9 minute read
An interview with 49 Burning Condors
Navigating new waters during a trying year, a new EP blooming and conversations with women who rock
As I sat down (virtually) with Kimber Dulin and Andriana Markano from 49 Burning Condors, we got the sense that things are different now. After the past year, it feels like the dust is finally settling after a massive storm. The band had entered 2020, anticipating going full force into the promotion of their first full EP, Truths and Roses. Eager to promote with a marketing plan and live shows queued up, they only got a taste of what it would be like, as they unexpectedly found themselves not only trying to navigate the launch of their new EP but navigating their lives during a global pandemic.
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The band was forced to turn to the digital world of music, and pivoted to live stream performances and upping their social media game - something they would have never dreamed of doing previously. Kimber Dulin, the band’s lead singer and lyricist, recounts “What was tough, is so much of what we love about performing is really about the proximity to people. There’s palpable energy when you're in a room with people who are enjoying your music and you feed off of that - it’s cyclical.” The band successfully performed at the People’s Light drive-in show last October, with a crowd of 200 people in their cars. Kimber elaborates further, “There were two things that happened creatively during the pandemic: you either didn't have any energy, understandably, to write music or to focus on it or you just had this surge of I have to put all of these things that I'm feeling into a place.”
The band’s birthplace was in Philadelphia around 2019. Kimber, their leading heroine, tells us, “I had taken a pilgrimage of sorts to New Orleans by myself and that's where I wrote my first song ever called Rosaleen.” The band began to shape as she and guitarist Chris Tremoglie began collaborating on independent music projects together, Kimber assisting with vocal dubs on Chris’ solo shows. “He was really into like Macabre and this creepy Victorian vibe, so I brought him “Rosaleen” and he absolutely fell in love with it.” After that defining moment, the rest is history as they expanded further and tricked their bassist, Zach Rinck into recording with them for the first time after giving him one week’s notice. “I feel like a lot of people who start bands just accidentally fall into it,” Kimber shares, “and this was no different.” Fast-forward to today, the group is now the full five completed with drummer Jason Gooch and violinist Andriana Markano. Three years have passed and their sound has changed so much since their very first secret EP, which was released many moons ago.
Truths and Roses, their first official studio EP, is described as an effort to show the band’s complete musical capabilities and breadth of styles, as it was the first six songs written by the full five-member band. We celebrate 49 Burning Condors, as they’ve recently completed the studio recording for their newest EP, Seventh Hymnal, only a few weeks back. The picture is painted as they compare it to two of the darker songs off of their first EP “Slow” and “Jim Jones”. From a storytelling standpoint, that album falls back on literary tropes and folk tales about witches and the devil. These concepts felt safer and more comfortable, as telling stories do, in contrast to sharing more intimate experiences. Seventh Hymnal is described as a more vulnerable and personal record, with a darker rock edge to it. With the band being a lot more mature in their sound after this year and having Andriana as a welcome addition to the group, they are more confident. “We’ve settled into ourselves a little bit more, we’ve gotten more comfortable playing together, and we've written all of the songs together. I think it's a really nice new step for us - naturally, music has to evolve - I think that you'll see that when you listen to the new EP,” Kimber adds.
When asked what 49 Burning Condors have planned for the future, they responded that they’re expecting big things in 2022. Outside of some shows planned for the next couple of months, they’re keeping their noses to the grindstone with this new EP, “We are focused on doing it right this time - knowing that we're going to be able to release it the way that we really want to.”
Their new record produced by Matt Poirier is set to release in March 2022. Kimber chalks up this year's victories to her band-mates. “I give full credit to the band. This is the first band I've ever been in and I'm just really fortunate to have people around me who are veterans in this space.” Considering the circumstances, we’d deem all of these projects as far beyond successful.
It’s difficult to ask someone why they chose to be an artist or musician, but Kimber and Andriana's responses are almost identical, both centering around music evoking a certain feeling of completeness that they could not live without.
Although Kimber describes herself as a baby band player, with 49BC being her first official band, she has been singing for as long as she could form words. “I try to seek out joy and not happiness - because happiness to me is very fleeting, but joy is something that can stick with you through anything - that’s music for me. ”As the band’s lyricist, she feels a strong connection to the words themselves and says that if there were ever a world with no music, she would still be writing.
Taking inspiration from another naturalborn writer, Neil Gaiman, with his concept of compost-piling ideas - she explains these ideas can be formed from mundane activities like walking down the street, taking a shower, or even while dreaming - they’re then saved in a notebook until it’s found its melodic match. That’s how her lyrics and melodies start to materialize. The bone-work of the songwriting is usually done by the founding members, Kimber and Chris. The song is then brought to the entire band, and each member writes their own parts. It’s described as a truly collaborative process - adding and removing different elements from songs and exploring different keys until the right balance is struck.
Andriana, the newest member of 49BC, joined in February. The self-proclaimed countrymusic lover grew up listening to Dolly Parton on cassette tape and was classically trained. She describes herself as unique as she is not the one who conceives the initial spark, and with the heavy lifting already done, Andriana’s parts fit perfectly to complement the band’s sound. “I try not to think too much when I'm writing and I just let my fingers do what they're going to do on the instrument. I rely really heavily on my ear. Sometimes I listen back and I have no recollection of playing something
whatsoever, but it’s on the recording.” She brings a certain balance to the group both musically and from a personality perspective.
The word “failure” can feel daunting, but the music world is like a wave, full of ups and downs - triumphs and pitfalls. As the band opens up about their vulnerable moments, we take note of their grace and ability to humble themselves as they ride life’s tricky moments.
Kimber immediately responds to her stories with failure, “there are so many,” she shares terrifying experiences of going on stage in her early years, forgetting to introduce the band. She would sing a song, step back from the microphone, and immediately look at the floor - and would hide in the shadows. She admits, “I still suffer from severe stage fright. It's not a long-term feeling, but people don't notice your mistakes the way that you notice them.” Going up on stage, time and time again has taught her how to handle her fear and overcome it on her own. Being in a band is multi-faceted, she explains, it’s not just the ability to play and write music but there’s a performance aspect to it as well, “You can't possibly expect that you're going to be great and feel natural at all of those things, so performance is a thing I need to work on and that's okay.”
Having been in the music industry for over 20 years, Andriana’s experience with trials spans years. She discloses past experiences of working with two original recording artists, where both projects went south. Being heavily involved in the process with touring, video, and photoshoots, she felt both projects starting to gain momentum and felt so close to touching fame when they both came to a stretching halt. “You work your ass off and put your blood, sweat, and tears into a project that just goes nowhere - you end up making no money and sometimes losing money in the process, but it taught me a good lesson: I'm not necessarily doing this for fame and fortune.” By joining 49 Burning Condors, she’s now found her tribe and is playing music for her right reason.
Looking forward, we can all agree things are changing in the music industry - and for the better. As more independent artists are on the rise, there is space being made for everyone, especially women. “I do think this is a really phenomenal time to be a woman in the industry,” Kimber notes. “There’s a lot of empowerment happening across the board, and I think that we are really coming into our own.”
The band’s own dynamic is very empowering. Kimber voices, “I really feel proud and excited to be female-fronted with like a bunch of guys (aside from Andriana), who like playing my music.”
It’s important to mention that the music space has historically been for women who were thin, young, and conventionally sexy, but the movement away from this is truly coming to light. “Historically, women in music have been put under a microscope,” Andriana notes, “and we’ve often been between a rock and a hard place when it comes to promoting our music.” Sexuality and body positivity quickly come to the surface when it comes to selling music, women are often selling sexuality. The pressure is unimaginable, and it comes in the form of deciding what dress to wear for a show and which picture to post on social media. “I think we’ve been trained into it from a really young age and it’s really hard to escape. Especially if you’ve been in a male-dominated industry. I would imagine that the pressure to go sexy is pretty high.”
As women, we are constantly teetering the line between being too much or too little - the goldilocks complex of needing to be just enough for everyone’s liking. “You can be sexy, but not too sexy. You can't be shy but also too assertive or too confident.” Andriana explains. The overarching message is as women, we need to continue to build each other up and empower one another - both Kimber and Andriana continue to lift women in rock up through their music and message, “You hear a lot about women talking about each other on social media, so much woman on women crime and that drives me crazy. How are we ever going to get anywhere as a society, if we can’t band together and have each other’s backs?”
