PATTERN Magazine Issue 15 Spring 2019

VOLUME NO. 15_15 dollars

FASHIONING A COMMUNITY.

+ FEATURING ANGELA BROWN, POINDEXTER, GUNNAR DEATHERAGE, B SWIFT, DREAM CHIEF AND MORE

THE COLLECTION SUITES NEVER JUST STAY. STAY INSPIRED.

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EDITOR’S LETTER

“TAKE YOUR PLEASURE SERIOUSLY.” — CHARLES EAMES

I LOVE THIS EAMES QUOTE, BECAUSE EVERY PERSON WHO HAS CONTRIBUTED TO OUR PUBLICATION AND organization has done precisely that. in personal application, Eames meant that if you really enjoy doing something, you should take it seriously. Don’t treat it as a casual hobby; invest in it, and then perhaps it will become your life’s work. For him it meant turning his passion for design into his work. For PATTERN it means championing the creative economy* — and every possible mode of creative expression. In this issue we’re specifically talking music.

THANKFULLY, THE MERITS AND JOYS OF MUSIC DO NOT HAVE TO BE EXPLAINED. DARE I SAY, THAT EVERYONE loves music? Genre preferences aside, it would be rare to find someone who doesn’t experience some degree of pleasure from interacting with music, whether at a concert venue or through a pair of headphones.

HOWEVER, I DO THINK THAT MOST US, ON THE CONSUMER SIDE, TAKE MUSIC FOR GRANTED. IT’S BEEN around since the beginning of time, because there’s a certain class of human beings that cannot avoid making music. So we’ve benefited from this irresistible urge, often without giving pause to consider how this music travels from its makers’ imagination to our ears. The music industry has changed A LOT in the last twenty years. It’s no longer a monolithic entity comprised of a small group of gatekeepers. Instead, the industry has become fragmented and wildly diverse, allowing scores of musicians to make a decent living outside of the record label profit machine ... assuming consumers like us are willing to support these independent entrepreneurs.

I’M NOT QUITE SURE IF THE CONSUMER IS FULLY COGNIZANT OF THESE INDUSTRY CHANGES OR THEIR implications, but one thing’s for sure: Music continues to be made, and with strategic investment and support by various communities, it has proven that it can drive local economies in the same way that tech or sports can. It’s inspiring to see civic leaders in cities around the world grasp the importance of including its creative class** in an overall economic development strategy, and taking steps to implement policies to aid its growth and prosperity.

IN INDY WE KNOW THAT TAKING OUR PLEASURES SERIOUSLY CAN PAY OFF HANDSOMELY; WE’VE SEEN IT happen with sports, and it has benefited fans and scoffers equally as our city’s prosperity has been vastly influenced by the presence of world-class teams and facilities. Which is why I am so excited about Indy Chamber’s efforts toward formulating a city-wide strategy around music.

IN THIS ISSUE YOU CAN READ ABOUT THIS NEW INITIATIVE, AS WELL AS GET TO KNOW JUST A HANDFUL OF people who are both in the heart and on the fringes of what is undeniably a growing scene of music makers, and music-making facilitators. There is clearly no shortage of world-class talent in Central Indiana, and I’m thrilled that we are able to celebrate you once again in print in our second “Music Issue.”

ONWARD! POLINA OSHEROV_EDITOR-IN-CHIEF *Creative Economy: The term increasingly refers to all economic activity that depends on a person’s individual creativity for its economic value, whether the result has a cultural element or not. In this usage, the creative economy occurs wherever individual creativity is the main source of value and the main cause of a transaction. (John Howkins) **Creative Class: A class of workers that is composed of scientists and engineers, university professors, poets, and architects, and it also includes people in design, education, arts, music, and entertainment, whose economic function is to create new ideas, new technology and/or creative content. (Richard Florida)

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PATTERN VOLUME NO. 15

Visit our new showroom at 1001 E. 86th St.

“Design is like music. Harmony is what we constantly strive for. At home we want a peaceful atmosphere where the objects are the notes and nothing is off-key.” -Charlotte Moss

MYKBDHOME.COM KITCHENS BY DESIGN | KBD HOME | CUSTOM DRAPERY 1001 EAST 86TH STREET INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46240 | 317.815.8880

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EDITORIAL

Editor & Creative Director Polina Osherov

Distributed worldwide

by Publishers Distribution Group Inc. pdgmags.com Printed by Fineline Printing, Indianapolis IN USA PATTERN Magazine ISSN 2326-6449 is published by PATTERN

Design Director Emeritus Kathy Davis

DIGITAL

Managing Editor Samantha Ripperger

Online Content Manager Sam Ripperger

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Michael Ault Gabrielle Cheikh Julie Heath Freddie Lockett Lindsey Macyauski Sherron Rogers Sara Savu Adam Thies Barry Wormser Tamara Zahn

SUBSCRIPTION

Visit patternindy.com/subscribe Back issues, permissions, reprints info@ patternindy.com

Design Director Lindsay Hadley Graphic Design Fellow Claire Bowles

Production Editor Julie Valentine Editor-at-Large Eric Rees New York Editor Janette Beckman Copy Editor Jami Stall Staff Photographer Esther Boston

DESIGNERS & ILLUSTRATORS Doug Eaddy Byron Elliott John Ilang-Ilang Brian Kumle Kipp Normand Jon McClure Aaron Scamihorn Jeremy Steiner Jenny Tod

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Reagan Allen Elese Bales Janette Beckman Willyum Baulkey Wil Foster Julian Jones Chantal Sallade Christopher Whonsetler Hunter Zieske

WRITERS

Josh Baker Ebony Chappel Jennifer Delgadillo Peter Dunn Crystal Hammon Ken Honeywell David Lindquist Euan Makepeace Rasul A. Mowatt Theresa Procopio Eric Rees Burton Runyon Monica Sallay

DESIGN INTERN Megan Gray

PHOTOGRAPHY INTERNS Jamar Mitchell Brooke Taylor

RETOUCHER Wendy Towle

A SPECIAL THANKS TO

Brian Payne and Central Indiana Community Foundation, Buckingham Properties, and Sun King Brewing for their ongoing support. And to all of our creative fellows and interns for their hard work. Also to Josh Baker and Ben Jackson for their expertise and assistance with this issue.

Shout-out to Drayco McCoy. We’ll get you next time!

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PATTERN VOLUME NO. 15

Available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook.

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CONTENTS PATTERN ISSUE NO. 15 patternindy.com

WORDS

EDITOR’S LETTER, 2 CONTRIBUTORS, 8 SOUNDING OFF, 18 Q+A B SWIFT, 28 BOOM TOWN, 30 GANG GANG, 32 DRUMMING UP A CONVERSATION, 36 EXUDING YELLOW VIBES, 40 MUSICAL NUMBERS, 44 THE SECRET HISTORY OF JAZZ IN INDIANAPOLIS, 46 TUTTI, 48 RHYTHM OF THE RACE TRACK, 64 STUDIO CENTRAL, 68 ANGELA BROWN: THE FUTURE OF OPERA, 75 Q+A CHRIS WELZ, 78 HOMEGROWN HITMAKERS, 80 Q+A CODI BANKS, 84 SOUND BYTES, 86 PATTERN ON THE ROAD, 95 THE GUNNAR PROJECT, 96 RAINBOW BLONDE, 102 INDY’S ROCK-Y PAST, 132 VOL. 14 LANUCH PARTY, 158 OP-ED, 160

IMAGES

REPLAY, 10 NOTEWORTHY ACCESSORIES, 23 THIS MIGHT GET LOUD, 106 ROCK STARS, 116 ON THE WALL, 126 TRUE BLUE, 138 HAVANA NIGHTS, 146 DENIM HARMONY, 150 ON THE COVER Josie, L Modelz Management Photography by Wil Foster Art Direction by Julie Valentine Styling by Michelle Steele Hair by Philip Salmon Makeup by Kathy Moberly Wardrobe: Coat J. Crew Neck Scarf Stylist’s Own Pants Line and Dot (Lesley Jane) Shoes J. Crew ON THIS PAGE Avery O’Rourke, Next Management Photography by Esther Boston Styling by Melynda Choothesa Assisted by Polina Osherov Stylist Assistant Julie Valentine Makeup by Whitney Costner Hair by Philip Salmon Wardrobe: Hair Pins stylist’s own Hairpins Tuesday Bassen Earrings stylist’s own Coat Zara Bodysuit American Apparel Skirt IRISHLATINA Shoes I’alave VOLUME NO. 15 6 PATTERN

Amazing food.

Amazing service.

Surf and Turf for days.

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CONTRIBUTORS

If you could go on tour with any musical act, past or current, who would it be and why?

JOSH BAKER BOB DYLAN. HE’S A GENIUS SONGWRITER, DIDN’T REALLY CARE WHAT ANYONE THOUGHT OF HIM AND YOU’D MOST LIKELY GET A DIFFERENT SHOW EVERY NIGHT. PLUS HE KICKED ME OUT OF A SOUNDCHECK AT RED ROCKS, AND WE’VE NOT TALKED IT OUT YET.

RASUL A. MOWATT PARLIAMENT/FUNKADELIC, FROM 1972-1979. BESIDES GETTING TO SEE THE MOTHERSHIP LAND ON A REGULAR BASIS, GEORGE CLINTON, EDDIE HAZEL, AND EVENTUALLY BERNIE WORRILL’S THOUGHT PROCESS, OR HEARING GLENN GOINS’ VOCALS ON THE DAILY, I JUST WANT TO BE PRESENT AT THEIR NEARLEGENDARY JAM SESSIONS THAT WENT ON FOR HOURS. JUST TO BE THERE AND SECRETLY PUSH RECORD, IS A THOUGHT OF PURE BLISS. Associate Professor in the Department of American Studies and within the School of Public Health at Indiana University, Rasul A. Mowatt is a faculty director of the Andrew W. Mellon funded Platform, an Arts & Humanities Research Laboratory on Indiana Studies, and Global Popular Music DJ. His primary areas of focus in research and teaching are: social justice, critical pedagogy, cultural studies, and leisure studies. His published work is strongly centered on critiquing society for issues that are most prevalent in impacting quality of life, and he has given talks in Brazil, Britain, China, Germany, South Africa, Sweden, and Turkey among other countries. Additionally, he has been deejaying since 1984 during the peak era of House Music in Chicago. He deejays with one focus: “What comes from the heart, will touch the spirit.”.

Josh Baker is a concert promoter, entrepreneur, and founder of Indianapolis music mainstays: MOKB Presents, HI-FI Indy, and Do317. Over the course of the past twenty years, he’s held a number of music-industry positions, including radio, record retail, media manufacturing, record label, sponsorship, and artist management. He’s currently an active member of the Music Cities Steering Committee. @jblampin

CLAIRE BOWLES I WOULD HAPPILY BOARD A WAYBACK TIME MACHINE AND JOIN ELTON JOHN IN HIS 1973 TOUR, CELEBRATING THE RELEASE OF HIS YELLOW BRICK ROAD ALBUM. I INHERITED A LOVE OF THIS ALBUM FROM MY PARENTS AND HAVEN’T STOPPED LISTENING TO IT SINCE. I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE SEEN IT LIVE, DURING THE HYPE OF ITS RELEASE IN THE 1970S. THE COSTUMES, THE SPARKLES, THE GLASSES. ALL THE CLASSICS OF IT. I BET IT WAS UNFORGETTABLE. Claire Bowles is a graphic designer currently working as a PATTERN design fellow. When Claire isn’t at the PATTERN headquarters, you can most likely find her at the nearest coffee shop, sipping on an iced coffee. She spends most of her time geeking out over graphic design trends, reading, watching cat videos, and advocating for Christmas music before Thanksgiving. @clairelizabethb

LINDSAY HADLEY I’M SO SAD THAT I MISSED SEEING CHARLES BRADLEY LIVE — THE EMOTION HE POURED INTO EVERY SONG WAS BOTH ADMIRABLE AND ENVIABLE. TODAY, I’D LOVE TO BE IN THE ROOM WHILE MARK RONSON’S WHEELS ARE TURNING. SOMEHOW HE ALWAYS KNOWS HOW TO AMPLIFY A GREAT TRACK INTO A PHENOMENAL ONE. IT’S SOMETHING I’D LIKE TO KNOW HOW TO TRANSLATE TO MY OWN PRINT PIECES. Unmistakable in her design approach, her fashion sense, and even her laugh, Lindsay Hadley is a local treasure with national experience. She was a favorite of her students when she was a professor of Advertising Design at SCAD, but is perhaps even more beloved by them now that many have graduated to successful careers. Despite her love of teaching, Lindsay ultimately followed their lead in 2009 and pursued success outside the world of academia. Since then, she’s helped agencies craft campaigns for everyone from international corporations to local nonprofits. Lindsay’s commitment to bold color was even reflected in the birth of her son Milo, who’s now in preschool and still blessed with the cutest bright, red hair you ever did see. @lindsayhadley_

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BYRON ELLIOTT I WOULD LOVE TO GO ON TOUR WITH THE ROBERT GLASPER. THE GUY IS SUPER TALENTED, MAD FUNNY, AND SEEMS LIKE HE’D BE PRETTY FUN TO HANG OUT WITH. Co-owner and Art Director for lifestyle brand Blacksheep Collective, Byron Elliott has always had a passion for Illustration, graphic design, and most recently has developed a strong zeal and respect for the fashion world. He is husband to the amazing April Elliott (the second half and backbone of Blacksheep Collective) and has three awesome and extremely energetic sons; Ben, Alex, and Kendall. @blkshpco // @studioblkshpco // blkshpco.com

JULIE VALENTINE EVERYONE WHO KNOWS ME WILL EXPECT ME TO SAY LADY GAGA, AND THOUGH I WANT TO SHOCK THEM BY NAMING ANOTHER ARTIST INSTEAD … THERE IS NO ONE ELSE. YES, I WOULD LOVE TO GO ON HER MONSTER BALL TOUR. ALTHOUGH I WON’T BE PICKY. HER VISUALS, UNDENIABLE TALENT, AND DEDICATION TO HER ART ARE INSPIRING.

NATALIE GLIDEWELL KACEY MUSGRAVES OR SHARON VAN ETTEN. I’M SUCH A FAN OF KACEY’S. SHE IS UNAPOLOGETICALLY HERSELF, AN INNOVATOR IN HER SPACE AND BEYOND, AND HAS FUN IN THE MEANTIME. AND I HAVEN’T STOPPED LISTENING TO SHARON VAN ETTEN’S NEW ALBUM REMIND ME TOMORROW SINCE IT WAS RELEASED IN JANUARY. SHARON IS AN INDIE/FOLK ROCK MAINSTAY AND ONE OF MY BIGGEST INSPIRATIONS IN THE LAST FEW YEARS. TOURING WITH EITHER OF THEM WOULD BE A DREAM.

Stylist and Project Manager for PATTERN, Julie Valentine has art directed numerous editorial shoots and been instrumental in many of the magazine’s mammoth projects, including the Goodwill of Central Indiana campaign last issue. In her spare time, she loves going for long runs or immersing herself in the latest fashion or music news. She would give her right thumb to meet Lady Gaga and play dress-up in her closet. @thejulievalentine // julievalentinecreative.com

A proud Hoosier, recent Ball State grad, and 23-year-old Indy resident, I’m passionate about live music and making it a positive experience for everyone involved. That’s why I work for MOKB Presents and HI-FI Indy, as well as serve on the Musical Family Tree board. When I’m not at a show, I’m watering my plants, making a Food52 recipe, flipping through the bins at LUNA and Indy CD & Vinyl, or reading Cheryl Strayed’s Wild before taking a much needed nature walk. @natglide

JESSICA HUSEK

KEN HONEYWELL

I WOULD DIE HAPPY IF I COULD GO ON TOUR WITH BEYONCÉ, EVEN FOR ONE SHOW. I’M SO CURIOUS TO SEE EVERYTHING THAT GOES INTO CREATING SUCH AN IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE, FROM STAGE AND SOUND DESIGN TO VIDEO PRODUCTION, TO HOW BEYONCÉ GETS INTO A STATE OF MIND TO GIVE SO MUCH OF HERSELF ON STAGE.

PATTI SMITH IN 1975/1976. IT WAS THE GENESIS OF THE PUNK SCENE IN NEW YORK, AND WHAT SHE WAS DOING HAD ITS ROOTS IN POETRY AND PERFORMANCE ART AS MUCH AS IN OUTSIDER ROCK AND ROLL, SORT OF THE FLIP SIDE OF THE VERY THEATRICAL GENESIS ALBUMS I LOVED AT THE TIME. HORSES WAS AN ALBUM THAT CHANGED THE WAY I RELATED TO MUSIC; IT WAS BRASH AND SMART AND UGLY AND SEXY IN A WAY I’D NEVER EXPERIENCED. I WOULD HAVE LOVED TO HAVE BEEN A WITNESS TO THAT STUFF ON STAGE.

Jessica Husek is an Associate Creative Director at Element Three, an advertising agency in Indianapolis.

It turns out advertising is the perfect place for a writer who never really loved grammar as much as storytelling. @jesshusek // jessica.husek.com

Ken Honeywell is founder and creative director of Fountain Square-based Well Done Marketing and one of the founders of Tonic Ball, the annual local music event that raises money to support Second Helpings. He has served on the boards of Second Helpings, Spirit & Place, Southeast Neighborhood School of Excellence, Second Story, and other nonprofit organizations. Honeywell is unabashed in his love for the stories of John Cheever, the novels of Muriel Spark, and the music of Gram Parsons, XTC, and Peter Gabriel-era Genesis. When he’s not working, you can find him reading, baking, and hanging out with his wife Becky, mutt Jeff (Tweedy), and cats Elvis (Costello) and Midge in and around their St. Joseph-neighborhood home.

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r eplay VINTAGE CONCERT TEES. EIGHTIES’-INSPIRED MAKEUP. REPEAT.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY WILLYUM BAULKEY

MAKEUP AND STYLE BY DANIELLE FRENCH MODEL MICHI D. DESIGN BY MEGAN GRAY

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NARS BLUSH IN TAOS GLO SKIN BEAUTY SHIMMER DUO IN CANDLE PAT MCGRATH LABS MATTE TRANCE LIPSTICK IN FLESH 3 GLO SKIN BEAUTY CREAM STAY SHADOW STICK IN CANYON SMASHBOX EYESHADOW IN WAIT, WHAT? GLO SKIN BEAUTY EYESHADOW IN PENNY AND EMBER

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HOURGLASS AMBIENT STROBE LIGHT OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE COSMETICS LIP TAR IN TARRED THE BALM COSMETICS MATTE EYESHADOW IN MATT AHMED GLO SKIN BEAUTY CREAM STAY SHOW STICK IN PITCH AND ENVY

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URBAN DECAY SMOKED EYESHADOW IN EVIDENCE JANE IREDALE MYSTICAL EYELINER IN SAPPHIRE URBAN DECAY EYESHADOW IN SOLSTICE (USED ON CHEEKS) YSL MASCARA IN VINYL COUTURE

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INDUSTRY INSIDERS

SOUNDING OFF

TWO HIGHLY OPINIONATED INDY MUSIC VETS GO ON THE RECORD ABOUT ALL SORTS OF THINGS. David Lindquist and Laura Steele meet on the Egyptian Room stage to chat about personal music memories, why some songs endure, and what’s to gain if Indianapolis becomes a “music city.”

DL: I don’t know, what do they all have in common?

LS: Not one of those bands that you just listed, Dave, are in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

DL: Let’s talk about our amphitheater in Noblesville, now known as Ruoff Home Mortgage Music Center. Did you know that in 2018 it ranked as the No. 1 top-selling amphitheater in the world?

Lindquist has reported about music and pop culture for The Indianapolis Star since 1998. Steele reigns as the deejay queen of classic rock — an on-air personality at WJJK-FM (104.5) — who’s been heard on Indianapolis radio stations since 1999.

DL: See, I didn’t want to get into this again.

LS: That’s fantastic.

LS: I’m getting into it with you...

DL: Yeah. What do you think about that?

DL: Alright.

David Lindquist: You’re on a station that plays music from the ’70s and ’80s, and you’re still right at the top of the popularity of Indianapolis radio stations. Why is that?

LS: ...because that is criminal.

LS: It means we love our music here in the Midwest.

The question is: If we have such great appreciation for music, what about our local music scene and where we are with that?

Laura Steele: Why does the music have such great staying power? ‘Cause it’s good. There’s a pureness to that music. Things that are pure stick around longer. It’s just good, healthy, hearty, great-sounding music that has cross-generational appeal. My elevenyear-old daughter will hear Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing,” and she’ll belt it out. Also having popular shows like “Glee” and “Pitch Perfect” that utilize these great songs has kept the music very much in the public eye. No question, music from the ’70s and ’80s seems to have staying power.

DL: So you’re a believer in three chords and the truth?

LS: Totally. I love three chords and the truth. Hand someone like Eric Clapton a guitar and ask him to do “99 Bottles Of Beer On The Wall” in his way, and it would sound good. What do you think is the reason for the staying power of these classic songs?

DL: There’s a lot of validity to what you’re saying. I also think some of it is nostalgia. I’m interested in that ... A big thing in our lifetime was MTV, right?

LS: Absolutely.

DL: MTV was a time where musicians became oncamera stars. However, think about the Doobie Brothers. Think about Boston or REO Speedwagon or Styx. Those were not necessarily video acts. But their songs are in heavy, heavy rotation to this very day.

LS: On stations across the country. Do you know, all those bands that you just listed? Do you know what they all have in common?

DL: No, I disagree with you. Here’s the thing: One of the key determinants for being in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame...

DL: …Is influence.

DL: Great question. I’ve written about music at The Indianapolis Star since 1998. And that adds up to about twenty-one years of hoping, trying to nudge, wishing that an Indianapolis musician would break out to massive mainstream success. And it hasn’t happened yet.

LS: How does “Black Water” by the Doobie Brothers not influence people over the years?

LS: John Mellencamp is the closest thing. Who else?

Nobody.

DL: It’s just a fun song.

DL: Right. So it’s encouraging that in the past year some of the tastemakers in Indianapolis are convincing people that music is a valuable commodity in terms of attracting people to work here, maybe preventing brain drain from people who graduate from the colleges in Indiana. So some people in town are working with this England-based initiative called Music Cities, and they’re looking at what can be done to make music an important part of Indianapolis. And one of the very first steps is that they’re going to do an audit of the local music industry; what venues do we have, what recording studios do we have? What musicians are available for hire? Once you get all this information in one place, then you can look at what we have and determine where to point the resources to help local artists grow. The long-term goal is to make Indianapolis a music city. So by valuing musicians and venues as either a tourist attraction, or a part of the economy, then maybe that next step, which is kind of a pie-inthe-sky kind of thing, will follow.

LS: …Is rock!

LS: What about Styx’ “Come Sail Away”?

DL: Good song, except that stuff wasn’t original at the time.

LS: Yeah, but it’s rock and it’s good music! Do you think that what comes out today is gonna be something that people can turn on the radio in a car and sing like “Bohemian Rhapsody”? All I’m saying is that it doesn’t seem right that they induct Tupac when there are plenty of deserving people in line ahead of him.

DL: Yeah, but the point is that the nontraditional rock ’n’ roll people who are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame shook up the entire culture. I mean, they moved the needle. You just have to look at it differently.

LS: Peter Frampton moved my needle when I played, “Do You Feel Like We Do.” (laughs) One of my favorite songs, it was thirteen minutes, I could drop it and walk away. Peter Frampton hasn’t been inducted yet.

I think that’s criminal.

LS: That would be incredible!

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David: The entire landscape of pop culture has been splintered during the Internet age, right? Something that John Mellencamp has said to me on more than one occasion is when “Jack & Diane” was the No. 1 song in the country, everybody knew that “Jack & Diane” was the No. 1 song in the country. That doesn’t happen today, which some people can bemoan and say isn’t a great thing. But on the flip side, it’s also made it possible for an act to make a living and be a working musician.

What I think we’ve lost is stratosphere superstardom where like, Joe Perry and Steven Tyler are jet-setting on private planes all over. That era of “rock star,” I think, is probably over. But because of how the music industry has evolved, it’s possible for an Indiana band like the Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band — who is unknown to probably 99.9 percent of people in the world — to still have an audience all over the world where they can sell 1,000 tickets a night. So that’s cool.

DL: What would you like to see happen in our city in terms of music?

Laura: I love the Reverend and that’s a fantastic example. I imagine they’re probably doing very well with selling those tickets.

LS: I thought they still do that?

DL: Exactly. They love to travel the world making music.

Their Instagram is just filled with the Rev fishing and hunting in warm climates all the time, so I think, yeah, they’re living the life.

LS: Speaking of Instagram, that seems to be more important now in music than being No. 1 on the charts.

DL: Very true. Look at Cardi B. She started as an Instagram personality, then was featured on a couple of seasons of Love and Hip Hop: New York. This year she has blown up. Grammy nominations rained all upon her. That’s a 2019 story. We’ve gone beyond, “Oh, you’re on American Idol and then you become a star.”

Now, you can literally do it yourself. She did it herself.

LS: And that’s admirable, but it doesn’t mean I like her music.

LS: I’d love for Indianapolis to have its own, large weekend-long music festival that would attract people from all over the country. Maybe held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but not during the Indy 500? Something like a rock legends weekend?

DL: Well, it’s true that almost every city in America has a thriving festival. The three big ones in the U.S. would be Coachella, Bonnaroo, and Lollapalooza.

LS: I’ve been to all of them and love them all.

DL: We had something that could have and should have grown into being Indianapolis’ first big music fest, and it was the original Indy Jazz Fest.

DL: Indy Jazz Fest does not exist the way that it did then. For the first few years, it was a multi-stage, multi-day event in White River State Park and Military Park. They had an Americana stage and they had a more traditional jazz stage. I can’t believe the people I saw in those first few years. I saw Ray Charles, Al Green, Aretha Franklin. On the jazz side I saw Elvin Jones. I can’t believe I saw Elvin Jones in person. So I’m always grateful that that happened.

LS: So what happened?

DL: The change was weather-related. They weren’t prepared for some weather one year and they lost a lot of money. And it really changed the trajectory of that entire event. Today, Indy Jazz Fest is a series of shows in smaller indoor venues. And I just think, man, if we could have nurtured it and had Indy Jazz Fest be that multi-stage multi-day event, it would be pretty cool.

But we’re here for PATTERN Magazine, and it would be good to chat about fashion and music. I’m not a person who wears the trappings of rock ’n’ roll, but you...

LS: I wear rock ’n’ roll. My favorite way to describe my fashion sense is if the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum got sick and barfed all over me. I have a quite a collection of band shirts. And look at this watch.

It totally doesn’t have the right time. Because if I’m on rock ’n’ roll, time, I’m going to be late anyway. So what’s it matter? (laughs)

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DL: So what’s the watch?

LS: It’s a turntable with a heart. It was actually a gift from a fellow radio personality, Laura Duncan, who works at WTTS. When I left my job of 15 years at another radio station, we had a farewell party and she gave me this watch. I just love it! I get so many compliments on it. I usually wear it at music festivals.

And here’s a cuff made out of a David Bowie album. A boyfriend gave it to me. I guess some young kid who was very good at woodworking got some records from his dad and started making these cuffs.

DL: Interesting! Indianapolis has a couple of really great music artists, not talking about musicians in this case. A gentleman named Lobyn Hamilton makes high, high, high-end stuff out of vinyl. It’s just mind blowing what he does. And there’s another artist named Elvis Mires who takes cassette tapes to make art. The tape, not the cassette. Who are some musicians whose style you admire?

LS: My favorite is Robert Palmer. I think he just was so fantastically dressed all the time. Also, remember he made that amazing music video, “Addicted To Love,” with those models in black dresses, red lips and guitars? I so wanted to be one of those ladies. What about you?

DL: I grew up in a very small, agrarian town in Illinois.

And I was a member of the Future Farmers of America.

When I was in high school, I started seeing John Mellencamp wearing his blue corduroy FFA jacket and Peter Buck and Bill Berry from REM would wear FFA jackets, too. I thought that was the coolest thing. ✂

“BECAUSE OF HOW THE MUSIC INDUSTRY HAS EVOLVED, IT’S POSSIBLE FOR AN INDIANA BAND...TO HAVE AN AUDIENCE ALL OVER THE WORLD...”

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B SWIFT. RADIO DJ. MEDIA PERSONALITY. WORDS BY POLINA OSHEROV + PHOTOGRAPH BY REAGAN ALLEN

Just be you and stay true, and don’t let somebody steer you off your direction.

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Germaine Russell, better known to the world as B Swift, grew up on the westside in a family of musicians. He learned an instrument at a young age, but ultimately ended up in radio, working his way up to reigning over the Hot 96.3 airwaves as its weekday evening headliner.

Swift is deeply connected to Indianapolis, emceeing Pacer games, speaking to students at local school, and hosting social events.

Polina Osherov: You’ve been a deejay at the same radio station for sixteen years. How do you feel about that?

B. Swift: What’s so crazy is that I never wanted to do radio. So, for me to get in, and to still be here, and to be doing what I’m doing — I’m cool with it. I can be lazy and be myself. (laughs) It’s a great job. I love the people I work with.

PO: Being in this market for as long as you have been must give you a pretty good bird’s-eye view of how the music scene in Indy has evolved over the last twenty years. What are your thoughts? Are we moving in the right direction?

BS: Yes. I think we are. When I started sixteen years ago, we definitely had some noteworthy artists. Not as many as there are now, but there were some. You had the G Stacks, the Jeannie Max, the Trilogies, the Lil’ Nuts, the Two Skies, and a few other people. But when you look at today’s scene that number triples and quadruples, and the support is way better now than what it’s ever been. And I think that’s dope. Internet has brought a whole different life to the scene now.

PO: How does radio play into this new era? How do you guys engage with local musicians?

BS: I used to do a challenge where I would let two local artists battle it out over the air. Right now we just kicked off something called Up Next where people can go to Hot963.com and upload their songs. This gives musicians a chance to be featured on the radio, or on our website, or even as a featured performer at an event we have. I think radio has to figure out how to help the artists. Back in the day, radio kind of broke records and made artists who they are, and in today’s world you don’t need radio. You’ve got the Internet, you’ve got Instagram, you’ve got social media, and radio’s like the alley-oop.

So, even though we might not play a lot of local music, we try to give the opportunity in different ways, whether it’s performing on stage at a Gucci Mane concert, or at

our Santa Slam with Migos, or at a local showcase that the station is putting together. So, that’s where we are with it now. Just trying to make sure we are a part of the growth in so many different ways, instead of just playing a song, right?

PO: Do you get a good response to the contests that feature local talent?

BS: Definitely. When we did the Gucci Mane contest, we got over 200 submissions in a matter of 48 hours. And I think this Up Next thing, we just kicked it off, is going to be huge and crazy once it catches, ‘cause people are already asking about it.

PO: One of the things around Indy that might be a disappointment for people associated with the industry is that we haven’t had a breakout artist yet.

BS: True.

PO: Any predictions? Is anybody warm?

BS: I can name so many people when it comes to predictions from Poindexter to Tragic to Paris La Damme to Kitty Red. And I’m a huge fan of Oreo Jones. I think he is something special. So, it’s hard for me to say who is going to be the one, but I feel like something’s going to happen at some point. We just have to figure out how

to create the wave of support. Most places when you see an artist break out, it’s because of the way their community gravitates to them, and I think we’re just now like, grabbing that point. It’s also about the timing.

Like, I don’t think there’s something we can do to blow artists up; it’s just all about perfect timing and the right situation, which I feel like is going to happen sooner rather than later.

PO: Do you think that hip-hop is going to be the genre that’s going to generate a break out artist?

BS: Not at all. I think Eddy Blake is really great. He has a song called “Ghost Town,” which I really love. I think that kid has a song that can go, and he’s not hip-hop.

I don’t even know what to call it. It’s not pop music, but it’s just like a perfect blend of the two. I love that record.

Then there are some R&B singers. Loray is a beautiful singer with a beautiful voice, and she could be next.

Indianapolis is known for R&B — Baby Face, After 7. You know what I mean? So that’s probably going to be the very first artist, I think, that goes.

PO: What advice do you have for up-and-coming musicians that want to make it?

BS: Don’t let nobody tell you what you can and what you can’t do. I think that’s the biggest thing, especially in this industry because you’re always going to run into somebody who might like what you do, or might not like what you do. People can be so discouraged saying, “Oh, that’s not the sound for the moment. They don’t want this sound. It’s old.” But you just got to keep being you, and I think your music eventually takes off whether it’s mainstream or whether it’s your local club circuits. And you can make thousands and thousands of dollars touring around your local area. Just be you and stay true, and don’t let somebody steer you off your direction.

PO: Well, whatever the case might be, we have your prediction documented for posterity.

BS: Yeah, remember I said this. (laughs)

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WORDS BY CRYSTAL HAMMON ILLUSTRATION BY KIPP NORMAND

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n any given night of the week, Fountain Square’s music venue, HI-FI Indy, is populated with young, educated tech workers. After a long day at Angie’s List, Salesforce, or Cummins, it’s their time to unwind, refresh themselves, and indulge a sense of adventure with live music that’s new and different.

Their live concert habit is a well-known fact to many employers. When you’re trying to attract and keep human capital, having a vibrant nightlife has become a valuable bargaining chip. The current and future workforce gives it as much importance as access to good schools, adequate housing, and public transit.

Serving this customer base with live music by local and regional artists and bands is an intense, heads-down experience that offers little downtime for business owners like Josh Baker, founder of HI-FI Indy, MOKB Presents, and Do317. Running three music-related businesses is demanding enough that Baker admits he hadn’t noticed the natural affinity he shares with thought leaders who are planning one of the city’s latest economic development strategies: to leverage the Indianapolis music scene as a magnet for businesses and the people they hire.

Baker’s eyes were opened in 2017 when the Indy Chamber invited him to attend an annual conference in Memphis known as Music Cities Convention. Funded through a grant written by Michael Kaufmann, the trip included a mix of local people with a stake in the music business.

There Baker saw how other cities had connected all the dots — the philanthropic organizations, city government and ordinances, and businesses with jobs related to live music — all working together and having conversations about how to support the music industry.

“My takeaway was that we didn’t have that, and yet we were further along than most of these cities in terms of the assets we already have,” he says. “Great musicians, great songwriters, great venues, great nonprofits — we kind of had all these things. We just didn’t have a plan.”

Baker returned to Indianapolis enthused about the potential to raise the city’s profile as a music city and what it could do for the local economy. His reaction was exactly what the Indy Chamber had hoped to stimulate.

Measuring music’s economic impact “One of the major things that’s happened in the last five to ten years is a fundamental change in our economic development focus,” says Jim Rawlinson, regulatory and permitting ombudsman for the Indy Chamber. “The new model for economic development is understanding what companies you have and making sure their needs are being met locally, so they can grow, expand, and hire.”

Rawlinson says this national and local trend attracts and retains companies that are more invested in community development, neighborhoods, and local quality of life.

Rawlinson and other local leaders like Mike Huber, president and CEO of the Indy Chamber, are also local musicians, and they recognized that the city had reached a pivotal moment. “We have a lot of local leadership with significant civic power who really understand what music can do for our economy and our quality of life,” Rawlinson says.

From the mayor’s office, to the city’s most notable thought leaders and business owners, the Chamber found a surplus of people who were ready to help Indianapolis capitalize on its music scene — not as an arts strategy, but as an economic development strategy mobilized by the arts sector.

Anxious to see Indianapolis take the next step toward that vision, Baker approached Sound Diplomacy,

the Canadian strategic consultant that hosted the 2017 Music Cities Convention he attended in Memphis. He offered to host the next national convention in Indianapolis, and that resulted in a smaller regional conference held last May at HI-FI Indy, where influencers from all corners of the city gathered.

“The whole goal of this thing was to get people talking and to see if we had something worth pursuing,” Baker says. “From the Chamber’s perspective, that ultimately led to where we are now, with a legitimate economic development study that is going to give us a lot of data to show what music’s impact on the city really is.”

Back to the future The Indy Chamber recently commissioned Sound Diplomacy to begin a twelve- to eighteen-month study as part of Indy Music Strategy, an initiative Rawlinson compares to the one that made Indianapolis an amateur sports center in the 1980s. “Indianapolis economic development has always been based on strategically going after sectors of the economy, getting a good understanding of them, and finding out how to become a leader in them,” he says. “We’ve done it with life sciences, with racing, with logistics, with healthcare, and with education.”

The $150,000 study, which officially started in February, is funded by a broad base of investors and stakeholders, most of which aren’t typically approached for financial support. From Rawlinson’s perspective, that’s an important distinction. “There is a limited amount of money for arts organizations and artists, and the last thing we need to do is take money away from that pool,” he says.

Since the Chamber first announced the Indy Music Strategy, some local stakeholders have expressed impatience and curiosity about why the project will take so long. “We have a fairly robust way of finding everything, and we work with local partners to help validate what we find,” says Shain Shapiro, president and CEO of Sound Diplomacy. “We’re asking local partners how many people come to their gigs and learning how networks work across genre and across sectors. It takes a while to get it right.” Shapiro says the community development aspects of this project will be visible over the next six months.

The study will unfold in three parts: • written music vision and ecological impact • economic impact assessment • music strategy and marketing plan.

What happens after the study varies from place to place, according to Shapiro. “Our job is to gather the data and produce an irrefutable, comprehensive baseline of the value of music across various sectors,” he says.

“In some places, we’ve been able to change laws and zoning ordinances that may not be supportive of music and music infrastructure as they could be. In other cities, we’ve seen new groups be formed and funded to support the music economy, whether it be through a commission, an industry group or something like that.

In other places, we’ve seen city councils and chambers investing in permanent policy structures and strategies around music, such as music officers.”

How a plan comes together It’s premature to read too much into a study that hasn’t been done yet, but everyone agrees that Indianapolis has some clear areas of opportunity to offer better support for its music ecology. Among them: • Possible changes to ordinances that would give people of all ages access to local music venues where beer and liquor is served. Currently, people under the age of twenty-one can’t get in or perform in many of the city’s live music venues. Baker says

restrictive regulations prevent many young people from pursuing music careers and developing a taste for live music at the most formative time in their lives.

• Driving more income to locally based artists and music-related businesses. The Indianapolis International Airport, for example, has requested that the music soundtrack piped into the airport’s terminals be at least partially native to Indianapolis musicians.

Similarly, the city would like to see more advertising campaigns feature local music rather than going far afield to acquire music.

• Developing more music-oriented nonprofits. The city of Denver has over 200 nonprofit music organizations. Although Indy already has many nonprofits with a music slant, Baker says the city would benefit from more.

• Fostering the growth of new venues for music.

Sound Diplomacy points to Huntsville, Alabama, where their work resulted in the construction of a new amphitheater. Shapiro says building new music infrastructure and repurposing existing infrastructure can spawn new music festivals such as Holler on the Hill, founded by Baker in 2018 and held at Garfield Park’s MacAllister Amphitheater.

A city such as Denver, Colorado is a textbook example of how an intentional music strategy can benefit a local economy. The fastest growing job market in Denver is live music production — jobs for people who work on stages, festivals, tent building, and sound and lighting technology. Denver attributes these opportunities to its music strategy and growing music infrastructure, both of which formed as a result of the city’s relationship with Sound Diplomacy.

A strategy strengthened by a broad base of investors and voices Alan Bacon, a musician who plays in one of the top cover bands in Indianapolis, Chamber Music Band Indy, has high hopes for what may happen here after Sound Diplomacy completes its work. A former campus president of Harrison College, Bacon is among a group of young leaders organized by the Indy Chamber to focus on the city’s creative economy.

“Having these types of programs move forward really opens the doors for so many more youth, women, and people of color to get resources and have a stronger foundation to help build upon their art, which really contributes to the happiness and livelihood of everyone locally,” Bacon says.

Bacon described the initiative as an unstoppable force built on vision, leadership, and inclusion. “I’m so glad that the city, the Chamber, and people like Josh Baker are involved,” he says. “We have the right people at the table to make sure that this idea comes to fruition and doesn’t die on the vine. The diversity element is important for giving everyone opportunity and access, which is beneficial to the city from so many different vantage points.”

Making sure the Indy Music Strategy incorporates diverse feedback from multiple music genres, and economic and racial backgrounds is a major focus, according to Rawlinson. “It really has to have the doors wide open,” he says. “I think there are probably people out there who feel left out because we haven’t talked to them yet, but we’re only at the very beginning of this project. There will be a lot of opportunity for people to tie in. If they want to be part of it, we want them to be part of it.”

Once the data is gathered, the Chamber will begin to share talking points with businesses, stakeholders, and individual donors in hopes of securing financial support for implementation efforts. ✂ 31

JOIN THE FAMILY VIBE OF INDY AFRO PUNK BAND WHITE MOMS

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FROM LEFT TO RIGHT SHARLENE BIRDSONG, OREO JONES, DIMITRI MORRIS NOT PICTURED KRISTIN “KO” NEWBORN 33

I’VE WATCHED THE CITY GROW ENORMOUSLY AS FAR AS CONNECTIVITY OF THE MUSIC SCENE. WE’VE REALIZED THAT WE CAN ALL RISE TOGETHER.

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WORDS BY JESSICA HUSEK PHOTOGRAPHY BY REAGAN ALLEN DESIGN BY CLAIRE BOWLES Sometimes Oreo Jones can’t look at Dimitri Morris while they’re on stage without cracking up.

And you’ll probably end up laughing, too, just from the contagiousness of it. When we talked, they answered some of my questions with inside jokes that I somehow felt a part of. And that’s the vibe of White Moms: a tight family that you can jump right into.

Maybe it’s the fluidity of their sets. For one song, Jones is on the keys, Morris is on the bass, Kristin “Ko” Newborn is on the guitar, and Sharlene Birdsong is on the drums. For another, everyone is switched up and they’re all on the mic. No one has a locked-in role, so the whole thing ends up feeling a little more open-minded.

Jones and Birdsong started writing music together when they became roommates. Their friend Newborn wanted to start up a band, and everybody wanted Morris on board. Pretty soon they were creating their first album: 2016’s White Wine.

“The beauty of it is that we all bring our own kind individual backbone or melody,” Birdsong says. “But then the deeper our relationship with each other gets, the easier it is to have vulnerability and honesty in the process.”

The music has evolved, too. You can feel the punk foundation, but there’s also plenty of ’60s girl group and ’70s afro pop influences mixed in. Arguably the most punk rock song on the album is also the one they can all relate to the most: “Black Kids.”

Everybody grew up in Indiana; everybody has a white mom (thus, the band name); and everybody was pretty much the only black kid at his or her high school.

“I felt like I had to have an Obama complex, because you can’t f*ck up,” Jones says. “If you do, even just a hair, you’re a statistic. So there’s this weird pressure where not only are you different and everybody is staring at you, but you also have this expectation on you when you’re just trying to be a kid.”

“We all felt that, and it became such an anthem for the band,” Morris adds. That’s what punk rock was to all of them when they were growing up: a place where everyone could feel free to release all of that tension and get some catharsis. That’s what they bring to the Indy music scene, too. Their hope is that everybody finds “their people” in Indy, no matter what kind of music is on the billing.

“The cool thing about Indy music is that it’s really diverse,” Jones says. “The best shows are the ones that have garage rock, then trap rap, then weirdo experimental new wave.”

And the musicians feel understood, too. “I’ve watched the city grow enormously as far as connectivity of the music scene,” Morris says. “We’ve realized that we can all rise together.”

The onus isn’t only on musicians and venues to make great music available, but also on the fans. “If you want to support the scene, you have to go out, pay cover, find a new band you like, talk to people, and really expand your music knowledge,” Birdsong says.

Indy’s the perfect place to do that, with an accessibility that remains strong, no matter what the political climate may be like. “You can feel that during shows across the country; there’s just not that welcoming feeling and that open-mindedness,” Jones says. “Even though we’re in a red state and sh*t’s f*cked, there’s an underground of really cool progressive people in Indy trying to do something good.”

When I ask what their band’s tagline would be, Birdsong replies “Gang gang.” Jones adds to that: “Like family, but dangerous.” But nobody could take that part seriously for even a second. They’re punk rock, but warm.

They’re tight, but not exclusionary. They can relate. And you’re welcome to laugh when they laugh. Catch their new album this summer, and go pay the cover, feel the vibe, and join the family. ✂ 35

DRUMMING UP A CONVERSATION TWO LEGENDS TALK ABOUT A MUTUAL LOVE ILLUSTRATIONS BY AARON SCAMIHORN

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hen reigning Indianapolis 500 champion Will Power isn’t racing an indy car at 220 mph, it’s not unusual to find him immersed in a beat.

PATTERN editors asked the amateur drummer to interview a professional drummer from this year’s Indianapolis 500 musical lineup. Power picked George Brown, Kool & the Gang’s iconic percussionist, who celebrated his 50th year in business a few years ago. You’ll see here why Power will likely be front and center when Brown and Kool & the Gang take the stage on Miller Lite Carb Day this May.

Will Power: Tell me about the first time you played drums and what attracted you to percussion?

George Brown: Well, I had to have been about twelve years old. I didn’t play drums yet, I just used to take butter knives and play on things.

Finally, my mother decided to send me for a couple lessons. It was like three dollars a lesson. The teacher’s name was Joey. He played for the group The Shirelles, and that first lesson, he told me about practice pads, the rubber pads you play on to practice.

That was a godsend, because I didn’t have a drum set. And he gave me Buddy Rich’s 16 Essential Snare Drum Rudiments book and said, ‘You’re quite a natural.’ Back then, three dollars was a lot for my mom, so I did two lessons, and I was on my own from then. And from that point on, I slowly developed into a drummer.

WP: I started playing the drums in 2000. As a kid, the first time I saw someone on a drum it just blew me away. I immediately fell in love with it. You know, someone over there on the high hat, they have their arms crossed on the bass drum, and I thought that was so cool.

Then I started with the toms a bit, but it was quite immediate for me.

GB: Yeah, and you had that innate sense of rhythm anyways, so you 36

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know. The old saying was that drummers are born, not made. So you’re a born drummer then, you fall in love with it, and you already have that inner rhythm. All humans have it, but it’s a special thing for a drummer, that automatic tapping on everything. You do need to have great focus, you know?

WP: Yeah, and great coordination.

GB: I don’t think that other people realize the coordination, and the focus that one must have to have one hand playing one pattern and the other playing another pattern. And also, holding that tempo, holding that rhythm that you’re playing, because it gets quite hypnotic on certain things.

WP: So you’re still learning?

GB: I’m still learning. But you know, initially, with Kool & the Gang, we started out wanting to be jazz musicians. So we listened to people like Art Blakey, Elvin Jones, Buddy Rich and Max Roach. Jazz for me is different than funk and rock in regards to all those patterns and grace notes that you’ve been talking about. And you can apply them all, but you play a certain pattern so people can groove, if you know what I mean.

WP: Is there a drummer that you think changed the landscape of drumming during your career?

GB: There’s so many. You know, every drummer has his style, and every drummer has contributed. Some more than most. There used to be a professional drum center in New York City, and you’d go up and someone there (I think his first name was Frank) …said, ‘You know, at a certain level, all drummers contribute.’ Look at people like Roy Haynes, and one of my favorites, Elvin Jones...The power and the strength that he played behind Trane (John Coltrane), you know?

So certainly, we go out and make a living at it, and you’re at that point being in your life where you are contributing. And the main point is that you’re making people happy for that hour, hour and a half, two hours.

That’s the main thing.

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WP: Whenever I look to a song, any song, the first thing I tune into is the drums. Do you find yourself doing the same thing? Keying into hearing whatever instrument you are currently playing?

GB: You know, over the years, I’ve listened to everything.

Of course I listen to the drum patterns, and if it’s a record, the drummers play a certain pattern, especially if it’s a commercial. I listen to the drums, I listen to everybody, man. And if I’m writing with someone, off someone, I listen to the new patterns and the new sounds on drums as well. Where the acoustic is being sampled, or electric, you know. It’s really fulfilling to find something new or to see where they’re layering, because there’s lot of layering today as well.

WP: You’re one of the most sampled drummers in history, is there a song that your sample was used for that you really enjoy?

GB: I honestly couldn’t tell you. I just don’t process the whole ‘most-sampled-drummer-in-history’ idea. Even though, with Kool & the Gang being a major global force, I don’t process that. It’s just like, ‘let’s go play the music and get people partying and happy and have a good time doing it.’ I’m just a musician.

WP: There would have been a lot of early hip-hop songs that would have used your groove.

GB: A ton of them. Nobody in Kool & the Gang looks at it any other way than being honored, and we say we have a prayer circle. But outside of prayer circle, it’s just ‘let’s go make some people happy.’ And we talk about that. We go out on stage poised and ready to give a big show, and that’s it... just playing music. That’s what it’s about.

WP: Have you ever watched any racing or raced cars yourself?

GB: I’ve watched racing, but have not done any myself.

WP: I’ve played the drums, but obviously I’m just an amateur. But in my craft, when I started racing, I just had an absolute obsession with it. That’s all I thought about 24/7. Did you find that when you first got into drumming and playing in a band, that you just had almost an addiction to it, something you never stop thinking about?

GB: Of course! I listened to all the drummers I could, I listened to the patterns and what they were playing and how they played and tried to develop myself. Not in any particular style, I loved jazz, I still do, of course. I mean, all forms of music, there’s pieces of all forms of music I like.

It could be some folk music from Azerbaijan, you know?

But I love all music. As a child, and even today, I would hear the music in my mind, in my soul. I was always the kid tapping on the table, picking knives and spoons and playing patterns.

WP: How many of the songs did you write for Kool & the Gang? Or was it a collective effort?

GB: Absolutely it’s the collective genius of Kool & the

Gang. Somebody will come up with a basic draft, these are the chord changes, right? And then you’ll do the melody and then everyone starts joining in melodically and also instrumentally. There are no parts given to anyone, per say. People will say, ‘I’m going to play this or that.’ You got my point right? So it is selective. It’s not like, ‘okay, I want you to play E flat and A flat and B flat there.‘ You know what I mean?

WP: So it’s a feel thing?

GB: Right, it’s a feel thing. And somebody says, ‘I have an idea,’ and we’ll play that thing. So a person comes with a basic form and it might have some melody and a title, and then people start writing lyrically and melodically on it. Any musician will start putting in parts like Charles Smith, he would sit and just come up with a ton of little guitar parts and figures and look at the best one to put in.

WP: How does that collaborative spirit affect the way make music?

GB: It’s a beautiful way, because it solidifies the writing team and the partnership and everybody has a vested interest in that music because of that. It’s not like, well this guy wrote everything. Everybody has a wonderful investment. I told my artists, ‘You got to bring other producers and writers to help, let’s do that so it doesn’t get lopsided sounding,’ you know what I mean? So another part of the magic of Kool & the Gang is that different writers would come up with things, yeah. And there you have it. It’s a wonderful way to work.

WP: I feel like, I’m just an amateur drummer...

GB: You’re not an amateur drummer, Will. Stop it!

WP: Well yeah, I mean, compared to you...

GB: I don’t look at it that way. You could probably go out and get in a band, make some money, and support yourself. Because the passion is there, the love is there, and I know you can play, so there it is.

WP: I was going to say, it feels like once you start drumming, you can come up. Like there’s just a perfect feel for how the groove should go whenever you hear music. It seems as though, people, for someone like you, any band could just start playing a song and you would just fill in that groove no problem as a drummer. It would just come. It feels very natural is what I’m trying to say. So it must feel unbelievably natural for you.

Tim was ill, because we’re all human, and we would bring in someone else, they’d play as themselves. It might not feel the same way, and it would get that way once they settled in. All drummers, at a certain point, you’re professional, you know just what to play and how to play it, and if it’s a particular music that has to be done a certain way, you’ll listen to it and bingo, you’re in there.

WP: Right. That’s my dream. I’ve never played in a band, I just play along to my iPod at home and haven’t really had time to do much else because I’m so busy with racing. But once I retire, I would love to do that. I just can’t imagine how much fun that would be to be up on stage, playing for all the people, in a band. That would be really cool.

GB: I know your time is still with racing, but maybe it would be a great stress relief to do that. All musicians think it’s stressful when you are touring, but I mean, your stress is like, man, you’re like a surgeon right? You better make that turn, right?

WP: I do think that there is a connection between drumming and racing, I don’t think people understand how much detail goes into being fast in a race car. It’s very similar to drumming because you’re using both feet, both hands, and your fingers for shifting and buttons and such these days with the technology, so I feel like with music everything has to be, yeah, perfect. The coordination, everyone has to be right on beat, and everyone has to be very tight, and I feel like that’s the same as racing.

GB: Absolutely and when you’re racing, what I’ve seen, it’s the same thing: you’re sensing yourself, you’re sensing your speed, you’re sensing the cars around you, you’re sensing when you’re making that turn, where you should shift, all of that you’re sensing yourself constantly.

And that is great focus. But yeah, it’s fabulous focus. So switching that to drumming, there’s lots of focus, and you’re focusing to keep the beat and the tempo. And you’re making sure that everything is tight and right, but for you, that would be a huge stress relief from what you’re doing at 200 miles plus, right?

WP: Yeah, it’s 220.

GB: That’s some speed there, but you’re keeping it. If you make a mistake in music, just you can keep going… (laughs) Is your name really Will Power?

WP: It is, yeah! I was named after my great-grandfather, William Steven Power, and he was Will Power as well.

GB: Man, you got the right name.

GB: Absolutely. But I believe because you are passionate like that, you have it. You’ll play Will, and you’re going to sync perfectly with that band and people are going to move to it, and the band is going to dig it.

WP: Yeah, I know. Journalists always play on that name.

WP: Right. Yeah.

WP: Yeah, thanks George!

GB: And that’s all of us. Tim Horton, who plays drums for Kool & the Gang now, he’s just fabulous, man. He’s playing Kool & the Gang, but he’s playing Tim Horton, if you know what I mean. Over the course of the years, if

GB: You’re welcome Will! ✂

GB: Good luck in your career. I wish you well and blessings, man. And can’t wait to meet you.

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exuding yellow vibes

THIS YEAR TRIPLE-THREAT POINDEXTER DROPS TWO HIGHLY ENERGETIC PROJECTS.

WORDS BY EUAN MAKEPEACE PHOTOGRAPHY BY POLINA OSHEROV ASSISTED BY SAMANTHA RIPPERGER STYLE BY JULIE VALENTINE AND MIKEAL NEON HAIR AND MAKEUP BY CHIE SHARP STARRING PONDEXTER AND AUTUMN BROWN (10MGMT) SPECIAL THANKS TO LESLEY JANE AND ENCORE SOTHEBY’S INTERNATIONAL REALTY

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l e e f t ' n i a y e h t f y e "I h t t e b I , n e h t e m " w o n e m l e e f nna 42

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riter, producer, and rapper Poindexter always knew he was meant to make music.

He remembers writing rhymes as young as six.

Though, at that point, he answered to the name Keith Vaden. He was just writing for practice in his home on the eastside of Indianapolis, and drawing influence from his mother’s eclectic taste in music.

It reverberated around the house and seeped into his soul. But ultimately the sound and energy of Southern and West Coast rap piqued his interest and inspired him to create his signature hip-hop sound.

“I was just a very curious kid when I was growing up — especially with music. Watching music videos and watching artists like Ludacris and Missy Elliot having a lot of fun with it … I wanted to do the same,” he says.

At the age of twelve, while honing his writing ability and finding his delivery style, Poindexter began developing his high-energy stage persona, learning how to work the crowd and navigate the challenges of performing live. “I wanted to entertain people while also telling my story,” he says.

It wasn’t until 2010 that Poindexter got his stage name, born from his interest in the West Coast dance-craze jerking. Those captivated by jerking went by quirky names. While he watched an episode of Dexter’s Laboratory on Cartoon Network, his name came to him. Though “Dexter” still wasn’t quite enough, and being a student of the game looking to make his mark, Poindexter seemed more pertinent.

Now with eleven years of experience rocking

stage shows and releasing music for his local fans to enjoy, the Indy hip-hop veteran could rest on his laurels. But he doesn’t allow all that he’s accomplished to make him comfortable. Instead, he says it’s time to broaden his fan base further afield.

“If you don’t have your city behind you, you haven’t put in the legwork,” he says, “and without that foundation, how do you expect anywhere else to support you?”

He has declared 2019 to be the year of “exuding yellow vibes,” to bring back the good times in music that he claims had left in recent years. With two projects slated to release in 2019, Poindexter is working to deliver energetic music like he sees many artists around him creating. ✂

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INDY INSIDER

MUSICAL NUMBERS A million reasons to love Tonic Ball

WORDS BY KEN HONEYWELL + ILLUSTRATION BY KIPP NORMAND

The numbers get weird when you talk about Tonic Ball. The first one was in 2002, which means Tonic Ball 17 was in 2018 — so was it Tonic Ball 17, or Tonic Ball ’18? All I know is, it was nineteen years ago that I was talking with Dan Barden, professor of English at Butler University, about our mutual love of Gram Parsons. Dan said, “Wouldn’t it be fun to get a bunch of musicians to play Gram Parsons songs and give the money to charity?”

I couldn’t get the idea out of my head. A little over a year later, I wrote up a plan, my friend Becky Hopewell and I took it to Second Helpings, and then a group of us (including Dan) put on a show the Friday before Thanksgiving at Radio Radio. It featured fourteen bands playing Gram Parsons songs, attracted about 150 people, and raised $4,600 for Second Helpings.

The next year we covered Elvis Costello, and our designer friend Paul Wilson added the Tonic Gallery, an art show companion event. The following year we did Neil Young songs, and there was a line out the door — in the rain — to get into the show. The year after that, when we covered the Stones, the line was around the block. We knew we had the potential to do something even bigger.

So we added rooms. Over the next ten years, Tonic Ball grew to include five stages at five great Fountain Square venues — Radio Radio, plus the Fountain Square Theatre, the White Rabbit Cabaret, Hi-Fi Indy, and the Pioneer. That means we could attract more than ten times the number of people who saw Tonic Ball 1 — not counting the families who show up every year for Tiny Tonic, our kid-friendly concert at Second Helpings.

I retired from the Tonic Ball chair after ten years. The inimitable Matt Mays took over for the next six and grew the event to massive proportions.

Last year the amazing duo of Ben Shine and Kirsten Eamon-Shine led an awesome team of smart, talented people who made Tonic Ball bigger and better than ever.

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I think it was the Indy Star’s Dave Lindquist who dubbed Tonic Ball “the unofficial start of the holiday season.” That’s pretty cool. So what have we accomplished in seventeen (eighteen?) years? Well, we’ve: •

Hosted hundreds of local bands who have graciously donated their time and talent to the cause. In turn, in many cases, Tonic Ball has offered many of them exposure to the biggest, most enthusiastic crowds they’ve ever played for.

•

Encouraged scores of new collaborations and musical experiments among musicians throughout the area.

•

Entertained tens of thousands of people who’ve come out in virtually every kind of weather imaginable to see and hear some outright stunning performances.

•

Found love: Becky Hopewell is now Becky Honeywell. We’ve been married for fifteen years. I also got a cool suit out of the deal.

•

Made dozens of amazing friends who’ve volunteered their time and money and trouble to help us put on the show — and amazing sponsors, from our first sponsor Luna Music to our title sponsor Eskenazi Health, without whom this complicated event would not be possible.

And, thanks to those ticket buyers and volunteers, we’ve managed to raise well over $1 million to support the great work of Second Helpings, which translates into at least a million meals for our hungriest neighbors.

Those are the numbers that really matter. ✂

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DON'T CONSUME US, LISTEN TO US...

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WORDS BY RASUL A. MOWATT ILLUSTRATION BY LINDSAY HADLEY 1972, on the surface just another year in 1970s Indianapolis. But as we peel back what occurred, what was culminating, and what was beginning, this year tells a tale.

1972, the triumph of the National Black Political Convention that occurred upstate in Gary the air of self-determination seemed to be waning.

The black-owned Vanguard Racing entered a car into that year’s Indy 500, but in the 99th lap was forced to drop out due to a broken piston, and served in some way as a symbol of the empty opportunities that were yet to come.

1972, The Indianapolis Board of School Commissioners fired Stanley Campbell, superintendent of the Indianapolis Public Schools, due to his calls for immediate desegregation and educational equality, in collaboration with Crispus Attucks principal Earl Donaldson. Crispus Attucks High School was home to a bevy of classically trained music teachers like Russell Brown, Norman Merrifield, and Lavern Newsome, who inspired generations of students turn musicians, like James Spaulding to know that the creator has a master plan for him, as well as many others, to express their souls. But it is the wave of urban renewal and gentrification, through Unigov’s influence, which was decimating the scene, the vibrant jazz scene that gave many a release from their miseries.

1972, the year that the consolidated government of Unigov received a five-fold increase of federal funding. And while the renovations to the City Market and its surrounding area began that year, Indiana Avenue aka “The Avenue,” a legendary strip of jazz music was quickly disappearing due to the encroachment of an ever-expanding IUPUI campus and the forced displacement from the I-65 and I-70 construction.

Neighborhoods connecting lives were cut off.

Homes housing artists were leveled. And venues had been decimated. All that was left were the echoes of Indiana Avenue through the recordings of artists from or who frequented this up-South city.

But also on one special night in 1972…

At the 19th Hole Night Club across the street, one could hear The Wooden Glass perform.

Despite their switching back and forth from their other name, The Nineteenth Whole, there is just some type of magic that happens when they performed under their original name. Word around Indianapolis was that they would be recording live for Interim Records. I am certain as people got to the door, they were surprised by the higherthan-usual cover charge, but it had to have been worth the price of the ticket as they heard the introduction to “In the Rain.” Standing over the vibes, Billy Wooten commanded attention from the audience that night as much as the ready play of his band mates, Harold Cardwell on drums, William Roach on guitar, and Emmanuel Riggins (father of Common collaborator, and J Dilla confidante, Karriem Riggins) on the organ. Over light organ and cymbal work, Billy says, “I don’t want you to see me cry, so I’ll just go outside … in the rain” and so it begins, the smoothest rendition of The Dramatics’ hit that anyone has ever heard.

The legendary social, cultural, and artistic scene of “The Avenue” that gave Billy Wooten a

reason to come to Indianapolis from New York. It is this “Avenue” that gave David Baker a home to hone his talents. It is Indiana Avenue that granted Wes Montgomery a third, and his most successful discovery by a visiting Cannonball Adderley. It is “The Avenue” that The Hampton Sisters cultivated their sounds and their thoughts that “music is a feel thing … you simply put jazz on it.” With big band play, The International Sweathearts of Rhythm, through the leadership of Anna Mae Winburn, stole hearts as had so many others that cannot all be named within this short recollection.

It is from Indiana Avenue that the horns of Freddie Hubbard sang us a song, Larry Ridley rode the bass to freedom now, and Phil Ranelin’s vibes from the tribe liberated us. Indiana Avenue the hotbed of (black) cultural life that filled the streets with music from numerous venues, such as: Al’s British Lounge, The Cactus Club, The Cotton Club, The Galaxy Ballroom, George’s Bar, Henri’s, The Missile Room, Mr. B’s Pomp Room, The Paradise, The Place to Play, The Rainbow Tavern, The Red Keg, The Ritz, Scotty’s Cocktail Lounge, and the Walker Theater, every day and night over these decades.

What we are left with are the echoes of the people behind this music that were “locked out,” in the words of poet, Mari Evans. Locked out by our imagination of what laid behind their liner notes and melodies. The echoes have been reduced to simply notes and melodies that phonophiles and jazz enthusiasts now consume. The echoes became the imagery on the side of buildings without our own recognition of who they were and why they were even important. These echoes have become samples on tracks or have become routine renditions at more contemporary venues.

These echoes have become distant memories, often times without any memory of the venue owners and memory producers like the Ferguson Brothers, Denver and Sea. As Reginald DuValle became the echo, Hoagy Carmichael was now the song.

Think to yourself, am I listening to music? Or, am I listening to a culture? And if I am listening to a culture, what happened to the people? What is happening to the people who make it? Am I feasting on a buffet of beautiful art produced from their lives of hunger? Am I enjoying the music of the displaced or removed? Unfortunately, this is a tale too often told within the history of jazz. This is the secret history of jazz in Indianapolis, and by extension, the State. So, as you hear and come across those that represent the spirit of jazz of this city like Bashiri Asad, Blackberry Jam, Native Sun (Brandon Meeks, Richard “Sleepy” Floyd, and B Young), Clint Breeze and The Groove, Allison Victoria, Yadin Kol, and Mariah Ivey and TribeSouL, recognize what you are hearing as the new version of the aforementioned past greats. Don’t consume us, listen to us … Go outside, and stand in the rain, and know where we lived as well as how we lived. ✂ Acknowledgements: Kyle Long, host of WFYI show, Cultural Manifesto; Indiana Historical Society; and David Leander Williams, author of Indianapolis Jazz: The Masters, Legends and Legacy of Indiana Avenue.

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ITALIAN: PLAY ALL TOGETHER

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INDY’S MUSIC SCENE MIGHT NOT BE AS DENSE AS THAT OF OTHER CITIES, BUT ITS VIBRANCY AND DIVERSITY ARE DYNAMIC. HERE’S A HANDFUL OF PEOPLE ADDING THEIR TALENTS TO THE MIX.

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NICK SALIGOE

WORDS BY ALLIE COPPEDGE Nick Saligoe, better known as DJ MetroGnome, is the founder of Indy’s only DJ school, Deckademics. Growing up in Indianapolis and attending school in Bloomington, Saligoe was heavily influenced by the music his brother introduced him to and the diversity around him. As a kid in the late ’80s, he grew up on a mix of music genres, including hip-hop, funk, and soul, which helped shape who he is today. But back when he was in college and starting to gain interest in deejaying, there was nowhere for him to learn about it. Instead, he had to teach himself (aside from the help of mentors such as DJ Topspeed and DJ Wushu).

At twenty-two, Saligoe joined the organization Hip Hop Congress, which merges hip-hop music with social causes. Once graduated and deejaying full-time, Saligoe and other DJs started a local chapter in Indianapolis. This marked the beginning of his teaching DJ classes.

Eventually Deckademics was born. The school’s motto, “You can’t download practice,” tells you everything you need to know. “You can’t understand what you’re doing, unless you understand why you’re doing it,” says Saligoe of why he teaches students the history and origins of deejaying before they learn spinning, mixing, and scratching.

Although technology has changed significantly in the last two decades, making the profession more accessible to the masses, Saligoe says that practice and persistence remain the keys to success in his field.

Along with running Deckademics and working with the likes of Red Bull, Walmart, Adidas, and more, Saligoe still deejays two to three nights a week in Indianapolis. ✂ INSTAGRAM: @DJMETROGNOME @DECKADEMICS

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DREAM CHIEF

WORDS BY JENNIFER DELGADILLO Cousins John Tuttle and Luke Tuttle from Dream Chief are in the middle of recording their latest music before heading out on tour this summer. The indyborn duo reached viral fame through Spotify, with their independently released 2016 hit “Can’t Shake U.” Now they are ready to share how far they’ve come since. As of this writing, the song has racked up 1,028,476 streams on Spotify.

Before their song went viral, the Tuttle cousins were budding music lovers, learning piano and guitar, and sharing their dads’ favorite bands, like Fleetwood Mac and Led Zeppelin. “I think their love of music kind of transpired down to us, and we both started playing around with instruments,” says Luke. “Playing piano when I was a kid became a tool for me to start writing songs, and then I realized that I enjoyed writing songs more than I enjoyed learning piano.”

The evolution from instrument to electronic production was similar for John, who started playing guitar when he was five years old. “When I was eleven, my parents bought me my first Mac Mini, and that’s when I started producing. That was a big transition for me — from playing guitar to becoming an artist,” he says.

Those influences don’t jump out when listening to the synth-heavy music of Dream Chief. What does come through, though, is their knack for writing catchy melodies and lyrics that have a ’70s songwriter vibe to them. “The name of our game is always bringing that guitar and sometimes more raw vocals over synthesizers and mashing both,” says John.

Compared to bigger cities, the electronic music scene in Indianapolis is small.

But this has opened different opportunities for Dream Chief, like playing shows with hip-hop or alternative rock bands. But for the duo, it’s not about a scene or about fitting anyone’s idea of what electronic bands should be like. John says it’s all about the art, “I can’t not do it. No matter how fast or how slow it goes, I’m not going to stop doing it.” ✂ INSTAGRAM: @DREAMCHIEF

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CONRAD JONES AUSTIN HUNTINGTON RILEY GIAMPAOLO

WORDS BY JULIA BLUHM

The narrative surrounding Indianapolis-based musicians often focuses on the achievement of finding big success despite living in Indy. While that narrative is changing, it was never the only one. Austin Huntington, Conrad Jones, and Riley Giampaolo, all classical musicians under the age of thirty, specifically moved to Indianapolis to pursue their musical dreams. They all won jobs playing for the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.

Austin Huntington, the twenty-four-year-old principal cellist for the ISO, is the only one of the three who had ever lived in Indiana before working for the orchestra.

Twenty-two-year-old trombonist Riley Giampaolo is from Houston, and twentynine-year-old principal trumpet player Conrad Jones is from Long Island.

Jones is the only one of the three who played professionally in an orchestra before landing his spot at the ISO. He worked for the Tucson Orchestra and the San Francisco Ballet before coming to Indianapolis at only twenty-six. Meanwhile, Huntington and Giampaolo had an even younger start: Huntington won his spot in the ISO at 20, and Giampaolo won his at 19. “These guys are too humble to say it, but they’re both phenoms,” Jones says, about his younger colleagues. “Winning a job like this, as young as they both did, is insanely unheard of. That happens like, once every fifty years.”

Saying they “won” their job makes sense when you hear about the audition process: After countless rounds of anonymous auditions, the musicians still have to complete two “trial weeks” playing in the orchestra before being awarded a job. Once they have the job, it doesn’t get easier. Huntington said that their workdays can sometimes run from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. between rehearsals, practicing independently, and teaching at nearby universities.

Aside from the busy schedule, Huntington had a lot to get used to when he joined the ISO. He won a principal cello position, making him one of the youngest principal musicians of any major American orchestra. At twenty, he started leading a section full of people more than twice his age. “I had to be a leader for them, but I also had to have a healthy amount of stepping back and learning from them,” he says.

Giampaolo, who joined at nineteen, also felt extremely welcomed by the rest of the orchestra. He came after only two years of college at the New England Conservatory, and had only been paid to play in an orchestra once before. “Like, for one day,” he clarified. Nevertheless, he was welcomed in. “People here are way friendlier than almost any other orchestra in the country, at least at this level,” he said. “I fit right in.”

The fitting-in might have been made easier by the fact that all three musicians quickly became friends. They work out together, they live practically across the street from each other, and they race to concerts at the Vogue or the Murat theatres together after finishing up performances of their own. “When we aren’t performing, which is rare, there’s tons to do,” Jones says. “It feels like on any given weekend you can just throw a rock and land at some cultural event in the city.”

If you happen to land at the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, keep an eye out for Huntington, Jones, and Giampaolo. ✂ INSTAGRAM: @CONRADJONES145 @AUSTINCELLO @RGIAMPAOLO1104 53

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MARK ORTWEIN

WORDS BY NATALIE GLIDEWELL

Mark Ortwein grew up in Las Vegas, learning to play piano from teachers who played with Frank Sinatra and Wayne Newton. Music came naturally to him at an early age. Before he graduated high school, he added the bassoon, flute, and clarinet to his long list of instruments he’d mastered, making him one of the top classical musicians in his home state. His talent took him from New Orleans to Boston for college, to New York City and the Air Force, and finally to work in Indy full-time for the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.

Now Assistant Principal Bassoon/Contrabassoon for the ISO, Ortwein makes his living as a full-time musician. He has played with the symphony for the past seventeen years, but also performs around town all the time, doing jazz and rock gigs, recording, teaching, and running his own venue and arts space, Grove Haus, in Fountain Square.

Ortwein believes symphonies are integral to helping arts and culture thrive and grow in communities. “People don’t realize that when you have a full-time orchestra, like we do, you’re getting a much higher level musician than you would get as a non-full-time symphony,” he says. And because of that, Ortwein, like many other musicians in the ISO, feels the need to teach. A way to give back to the arts and culture scene Indianapolis fosters.

“I’m teaching a little bit of saxophone. But I really feel obligated to teach bassoon, because in town there are only a handful of people who are really qualified to teach it and play at a high enough level,” says Ortwein.

A thriving local music scene has the power to bring the best of the best to cities, and it’s telling with Ortwein, one of the most highly trained classical musicians in Indy. “I wouldn’t be living here right now if it weren’t for the symphony,” Ortwein says. ✂ INSTAGRAM: @ORTREED1

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MAD PRITCH

WORDS BY MONICA SALLAY An Indiana University senior from Carmel, Maddie Pritchett writes, raps, and produces music as “MAD Pritch.” Her signature sound blends a bizzaro technotinged rap, often of dark lyrics veiled by hints of hip-hop.

Since the first concert she attended (Coldplay at age ten), Pritchett has been hooked on the experience of live performances. She delved into YouTube explorations, introducing herself to new songs and artists, which eventually inspired her to become a self-taught performer. “I first learned how to DJ, which was really my starting point for pursuing music on an intimate, legitimate level… I loved the idea of playing music for people and setting a mood,” she says.

Because Pritch started writing poetry at a young age, composing and overlaying spoken word over melodic instrumentals comes naturally. At first she experimented with her friends’ tracks, incorporating vocals over them. Then she soon began recording and producing new sounds on her own.

Pritch draws inspiration from artists such as Bassnectar, CharlestheFirst, G-Space, EAZYBAKED, Ludacris, Lil Wayne, and PARTYNEXTDOOR 4. Of her music, she says there are distinguishing features that separate the sounds of her live performances from her studio recordings. “My live sound is heavily influenced by the way I mix the music together. My slow, atmospheric transitions take a big part in setting the tone of my performance or set,” she says.

Pritch performs locally at venues like The Mousetrap, where she thrives on the openminded nature of the Indy music scene and the future possibilities it presents. “So far, all of life's surprises and opportunities have made this musical journey extremely worthwhile… My dad has always told me to ‘show up and try hard,’ and that is what I intend to do!” ✂ INSTAGRAM: @MAD_PRITCH

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MANÓN BULLOCK WORDS BY DAVID WILSON

Manón Bullock, now aptly known as “Manón Voice,” expresses hers widely as a poet, spoken word artist, and rapper. Starting off as just “VOICE,” she was a conscious rapper who loved poetry and embraced the works of Robert Frost and Rudyard Kipling. “I wanted to be an inspiring voice for the people, a generation. I speak on overcoming struggle and progress with spiritual undertones. ‘Manón Voice’ encompasses my evolution of being a black woman, and how I’ve come to define myself within a world that paints me as invisible,” she says.

The Indy native grew up during the rise of hip-hop. “In the ’90s, we listened to Scarface, NWA, Tupac, Biggie, and Queen Latifah,” she says. “I believe MC Lyte’s voice has power.

I love that lyrical dexterity from Lupe Fiasco, Lauryn Hill, and Saul Williams.” During her downtime, she collects vintage record players and loves listening to Nina Simone and Anita Baker on vinyl. She cites Jean Grae as the epitome of inspiration. “She is the most decorated female emcee of all time. She is one of the greats.”

As for her thoughts on Indy’s music scene, Voice says, “I think it’s brilliant! I see beautiful diversity within pockets of conscious rap, boom bap, street, even old-school rap. At Indy shows, music doesn’t all sound the same. Our female emcees are just as dope, if not better! The problem is, we have to be twice as good as men to be paid and recognized equally.” Voice believes women will rise above the financial divide in the music industry, but she reminds them to lift each other on their way up. “We [female emcees] need to do more, producing, being creative, putting on festivals… like DJ Cleopatra, and supporting other women in hip-hop,” she says. “In the next five years, I see more women going toe-to-toe on the national stage, being rated in the top.”

And what’s next for Manón Voice? “I’m working on a new album, Quantum Leap. It’s a beautiful fusion of hip-hop and all different elements of music, while putting solid lyricism behind it.”

Quantum Leap is set to release Fall 2019, but you can catch Manón Voice this summer at Virginia Avenue Music Fest, and Chreece Hip Hop Festival. ✂ INSTAGRAM: @MANONVOICE

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STEVEN RUSSELL

WORDS BY JENNIFER DELGADILLO Steven Russell believes culture is here and now and everywhere, not just exclusive to cities like Los Angeles or New York. And he wants everyone to experience it as soon as it’s created. After surveying the local club scene, Russell noticed the music in Indy was not fresh. “I was on the third floor of a club downtown and heard ‘XO Tour Llif3’ by Lil Uzi Vert three months after it dropped on SoundCloud,” he says. “I was fed up.

With how fast the Internet moves, it’s no reason the deejay shouldn’t have broken that song two months earlier — if not the week it dropped.”

Now Russell is the event producer for Lari Pati (which means “street party” in Creole). It’s a music startup that’s on a mission to make Indianapolis a place to hear music first, through playlists, parties, and shows with great music delivered by talented deejays and new musical artists.

He showcases local talent and the freshest playlists at venues like Pioneer and Grove Haus. Lari Pati events feature eclectic mixes — everything from R&B, rap, reggae, dancehall to house music. It comes from playlists that are crowdsourced from the musicians themselves and from party-music lovers, like Russell, who keep tabs on what music is playing at parties around the world.

Russell’s passion to showcase new music extends back to Roxbury Bodega, an online clothing store he started. He added a music component to the site where “the idea was to create a playlist that would create the feeling you get when you are grooving to music and browsing through clothes at a store.” ✂ @PITCHFORPENNIES

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HENRY FRENCH

WORDS BY THERESA PROCOPIO Solomon Design (formerly Solomon Mics), a local company that produces “subkick” style microphones for drummers and engineers was a company born out of necessity. “I rethink existing ideas,” owner Henry French says. “Usually it’s a simple problem musicians and engineers come across, and we make it better.”

After studying acoustical engineering and electrical engineering at Purdue, the self-taught musician garnered additional experience by working a variety of jobs — everything from retail, banking and bar bookings to positions at Guitar Center and Auralex Acoustics. “Solomon Design is the convergence of a lot of disciplines — manufacturing, design, finance, music — little bits and pieces I learned at these jobs culminated into a company using all of these,” French says.

He first designed his reverse-wired speaker concept in his basement, armed only with a laptop and Instagram. Fast-forward five years, and the company’s portfolio includes users such as Rik Simpson, producer and engineer for Coldplay, and Jack White’s drummer Daru Jones.

“The concept isn’t new, just better designed.” French says. “There were other options out there, we made it smaller, lighter, and better.” Being centrally located in Indiana has its advantages as Solomon Design now ships its LoFReQ microphones and other products all over the world. At the National Association of Music Merchants Show, French recently met up with multi-Grammy awardwinning drummer, Dylan Wissing again. “I never thought we would reconnect, but we did and he bought into it. It’s these type of Indiana connections that have kept the company rolling.” ✂ INSTAGRAM: @SOLOMONMICS

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SARAH CHUMBLEY & CAROL MYERS PHOTOGRAPHED BY JOE SKIBINSKI

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SNAKE PIT, USA THE WORLD’S BIGGEST EDM MUSIC FEST THAT’S ALSO A CAR RACE

WORDS BY BURTON RUNYAN PHOTOGRAPHY BY WIL FOSTER DESIGN BY LINDSAY HADLEY

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SUDDENLY, THE SOUND IS ON TOP OF YOU, EXPANDING INTO A WAVE OF HIGH-PITCHED REVS. WITH EACH PASS COMES A MID-RANGE OSCILLATING WOBBLE: WHAAAAA, WHA WHA WHA, WHAAAA, WH-WH-WHA, WHAAAA!

STANDING IN THE CENTER OF THE INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY, YOU HEAR A RHYTHMIC ROARING. IT’S A DRIVING, PERCUSSIVE BEAT THAT ROLLS OVER AND OVER AND SHAKES THE GROUND AT EACH TURN. The vibrations slam into you at full speed, and your ribcage rattles on cue. It starts with a low-end frequency that rumbles up from a distance, building as it approaches, accelerating from the turn.

Suddenly, the sound is on top of you, expanding into a wave of high-pitched revs. With each pass comes a mid-range oscillating wobble: whaaaaa, wha wha wha, whaaaa, wh-wh-wha, whaaaa.

The sounds fly past your ears and fade into the distance — the auditory assault momentarily subsiding. Of course, this repetitive rhythm starts again almost as quickly, and the crowd moves together as the ground starts to shake again.

Over and over, for three hours, the mechanical melody all but knocks you back as it whizzes by, somewhere between 220 miles an hour and 140 beats a minute.

Of course, which measurement you use depends entirely on which ticket you’re holding.

Are you sitting in the stands to watch the IndyCar race?

Or standing in the infield to watch the EDM concert?

The Snake Pit was the originally the area inside Turn 1 at the IMS. Race fans began to gather there as early as the 1920s, but it was the dazed and confused crowds of the ’70s that gave the space its infamy. Fueled with weed, alcohol, and boisterous behavior, most of the young people who piled into Snake Pit weren’t necessarily there for the race.

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“There were tens of thousands of people in the infield that were there just there to socialize,” says Kyle Krisiloff, Senior Director of Music and Entertainment at the IMS, as he paints a picture of how the Snake Pit began. Like the Woodstock of the Midwest, the infield was once filled with revelers.

By the mid-90s, though, this area that had been known for its rowdy parties and carefree attitudes had succumbed to the growing family activities in the infield — as well as a strategic crackdown on the wildness that once prevailed. Grandstands were built in the infields and order ensued.

But in 2010 the IMS decided to reinvigorate the Snake Pit, bringing back the spirit of partying that once made it the spot for Midwestern misfits to enjoy race day — even without the race.

“We have race fans, we have people that are just fans of the state of Indiana, and kind of everything in between,” Krisiloff says. “We decided to formally put on a music event that resonated with young people, even if they weren’t race fans.”

The Snake Pit’s bite was back, with more force than ever (albeit a little less venom). And now located inside Turn 3.

By 2012, things had kicked into high gear, as the world’s only electronic music festival that takes place inside a racetrack began to grow rapidly.

“The trend in electronic music was rising, and we saw an opportunity in Indianapolis,” Krisiloff says. “Our fans are really diverse, and we want to have something for everyone.”

But what effect will such a diverse music festival have on the race over the years to come? Krisiloff sees it as a cycle that feeds itself, creating fans of Race Weekend with each lap and each bass drop. “A lot of our fans today came to the Snake Pit when they were younger.

And they grew into race fans.”

Like a beautiful ouroboros, it would seem that the Snake Pit feeds the race, and the race feeds the Snake Pit. The sounds of the bass and the cars both go flying around the racetrack, repeating over and over, just like the deep history of this place — the ultimate party with an attitude like nowhere else. ✂

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STUDIO CENTRAL

WHEN IT COMES TIME FOR SOMETHING NEW FROM LOCAL AND NATIONAL TALENT, THESE ARE THE ENGINEERS, PRODUCERS, AND STUDIOS THEY TURN TO.

WORDS BY ERIC REES PHOTOGRAPHY BY ELESE BALES

You don’t need to travel to Atlanta, Los Angeles, or New York if you’re looking for places to cut a record. Indianapolis has a surprisingly large list of recording studios for artists of all ages and experiences to visit when it’s time to put some sounds on wax. Whether you need someone that specializes in big band recording or a singer/ songwriter touch, one of the following studios would be a good place to start when the album is close to finished.

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STATIC SHACK Alan Johnson’s Static Shack started as a way to help his Ball State roommate’s band stay a bit more organized. After acting as their de facto manager, he quickly found the language of musicians rewarding in a unique way, and decided to work with them full-time. After attending Full Sail University’s Audio Engineering Program, he found a job at (what was formerly) TRC studios, by knocking on their door and asking. Although the name has changed, the studio has remained the same for nearly thirtyfive years now. “We’ve got a bunch of different artists sharing this space with us. Jazz teachers, guitarists, graphic designers. It’s really great that way,” Johnson says.

As well as more traditional recording studio engagements, the Static Shack does all the live recording and music for the Bob & Tom Show, as well as whatever musical acts they book. The continuous stream of talent feeds Johnson’s love for working with musicians. “There’s something about the creativity and honesty, the quirkiness, and the different personalities you have in musical artists. They’re my favorite type of people,” he says.

Number: (317) 439-6521 Email: alan@alanjohnsonrecording.com Location: 5763 Park Plaza Court, Indianapolis, IN 46220 Notable Clients: Larry Crane, Aerosmith, Jeffrey Thomas, John Fogerty, Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Best studio story: “Paul Rodgers from Bad Company and a few others needed a place to record while they were coming through town. One of the most classic voices in all of rock history.

I got my most expensive microphone setup for them to use, and he graciously performed and listened to the track before turning to me and saying, ‘I’d like to try it on the SM57, if you don’t mind’ (which is about a $100 microphone). He was right, though. The microphone switch made the whole track sound that much better, and he was so gracious about the whole thing.”

Advice for artists thinking about booking studio time: “Talk to a lot of people and find someone you’re comfortable working with. Recording is such a personal thing. Every studio and producer has their strengths and weaknesses, so it’s important to find someone that shares your vision and can get you where you want to be.”

AIRE BORN In 1987, a few friends began a legacy of work that makes sure to appreciate the people who made it. All Mike Wilson, John Bolt, David Price, Ben Vawter, and Van Lawson had between them was an 8-track setup and the drive to go out and start looking for engineers. While their enthusiasm helped Aire Born Studios to take off, it’s the collection of artists and engineers in the trenches that continue to make Aire Born an attractive destination for clients, including some of the country’s biggest music publishers. In fact, the studio’s hard work has earned a bit of a specialization in working with faith-based clients and large music publishers. “Aire Born is just the hub when it all comes together,” Wilson says.

“The talent pool in Central Indiana combines with the studio to create this huge machine that attracts the right people.”

Whether it’s equipping a room big enough for an entire marching band or a finding a room for a high school student that needs an audition tape for their college application, Aire Born serves a unique, but necessary niche of audio engineering in Indianapolis.

Phone: (317) 876-1556 Website: www.aireborn.com Location: 4700 Northwest Plaza W. Drive, Zionsville, IN 46077 Notable Clients: John Williams, Ricky Martin.

Best studio story: “For me, the best story is the ordinariness of what we do here. We might have a different type of music or new artist, but there’s a surprising amount that stays the same from year to year,” Wilson says. “The rhythm of the business is consistent from year to year around here, and I really enjoy that as a whole.”

Advice for artists thinking about booking studio time: “Don’t be afraid of the bigger studio. You’ll sometimes spend the same amount by going to a smaller studio that takes a bit longer to get the sound you want. Find the right engineers that really know what they’re doing… it makes a much more pleasant experience.”

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416 WABASH Chris Wodock didn’t think it’d be that difficult to find a space to merge his existing recording studio business with an event space built for shows. After looking at a few different places that just didn’t fit the bill, his realtor happened to take him to the old Club Industry building smack in the middle of downtown, and he knew it was the spot. Today, the west side of the building is home to a 600-square-foot recording studio that regularly hosts all kinds of artists. “Every session is a little bit different, because the artists are different,” Wodock says. “With larger bands, we have the ability to record them in the studio room, or on stage with our front-of-house PA system.”

Hip-hop artists, rock bands, jazz ensembles, and even voice-over artists all make use of 416’s recording space on a regular basis. The different uses of the two spaces create a challenge for sure, but an exciting one for Wodock. “We’re constantly figuring out the best way to do events that utilize both spaces. It’s a lot of fun,” he says.

Phone: (317) 748-3844 Website: 416Wabash.com Location: 416 E. Wabash St., Indianapolis, IN 46204 Notable Clients: Gucci Mane, Goo Goo Dolls, Lance Stephenson, Imagine Dragons.

Best studio story: “Probably the Super Bowl party we hosted where Rick Ross came by — that was definitely a highlight.”

Advice for artists thinking about booking studio time: “I think a lot of people are rightfully excited about booking studio time before they’re quite ready for it. Take some time and get your ducks in order. If you’ve only got half a song written, it might not be time for the studio yet. If you’re going to play a sports game, you want to make sure that you’re prepared for the game.”

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AZMYTH Apple might nod its head to upstart musicians by calling its music app “GarageBand,” but Ryan Adkins really did start out of his parent’s garage when he was younger. After working in a few studios in the mid ’90s that he felt weren’t creative enough environments for him, Adkins opened his own studio in 1999, which today attracts a lot of national names when they come through Indianapolis.

Phone: (317) 281-3670 Email: info@azmythrecording Location: 5210 E. 65th St., Indianapolis, IN 46220 Notable Clients: Migos, Audiodacity, Snoop Dogg, 800lb Gorilla, Jadakiss.

Best studio story: “When Snoop Dogg came in to visit, my partner reminded me he’s going to want to smoke, which we didn’t want to smoke up the control room with. So, we set up another room with an ashtray and made it all nice. When Snoop came in, he sat right down at the control room desk turned to me and asked in the most polite way possible, ‘Can I get an ashtray?’ so we figured what the hell, and everything turned out great. Snoop is a great guy.”

Advice for artists thinking about booking studio time: “Make sure you have your parts wellrehearsed before you come into the studio. You hear every little piece of the music that you might not have picked up on before. Don’t spend money on studio time practicing things that you could do elsewhere for free.”

Azmyth hosts a wide range of musicians: singer/songwriters, hip-hop artists, to full-size rock bands, coaching them through whenever necessary. “You don’t see music producers as much these days, so it’s important to find an engineer that can help get the best out of your act,” he says.

In 2008, Adkins started a curriculum through Azmyth that teaches aspiring audio engineers what they need to know to work in the business, and he’s seen a lot of success. “It’s a breeding ground for new engineers. Two of my top guys came right out of that curriculum.”

IGOR

DAMN. STRAVINSKY

TIME FOR

THREE

FAREWELL TO TIME FOR THREE WITH A SPECIAL APPEARANCE

BY LILY & MADELEINE

IGOR DAMN STRAVINSKY

Wednesday, May 15, 2019 Experience a fusion of the music of Kendrick Lamar and Igor Stravinsky Steve Hackman, Conductor

Wednesday, April 10, 2019 As Time for Three’s residency ends, join us in celebrating this amazing trio!

Jacob Joyce, Conductor

5 P.M. HAPPY HOUR 6:30 P.M. CONCERT WEBSITE: INDIANAPOLISSYMPHONY.ORG IG: INDY_SYMPHONY

As Time for Three’s residency ends, join us in celebrating this amazing trio!

With a special appearance by:

LILY & MADELEINE

$30 ADVANCE $35 DAY OF

Experience a fusion of the music of Kendrick Lamar and Igor Stravinsky.

 � � All performances are held at the Hilbert Circle Theatre

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ANG n ELA w o r B BEAUTY AND MERIT IN EVERY WAY. WORDS BY PETER DUNN PHOTOGRAPH BY POLINA OSHEROV 75

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Nestled on a banquette just inside the cocktail lounge at the iconic Hilbert Circle Theatre, I wondered which Angela Brown I was about to meet. Was it the woman so obsessed with fashion accessories that she created her own jewelry line? Or maybe I was destined to meet the passionate educator and modern-day interpreter of African-American spirituals. The safe guess was an elegant encounter with one of the great sopranos of our time, or any other time for that matter.

From her highly acclaimed debut as the title role in Aida at the Metropolitan Opera, to her featured vocals on a Grammy Award-winning album, she’s, frankly, a force of nature. CBS Sunday Morning once called her “the future of opera,” and she’s been featured numerous times on the cover of The New York Times.

My uncertainty was a byproduct of not knowing the secret of Angela Brown.

You get exactly what you need.

That’s the gift of spending time with Ms. Brown — she delivers exactly what the universe believes you need in that moment.

Peter Dunn: You’re incredibly present on stage. After your countless number of performances, how can you possibly give your audience such an intimate experience with you each and every time?

Angela Brown: I’m a real person. Whenever I’m performing anything, I try to bring who Angela Brown is to the character or the event. If it doesn’t mean anything to me, how can I convey [the role] convincingly? The audience deserves the best performance I can give, today. I have to simply let [the listener] know how I feel on that day. That’s authentic. It’s not prefabricated. If the high notes are sparkly or a little gravelly, or if I’m feeling a little bit more pathos that day for that particular character, that’s what they’ll get. It goes through the gamut with me.

PD: This was especially evident in the work you did on the Langston Hughes project (Grammy Award-winning recording of the poem “Ask Your Mama”). How were you able to bring something so personal to the work of Langston Hughes? That’s a monumental task.

AB: I just thought about my mama, my grandmother — I thought about all the influences I had growing up here in Indianapolis on 30th and Broadway. And it was easier to just be me. It’s harder to try and be someone else and then be forced to remember it.

PD: How do you avoid becoming too emotional when you think about your mom and grandmother? How do you summon those highly personal emotions with such high stakes on the line?

AB: I try and remember what my teachers always taught me: It’s better that the audience cries and feels you than for you to actually cry. You do have to rein it in a bit. I find myself swallowing, taking pregnant pauses, and centering myself again. The audience doesn’t know that’s what I’m doing. They just think I’m being in the character. I’m trying to get myself together so I can continue. Y’all paid a whole lotta money to see this. Y’all didn’t pay a whole lotta money to watch me cry. You came to be moved, not me.

PD: How in the world do you learn to throttle that?

Your work oozes emotion.

AB: There was an opera I did, Margaret Garner, that was written for me. It’s about the life of Margaret Garner, who was a slave woman. She and her family escaped, and upon being recaptured, she killed her children rather than watching them go back into the cruel institution of slavery. Well, every night we had to live that. And every night I was crying at the end of the opera. But, baby, it takes a toll on you. You have to learn when to let those floodgates go, and when you simply can’t.

PD: One of my favorite sayings is “When you’re in your twenties, you care about what people think. When you’re in your forties, you don’t care what people think. And when you’re in your sixties, you realize no one was thinking about you anyway.” Where are you mentally on that spectrum? As a public figure, how do you deal with that?

AB: You do worry about what people think of you, how you look. I’m what I would call a large, lovely, luxury woman, and when I was younger, I didn’t see my worth because I wasn’t skinny. I was never hired to be the ingénue. I was always somebody’s mama.

And early on in my career I didn’t appreciate that because I was young, and I had a young mind. Who wants to play the mama when you’re feeling like the girl who’s in love? I wanted to be the waif. But no one can pick you up and lift you off the stage. They have to drag your behind off the stage (laughing). As I’ve grown in this career, I’ve found beauty and merit in every character. With wisdom and age comes a few pounds, a few gray hairs, and a few wrinkles in the face, but that doesn’t mean you’re not desirable. So I stopped putting that on it. And … my check is still the same! Hello! (Delivers perfectly appropriate high five.)

And I probably got a few more zeros than the sister that had it all hanging-out. So there you go.

PD: How did your love of jewelry develop?

AB: During my operatic career, which had me traveling around the world, I couldn’t go shopping with the little girls, because European sizes wouldn’t fit me. But you know what did? Accessories. Jewelry fit. Purses fit. And shoes fit. I used to hide beyond the big hair and makeup and accessories because I was insecure. But now, I’m not trying to hide. I can take the jewelry off and still be just as bold, just as beautiful.

PD: Where do you find your energy now? What do you drink in so you can sing out?

AB: I love pouring into young people. It was an aha moment on my most recent tour. We were singing at a venue, and there were a number of students at the show. Afterward, they all came up to me and were saying, “Auntie, this and Auntie, that.” At first I was like, “I don’t know you,” but then I realized that this world we’re living in now, young people want to be able to connect on a closer level. They wanted me to pour into their lives. The success and the struggles — they needed to know to never climb the smooth side of a mountain. You’ve gotta climb the rough side because then you have something to hold onto. I’m in the second act of my career. And teaching young people will be a big part of that. ✂

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CHRIS WELZ. SECRETLY DISTRIBUTION. WORDS BY JULIA BLUHM + PHOTOGRAPH BY REAGAN ALLEN Secretly Distribution, though based in Bloomington, is no small-town secret. The music distribution company has offices all over the world, and more than sixty label and artist deals. The company started in the 1990s with the local label, “Secretly Canadian.” After combining with other labels, “Secretly Distribution” was formed to get the labels’ music into more stores. Back then this involved calling record stores to ask them to carry an artists’ CDs. Secretly Distribution has grown massively beyond Bloomington since then, with forty percent of its business coming from outside the United States in any given year.

Managing Director Chris Welz told us more about Secretly Distribution’s growth and how he got involved in the company.

JB: What does Secretly Distribution look for in labels and artists?

JB: What are some new releases or artists that stand out to you?

CW: We don’t have any real criteria. The idea is to identify labels and artists that we are passionate about. Our passion for the labels, for whatever reason, is pretty much paramount. We’re going to be pitching the content, talking about the content, and sharing the narrative of all the content, so we need to believe in the music. It needs to have rich connectivity to community and culture, and we really want to be friends with the people we work with. It’s not about gobbling up content.

CW: There are so many. In addition to Durand Jones & the Indications, I’ll mention The Coathangers. They’re a three-piece, all-female punk band from Atlanta that have been working tirelessly for years. They have a new record called The Devil You Know. There’s also an amazing label I always like to talk about, Awesome Tapes from Africa.

They have a flagship artist named Hailu Mergia who’s an Ethiopian musician who was pretty insecure for years as a cab driver in Washington, DC. Then he was rediscovered and is now playing in clubs worldwide with his amazing jazz-psych outfit. There are a lot of amazing things happening, but those are the ones that come to mind.

Julia Bluhm: How did you first start working at Secretly Distribution?

CW: Our “Secretly” labels were started here, at least some of them, but now we’re looking at stuff from all over the world. We do have a few smaller imprints that we work with that were started in Bloomington, labels like Family Vineyard and Magnetic South. And one of the groups we recently signed through Dead Oceans, Durand Jones & The Indications, started their life here. They’re an amazing soul band. So we value local, but there’s no criteria. It doesn’t matter where the talent comes from, if it’s good, we’ll listen to it.

Chris Welz: I started as an intern in 2003. In 2004, I was working full-time in the warehouse, shipping records all over. I did pretty much anything that was needed in the first couple of years — label managing, warehouse managing, and then I started doing digital distribution.

That’s where I really started to get a grasp on an area of business that I was good at, and that was really important in the early 2000s.

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JB: Do you work with many local labels and artists?

JB: How has Secretly Distribution grown?

CW: When we started, there were maybe ten people working for Secretly Distribution, and now there are 111.

It’s been a pretty wild ride. We have offices in LA, New York, and Berlin, and some more people in Amsterdam and Paris. Our international business is really huge. It was definitely a baby-step process, and now we’ve slowly grown into what we are.

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RAD SUMMER

RISK-TAKING HIT-MAKING ACTION JACKSON + LEMI VICE

WORDS BY SHELBY QUINN CARTES PHOTOGRAPHY BY POLINA OSHEROV

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people exist everywhere. They often exist in the places that, seemingly, provide them Twithalented the least opportunity to capitalize on their

talent. But this lack breeds ingenuity. If the chance to succeed as an artist isn’t readily available, then either you leave or you create your own opportunities. It is this necessary drive that has brought about a burgeoning music scene right here in Indianapolis. Artists who are gifted not only with musical prowess, but also with the grit it takes to succeed, have painstakingly transformed the middle of the country into an exciting hotbed of artistry.

One of Indy’s most exciting acts, Action Jackson has been in the game for a while, working hard to create a space where deejays and producers can thrive without sacrificing their creativity or abandoning their humble beginnings.

While in school at IU Bloomington in the early 2000s, Action Jackson could be found spinning at house parties, building a resume as a real deal, vinyl-scratching deejay. While vinyl is far more ubiquitous today, back then he was boldly responding to a desperate call: the need for a true deejay during a period overwhelmed with commonplace iTunes jockeys.

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“I originally bought turntables to produce,” Jackson explains, “I was spinning at a lot of house parties. Back then it was harder to get into deejaying.

There were just a lot fewer of us, and it is extremely expensive to build a big library.”

To make a name for himself, Jackson started “carrying crates,” an unofficial apprenticeship that literally involves carrying the heavy vinyl crates for established deejays.

“When you carried crates, you would get to spin early in the night before anyone was there, or really late at night when everyone was drunk,” he says.

In this system, if you weren’t any good, you would do far less damage to the name of the deejay who was vouching for you. But Jackson didn’t have to worry. He was good. This meant that his nights spinning at haunts like the now defunct Jungle Room at Uncle Fester’s bar in Bloomington were relatively short-lived.

Not only was he good at engaging the crowd with his musical arrangements and eye-catching wardrobe — we’ll circle back to this — he was good at advocating for himself and for other acts.

Jackson found himself partnering with another local artist to form the booking company Rad

Summer. This guaranteed Jackson could mature from a house-party-spinning, crate-carrying college kid to a bonafide, regularly working artist.

Further, he capitalized on the opportunity to make success a reality for other artists. Between 2006 and 2014, Rad Summer would evolve from a booking and management agency to a full-fledged label, representing artists as far away as Finland.

“The label happened naturally,” says Jackson, “We just wanted to help people working hard to put out music.”

Unlike other labels that stay safe by producing music in one genre, the artist roster at Rad Summer runs the gamut from hip-hop to EDM to house music, and on.

“We never want to be stuck in one lane. We want to work with anyone who wants to portray a unique point of view, no matter what genre they represent.”

Rad Summer has produced albums and EPs for several artists, including local acts like Oreo Jones, Sirius Blvck, and John Stamps, among many others.

While Action Jackson was working hard to turn Rad Summer into a label, a chance encounter

introduced him to a friend, who would become a roommate and eventually a consistent collaborator and producer for the label.

Lemi Vice hails from Louisville, Kentucky. He has always loved music, playing the drums since he was thirteen years old, and quickly adding the guitar to his repertoire at fifteen.

“I’ve been producing music for seventeen years,” says Lemi.”Deejaying became a way of performing the music I had created. From there, I got more into hip-hop club deejaying, regularly mixing in pop and EDM.” In 2014, after living and working in Chicago for several years, Lemi moved home.

“I got back to Louisville and started collaborating a lot with an artist named Phenom, who had started releasing music on Jackson’s label. Jackson would be in Louisville a lot, and we started making music together. It came together really organically,” he says.

Not too long after meeting, Jackson needed a roommate in Indy, and Lemi answered the call. As one can imagine, their house was not only a home, but a source of constant musical experimentation and collaboration.

“Producing music together happened naturally.

We would get back from the club at 4 a.m. People would roll through, and songs would get produced.

We created a lot like that,” says Lemi.

“Deejays used to exist spinning in the corner of the club, but now we are front and center,” Jackson explains.

“These days, whoever hires you wants to see more of a show.”

Their seemingly random recording, mixing, and mastering would soon blossom into a cohesive duo that has released a number of albums. Their most recent production, Boi, was released in August 2018.

As much as the album is defined by its unique, bass-heavy sound, its visual appeal, from the cover art to the set and cinematography for the video for the single “Geechi,” has cemented the pair as being just as conscious about their aesthetic as they are about the sounds they produce.

“From wearing bold suits and silk scarves to carefully curated Gucci belts and loafers, neither Lemi nor Jackson are afraid to give the people what they want.

“What you see is just as important as what you hear,” says Lemi.

During an era when Indy’s appeal as a destination is on the rise, Action Jackson and Lemi Vice are doing important work.

“Places like LA are always tempting. Indy is a smaller market, and I used to think there is somewhat of an inferiority complex,” says Jackson, “But once I started traveling, I realized there’s more to it. Everyone here wants to help each other. There aren’t a lot of egos.

Everyone is just trying to make it and get on the map.”

The duo of Action Jackson and Lemi Vice is a prime example of the system of hard work and allegiance that has transformed Indy’s music scene from underground to flourishing. The work ethic that has made them popular here at home promises to take them to new heights. While they work diligently on producing remixes for the tracks off Boi, they are collaborating with big names out of tempting Los Angeles.

For now, they are sworn to secrecy on the names of their collaborators, but it won’t be long until the Midwest will have to share these two with the world. ✂ 83

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CODI BANKS. FASHION DESIGNER. WORDS BY EBONY CHAPPEL + PHOTOGRAPH BY CHANTAL SALLADE Arthur McGee rose through the mire of Jim Crow to become the first African-American designer to run a Seventh Avenue design room and sell his fashions in places like Bergdorf Goodman and Saks Fifth Avenue.

French fashion designer Olivier Rousteing, head of fashion house Balmain, became the youngest creative director in Paris since Yves St. Laurent. The ingenuity, creativity, and innovation of these and other black designers have consistently influenced in the world of high fashion.

Ebony Chappel: I love ‘Witty by Codi’ as your company name. What is the significance of being witty and when did you discover that about yourself?

Unfortunately, black designers of couture, streetwear, and everything in between have consistently been overlooked or flat-out denied the accolades and decisionmaking power they deserve within the industry.

EC: What was your first design creation, and what did that experience teach you?

According to a 2018 article from The Cut, only fifteen of the 495 Council of Fashion Designers of America members are black, only ten black designers have ever won a CFDA or CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund award, and less than ten percent of the 146 fashion designers represented at the major fall 2018 shows for New York Fashion Week were black.

However, independent black designers are busily creating successful followings for themselves outside the traditional, repressive structure of the field. In Indianapolis, Codi Banks of Witty by Codi is among them.

We recently caught up with the enterprising young mom and fashionista to get her take on wardrobe must-haves, inequities in the industry, and more.

Codi Banks: Being witty comes naturally to me. Since I could remember, my style choice has always made me stand out from the crowd. Being remembered and remarkable for something as easy as an outfit choice just makes me happy.

CB: The very first thing I ever created was a crocheted scarf that I sold to my study hall teacher in seventh grade for just $10. The experience taught me I have a talent that someone is willing to pay for. From there, I kept practicing and perfecting my craft. I’m now creating pieces that cost upwards of $500.

EC: High fashion brands like Gucci, Prada, and others have come under fire for pilfering ideas from designers of color and also producing items that are racially controversial in nature. What are your thoughts on the issue, and how can black designers get their just due?

EC: Your fashions have graced runways, print media, and some of Indy’s best events. Can you describe what that’s like watching your designs get public attention and appreciation?

CB: Seeing my designs come to life is first, a feeling of relief. I give the biggest exhale watching my designs down the runway. Secondly, I have an overwhelming feeling of accomplishment and pride. I am my happiest self after a show, the release of the latest article, or a photoshoot that is glamorizing Witty by Codi.

EC: If you could design for anyone in the world, living or deceased, who would it be and what would you design for them?

CB: I would design a haute couture look for Beyoncé to wear to the Met Gala.

EC: What would you recommend as the top-five fashion must-haves for spring?

CB: A chic patent leather raincoat, long-sleeve maxi dresses, several pair of color-tinted glasses, patterned bell-bottom pants, and long silk-patterned scarves. ✂

CB: I believe brands like Gucci and Prada do not have enough people of color making marketing decisions. A person of color would notice race-sensitive flaws in all aspects of the company. An even better idea would be to hire more black seamstresses to work in the design sectors.

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INDY DJS PRESENT AN ORAL HISTORY OF SPINNING VINYL

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ACTION JACKSON DJ SINCE: 2003 LISTEN HERE: www.djactionjackson.com

Photo by RILEY VAN BUSKIRK | Instagram: @ TheMrVB

@ACTIONJACKSON

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01 GNO

INDIANA JONES

ACTION JACKSON

COOL HAND LEX

I gotta be honest, I lugged other DJs' records but never my own. I am a Serato baby. However, I do know how to DJ on vinyl, yet when I saw it on a computer, I knew I could be very skilled at it. The visuals helped me understand it much better. I believe the industry has advanced on all levels, because you can utilize many different types of DJ'ing equipment to play many different types of music.

I think that you have way more DJs. I think that it waters the art down a little bit. But it also pushes the art forward, because the more competition you have, the better you have to be.

Because there's some of these kids that are coming up now that are ten or eleven years old that are doing things on turntables that we weren't even thinking of back when we were kids.

Salute to anybody that's actually doing it for the right reasons.

The barriers to entry were so much higher back then, so all the DJs around in general were much better because you had to have so much invested to become a DJ.

Universal access to the entire collection of recorded music across the world via the internet has killed sonic regionality and seems to be slowly homogenizing genres. I think the same can be said for DJing. Before Serato a DJ was only as good as their collection and ability to rock a party with it, now the performance and vibe of a DJ seems much less significant in relation to the bottom line of making money. DJs used to be able to travel around the world because they were top selectors, now they can't leave their region without thousands of followers and big soundcloud play counts.

I love to use different mixers, turntables, and controllers, and in this day and age you can jump on whatever you want.Â

GABBY LOVE I learned on vinyl only and made sure I was proficient at mixing by ear before even touching Serato and a computer to mix. So I feel fantastic about my early DJing education and my foundation.

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I remember lugging massive crates of vinyl. If it wasn't for Serato, I don't know if I would still actually ... I'd probably still be DJing but, man, it'd have to be some real money, because I'm just trying to think in 2004, I was carrying ten crates of records, each crate had 100 records.

Now I'd have to have twenty, man, but, yeah, I'm very glad that Serato came about, and I welcome everybody to try the culture out, at least see if it's for you.

It basically worked like an apprenticeship system, where you had to get "put on" by a more established DJ to get work.

That's where the term "carrying crates" would come from. The younger, more inexperienced DJ would often help carry the crates of the headliner or whoever he was opening for. I was put on in Bloomington by DJ Wushu.

Today it's a lot easier to just download some mp3s and then do a lot of Internet marketing and then call yourself a DJ. So the quality has gone down a bit. That said, with today's technology in the right hands, you can do so much more than was ever possible back then just on vinyl.

I never thought I could really make a life out of this intense appreciation I had for music, but I worked hard, took a lot of blind chances, and somehow managed to succeed. By contrast, elementary aged children want to headline festivals now and are able to enroll at DJ schools and make their dreams that much closer to a reality.

02

GNO DJ SINCE: 2009 LISTEN HERE: www.itunes.apple. com/us/artist/dj-gno/1244862768 @GNOUNIVERSE

COOL HAND LEX DJ SINCE: 2000

NIKO FLORES

LEMI VICE

ANNIE D

Though I started DJing in the Serato Era, I still make an effort to play vinyl sets and stay in tune with the core fundamentals of the craft. I personally feel that while technology is awesome, it is most important to learn the craft the traditional way.

I think both eras are fantastic in their own ways! I think Serato definitely opened up a lot of things that just weren’t possible with traditional vinyl, and club DJing changed because of that, much in the way mixers like the S9 changed how we were able to use them with things like the sample pads.

I do wish I would have been a part of the scene before Serato. I think it would have cultivated me more coming up in the scene and set me apart from DJs after Serato. You learn more about the music overall by having the actual vinyl record, and I wish I would have experienced it. When I first started, I practiced with just records, a challenge from GNO, but when you grab gigs that’s just not necessary anymore so I didn’t keep up with it.

MATSU Serato, and technology as a whole, is about accessibility and convenience.

Ultimately, these advances in technology are what even enabled me to become a DJ. I started using free laptop software, then graduated to a controller, saved up and got entrylevel equipment, and only after years of work and commitment, I was able to purchase a full setup. Without software like Serato, I never would have been able to experience DJing.

KNAGS I feel like I missed an important era in the DJ timeline. I feel like Serato is a huge convenience, but I still feel like it's important to respect the history. It was always very important to me to learn how to DJ with real vinyl.

LISTEN HERE: www.mixcloud. com/CoolHandLex @COOLHANDLEX

LEMI VICE DJ SINCE: 2005 LISTEN HERE: www.soundcloud. com/lemivice @LEMIVICE

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INDIANA JONES DJ SINCE: 1982 or ‘83 at my family’s roller rink, Melody Skateland LISTEN HERE: www.mixcloud.com/ DJIndianaJones @DJINDIANAJONES

KNAGS DJ SINCE: 2011 LISTEN HERE: www.soundcloud. com/knags/sets/mixes @KNAGS

MATSU DJ SINCE: 2013 LISTEN HERE: www.matsumusic.com @MATSU

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OHBEONE

JOHN LARNER

COOL HAND LEX

That DJs are jukeboxes… The public thinks the only thing we do is just show up to a club and play. It’s not just pressing play. It's reading a room and planning the next several songs accordingly, mixing seamlessly, beat juggling, keeping the dance floor on fire, all while trying to keep an open format to keep everyone in the room moving.

There is a lot to it these days. To stay relevant you have to frequently post video routines on Instagram, showing your creative skills and how you stand out from the next. You are basically running a small production company for your brand 24/7.

Partying is hard work. Being out four to five nights a week takes a toll. Being friendly and social gets hard after a while. A few years ago (shit maybe ten now) I was touring internationally and that was really hard on me. Doing over thirty countries and I don't know how many cities, and one year I was out of the country for close to five months. That kind of travel and partying is no joke.

Acquiring music used to involve some sort of sacrifice, sometimes as small as paying a dollar for a garage-sale find, and sometimes as large as driving across the state to pay hundreds for a rare find. The DJ was trusted more because their expertise was vetted by the entire process that put them in the booth to begin with. When the access to music was revolutionized by the Internet, the sacrifice became the significance of screen tap, thereby changing the way the audience considers the DJ. A good party is a DJ's art piece, formed on the fly with the people on hand by their ten years of research, playing, creating, and learning how to orchestrate a vibe.

KNAGS One of the biggest misconceptions about DJs is that anyone can do it.

Anyone can purchase a Macbook and a controller and play songs, but it is very different being able to control the energy of an entire room. Being able to read crowds, select appropriate music, and create movement requires years of practice and commitment.

JOHN LARNER DJ SINCE: middle school dance 1986 LISTEN HERE: www.mixcloud. com/johnlarner/ @JOHNLARNER

TRILLI That it is all fun and games. It's extremely stressful, and you have to wear ten different hats (digital marketer, event planner, etc.) on top of being good at the technical aspects of it.

ANNIE D I think there are many misconceptions, but I personally hear a lot of people saying it’s just a lot of “button pushing.”

Nowadays with Serato it can seem that way, and you can fall into a pattern — you just have to make sure you keep your sets fresh and give it your own flair!

NIKO FLORES I think that a lot of people expect DJs to have extroverted personalities outside of the club and are sometimes disappointed when we aren't always that way.

INDIANA JONES I think the biggest misconception that the general public has about DJs and DJing is that it's easy and that it's fun and that it's this fairyland where you just hop around from club to club on a private jet. For most of us, it's 200 bucks, if we're lucky, and maybe a drink or two... Man, I mean, as somebody who teaches DJing, I can tell you that when families come in to the music school that I teach at, they definitely look at the DJ room as that's not serious music. They still look at it like that. It's serious music.

DJS ARE NOT PRODUCERS, PROMOTERS, MARKETERS, OR JUKEBOXES...

YOU CAN BE MORE THAN ONE, BUT A DJ IS A DJ. NOW, THE LINES ARE PAINFULLY BLURRED. — MATSU

OHBEONE DJ SINCE: 1999 LISTEN HERE: www.mixcloud. com/djohbeone @DJOHBEONE

NIKO FLORES DJ SINCE: 2013 @NIKOFLORESMUSIC

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GABBY LOVE DJ SINCE: 2009 LISTEN HERE: www. djgabbylove.com

ANNIE D DJ SINCE: 2016

@DJGABBYLOVE

@ANNIEDULHANTY

LOCKSTAR DJ SINCE: 1990ish LISTEN HERE: www.mixcloud.com/ FredLockstar/stream/

TRILLI DJ SINCE: 2015 LISTEN HERE: www.mixcloud. com/TRILLImixes/ @TRILLITAKESPICS

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Photo by LANDON PRICE | Instagram: @priceisright

@DJLOCKSTAR

04 INDIANA JONES

GNO

NIKO FLORES

We just need some more infrastructure.

I'm excited to see the Chamber and Visit Indy and the Mayor's office, putting together this economic impact studies report. Those are the kind of things that we need to see, to see if we can turn Indy from just a sports town to a sports and music town, because the economic impact of music in the city has never been looked at with a serious lens. We're getting ready to get a chance to do that. What should stay the same? Nothing should ever stay the same. Period.

The good thing is that there is a scene and there is a great deal of talent. I see all kinds of artists making moves toward success everyday. I also hear really good music being produced here. Yet, I feel that we as consumers should support the Indy music scene more by supporting local shows, purchasing local artists' music, and sharing local music on our social media outlets more often.

I feel that Indianapolis has a growing music scene with a ton of young talent that has yet to reach their full potential.

In the DJ community, I think that there is a good sense of camaraderie between DJs, which allows for a lot of lasting friendships. You know you are part of a good scene when you forget your needles or laptop charger at home and can count on the fact that somebody working across the street probably has your back — just because you are part of the same community.

GABBY LOVE I think there is an abundance of talent here, and it’s very special! The biggest problem we have faced is there hasn’t been a solid foundation and infrastructure to facilitate the growth of our talent. That is starting to change though, and I am excited to be working directly with some groups and initiatives that are working to fix that and create more opportunities to help artists in the community.

ACTION JACKSON I love that the scene is very cooperative and everyone gets along in general. I think that since we're a smaller market, everyone is very supportive and just wants to help everyone else succeed.

What's bad and that should change is that we have some of the most restrictive excise laws in the country. I've literally lost sponsorships because of it. For example, we can't have hosted bars or we're not technically allowed to have happy hours (drink prices can't change during the same business day). We also would have a much bigger music scene if there were more all ages or 18+ venues.

TRILLI The Indy music scene is incredible! There is something to listen to every single night if you're so obliged, and it definitely wasn't that way even just a few years ago.

There's an amazing crop of young upand-coming DJs here that are champing at the bit for their own opportunities, and competition breeds quality.

LOCKSTAR I love the music scene in this area. Very diverse, almost like a hidden gem.

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GUNNAR Gunnar Deatherage is a man of many talents. Fashion Designer. Hair Stylist.

Creative Director. Draper. While his current claim to fame has been his participation in Project Runway, he’s gone on to accomplish a far more impressive list of achievements in the six years since his last Project Runway appearance, and he’s just getting started. We caught up with Gunnar in LA to talk about what he’s been up to, including his recent relocation from Louisville.

WORDS BY POLINA OSHEROV DESIGN BY MEGAN GRAY PHOTOGRAPHY BY HUNTER ZEISKE MAKEUP BY BETHANY HOOD ALL CLOTHING DESIGNED BY GUNNAR DEATHERAGE 97

"

I think that everybody should move away from everything they know at least one time in their life.

I think it makes you a stronger person.

Polina Osherov: You moved to a LA in July of 2018, congrats! What led to the move and what has that transition been like for you?

GD: Not at all! The only person I knew moving here was my boyfriend!

lighting, dishes — really anything that you would put in an empty room to make it look like whatever the director wants it to.

PO: So how did you start getting gigs?

Gunnar Deatherage: The decision to move to LA was definitely not an easy one. I was deeply rooted in the Midwest and I love Louisville, but I’d hit the ceiling professionally. I felt like I had done everything that I could possibly do there and, as much as I kept pushing, I just wasn’t getting those higher caliber jobs that I wanted to be working on. It was starting to take a mental toll.

My boyfriend is originally from LA, and he moved to Louisville on the condition that we would eventually move back to LA. So having him alongside me has been great, but it was still a difficult transition. There were multiple moments when I was like, what have I done? The hardest part was realizing that I was not only leaving my friends and family, but also a really incredible network of colleagues and collaborators that I had worked so hard to build. I still feel deeply connected to Louisville, but I won’t lie, I am glad I made the move. I think that everybody should move away from everything they know at least one time in their life. I think it makes you a stronger person. When you’re in a place where everyone knows you and what you can do, there’s not that need to prove yourself, and I needed and wanted that. I definitely found that in a LA. PO: One would assume that with your roots in fashion, photography, and print, that you had a handful of connections moving to LA? Is that true?

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GD: I hadn’t had to actively ‘look for work’ in about six years, because of being a part of Project Runway, and because of just knowing great people and bouncing from connection to connection. Then I got to LA and there was nothing. I had to start fresh. I had to write a resume. After a few weeks of dead ends, I started panicking and ended up on Craigslist — the last place I expected to find work. But there were legit jobs on there. So I jumped into this seamstress world and started sewing for six different people at a time. And that was amazing, because then I was learning all these different processes. It was weirdly voyeuristic in an artful way, getting to watch people create and me just being a fly on the wall in a way.

PO: I know that you didn’t do the seamstress thing for too long, so what happened next?

GD: I connected with a production designer by the name of Zachary Skoubis, who works on films and commercials. He knew my boyfriend, but he’d also purchased clothing from me when I was still in Louisville.

He said, ‘I think you’d be great at working in the art department.’ So I gave it a shot and loved it so much!

For anybody who’s wondering, the art department on films and commercials handles anything to do with set design; curtains, wallpaper, reupholstering, furniture,

PO: Are you allowed to talk about some of the specific projects you’ve worked on since you’ve been here?

GD: Where do I start? So much has happened in such a short period of time. I worked with a designer, Lael Osness. She designed Jessie Jay’s world tour clothing and costumes for the stage. And that was a really amazing experience, because we got to actually fit with Jessie and work with her. And although those were not my designs, being able to work on someone else’s vision (that millions of people are going to see) was really, really cool. I did a number of other projects with Laele, worked with Valentina from RuPaul’s Drag Race, a MAC cosmetics campaign, we also did some dresses for Mariah Carey. Then I bounced over to the art department world, where I did a Twenty One Pilots music video, two Ariana Grande music videos, and a commercial for Google with DJ Marshmello. After that, it was back to the sewing world again, where I got a chance to work with designer Asher Levine. We worked on Lady Gaga’s Enigma Residency costumes in Las Vegas. Working with Asher was incredible. His brain works in a way that mine cannot even comprehend.

Working with him forced me to think outside of the box.

Then, I finished my year out with a couple more music videos with production designer John Richoux and Team Nomad: one for Ariana Grande and one for Kacey Musgraves.

"

I also want to inspire others to create more, and if I can be a catalyst for people in that way, then I think I’m doing all right.

PO: And all that in a period of four and a half months?

GD: Yeah, once you get plugged in here, it’s just nonstop. Once I started working, I didn’t get a day off until Christmas.

PO: Was it difficult to translate your skill set of being a fashion designer to working in the art department? It certainly sounds like you took to it like a fish to water.

GD: There are definitely a lot of skills that translated for the type of work I do. On set I’m known as a “draper.”

A draper is in charge of anything to do with fabric.

So whether I’m reupholstering, or I’m using fabric as wallpaper, or making pillows, or crafting art pieces for the wall, I really do get to flex my design muscles.

Remember that shoot I did with Clay Cook for PATTERN (Vol. 12) Not only was the model wearing my designs, but I also designed those sets! So while I didn’t do a lot of that type of work in Louisville, it certainly was in my wheelhouse.

PO: LA is such a different beast from the Midwest. How has it been trying to fit in here?

GD: I’m very proud to be from the Midwest. I enjoy being a nice person who has genuine empathy for others and is willing to help others just because. People recognize this niceness as being different from the LA niceness, and respond well to it. On the flip side, when people hear that I am from Kentucky, they almost instantly assume that I’m not as good and don’t know as much as they do — that I am somehow culturally inept as well.

People here have a tendency to explain the difference between LA and everywhere else, as though I’ve been living on another planet all this time. Meantime, they have no real idea of my life in Kentucky or the level of experience and expertise that I bring to the table, that I spent the last decade working for myself and creating my own empire. I own a boutique. I did hair in a salon for almost ten years. I had two clothing lines running simultaneously. I was creative directing for four publications, as well as for large commercial brands. Sometimes it feels like some people might need something to hold over me. They think the ‘something’ is that I’m from the Midwest, but I believe that it’s one of my biggest assets.

PO: What’s the most daunting thing about living in LA? GD: You don’t know traffic until you’ve sat on the freeway for three hours. You don’t know anxiety until you’re stuck in traffic, panicking about being late to an important meeting. I’ll start there because it’s the most obvious downside. Also the homeless issue in LA is one of the saddest things I’ve ever experienced. I’m really looking forward to seeing how our new governor’s new plan for trying to address this issue plays out.

a lot more to handle every single day, versus living in a city like Louisville.

PO: What does the future hold for you? What are your goals for the coming days?

GD: I plan on giving LA at least a good five years, unless something incredible comes up elsewhere. That’s what it would take for me to move away. Challenges aside, I’m having a little bit of a love affair with LA. I didn’t think that I would, and now that I’m here I find it rewarding, challenging, stylish, warm. I feel more myself here than I’ve felt in a long time. I think that that’s pretty special.

I’m very optimistic about my future here. I feel like I can expand on everything that I’ve been doing all these years. To do more and do it bigger and better. I want to make a lot more money. I want to make a lot more art. I want to make a lot more friends. I also want to inspire others to create more, and if I can be a catalyst for people in that way, then I think I’m doing all right. ✂

Generally speaking, LA is like any other big city. It can chew you up and spit you out. And I’ve experienced that on both coasts. A big city can do that. Adjusting to life here is a huge transition. Everything’s more difficult and time-consuming, from shopping for groceries to picking up supplies for projects. You have traffic no matter where and what time of day you go. There’s just 101

Musicians José James and Taali, are cofounders of Rainbow Blonde, a NYC-based record label with a holistic approach to making music.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JANETTE BECKMAN DESIGN BY CLAIRE BOWLES

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José James: So we’re sitting here today on the Lower East Side in our home where we’ve created many songs, written whole albums, and started Rainbow Blonde, a record label. I think if anybody would’ve said even five years ago that we would have our own label, I would have been pretty surprised.

Taali: Same. Although it does feel like a very natural progression of where you and I were both headed five years ago.

JJ: The goal has always been fostering community.

We’ve done that in different ways, and now I think it’s come together with this label. What are your thoughts on community?

TB: My dad always told me that nothing happens with just one person, and I took that to heart deeply. So it’s always been my mission as a human and as a creator to include and celebrate other people’s visions. I don’t see anything as just mine, and so this label is really a dream come true, because it allows me to celebrate every single person in the process in a way that I haven’t been able to before. We tried to get there with the Orchard Sessions, and to some extent we did. For me, every single person that’s involved in a creation, down to the intern who’s getting coffee at a recording session, is equally important.

JJ: It’s important to mention that our third official founder is Brian Bender who started his studio, the Motherbrain, here in Brooklyn. I recorded my first Blue Note albums there. The studio is now in LA. Motherbrain West.

TB: Shout out to Brian Bender. He’s the core of actually putting these albums together.

JJ: Let me ask you: Having worked at a label before — Blue Note — and now running your own, how does it feel?

TB: I feel pretty triumphant. As difficult as it is, as strenuous as it is, and as much work as it is,

programming our entire website and doing all of the administrative backend work that normally belongs to a team of thirty to 100 people, I love it. Working at Blue Note Records was great as well. I never felt like I wasn’t appreciated or celebrated there. I worked for the biggest music lover in the business — Bruce Lundvall — and Don Was came in and also became my mentor, an equally huge lover of music, and they were incredibly supportive.

All my friends were on Blue Note, so Bruce and Don allowed me to be very involved on the creative end.

Basically, I took all the best things from Blue Note and brought them over to Rainbow Blonde. I watched how a good team works, I watched how a good marketing plan gets made, I learned about touring. I always wanted to bring more to the artists as far as a sort of 360-degree vision and not a 360-degree profit take, and running Rainbow Blonde allows me to do that.

‘I can also design clothes.’ Not just, ‘I’m going to get a sponsored brand and put my name on it.’ I think he’s opened a door for a whole new generation to say, ‘Yeah I’m a creative person, I can exist in all these ways, and I can interact at the highest level.’ I feel like that’s what’s new about Rainbow Blonde.

JJ: I think the genius you’ve brought to this label is the whole focus on community. I know that you’ve been calling it an “inside out label,” which I love, really showcasing the people who work with us; from our business manager Kristen Lee to Brian Bender, who also is an artist on the label with his project Bright + Guilty, to superstar photographer Janette Beckman and all these other people. Photographers, directors, graphic designers, fashion designers, etc. For me, as an artist who’s been through “the system,” it’s really refreshing, because a lot of these people I never used to have access to. It just felt like you were kind of putting your music into this machine. And hoping that it comes out the other end in a package you liked, but in reality, it’s like there are fifty to 300 people globally working on your music that you’ve never met and will never know.

JJ: Tell me about your album that’s about to come out.

What was that like bringing it to life?

TB: Exactly, and I want to know those people.

TB: Thanks, you helped.

JJ: And they want to be known, and that’s, I think, the surprising thing. It’s just so much better when you can get on the phone or sit down and talk about logos or even like, the “why” of it. We talk about the “why” of things a lot. Like when we did our logo for our podcast.

It ended up being very specific and instead of being annoying, which I think it would’ve been if it was a back and forth email with a corporate chain, it was a really gratifying experience.

JJ: You’ve really grown as a songwriter, but also just growing into yourself, and that’s been cool to watch.

TB: By the way Elena Flores designed that logo.

JJ: I think it’s really important for any creative person who is interacting with the marketplace to be able to see it with new eyes, to be able to see it with an expanded vision. Not just say, ‘I write songs, I put out songs. I put out an album every two years, I tour the circuit, I make this much money, and maybe I’ll make a little more as I go, if I get a Grammy or all these kind of traditional accolades.’ I think there’s, of course, space for that career, but now things are happening much faster and now you have people like Kanye West who has really opened a lot of doors for music artists to say,

“

TB: I love that. I hadn’t thought of it in that way, but that’s a really beautiful way to describe it and to bring it back to our community, that it sort of stretches our community to do things they might not necessarily have done otherwise. And, for lack of a better term, crosspollinates and introduces people to each other. I’m so excited that Karston Tannis, who photographed our I Am Here trip, for example, met Janette Beckman last week.

The idea of future collaborations under the umbrella of this collective excites me to no end.

TB: It feels surreal but also completely natural, if that makes sense. I feel like for the last ten years I’ve been creating but not expressing myself in the truest sense, and it required an enormous amount of work, physically and emotionally, to get to a place where my creation lined up with my person and lined up with my culture and my history and my past, and that to me is this album.

So we called it I Am Here, which is a translation of the Hebrew Hineni, which means I Am Here. And it feels a little terrifying, but really exciting to finally be able to meet people as what I feel is my truest self.

JJ: That’s beautiful.

TB: I’ve seen that with you as well. I know you quite well, and you take on things with a fervor that is admirable and amazing. And they become your thing, and often I’ve seen you almost burn out, but Rainbow Blonde is the first time I’ve seen you take on something so expansive that you have all the space you need. It’s like all of your skills are finding new ways to blossom in this label, and that’s been really beautiful to watch.

JJ: Wow, thank you.

TB: Yes it’s just an interview of us complimenting each other. I’m not mad. (laughs) JJ: While we’re at it, these photos that Janette took of us are pretty cool! It’s an homage to Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith.

TB: As far as I’m concerned, Janette Beckman is one of the greatest living documentarian photographers on

There’s so much that goes into it, so many choices that the public is blissfully unaware of but now, having been on both sides, I think it is a very sacred bridge between the artist and the public, and getting that message right.

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earth. And it’s an honor and a privilege beyond words to be able to work with her. I love this photo and how it captures every part of us and Rainbow Blonde so well.

Janette was able to capture this sort of established but artful but indie vibe that’s sort of the essences of our creation. You know? What do you think?

JJ: I think it’s fun. It’s unpretentious in a way that only Janette can bring out in people. But it’s also really serious you know? And it’s not a reach for us. We have lived our lives as artists for our entire adult lives. I love that kind of punk ethos of you’re the same on and off stage. And I feel like it’s all captured in the image, and also there’s something really playful and loving about our interaction that’s cool.

TB: How the photos were made is also true to the Rainbow Blonde ethos. We did the shoot inside Janette’s apartment, which is also her studio. We’re just against the one wall that was somewhat not covered in photos.

We didn’t rent a studio, we didn’t get a makeup artist, and I feel like you can really see that. Janette has told me that’s her favorite way to shoot photos. I’m really honored that we’re showcasing that picture, because, without being arrogant, I think it’s pretty iconic.

JJ: I’m really excited about the future of the label. We’re in a time when so many things have been upended, and everyone is just trying to find something real.

From my friends in Tokyo, to the States, and in Europe, everybody’s like, ‘I don’t know what to hold onto.’ It’s a difficult time, and I don’t mean just politically, but I feel like it’s also a huge opportunity for creative people. A lot of art is formed in these moments where you’re asking, ‘How do I figure this out?’ You know?

TB: Yeah.

JJ: So it’s really exciting to have something that’s ours, without corporate strings telling us what to do or how

to shape Taali or how to shape José James. And I love that. And so putting out my very first album — “The Dreamer” — from ten years ago, under the Rainbow Blonde label was huge. I got the rights back, and I was able to remix it, remaster it, repackage it, and release it and it’s like, ‘Wow.’ That’s like, the director’s cut. And that feels honestly like the first real taste of freedom I’ve had as an American.

TB: And I love that that was the genesis of Rainbow Blonde — to release your albums that were coming back to you. Once I realized what a beautiful freedom it afforded you, Rainbow Blonde was the only place I wanted to take “Hear You Now,” because I wanted to create a space where I and other people could have that same feeling of freedom from the jump. That freedom is a beautiful thing to be able to gift back to someone.

JJ: I’m really curious to see what happens in the next five to ten years, maybe we get into festivals, maybe we get into presenting salons or evenings or art exhibits.

We have so many friends, all around the world who are doing visual art and fashion.

TB: That’s my dream! Because I don’t want our label to be just music. I don’t think it has to be that way. In the past, the music industry limited you to what a label was and could be. Just by nature of the fact that you were selling a product of music. It’s interesting listening to people speak so negatively about a streaming economy and about how people aren’t buying music anymore, and as a songwriter, I definitely know the effects of that on my income. But it has also opened up this whole different space for what a label can be, and I feel like we’re stepping into that in a way that’s really exciting and almost unparalleled in a way. We have this huge freedom to celebrate not just musicians, but an entire collective under the Rainbow Blonde name. And that’s pretty fabulous.

JJ: I find that to be incredibly inspiring. For me a label should ostensibly be a bridge between a pretty solitary art form — writing, composing, recording, those are all done in isolation — and other creatives, and then the rest of the world. Most people don’t get to go in a studio or see how many days, months, years, and agonizing moments and choices go into making a record. They just get the final product. So I think there’s something very sacred about a record label, because it helps shape this sort of very raw energy... like we’re currently working on Ben Williams’ new project, and right now it’s a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of ideas, and it exists only in his mind. Nothing’s been recorded yet, but our role is to help focus his ideas into this beautiful beam of light that’s digestible and holdable and playable, and you can have a picture and a concept. There’s so much that goes into it, so many choices that the public is blissfully unaware of but now, having been on both sides, I think it is a very sacred bridge between the artist and the public, and getting that message right.

TB: I agree. In this day and age, in this polarized, vitriolic world we live in, for me, Rainbow Blonde is a respite from that. It is a celebration of everyone we hold dear, and the best iteration of work that you, me, Bender, and everybody else at Rainbow Blonde has been doing or trying to do for the last few years. It offers that really special thing that only something like a collective can offer, which is the ability to make something so much bigger than any of us individually. So that to me is the essence of Rainbow Blonde. Rainbow Blonde’s founders are a Jewish woman, a mixed-race man, and a white man from Indiana, and I love all that’s already come from us and all that is set to come from us, and I especially love the things we haven’t created yet.

JJ: Beautiful, here’s to the future.

TB: Clink! ✂

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LEFT HAIRPINS TUESDAY BASSEN EARRINGS STYLIST’S OWN COAT ZARA BODYSUIT AMERICAN APPAREL SKIRT IRISHLATINA SHOES I’ALAVE RIGHT EARRINGS STYLIST’S OWN DRESS VINTAGE FAUS FUR STOLE ZARA SWEATER CLIP STYLIST'S OWN BAG SKINNY DIP SHOES DOC MARTENS

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T E G T H G I M S I H T DON’T Y. BE SH R AT E CELEB G’S SPRIN AL ARRIV BY ING WEAR MOST R U O Y FUL COLOR S. PIECE

THESA O O H C A MELYND VALENTINE Y B G E N I ST YL JULIE ’ROURK T O N N O Y A T R T S E S I S BO AV STHER V ST YLIST AS ON MODELS HADLEY E Y B Y RAPH DSAY SHERO P SA LM PHOTOG D BY POLINA O HAIR BY PHILI DESIGN BY LIN ) E ASSIST NEY COSTNER MANAGEMENT T HIT P BY W ET SELF (NEX U E K A M AR + M A RG

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LEFT EARRINGS STYLIST’S OWN SWEATER ZARA BELT VINTAGE ANN TAYLOR PANTS H&M SHOES 90’S GIUSEPPE ZANOTTI RIGHT EARRINGS STYLIST’S OWN SHIRT ADDICTIVE CORSET GORDANA SKIRT H&M SHOES I’ALAVE

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EARRINGS BAUBLE BAR CROPPED HOODIE STRESSEDOUTLA CORSET VEST IRISHLATINA SKIRT GORDANA SHOES DOC MARTENS BAG MARZO

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EARRINGS STYLIST’S OWN NECKLACE DM JEWELRY DESIGNS CORSET GORDANA SKIRT IRISHLATINA SHOES 8:03 JEANS

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EARRINGS STYLIST’S OWN NECKLACE DM JEWELRY DESIGNS SHIRT VARDAGEN BRASS BANGLE STYLIST’S OWN SKIRT GORDANA SHOES 8:03 JEANS

NECKLACE STYLIST’S OWN JACKET NATHALIA GAVIRIA SHIRT VARDAGEN SKIRT H&M SHOES 8:03 JEANS

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A F O S G IK N 115

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ROCK STAR PHOTOGRAPHY BY POLINA OSHEROV STYLED BY JULIE VALENTINE ASSISTED BY ESTHER BOSTON MAKEUP BY KATHY MOBERLY HAIR BY PHILIP SALMON MODEL JOSIE FETTERS (LMODELZ MODEL MANAGEMENT) DESIGN BY LINDSAY HADLEY

JACKET FRAME (BEAUTY + GRACE) DRESS ZARA SHOES H&M

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NECKLACE NATHALIA GAVIRIA BODYSUIT NATHALIA GAVIRIA JACKET IZAYLA PANTS IZAYLA SHOES H&M PREVIOUS PAGE JACKET ZARA DRESS NATHALIA GAVIRIA

JUMPSUIT NATHALIA GAVIRIA SHOES CONVERSE NEXT PAGE JACKET NATHALIA GAVIRIA PANTS ZARA SHOES H&M

JACKET FRAME (BEAUTY + GRACE) DRESS ZARA SHOES H&M

FIVE LOCAL DESIGNERS OFFER ARTISTIC INTERPRETATIONS OF THE INDIANA-BORN MUSIC LEGEND WHO WE LOST TEN YEARS AGO.

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Illustration by BRIAN KUMLE | bkumle.com

Illustration by JON MCCLURE | comotion.studio

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Illustration by BYRON ELLIOT | blkshpco.com

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Illustration by JENNY TOD | jennytod.com

FAREWELL TOUR

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INDY’S

Rock-y THE GOLDEN YEARS OF ROCK AND ROLL IN THE HOOSIER STATE

AS TOLD BY PERFORMERS, CONCERT-GOERS, AND CRITICS

PAST

LINDSAY HADLEY DESIGNS EXCERPTS FROM DAVID HUMPHREY'S BOOK

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"I can' t remember Indianapolis... that tour was a bit of a wild one."

PETER NOONE OF HERMAN’S HERMITS LOOKS BACK ON THE SUMMER OF 1967 WHEN THE BAND PLAYED THE INDIANA STATE FAIRGROUNDS COLISEUM WITH THE WHO.

However bassist Karl Green has better recollections than that of bandmate Peter Noone.

“INDIANA WAS FANTASTIC. WE PLAYED SEVERAL DATES THERE, BUT I ESPECIALLY REMEMBER MUNCIE. THAT WAS A VERY FUN GIG.”

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LIVE: STATE FAIR COLISEUM, INDIANAPOLIS

THURSDAY, SEPT. 3, 1964 The Beatles performed two shows on this day, which were watched by a total of 29,337 people. The other acts on the bill were, in order of appearance, The Bill Black Combo, The Exciters, Clarence 'Frogman' Henry, and Jackie DeShannon.

The nights before and after they stayed at the Speedway Motel on West 16th Street. Prior to the first concert Ringo Starr went missing. He arrived just minutes before they were due to go on stage, explaining that he had lost track of time while driving a police car around a nearby race track.

The Beatles performed their standard twelve-song set: Twist And Shout, You Can't Do That, All My Loving, She Loves You, Things We Said Today, Roll Over Beethoven, Can't Buy Me Love, If I Fell, I Want To Hold Your Hand, Boys, A Hard Day's Night, and Long Tall Sally.

For the two concerts The Beatles earned $85,231.93, after $1,719.02 was deducted as state income tax.

The first show began at 6.21 pm, and was watched by 12,413 fans. Afterward they held a press conference, before returning to the stage for the second show. This time 16,924 were at the venue. The Beatles later said the fans' reception was "quite quiet" in comparison to the other dates on the tour.

Among the people who saw the Beatles perform at the Indiana State Fair on Sept 3, 1964, was John Gregg, the 2012 Democratic candidate for governor.

ALSO BY DAVID HUMPHREY: ALL THOSE YEARS AGO: FIFTY YEARS LATER, BEATLES FANS STILL REMEMBER, BUTLERBOOKS.COM

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Gregg said, ”We were seated near the back of the stage, just to the left of Ringo Starr,” he says in Humphrey’s book. ”I'll never forget when Ringo was introduced to the crowd. He was kind and gracious enough to stand and wave to the fans seated behind the stage.

Ringo waved in our direction too, and the crowd went wild.”

JOHN LENNON

THE BEATLES WITH MISS INDIANA STATE FAIR, 1964 BY CURT GUNTHER

INDIANAPOLIS WAS GOOD. AS WE WERE LEAVING, ON THE WAY TO THE AIRPORT, THEY TOOK US ROUND THE INDY CIRCUIT, THE 500 OVAL, IN A CADILLAC. IT WAS FANTASTIC. I COULDN'T BELIEVE HOW LONG THE STRAIGHTWAY WAS; AND TO BE ON THE BANKING AND SEE ALL THE GRANDSTANDS WAS GREAT. — GEORGE HARRISON, ANTHOLOGY

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EXCERPT FROM 1977 REVIEW

THE SCENE HAD ALL THE MAKINGS OF A RIOT. SWEAT. BOOZE. DRUGS. SMOKE. AND FIREWORKS. IT‘S CROWDS LIKE LAST NIGHT'S AEROSMITH AUDIENCE IN MARKET SQUARE ARENA, WHICH COULD KICK ROCK N‘ ROLL OUT OF TOWN.

It was hot and nasty in the arena.

The hall looked more like a battlefield than an indoor stadium. The rock ’n roll battle raged for three hours.

As one local promoter put it: “It’s stuff like this that makes me want to get out of the business. These kids don't know how much they can hurt people and this expenisive equipment with the fireworks.“ And what choice did Aerosmith road manager Jim “Kelly” Kellener have?

“This is hockey mentality,“ said Kellener, as the Scottish hard-rock group Nazareth opened the show. “These kids are nuts! I don't even wanna let my band go out there with this. But if I don't we'll have a riot on our hands.“ “SOMEBODY'S GOING TO GET HURT.“ More than a dozen “somebodies“ did as the area first-aid room treated several cases of fireworks-related wounds.

Said one aid in the medical room: “Now that we've got the Pacers for sure, we may not have a place for them to play.

They're trying to burn this place down.“

FOR A GREAT READ OF HOOSIER ROCK

DAVID HUMPHREY:

THE GOLDEN YEARS OF ROCK AND ROLL IN THE HOOSIER STATE

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THESE KIDS ARE NUTS! AEROSMITH MARKET SQUARE ARENA

ZACH DUNCAN JULY 5, 1977, THE INDIANAPOLIS NEWS

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The Blues P H OTO G R A P H Y BY W I L FO S T E R A RT D I R ECT I O N BY J U L I E VA L E N T I N E ST Y L I N G BY M I C H E L L E S T E E L E H A I R BY P H I L I P S A L M O N

M A K E U P BY K AT H Y M O B E R LY MODEL: JOSIE FETTERS ( L M O D E L Z M O D E L M A N AG E M E N T ) D ES I G N BY J O H N I L A N G - I L A N G

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HAVANA NIGHTS PHOTOGRAPHY BY BROOKE TAYLOR STYLE BY JAMAR

MITCHELL DESIGN BY MEGAN GRAY AND JULIE VALENTINE HAIR BY JO MCINTYRE MAKEUP BY JACQUELINE GRADDY MODELS ELAYNA WRIGHT (SEEN MODEL MANAGEMENT)

SPECIAL THANKS TO PITAYA AND GROUNDED PLANT AND FLORAL CO

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY JULIAN J. JONES PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT KYLE ENGLERT STYLE BY DANISHA GREENE STYLING ASSISTANT TYNAE’ NEAL ASSISTED BY ABBY JONES MAKEUP BY DANELLE FRENCH HAIR BY KAYLA SKAGGS DESIGN BY DOUG EADDY MODELS CHASIDY (LMODELZ MANAGEMENT) & TROY (HELEN WELLS AGENCY)

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TROY: HAT URBAN OUTFITTERS SHOES GUESS JUMPSUIT THE VINTAGE GYPSY CHASIDY: DENIM TOP Y.I.F DISTRESSED DENIM JUMPSUIT THE VINTAGE GYPSY BELT ANTIQUARIUM MARKET SHOES SHOEZ GALORE LLC ACCESSORIES CHEEKY COUTURE

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TROY: DENIM TOP & JACKET Y.I.F DISTRESSED DENIM BELT & SHOES FLORSHEIM DENIM PANTS THE VINTAGE GYPSY (BOUTIQUE)

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VOLUME NO. 14 LAUNCH PARTY In celebration of Vol. 14, our community gathered together to celebrate art and everything it encompasses in our city!

Stylish party attendees were welcomed under an art installation by Abi Ogle, art was purchased, DJ Lockstar threw down tunes, Quincey Owens lit the room yet again with his light installations and Jedediah Johnson snapped moody photos. Thanks to everyone who attended!

OP-ED

INDY POISED TO BE A MUSIC CITY “THERE ARE ONLY TWO PEOPLE IN ART THAT MATTER: THE CREATIVE individual and the person experiencing it. Everything else is just an artificial filter.”

THAT’S HOW OTIS GIBBS, HOOSIER NATIVE AND ONE OF MY FAVORITE songwriters, starts every episode of his podcast. I’ve spent over the better part of two decades building businesses around pairing the creative individuals with those seeking the experience. That connection has never been stronger than it is right now. For me, this is the unifying spirit that still motivates me every day.

INDIANAPOLIS HAS COME A LONG WAY IN THE LAST TWENTY YEARS, AND WHILE ALL SCENES EBB and flow, our road has delivered a slow but steady upward trajectory. We’re learning along the way. The quality of artists and volume of events is a good indication that we are on the right track.

WHETHER YOU ARE A WRITER, MUSICIAN, ENTREPRENEUR, OR JUST A FAN, THIS MOMENT IN INDY’S entertainment history has never been more ripe with opportunity. I’ve been slugging it out for all these years in the music industry in Indianapolis, and I’ve never seen this amount of positive momentum and energy.

COLLECTIVELY, WE’VE STRUGGLED FOR YEARS TO EARN RESPECT AS A MUSIC CITY. IT’S EASY TO POINT TO other musically renowned cities as example, cue the Nashville and Austin discussion (yawn). What’s important is that we pave our own path. I love being the underdog and all of the advantages that come with it. Indianapolis is rich with musical heritage, working class musicians, and incredibly talented creatives. This makes us authentic. What’s happening right now is exactly what’s needed. It’s a good reminder — and sometimes more like a kick in this ass — that we have everything we need to support and cultivate a homegrown movement around music.

NEVER BEFORE HAVE WE HAD THIS KIND OF GOVERNMENT, BUSINESS, CIVIC, INDUSTRY, AND CREATIVE leadership from people, many of whom themselves play in bands or have a history in music. Leading by example, there’s a big collective of stakeholders creating the framework needed for artists to sustain a creative life. In the process, we’re raising our profile as a city and our quality of life.

MUSIC CROSSES SO MANY BOUNDARIES AND FEEDS SO MANY INDUSTRIES. FROM THE RADIO IN THE kitchen at your favorite restaurant, to your neighbor teaching piano, to the bus drivers, lighting techs, riggers, sound mixers, runners, bar tenders, and security guards that all depend on artists for their livelihood. For every major recording, there are fifty-plus hardworking Hoosiers who go to work every time their tour bus crosses state lines. The reach is deep, and the impact on our greater quality of life is undeniable.

WE’RE A CITY OF ORIGINATORS AND INNOVATORS, AND NOW IS THE PERFECT TIME TO PUT THAT INNOVATION to work in our music industry and create more opportunities for our friends and neighbors. Buy a local album, offer an incentive for artists, or just grab a pair of tickets to a show. You’ll feel good knowing that you are making a difference.

Who doesn’t want to be part of a movement that makes you feel good?

JOSH BAKER FOUNDER OR HI FI INDY, MOKB PRESSENTS, AND DO317

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Discover Your

#LOVEINDY Moment

MOMENT #5309

Soaking up sounds at the HI-FI.

As an influential resident, you are a top ambassador. Invite friends and family to our city. Share the love, because a thriving city benefits us all.

For what to see, do, and eat, go to VisitIndy.com