9-3-20 Emerald Media - Weekend Guide

SEPT. 3, 2020

Weekend Guide

Emerald Media

‘MY

LIFE

ON THE LINE’ HOW M5 VIBE WENT FROM THE MILITARY TO MUSIC

COVER: EUGENE RAPPER TALKS ABOUT POETRY, MENTAL HEALTH AND THE MILITARY MENTALITY P. 3

A&C: LONGTIME LOCAL ARTIST SHARES HER LATEST COLLECTION P. 4

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PA G E 2

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COVER

M5 VIBE SPEAKS ON HOW HIS MILITARY EXPERIENCE LED HIM TO PROTEST

BY LUCAS WARNER VOL. 122, ISSUE NO. 5

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ON THE COVER

Holloway is involved in activism and protests in Eugene. While he faces some backlash from other veterans, Holloway believes he can bring new perspectives to his activism because of his military experience. Marcus Holloway, also known as m5 vibe, is a musician and poet based in Eugene, Oregon.

(Will Geschke/Emerald)

Eugene rapper Marcus Holloway got his stage name, m5 vibe, by looking at the stars. At night, he would smoke marijuana and stare at the stars from his countryside home. As a Virgo, Holloway would always want to find his astrological constellation but had trouble. He noticed the star Messier 5, m5 for short, using a phone app and noticed it was the closest star to it.

“The star became my guiding light,” he said. “I want my music to be a similar guiding light.”

Holloway started making music after leaving the army and moving to Eugene. Although he hadn’t written poetry since he was in elementary school, it became necessary for his music and mental health.

“I was in a very isolated and depressed state,” Holloway said, “Writing down my thoughts and forming it into poetry, sharing it with friends who liked it, I realized I was on to something.”

Holloway found a safe spot in poetry.

That poetry became his rap music that he has performed at open mics in cafes and bars around Corvallis, Salem and Eugene. Holloway had no musical influences when he started to write; he saw it as a therapeutic endeavor to get his depression out of the way.

“I didn’t even realize I had a talent for it until I started doing it,” he said.

Holloway sees his music as a form of protest that stems from and speaks about his past military experience. His relationship with the military is complicated. It helped him see the world, but it also put him in situations he never thought he’d experience. The fear and violence that Holloway went through while deployed in Iraq was not something he was ready for.

“Once the first bomb went off, I knew it was real,” he said, “and I started questioning what I was doing.”

But the negatives do come with positives. The military taught him the discipline, focus and perseverance that he now works into his music instead of being a soldier.

As a maker of conscious music, Holloway’s voice as

a veteran stands out on his song “New Religion” when he raps: “We built this man on the back of the brother man / visions of the past got me wondering what time we’re in.” The experience he had as a veteran gives him the knowledge needed to speak on the military’s issues, such as the overprescription of drugs given to veterans once they return home.

Holloway has also been heavily involved with Black Unity, a protest group in Eugene who have organized daily Black Lives Matter protests.

“I come from a military background I was in for over a decade. I’ve seen how the government operates; I’ve seen the mentality,” Holloway said.

“That’s the perspective I think I can bring to the public.

Since there isn’t a big veterans community here.”

His choice to speak up has come with some backlash.

Some veterans he knows have called him a traitor for speaking out against the military. He tries to drown out the noise by not acknowledging that type of thinking and distancing himself from those vets but still is “Paranoid” about people with differing

opinions than his. He sings about this issue in his song by the same title.

“Shoulda never left the army / Shoulda never let them change me / You honor me for my bravery / But it left me fucking crazy,” the song goes.

Holloway speaks about many Black Americans’ issues in his music, such as police violence and voter suppression. Yet he also wants people to acknowledge their mental health. His military experience has caused him issues with his mental health that he hadn’t experienced before. The military controlled how he looked and where he lived; they even promised him a better placement before deploying him a month later.

“IF I CAN PUT MY LIFE ON THE LINE FOR THIS COUNTRY, I CAN PUT MY LIFE ON THE LINE FOR MY MUSIC.” -M5 VIBE “We had some subtle brainwashing in the military,” he said. “I realized the influence that our government has on us. I have to be mindful about what people in power are saying.”

While he’s received accolades in poetry slams and recognition from open mics, it’s been difficult for Holloway to book shows around Eugene. He sees the culture of Eugene’s music scene as being more jam-band-focused. The rotating of college kids can make it difficult for rappers to establish themselves to new groups of students each year. With the COVID-19 pandemic getting onto campus, performing is not feasible. Holloway also says that his rap friends are leaving town because of the lack of opportunity for rap in the Eugene community.

Although complications keep arising for the start-up musician, the perseverance he learned in the army helps him to this day. The tactics that he learned while serving now not only benefit his music career but help him speak out against the organization that taught him these skills.

“If I can put my life on the line for this country,” he said, “I can put my life on the line for my music.”

Holloway poses with his dog, Unity. Marcus Holloway, also known as m5 vibe, is a musician and poet based in Eugene, Oregon.

(Will Geschke/Emerald)

T H U R S D AY, S E P T E M B E R 3 , 2 0 2 0

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PA G E 3

A&C

‘INSPIRATIONS’: A NEW ZONE ART GALLERY COLLECTION EXAMINES NATURE AND MUSIC

BY SARAH-MAE MCCULLOUGH

Gabehart is an expressionist painter and enjoys drawing scenes of nature and musical performers.

Ellen Gabehart is an artist based in Eugene and has a new collection being displayed at the New Zone Art Gallery from September 4-13. (Will Geschke/Emerald)

“1000 GECS & THE TREE OF CLUES”

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continued drawing, eventually turning the pastime into her career. “This strong desire never left my being,” she said.

“I still continue to draw and paint the beauty of nature and music.”

Her latest collection features natural places Gabehart has visited in Oregon and local musicians at venues like the Jazz Station and WOW Hall, where she draws the musicians she sees playing.

“I have sketches of all the musicians in this town practically,” Gabehart said.

Despite challenges posed by Covid-19, New Zone continues to give artists like Gabehart a platform for their work. The gallery reopened June 5, the first day of Phase Two reopening in Oregon, after having been closed for two and a half months. It requires masks and provides hand sanitizer. The 6,000-squarefoot space makes physical distancing manageable, LaRiccia said.

Unlike other galleries in Eugene who are showing their art online (such as the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art) or by appointment (such as White Lotus Gallery), New Zone is open Tuesdays through Sundays from 12 to 6 p.m., making Gabehart’s collection accessible to those who want to avoid crowds. “I knew many people that were uncomfortable coming out during an opening would come out during our regular hours, and we’re the only gallery that’s pretty much open in that way,” LaRiccia said. The gallery tracks visitors and generally has no more than five at a time.

For October, New Zone will take down “Inspirations: Nature and Music” and fill the gallery with “Zone 4 All,” an open art show that was delayed in March due to Covid-19. Interested artists can deliver 2D or 3D pieces to New Zone on Sept. 26 between 12 p.m. and 6 p.m. The exhibit will open on Oct. 2 with the month’s First Friday ArtWeek. In November and December, the gallery will pick up with its regular two-month shows featuring member artists such as Gabehart.

LaRiccia is intent on “trying to have the best possible time in the times that we’re in,” as he runs an art gallery during a pandemic. “The arts, they’ve been through economic downturns and pandemics and wars, and they’ve always come back,” he said.

Emerald Recommendations

For anyone looking for some experimental pop that can overwhelm you in the best way, 100 Gecs’ remix album “1000 Gecs & the Tree of Clues” should be your next listen. Pulling from other artists with different sounds to mix over their already chaotic tracks, it’s a cacophony of heavy soundboard effects, voice manipulation and more for a memorable musical journey through every track. Not for everyone.

-Em Chan

PA G E 4

Every five years, the New Zone Art Gallery throws Ellen Gabehart a birthday party. At the last one, friends and art students gathered in the gallery to celebrate Gabehart’s 85th. “When she turns 90 we’ll have another party for her and one at 95 and one at 100, at 105, she’s going strong,” said Steve LaRiccia, New Zone’s treasurer and gallery coordinator. Gabehart is a member artist at New Zone, but the birthday treatment comes from her unique role in Eugene and Springfield’s art scenes.

Since moving to Eugene around fifty years ago, Gabehart has taught art at high schools, community colleges and art galleries, participated in Eugene and Springfield’s ArtWalks, co-authored a book of art lessons and displayed her work in local venues like New Zone and the Washburne Cafe. “Art is my LIFE!” she wrote in an email to the Daily Emerald.

Gabehart describes her work as expressionist — similar to realism, but not photographic, and with more emphasis on feeling. Many capture the emotions created by music and nature.

“Especially my musician paintings integrate the design of the music,” she said. “My paintings of nature tend to focus on the beauty of the moods in nature.”

Her latest show at New Zone, a collection of paintings titled “Inspirations: Nature and Music,” opens Sept. 4 with a reception at 5:30 p.m. The event will include music, wine and beer and is part of the First Friday ArtWeek 一 a version of Eugene’s traditional First Friday ArtWalk, extended to prevent crowds.

“Inspirations: Nature and Music” captures two of Gabehart’s favorite artistic subjects since childhood.

Growing up in New York City, where she lived in the Bronx, she drew the nature available to her: her mother’s plants, and the trees and stones in the park. After getting into a selective arts high school, she started sketching the musicians playing in school assemblies, intent on capturing the precise forms of the instruments and the feeling of the music. A year later, her parents transferred her to a different high school to study secretarial work. Gabehart failed all her shorthand courses and

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-Lucas Warner