Chipped Nail Polish

from Ethos Magazine Spring 2020

American Adjustment

Sitting in the staircase outside of the music studio, Sullivan strums her ukulele to find her rhythm before recording. According to Sullivan, her music has been influenced by a variety of music genres. She says, “I’m definitely influenced by indie and alternative music as well as punk rock. Some of my songs do hit a little bit harder.”

Progression of a Punk Ukulele band

The founder and lead singer of the Eugenebased, all-women band Chipped Nail Polish is Jill Sullivan. Sullivan, a winter 2020 University of Oregon (UO) graduate, says she formed the band with the intention of combining her skills as an advertising major with her passion for music. “The band has kind of just been a really fun passion project of mine and I want it to be the best that it can be,” she says. Beyond Chipped Nail Polish, Sullivan has dedicated herself to the music industry by spending the last four years as a member of the UO Music and Concerts Team. Her time with the student group has meant booking and organizing concerts, hosting guest speakers embedded in the industry and gathering student musicians from the Eugene, Oregon, area. The end result of this involvement takes the form of connections and experience, which Sullivan says she hopes to use in the music industry now that she has graduated from the UO. She says, “That’s where my music love has been and that’s where I’m trying to move towards professionally.” Sullivan put together an all-women, indie/alternative band and she says Chipped Nail Polish is the only one of its kind in Eugene. “We are the only all-female, all-girl band in Eugene that is currently playing shows,” Sullivan says. There are other bands in Eugene with prominent women members, such as Common Koi’s bassist Kira Elbaugh, Ponderosa’s guitarist and vocalist Molly Rose and Laundry’s lead guitarist and vocalist Kiki Paroissien, but with Chipped Nail Polish it has been nothing but women-led since its creation. This was Sullivan’s vision from the beginning. “When I was putting together the band I really wanted it to be as female fronted as possible,” she says. “I think that is definitely a highlight of the band and that does make us unique when we all play together.” Even as Sullivan looks for work outside of Eugene and her fellow UO student band members do the same, Sullivan says she wants Chipped Nail Polish to continue to be led by women. She says, “It’s something that’s super important to me. If I move and me, Grace, Allison and Frankie can’t all play together, I really want to do my best to work with as many female-identifying people as possible.” Photo Essay by Josh Murray

The Ibanez electric ukulele is Sullivan’s instrument of choice and its sound is prevalent throughout her music. Sullivan describes her music as being indie/alternative with a sprinkle of punk. She says, “The original idea was having it be a mix between punk and ukulele, which I call puke.”

This studio is a part of a University of Oregon professors home located in South Eugene.

Every Wednesday evening at 8:00 is studio time for Jill and

Justin to get done what they have on the agenda; sometimes taking up to five hours per session.

Jill Sullivan (left), the leader and founder of Chipped

Nail Polish, and Justin

Kiatvongcharoen (right), the producer of Jill’s extended play recording (EP), sit down to work on editing Sullivan’s music.

Justin Kiatvongcharoen (left) and Jill Sullivan (right) work on determining what adjustments need to be made in Sullivan’s songs like syllables and audible in-between breaths.