ISSUE 14.2
“Sight & Sound” Spring 2022
Elizabeth Sullivan, Grace Olivieri
Katherine Hypes, Virginia Graham
Samantha Peth, Katie Shiver Esther Young, David Ngo
Interns
Susan Do, Jesse Garcia, Aili Koga
Beatrice Urbanowski-Womer
Johanna Harlow, Michelle Runde Brandon Roos, Esther Young
Nathan Zanon , Kevin Marks
Olivia Cohen, Tessa Cheng David Ma, Katie Shiver Demone Carter, Albert Jenkins Taran Escobar-Ausman
Jonathan Fung
Stan Olszewski, Peter Salcido Avni Levy, Miles Caliboso Ronnie Patania, Arabela Espinoza Andrew Sumner, Erik Quiocho
Ten years!
I can hardly believe it. I never anticipated that we would be able to produce CONTENT MAGAZINE past the first year of 2012. I hoped and desired to see this project grow, but the odds were (are) stacked against local, print, artist-focused magazines in the South Bay to survive.
But here we are, our 58th issue!
The previous issues are a testimony to the many creatives that have volunteered, contributed, and supported us throughout the years. From the early days of meeting in my backyard to those first few years of everyone volunteering to the present day, we can all be proud of bringing a publication to the San Jose greater area.
I am most grateful to Connie Martinez of SVCreates. Connie and the SVCreates Board saw the value of a local publication that honors Santa Clara County artists and invited Content and me to become part of the SVCreates portfolio. Without that merger, I would not have been able to continue the production of CONTENT. Thank you.
In addition to Connie, my most profound appreciation goes out to some of the early team members that gave just as much time as I did to the project: Mary Matlack, Flora Moreno de
Thompson, Odile Sullivan-Tarazi were crucial individuals in making CONTENT a reality. And now, especially currently and over the last few years, editor Elizabeth Sullivan has been a behind-the-scenes champion working to further CONTENT sustainability and quality. To all the writers, editors, and photographers—their commitment, skills, and late nights have made it possible to begin and grow.
It isn’t easy to list just a few people when so many talented photographers, designers, writers, and interns have helped along the way.
A person who has been vital to the mission of CONTENT is Kristen Pfund Garcia. Kristen’s capacity, adaptability, and kind attitude have been critical in our sustainability and the reason for all of our great Pick-Up Parties!
I am eternally grateful to each of you, who caught my crazy vision to focus on our region’s creatives.
Thank you! And here is to another ten years!
Thank you, Daniel Garcia THE CULTIVATOR
IN THIS ISSUE
Trinidad Escobar | Bennett Roth-Newall | Baunfire | Tabrizi Productions
To participate in CONTENT MAGAZINE: daniel@content-magazine.com
Membership & sponsorship information available by contacting kristen@content-magazine.com
CONTENT MAGAZINE is a quarterly publication about the innovative and creative culture of Silicon Valley, published by .
SIGHT AND SOUND 14.2
Spring 2022 San Jose, California Est. 2012
12 Culture Night Market, Brandon “BQ” Quintanilla 16 6th Street Studios, Abby Bettencourt
SIGHT 20 Baunfire, Juan Sanchez 24 Cartoonist/Writer, Trinidad Escobar 30 Artist/Muralist, Manuel Villagran 36 Artist, Caia Koopman 44 Photographer, Alex Knowbody 48 Tabrizi Productions, Farran Tabrizi 52 Photo 125, San Jose State University Photographers
SOUND 58 Musician, Bennett Roth-Newell 62 Instrumentalist, Lidia Rodriguez 66 408 Collective, Gabe Rangel, Jared Carbajal, Misa James, & Tyler Richards 70 Album Picks, Needle to the Groove 72 Contributors
All materials in CONTENT MAGAZINE are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published, broadcast, or modified in any way without the prior written consent of Silicon Valley Creates, or in the case of third party materials, the owner of that content. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of this content. For further information, or to participate in the production or distribution, please contact us at editor@content-magazine.com
CONTENT magazine’s production is powered by
Trinidad Escobar, pg. 24
Caia Koopman, pg. 36
Manuel Villgran, pg. 30
Alex Knowbody, pg. 44
The dearth of live gatherings ever since the pandemic began in 2020 left many San Jose business owners and small vendors with few options for selling their wares. Fortunately, Brandon “BQ” Quintanilla is someone who sees new opportunities at every turn, and is not afraid to take on a challenge. So, it was in the midst of lockdown that BQ first brought Culture Night Market to life—an event designed to empower urban culture and art along with local entrepreneurs and small businesses.
Born and raised in San Jose, BQ started playing football as part of the Pop Warner Little Scholars program. “That’s how I really understood community at a young age,” BQ recalled. “There’s a lot of stuff that happened throughout that time period. A lot of kids grew up in, like, gang-related situations. But I think football was…the most positive outlet [we had].”
He continued playing football while attending Oak Grove High School with a group of close friends that he credits as having a significant influence on his life, “We were so diverse, and I feel like our culture in San Jose is what separates us from most of the world. I kid you not—two of my best friends were Nigerian. One was Hondureño, I’m Nicaragüense, my boy is from Sierra Leone, another guy was white, the other dude was Vietnamese, but we were family. And I really felt like the rest of the world doesn’t really see that.”
BQ went on to play football at De Anza College. After an Achilles injury left him on the bench, he wasn’t sure where to take his next step. It wasn’t until attending a sneaker convention that inspiration struck to start his own venture. “I told myself, ‘Holy shit, these guys are making ten thousand dollars a day... these kids figured something out,’ ” he said. “I love fashion, I love hip-hop, I love culture, period.” BQ founded EMLN Exclusive in 2015, which provides services from promoting independent streetwear brands to making unique content with local artists who highlight urban culture.
In 2020, BQ and his girlfriend brainstormed creative ways to find work and help others who were struggling when the idea of the Culture Night Market first came to them. BQ took off running after that. “I had a lot of experience at this point now; like, I’d done already four or five different types of events: themed for the culture stuff, themed more for, like, networking, all types of stuff,” said BQ. While some of his events went really well, some failed dramatically.
Written by Michelle Runde Photography by Peter Salcido
But with Culture Night Market, he felt confident because he realized it wasn’t about making money. This time, many people were combating the pandemic by starting brands and businesses, so he knew the demand would be high for Culture Night Market. Working out of a shared office space provided by the non-profit organization Local Color, BQ networked with fellow entrepreneurs and leveraged his connections. “I already had a network of vendors, so when this event opportunity presented itself, I was just like, ‘I’m gonna just call my folks,’ ”said BQ.
After finding a downtown location and booking hip-hop artists, the first ever Culture Night Market took place in October 2020 and was a great success. “People realized that we had a lot of vendors and that we were one of the only [groups] doing events during the pandemic,” recalled BQ.
The first few events were “guerilla style,” BQ admitted, but they had hundreds of vendors and a huge turnout. Despite requiring masks, having insurance, and working as best they could within local health guidelines, the city eventually paused events until further permits were obtained—each with substantial fees. Although they thought this was the end for the Culture Night Market, BQ and his girlfriend decided to keep going. “I took the challenge because I realized, like, if I fold, we’re just going to be like everybody else,” said BQ.
After jumping through what seemed to be endless hoops, the Culture Night Market reopened in 2021. Given the Culture Night Market’s unique connection to hip-hop and urban culture, BQ is especially proud to have overcome the numerous hurdles. “If the culture can have a place in a city, we’re going to be doing the things that we want to do,” BQ recalled telling himself at that time. “So if the only obstacle is to go legitimate, then let’s just go legitimate.”
Since then, the Culture Night Market has continued to grow and host events in the Nile Parking Lot in Downtown San Jose and on Colorado Avenue in South San Jose. While he hopes to make it more self-sustaining one day—to allow himself to step back—BQ is happy to continue to put in the work to make it grow with new vendors and happy patrons alike. C
“We were so diverse, and I feel like our culture in San Jose is what separates us from most of the world.”
6thstreetartstudios.org abbyrose.art Instagram
6thstreetartstudios_95020 abby.rose.art
When Abby. Bettencourt thinks about describing her creative process, she imagines a carousel. She envisions a steady rotation of ideas circling through her mind, like the ornate rides at fairs and amusement parks. The ideas glide by, passing out of view to ruminate in the background, then resurface once more for assessment and reinterpretation. Nothing is ever fixed, but always in motion and guided by the fluidity of change.
Abby’s journey within the art industry has been circuitous, following her development as a spatial artist and contemporary jewelry maker. Now she has come full circle, entering the next phase in her career as volunteer director of the 6th Street Studios and Art Center in downtown Gilroy.
Growing up as a Gilroy native, Abby loved to craft with her mother. “She kind of spurred me working with my hands,” she explains, recalling the days of polymer clay, knitting, and baking Shrinky Dinks. Once she discovered the limitless possibilities of three-dimensional art, there was no turning back.
Abby went on to pursue her BFA in spatial arts at SJSU, where she became immersed in the community as a practicing artist and a conduit for others’ creativity. On campus, she led
the Jewelry and Small Metals Guild, cultivating opportunities for members to exhibit and sell their work or to share resources in their craft. She was an art preparator for the Institute of Contemporary Art and simultaneously held the role of creative director and curator at Social Policy in downtown San Jose. There she played a pivotal role choreographing exhibitions with First Friday events showcasing local artists in the SoFA district.
When it came time for her BFA project, Abby was well-prepared. She visited each section of spatial arts at SJSU, learning everything from how to plaster silica molds to annealing glass. Everyone in her life got involved in some capacity, including Abby’s father, friends, and roommates. Even the vintage table used for her sculpture’s foundation had been passed down from Abby’s grandparents. The finished piece was exhibited at Social Policy, symbolizing the coalescence of her artistic growth and collaboration with others. “I couldn’t have done it without embracing the community,” she says.
Two years later, Abby came across 6th Street by pure serendipity. She found a post on Craigslist at the end of 2020 listed by founder Emily. McEwan-Upright—the studio needed an intern and Abby knew its location well. “I
severely missed all the art organizing I did in downtown San Jose. So, after I toured the space and met Emily, I offered to help out where I could. The center’s mission is simple: to provide an inclusive and financially accessible creative space for artists of all disciplines,” she says.
The studio building itself has already lived many lives. Originally designed as a Studebaker dealership in the 1940s, it was later used as an auction showroom, then a window and shades shop during the 1990s. At one point it was a branch for Hope Services, a support agency for disability and mental health. It even acted as headquarters for the Gilroy Dispatch. Over the decades, its walls and mid-century façade have changed little, but the operations within have adapted to the community around it. Now the center is gaining momentum once more, this time with Abby adding to its story.
The pandemic poses an exceptional challenge, affecting how the center can engage with the public. “Everyone is apprehensive about going out and about, and rightly so,” she says. It’s also been a matter of tapping into the local creative community—bringing people together.
A variety of artists have already rented studios through the center’s residency program—ranging from illustrators, oil painters,
graphic designers, musicians, ceramicists, screen printers, and a soap and candle maker. Some are local, some commute from San Jose, Hollister, or Santa Cruz. The exhibits draw from this rich resource of talent, displaying seasoned and emerging artists alike who work in a symphony of mediums. The center even partners with local schools for group shows to strengthen Gilroy’s arts education.
Then there’s the monthly art walks, designed to explore the arts and culture scene developing in the historic downtown district. Likewise for the center’s art market events, which celebrate small business artists while giving hobbyists and crafters time in the spotlight.
Abby describes 6th Street’s operations as delicately balanced. She has several projects waiting in the wings between the schedule for exhibits and open studio days. Eventually she would like to integrate her own expertise by instructing workshops on jewelry making or enameling, hoping to ease people past feelings of intimidation, so they can flourish in the craft. The possibilities are endless.
True to her process, Abby brings back all the artistic wisdom and confidence gained from her creative journey thus far, putting a new spin on something familiar. C
“I couldn’t have done it without embracing the community.”Written by Kevin Marks Photography by Erik Quiocho baunfire.com Instagram baunfire
Most Silicon Valley natives can remember the exact moment they first met the internet—the fledgling technology whose presence is now ubiquitous. Some of us noodled on AOL via a screeching dial-up modem, and others gazed with awe upon the wondrous animated graphics of Netscape Navigator.
Juan Sanchez discovered an affinity for the web in an unlikely setting—as an economics and Spanish double major at San Diego State University. “It was mostly timing and an entrepreneurial spirt that got me going,” he says. A Bay Area native from a creative family, Sanchez was naturally drawn to computers, creation, and tinkering. As a college student, he took an interest in building websites. “Web design and development was perfect for me, because I liked the creative side of it, but there was still that analytical and logical side of it because of the code,” says Sanchez.
For Sanchez, the full creative freedom that came with operating as a one-man team energized him. By taking on clients who were
interested in having their own websites, he came to the realization that, “For not much capital, I can actually create things that are valuable to others.”
Sanchez’s first job out of college ended when the company he worked for was acquired and quickly transplanted to Minnesota. However, he didn’t want to leave the Bay Area. There was another opportunity developing; the dot-com boom was in the midst of crashing. “Companies were looking for these scrappy, smaller agencies that were cheaper—which was me! It was the perfect launch pad,” he says, seeming even all these years later to relish the good fortune that many successful Silicon Valley stories are built on. It was in this unique intersection of talent and timing that Baunfire was born.
What began as a Bay Area–born local army of one has grown into a tightly woven family of creatives and professionals who have built digital landscapes for major brands like Nike, Google, Cisco, and Disney. As the founder and creative director of a renowned creative
What began as a Bay Area–born local army of one has grown into a tightly woven family of creatives and professionals who have built digital landscapes for major brands like Nike, Google, Cisco, and Disney.
agency, Sanchez feels a unique responsibility to his team and their ongoing individual and collective success. First and foremost, he prioritizes the requirement of being a good human being. “You just want good people on your team that will take care of each other,” he says. From there, he has a consistent growth mindset for his staff. “You can go as far as you want to go here. I’m not going to limit you. If I limit you, your passion will fade, because you’re not going to feel like you’re getting to do the things you love,” says Sanchez.
Baunfire has always built beautiful websites with the highest levels of design talent. Yet, the very origin point of Sanchez’s professional life is in flux. Even as our digital sophistication has grown societally and globally, a unique question remains: what is a website in 2022? “It used to be just a brochure,” he says, “The value has gone up quite a bit. It’s an easy way to create perception. Websites are a part of everybody’s daily life at this point.”
While that may seem obvious to us now, it highlights Sanchez’s instincts from many years ago. Hitching his wagon to a fledgling technol-
ogy has put him and his agency in a position to give back to the culture and community they love. “We’re in this area, we have this talent, we’re running a business, and that’s great. But what can we do for the community?” he asks, “We’re hoping to make a mark and just promote the South Bay.”
Sanchez and his team are passionate about celebrating the local creatives and championing the culture that inspired and nurtured Baunfire. The mindfulness with which they undertake this task could serve as a powerful example, especially as San Jose continues to lure the hugest of tech giants with real estate, development, and incentives.
The pandemic has been surprisingly kind to agencies like Baunfire, which long to help their clients grow their businesses and seek new audiences through digital frontiers. While many of us reprioritize our lives and careers as we (try to) emerge from the pandemic, it seems Juan Sanchez is once again ahead of the curve. C
Artwork for this article are excerpts from Trinidad’s new work Arrive In My Hands Arrive In My Hands is a 120-page collection of Queer erotica comics. It features 22 color erotic comics, poem-comics, and illustrations beautifully written and illustrated by the Filipina cartoonist and poet.
Written by Olivia Cohen Photography by Peter Salcido
trinidadescobar.com Instagram escobarcomics
Trinidad Escobar can access a world steeped in shadows, where bruhas and aswangs swoop in through open windows and pass through the kitchen. Her comic art is steeped in folklore, drawing on her unique experiences as a Visayan adoptee growing up in Milpitas.
In the Philippines, there are evil spirits called aswangs. Cunning and wild, they seamlessly shape-shift from beautiful maidens to vampires to dogs to ghouls, scaring everyone in their path. In Trinidad Escobar’s comics, these spirits appear at house parties in Milpitas and sneak in through open bedroom windows, bringing with them the legacy of Filipino folklore in the context of everyday life in California. “I think there’s so much power in horror,” Trinidad says. “It can be this very feminine power, something that’s underlying, pervasive, that everyone thinks about in one way or another.”
From her very first comic, based on a recurring nightmare about a witch, to her more recent chilling self-published Little Cornfields series, gothic themes are at the heart of Trinidad’s work. They represent colonial fear—stories used to control and manipulate—and yet they are also a traditional way of connecting through generations and across continents.
Trinidad was born in the Philippines and raised by her adoptive family in Milpitas. She grew up writing and doodling, and though she never did well in art classes in school, she knew she wanted to be an artist. After earning a degree in creative writing, she entered an MFA program in comics at California College of the Arts as part of their very first graduating class.
Now, less than a decade into her career, Trinidad’s list of accomplishments is already long. Her comics have been featured in The New Yorker, The Brooklyn Review, NPR, and more. In 2019, she was named one of the most influential global artists of the year by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. She’s currently featured in the Women in Comics exhibit in Italy, and she has two forthcoming book deals with Farrar, Straus, and Giroux and Simon & Schuster.
“From the beginning of my career up until a couple years ago, it’s been a constant hustle,” she says, having to strive to find time to “do work, make food, and rest.” The tight-knit indie comic community helped her find submissions and exhibits and supported her through the ups and downs.
Though success is important, in 2018, Trinidad found that her drive was starting to backfire. “I thought that in order to be seen as a ‘serious artist,’ I had to constantly be producing,” she says. As her ego pushed her to do more, she found her work feeling less authentic, more desperate, and definitely unsustainable.
“
I write for my younger self now who was a queer, closeted goth girl who didn’t feel seen, ever. I want people to feel seen when they look at my work. Maybe I can fill in the gaps for people who are looking for themselves .”
Excerpts from Trinidad’s Arrive In My Hands used with permission from Black Josei Press, Feb. 2022. Black Josei Press is an award-winning indie comic book publishing company that focuses on celebrating comics by and for women of color and non-binary people of color. They look to change the comic landscape for the better by providing a space for marginalized creators to tell their stories.
Arrive In My Hands is available in digital and print books at BlackJoseiPress.com and ArriveInMyHands.com
Please note that this book contains nudity and adult content and is for readers 18+ only.
It took a conscious shift to change her methods and approach her work as a place for honesty and refuge. Now, she creates art that feels good to her, telling the stories that are missing from anything else she’s read.
“I write for my younger self now,” she says, “who was a queer, closeted goth girl who didn’t feel seen, ever. I want people to feel seen when they look at my work. Maybe I can fill in the gaps for people who are looking for themselves.”
Trinidad is bringing her mindful approach and unique perspective into lots of upcoming projects, including the 300-page novel Of Sea and Venom, to be released next year, and Arrive in My Hands, a queer erotica poetry collection that will be released on Valentine’s Day. She is also working on a “vampire lesbian truecrime horror story” that will raise money to help farm-worker women in the Philippines access arts education.
In addition to her comics, Trinidad is a musician under the name “blueghosts,” a two-woman band she formed with her good friend and collaborator Lamb’s Ear (aka Meredith Hobbs Coons). They’re both queer, mothers, and writers, but this is their first time coming together to release an album.
A multidisciplinary artist, Trinidad excels at many mediums, but she always comes back to comics. “It’s because you can finish an entire story in a day,” she says. “There’s this satisfaction in finishing something instantaneously and having other people get it too. It’s accessible.”
She’s excited to be part of the expanding world of comics, which are being explored in a more profound and interesting way, thanks in part to burgeoning indie publishers and creators. Storytellers from around the world are gravitating toward the form, sharing bits of their lives and experiences one frame at a time.
In many ways, comics are the great equalizer. Though Trinidad is stretching comic art through the depth of her storytelling, expressiveness of her figures, and thoughtfulness of every frame, it is the simplicity of the form and potential for deep connection that keeps her going. You don’t need a degree. You don’t need access to tools or computer programs. You don’t need to see it in a museum. “You come back to comics because you’re just in it, you’re inundated, you love it. It becomes addictive,” she shares. “All you need is a pencil.” C
Written by Nathan Zanon Photography by Andrew Sumner and Daniel Garcia quedesigns.myportfolio.com Instagram que.designs_
Manuel Villagran has faced plenty of challenges on his path to an art career, but the muralist/designer known by his pseudonym, Qué, continues to push through. His Instagram shows his extraordinary range of murals, signs, and merchandise, from precise lettering on business exteriors to expressive cartoonish characters. His work varies between bright and colorful palettes, softly shaded grayscale, and black ink on white paper.
A Bay Area native, Villagran recalls his early interest in art influenced by his older brother and cousin. “I would take their drawings and trace them when they weren’t around,” he says. “I kept drawing throughout grade school, getting into trouble for drawing Dragon Ball Z characters for money so kids could put them in the front of their binders…never stopped getting in trouble for art after that.”
“My early education in San Jose was a weird experience, I always excelled in art but not so much in other subjects.” Villagran describes the influence of gang culture in his young life, as well as a skateboarding incident that ultimately got him kicked out of Santa Teresa High School and sent him through a series of troubled schooling experiences. “As a Mexican
kid growing up in the South Side, I was under a lot of outside influences,” he explains. “The justice system made an example of me. Anyway, everything happens for a reason, right? Having to bounce around high school programs to graduate on time eventually led me to the CCOC (Central County Occupational Center) program…and is what introduced me to graphic design and showed me that art actually has ways to employ me.”
After studying graphic design at De Anza College, Villagran began picking up side projects while trying to navigate the system. But nothing came easily. “I went through every struggle you can have—from not having support in what you believe you want to do in life to getting incarcerated for art,” he says. He spent a lot of his life bitter and angry about the circumstances he was put through.
He landed a number of sign art gigs and mural projects in gyms and at San Jose restaurant Mimosas. He collaborated with artists through the art collective Local Color. But for years, he only felt like art could be a side hustle.
South Bay,
“Working in the
it can be a bit difficult, only because of the amount of
“As a Mexican kid growing up in the South Side, I was under a lot of outside influences. The justice system made an example of me.”
-Manuel Villagran
gatekeeping there. I felt like I would never be able to do anything professional, especially when I couldn’t even get a job as janitor in certain buildings because of my record. And no matter how many strides I made, I felt like I was only going to be the artist that worked a fulltime gig at a grocery store and did art on the side–until I eventually didn’t do it anymore.”
In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Villagran was put on leave, and the experience ultimately presented him with an unexpected chance to reassess his career and life. He wound up moving to Portland and quitting his grocery store gig to focus on art, discovering a slew of new opportunities in the arts community there. He became an apprentice at Local Boy Tatau, a tattoo studio across the bridge in Vancouver and began taking commissions on murals in the area.
“I’m not going back,” he says of his decision to dive headfirst into an art-focused career in the Pacific Northwest. And he credits his mentors at Local Boy Tatau for helping him gain focus. “They’ve taught me a lot about life, what’s possible and what’s to come, how to manage myself, keep my head organized, and
to push myself every single day to become a better version of myself as a whole.”
Yet, despite the new city and surroundings, Villagran’s Bay Area roots will always shine through. His family, the local neighborhoods, the graffiti culture, and the San Jose sports teams are all part of his portfolio. And while his path took him out of the area, the artists and mentors who he found throughout his life are his biggest influences. “My homies are my biggest inspiration,” he says. “Everyone I associate myself with has a talent, whether it be music, sign painting, graffiti, muralists, tattoo artists—I see how all these dudes have put their all into something and make ends meet, hustling in all different aspects of their life.”
Lastly, Villagran has some motivational advice for anyone who, like him, has faced adversity in attempting to make a career in the arts: “If you’re a young artist and feel like you’re struggling, there is more out there! Whether you need to kick yourself in the ass to get going or move to a new setting to not be held back by all the things you felt weighing you down, just go for it.” C
Possibly the first woman to make an art career out of action sports, Caia Koopman kicked off her career creating graphics for pro female snowboarders. Now, the same enchanting faces and surreal symbols grace recent collaborations, such as the award-winning book Umijoo, the evocative bottle art for Trust Me Vodka, and the Santa Cruz Sea Walls mural project with PangeaSeeds. Everywhere in her paintings, bold symbols of our mortality exude gratitude for the ecosystem we depend on. In her hands, beauty begets reverence; loveliness, and grit spur activism.
You once wrote about manipulating the subjective beauty of female faces towards a message: “What is it about a pretty face that so unfairly and shallowly stops us in our tracks...? Then will my audience next reward me with a moment of their time to listen to my message?”
I still do that. I just did that same trick for my mural in fact. I had three people come up to me and say my girl’s face was so beautiful that it made them want to cry, and then I zap them with a message about ocean acidification.
Which reminds me: Our oceans are becoming acidic enough to dissolve shells, which is, as you can imagine, really bad for shellfish and all the animals that eat them, and our entire ecosystem for that matter. Our excess CO2 plus H2O equals carbonic acid. Our oceans have been busy soaking up so much of our excess CO2 that they have more or less saved us land dwellers from the full effects of climate change thus far. But it’s starting to tip the pH balance of the entire world’s oceans. The title of my mural is Let’s Solve the Dissolve
“As an artist and skater I just wanted to be part of that world so badly, but as a female I wasn’t really allowed into the clubhouse.”
–Caia Koopman
How . did . your . upbringing . shape . your . vibrant .care.for.our planet?
My dad was a big fan of catch, teach, release. He was always catching a poor little snake or frog or lizard, or whatever, and showing it to us kids, explaining something interesting about it, and letting it go in exactly the same place he’d found it.
Being raised to see the world through a scientific lens took some of the emotion out, but encouraged concern and interest— asking questions like, “What’s wrong with this picture, and how can we do better?”
When has this question resonated with you most deeply, allowing it to appear in your art?
In much of my art, I portray the idea of memento mori: remember that you have to die. We are blessed with a long, or maybe not-solong, life on this magical planet, and with life comes death, as we are all connected with each other, with everything.
I think a lot of empathetic young people get their first taste of death when a cherished pet dies. And I had some early paintings that were little funeral scenes. Rabbit was a moody image of a forlorn girl holding a dead rabbit in one hand and her skateboard in the other. I also did one of a kitty funeral, looking down from above, attempting the style of Van Gogh’s bedroom scene.
But later I had to revisit the concept of loss when I was struggling with infertility. This also showed up in much of my work, some more obvious than others. Painting was very cathartic for me and helped me move past what at the time felt like soul crushing heartbreak. In hindsight, there are many other ways to have a fulfilling life.
Some of your work screams punk scene, and your very first commissioned T-shirt design was by a skateboard company. What was it like creating within these spheres, especially as a woman in the late ’80s and early ’90s?
As a young person, I was very attracted to the energy of the punk scene. I had a bad case of teen angst and the rebellious bug, and I was obsessed with the idea of fairness and justice. The punk scene to me was the height of cool, but it also stood for something: kids who wanted the world to be a better place, who pointed out inequities, corruption, and the general shittiness of the adult world. It felt like I was amongst peers who would all grow up and make positive change.
Skateboard graphics have always been this weird, cool, super-creative, self-sustaining art world. It’s its own genre and doesn’t care about
what anyone else is doing, unless it’s mocking something of course. As an artist and skater I just wanted to be part of that world so badly, but as a female I wasn’t really allowed into the clubhouse.
In the late 80s, I was enthusiastically seeking an artist position at a skate company here in town. I had a friend who worked there already and put a good word in for me. I thought I had a really good chance of getting the job drawing skate graphics and T-shirts. I even created a cool little zine for my job application: it was an illustrated story of a girl who was a rip’n skater and just wanted to be part of the local crew. They turned me down, stating that they didn’t want any girls in the clubhouse, because they wouldn’t be able to tell dirty jokes or whatever. It was so honest—I give them credit for that. But when snowboarding came around, that was my ticket to participate. That’s when I really started doing a ton of graphics.
From your experience, how did snowboarding offer more opportunities to women?
There were lots of female pros in snowboarding. That didn’t really exist in skateboarding (with a few very talented exceptions), and the female pro snowboarders would often pick a female artist to do their graphics. That was the majority of my early board graphics work. I was most often drawing what the athlete wanted.
Later, when I was hired by Rossignol, I worked with a super-talented art director who would take one of my paintings, the more detailed the better, at his request, and cut it up to make as many boards and skis as he could. We had to change my contract, so I was being paid per board rather than per painting which was the original deal. It all worked out in the end. Those were the handful of years that Rossi boards and skis were plastered in my plants, flowers, birds, and a few girls and monsters.
You’ve been so busy with collaborations. In what direction is your personal art driving you?
Lately, I’ve been transitioning from an artist doing commercial work to finding my place as a fine artist. Art in galleries has been a parallel universe to art on boards for many years now, but in recent years I’ve decided to take fine art more seriously, get better at portraits, paint more realistically, improve my craft, and just generally take it up a notch. I feel like I’m reinventing myself as an artist, but this time around it’s without the help of the cool trend I was riding, which I like as a new challenge.
Alex was down on his luck after high school, when his best friend, a graphic designer, financed a camera for him. “I was kinda lost, and he put a tool in my hand,” Alex explains. “Ever since, it was hard to let go of the camera.”
Following Bobby Kim and Ben Shenassafar of the Hundreds, he adopted his streetwear blog title, The Knowbody, as a pseudonymous last name.
unofficial creative director. He doesn’t even remember if he got paid, but it paid off, because he picked up more clients, and his supplemental income grew enough for him to quit his job.
Written by Katie Shiver Photography by Miles Caliboso alexknowbody.com Instagram alexknowbodyHe launched the Knowbody clothing brand, and along with “little random photography gigs,” that sufficed until he became a father, which requires more income. He and some friends opened a clothing boutique, Pesos Bodega, but it didn’t last long, because they were too inexperienced. Alex then worked in apartment maintenance.
One day when he was scrolling Instagram, he noticed that Iguanas Burritozilla, a San Jose–based restaurant, wasn’t getting the attention their “deliciousness” deserved. So, he called and became their
Alex started the creative agency Better Than Good Enough LLC. “I was just tired of doing half-ass shit. I want to do better than that,” he shares. His LLC gave him the opportunity to work with the metal band Maya at Google on a Día de los Muertos collage project and to shoot for the Earthquakes—including photos of Wondo (number 8), who is retiring this season.
After having grown up in East San Jose, Alex moved to Portland for two years with his wife and daughter. In Portland, shooting a bike for Nike’s BIKETOWN PDX Latino heritage month boosted his confidence in himself and his developing style as he homed in on his Mexican culture and Latino heritage. San Jose had many Hispanic locations and
“I was kinda lost, and he put a tool in my hand. Ever since, it was hard to let go of the camera.”
-Alex Knowbody
models, but Portland was a foreign city. “Where the majority of the city’s white, there’s not a lot of [Latino] inspiration…I had to look for it,” Alex says.
During COVID-19, work dried up, from closed restaurants to cancelled events—including his planned art show. So, Alex, his wife, daughter, cat, and fish moved back to San Jose—to all live in one room in his mother-inlaw’s house. Private family photo sessions, along with becoming the creative director for Purple Lotus cannabis dispensary, got him through COVID-19 and helped bring back his belief in himself.
Alex’s dad is from Mexico and his mom is first-generation San Josean, which makes him a “first-and-a-half-generation” San Josean. Growing up, Alex felt like an outcast. “I couldn’t choose one [parent] to identify with, because I identified with both,” he says, regarding the Americanized Chicano side and the Mexican-rooted paisano side. “There is a lot of that here, but maybe the people don’t have the outlet to express it,” he continues. One outlet he attended was the Día de los Muertos Aztec dancing at the Mexican Heritage Plaza, where he took his daughter to water her cultural “seeds.”
Alex’s family is a family of creatives. His daughter is bold enough at nine years old to cut her hair and dye it bright green, and his wife paints and just launched her lifestyle brand, the Madre Life. For Alex, fatherhood is an inspiring change. “I feel
like a lot of things could be cleared up if you just have clear communication. And I’m learning that through experiencing putting myself in my daughter’s shoes.”
After being featured on The FIRM podcast this year, Alex was asked to participate in the documentary San Jose Is Not for Sale. The squad, all from East San Jose, are working pro bono. “Everybody is doing it for the love for the city, because we give a shit…we have a story to tell,” he shares.
“We feel like everybody tries to tell the story of San Jose in a way that maybe a lot of us don’t understand, and now it’s our turn.” They’re photographing things like local coffee shops, artists, and flea market vendors who face displacement to showcase the change that the city’s going through.
Alex elaborates, “That shit’s gonna be dope. Like, the images, the stories, the people we get to interview…if it doesn’t mean shit to anybody else, it’s gonna mean something to us. This is a project that we are all gonna be super proud of.”
When asked about times he felt like giving up, he shares, “That’s every day, honestly… there’s good days and there’s bad days, and those bad days feel like forever…not only you feel it, but your family feels it.” Alex wants to inspire other people: “If that fool could do it, I could do it…I’m just an average-ass dude who, like, put in the time and effort into creating.” C
F or many, being on camera for the first time can be a nerve-racking experience. Finding oneself under the penetrating gaze of a camera lens might feel like staring down the barrel of a shotgun. Add to that the interrogation-room bright lights and pesky lapel mics with their tangling wires. Now try delivering your lines without looking like a deer in the headlights.
Fortunately, when business owners come to Tabrizi Productions for their branded video needs, they can expect a much more inviting environment. “On my sets, it’s not a ton of lights. It’s not a ton of crew running around,” Farran Tabrizi shares. “It’s not super overwhelming. It’s very stripped down…You want to make [people] feel comfortable and not intimidated by the process.” It also helps that Tabrizi isn’t the formidable type—arriving at jobs with a Spiketus Rex backpack, cheetah print sneakers, and a smile. Sometimes a pink jumpsuit, too.
sexy as far as video content is concerned,” Tabrizi concedes, “but when you get to the core of how a company started and how much passion is behind the product or service that they’re offering, it’s kind of the same thing at the end of the day.”
Tabrizi’s forté is the documentary-style interview. After filming, she combs through footage for bite-size quotes with founders, team leads, and clients, then integrates these into testimonials and brand overviews, origin stories, and company culture videos.
Written by Johanna Harlow Photography by Arabela Espinozatabriziproductions.com Instagram tabriziproductions
The video producer and mother of two has carved out a niche for herself in the field of corporate video. The company sizes and industries of her clients vary almost as greatly as her ever-changing hair color, and she’s particularly popular among women entrepreneurs.
In the world of filmmaking, making videos on behalf of businesses isn’t considered as “glamorous” as narrative filmmaking, but Farran finds joy in her work. “Corporate might not sound
Step one to a strong docu-style interview? Don’t hold too tightly to scripted lines. “Scripts (or an outline) are great, but those are really just a baseline to make sure an interview stays on track,” she explains. “A Q&A [reveals] things in a different way about a company or allows them to rephrase it in a different way.” Memorizing lines can aggravate stiffness, she notes, because people tend to focus on getting every word correct rather than embracing the emotion behind the lines. If done well, interview sessions should put founders at ease because now “they’re having a conversation with a person and not a lens.”
Tabrizi also brings a genuine interest in learning from everyone she meets. “I love hearing people’s stories and finding what lights them up,” she shares. “There is so much to learn from people—from their experiences.”
“I love hearing people’s stories and finding what lights them up. There is so much to learn from people— from their experiences.”
-Farran Tabrizi
The filmmaker has encountered quite the variety of projects throughout her vocational journey. As a high schooler, she created B movie horror films with her friends and co-founded a business that offered event coverage services to schools in her area. After graduating from San Francisco State, she spent a stint in Pixar’s short films department, before transitioning into the public safety realm, recording everything from taser and firearms trainings to officer survival stories. After that, she created animated educational videos for Study.com.
Upon taking her production company from side hustle to full-time job, she continued expanding her range of fields, venturing into the self-driving car industry with Velodyne Lidar and nonprofit work with Second Harvest of Silicon Valley. As a woman in a male-dominant industry, she’s also quite popular with women-run groups like the Tress Club, skinSALVATION, Conferences for Women, and the Being Boss podcast. Recently, Tabrizi launched an online DIY video course, equipping entrepreneurs to generate their own video content.
Tabrizi considers all her work storytelling, with branded videos showing the human side of business, but she has also dabbled in
documentary filmmaking. Her feature-length documentary Music Driven covers the unsung heroes of today’s underground rock and roll scene. To acquire footage for the project, Tabrizi and her then boyfriend, now husband, Ashton planned a classic American road trip in a not-so-conventional orange limo. “That’s our passion,” Tabrizi smiles. “Ashton is a musician. And I just love music and rock and roll.” (If there was any doubt, their sons are named after iconic rock stars Axl and Ace).
On their trip across 25-plus states, they recorded the Velcro Pygmies, Betty Hates Everything, Asphalt Valentine, and 47 other bands on and off the stage. “The whole premise of the documentary was to prove that rock and roll is not dead,” Tabrizi says. “It’s just harder to find. It’s not mainstream like it once was.” She leans forward, “Mark my words, I’ll be on tour shooting another rock documentary someday. I live for that!”
Meanwhile, Tabrizi will continue acing the corporate video game: her branded videos will continue elevating businesses to the next level as surely as she will keep rocking out to Guns N’ Roses and Metallica. C
Written by Jonathan Fung Instagram fungfolio
San JoSe State UniverSity’S photo 125 coUrSe ,
Professor Jonathan Fung, introduces students to basic beauty, advertising, and editorial techniques using digital and film cameras, studio and location lighting, and digital image processing. They learn about the fashion industry and styles from top fashion photographers.
Student assignments are designed to develop both technical and aesthetic skills to help them succeed in the industry. They conduct research and pitch their concepts for approval for each shooting assignment as they would for a potential client. They are encouraged to build a team for editorial projects that includes a make-up artist and hair and clothing stylists. Also, detailed class critiques are an important component that helps each student grow and improve their skills as an artist. The fall 2021 semester was historically unique due to the ongoing COVID-19. Photo 125 was a hybrid course that Professor Fung organized for half of the course to be in person so students would experience demos, collaboration, hands-on learning in the studios and on location, and shooting models with professional hair and make-up.
Working with Daniel Garcia, Content’s Cultivator, for the third collaboration in two years was again another invaluable experience for SJSU students. Not only did they learn how to become better professionals, deliver quality work, and meet deadlines, they also came to understand the thought process of an art director who might be selecting their work to publish. Students were pushed to be the best versions of themselves, not settling for a lesser version, but having a spirit of excellence. Not all the students were selected for this issue, only the ones that created the strongest fashion editorial work.
taught by
Joseph Mayo
Zack (Biu) Lam
Matt Langford
Joseph Mayo
Matt Langford
Max Pinedo
1 Andrew Koscheski is a student at San Jose State University majoring in photography. Some of the major themes of his work include abstraction, technology, originality, and nature.
Instagram: gigadude916
2 Joseph Mayo is a 24-year-old photographer and contemporary artist who received his BFA in photography from San Jose State University in 2022. His work focuses on the culture of skateboarding.
Instagram: jo3mayo
3 Haleigh Bei is a freelance photographer based in Winters, California. Haleigh recently graduated from San Jose State University with a BFA in photography.
Instagram: bei_photography_
4 Hang Huynh is a contemporary artist who is passionate about sculptures, oil paintings, and photography. She is pursuing a BFA degree in spatial art and a minor in photography at San Jose State University. Instagram: hahu.sj.sg
5 Leila Khabagnote is a photographer receiving her BFA from San Jose State University. Her photographic work often revolves around introspective topics ranging from mental health to memories and regret.
Instagram: wahladdle
6 Matt Langford is a fashion and portrait photographer based in Los Angeles who recently graduated from San Jose State University with a BFA in photography.
Instagram: coastonblu
7 Max Pinedo is a BFA student at San Jose State University who evokes visceral emotions through a photographic medium.
Instagram: maxpiinedo
8 Julissa Durán is a portrait photographer and a BFA student at San Jose State University. She is based in San Jose, California, and hopes to inspire people through her work.
Instagram: heyjulissaa
9 Mikayla Crisafulli is graduating from San Jose State University in graphic design. She has been pushing her creative freedom within a different medium—fashion photography.
Instagram: m_c_graphicdesign
10 Zack (Biu) Lam is a portraiture and commercial photographer based in California. He likes to photograph both men and women aesthetically and capture products.
Instagram: zackl.b
11 Nicole Weyant will study photography at San Jose State University and specializes in digital studio photography. She uses the studio to push the boundaries of photography.
Instagram: nicoleweyant_photography
12 Ron Mina is an artist based in San Jose, California, and linked to digital photography and graphic design. His work often captures urban life, texture, and identity.
Instagram: thevisualpemina
13 Tori Cudal is passionate, thoughtful, and strong-minded. She attends San Jose State University, where she is studying advertising with two minors—public relations and photography.
Instagram: cudalsphotography
14 Yvonne Bellido is a graduate of San Jose State University who works in the Bay Area and LA. She draws inspiration to tell her own stories in captivating ways.
Instagram: yvonnebellido
bennettrothnewell.com soundcloud.com/bennettroth Instagram bennettjazzkeys
Bennett Roth-Newell has maintained a place as one of the South Bay’s best kept musical secrets for years now. Equally capable as an emcee and pianist, he embodies a rare fusion of two disparate styles and tastes. Yet he proves that hip-hop and jazz carry plenty of crossover.
“I know the two wouldn’t exist without each other,” he says when speaking about his musical trajectory. “I played piano and went into jazz interests first, but I think hip-hop is significantly responsible for that evolution of my decisions musically,” he shares.
Roth-Newell is quick to add that his fusion wouldn’t matter if it weren’t for a receptive community that understood where he’s coming from. He alludes to his standing Sunday weekly at cocktail bar 55 South with The Illiance, a group he’s been a part of since 2015. The event is a local institution at this point, and the band performs a fluid medley of songs that can cover funky jazz, neo soul, and even the hyphy hiphop of Mac Dre in a single extended passage. Roth-Newell occupies a spot in the mix perfectly, executing a blazing piano solo in one moment and kicking a freestyle off the top of his head in the next.
He admits he feels like he’s in the middle of a musical evolution. One big reason for that is his recent marriage.
“I can say it without a doubt: it’s very much feel-
ing like a new chapter, and a chapter for the best for sure,” he admits of his transition into married life. “It does feel like it’s been a greater maturation of me as a person. I think it’s carried over into how I play music, how I compose, and how to be professional.”
As a freelance educator and musician, Roth-Newell’s career involved constant movement from one gig or assignment to the next, often at the sacrifice of his own creativity. “Then, with the snap of a finger, the gigs went goodbye,” he shares with a laugh, “and the commutes and the lessons in person went goodbye.” He suddenly found moments to create.
While he lost many gigs, he regained time to write. This helped him craft the songs that would become Grown, which was released in early 2022. It’s an apt title for the project, given his shift into married life and the musical refinement he’s noticed in himself. He references this in the album’s opening lines, rapping, “I’m grown now / left that college life alone now // I’m more accustomed to keeping a lower profile / Handling business, I ain’t out here acting so wild / A welcome change from the ways of my old style.”
“I think overall, there’s just a lot more substance to hopefully hit folks more universally than previous records,” he says of this album. That in-
COVID may have taken away his gigs, but it certainly sparked his creativity. With Grown, rapper and pianist Bennett Roth-Newell hits a new stride–and makes sure to thank his wife for it.
cludes “Vicious Cycle,” which speaks to the Black Lives Matter protests he took part in during the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd. Taking a unifying stance, he raps “They can impose a curfew / But there will never be a curfew on love for all.”
As far as his refinement, he credits his wife Valencia with aiding in that musical shift.
“She knows my music front to back. So yeah, I totally put stock in her feedback,” he shares. “She’s helped me grow musically in a lot of ways. She’d always say, ‘I don’t want to be able to hear everything through the music.’ That’s her saying, ‘let everything be a seamless transition from the speaker to the listener’s ear.’ ”
Not quite an elder statesman, but certainly a veteran on the scene at this point, Roth-Newell has taken to leading local jams and standing in as a music director on recording projects for friends. He’s been the creative arts director at the Riekes Center for Human Enhancement in Menlo Park since 2016. He also spent time this past year
teaching virtually with the Stanford Jazz Workshop and adds that he had a blast sharing advice and constructive criticism with up-and-coming teenage pianists.
Honoring the spirit of helping others is something he says he first picked up as a student at the Riekes Center. “[For me], it’s carried over into the world of being a teacher and being in the service of trying to lift others up in their goals as a musician, artist, or student.”
Roth-Newell is working on a follow-up to Grown. He says this one will be different stylistically, because he’d like to share an album with original material and a solo piano. Now that he’s back in touch with his creativity on a regular basis, he’s not ready to let it go.
“I’m happy as ever, man. And my mind’s nice and limber and clear,” he shares, eager to watch the future play out. He continues, “I just know a lot of chapters have some content that will soon be written.” C
- Bennett Roth-Newell
“I know the two wouldn’t exist without each other. I played piano and went into jazz interests first, but I think hip-hop is significantly responsible for that evolution of my decisions musically.”
As a freelance music teacher and multi-instrumentalist, Lidia Rodriguez’s daily routine never looks the same. But wherever her work takes her, from one day to the next, it’s likely in the service of music.
“That’s why I have so many jobs—because I like to have a different day every day. To do the same thing every day was literally my nightmare,” she explains.
She got her start in music education with San Jose Jazz’s Progressions program. More recently, she took a job with Music for Minors, which offered her the chance to teach music to kids in Spanish.
Her instrumental versatility (she plays various saxophones, as well as flute and clarinet) has kept her busy on the bandstand as well. She’s a member of 7th Street Big Band, a local group comprised of young musicians looking to bring a fresh spin to the aged big band jazz format. She’s signed on with modern R&B outfit the PAC. She’s contributed parts to various singer-songwriters and beat makers. You may even see her roaming the concourse at a Golden State Warriors game, performing with the Bay Blue Notes.
That insatiable appetite for playing music stretches back to her teenage days at Franklin High School, when she participated in as many bands as was humanly possible. “I was in drum line. I was in marching band. I was in jazz band, concert band—anything I could get my hands on. I TA’d for the guitar class just because I wanted to do more music,” she recalls. She was also in pep band.
All those commitments kept her quite busy and largely away from negative influences in her native Stockton. But she admits
On a musical mission to lead with kindness, instrumentalist and educator Lidia Rodriguez is sharing a message of open collaboration and self-love through the pillars of peace, love, and sax.
“I love being able to sound big while not being a big person. I don’t feel small at all. I don’t notice that until someone says it. I feel just as powerful as my saxophone.”
-Lidia Rodriguez
that earning saxophone section leader as a sophomore was the first time she noticed she might have been taking music more seriously than her classmates. After three years at San Joaquin Delta Community College, she made the big move to study at San Jose State.
Just as she hoped, she found herself dropped in the middle of a brand-new music community. It was just a bigger change than she was expecting. Compared to the diversity she grew up with in Stockton, she was now the only Latina in her program. Second, choosing to pursue classical studies on baritone saxophone was a bit irregular. She got push back from teachers who tried to get her to switch to the more conventional alto sax and heard whispers from fellow students wondering why she couldn’t do things the normal way. But she was relentless, eventually proving her ability on the baritone and continuing studies on her instrument of choice.
Baritone sax isn’t likely the first (or second or even third) version of the instrument you envision when you imagine one. Yet that’s where Rodriguez feels most capable to express herself musically.
“I love being able to sound big while not being a big person,” she says of the instrument’s appeal. “I don’t feel small at all. I don’t notice that until someone says it. I feel just as powerful as my saxophone.”
While it started as a simple ask out of the blue, Rodriguez’s work with locally based songwriter and producer Mild Monk has spurred an ongoing collaboration between the two. It’s simply how things have blossomed since their first work together on his song “Stay a While.”
“I feel peaceful after I play with him. I really feel like we just meditated when we have rehearsal,” she says of their partnership.
Her work with producer Rythmatical happened a bit closer to home—literally. He’s actually Rodriguez’s landlord, and a track that formed out of a casual jam session has since gained decent traction on SoundCloud. It’s not hard to see why. Listening to “Mudville Sun,” their latest, Rodriguez’s combined lines on sax and flute add a calm, casual dialogue atop the beat’s airy keys and sputtering drums. Her work on Marinero’s “Through the Fog” is similarly relaxing, her laid-back playing never rushing the easy bossa nova rhythm.
Genre doesn’t matter much to her. What’s most important is the spirit of the music and the connection present in collaboration. It’s an insight she gained from inspirations like saxophonist Kamasi Washington and producer Pharrell Williams.
“They talk about using music for change in a really big way,” she notes. “I really look up to musicians like that, who don’t just play to show their ego.”
From struggles to prove herself on her instrument of choice to hearing advice from family about music being a risky option, she’s battled back consistently, proving to others the validity of her voice.
“You shouldn’t have to hide your extra-specialness,” she notes with pride as she talks about her students remembering her as the Latina with big hair and tattoos. “I think music helps me do that. I teach music, and obviously that’s the main point, but a bigger point for me is to teach being who you are and doing what you want, despite what people want you to do with your life. Because it’s not their life; it’s really yours.” C
The 408 Collective began during the pandemic. That summer of 2020, recent jazz graduate Jared Carbajal was cycling through waves of depression over the shutdown of live music and, with it, his entire life’s plan. But one day over the phone, his buddy Stefan Velasquez threw him a line. “What if we did a Chris Brown cover?” he asked. Jared had been fascinated by big band projects lately, and, as an arranger, he had the skills to reimagine iconic R&B hits.
Played by twenty musicians in various bedrooms and studio rooms, their arrangement smoothly transfused four saxophones, two trombones, three lead vocalists, and a full rhythm section featuring congas and organ into an absolute ear-candy rendition of Chris Brown’s “Undecided.”
The collective was born and named after the city that the majority of the musicians grew up in. Following the release of their second project, a cover of Alicia Keys’ “If I Ain’t Got You,” they booked two shows over the quarantine period. Audience members had to stay in their cars, and no claps or cheers could be heard, but at a peak moment of the show, lead vocalist Misa James shouted, “Honk if you feel me!” and the parking lot exploded in flaring F notes.
Written by Esther Young Photography by Ronnie Pataniailiinks.co/the408collectivemusic Instagram the408collectivemusic
As with a band, core members have driven 408’s sound with their individual musical sensibilities. But as a collective, 408 rides on the moving contributions of many members, none of whom are trying to run the entire project as their own. Equipped with Jared as the lead arranger and coordinator, they’ve managed to create and sustain a musical project that is “bigger than our personalities and opinions,” as organist Tyler Richards puts it.
Half of the core members met in high school, and the other half met at California’s Great America, where they worked as entertainers. Onstage, their chemistry budded and blossomed in front of audiences delighted by the unscripted experience. Their experimental R&B, soul, and funk-informed renditions of the required top 40 songs set them apart from other entertainment
“It’s been a journey—a lot of late nights trying to figure out how to work with all the technology, because my roots are just with an instrument and my voice.”
Gabe Rangel @_king_brittney_
Jared Carbajal @jared_carbajal
Misa James @themisajames
Tyler Richards @tylerrr.richards tylerrr.richards
bands that delivered those hits with copy-and-paste precision. After several seasons, their group secured a residency. Every Friday night at Great America, they got to play under their own name, which allowed for greater marketing traction.
In spring of 2021, they secured another residency at LVL Up in Campbell, where they co-hosted events with the SJ Storyboard Project and brought out vendors to the shows. The performances concluded with open jam sessions, where a musician at any skill level could come up with their instrument and play or grab the mic and spit bars. “We really got to experiment with what we can do on a night like that,” Jared remembers.
“The great thing about it being a collective is we’re really cool with other people playing our gigs,” Misa says. Some of the cofounders are across the country attending college or touring, and only a couple of the members are full-time musicians. So, if one of the core performers is busy with school or work, or even another gig, another member plugs in.
“We’re more of a social organization between locals,” bassist Gabe Rangel emphasizes. Every contributor has their individual goals as an artist. Several of them have released independent albums and play in other bands. But it’s a mutual relationship. “[The collective] has always been willing to support me in any way that I need to uplift my personal brand and music,” says Misa, who also records as a singer-songwriter.
Though not every member grew up in San Jose, and roots within the area code is certainly not a prerequisite, they take pride in the city where they all connected. For Jared, who attended San Diego State and returned to San Jose during the pandemic, the 408 Collective marked a point where opportunities began to roll in one after another. “If I had done what I tried here in San Diego or LA,” he reflects, “I wouldn’t be nearly as close, and I wouldn’t get the experience I would have living here.” Also a marketing assistant for San Jose Jazz and a social media manager for SJ Storyboard, he sees preservation of community as an offshoot of 408’s impact. Their 2020 music video, Hit the Ground, pays homage to the richness of San Jose’s downtown, showcasing the mural on Santa Clara and Third, the Hotel De Anza lobby, the steps of City Hall, and SJSU’s main quad.
This year, more members of the group will release independent projects and cut ties with their day jobs. Though familiar pressures of time and stability will ebb and flow, given the adaptability of these artists, the future of the 408 Collective is bright. As Tyler puts it: “The goal, eventually, is for the name to outgrow us.” C
Quietly Blowing It (Merge Records)
Release date: June 25, 2021
Written by Taran Escobar-AusmanHailing from North Carolina, MC Taylor, with his band Hiss Golden Messenger, has been churning out an impressive depth of work, releasing an album almost every year since 2009. While their sound is often categorized as alt-folk or roots rock, the band draws from many influences and incorporates elements of jazz, funk, dub, gospel, and soul. At the heart of all their recordings, however, is Taylor’s soulful singing and songwriting that continually aims to make sense of the vicissitudes and contradictions of being human. As his multi-instrumentalist collaborator, Josh Kaufman, relates, Taylor has “a prolific bone to pick with the universe.”
Taylor continues to existentially prod at the universe with the new LP, Quietly Blowing It, which was largely written and recorded at the beginning of the pandemic. As with many new recording projects these days, the album processes external realities during a year of isolated self-reflection. Quietly Blowing It becomes as much Taylor’s own self-reckoning with his demons as it is a mirror held up to our own journeys as a collective. On the pastoral groove of “Glory Strums,” Taylor offers a deep selfcritique as he sings, “I know that there’s good in me / Why’s it such a hard time?” The song, “If It Comes in the Morning,” however, holds everyone accountable as Taylor implores the listener to lay down their “sword and shield” as “There’s a spade if you’re willing / To work on the building.”
What has always been the band’s strength is building interest from subtle melodies and humble arrangements. It’s what Taylor calls “impressionistic tones,” such as on “Painted Houses,” which softly builds before giving way to the sound of crickets at night. Quietly Blowing It introduces a new chapter for the band. There is a newfound center of warmth and calm to the proceedings, a center where Taylor seeks existential resolution and where he also managed to build a safe sanctuary to do just that
Favorite track: “Quietly Blowing It” HISSGOLDENMESSENGER.COM
KDXMPC (Cohn Corporation)
Release date: November 9, 2020
Written by Demone CarterCalling a rapper a character feels redundant. Despite the supposed emphasis on realness, every rapper is on some level creating a character or alter ego. Some take this character creation farther than others. Chicago-bred rapper Serengeti creates absurdist personas and breathes life into them in a way that recalls Kool Keith as much as Kurt Vonnegut. For the uninitiated, a good starting point is his 2012 song “Dennehy,” in which Serengeti plays the role of Kenny Dennis, a caterpillar mustached, bratwurst eating, Chicago Bears fan, whose favorite actor is Brian Dennehy. It’s difficult to understand how bizarre it is for a rapper to inhabit such a role and not just for one song or album but as an ongoing bit.
Which brings me to Serengeti’s 2020 release, KDXMPC. This album feels like an Easter egg in the Kenny Dennis multiverse. Released in the same year as Serengeti’s masterpiece, Ajai, which chronicles an obsessive sneaker head (Kenny Dennis makes an appearance on Ajai as well), KDXMPC is less coherent than Ajai but still a righteously good time. KDXMPC could be perceived as a side story about Kenny Dennis, appearing as a repairman who fixes the iconic Akai MPC beat machine. The intro track, “MPC Jingle,” inhabits the tenuous spot between a great rap song and comedic parody without comprising the tenets of either form. Other standout cuts include “Thought Process,” “Hal and Sophie,” and the hilariously irreverent “Gyro.”
KDXMPC is a collection of stream-of-conscious short stories over minimal boom bap style beats. It would be a mistake for listeners to try and discern a cohesive narrative from it all. At his best Serengeti gives us interesting characters in absurd situations (think Wes Anderson over sample loops). This seems to be a selfproduced project (no additional beat makers are credited). The beats are simple but bouncy, the perfect setting for Serengeti’s art house comedy.
Favorite track: “Gyro” KENNYDENNIS.BANDCAMP.COM
Curated by Needle to the Groove Instagram: needletothegrooverecords
Balens Cho (Hot Candle)
(Mach-Hommy Inc.)
Release date: December 4, 2021
Written by Demone CarterIt’s 2021 and clout chasing is the order of the day. Artists, content creators, and your auntie from Minnesota are all waring for a small slice of the attention economy on a daily basis. In this landscape, it’s hard to believe that Haitian-American rapper Mach-Hommy has cultivated that most precious commodity, mystique. The masked rapper has carved out a stellar career in the most counter-intuitive way. He has successfully camouflaged his identity and has for the most part eschewed the music-streaming Ponzi scheme in which artists trade their life’s work for fractional pennies on the dollar.
This year Hommy stepped out of the reclusive shadow realm and delivered two critically acclaimed albums for mass consumption. Hommy’s first offering of 2021, Pray for Haiti, a legitimate album of the contender, explored Hommy’s personal accent and the western world’s exploitation of his beloved mother country. On his latest release, Balens Cho (Hot Candles), Hommy continues his advocacy for Haiti and also peels back the curtain ever so slightly to reveal a bit of his origin story.
On the opening track, Labou Mach wails “I got it from the mud swear to god!” over a soul-piercing horn loop. From the outset, Hommy’s full complement of gifts is on display. He has a rare combination of expert craftsmanship with heartfelt artistry which comes through from start to finish on Balens Cho Hommy’s raps are rich with allusions and references but not weighed down by them. On the menacingly bright track, “Lajan Sal,” Hommy boasts, “Ain’t no Jesse Jack in this Hommy Town,” a bar that reaches back to a controversy from Jesse Jackson’s 1984 presidential campaign for material in a clever way that doesn’t feel like a stretch at all.
The specter of Jay-Z looms large on this album with Hommy making several callbacks to iconic Hova lines. Songs like “Wooden Nickels” and “Self Luh” also feel like they are inspired by Jay-Z’s introspective masterpiece, 4:44. To make the Hova to Hommy line complete, Mach also has the Jay-Z gift of picking great beats to rap over. Nicholas Craven, Conductor Williams, and the late great Ras G provide the perfect foundation for MachHommy’s self-described “gibberish and monotone raps.”
Favorite track: “Separation of the Sheep and the Goats” MACH-HOMMY.COM
Release date: January 29, 2021
Written by David Ma
On paper this album should be a master class between two iconic artists—renowned experimental producer Four Tet and underground beatsmith extraordinaire Madlib. What we got somehow surpassed expectations, a rarity when it comes to ballyhooed projects such as these. Any trepidation of their combined prowess quickly disintegrated after their single “Road of the Lonely Ones” came out to glowing reviews. Haunting vocal samples, snappy drums, and textures that refine themselves as the song moves along punctuate the entire track, a reflection of the musical conversation heard on the LP as a whole.
Four Tet, a mainstay in the early aughts whose colorful beats that were able to exist in both the hip-hop and experimental realms, is no stranger to various remixes and collaborations. His typical orchestration involves slow buildups that give way to tremendous finales, as well as a pastiche approach that involves glitches and obscure reworked samples. A standout in his catalogue is a remix he did for Madvillain, an underground classic rap album if there ever was one. The album, of course, features one of rap’s most wildly creative and beloved MCs, MF DOOM, with its production helmed by Madlib.
Madlib is one of the most vaunted producers in rap history as well as one of the most prolific. The aforementioned Madvillain was huge, but so are his recent projects with Freddie Gibbs, as well as past work under the nom de plume, Quasimoto. Active since the ’90s, Madlib has since gone on to produce for the likes of Kanye and Kendrick Lamar. Currently, listeners have been waiting with baited breath when it was revealed that he produced the new Black Star album, the follow-up to the venerated 1998 release from Talib Kweli and Mos Def aka Yasiin Bey. Sound Ancestors benefits not only from the combined experience of the two, but also because it comes off wise, offering soundscapes that retract and expand with ease, never trying too hard musically or conceptually. It works as both background and foreground music and delivers uncompromising quality with a noticeable patience to the music—not unlike the careers of Four Tet and Madlib themselves. For an album such as this, anything less would’ve been a travesty.
Favorite track: “Hopprock” MADLIB.BANDCAMP.COM
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Tessa is an illustrator, printmaker, and art handler based in Palo Alto. Her work explores various inspirations from the natural world, art history, as well as folklore and mythology.
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Miles, a member of DSOTM, is a Filipino American artist born and raised in San Jose. Growing up in the dance community, he continues to explore his artistry through photography, capturing stories and playing with light and motion.
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Ronnie is a filmmaker, photographer, and designer from San Jose. His work focuses on telling stories that spark positive social change and empowering the underdogs.
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David is a Bay Area-based writer with a strong disposition for sarcasm and daydreaming. In his spare time he likes to cook, lie in the grass, and find just the right song to listen to all day.
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Kevin is a writer, musician, pastor, and Silicon Valley native. You can find him at local tiki bars, record shops, or singing with musical collective Folk Atrocity.
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