NATIVE | DECEMBER 2015 | NASHVILLE, TN by Native

DECEMBER

2015

SHOP LOCAL THIS YEAR AND FEEL LIKE A REAL NASHVILLE NATIVE WE’RE OFFERING FREE SAME DAY DELIVERY ON ITEMS IN THE NATIVE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE

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GIVE YOGA

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TABLE OF CONTENTS DECEMBER 2015

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46 THE GOODS 36

15 Beer from Here 18 Cocktail 20 Master Platers 87 You Oughta Know 90 Observatory 95 Animal of the Month

FEATURES 24 Jaime Raybin 36 Manrelic 46 Hansel and Gretel 61 Daniel Pujol Poetry 64 BASECAMP 76 Emily Neumann and Daniel Long

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This Dallas native relocated to Nashville in 2011, two weeks after earning her undergraduate degree from the University of Texas in Austin. She put her degree in Radio-Television-Film to use and landed a position working at a talent agency almost immediately. Flash forward three years: “ I realized I was done with a desk job.” So in May of 2015, she applied for a position at Bongo Java East. “ I needed more human interaction,” Hanna says. “I wanted to make a positive impact.” After just a few months she accepted a position as assistant manager. Since that time she has found more satisfaction in enjoying her day-to-day experience than in making future plans. “It's worth

the income adjustment to be happy.” Hanna ﬁnds that her role at Bongo Java East affords her the time and resources to pursue her varied interests. Hanna has earned a third degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do and Aikido. She attended college on a saxophone scholarship (she still practices in secret) and is planning a ski trip with friends in February. Her current passions also include camping, climbing and traveling to music festivals. With regard to future plans, Hanna prefers to keep her options open. “I had originally planned on pursuing a PhD,” she says. “Now it's more important for me to enjoy my immediate experience.”

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Good Wood Nashville is proud to partner with these clients and more on their custom projects. Thank you, Nashville, for your support.

H AND C R A F T E D R E C L A I M E D F L OO R S, BAR N WO O D WAL L S, C U S TO M F U R N I T U RE & RE CL AI ME D L U MBE R GOOD WOOD NASHVILLE - OPEN TO THE TRADE & PUBLIC - EAST NASHVILLE OPEN MONDAY-SATURDAY 8AM-5PM - 615-454-3817 10 / / / / / / / / / / / / / / //////

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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

community representative:

POLLY RADFORD

editor:

@justinrearden

@kjlock7

film supervisor:

writers: @villagebakeryandprovisions

@jenm.photography

photographers:

production:

@thesaltedtable

@joskaphoto

CASEY FULLER MATT LEFF JAIME RAYBIN MARK MINTON BENJAMIN HURSTON CASEY FULLER ITORO UDOKO COOPER BREEDEN

JEN McDONALD DANIELLE ATKINS LAURA E. PARTAIN BRETT WARREN DYLAN REYES JONATHON KINGSBURY ITORO UDOKO

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:

@nashvilleinabox

@austinkilcullen

SALES@NATIVE.IS HELLO@NATIVE.IS

PROUDLY DELIVERED BY RUSH BICYCLE MESSENGERS

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

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 # NAT I V ENAS HV I L L E

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JAVA•5TH AVENUE

‘TIS THE SEASON FOR SOME

SIP. SAVOR. UNWIND.

ONLY AT BONGO 5TH AVE 250 5TH AVE S

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New Jack City by Ben Clemons of No. 308

THE GOODS 1.5 oz Averna 1 oz Overholt Rye 1 oz Bonal Amaro .25 oz Fee Brothers Falernum 1 dash Angostura bitters

photo by je n m c don a l d

The holidays are here, and so are the lines of family members bustling through our airport. More people than ever are making Nashville home. So, while some things are changing and some refuse to change, we thought it appropriate to offer this boozy spin on a TN staple (come out and try one to see which staple it is). This one is for you, Mr. LAX->BNA. Welcome home.

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F Add all ingredients to a rocks glass. F Top with club soda (1.5â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2 oz). F Garnish with orange zest.

MASTER PLATERS

BBQ

LAMB RIBS WITH CHEF DANIEL HERGET

PHOTOS BY DANIELLE ATKINS

OF LITTLE OCTOPUS

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DIRECTIONS

THE GOODS 4â&#x20AC;&#x201C;5 lbs lamb ribs 1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced DRY RUB 1 tbsp cinnamon 3 tbsp dried thyme 1 1/2 tbsp dried cloves 4 tbsp allspice 4 tbsp white pepper 5 tbsp habanero powder 5 tbsp garlic powder 1/4 cup salt 1/4 cup brown sugar BBQ SAUCE

F Heat the oven to 350 F. F To make the dry rub, whisk all the ingredients together. Measure out 1/4 cup of the rub to use in the BBQ sauce and set it aside. F Rub the ribs generously with the dry rub and place them in a roasting pan. Add 1/2 inch of water to the bottom of the pan. Cover the roasting pan tightly with aluminum foil. Bake the ribs for 4 1/2 hours or until the bones can be removed from the rack by twisting slightly. Allow the ribs to cool completely before grilling. While the ribs are baking and cooling, make the BBQ sauce and mojo. F To make the BBQ sauce, puree all the ingredients in a high-speed blender until smooth. F To make the mojo, poach the garlic in the olive oil over low heat until the garlic is soft but has not developed any color. Remove the garlic from the heat and allow to cool. In a blender, puree the garlic, salt, and sour orange juice until smooth. With the blender running, stream 2/3 to 3/4 of the poaching olive oil into the puree until it emulsifies (it will look like a thick vinaigrette). F Heat the grill to medium heat. Grill the ribs for eight minutes and baste with the BBQ sauce, turning and basting every 2-3 minutes to ensure the sauce doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t burn and the ribs are heated evenly. F Remove the ribs from the grill and drizzle with the mojo. Top with a mound of scallions.

1/2 cup agave nectar 1/4 cup lime juice 1/4 cup dry rub 1/8 cup peeled and sliced ginger MOJO 1/2 cup whole garlic cloves 1/4 tbsp salt 7 tbsp sour orange juice (may substitute half orange juice and half grapefruit juice if sour orange juice is unavailable) 6 tbsp olive oil

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After an eleven-year relationship ended, show was that it led to me getting a I downloaded Tinder. I went on a hand- non-online date! An artist acquaintance ful of dates but mainly used the app to came to see me at the gallery, and he message with other lonely people at two and I had a nice conversation about our in the morning. When you have nothing online dating experiences. When I got at stake, you can be really open and hon- home later, he had messaged me on Inest. I shared things with strangers that stagram and asked me on a date! I said I would have been too embarrassed to yes, and we went out later that week. It was slightly jarring going on a date confess to a friend. It was exciting to flirt from the safety of a screen, aware without having an online persona to that something sinister might be on the hide behind. We didn’t text much beforehand, so our rapport relied on our other side. I formed a long-distance connection face-to-face dynamic. He had seen my with a guy whom I never met. We talked show, so it was a little embarrassing to every day until things turned abruptly feel like everything in my life was on the dark. I found myself swiping right on table right from the beginning. But it fake profiles of celebrities, which I in- was incredibly exciting to feel like someone wanted to go out with me based on variably hit on aggressively. In August 2015, I had a gallery exhi- my writing, to feel like someone had bition at 40AU in the Arcade about my seen me clearly for myself and was still Tinder experiences. I also created a zine interested. We’ve been dating for three version of the work in the show, titled months now, and things are going great! “Composite Internet Boyfriend.” A por- I’m excited to see what happens next. The zine is available on my website, tion of this is reprinted in the following www.jaimeraybin.com pages. The craziest thing about my Tinder —JAIME

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I’VE BEEN PASSING THROUGH LOUISVILLE FREQUENTLY ENOUGH THAT MY FAVORITE CHINESE RESTAURANT CONSIDERS ME A REGULAR. EVEN THOUGH I’VE NEVER LIVED HERE.

taurants. I would tell him about my day and what I was eating. He might recommend a podcast for me, and would fill me in on what was happening at home. We would also talk on the phone every night before we went to sleep.

I start messaging strangers online. I know it is too soon to start dating, but I’m not sleeping much. It would be nice to have someone to text late at night, when I am awake long after an appropriate time to call a friend.

Finishing up my weeklong trip, I am struck by a compulsion to not go home. What would happen if I just stayed in this city and started a new life? .

Without that long-distance connection, I felt untethered to my life at home, cut off. There was no more concurrent life waiting for me at home. My present life was the only one I had access to. .

I wonder how much my travelbased day job affected the decline of my relationship with Ken. Ken was always very supportive of me and encouraged me to be independent. I know you can’t save a relationship by babysitting it. But he got used to me being away and filled the time he used to spend with me with new hobbies that I wasn’t part of.

When you are alone, it is always your turn to choose where to eat. I like eating at fusion Asian restaurants because Ken never wanted to go to them. He hated Americanized Japanese food. Before Ken and I broke up, I would often text him as I ate alone in res-

Outside of my job, there are days on the road that I hardly talk to anyone. When a CVS cashier asked me if I needed help, my voice was creaky because I hadn’t spoken for the entire day. .

I’m so used to living long distance, it seems to be just how I function now. .

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I match with Derek on Tinder tions of it online, to see what it while I am in Louisville for a Bar- tastes like. I order it on Amazon, ry Manilow concert. We message and it will arrive in 5 to 7 days. back and forth a few times. I expect that when I tell him I don’t live in He makes me a playlist. It’s excelLouisville, he will stop talking to lent. . me. But he doesn’t. We talk every day for three weeks, first by text and then on the phone. We talk for hours at night and check up on each other throughout the day. We never meet in person.

I tell him I’m pretty square, and he says he likes that about me. I mention that I’m having a beer. Derek says he used to drink, but now he doesn’t.

I consider what it would be like to Derek does things like text me pho- date someone who doesn’t drink, tos of flowers before I go to sleep. and I decide that I’m into it. I hate He talks about a book he likes, The always feeling like the party pooper, Sun Also Rises. I get it at the library the responsible adult in the relathe next day. I have moments when tionship. I get really lonely and sad, and it’s . nice to be able to pull out this book. It requires full concentration, so it Lapsang Souchong is described gets me out of my head. I haven’t as having a polarizing flavor that had a book recommendation by you either love or hate. Black tea someone whose approval I want smoked over pine tar. It should arin a long time, it feels like being a rive any day now. . student. He and I are both tea drinkers, preferring tea to coffee most days. He says his favorite tea is called Lapsang Souchong, a smoked Chinese tea. He drinks it several times while we are texting. I can’t find it at the grocery, but I read descrip-

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I’d really like to meet him in person. I have this fantasy where we meet halfway between Nashville and Louisville, in Cave City, Kentucky, and go on a cave tour together. I bring this up, and he asks if we could talk about it later.

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The first time we talked on the phone, he texted first to say, “I think I just got nervous. Don’t know why, but it’s true. It might not hurt to have a joke ready.” Then, “Hopefully you smiled there.” . On the last night, we talk from midnight to 2 a.m. He says, “So there’s something about myself I feel like I should tell you.” I’ve had the feeling there was something he was hiding, but I wasn’t sure what. He says “um” a bunch and “I was hoping you would ask about this, but you haven’t.” Finally, he spills it. “So, I have kids. Two kids.” Two different moms. Crazy story, tons and tons of drama. Drinking. All kinds of bad decisions. He had said he was attracted to me because I talked about living a healthy lifestyle. And that he had become a positive person, and didn’t want his past to define his future. I tell him I don’t know what to say, and that I need to go. . Hi Derek, I have really enjoyed talking with you, and I

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can’t tell you what our conversations have meant to me. You’ve made me feel attractive again and cared about, and it means a lot. Kids are kind of a deal breaker for me. I’m not at that point in my life. I can understand why you were scared to tell me, but it’s unfair that you waited until I was emotionally invested. It makes it hard for me to trust you. I just got out of an 11-year relationship. This is too much for me to handle. I’m sorry. I hope you understand. . I have lunch with Ken. In some ways, our lunch feels like a really good first date. It is awkward and we aren’t sure how to act, but it is obvious that we click and have chemistry.

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As he tells me about his new routine, I remember how it was hard being with someone who is trying to find himself. The way he continued to search made me feel like my life choices weren’t enough for him. It’s hard to see your partner be unhappy and know that you are making things worse. You can pretend everything is fine and cook his favorite food and wear cute outfits, but you can’t really fix it. Even though it is good to see him, it is exhausting, and I can’t wait to get out of there. It is like being able to see the future on a first date—to know that you had a good time, but that he won’t call you again, even though he acts like he will.

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Photo: Melissa Madison Fuller

(cos-tee-yay-ha)

1200 VILLA PLACE - SUITE 403 - (615) 730-5367 castillejanashville.com @castillejanashville # NAT I V ENAS HV I L L E

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WORK ING ON A DREAM

THE RISE OF MANRELIC, A PRINCE-LOVING, PAD-THAI-EATING MIDWESTERNER WITH A PENCHANT FOR EXISTENTIAL POP SONGS BY MARK MINTON PHOTOS BY LAURA E. PARTAIN

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THE AGREEMENT WAS 12:30 phone (lost but now found) is self-titled debut album in early PM, but when it comes time to covered in a case that sparkles like October. The songs serve as a meandering time capsule of his finally meet, Manrelic, the song- a disco ball. He’s just gotten back from a musical and personal developwriter/producer/singer/multiinstrumentalist/aesthete—who casual road trip to New York with ment, mixing optimism with normally goes by his birth name, a friend. The trek consisted of depression, aspiration with disJared Park—is nowhere to be fifteen hours of nonstop driving appointment, commitment with found. The agreed-upon location both ways to the uninterrupted resignation, triumph with guilt. is Thai Phooket, a restaurant be- sound of Chelsea Peretti’s voice Sonically, the album rides a wave tween downtown and East Nash- on her comedic radio show, Call of upbeat synth and glowing harville noted more for its spice tray Chelsea Peretti (“It’s fifteen hours monies that grapples hard against than its “Thai hot” seasoning, straight worthy of interest,” he somber lyrics and grim song titles such as “The World Is Over,” “All says). His focus is palpable. which is consistently mild. Jared exchanges pleasantries Our Sad Days,” “Feeling Disdain,” Just as the waitress refuses to lend me a pen for my notes (I with one of the waitresses as he “This Grave,” and “Bodybag,” just think she is confused), my phone gets settled, indicating that he’s to name a few. “A lot of these songs are coming buzzes. It’s a text from Manrelic. clearly been here before. “I’m not He temporarily lost his phone. familiar with some of these faces, from different times in my life,” which is strange,” Jared says as he Jared says between bites of his He’ll be here soon. On the verge of emerging from removes the insectoid frames that “level-six hot” pad thai. “Some of his creative cocoon, Jared has had previously obscured his eyes. them were from when I was livyet to play a show in Nashville as “It used to be like, me and Seiji ing in Illinois. A lot of these were Manrelic. He remains a chrysa- would walk in, just like, full time,” written during a very sad time in lis for the time being, swathed in he adds, referring to Seiji Inouye, my life. Inwardly I projected all translucent gold, forming slowly his “go-to guy” and the mixing en- of my insecurities on myself, and in preparation for emersion, wait- gineer behind the new album. Seiji the songs I wrote that are a little ing to hatch. When he arrives and photographer Laura E. Par- bit newer in the writing process, there’s no mistaking him, and the tain could be interpreted as the I think there’s still a little bit of a reason for his tardiness may just primary creative cohorts under- sad tone to them lyrically but still a little bit of an uplifting nature to have been that he was putting pinning the Manrelic name. “We joked about it,” Jared says. them. I think that’s a stride I’ve the finishing touches on his look, which is remarkably meticulous in “We were like, in ten years, once made in my own personal life, just its sartorial construction—clearly we’ve made our small fortunes in recognizing the sad and the dark he is a man who likes to take his some way, we’re going to donate in the world, or at least the way I time on things. He wears black oc- $20,000 to Thai Phooket, just for see it, and dealing with it, just taktagonal sunglasses (it’s overcast), anything, just because we love ing it day by day and saying, ‘How a navy peacoat with gold buttons, them so much. Our only stipula- can I make this a little bit lighter?’” Jared’s adjustment to Nashville and a black bandana tied around tion is that we have a booth rehis neck. His hair is crystallized served exclusively for ourselves in was not without difficulties— loneliness, no sense of belonginto a shock of tall bleach blonde the corner.” Jared, twenty-six, who may ing, visionary isolation. “It’s been with an undercut, and his face is a disparate mix of hard, rocky or may not prefer to go by his a really weird journey for me in features and youthful fervor. His moniker, Manrelic, released his the last few years—a lot of sad-

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“RECOGNIZING THE SAD AND THE DARK IN THE WORLD. . . SAYING, ‘HOW CAN I MAKE THIS A LITTLE BIT LIGHTER?’”

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ness and feeling out of place. Not to bash other people, but I never felt welcome in any community, didn’t feel like I was part of what everyone else was trying to do and think. Not necessarily as people, but musically.” Jared grew up in Bloomington, Illinois, a city two hours southwest of Chicago that was sprung in the vast expanse of farmland that makes the Midwest so monolithically unique and forlorn. Bloomington—a white-collar town that is both the birthplace of Steak ’n Shake and the headquarters of State Farm Insurance—is adjacent to another town that is literally called “Normal,” as in Normal, Illinois, and was more of an ultimatum for Jared than a place to call home. “It was kind of like I had the option of going to ISU and then working for State Farm or Country [Financial] companies or one of the insurance agencies that run that town, or I get out and experience something beautiful in a bigger city. So it was between Chicago and Nashville and I chose Nashville.” Growing up in a musically inclined family, instrumentalism was instilled in Jared from a young age. Jared’s father, who was a musician by profession for “a long time,” bought him his first small-scale acoustic when he was just four years old, followed by a miniature Casio keyboard when he was five, piano lessons when he was six, drum lessons when he was ten, and so on. For Jared, moving to Nashville was an exodus from the crippling comfort threatening to close in on him in Illinois. “My mom quit her job to raise me, and my dad worked at State Farm,” he says. “He kind of got burned out on music in the early ’80s and wanted to have something a little bit more secure.” Jared, however, is determined to make music his life. To date, he’s been in Nashville for four years. He’s played with bands and musicians such as The Leadership, Torres, Preston Leatherman, Caleb Groh, and Blank Range, which has opened for acts including Spoon and Drive-By Truckers. “I moved here because I was in a band called The Leadership . . . with a strapping man named Jon Childers, who is now in the band Blank Range, and we were friends with Grant [Gustafson], who is also in Blank Range. When I moved down here, we all kind of formed two separate bands,

and then we merged those two together, and that eventually became Blank Range. And then I quit, mainly just because I was stylistically moving away in what I wanted to do, and they could tell, so it was an amicable separation.” Though Manrelic’s debut album dropped in October, the Manrelic moniker has existed for about a year. But some of the songs that appear on the new release have been in the works since 2009, when Jared was in college for communications at the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign. “I started recording in November 2013,” Jared says. “Some of the songs, like ‘Tulip,’ ‘Our Sad Days,’ ‘Feeling Disdain,’ ‘For It He Blames Himself,’ and ‘This Grave,’ most of them were written before, years before I actually started working on this record.” Manrelic’s first release is a stylistic and emotional amalgam of chopped and screwed synth harmonies that have collected six years’ worth of emotion and existential crises. It remains difficult to draw any concrete points of comparison for Manrelic’s sound, one that varies fearlessly in tone, tempo, and composition throughout the album, but if anything, Jared hopes the music resonates with listeners who can find meaning in the record’s suggestive sonic and lyrical ambivalence. “I find people that have seen real darkness in this world and come out of it the most interesting people and the people I bond with the most,” he says. “So I can only hope it connects with those that are in the middle of sadness or existential suffering and looking for direction.” Songs such as “Tulip,” which Jared says has gone through eleven different phases, marked the beginning of his experimentation in 2009 with Garageband. “I just got my first Macbook Pro, and I was just kind of learning how to produce and write songs and I didn’t know what I was doing. I was writing them as sound bytes, or like mini notes that I would just use eight bars of and I would repeat them. And then I would need to do something differently there, so it became this conglomeration of weird ideas that I would patch together.” As for the name, Manrelic, Jared remains secretive: “It’s a little tongue-in-cheek joke with myself that I’d like to keep to myself, but I’ve

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told a couple people and it’s pretty funny. It definitely has to do with one of my biggest inspirations and I think it would be a little bit, not cheesy, just maybe cheesy, of me to divulge that.” Jared’s influences—Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Mars Volta, David Bowie, Tears for Fears— have had a pretty tremendous impact on the momentum of his work, whether he likes it or not. From pulling him out of depression to maintaining and focusing his artistic vision, Jared admits that his influences have been a driving force in preserving the dream. “A lot of my favorite artists—my main inspiration—took soul music and funk music, mixed it with pop music, and played rock ‘n’ roll shows.” With this information in mind, I decide to hazard a guess as to the elusive identity of his biggest muse. “Like Prince?” I ask. “Yeah,” Jared responds, almost relieved he

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MANRELIC: manrelic.com Follow on Facebook @Manrelicofficial and Instagram @Manrelic native.is

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wasn’t the one who had to say it. “I like my music not to have a context going into it and plenty of context going out of it . . . So, one of these days I’m going to have to kill my idols . . . and find my own way of doing it, but once I started really getting into Prince, there was a reason for me to wake up every day. Everything about him, he turned my life around, as silly as that sounds.” Another inspiration is his dad, someone who molded Jared into a person with the musical capacity to pick up where he left off, by mistake or otherwise. “Me and my dad had a lot in common, and it’s almost like he was unhappy with the way his musical life manifested, and I’m not,” Jared says. “So there was a struggle and he didn’t really know why I would wanna do that. And it’s merely out of protection, but as soon as I showed him the record he was really, really proud of me and I think that may have made a huge, huge, huge difference in our relationship. He kind of saw that I wasn’t just, you know, just working a food job and roughing this for no reason—that I was actually working hard and trying to make something happen for myself.” The time is fast approaching for Jared to refine the Manrelic persona into an aesthetic he is comfortable presenting to the public. He hopes to start performing shows by early January, once he finesses the cohesion in his sonic and visual identity. He also says he has “up to fifty-five songs, to varying degrees” still in the production process. “There’s definitely more that are like ideas rather than like full songs.” But at least he’s sure of one thing: if there’s anywhere he wants to christen Manrelic as performance art, it’s Nashville. “It’s weird that when I moved here I was like, ‘I’m going to give Nashville a chance. I am not going to leave until I’ve made a record,’” Jared says. “And here I am, I’ve made a record, and I’m still in Nashville. So I think I’m gonna stay in Nashville, four years later.” The metamorphosis is almost complete.

615-988-0513 - 525 Hagan St. - AmericanHotelLiquidators.com 10am-7pm Mon-Sat and 12-5pm Sunday

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ON DYLAN: Glasses, Citi Trends. Sweater, Elizabeth Suzann. Pants And Lace-Up Boots, Savant Vintage. ON MACKENZIE: Velvet Romper, Ola Mai. Earrings And Bangles, Margaret Ellis Jewelry.

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ON DYLAN: Black Hmong Vietnamese Hill Tribe Jacket, Any Old Iron. Corduroy Pants, Black By Maria Silver. Lace-Up Boots, Savant Vintage. Hand Cuff, Margaret Ellis Jewelry. ON MACKENZIE: Rhinestone Earrings, Forever 21. Fishnet Body Stocking And Red Heels, Citi Trends. Green Slip And Fur Stole, Savant Vintage. / / / / / / / / / / / / / / ////// # N AT IVE N ASH VI LLE

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ON DYLAN: Glasses, Citi Trends. Embroidered Suit, Eric Adler. Nude Turtleneck, Black By Maria Silver. LaceUp Boots, Savant Vintage. Leather Backpack, Warfield. ON MACKENZIE: Vintage Hat, Any Old Iron. Gown, Black By Maria Silver. Cuff And Ring, Margaret Ellis Jewelry. Platforms, Stylistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Own. 50 / / / / / / / / / / / / / //////// //////

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Witch Shadow Puppet Created By Artist Kyle Jones.

ON DYLAN: Hooded Fur Coat, Striped Polo, And Lace-Up Boots, Savant Vintage. Houndstooth Trousers, Eric Adler. Leather Crossbody Bag, Warfield. ON MACKENZIE: Dress And Coat, Savant Vintage. Earrings, Margaret Ellis Jewelry. Leather Crossbody Bag, Warfield. Red Heels, Citi Trends.

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ON DYLAN: Glasses, Citi Trends. Floral Brocade Blazer, Eric Adler. Mustard Sweater, Savant Vintage. ON MACKENZIE: Color Block Sweater, Savant Vintage. Rhinestone Necklace, Forever 21. 52 / / / / / / / / / / / / / / //////

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Hand-Painted Candy Tiles By Artist Mandy Jones.

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ON DYLAN: Red Three-Piece Suit, Eric Adler. Turtleneck, Valentine Valentine. Vintage Roadrunner Brooch, Stylistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Own. Lace-up Boots, Savant Vintage. ON MACKENZIE: Daisy Tie Blouse and Daisy Skirt, Ona Rex. Necklace and Cuff, Margaret Ellis Jewelry. Hiking Boots, Savant Vintage.

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“I REALIZED THAT TO MAKE ART IS TO BE HUMBLE. YOU HAVE TO LOSE LIFE.”

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“ HANSEL, WE ARE SAVED. THE OLD WITCH IS DEAD. ”

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(previous spread) ON DYLAN: White Henley, Any Old Iron. Green Jumpsuit, Valentine Valentine. Mustard Jacket And LaceUp Boots, Savant Vintage. ON MACKENZIE: Color Block Dress, Valentine Valentine. Earrings, Cuffs, And Ring, Margaret Ellis Jewelry. Platforms, Stylist’s Own.

Some people might see a kid with an attitude. We see an aspiring painter and a great older brother who has been denied a few opportunities.

(left) ON DYLAN: Orange Plaid Coat, Cool Stuff Weird Things. Glasses, Citi Trends. Tweed Jeans, Eric Adler. ON MACKENZIE: Pink Coat, Stylist’s Own. Color Block Sweater And Ric-Rac Skirt, Savant Vintage. Rhinestone Necklace, Forever 21.

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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Past NATIVE cover feature PUJOL is releasing their new EP, Kisses, this month. It’s a collection of songs and poems that sees frontman/avant punk/unofficial Nashville poet laureate Daniel Pujol contemplating the nature of cynicism and hope over a spectacular new(ish) band. We really like Kisses, so we asked him to send us a poem that’s featured on the EP. Check out “Gibbons Awoken” below.

And just because he was around He heard there was no hope And the world was so messed up So many times That he went out and did some vigilante stuff, Got caught, and blew his own brains out. Again.

And extra low on hope. Sort of down on it. Until one day, A cold metal box in space Receives the Emotional Rescue distress-signal vibing From our teenage planet.

What lame dandy-ass motherfucker is running the “No Hope” muck rag?

And on the box A green light blinks on Surrounded by a black iris.

Where are the rock and roll superheroes with the ZZ car? Probably packing boxes at the Amazon warehouse And dealing with unanswered fates. Because, Doom sells, baby. Doom sells. Doom employs. Doom pays. And if you want to be a true motherfucker: Make her doubt her own character for bringing life into this world. “Click here to see no hope. Loosen your belt the sky is falling. Because, Fate is doom and doom is fate. And you can get Tempur-Pedic for your coffin.” An old idea. That’s just reaching the general population But more violently. Suburban/consumer banality and the cake tears Is now strobe light violence fuck police state Or lone wolf Facebook No Hope, but still hoping state.

Back on earth, The desert sands ripple Around one of its own ancient wonders, And Ceiling Debris falls onto The dusty control panel As sand cascades down the hieroglyphs In the pitch black cockpit area. When suddenly, There is the sword sound From the Robert Palmer song, And deep inside the pyramid A Gibbons is awoken. To spare one person One traumatic event For one lifetime. You are that person. Because today the good guys win. Are you going to let them?

And everybody's out of words You have to think this way To do more than survive.

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104.1

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BA SEC AM P NEV ER WA NTE D TO BE A BAN D. THE IR MU SIC WA S SO GO OD , IT KIN D OF JUS T HAP PEN ED BY BENJ AMIN HUR STON PHO TOS BY DYLA N REYE S

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If BASECAMP had wanted to, they probably could have sold the first song they ever made together to a pop artist like Bieber and made a shit ton of money. And I mean that as a genuine compliment. Sure, their 2013 debut single, “Emmanuel,” is not as mainstream as Bieber’s “Where Are Ü Now,” but the chorus is twice as catchy. In fact, Skrillex, one of the main producers responsible for Bieber’s “new” sound, was so impressed by BASECAMP that he signed the trio to his OWSLA label earlier this year. I’d even go as far as questioning whether the melodic percussion and restrained EDM beats of “Emmanuel” might have been inspiration for Bieber’s most recent chart-topper, “What Do You Mean?” But this story isn’t about a kid who gets other people to make his beats and then dances with a real serious face and makes millions of dollars. It’s about three guys who realized they enjoyed listening to the same kinds of music and then decided to get together and not start a band. “We had all been through the band thing,” says Aaron Miller, the vocalist, from a dark corner of a restaurant patio in Franklin. “We had all played a hundred thousand shows in Nashville, and we had experienced all the worst shit you can experience—low-level band stuff. We just weren’t interested.” Childhood friends from Las Vegas, Aaron Harmon and Jordan Reyes first met Miller at a party at the very house where they now record in a basement studio. After realizing their mutual love for “vibey, cinematic stuff,” they decided to see what they could make. They got together, finished a song, didn’t see each other for a few months, then rejoined and started the process over. The aim was to make music strictly to sell for film and TV. One day they played their stuff for a friend who runs a label and management agency out of LA, and he forced them to face their potential.

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“We told him we were just going to put it on the Internet and see what happens, and he was like, ‘Please don’t do that!’” Jordan says. “He told us to just give him some time so he could launch it correctly.” In the two hours that I spend with the trio one weeknight in October—one at Blue Coast Burrito and the other in their studio—their talk is unhurried. Their posture is unforced. When they aren’t leaning forward to take a bite out of their burritos, they are comfortably reclining in their seats, speaking coolly and quietly. They dress in head-to-toe solid black with few exceptions, their daily uniform. They could have told me to meet them at a more alluring location than their makeshift studio in Jordan’s father’s basement. They could have suggested a restaurant much more trendy than a chain located in a strip mall out in Franklin. But they didn’t. They are utterly uninterested in coming across as anything other than exactly who and what they are. In their music, the trio favors subtlety and vibes over maximalism or accessibility. Many of their songs feel as if they are building toward something more indulgent and then decide instead to revert to their previous groove. It’s a reserved, contented sound, yet there’s also an undeniable electricity. It’s the kind of music you might listen to as the party’s winding down but your body is not. Critics almost unanimously use the word seductive when describing their music. When asked if they intentionally strive for that sound, the guys aren’t quite sure how to answer. “I think what we are not is aggressive,” says Harmon. “So I feel like that’s just where the music goes.” To say they are unaggressive is an understatement. On our way back to the studio, the guys stop by a liquor store for a fifth of whiskey, which they plan on polishing off by the end of the night. As the four of us make

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our way to the counter to pay, the cashier informs us that he needs to see everyone’s identification or he can’t sell. Though there are three IDs among us, Miller has left his at the house. Instead of complaining or even attempting to reason with the cashier, the twenty-seven-yearold quietly puts the bottle back and tells the other two that they’ll just have to come back later in the night. Not a single complaint is uttered as we head back to the car. In August 2013, BASECAMP’s aforementioned and fantastic debut, “Emmanuel,” premiered via UK magazine Fact. The response to the track shocked the trio. They knew what they had created was good, but they thought that the niche aspect of their sound would limit their reach. They were wrong. They released an eponymous EP shortly after, and they almost immediately started getting calls to play at music festivals all around the US. This created a big problem for a group that had never intended to actually be a band. “Not even for one second had anyone imagined trying to perform the music live,” says Harmon. “It was just like full psycho. The way we did it was ridiculous.” For one month, they scurried around, dissecting everything they’d done to figure out how they could perform it live. They added guitar, keys, and other instruments. Though their manager suggested they do the “glorified karaoke thing”

for the sake of time, they made a point to break the songs down so that they could actually be playing and triggering sounds on stage. “We didn’t want it to just be us standing there turning knobs and nodding our heads the whole time,” says Miller. A few months after their firstever show as a band, Scottish synthpop group CHVRCHES asked the guys to serve as opening act on their American tour. They got the call one day in November 2013, and within a week they were in California playing in front of a crowd of two thousand people. From that point on, there was no stopping this BASECAMP band thing. They toured the country, released more singles and remixes,

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signed to Dr. Luke’s (the mastermind behind many of Britney Spears’ and Katy Perry’s hits) publishing company, guest mixed on Skream and Benga’s BBC Radio 1 show, signed to Skrillex’s OWSLA record label, and just this August released a second EP titled Greater Than. Sans alcohol or complaints, we leave the liquor store and head back to Jordan’s father’s house a few miles away. The studio is small. A couple of large monitors are cycling through screen savers of a nearly naked Rihanna, anime characters, Star Wars scenes, and The Rock. The windows are blacked out with curtains. The guys keep the fluorescent lights off, leaving only a few overhead blacklights, some lasers, and the screens to light our conversation. This is the way BASECAMP always works. “Even if it’s noon and beautifully sunny outside?” I ask. “Especially if it’s noon and sunny,” one of them corrects me. Jordan and Harmon sit at the computers. They are, after all, the primary producers. Though Miller produces as well, his role is also split as the lyricist and vocalist for the songs. He sits opposite his bandmates on the black futon, which, he admits, might be a little too comfortable. Sometimes when they have the lights going and the scented candles burning and the other two are looping beats as they experiment with different sounds, it’s not uncommon for him to doze off while they work. Oh, and he keeps working too, of course. “I have legit woken up from a semilucid dream/half dream on this couch, hearing the music in the background, and then I open my eyes, and I suddenly have the melody,” he says.

If Miller’s work is any indication, more musicians should try writing melodies in their sleep. His sequences evoke a soothing contentment somewhere between serenity and enticement, which perfectly parallels the slow-burning electronics over which he sings. But hazy sonic landscapes and sleep-written melodies only represent one side of the the band’s soul. Sitting in their studio and chatting about their ongoing projects, I’m increasingly surprised by both their organization and their dedication. Behind their nonchalant postures and personalities, there is a careful intention. On the wall of their studio is a small dry-erase board that is separated into segments, each one with the names of unfinished songs, projects, and schedules. It doesn’t seem like a very band-like thing to do, but then again, I remember that Miller, Harmon, and Jordan never really set out to tour the world and party in a different city every night. “We’ve always run BASECAMP kind of like a business,” Miller said earlier in the interview. The more time I spend with the group, the more I begin to understand what he means. On top of the disciplined work they do as BASECAMP, each of the guys also devotes time to other projects and jobs as well. Harmon and Jordan, for instance, have composed four songs for a Nickelodeon series called Blaze and the Monster Machines, a television show that teaches boys ages 3–5 about science and math. “We like doing really obscure things sometimes,” says Harmon. “Like after working on one BASECAMP song every day for two straight weeks, it’s nice to write a kid song that takes like thirty

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BASECAMP: basecampmusique.com Follow on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @BasecampMusique native.is

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minutes.” In contrast, the trio explains that the music they craft as BASECAMP has always been much more intentional than their side projects, and it remains their primary focus for the moment. Aside from a couple of songs they released with Jamie Liddel and Red Bull—both of which dropped early last month—and a few more shows sprinkled throughout the end of the year, the band’s number-one goal right now is to finish a third EP, which they describe as a “power” record. Judging by the first song they play for me, a pounding number called “In Stone,” the guys of BASECAMP are beginning to take a stab at some aggression. When I ask about a release date or future plan, however, they revert back to their unhurried easiness. “Everything has gone differently than we would have guessed, so we’ve learned you just gotta go along for the ride,” says Harmon. “Our only plan is to always be writing. That’s really all you can do.” When Harmon, Jordan, and Miller first began writing and producing music together about three years ago, they never sought out admiration. They never wondered how the lights should hit their faces when the beat dropped. They never talked about what they would wear to photo shoots. They never planned what they’d say in interviews. And even though the lights, photographers, and journalists have now found their way into the trio’s lives, it’s clear that none of it matters that much to them. They’re just three guys who love making vibey electronic music for themselves. If other people want to buy their records and come to their shows and make them a band, it’s fine with them. “We stay in the studio pretty much all day, six days a week, twisting knobs and pressing buttons until we get the right sound,” says Miller. “It’s just what makes us happy.”

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REEL ACRED

PART II BY CASEY FULLER | PHOTOS BY JONATHON KINGSBURY

In our October issue, we talked to two of the four 2015 Sundance Institute Lab Program attendees from Nashville: Drew Langer and Erin Naifeh. We continue the conversation here with the other two attendees, Emily Neumann and Daniel Long. Located in Park City, Utah, at a place called “The Mountain,” the Sundance Institute Lab Program isn’t for everyone. Robert Redford created the program in 1981 as an opportunity for upand-coming film professionals to experiment in a low-pressure environment where failure is not only allowed but encouraged. It’s a far cry from the high-stakes world of professional filmmaking, and out of thousands of applicants, only a handful of people get in every year. Notable projects that started at the lab include Whiplash, Beasts of the Southern Wild, and many, many more.

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CF: You both fill many roles in film production. What are you doing now? EN: I am the key second AD [second assistant director] on Still The King right now. It is a CMT episodic show. That is my my main, full-time, seventy-hour-a-week gig. On the side, I have a project I work on with some friends called Agents of Fortune. It’s a half-live, half-taped comedy series thing. Between that, I don’t have a life, but it is a lot of fun. CF: What role are you on Agents of Fortune? EN: I’m a producer. I get locations, make schedules, and do 78 / / / / / / / / / / / / / / //////

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casting. We wear a lot of hats. We shoot on the weekends. DL: What’s the premise? EN: It’s two ex-spies that were on a mission in Morocco and their identities got put on reddit. They got sent back to Nashville to live undercover. One works IT in an office building, and it’s terrible, and the other works as an audio gig recorder but still tries to be a spy. Their past catches up with them, and we tell the story through live shows and film at the same time. It’s really fun. The [most recent] show released November 21 at Exit Inn. The director, Mac Cushing, has been so tenacious with this project and has done a great job. CF: Daniel, what about you? What are you up to? DL: I have been busier than I have ever been since last March. I have finally slowed down to do some personal projects, which is great. I’m working on a couple of documentaries. One is on Robert’s Western World, which is so much fun . . . I am also doing another documentary on an organization called Southern Word. It’s an awesome nonprofit that teaches poetry to kids. They are in every high school in Nashville and college too. They’re teaching kids to write and do slam poetry. CF: Incredible. DL: Yeah, I am very excited about that. I am also writing a couple of feature projects. Which is also a reason I moved here. CF: So I hear that you were actu-

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ally the pioneer for the Nashville representation at the Sundance Labs? DL: Yes. They are a word-ofmouth kind of deal. I went in 2002 at the recommendation of a friend who had a relationship with Michelle Satter [the founding director of the Sundance Institute Lab Program]. She is amazing. The people at the top are like Glinda the Good Witch. They glow. They are so altruistic and so good. I am super pessimistic. So when I went I was like, “Let me see what is going on with this place.” Then I attended three times. You give up a month of your life and you don’t get paid for it. It’s an awesome time, but now that I have kids, I can’t really afford to go to film camp in the mountains for a month, as much as I’d love to. So I moved on and moved to Nashville and maintained relationships with everybody from the labs. They reach out to me pretty frequently, and when they have slots to fill, I am glad to refer people. I’d met Allison Stroud, who is awesome, and I recommended her. When she got back, she started referring people too. She loves it and keeps going back. [To Emily] I think I recommended you too. EN: Yeah, you did. We were on a job and you mentioned it to me. For whatever reason I didn’t go at that time, but I finally went because of you and it totally worked out. DL: It’s such a special place. It’s not a good fit for everyone though. I have a lot of friends that would not fit in there. They

wouldn’t get it. It takes someone with the right personality, [who] loves what they do, loves the art of it, and loves the process. If you’re a fan of those things, it’s a great place to be. When I went, I was a little older and more experienced than a lot of the others there in my position. But being around the people there is insane. I watched a director my first year at the labs trying to tell an actor how to do something. We would do take after take, and the director could not get this actor to do what they wanted. So finally, the director went over to Stanley Tucci (Oscar nominated for Best Supporting Actor in The Lovely Bones) and asked for help. After several more attempts, Stanley finally said, “Watch,” and he walked over and gave the direction the actor needed, and then the scene was perfect. Where else can you watch that? Wow. CF: What did you attend as? DL: I was a crew chief. Which is what Drew Langer [the subject of our last Sundance interview] and Emily both went as. It’s essentially a first AD on set. CF: So you’ve been three times. Why? DL: The location itself is magical. The mountains are gorgeous. Each summer you kick off the labs with a blessing, which is phenomenal. EN: Yeah, I had never seen anything like that. DL: I’m not terribly religious, but to be there and feel the energy of the place is pretty amazing. Each

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day you shoot scenes, and the cool thing about it is it’s all about failure. Try and fail. Where else in your career can you go and do that? Our society does not allow that. A lot of times it’s wasted on the filmmakers there. They show up and say, “Nah, I want to do it this way, and this is my style.” One time I was there, this filmmaker wanted to shoot a scene his way, and he did it and was done and we had five hours left. I was like, “Let’s try it some other ways and see what we get.” He didn’t want to do it. So he was done and we did nothing. So the advisors saw it later and advised him to go back and reshoot it before he was handed anything else to do. EN: They shoot it, a scene, and then edit it. Then they get notes from advisors, and at the end of the week, everyone screens it together. DL: It’s great because when it doesn’t work, you learn. That’s the point. The lab lasts four weeks. Every week you get a new set of advisors. A directing advisor, cinematography advisor, production design advisor, acting advisor, and editing advisor are all there. There are huge key personality elements in the production process. Each week there, they change. They are remarkable people and so talented. You learn and you watch and explore your potential. CF: When you have that director that’s a challenge or hindrance to the project, how do you handle that? DL: In the real world, on a shoot, it’s my responsibility to go to the producer and say, “This is not a good idea.” There at the labs, it’s different. [With the filmmaker who didn’t want to reshoot], I went to the advisors to let them know what was going on . . . This person was a first-time filmmaker . . . In the real world, he did what he should have done, but there at the labs he should have explored and workshopped the scene. He was a sweet guy though. He just needed to realize the potential of what he had been given. In this instance, he got wrapped up in the moment and didn’t listen to the hints. CF: Emily, you went as crew chief too?

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EN: Yes. We all went as a crew chief except for Erin [Naifeh, the subject of our last Sundance interview]. She was a camera assistant. I had a difficult director like that, but not as bad. He had made a movie before and was from Japan. He wanted to work with his cast and make it an ensemble. He felt like his crew was getting in his way the entire time. So we would get to set, and we would say, “Let’s rehearse.” He would say, “Nope, let’s roll camera.” I was like, “Let’s get marks for blocking.” Nope, roll camera. I’m like, “The camera is outside. Let’s just walk through it and get it set.” And he just kept going. DL: He didn’t even want to see it? Is it even in focus? EN: No! That’s the thing. The DP (director of photography) tried her best, but it wasn’t in focus. The actors were frustrated. No blocking. Nothing. I talked to the main guy, and I didn’t know what to do. The actors weren’t even mic’d for sound. It wasn’t going to be a good final project. He was even fighting the advisors. People were walking off set. CF: This is a good point to rewind and let our readers know what some of the production talk actually means. Hitting marks, blocking, lighting, and pulling focus are all factors that need to be in rhythm. It sounds like this director was throwing a wrench in all of those, and thus everything suffered via chain reaction. 84 / / / / / / / / / / / / / / //////

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EN: Yes. Normally, you get to set. You have your pages [script/scenes]. The director and crew will watch the scene with the actors in a rehearsal. Then as the actor moves, we’ll go in and tape the actor’s marks for them to land. The camera crew will make sure it’s in focus on these marks they hit. You walk through everything so the DP knows where everyone’s marks are. Then the lighting crew knows how it needs to be lit. The sound guys then know where they need to be so they’re out of the way. It’s all a big dance that must be blocked out. In this case, the scene was huge. Twelve people in a kitchen, and without blocking and rehearsals, it ends up a disaster. So he says, “Just roll.” At that point, we all just let him do it. And in the end, it was all out of focus and not good. DL: It’s opposite of film. Completion is not the priority. Even if you only finish one scene at the labs, you learn what is going on and grow from it. That’s most important. EN: “Let go and let you,” if that makes sense. It’s so weird . . . it can be so hard to learn that what makes it special is it’s so different from the real world. There is a camp feel there. You live in houses in the mountains. You eat together. You have these great screenings. The access to these people is so incredible. DL: There’s a theater there where you screen films every night. You screen a film from one of the fellows or advisors. You have a Q&A with them. You eat dinner

with them. You have drinks with them. I saw Appaloosa (directed by Ed Harris, who also starred) at the lab. He is such a cool dude. It was a moving experience. To talk with him about it was so surreal. CF: I have heard you mention “advisors.” It’s clear that they’re the high-profile guests brought in from the industry to mentor the filmmakers. But you’ve also mentioned “fellows” several times. What is a fellow? DL: A fellow is a filmmaker who gets into the labs. Directors. EN: The fellows are in the screenwriters lab first. CF: I hear about “the process” a lot. Drew and Erin mentioned it repeatedly during my interview with them. What is the process to each of you? Do you experience the process in your real-world productions? DL: Barely. EN: No. It changed my perspective. I needed the lab. I had done a season or two of Nashville, which is as corporate as you can get . . . At the lab, you get to help others be creative. It’s a welcome theme of “fail away.” That’s why I got into it. The basic creative bones are encouraged to move. I would love to go back. I love watching others have breakthroughs. DL: Everyone’s process or experience is different. We’ve been making films as a society for one hundred years. You can learn from the people that have been doing it for those one hundred years. People have done these things we learn for a reason. The process at the lab is exploration—you don’t have a producer that is constantly worrying about money, or “making the day,” or getting that certain shot. It’s about you exploring that scene and making it what you want . . . That was my lesson. Encourage process and failure. It’s special.

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DOGS OF OZ dcamp.com dogsofoz.ban cebook Fa on ow ll Fo ogsofOz @D r te it Tw and m ra ag st In or icial @DogsofOzOff native.is

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A while back, a group of dudes went on a quest to find Sasquatch. They trekked into the Kentucky woods, armed with nothing but sandwich meats and two-by-fours (you’ve got to attract Sasquatch with click-clack mating calls, everybody knows that, duh). They heard a few mysterious click-clack responses, their ham suspiciously went missing, and the gang emerged with photographic proof of the beast—or at least a picture of a very suspect footprint. That intrepid group was Dogs of Oz, and they’ve spent the last couple of years on a similar search for songs they could believe in. They found and captured them on All Shook Up, a monster of an album that was released in October. It's proof that crunchy southern punk is out there lurking . . . alive, well, and ready to eat your deli meats. # NAT I V ENAS HV I L L E

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O B S E R VAT O RY

NAOMI, 19: I found these pants in an open market in Paris.

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T H E

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GALLATIN& STRATTON

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COYOTE By Cooper Breeden*

During a night in the woods, every sound that isn’t routine back at home in my South Nashville bedroom leaves me wide-eyed in my sleeping bag. Though I’m easily spooked in the darkness of the woods, I’m delighted by some wild noises, among them the boisterous yips and howls of the coyote. Many times, their ruckus can sound like a raucous party, but it’s typically just one or two individuals. Coyotes have several kinds of calls: some for locating other members of the pack (which is usually not much larger than a single family), some for claiming their territory, and some to ward off predators and protect their pups. Coyotes’ plans are often at odds with our plans, and it’s only in rare cases that humans don’t emerge the victor. Foremost among coyote controversy is their threat to livestock. Fortunately, coyotes themselves are not at risk of being exterminated—they are actually quite resilient. Population control programs and hunting are not a threat to their existence. Many claim that attempts to control their populations are ineffective. When one or multiple individuals are removed, other coyotes from nearby will quickly move in and take their place.

What’s more, the coyotes who take the structure of an ecosystem, even the place of their recently removed an urban one. They will keep other brethren often produce larger litters. “pests” in check. An urban coyote may This is not as wacky a phenomenon as mean fewer mice trying to make their it sounds. A coyote is a keystone spe- way into your house and fewer rabbits cies, i.e. it plays a vital role in its eco- or deer ravaging your garden (not to system. Removing it will have an effect mention, fewer deer could mean fewer further down the food chain, and in ticks). Furthermore, a neighborhood this case, that means an increase in its coyote could reduce the number of prey populations. With more food and smaller predators, called mesopredaless competition, females tend to have tors, like raccoons or foxes, which could translate to more songbirds sermore pups in their litters. Closer to town, there’s a similar enading you in the morning. Though coyotes in a suburban or controversy, but instead of livestock, it’s our beloved pets. As horrifying urban setting may unfortunately mean as it would be to have a pet snatched we are crowding them out of their natup, coyotes have, for better or worse, ural habitat, it may be possible to coexshown us that they will not be kept ist peacefully. Aside from the benefits out. However, since they tend to follow above, let’s not forget about their eerie their food, the best thing city residents midnight cacophonies. Though their can do is to make their property unat- song may rattle the bones a bit, it’s a tractive to coyotes: don’t leave pet or humbling reminder that not all is tame animal food outside, bring your pets in the world. We could stand to let a in at night, and make sure your human little more wilderness into our daily food and food waste isn’t accessible to lives. coyotes since they’ll eat almost any*Cooper Breeden is the Watershed Restoration thing. and Outreach Coordinator for the Harpeth As a keystone predator, a neighborRiver Watershed Association (HRWA). hood coyote may actually have some He’s also worked in fisheries management, unexpectedly valuable services to ofwatersheds and wetlands restoration, and philanthropy. Learn more about what he and fer. Though it may seem like a stretch, the HRWA are doing at: harpethriver.org their presence could drastically alter # NAT I V ENAS HV I L L E

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Lens: @melissamadisonfuller Personality: @missmargoprice

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