NATIVE | SEPTEMBER 2015 | NASHVILLE, TN by Native

SEPTEMBER

2015

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TABLE OF CONTENTS SEPTEMBER 2015

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THE GOODS 13 Beer from Here 16 Cocktail 20 Master Platers 44 EMS Pedal Guide 87 You Oughta Know 90 Observatory 95 Animal of the Month

FEATURES

24 James Perrin 34 Rita Bullwinkel 48 ELEL 58 Music City Center Bees 66 Erin Rae and the Meanwhiles 76 Chauhan Ale & Masala House

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SCOUT'S

CELEBRATES 1 YEAR + WHEAT & CO. SHOP LAUNCH 09.20.15

lens: @emiliapare model: @wheatandco

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DEAR NATIVES,

hanks for tagging us, y’all! Be sure to check out these Instagrammers, and #nativenashville to share your photos with us.

president, founder:

ANGELIQUE PITTMAN JON PITTMAN associate publisher: KATRINA HARTWIG publisher, founder:

creative director:

MACKENZIE MOORE

managing editor:

CHARLIE HICKERSON DARCIE CLEMEN

art director:

COURTNEY SPENCER

community relations manager:

JOE CLEMONS

film supervisor:

CASEY FULLER

editor:

@nathanwilliammonseu

@rotarydial000

@laurenallyson

@benjaminhurston

writers: photographers:

production:

@baodownnashville

@benlalisan

MATTHEW LEFF RITA BULLWINKEL BLAIR WHITE BRANDON HIGHFILL HENRY PILE BENJAMIN HURSTON LINDSEY BUTTON CHARLIE HICKERSON COOPER BREEDEN

JEN McDONALD DANIELLE ATKINS GABRIEL MAX STARNER REBECCA ADLER ROBBY KLEIN LAURA E. PARTAIN AUSTIN LORD

GUSTI ESCALANTE

founding team: founder, brand director:

DAVE PITTMAN

founder:

CAYLA MACKEY

MACKENZIE MOORE JOSHUA SIRCHIO TAYLOR RABOIN

to advertise, contact:

for all other inquiries:

SALES@NATIVE.IS HELLO@NATIVE.IS

in last month’s master platers, we misspelled

jessica rice’s last name. sorry about that, jessica!

@elliotroot

@tylerthetennessean

PROUDLY DELIVERED BY RUSH BICYCLE MESSENGERS

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RE CL AI ME D F L OO R ING, CUSTOM F UR N I T U RE, BAR N DO O R S, BAR N WO O D WAL LS & L UMBE R STO R E

GOOD WOOD NASHVILLE - OPEN TO THE TRADE & PUBLIC - EAST NASHVILLE OPEN MONDAY-SATURDAY 8AM-5PM - 615-454-3817

WWW.GOODWOODNASHVILLE.COM

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Painkiller #308 by Ben Clemons of No. 308 Listen, we know it's September and summer is coming to a close, but we're not taking it lying down . . . wait, yeah we are! There's nothing that will help you cope with the loss of yet another Tennessee summer like the Painkiller #308. This boozy tropical libation is our variation of the ’70s tiki classic from the Soggy Dollar Bar.

*passion fruit purEe

may be purchased at most international markets (such as K&S)

THE GOODS 2 oz Pusser’s Navy Rum 1 oz passion fruit puree* 1/2 oz orange juice 1/2 oz coconut cream

photo by jen mcdonald

F Shake, blend, build all these ingredients together and top with grated nutmeg. We garnish ours with pineapple leaves, but it's your world and your drink—do it however you want. Just be happy.

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SARAH SEVEN, CLAIRE PETTIBONE, RUE DE SEINE, SARAH JANKS, HOUGHTON, CHRISTOS, ANNA CAMPBELL, TWIGS & HONEY, TRUVELLE, KATIE MAY, HAYLEY PAIGE, JOHANNA JOHNSON

THE DRESS THEORY BRIDAL SHOP (615) 440-3953 - 1201 5TH AVE N #102 -

BY APPOINTMENT ONLY

W W W . T H E D R E S S T H E O R Y . C O M @THEDRESSTHEORY 18 / / / / / / / / / / / / / / //////

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MASTER PLATERS

HOW TO: MAKE APPLE WHISKEY JAM WITH

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GARY BARON, OWNER OF THE NASHVILLE JAM COMPANY

THE GOODS

DIRECTIONS

32 oz Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and chopped

F Puree apples in a blender or food processor. F Add apples, whiskey, spices, lemon juice, and water to a six-quart stock pot. F Begin heating and stir in pectin. Stir frequently. F Bring to a boil for 30 seconds and stir in half the sugar (sugar will temporarily bring mixture back to a simmer). F Bring mixture back to a boil and stir in the remaining sugar. F Bring back to a boil for 1 minute. Fill and cap jars; invert jars for 1 minute. Turn jars upright and let cool.

2 oz George Dickel whiskey 1/2 tsp of nutmeg 1 tsp of cinnamon 1/2 tsp ground ginger 1/4 cup of lemon juice 1/2 cup of water 1/4 cup or 2 oz of fruit pectin

PHOTOS BY DANIELLE ATKINS

7 cups of sugar

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AFTER 5PM

L CO

OF N O I T LLEC

IRITS P S + E N I W R+ E E B + E E F F CO EE TS ! SM A LL B IT ES & IR R ES IS TI B LE SW

HTFU G U O H T

SIP. SAVOR. UNWIND.

ONLY AT BONGO 5TH AVE 250 5TH AVE S

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ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

JAMES PERRIN I was born in the Mississippi delta, in Northwest Tennessee. One of my first art experiences was digging up clay on the side of a riverbank and sculpting a head out of it. My aunt started giving me oil painting lessons when I was seven. I studied painting and art history at Kansas City Art Institute, Boston University, and in Italy. Painting, in its essence, is the communication of ideas and sensations that can only be felt and understood by looking at an image created with paint. Exploring ways to communicate through painting has always been a part of my life. My paintings can be described as a combination of several methods of painting, incorporating different concepts and image-making approaches, ranging from complete abstraction and expressionism to realism. My latest work incorporates ideas, impressions, and abstractions derived from retail interiors, Caribbean beaches, dress patterns, and imagery created by European Renaissance artists.

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M1-8D13 2013, Oil on canvas, 60” x 78”

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COLOSSUS, AFTER GOYA 2014, Oil and acrylic resin on linen, 80” x 96” # NAT I V ENAS HV I L L E ///// / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / 2 7 # NAT I V ENAS HV I L L E //// / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / 2 7

M8-10D12 2012, Oil on canvas, 60” x 78”

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MN-AD11-12 2012, Oil on canvas, 22” x 33”

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POLYSEMIC COLOSSUS 2015, Oil on linen with acrylic resin, plant resin, Tahitian pearls, 80” x 96”

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Premier smoke shop for all your smoking needs

Observations, Integrations, Pareidolia, and Polysemy - New Work by James Perrin - will be on view at Tinney Contemporary September 5â&#x20AC;&#x201C;26, 2015. jameswperrin.com West End Functional Glass Art

CARRYING the largest selection of local glass!

3404 West End Ave #206 - westendfunctionalglassart.com - I L615.401.9422 # NAT I V ENAS HV L E ///// / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / 3 1

Featuring 2,000 SF of white infinity space and another 1,900 SF photographer's playground, Studio 615 rivals the finest facilities in New York and Los Angeles. State of the art LED lighting, elegant green rooms and outdoor lounge areas are just a few of the features that make Studio 615 breathtaking.

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LITERARY SPOTLIGHT: RITA BULLWINKEL RITA BULLWINKEL LIVES IN NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, WHERE SHE IS A GRADUATE FICTION FELLOW AT VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY, THE FICTION EDITOR OF THE NASHVILLE REVIEW, A VANDERBILT COMMONS WRITER IN RESIDENCE, AND THE FOUNDER OF BAND OF POETS, A MONTHLY READING SERIES AT BOBBY’S IDLE HOUR. HER FICTION HAS APPEARED IN MANY PLACES INCLUDING SPORK, THE ATLAS REVIEW, THE FANZINE,

DEEP SOUTH MAGAZINE, THE BROOKLYN RAIL, AND JOYLAND. SHE IS A SEWANEE WRITERS’ CONFERENCE TENNESSEE WILLIAMS SCHOLARSHIP AWARD WINNER AND A HELENE WURLITZER FOUNDATION GRANTEE. THIS FALL, HER STORY “LUNCH” IS BEING PUBLISHED IN THE BOOK

GIGANTIC WORLDS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF SCIENCE FLASH FICTION ALONGSIDE WORK BY PHILIP K. DICK, J. G. BALLARD, AND JONATHAN LETHEM. SHE WAS ALSO RECENTLY A FINALIST FOR THE CONIUM

REVIEW ’S INNOVATIVE SHORT FICTION PRIZE JUDGED BY AMELIA GRAY. READ MORE ABOUT HER AT RITABULLWINKEL.COM

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HE BATHED IN THE NIGHT AND BLINKED HIS LASHLESS EYES…

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KARL WAS A SNAKE WHO COILED HIMSELF INTO THE SHAPE OF A PEAR and bit the children who tried to eat him. He lived in a tree surrounded by sidewalk cement on a busy block in a big city. He hung from the low swinging branches and wrapped himself into the shape of a fruit. He stuck out his tongue on the top of his coil to give the children who passed what looked like a newly sprung leaf. He shifted color to match the tree. He greened with a perfect speckle. A young boy came up to the pear and stuck out his arm to pick it, and Karl, instead of juicing, revealed his fangs and said, rather boldly, “I love you.” And with that the venom entered the boy’s veins. Karl lapped up the extra blood and then went back to pretending to be a fruit. Pigeons picked at the dead boy’s bones and then water fell from the sky and washed away his remains and police did eventually find the dead boy but nobody suspected a snake, because who would suspect a pear? Also, this was a city, and city people suspect many things, but cuisine, specifically fruit, generally isn’t one of them. Time passed and Karl again waited. He bathed in the night and blinked his lashless

eyes and whispered sweet nothings to the spiders who wove webs in his tree. The spiders, squirrels, rats, bugs, and stray cats that lived on the block conversed with Karl with caution. Karl said things none of them wanted to remember. He said, “That little girl looked really nice in those shorts,” and then later, “I have always thought I had a specific type of attraction.” The spiders, as well as much of the other surrounding urban wildlife, attributed Karl’s strange behavior to his foreign origin or perhaps even to some childhood trauma that Karl himself had yet to explain. They resented that he had killed the little boy, inducing an extreme increase of police traffic on their block, but liked the exotic company and, while they condemned his strangeness publicly, many of them privately reveled in it and were thankful that at least Karl was there, doing his fruit-snake thing, adding some amount of diversity to where there had previously been only vermin. An urban pear tree is a rare thing, the spiders, squirrels, rats, bugs, and stray cats all recognized, and having a snake to go with the pear tree, especially a snake masquerading as a pear, was a rare thing indeed.

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Karl had, in fact, come with the tree. A group of concerned humans had imported the tree from outside the city and planted it in a barren square of sidewalk soil to add some green and life to their block, which had previously been thought of only as a block without green and without any real space to do anything but walk through. But now, with the pear tree, people sat on their porches and talked on the street and breathed in the air with such enthusiasm that it was as if prior to the pear tree the air had not existed at all. This made Karlâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s job extremely easy. With all the humans huddled to his trunk, gulping down smog, he had more children to eat than he could swallow. When the weather turned warmer and his tree blossomed this was especially obvious. To his despair, he maybe no longer even needed to pretend to be a pear. This realization was devastating. Karl liked pretending to be a pear. He liked being a pear so much that he identified heavily as an actual pear. Who was anyone to tell him he was otherwise? Karl realized he liked being a pear in the same way that many humans like not just doing their jobs, but being their jobs. Karl was a pear, now and forever, in the same way retired lawyers are always lawyers. Karl meditated on this reality as he saw humans pass. He saw construction workers, teachers, bus drivers, and chefs and, very clearly, how some of them were just people who had

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jobs, but others were people who were their jobs. Was Karl a snake who was a pear? Was he really a pear who only looked like a snake? If you cut him open, what would be within him? Snake flesh bleeding green guts? No. Karl knew what he was. He was certain that within he only held white sugar-filled flesh. Flesh that could be poached or jellied or painted or simply sliced. Flesh that when children chewed would sweeten, soften, and slide down. Thus Karl started to have fantasies about being eaten. It started out as just dreams, but then he started planning to let the next child who tried to eat him do so. “I am done as a snake that looks like a pear,” he thought. He thought, “I simply am a poison pear.” The squirrels and the spiders on the block all thought Karl was crazy, confused, “hyped up on spring.” But Karl went through with it. One morning, a boy about the age of eight came up to Karl, and plucked him from his tree, and Karl stayed put, stayed coiled in his pear-shaped form, and sat in perfect stillness as the boy bit into him, ingested his venom orally, and died on the street with Karl in his palm. There Karl lay, chewed in two, happily being seen and understood as the thing that he was: a poison pear. But wasn’t Karl also just a snake? A snake trying to find a way to eat that was respectable, and clever, and allowed a little time to be left over in the evenings so that when the sun set over the urban sky he could chat with his neighbors? In this way Karl was and was not the thing he wanted to be. As his snake blood seeped out of his snake body the spiders and the squirrels and the bugs and the rats and the stray cats crowded around. They looked at Karl, and they wept for him, and they admired him as the sweet and fleshy product of a tree, as a plant that contains seeds, as a simple food that can be eaten.

SUMMER SPECIALS FROM OUR COMMUNITY GARDEN!

700 Fatherland Street - 615.770.7097

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It’s no secret we love our pedals at Eastside Music Supply. While there is something sweet about plugging a Tele straight into a Princeton Reverb or a Les Paul straight into a Marshall half stack, we like to look at effects pedals like colors on a palette. And with new colors comes new inspiration. It was really tough, but we’ve chosen six stompboxes that have become store favorites and, naturally, some of our personal favorites. — BLAIR WHITE AND BRANDON HIGHFILL OF EASTSIDE MUSIC SUPPLY

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NEUNABER, SLATE: The Slate is a reprogrammable stereo effects pedal that can be loaded with any effect algorithm that Neunaber currently offers and will offer in the future. Neunaber creates lush reverbs, rich choruses, echoes, and shimmer verbs that are continually fine-tuned and available to download— at no cost—via free editing software. This allows your pedal to change and evolve over time, just as much as your style of playing and inspiration will. Lots of bang for your buck comparing the Slate to most other pedals in its price range.

MR. BLACK, DELUXE PLUS:

MANTIC CONCEPTS, PROVERB:

The Deluxe Plus from Mr. Black is a two-for-one reverb and tremolo pedal that doesn’t try and hide its inspiration. Killer spring reverb and bias tremolo à la your favorite vintage Fender amps. Use them separately or together to get some sick surf guitar tones. Three-knobber that’s straight forward and extremely easy to dial in. This little guy can immediately add extra mojo to a dry amp.

This reverb is special. Ranging from short, small, amp-like reverbs to huge, cavernous, oscillating decay and everything in between. With only three knobs, this pedal has a simple approach but a unique voice with large parameters and a subtle modulation that is unlike others in its effect family. Once you click it on, you won’t want to click it off.

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EVENTIDE, H9: Where do we begin? The Eventide H9 is the ultimate Swiss Army knife of tone. It is an algorithm-based multi-effects pedal that employs all of Eventide’s award-winning sounds into one stompbox. Digital signal processing has come a long way, and these guys are some of the godfathers of the digital audio processing world. Every kind of delay, reverb, modulation, pitch shifting, fuzz, distortion, etc. are all conveniently located in a tiny, pedalboard-friendly box. Effects from the H9 can be controlled and edited on the face of the pedal itself or with an IOS device via Bluetooth to your iPad or iPhone. We seriously could write a whole magazine worth of info about this bad little mama, but we’ll spare you. Just come by and play it!

CAROLINE GUITAR COMPANY, KILOBYTE: Caroline’s first delay offering was an incredible success. Funded off of a Kickstarter idea that way overshot their initial goal, the folks at Caroline had the hype, and they delivered with this lo-fi delay. Dial in dark, analogvoiced repeats that are just the right amount of gritty, or get crisp, quick vintage slapback. Being the knobturners we are, anything with a momentary oscillation switch gets our eyes big. Caroline’s proprietary Havoc switch slowly sends the delays into an abyss of dark oscillation. An excellent tool to fill in dead space or create spooky soundtrack textures.

EARTHQUAKER DEVICES, PALISADES: Take all your favorite things from a Tube Screamer and then double the settings and add a boost. That’s essentially what you’ll find with the Palisades. With six different clipping options, a five-way rotary bandwidth knob, and two gain channels, you get the Tube Screamer buffet with no limitations of how much you stack on your plate. If options are your thing, this is for you.

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9am -2pm

SATURDAY&SUNDAY

fried chicken & biscuits, hash skilletS, beignets, pancakes!

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THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY AFTER TWO YEARS OF RECORDING AND HONING THEIR CRAFT, ELEL IS POISED FOR WORLD (MUSIC) DOMINATION BY HENRY PILE | PHOTOS BY REBECCA ADLER

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FOR JUST OVER TWENTY-SEVEN MINUTES, the six core members of ELEL filter in and out of Ben Elkins’ living room. “Hey man, you wanna beer?” “What is that?” “JO-JO!” “What are you playing?” “Hang on a second.” “Oh yeah!” The conversations are incongruent. The voices twist over each other like highway interchanges. Ben, lead singer and maestro of this brood, sits down and calls the meeting to order. This is what it sounded like when I listened to the playback: “My name is Ben Elkins. I’m the main singer and I play keys and guitar. This is how I sound.” “My name is Fred or Freddie. It’s short for Fredrick Weathersby, of course. I play trumpet.” “I’m Zach Tichenor. I play keyboards, guitar, and sing.” “I’m Alex Mojavarian. I play drums in ELEL and I like to sing. Sometimes. This is what my voice sounds like.” “Hello. My name is Tim Cook. I play guitar, keyboards, and sing. Much like Zach. And this is what my voice sounds like.” “So, my name is Jo-Jo Jackson. That is my real name. I play bass and occasionally do some singing in ELEL. You’ll know my voice because I’m the only woman.” I’ve written about everything from actors to agriculture, but musicians are always my favorite. And I’m not alone—Nashville loves its musicians. Sure, we love the music, but we love the people behind it. Let’s be honest: I love clean running water, but I don’t freak out when I see my plumber in the grocery store. “That’s Violet,” Eliska Elkins tells me. Eliska is Ben’s wife. Violet is the dog. “Ben’s not necessarily into her, but she came with me, so he’s okay with it.” That’s just kinda how Ben Elkins rolls. In most parts of his life, he just takes it as it comes. Eliska is sitting just outside the circle of bandmates. She has Sullivan, their nearly year-old son, on her lap. He giggles for most of the next hour. ELEL, named for the first two letters of Ben’s last name and Eliska’s first name (sweet, right?), came to life as Heypenny (Ben’s old band) dissipated. Heypenny was great. Though Ben played all the instruments on the first album, Use These Spoons, he

found a small lineup of equally weird dudes who embraced marching band costumes and played SXSW and Bonnaroo. They shared a stage with Ke$ha. They were a thing for a minute. After seven years, the band shut it down. No press release. No weepy good-bye show. Just, done. Not to be dissuaded from a career in music, Ben went straight to work. At Trader Joe’s. In fact, he met four of his six bandmates there. “I met Jo-Jo on her first day working at Trader Joe’s,” Ben adds. “I asked her if she played bass. She said yes, and that’s how she became the bass player in the band.” “Trader Joe’s is one of the best ‘creative people’ jobs,” Alex tells me. “Ben and I would be putting up cans of corn and talking about the band.” “That job is one of the best things that ever happened to me,” Tim says. “It’s how I met the band. It’s also how I met my girlfriend . . . and that’s the most important part, if she asks.” Before and after scanning barcodes and price checking lentils, Ben was building something new. ELEL was developing. In his mind, Ben saw a band with enough people to recreate the layers of sound captured on a studio album. Every subtle tone and nuanced moment would come to life on stage. No backing tracks. No “close enough.” Just real, raw, honest sound. Lots of sound. Through luck, circumstance, and a gig at a grocery store, Ben found a great group of players, but to fill out all the elements, he needed more. He met Zach at Bang Candy Company over a discussion about basketball. He saw Freddie play a show at The Basement. He invited both of them over for practice, and a group of strangers became a band. “We came together not knowing each other at all,” Ben says. ELEL was a serious project, but Ben didn’t hold formal tryouts or recruit his close friends. He didn’t coerce top Nashville talent. Instead, he invited some coworkers, a guy he talked with about basketball, and a horn player he heard one night. Per his personality, Ben rolled with what life gave him. The craziest part is that everyone stuck. “I wish I could say I had some intuition about all these guys,” Ben admits. “But I really just got lucky. Maybe it was more like desperation. I just wanted people to rehearse these songs with me.”

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“It wasn’t like we were a bunch of buddies who formed a with him, Ben met with several. His decision to spend exband,” Alex says. “Ben brought us all together into his thing, haustive time working on the album also proved to be wise. After much hand wringing and option weighing, Ben and we became a band over time.” “Now, there’s a sense of ownership in the band,” Jo-Jo signed with Mom+Pop Music, based in New York City. Featuring the likes of Jagwar Ma, Andrew Bird, and Nashville’s adds. “I refer to ELEL as ‘my band.’” Ben didn’t set out to build a big band. Horns were never own Wild Cub, Mom+Pop Music felt right for ELEL. Plus, central to the sound, but as the brass brought the hooks, he they appreciated Ben’s decision to perfect the music rather knew they had to stay. He integrated his horn players into than bum-rush the radio. And as for the local music scene? “We played anything every song with percussive support and onstage dancing. Yep, dancing. The truth is, Ben was drawn to these people. that anyone asked us to play,” Ben laughs. They toured brief“Each time someone new came to practice for the first time, ly but made a conscious decision not to disrupt six lives to it became apparent that something special was happening,” play shows in Ohio or Oklahoma, where no one knew who they were. Ben says. Rather than be road dogs, they wanted to deliver a flawSomething special was happening. In 2014, ELEL saturated Nashville with performances, got their live chops down, less live show and focus on the business of the band. By and won Road to Bonnaroo. With a tailwind pushing them investing on the front end, they could eventually garner forward and momentum to carry through, they did what no national attention and fill seats in venues. No one wants other band ever does and went dark. Rather than push an al- to play to an empty room. Did the band like this idea? “I bum out and blitz the circuit with shows, they stepped back thought it was awesome,” Zach adds. The band associates with what they consider authentic and focused on craft. “I’ve been in this situation longer than anyone in this and honest performers. They yearn to believe in something. band,” Ben explains. “It’s much more important to get your They love local music, but they invest their time in commusic and brand and live show right rather than just throw- patriots of authenticity. “If you’re a performer and believe ing it all out there. I think everyone trusts me on that now, in what you’re doing, tell us when to be there and we’ll be there,” Ben explains. “Alanna Royale is a good example. If but it’s taken some convincing.” Ben’s zen-like approach wasn’t a band-pleaser. It’s worth you go see them play, you’re gonna see a no bullshit show.” Now is the slow burn in preparation for an album release. pointing out how rowdy the room was up to this point. Earlier, Alex razzed Freddie with lewd jokes. Jo-Jo laughed and In September, “Kiss Kiss” drops with a video following soon called out Alex. Zach strummed a bit on the acoustic guitar. after. I can’t tell you much about the video, but it does inBut, as Ben explains his decision not to capitalize on their volve mint juleps and a Steeplechase-style wedding on the moment in the spotlight, a vacuum sucks the sound from banks of the Cumberland. This is an odd juxtaposition for the room. On the audio playback, Ben’s voice and the grind- ELEL. As for the song itself, the band describes it as “a lot of ing chirp of crickets outside fill the empty space. No one shifts in their seat. No one clears their throat. Not even the percussion with a synth bass line” and “a love song about dancing.” But these simplistic explanations don’t do the baby makes a sound. “You get antsy when it feels like you’re not doing anything song justice. “Kiss Kiss” gets you off your feet. It has energy as a band,” Ben continues. “You can view your band on a and soul. Ben clearly loves to sing it live, and the entire band local level or you can view it worldwide. Worldwide takes a disappears into the groove. No, the song is not one of their more complicated orchestrations, but that’s part of the joy. more careful and patient approach.” I get it. It’s clear everyone else gets it too. It’s also clear “Sometimes the simplest things are the most effective,” adds that, at one point in time, everyone definitely did not get it. Alex. As for their future, ELEL is nearly done fine-tuning their Tim breaks the moment of silence with some honesty. “I was not on board with this plan. But I trusted Ben to make first full-length album. Geode is expected to be released in early 2016. The album is poised to be a lush installment of the right decision, and it worked.” Convincing a large band to stick with you and show re- layered synth and jolts of drum sounds complete with dystraint is complicated. Over time, “Papa Ben’s” vision to halt namic, multi-vocal support. Nearly everyone sings. Nearly significant touring and focus on the music began to make everyone plays some kind of rhythmic block, bell, or chime. “The album is a lot of percussion and group vocals,” Ben sense. Rather than signing with the first label that flirted

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“IF YOU’RE A PERFORMER AND BELIEVE IN WHAT YOU’RE DOING, TELL US WHEN TO BE THERE AND WE’LL BE THERE.”

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ELEL: elelmusic.com Follow on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram @elelmusic native.is

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tells me. “When I am making a new song, I am aching to find a way to approach the drums in a less conventional way. A lot of people describe our sound as ‘world music.’ The rhythm rolls rather than just going back and forth.” “Despite all the technology out there, we’re a pretty organic band,” adds Zach. “There’s always an element of surprise.” Listen to the early release of “40 Watt” for a wallop of energy. Find the live Exit/In performance of “Kiss Kiss” and dance your ass off. A quick Google search can lead you to a live radio performance of “Geode,” the album’s title track. Watch the critical contribution from everyone on multiple instruments. Pay special attention to Freddie. His pure joy in performing as he switches between trumpet and multiple percussion instruments is infectious. “Freddie is the genuine heart of the band,” Ben says. Ben Elkins is the soul. His songs live through the late-night hours of drunk dancing as easily as they exist on a quiet morning with coffee and the paper. Though he wrote most of his lyrics with his wife in mind, they are easily embraced by everyone. If you ask Ben, he’ll describe Geode as “good” or “fun.” He’s frustratingly understated and pragmatic, but he’s passionate about the people in his band. “With these guys, I feel like we could be doing anything,” Ben says. “It’s crazy, but the music is almost secondary. The energy is incredible. I can always find other people to play music, but this feels like a family, and I can’t replace that.” Maybe what we love about musicians is the camaraderie. We love the passion and performance. We love the art and exuberance. We love watching the contribution from a group of people that elicits an urge to move, to be together, to feel something. We love that, on the stage, the band is feeling it with us. When music is playing, we all feel the same way. We all feel good. “Yeah,” Ben says. He looks at me and smiles. “We all feel better together.”

Some people might see a geeky boy with no social life. We see a determined young man who will be the first person in his family to go to college.

Learn how you can make a difference in a teen’s life at OasisCenter.org # NAT I V ENAS HV I L L E

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PURE BARRE GREEN HILLS HAS RELOCATED!

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THE MUSIC CITY CENTER HAS ADDED HALF A MILLION HONEY BEES DOWNTOWN, AND THAT’S SWEET NEWS FOR MUCH GREATER REASONS THAN HONEY BY BENJAMIN HURSTON | PHOTOS BY ROBBY KLEIN The beekeeper doesn’t exactly make the best first impression. In an effort to beat the heat and catch “the girls” at a time when they aren’t likely to be too aggressive, he’s scheduled our interview for 6:30 a.m., but it’s closer to 7:15 when his booming baritone finally announces his arrival. “Sorry I’m so late,” Jamie Meredith calls as he hurries down the huge concrete hallway that runs through the back of house at the Music City Center. “We had an incident on the farm this morning.” The holdup: a fox got into the henhouse on the five-acre farm where he, his wife, and their two kids live out in Neely’s Bend. Luckily, the fox got stuck just out of reach of the chickens, and none were hurt. Still, Jamie had to figure out a way to get the fox out without putting himself or his birds at risk, an effort that took up much of his morning. It’s an almost comically cliché tale, yet it’s delivered in such a steady and sober fashion, it’s clear that situations of the sort are not too out of the ordinary for Jamie. Jamie is a stocky forty-one-year-old farmer and family man with freckles and spiky strawberry blonde hair. On top of his day job as director of operations at Plan Left, an East Nashville advertising and marketing firm, he also manages half a dozen honey bee hives in the Nashville area, including four

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on the roof of the city’s most expensive and arguably most impressive structure, the Music City Center. On this particular morning, he’s taking no chances. He pulls on a long-sleeved white shirt, gloves, and a veil, making sure to tuck his shirt so that no shred of skin is exposed. The previous week he was less careful, he tells me, and two bees flew up his shirt and stung him twice on the stomach. “Now, we’ve had plenty of visitors out here to see the hives, and we’ve never had anyone besides me get stung,” he says, sensing my hesitation at the idea of going out in a short-sleeved shirt next to a guy who’s suited up like an agricultural astronaut. He says if I stand a few feet away from the hive, I should be fine. His assurance is only mildly calming. “Have you ever seen the inside of a beehive before?” he asks as he opens the door to the outside world. But he never gets his answer. The lushness of the space immediately takes precedence over our conversation. There, about one hundred feet in the air, on top of ballrooms and escalators, surrounded by skyscrapers and cranes, sit four acres of rolling green hills. The Music City Center is LEED Gold certified, an accreditation that puts it in the second tier of environmentally responsible buildings in North America. The water drainage system recycles the rainwater from the roof to use for irrigation and flushing the toilets, and the building’s green top is covered in sedum, which helps moderate heating and cooling. Far off along the northern side of the roof stand four bright boxes that look like stacks of pastel-colored drawers. Inside these structures live more than half a million Italian honey bees, a number that has grown considerably from the one hundred thousand that were placed atop the roof earlier this year. “Bees don’t see like we do,” Jamie explains, leading the way to the farthest and, he assures me, most docile hive. “They see ultraviolet wavelengths, and pastel colors are best at transmitting those waves. Essentially, these patterns are their addresses.” Jamie doesn’t bother walking along the narrow concrete path and instead opts to walk beside me, nonchalantly stepping over the sedum. In a way, this space is like his backyard. He’s up here two to four times a week risking some seriously nasty stings to make sure that each of the hives is thriving. And he does it all strictly as a volunteer. “My love for bees—well, actually that’s not true,” he responds when I ask about his willingness to work with-

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out compensation. “I guess what really inspired me was knowing that the Music City Center is really trying to raise visibility on important sustainability efforts and knowing that we could really get the word out there by doing this.” So what’s the big deal about bees? The alarming and continuing decline of worldwide bee populations has been well documented by the media in recent years, and that’s a sticky situation for more reasons than simply its effect on the availability of honey. According to Jamie and many expert scientists, the survival of the honey bee just might determine your future access to food. A quick science lesson from a nonscientist: bees are responsible for pollinating the plants that not only produce many of the fruits and vegetables that we consume on a daily basis but also the crops that we feed to our livestock to give us meat. In fact, according to the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), nearly one third of all the food we eat in the United States comes from plants that are pollinated by bees and other insects. Shortly after the new millennium, scientists began to notice a rapidly growing number of colony failures. Worker bees were seemingly flying out on routine nectar-gathering trips and mysteriously disappearing, abandoning the queen and the rest of the hive. The name Colony Collapse Disorder was coined in 2006, and various documentaries and articles have increased awareness of the inexplicable phenomenon in recent years. In response, a modern bee movement has taken flight around the globe, with farmers, urban residents, and even city buildings electing to keep their own hives. The idea of keeping bees at the Music City Center came to President and CEO Charles Starks after he learned of similar hives atop the Vancouver Convention Centre on a recent trip to Canada. He brought the idea back to Nashville, where a new level of environmental consciousness had been steadily building for years. Jamie tells me that growth of green thought in our town is mostly due to a huge influx of transplants who are helping to push the city forward. “In some ways, Nashville is very progressive,” he says, adding that beekeeping in Nashville is booming. “Sustainability and the local slow foods movement is definitely one of those ways.” But the bees atop Music City Center, which were supplied by Joel White Apiaries in Brentwood, are good for much more than simply the cultivation of a good cause. Music City Center officials estimate that the four hives

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will produce about 360 pounds of honey for the center every year, beginning next spring. Around half of that will be jarred and distributed for promotional use. The other half will go straight to the kitchen, where Chef Max Knoepfel and his culinary team will use it to sweeten the food they serve to the center’s guests. “He really wanted a garden,” Marketing and PR Manager Mary Brette Clippard says of the Swiss chef. “But the sedums weren’t conducive to gardening, so we got bees instead.” “He was like, ‘If I can’t grow it, then by golly, I’m going to pollinate it,’” Jamie chimes in. “You can tell that his heart is very much in what we are doing.” But if we are talking hearts, it’s hard to find someone more devoted to the cause than Jamie himself. Originally from Wichita, Kansas, Jamie already had a deep love for nature and animals when a friend’s father approached him about taking a few of his hives four years ago. He says he was pretty freaked out when he first started, but he soon realized that bees aren’t that different from other animals, including humans. “They are in many ways the greatest example of what we as humans strive to become,” he says. “They express an ideal that we all strive for in our day-to-day lives: working, coexisting, and protecting their freedom to do so.” Warning: a quick Google search into the complexity of bee hives might result in half an hour of intensely reading bee trivia you never thought you’d find interesting. As Jamie has discovered through his interactions with the insects, they live in incredibly efficient societies, with each bee essentially devoted to the good of the hive instead of their own survival. This extreme utilitarianism is perfectly exemplified by the fact that the female worker bees will literally work themselves to death, flying around collecting nectar to bring back to the hive until their wings fall off and they starve to death. “You hear people talk about the God Particle. Well, bees, to me, are the God insect,” Jamie says. “They embody all that we should be.” And it’s true that bees are extremely devout and self-sacrificing, but strict devotion to the health and social order of the hive also requires some less-than-altruistic activity. For example, when rival queens are present in the hive, bees will resort to stinging these competitors to death or even drowning them in honey. Still, the fact remains that honey bees can be ruthless when the safety of their social order is threatened. Though they rarely sting when they are out gathering nectar—the time when it’s most common for the average person to encounter them—they are much more protective when they perceive a threat to the hive. “They are like everything else in nature: they have a rhythm and a cadence,” Jamie says with an experienced understanding that is overlooked by so many who would rather see bees as pests than actually try to understand their complexity and their important link to our own survival. “If you approach them on their terms, you can coexist with them in harmony.” But that’s just the problem, isn’t it? Our individualistic, profit-driven

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WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP THE BEES? 1. BUY LOCAL HONEY! 2. Plant flowers that bees love—everywhere. 3. Leave yards and fields uncut where you can. 4. Don’t use chemicals (instead use natural things like neem oil, traps, and co-planted flowers to drive away insects). 5. Volunteer to help a local beekeeper.

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TENNESSEE BREW WORKS: tnbrew.com Follow on Facebook @TnBrew or Instagram and Twitter @TNBrewWorks native.is

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society has rendered much of the human population unwilling to approach other lifeforms on this planet on any terms other than their own personal ones. As big-business agriculture continues to use pesticides and herbicides in mass quantities on crops; as our governments drag their feet to put stricter limits on harmful emissions; and as everyday residents continue to spray poisons to kill bees, wasps, and other natural pollinators, there seems to be a disconnect. There’s an utter lack of willingness by human beings to address our dependence on nature. “If we do continue to see the decline in natural bee populations, and we continue to see farmers having trouble pollinating their crops and food prices start doubling, tripling, and eventually quadrupling, then I think we’ll see the potential for people to really have an impact,” Jamie says hopefully. “When it becomes a necessity. Right now, it’s just an afterthought.” It’s a more positive outlook than many scientists and environmentally conscious people will grant of their own kind. They believe by the time that realization happens, it may be too late. But then again, Jamie is an eternal optimist. He tells me that even if bee populations continue to decline, we may see that nature creates another method of pollinating, citing a recent rise in wasp populations as a possible example. Wasps, though capable, are not as efficient at transferring pollen between plants as the much fuzzier honey bee. They are also more aggressive. But Jamie doesn’t point that out. He’s determined to stay positive. Perhaps I caught him on a good day. Perhaps it’s just his nature. Or perhaps his continued optimism is a direct result of the fulfillment and satisfaction he gets from working so hard to keep up the health of his own colony, the human hive. “I am calmed by them,” he says of the bees. “I find a lot of peace in knowing that I am helping care for something that is vital to our existence on this great planet.”

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A SEASON

O F PAT I E N C E

ERIN RAE MCKASKLE OF ERIN RAE AND THE MEANWHILES TALKS ABOUT HER COMING-OFAGE ALBUM, SOON ENOUGH BY LINDSEY BUTTON PHOTOS BY LAURA E. PARTAIN

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It’s been a long, steamy summer in Nashville. Every summer in the South feels longer

than the other seasons to me—suffocating with a tinge of impatience. Statistically, it is not the hottest of summers, and it isn’t quite over yet. But today, I swear I can feel the first gust of autumn air as I am driving to the East Side, and it’s full of nostalgia and a feeling of intimacy that’s hard to pinpoint. When I arrive at Erin Rae McKaskle’s home, she greets me on the front lawn with her dog, Billie, a tall, brown mutt with a floral kerchief tied around her neck. I have been listening to Erin Rae’s music this morning, and I think now that it perhaps aided in my anticipation of the seasons changing, despite the fact that it is a ninety-degree August day. It seems only appropriate that Erin Rae and the Meanwhiles’ album, Soon Enough, will be released in the first week of the first month that is associated with the changing of the seasons. Her songs are as intimate and slightly haunting as that first morning of the year that holds a breath of cold wind. It’s easy to be impatient in summer, when everything is alive and young and there is a pressure of what’s next and what goals to fulfill before the year dies. But as Erin Rae sings in the title track of her upcoming album, “You’ll get there soon enough.” It is a lesson of patience. Her apartment is the upstairs space of an older home. I follow her through a wood-paneled hallway into the living room, where a record is spinning on her turntable and sage incense has been burning. In the kitchen, flowers are waiting to be arranged. Billie sits on the couch with us. Erin Rae grew up surrounded by folk music. Her parents played music around different spots in her hometown of Jackson, Tennessee. “My dad always played the finger-picking style of guitar, and he and my mom performed a lot of folk covers,” she says. “My dad is a great songwriter and musician but never pursued it as a career.” Her family moved to Nashville when she was still young, but it wasn’t until she went away to

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college that she realized how much she needed to be around creative people. She missed the company of musicians and began writing songs herself and picking up the guitar for the first time. “I came back from that first semester to do my first open mic ever, and it just seemed like that was where I needed to be at the time: in Nashville, near my family, and surrounded by people who were interested in the same things.” That first open mic night was at Cafe Coco nearly seven years ago. “There was this super eclectic community of people that played music there back then,” she explains. “I spent every week there.” After that summer, she made the decision to stay in Nashville and not return to school. The fact that she is a native to the area makes her a rarity in Nashville. It means she has witnessed the town blossom into a very different city than it was ten or fifteen years ago, musically and culturally. It means there is an authenticity to her vague Southern accent. “It’s not something I think a lot about until I’m spending time around my dad, because his influences are, in large part, from the South and the music I grew up on is from the South . . . But I kind of view my [songwriting] more as American music instead of Southern music because our stuff is not strictly country. It pulls from a variety of sources.” She doesn’t mind the idea of other songwriters in town coming from all corners of America. It doesn’t necessarily make them less authentic. “I think we all try on different ways of creating the things we like and the things we’re drawn to as artists. We all go through those periods of time of trying on different hats to see what’s going to stick and what works.” In a sea of songwriters, however, Erin Rae stands out partly because of her genuineness. It’s apparent that while she is influenced by the people she admires and plays with around town, she stays true to a simple vision. “I don’t really think a ton about what other stuff is going on. The times that I think about my stuff in comparison

ERIN RAE AND THE MEANWHILES: erinraemusic.com Follow on Facebook @Erin-Rae or Instagram @ErinRaeMeanwhiles native.is

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to other people’s are usually with so one of several themes connecting many of my good friends in the mu- the songs throughout Soon Enough. sic scene that are doing more tradi- “There’s a song on the record called tional country music. It was hard ‘Clean Slate,’ and it’s a coming-offor me at first to not question, Do I age kind of thing,” she explains. need to try and assimilate and do more “Growing up here and having difof a [classic] country thing? I love to ferent experiences with different go and sing harmonies for that kind people, dating people, trying to just of stuff with my friends and I love learn how to be a person, and makthat kind of music, but what I end ing mistakes—I used to spend a lot up with every time is what I feel I of time feeling ashamed and embarrassed. I would run into people and know how to do.” Erin Rae’s music has been de- think, Oh, their friends probably think scribed as “vintage,” but I think, this of me. And maybe they do, but more accurately, it feels nostalgic nobody else knows what’s going on, on a personal level. Which is per- really. And I realized that I had the haps why it feels genuine in a city choice to respond to each person that is flooding with changes. “I every day in a new think staying in one place has its way if I wanted benefits,” Erin Rae claims. “I’ve to. ‘Clean Slate’ is learned a lot from just being in one about being able place and seeing everything change.” to reconcile evThere is indeed a lot to be learned erything I’ve lived from living out your early twen- through up until ties in the city where you grew up. this point and not “When you’re younger and do stupid having to block out things or make mistakes and you or separate misstay in the same place, you’re not takes from who I just fleeing and repeating the same am trying to be.” Soon Enough is Erin Rae and the mistakes,” Erin Rae says. Staying in one place forces you to reevaluate Meanwhiles’ first full-length album. what change and adaptation to your Mike Rinne, who is currently on environment really means. It forces tour with Emmylou Harris and Rodyou to face your past, own up to it, ney Crowell and is a bassist in town and learn how to build a clean slate for several bands including Steelinternally as opposed to running ism, produced the album. “He’s one of the most hardworking musicians away. The notion of starting over is I know, and he has a great ear. We

started talking about doing [the album] a couple of years ago. He really encouraged me to get it done.” So they tracked it last summer and recorded twelve songs in two days at Farmland Studios. The Meanwhiles are composed of several alternating people. “It’s sort of a changing group now,” Erin Rae explains. “The original people were Cori and Graham Bechler, Molly Parden, Kevin Whitsett on bass, Mark Sloan on guitar, and Brett Resnik on pedal steel. More recently, just because everyone is busy all the time, Chris Payne’s been playing drums a lot and [Night Beds collaborators] Caleb Hickman has been playing lap steel, as well as Juan Solorzano.” Though the band is a rotating cast, Erin Rae has been playing the songs on Soon Enough live for several years. “With this album, it was really important to me to capture what we had been playing as a band for a couple of years. Everybody contributed; everybody is bringing ideas to the table.” Their EP Crazy Talk was released three years ago, and Erin Rae feels that the time in between, the time when she was writing and per-

“I USED TO SPEND A LOT OF TIME FEELING ASHAMED AND EMBARRASSED.”

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forming the songs on this album, was a significant growth period on both a personal and artistic level. That growth pours into the songs. “I was younger when we first recorded our EP. I didn’t know a ton of people, and I also didn’t really know how to plug in and just trust that what I have to offer is just as important as [what] the people I admire [offer]. And we’re all kind of growing together. And I think now, with this album, I have a lot more confidence and more of an understanding of who I want to be as an artist and a person . . . I’m more aware of what’s going on around me and other people and their experiences and less consumed by my own early-twenties emotional weather system.” The songs are bare and personal, even delving into the topic of mental illness. “My mom is a therapist and now teaches mindfulness and meditation for a program at a drug and alcohol treatment center. So that was a lot of the language and culture I was brought up around. We just talked a lot about

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emotional health and wellness and the different ways people figure out how to navigate that . . . One [song] in particular called ‘Sleep Away’ is about trying to learn how to have a compassionate reaction or response to others’ struggles.” Most significantly, the album explores patience and acceptance—that learning who we are as humans and artists takes time. “I wanted Soon Enough to be the title for the album way before we even started thinking about recording it,” Erin Rae explains. “The songs are about being in your early twenties and not knowing what the hell is going on. It’s about that feeling of pressure—the idea that there’s something I’m supposed to be doing but I don’t know if I’m doing it . . . I think a lot of that confusion is starting to lift in ways as I’m getting a little bit older. But the different songs all fall under that same idea, that it’s okay—every single human has their stuff that they don’t know how to deal with, and we’re all just trying to figure out how to be people.”

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A CONVERSATION BETWEEN CHAUHAN ALE & MASALA HOUSE CO-OWNER MANEET CHAUHAN AND HER PROTÉGÉ, VASISHT RAMASUBRAMANIAN

BY CHARLIE HICKERSON | PHOTOGRAPHY BY DANIELLE ATKINS

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IN 2013, MANEET CHAUHAN REACHED A CROSSROADS.

It’s a fitting beginning to our conversation, as TV cooking seems to be yet another way in which V is following in Maneet’s footsteps. From what they’ve dubbed the “staff table,” the pair discusses their parallel culinary paths, Indian cuisine, celebrity, and the move to their new home of Nashville.

After leaving her role as executive chef at Vermilion, appearing on Food Network’s Iron Chef and Chopped, completing her debut book, Flavors of My World, finishing a thirty-day, twenty-four-city book tour, and having her first child, no one would have blamed ON DEVELOPING A LOVE FOR COOKING her for taking a breather. Instead, she made plans to V: I was never interested in cooking in my childhood, open her first restaurant. “We were at that point where we were getting op- but I always loved to eat. My mom and my grandma, portunities to open restaurants around the country,” they were amazing cooks, and I used to make them Maneet explains from a table in the back of Chau- cook good food for me or go out to eat. But I wasn’t han Ale & Masala House. “So, it [the location] had interested in learning how to cook. I was always interested in science, and I was always interested in to feel right.” Upon visiting the space that formerly housed art. I wanted to be a sculptor or a painter as a profesGulch nightclub Anthem, Maneet decided that sion. But when I applied for art school, I was delayed, Nashville felt right. The only missing ingredient was and I didn’t apply on time. So I had to do something. a de facto Maneet—someone who could run the The only thing I could think of at that time was hotel ship while she and her family stayed in New York management. I got into hotel management thinking (they now live in Nashville full time, but more on it was going to be an easy, glamorous life [Maneet laughing]. Wear suits, wear ties, nice shoes, and stay that later). Enter Vasisht Ramasubramanian (or “Chef V,” as in an air-conditioned environment all day talking to his friends and coworkers call him), a young chef people—that was my perception of hotels at that with a background that uncannily resembled Ma- time, when I was like sixteen. I got into hotel school [the WelcomGroup Graduneet’s. Both attended the WelcomGroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration in Manipal, India; ate School of Hotel Administration]. The first class both took jobs at the Taj Group of Hotels upon that we ever had was Food and Beverage Production graduation; both enrolled in the Culinary Institute . . . My professor, the first thing he taught us was how of America (CIA); and both found themselves in to butcher a chicken. For eighteen years of my life, I serious leadership positions by the time they were was a vegetarian. I’d never seen meat, never touched twenty-seven (Maneet at Vermilion Chicago and Va- meat. I saw that [chicken] and said, “This is interesting, this is like biology.” So I got interested in the sisht at ABC Cocina in New York). Maneet hadn’t just found a chef de cuisine—she’d anatomy of chickens. And then we started cooking, found a kindred spirit. “I see a lot of myself in him,” and when my professor ate my food the first of class, she says. “All the struggles and frustrations, the joys he was like, “You can cook!” I didn’t cook with any passion at that time, I was just a cook. But apparand the triumphs.” This afternoon, as the Chauhan staff preps for the ently I just had the inborn skill of cooking good food. dinner rush, Maneet is beaming about V’s first-ever MANEET: Food has been my first love, and it has TV appearance, a spot on NewsChannel 5’s Talk of been my lifelong obsession for as long as I can rethe Town. “He was a pro! I was sitting over here bit- member. I grew up in this small town in India called Ranchi. It was a steel colony, and there were people ing my nails, asking, ‘Is everything going okay?!’”

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from all over India as our neighbors. We’d have somebody from Bengal, somebody from Andhra [Pradesh], somebody from Maharashtra. The most incredible part about Indian cuisine is that if somebody says, “Explain Indian cuisine,” I would not be able to because each and every state has a very distinct cuisine of its own. Each and every region has a very distinct cuisine of its own. So if you’re doing a culinary travel in India, it’ll be like you’re going from one country to another because the cuisine is so diverse. So it used to be very fascinating: I’d eat food at home, then I’d go to my neighbors’ places and say, “My parents hadn’t given me anything to eat, can you give me some food?” So of course my parents were mortified when they came to know about it. But it was incredible because I’d literally sit in the kitchens with these aunties and see ingredients being used which were never found in our Punjabi household. [The neighbors had] Asafoetida, extensive use of coconut, curry leaves—things which I had never seen, methods of cooking that I had never seen. That’s how the obsession started.

ON BUILDING A CULINARY FOUNDATION MANEET: You realize after some time, your foundation has to be very strong. Only then can you build on it. So if you start with a crappy product, no matter how amazing of a chef you are, you will end up with a substandard product. So to us, this is important—you respect the ingredient, the ingredient respects you and respects your style of cooking. V: I think that should be the mantra for any chef who wants to do amazing work, who wants to keep thinking about pushing the envelope. That should be the mantra for every cook, I would say. Not just getting things packaged from anywhere, you know? And even if you do that, if you respect [the ingredients] properly, if you store them properly, if you receive them properly, if you cook them in a proper way—that’s the only way to do proper cooking.

ON COMING TO NASHVILLE MANEET: When we got the call from Nashville, my first reaction was, “Who goes to Nashville?” But we [Maneet and Vivek Deora, her husband and business partner] will never say no to any opportunities, so we said, “Let’s go explore it.” So we came to Nashville, and it . . . it just felt like we had come home. It’s a difficult thing to explain, but that’s what it was, the feeling that we had come home. We answered the question of “who goes to Nashville”—it was us, we go to Nashville. What we fell in love

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with was the people, the city, the Southern hospitality. The culinary scene is very exciting here: it’s young, it’s at that place which constantly reminds us why we’re in this industry. The passion that the chefs have here, the insistence on showing the guests what makes this industry so amazing. They [Nashville chefs] still have their hearts in this. It was an amazing opportunity. Initially, the idea was that we’d set up the place and we would find someone who was very promising and talented who would take over the place and run the place. And then we would come here once a month to make sure everything was going the way we hoped it would. That changed—drastically. The day the restaurant opened, my son decided to come three months early. So he was in Centennial in the incubator for three months. He made the decision for us. He said, “I love Nashville. I’m going to be born in Nashville.” So we went to New York, packed up our apartment, got movers, and moved here. So now we live in Nashville. V: I had absolutely no idea what Nashville was . . . I saw pictures of the skyline and [read] about what was happening with food here. And it was really interesting when it came to the food aspect. I heard about Catbird Seat; I heard about City House; I heard about the M-Street restaurants; and I thought, “You know, let’s give it a try.” MANEET: Let’s tell the truth, okay? We went to honky tonks. That’s what hooked him on Nashville! [Laughs]

ON NASHVILLE’S REACTION TO CHAUHAN MANEET: Nashville has been such an incredible and such a receptive audience, and I think that is what makes Nashvillians so unique—the sense of adventure they have that is not only in terms of life, but in terms of cuisine . . . One of my favorite parts of the job is to meet people. And I just love how people are like, “This is the first time I’ve had Indian food, and I didn’t know what I was missing.” Just to hear that is incredible. To me, it’s a mission to have people fall in love with Indian food one person at a time. And in a small way, we are being successful in doing that. V: Nashville has been really supportive, really accepting of what we do. This goes back to the philosophy of the cooking . . . I would say we take inspiration from Indian food, indian spices, ideas from that, but we cook the food which is surrounding us, that is there around us, that people can relate to . . . Rather than saying this is an Indian restaurant, I would say this is more of what the true American restaurant is, which is an amalgamation of different cultures. MANEET: The perfect melting pot. That’s what it is. It’s

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Chauhan Ale & Masala House: chauhannashville.com Follow on Facebook @ChauhanAleandMasalaHouse or @eatatchauhan native.is

what America is all about. Immigrants coming over here and bringing something of their own and making a mark in the American tapestry. And I think that is what we’re doing. We’ve come here with our heritage, which we’re very proud of. V: I don’t like the word fusion cuisine, so I would rather say that the New American Cuisine is what we do. The basic principles on which America is built is that people from all over the world are coming together. We believe the same thing about food.

ON V BECOMING A CELEBRITY CHEF: V: I’m not too much into the reality TV shows— MANEET: We’re working on him, don’t you worry. [Laughs] V: It’s the passion about the food, the cooking, that keeps me cooking. Fame, yes, who doesn’t like fame? Who doesn’t like money? But do I want to be cooking in front of a camera, nervous? At this point, I don’t think I’m ready. But she’s been push-

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ing me to do a lot of these things, a lot of these TV shows. So I’ll get there. MANEET: The interesting part is, I never started out with that being the end goal. And that’s what I tell all of these kids when they come and tell me that they want to be a chef. My first question is why? Because if you want to be the next Bobby Flay, then don’t get into this industry. If your end goal is getting on the television, becoming the next rock star chef, you have to realize that everybody has put in their blood and sweat washing dishes—which we still do when the dishwasher doesn’t show up. Because you have to—that’s the reality of this industry. And then along the way, because of your work, because of what you put out there, because of how people respond to you, the fame comes then, the TV comes then. And I have absolutely no reason to see why V will not be on any of these shows. V: Also, I believe that if you are really good at something you

do, you automatically get the fame that you deserve. You don’t have to go out of your way to be on television. You don’t have to be— MANEET: Gimmicky about it.

ON LEARNING FROM MANEET V: One of her favorite mottos is “nothing ventured, nothing gained.” I really admire that and really aspire [to live by] that. You can’t gain anything without putting in the hard work. She hasn’t told me that, but that’s what she preaches without actually saying it. And she does it too—she practices what she preaches. And then there’s the latest advice: “There are no problems, only solutions.” MANEET: My God, I actually sound like I have a head on my shoulders. Keep talking, come on! [Laughs] V: She is like a mother figure but also an older sister. MANEET: Damn, there goes my coolness! [Laughs] I used to think I was so cool.

ON EACH OTHER V: One thing I admire about you is that you have the perfect balance of family life—having two kids, taking care of them, working—and doing amazing stuff. She’s always traveling or here [at the restaurant], and she has two really young kids. And she’s taking care of them too. At least that’s what I perceive. MANEET: It’s a myth! [Laughs] There’s nothing known as “balance” in life. If that’s what you perceive, great, but every day I try to keep my head above water. That’s all that I do. What I love about working with V is the dedication and the work he’s put in to get to this place. He wants perfection; he demands perfection; he’s not apologetic in demanding perfect, and that’s the reason why Chauhan is as successful as it is. It’s because of the standards he has set and constantly keeps reiterating . . . And that’s why I think in ten years, this kid—with his dedication and precision and the experience he will get under his belt—he’s going to be a force to be reckoned with.

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YOU OUGHTA KNOW: MYZICA

MYZICA myzica.com cebook, Follow on Fa Instagram Twitter, and ial @myzicaoffic native.is

If Matthew Perryman Jones is willing to come to your basement for a cowriting session, there’s a strong possibility that you’re onto something. Such was the case when Micah Tawlks recorded a rough take of what would become MYZICA’s first single, “Ready or Not.” Armed with a Perryman-approved beat, Micah approached former Harrison Hudson backing vocalist Isaaca Byrd to lend vocals, and MYZICA was born. A few months, one eponymous EP, and a licensing spot in the ill-fated Fantastic Four later (don’t worry, the MYZICA track that’s featured is way, way better than the movie in which it appears), and MYZICA have secured their footing as one of the key players in Music City’s burgeoning pop scene. See above for Isaaca's answers to a few of our questions.

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ANIMAL OF THE MONTH

Written by Cooper Breeden*

Longnose Gar Tennessee has four different kinds of gar, but around Nashville the species you’ll most likely see is the longnose gar. Gars look prehistoric—you’ve probably seen thirty-foot CGI versions of them in one of those animated dinosaur shows on Discovery Channel. Gars are more elongate than most fish and have a long snout and fiercely toothed frown. Think alligator with fins in place of legs. In fact, one of the gar species in West Tennessee, the alligator gar, fulfills its namesake and can grow to be longer than a human and weigh several hundred pounds. Our Middle Tennessee longnose gar doesn’t get quite that big. The state record is thirty-eight pounds, but the average is much smaller. The longnose gar is more slender than the other gar species, has dark spots on its fins and sometimes on its body, and the young ones have a dark stripe along their side. Gar usually hang suspended just below the surface of still waters. It would be easy to dismiss them as a floating stick and pass them by, which is likely what they’re counting on. Mature gar feed solely on other fish and lie motionless in ambush until one comes close enough to chomp. Fishermen who chase gar forego a baited hook for a frayed rope. When the gar chomp down, their teeth get tangled up in the rope and they can’t break free. However, if you’re catch-and-release fishing, the humaneness of this method is questionable. If you cut the gar free without first disentangling its jaws, it will starve to death. However, freeing the fish from the rope may involve keeping the gar out of the water too long. On the other hand, gar do have the upper hand as a fish out of water. Like other fish, they breathe through gills, but as the water temperature climbs and oxygen in the water falls, they use their

vascularized swim bladder as a lung to breathe air. The swim bladder is connected to their esophagus and allows them to gulp air if they aren’t able to get enough oxygen from the water through their gills. This anatomical leg up allows them to survive in conditions most ﬁsh and other aquatic wildlife could not tolerate. Gar spawn in late spring. Spawning is a reproductive stage whereby females release eggs into the water for males to fertilize. Most ﬁsh reproduce by spawning, and many times a migration is associated with it. In some cases, like salmon, the migration is an epic tragedy—they migrate thousands of miles from the ocean to smaller freshwater streams, starving themselves the whole way, just to spawn and die. The story isn’t as dismal for the gar. While they migrate, it’s typically a pretty short distance, and the gar lives on after leaving its legacy. Gar lay up to thirty thousand eggs in shallow, rocky areas of smaller streams (this is typically the only time you’ll see them in smaller streams) or in vegetated, shallow areas of lakes. They sometimes skirt the rearing of their young by laying their eggs in a smallmouth bass nest, which the bass then protects after the eggs hatch. Longnose gar are common around Nashville and easy to spot if you keep your eyes open. Look for them in calm water, lingering motionless or slowly swimming to the surface, taking a gulp, and retreating back to the depths. But don’t let their alligator-like countenance deter you from your watery adventures—for us people, they’re all bark and no bite. There are no documented cases of them preying on humans . . . yet.

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"I was never happier than the first time I lived in Nashville. That is, until the second time I lived in Nashville." MacKenzie Smith exudes gregariousness. Equal parts barista and carnival barker, the Alabama native brings his passion for human interaction in full force as the Barista Manager at Fido. His journey began in 2010 when he drove five hours to interview at Fido. "I listened to an audio recording of World War Z the entire way and arrived totally amped," he says. "I was two hours early, so I went next door to Rodney Mitchell for an impromptu haircut." Seeking a "Southern vibe in the big city," he got involved in Nashville's burgeoning film and television scene. Although his auditions were well received, his height (6'6") and the aforementioned haircut (bald!) placed him solidly in the "dad role" category. "I think my acting sweet spot may be in my mid-fifties." Ever the explorer, MacKenzie's acting and café

pursuits led him to stints in New Orleans and Atlanta before coming back to Nashville in 2013 when the Barista Manager position became available at Fido. "I was reminded of how happy I was in Nashville. So many people reached out to pull me back, it was too good to pass up." Since his return, the lively Nashville coffee scene has afforded ample opportunity for growth. His next step involves completing level-two SCAA certification and training as a certified technician for espresso machines. He aims to balance this with his innate affinity for customer service and flow by remaining present in a café environment. As for the future, MacKenzie hopes to employ his ample interpersonal skills more formally, possibly as a humanist chaplain counseling veterans recently returned from service. He currently practices yoga and meditation and studies Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity. "I want to be able to dialogue with all types of people," he says. "It's what I do best."

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