in this world to truly know or understand someone no matter how close you are to them, but I feel fortunate, and it is comfort to have a friendship with my brother.”

As an initial taster for the album, Kells has made a video trailer, including a snippet of the title track which features vocals from Berko Lover, aka Baltimore’s Tiaira Harris. The pair are also working on a collaborative album under the moniker Merge, which will be released later this year.

Excitingly, Kells is also putting out a 7″ lathe cut single a week ahead of release. The record presents two of the album’s tracks, and today we have the pleasure of unveiling both. ‘Time’s Up’ is an intense and atmospheric song, layered vocals delivering opaque lyrics about watching time slip by. “Our time has come,” Kells sings, “Our time has gone, there’s nothing left but time.” The B-side ‘40 Something’ is similarly evocative, unfurling snake-like in a gothic haze, gentle guitar acting as an anchor to the soaring atmospherics and ethereal vocals.

If those two songs weren’t enough, here’s one that only appears on the full-length. ‘Alright’ rises from gentle guitar as Kells’s vocals come winding out of the void, the only percussion a series of sharp staccato breaths. The atmosphere is at once melancholy and otherworldly, capturing perfectly a strange dream-like sense of struggle and loss. This sensation thins and disperses, rising to the ceiling like smoke, though never quite dissipating entirely, hanging above the scene, watching.

“The moon glows, the night air
it’s alright, we roam
no-one knows, true love”

The 1989 7” will be released on 11th May, and STFU is out on cassette tape, with artwork from Michael Christy, on 18th May. You can pre-order both now via the Spartan Jet-Plex Bandcamp page (1989 & STFU). There are lots of extras and goodies that come with the physical releases (including zines, stickers and pins), so grab those if you can!

P.S. Nancy is playing a live show TONIGHT in Richmond as part of the improv noise collective Womajich Dialyseiz. Head along if you’re in the area!

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However, as always, we want to point out that ‘free’ does not have to mean pay nothing in this context. Indeed, the title of the post says ‘free’ music because it’s snappier than ‘name your price’ music, but really that’s a convenient/attention-grabbing misnomer. Last year we spoke about how paying artists makes for the best soil in which to sow creative seeds, and things are no different now. Indeed, with the dawn of Spotify and the all-powerful algorithms, it is more important than ever to support independent artists and labels, and in reality there are already enough free ways to consume music that we don’t need to encourage another.

So please delve into the below list, curated entirely by humans, and spend whatever is left of your Christmas money when you stumble across something you like. We can vouch for the quality of everything here, so don’t be afraid to judge a record by its cover to begin with.

Here’s a handy mix featuring one song from each of the free / ‘name your price’ albums featured:

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Various Small Flames’

Songs of 2017

Anamon – Kneel Old
Android Automatic – Dark Roads*
Angie McMahon – Slow Mover
Basement Revolver – Johnny Pt. 2
Baxter Roy Long – Paribanou
Bea Troxel – Let Them Know
Big Thief – Mary
Black Belt Eagle Scout – Soft Stud
Bully – Running
Cayetana – Mesa
Charly Bliss – Percolator
Chastity Belt – Different Now
CHUCK – Happy Birthday
The County Liners – Maria
The Courtneys – Tour
Craig Finn – God in Chicago
Crumb – Locket
Crushing – Emery Board
Cut Worms – Like Going Down Sideways
David Bazan – Care
Distant Reader – First Try
Emperor X – God Save Coastal Dorset
Fits – Ice Cream on a Nice Day
German Error Message – 2017*
Gleemer – Soothe Me
Great Grandpa – Favorite Show
Haley Heynderickx – Oom Sha Lala
Hiccup – Teasin’
Horse Culture – Texaco
Illuminati Hotties – ‘(You’re Better) Than Ever’
Japandroids – No Known Drink or Drug
Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit – If We Were Vampires
Jay Som – The Bus Song
Jeremy Squires – Night Cars
Katie Ellen – Drawing Room
Lizzie No – Monuments
Lomelda – Bam Sha Klam
Mike Pace and the Child Actors – Audits & Surveys
Meursault – The Mill
Mount Eerie – Crow
Nice Legs – Mighty Three
Oceanator – Nowhere Nothing
Ohyeahsumi – Daisy
Old Earth – Pit Dynamics
PASTEL – Stammer
Peter Silberman – New York
Phoebe Bridgers – Motion Sickness
Pope – Talk Me Out of It
Protomartyr – Windsor Hum
Rainwater – Place
Ratboys – Elvis is in the Freezer
Rick Rude – Bald & Fat in Houston, TX
Roadkill Ghost Choir – Classics (Die Young)
Rose Dorn – Dirt
See Through Dresses – Lucy’s Arm
Shannen Moser – A Funeral, A Friend, My Sanity
Sinai Vessel – Died On My Birthday
Slaughter Beach, Dog – Phoenix
SOAR – Fort Funston
Soft Fangs – Jordan // Jackson Elementary
Spartan Jet-Plex – We Believe
Strange Ranger – House Show
Strawberry Runners – Garden Hose
Timid, The Brave – Alice
Us and Only Us – Bored of Black
Vagabon – Cold Apartment
Viewfinder – Instant Moonlight
The Washboard Abs – Veil
Waxahatchee – Never Been Wrong
Wild Pink – Albert Ross
William Ryan Fritch – In Our Blood
The Wooden Sky – Swimming in Strange Waters
Ylayali – Cherry Tomatoes

*Strictly released in 2016, but barely, and we covered it in Jan. 2017.

If you missed it, you can see our Favourite Albums of 2017 list here. Also, the curious can find such lists from previous years here.

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Hi Nancy, thank you for speaking to us! You have recently released a new album, Uncomfortable Quarters. The album was released on the anniversary of your mother’s passing, and the loss of your parents forms a lot of the record’s thematic material. Did you set out to specifically write a collection of songs based around this? And was it the sort of album that just had to be written at some point, as much for you as for listeners?

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to speak with you! I didn’t set out to write anything specific. I usually write without thinking too much about what the songs are about initially. I usually have a feeling or mood or sometimes an idea that I am trying to express, and the song grows from there. I was having a bit of a rough time this past year. I struggle on and off with depression and anxiety, and things got worse in the spring until recently with how I was feeling. I think I relapsed for a variety of reasons, so sure, I would say they had to be written. I think all my songs have to be written in that they are the natural result of all the different things going on in my life personally and also in the world.

As far as if they had to be written for my listeners, that question makes me think how I really don’t think at all about the listener when writing and making music. I am always surprised when people download or listen to my music and also excited and flattered. I appreciate it a lot and it makes me happy for sure, but who is or might be listening isn’t something I think about or matters when I am writing or recording them. I feel like that may sound wrong but I don’t mean it that way. My solo stuff is so personal and close to me.

I play out now with others doing improvisational music and love how the creation of improv music with a collective or with other people is the channeling of thoughts and feelings bouncing off each other in a moment in time. I love that. It is a collective creation and it isn’t about me at all or coming from me personally. It is something being made collectively in real time. I don’t play my solo stuff out, and I think it is because the music is so personal and bare, and I am not comfortable with the idea of performing it in public at least at this point. The idea of it feels dreadful to me haha.

Releasing it out there on the internet, on the other hand, is a way to share it without actually being there when people are hearing it. That’s probably also why I choose to release it under Spartan Jet-Plex instead of my name. The band name is like another barrier I can put up to protect myself or hide behind. I obviously have a need to put it out there and so the listener is definitely important, and I am grateful for anyone who listens, but these songs would still be made and released regardless of whether anyone listens. I have been doing that since Myspace days (haha) and would be surprised if anyone but my friends ever checked it out back then. I feel fortunate to have a handful of listeners who seem to really like and support what I am doing, and it really means the world to me. I enjoy what I am doing which is probably my biggest motivator in making music, but it is super cool to know there are actually a few people out there who are enjoying it too.

You describe Uncomfortable Quarters as your “first attempt at a concept album”. Was it a challenge to write a collection of songs with a common theme? And how did the process differ from your other records? What do you see as its main threads (aside from what we mentioned in question 2)?

The songs on Uncomfortable Quarters were made how all my songs come about. They are the natural result of what is going on in the world and in my personal life or how past events are playing out or affecting the present. I think what makes Uncomfortable Quarters different than my other albums and why I feel like it is a concept album is because the songs ended up feeling like they fit together in a way that songs on previous albums didn’t. Not that my other albums are not cohesive, but I think the songs on Uncomfortable Quarters tell a story and flow and mesh around common ideas and feelings more concretely than probably my other albums. There are several different styles or sounds on the album, so in some ways it is a mix-match, but despite that, I think they fit together perfectly because they were all made during a very specific dark time in my life and also a very specific time in the world and in the US- the aftermath of the 2016 US election.

To me your music has an incredible ability to conjure a certain atmosphere, a strange world in which the songs exist. In some ways, this seems more important than the lyrics. Is this something you think about? I’m curious as to how you visualise the feelings your songs evoke.

I love if that’s what you get from my music! That is perfect and the perfect compliment. It makes me think I really am getting across how I am feeling at certain points in my life, in my day, in an hour, or in a moment. I hope to capture and express or conjure up a kind of feeling or world. That is terrific if someone listening feels that. It is often how I make the music. I really try to engulf myself within a certain feeling or emotion. Sometimes I imagine myself in a specific moment of time or during a personal experience or one that I am imagining could happen or has for a character or person I know. Sometimes it is like a psychosis or dream or fragment of a feeling- often the darkest part of it.

We all have these feelings from time to time and we learn to compartmentalize things, and morbid thoughts are like flickers that stay for only a second and usually don’t linger, and most people don’t act on these feelings we all have. We all have our demons. Society in general has demons too. I often channel that horrible stuff within myself to make music- to expel it from me in a positive way. It is a way to process these things and life in general. It is cleansing and it is a healing thing. I feel down a lot, but I am also a survivor and a fighter, and despite reoccurring depression and anxiety, I am an extremely hopeful person. I have a lot to be grateful for as well.

As a follow-on, your music sounds quite unlike anything else, your own personal style that doesn’t fit neatly into any genre. Who and what would you cite as your main influences? Do you think your style changes as time passes?

Thank you. That is a nice compliment! I think that probably reflects the various types of music I listen to now and grew up listening to. I suppose the music I listened to as a kid, teen and in my early 20s probably influenced me the most since I was still developing and it probably became a part of me. I was all over the place and always have been with what I listen to. I enjoy hearing what other people hear in my music. I often her people say bands like Cocteau Twins but then I will hear people mention newer and much younger musicians (than me) that I have never listened to and that’s cool too. A person who bought Uncomfortable Quarters on my Bandcamp said the closest way they would describe it was somewhere between Dead Can Dance and chanting. I thought that was cool. I listened to Dead Can Dance in my late teens and early 20s. I was fortunate to see them live once. I’ve always been into chanting too as a way to relax, and again, get out feelings and emotions- like meditation. I started doing that back in college. Just kind of loudly chanting in an improvisational way- always while alone of course. I never recorded any of it, and back then I wasn’t doing music seriously, but it has found it’s way back into my music more recently, especially since I have been playing improvisational music out. Growing up, I listened to punk, classic rock, new wave, gothic, industrial, hip-hop, jazz, reggae. In my early 20s, I got into trip-hop, folk, big band era stuff and jazz singers, noise rock, and country. I am always interested in learning about new music, especially old stuff that I either missed or was before my time. I listen to some current stuff too and even some pop stuff or what I would call mainstream music. I think there is music for everything and it doesn’t always have to be serious or high brow haha.

As far as my style and how that has progressed, I think I play around with different styles and ways of songwriting and approaching music making and writing. Some of the songs are guitar based while some are key based. Some are driven by the beat or percussion. Some have no drums. Some are planned out every step of the way while others have elements of improvisation. Sometimes improv starts the song and that gets built on in a planned way, and others are planned out and then improv is added to them. Some are lyric driven while others are more instrumental. I like to play around a lot when writing and making music by trying different things. I think this set of songs were built on those various ideas and ways of making and writing music. I think I get better at doing all these different things and yet make them all feel like they flow together in a sensible way, and so in that way, I feel like I am growing and progressing as a musician and songwriter.

You have recently done a lot of work around the Friends for Equality project, which supports civil rights and social justice organisations. How have you found the project? Has it been rewarding? And has it been helpful as a positive outlet during these troubling times?

Yeah, definitely. Friends For Equality came about from the 2016 US election. I am working towards turning it into a label that does physical benefit releases and also collaborates with other local organizations to raise money for non-profits by hosting shows and events. I am steadily working towards those goals. I have recently joined Virginia Anti-Violence Project‘s sustainability committee and also am volunteering for Nationz Foundation in Richmond. I hope to build relationships this way and am forming an advisory committee for FFE through these relationships. I am pretty excited about the potential for this project and where it is headed. I hope to do our first physical release before the end of 2018. I am also working on getting out another zine and am still accepting submissions for that. All proceeds from music sales and merch purchases on our Bandcamp go to Southern Poverty Law Center and Planned Parenthood at this time. In addition to issue 1 of the zine, we now have t-shirts and various stickers and buttons. The idea behind future music physical releases is that proceeds will go to band’s non-profit of choice, and all sales of music and merch at local shows and events go to the non-profit we are supporting at that specific event. We are currently accepting submissions for physical benefit releases and zine. We encourage submissions from and aim to support queer/nb, poc and women. Submissions for zine or releases can be sent to spartanjetplex@gmail.com.

I feel like we can’t speak like this without asking about your feelings on the political/social situation more generally. Donald Trump has been in office for almost a year now, and in many ways things seem to be getting worse. How do you feel about it? Do you see a glimmer of hope anywhere? And, most importantly, what can people do in opposition?

I have so many different feelings, thoughts and emotions on this topic, but instead of saying the obvious or focusing on the negative and the many shitty things I could say, I will instead focus on hope and resistance here. Really, we and our world is not any worse off in most ways than previously. I think that the 2016 US election and everything after it has highlighted and has pushed many of the disgusting and horrible things about our country, society and world to the forefront. I do think we are in dangerous times, and I believe what those of us do in opposition will make a difference in the long run. I also think it is a do or die situation- at least it feels like it. I hope for an evolution forward. I felt so hopeless and helpless after the November US election, but as much as I always felt like I was doing what I could to make this world the place I wished it was, it became crystal clear just how little I was doing and how much more I need to do. That is hope. That is positive. Many people feel the same way and are working to do better. I think many of us (especially those of privilege) were under the false impression that we were succeeding in making all this progress in last 8 years, when really, we weren’t, and instead of relaxing or benefiting from a false sense of security, we really should have been working and pushing forward more.

We can always do more. For the love of all things decent, my first thought to others is to urge everyone to register to vote and vote in every election. Talk to your family and friends about this. Every election, try to get at least one person registered and voting that didn’t vote the previous election. This can be difficult and frustrating. I am still trying to figure out how to motivate one of my family members. With the internet, it is super easy to find out what is on the ballot and who and which organizations are supporting candidates and measures. I think that outside of voting, one of the strongest and best things we can do is support other organizations who have been long doing this difficult work, especially your local organizations doing social justice work. Volunteer your time if you can, and if you can’t do that, consider donating money if you have the means. Write your representatives. There are apps out there that make this easy. It really doesn’t take a lot of time. One really awesome one is 5 Calls for here in the US. There’s an app too. They will send you emails or alerts weekly of 5 calls or emails you can make. They send you the issues, and you can even tailor it to the issues that you are most concerned about. Maybe 5 calls is too much for you to start out. Maybe just set a goal to do one call or email weekly and work your way up if you have time or on weeks you are up to it. I believe that we can make our two party system here in the US better if most everyone actually voted who can vote and if we made our opinions known to our representatives frequently. Maybe that is idealistic thinking, but I hope for that and I truly believe that. Ultimately, I think as a country (US) and as the world, that we are so entangled in war and the profit it makes and ruled by the interests of corporations and the wealthy that perhaps it is hopeless and impossible, but I feel like I can’t go down without a fight and there are so many of us who are refusing to go down at all, and that is hope and I have faith in that. The alternative is unacceptable. People are pushing back, and as grim as it is, I see progress being made too.

Obviously, I speak from a place of privilege, which brings me to one of the most important things every person can do- check yourself and your privilege. Read, listen and follow what people of color, lgbtq, and women are writing and saying. Learn your history and educate yourself about institutionalized racism. Believe survivors. Check your news sources and avoid spreading fake news. Support poc, lgbtq, and women businesses, writers, musicians, etc., and call out bullshit when you see and hear it. Have tough conversations with your family and friends and don’t let racist, sexist, and homophobic comments and actions slide. Admit it if you screw up, but also forgive yourself and others. These are things I am striving to do. All change starts from within, and it isn’t always easy. Most of the time it is difficult and uncomfortable, but if we don’t change and do the work, it will cost us everything.

What are your plans for the future? Do you have more Spartan Jet-Plex material in the pipeline?

Yes! There is always more SJP in the pipeline! I have been working on new songs and I am excited about where they are headed. I always just sort of know when I have completed a set that goes together and I am not there yet. I have to see where these songs take me, but you can be sure I will let you know when they are completed and am getting ready to release them. Maybe this spring? It is hard to say yet. Sometimes the songs come a little at a time and sometimes I have a huge spurt. I have a few I am working on right now and a few that are completed. I also recently formed a new collaboration with Tiaira Harris (Berko Lover) that I am super excited about. She does rap/hip-hop and dance music and so our styles really blend together in a unique way I think. I posted a few demos on my Soundcloud but we haven’t officially released anything yet. We are going by Merge. We have some new ones in the works and we hope to release an EP sometime soon.

Finally, I want to give you a chance to share some of the music you’ve been into lately. You can choose brand new releases or things from another century, whatever you like.

Oh I love this! I love to share what music I have been recently listening to. It always changes with my mood and time of the year. I would love to share a few albums in my current rotation these days. I often go on kicks with music. I get into an album or artist and play it on repeat for some length of time before moving on to a different set of music, and there’s some that tend to stay in constant rotation. The stuff that really grabs me gets played here and there continually. I have albums I’ve listened to since I was kid or teen that still get played from time to time. So music in my current rotation:

World Spiritual Classics: Volume I: The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda (released by Luaka Pop as this collection in 2017/music from 80s/90s)

Spiritual gospel music with ambient synthesizers blended with Hindu devotional music
She recorded this music in the 80s and 90s and made tapes in limited quantities that she gave out to people in her spiritual community. A friend played this in their car for me and I fell in love and purchased it on vinyl, which also led me to researching and learning more about her. This was on frequent play as well while I was writing the songs on Uncomfortable Quarters.

Dolly Parton – Just Because I am a Woman (1968)
This is probably my favorite Dolly Parton album. I bought the CD a long time ago and recently got it on vinyl with a gift card my brother gave me from Amoeba Records for my birthday. This is one of her albums I go back to again and again. This is her second studio album and the title song is about the double standard that exists when it comes to sex. Of course that was pretty daring for a song in 1968, and here we are about 50 years later and not much has changed.

Angel Haze – Reservation (2012)
This is Haze’s 3rd mixtape. I discovered Haze messing around on Youtube watching and listening to hip-hop and rap. I purchased the mp3s of Reservation and Classick on Amazon after searching around to see if I could get a physical copy instead with no luck. Haze’s music has been on frequent play for me now and also while recording Uncomfortable Quarters.

Amy Winehouse – Back to Black (2006)
I am very late to this. I knew who she was. How couldn’t I? She was one of those people that was always in the news and you’d hear about her whether or not you wanted to. This album blew up when it came out and I think she won something like 5 Grammy awards. I just never paid any attention to it or checked her music out until recently. I admit that when something is really popular and mainstream, my natural reaction is to avoid it, especially when it comes to music. I also admit that is kind of stupid, but true of me usually nonetheless. I also have an aversion to when the media reports on troubled people and it’s constantly in the press. So for these reasons I had no idea how much I’d love her music. I randomly watched a documentary on her and was intrigued and loved the music in it so I went out and checked all her stuff. I used the gift card my brother gave me for my birthday to get this one on vinyl too. I love the way she blends the sound of big band jazz with Motown, R&B, and hip-hop. She also has the voice of an old soul lyrically and in sound. It is crazy to me that she made Frank at 20 and Back to Black at 23. I will also admit that I had a morbid fascination with her after watching the documentary. I relate to her in many ways.

Elizabeth Cotten – Freight Train and Other North Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes (1957 but reissued in 1989 on Smithsonian Folkways) and also Vol. 2 & 3
I discovered her music around 2007 or 2008 and fell in love immediately. I absolutely love her guitar playing. She is always on rotation for me, and have them on vinyl. I’ve covered ‘Freight Train’ several times on my own and with my partner on our project, Legendary Thunderbirds of Death! we’ve covered ‘Freight Train’ and ‘When I Get Home’.

Brianna Lea Pruett – Winter Apple (2004)
Her label, Canyon Records, describes her music as California folk, country, infused by her Appalachian and Cherokee/Choctaw heritage. I discovered her music a couple of years ago soon after she passed away and her music has been on rotation lately. She struggled with depression and committed suicide in early September 2015 right before I released my first album (Cross the Line) on Bandcamp. I immediately loved her music and related to it upon hearing it. I purchased an mp3 of this album after looking for physical copies without luck. I also have We Come in all Colors EP and Gypsy Bells (2013), which you can purchase directly from Canyon Records. You can purchase Winter Apple and others on Bandcamp. I got it on Amazon without realizing I could find it there as well. Coincidentally, regarding Elizabeth Cotten, there is a sweet, rough and candid live video of Pruett on Youtube playing a cover of Shake Sugaree.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlcD-giPgg4

Malvina Reynolds – Malvina Reynolds (1971) and Sings the Truth (1967)

I discovered her music in early 2000s and she is also always on rotation for me. I found copies of these albums on vinyl from sellers on Discogs. The self-titled one is my favorite of the two. She didn’t start making music until she was in her 40s. I love her voice and guitar playing. She wrote some of the best lyrics I’ve heard and some of the best political folk and blues music in my opinion. I have covered ‘No Hole In My Head’ (last song on self-titled), but mine is more based on her live version on Pete Seeger’s show, Rainbow Quest, which you can find on Youtube. I’ve also covered ‘I Don’t Mind Failing’, which is off Sings the Truth.

Huge thanks to Nancy Kells for her time and in-depth and thoughtful answers. Be sure to follow the Friends for Equality Facebook page for updates on the project. Also, if you haven’t already, head to the Spartan Jet-Plex Bandcamp page to hear what you’ve been missing.

Photograph by to Courage Music Photography (Jacob Cunningham)

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