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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Janet Adamana
We’re All Searching For Something Intangible Note From The Editor
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The Glory of Growing Lana Winterhalt and her new album, If & When
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Hell and Happiness Trampoline on their upcoming album, Happy Crimes
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Artists to Watch in 2019 Artists bound to make waves in the new year
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Ally Sigurdson PROMOTIONS DIRECTOR Steff Shields STAFF WRITERS Graeme Houssin Candace Houle
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Great Things Come To 20 Those Who Wait Kids Losing Sleep on perfecting their pop-rock sound SPF X ALICE RL Lookbook Learn all about the SPF X Project
SOUND, PHRASE & FURY is a Canadian music magazine out to promote musicians not usually covered in mainstream media. All music, photos and articles used are for the purpose of spreading the knowledge of these artists and their music. We always encourage readers to support every act by purchasing releases, merchandise and attending live shows.
info@soundphrasefury.com @soundphrasefury facebook.com/soundphrasefury soundphrasefury.com
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+ EDITOR’S NOTE
WE’RE ALL SEARCHING FOR SOMETHING INTANGIBLE 'It’s been your belief in us, in this, that has gotten us to where we are and will continue to take us to where we’re going. ' We broke 10,000 reads last week; a feat I am still Fast-forward to the start of our 7th year, where we’ve been able to travel the globe, meeting humbled and amazed by. new faces, hearing so many of our new favourite SPF was once barely even an idea from the mind bands and introducing them to others. It is with of a struggling aspiring music journalist. Back uttermost sincerely that our team and I thank then, I was immensely disheartened by the lack every reader, every writer, and every artist along of professional opportunities to write about the the way. It’s been your belief in us, in this, that one thing I longed to write about: the global has gotten us to where we are and will continue to take us to where we’re going. independent music scene. Everything in me wanted to change that, but I was petrified. I had no idea what I was doing or if anyone would ever give a damn about it. Taking the advice from a pop-punk band whose whole MO was, chase the dream ‘til your legs give out, I said ‘fuck it’ and did the best I could do with what I knew.
Let’s get reckless like the ocean
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Truthfully, it never has been and never will be about numbers, but for all the late nights, the doors that closed, the hardships, the highs, the doubts and the unexpected feats, there is this: a sign we might have done something right, chased the dream ‘til our legs gave way, to build something bigger than just us, and for that, we could never thank you enough.
Janet Adamana Editor-In-Chief
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THE GLORY OF GR
LANA WINTERHALT ON HEARTBREAK, HAPPINESS AND HER BRAND NEW SOUND. 6
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ROWING
SPOTLIGHT Q&A +
STORY & PHOTO BY JANET ADAMANA
With her soft, ethereal vocals whispering candid sorrow atop a bed of haunting electronic melodies, it’s hard not to feel moved by Lana Winterhalt and her new album, If & When. The Winnipeg indie-pop artist beautifully captures the beginning and eventual happy ending to a tumultuous but well-intentioned relationship. Going through the various stages of hardship, the hope, and the healing, Winterhalt paints an unreserved portrait of the messiness of trying to build a life and a lasting connection with another person.
Lyrically, the album delves into growing with another person, but personal and professional growth is also prominent as Winterhalt debuts a brand new sound that extends the traditional tropes of the female singer-songwriter. “I feel like sometimes if you're a woman with a guitar people automatically peg you as a folk singer, so that's just what I thought I was,” said Winterhalt. “I started playing around a lot more Written over the course of three years, she lived with electronic instruments and just realizing what's and breathed the emotional turmoil all the while even possible.” spilling it into the album. “I just felt like music and writing was my way to process it,” said Winterhalt. Teaming up with Winnipeg producer, Elessar “I didn't know what else to do except these songs Thiessen, Winterhalt was able to channel this new were coming out. Some of them were way more vision of melding an electro-indie-pop feel with the vulnerable than I wanted them to be and I thought, grassroots folk vibe, a move she spent a lot of time 'am I okay with people hearing this?’” It was that pursuing and perfecting. vulnerability and that willingness to be open with her emotions that aided in the album’s gravitational Ending last year with the release of her album and pull felt by its listeners. embarking on a western Canadian tour, the new year boasts one new and exciting goal for Winterhalt: Listening to If & When feels like staring into a chasm sharing her passion and inspiring more people with of your own ailing heart. Whether those feelings her music. “I want people to hear the words of this are current or were felt years ago, the mapping of one song in the background, or they just stumble Winterhalt’s musings has been said to reopen old upon it,” said Winterhalt. “That's been my biggest wounds, even for the musician herself. “When I play thing. How do I get it into people's ears? I think it can it at a show or play it to myself I still get taken back help and heal people.” to those feelings,” explained Winterhalt. “The thing that keeps me going is when I play at shows, people Grab and copy of If & When through Bandcamp or Apple Music, or stream through Spotify. Stay up-to-date with would come up to me and say 'I really connected Lana Winterhalt through her official website, Facebook, with that.'” Twitter and Instagram.
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HELL AND HAPPINE 8
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Winnipeg ‘anti-rock’ band Trampoline delves deep into the themes of religious guilt and happiness in their upcoming new album, Happy Crimes. We caught up with Michelle Lecnik (vocals/guitar), Steve Martens (drums, microkorg), and Joey Penner (bass/vocals) to talk about the human struggle of accepting happiness, their growth as a band, and the making of Happy Crimes.
CH: What does the title ‘Happy Crimes’ mean? ML: I came up with the term when I was living in my mother's basement eight or nine years ago. It was an extremely dark time of my life, and I think that's when I decided to pick up the guitar after not playing it for like ten years. I wrote all these acoustic songs and put them on Bandcamp and titled that acoustic album Happy Crimes. It came to me very spontaneously. I've contemplated it since then. My mother is extremely Christian and believes in Satan, and that happiness doesn't come until the afterlife or until Jesus returns. At the time, the mentality was very much, it is a sin to be happy. I thought 'Happy Crimes' sounded cool and it was a spin-off of that mentality. Most of the album is based on struggles with accepting happiness.
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CH: Would you say your album Happy Crimes is autobiographical? ML: Anyone who knows that I'm writing the songs is probably going to draw that conclusion, but it doesn't matter where it came from because I think it can apply to a lot of people. SM: I think it's fair to say there's an elusive character that the album is about, but I think that character is people that I know that are friends of the band. There are elements of their life that have become part of this character. It's almost like a collective character that this person is. ML: A lot of the writing has been inspired by people that I know and the experiences that I've had, so it's like a composite of everything in my life.
STORY BY CANDACE HOULE PHOTO BY MELISSA VAN SOELEN
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CH: Steve and Joey, you have previous band experience with levels of success. What are you bringing to Trampoline that you took away from your other bands? SM: I feel I'm accessing different parts of myself that I wasn't accessing in other bands. In no other band I've been in was I able to express myself in the way I'm able to express myself in this band. JP: I think maybe just more of a realist perspective CH: If you had to pick one track that best this time. When I was 20 years old playing with The Waking Eyes, it was just a different era in terms of represents the album, which would it be? ML: Maybe ‘Apocalypse Part II’ because I feel like that the way people were consuming music. There still one song tracks this protagonist’s transformation was this big hope that we were going to sell lots and from being very cynical, jaded and depressed to lots of records and be kind of the next big thing. being very excited about the universe and the human I'm not saying Trampoline couldn't become the potential. That song takes you on that journey. next big thing, but the next big thing today is a very CH: With a very theatrical album, how is that different sort of reality than it was in 2004/2005. We're totally capable of being whatever that is. I've going to be captured live? JP: We don't shy away from having background lived through this, and it just feels more relaxed and tracks. That's a point of contention for a lot of bands, more fun. but one way we've found very effective getting that sonic excitement, sonic bigness for lack of a better SM: I think Joey also brings most music theory or word, into the live environment is having a couple of knowledge. If there are notes that are clashing that we haven't thought about, he can help. He'll be tracks in the background accompanying us. ML: We've got a lot of piano sounds going on, able to point it out. His brain thinks in theory more and I have a lot of atmospheric guitar tracks that I so than my brain certainly thinks about music, so programmed into some of my pedals that I kick on you're bringing your education. live. I don't know if people notice that I'm doing that. CH: What is the meaning of the album artwork? ML: Three people's legs are ascending into heaven. We feel it's like a simulation of the Garden of Eden. We also have a tea party setting, which reflects the single that we're releasing, which will be one of the last songs on the album. There’s a snake photoshopped in it representing Satan because there's a number of religious themes on the album.
'In no other band I've been in was I able to express myself in the way I'm able to express myself in this band. '
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'The next big thing today is a very different sort of reality than it was in 2004/2005. We're totally capable of being whatever that is.' CH: There are lots of ways to describe Trampoline. One phrase I’ve heard is ‘anti-rock.’ ML: Originally it was given to us. At the time I really liked the sound of it, and we didn't have anything better. We didn't come up with anything better. SM: We like to think that we're attempting to break some rules. We're certainly having fun along the way, and sometimes it almost feels like you're not allowed to have fun anymore with music. It's like there are all these rules now. CH: So you still like the label 'anti-rock'? ML: It’s good enough for now. SM: The one connotation about it I don't like is that there is rock music out there that I can still appreciate. I'm not trying to be anti those people of those bands. ML: It’s more like anti-classic rock if anything. CH: What was it like recording in Winnipeg at Private Ear? ML: The best time in the world. It was a dream come true. It was so nice to be able to trust in John Paul Peters' engineering sensibility; just let him do all the work. It’s so nice just to show up and play and let somebody else record it.
JP: We’re doing the work in terms of, we've written the song to do the recording, you play the instruments. Obviously, we arranged it, but he produced it and to just sit back and let him do what he does and make us sound so good, it's just a really amazing feeling. CH: In your upcoming single, ‘Emily’s Tea Party,’ the lyrics stand out the most in that song. Can you explain why you chose it as the single? SM: It’s a really strong delivery. It encompasses a lot of aspects of the band. It's serious content, and it's kind of lighthearted. It's playful, which is kind of characteristic of the band. ML: The instrumentation is pretty intricate. It was a very tight performance, a very clear recording and it had an emotional punch on top of all of it.
Happy Crimes comes out February 9 with an album release show at The West End Cultural Centre. Stay upto-date with Trampoline through their official website, Facebook and Instagram.
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ARTISTS TO WATCH +
ARTISTS TO WATCH IN 2019
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COMPILED BY JANET ADAMANA
With 2018 being one of the biggest years in the independent scene, we're more than excited to see that momentum continue throughout 2019. To celebrate, we've compiled a list of artists who are bound to make their mark this year.
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TAYLOR JANZEN WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
FACEBOOK • INSTAGRAM • LISTEN 2018 was a big year for Winnipeg, indie artist Taylor Janzen. Everything from playing festival after festival, releasing her debut EP, Interpersonal, jet-setting and playing shows around North America to filling out her new full-band sound, her momentum was in full throttle, and we expect it won’t be slowing down in 2019. With a showcase at SXSW in Texas, hitting the Shaky Knees Festival, and the tease of new music with her new-found sound on the way, we’re definitely keeping the radar on Janzen all year.
EMO/HARDCORE
WIDMORE CALGARY, ALBERTA
FACEBOOK • INSTAGRAM • LISTEN Proving Canada is still one of the best places to find quality punk/hardcore, is Calgary’s Widmore. The sixpiece fills the hardcore scene with a fresh mix of emo and melodic alt-rock. They utilize pop-punk energy with a dual singer & screamer relationship that all-in-all neatly serves a sound that will undoubtedly appease anyone still mourning the fall of Alexisonfire. 2018 saw them playing the last Vans Warped Tour and hitting western Canada opening for Calling All Captains. They cap off their wild year with the premiere of their brand new single, ‘Letter To Myself,’ that has left us (and the rest of the scene) hungry for more Widmore.
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ALT/INDIE-ROCK
AMERICAN WILD YORK, PENNSILVANIA
FACEBOOK • INSTAGRAM • LISTEN With a debut album full of big sweeping indie-rock anthems, American Wild easily solidified a spot in our good books. When they released their debut, Mountains in 2018, they instantly caught our attention with their heartfelt and poetic take on melodic rock. Pulling inspiration from love, loss, and optimism in young America and lying all the emotions out on a backdrop of blaring riffs, American Wild pieced together a soundtrack that encapsulates the hopeful feelings of a good cross-country road trip. With a debut this strong and that moving, we’re excited to see where and how far their sound will take them.
ALT/INDIE-POP
FAITH HOLT LEBANON, TENNESSEE
FACEBOOK • INSTAGRAM • LISTEN Capturing our hearts while pulling at its strings is indie-rock singer-songwriter, Faith Holt. Faith’s pain-tinged vocals spin an emotional cyclone of past loves, wrenching regrets and agonizing self-doubt, and leaves us reveling in melancholic camaraderie. 2018 saw us graced with two new songs, ‘Trying’ and ‘Hell In My Head,’ and found Faith playing shows in and around the southern states. Anything and everything by Faith Holt leaves us both weeping and also excited and happily anticipating more.
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KATIE PRUITT NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
FACEBOOK • INSTAGRAM • LISTEN Sometimes you stumble upon an artist that immediately makes your ears perk up, and your head turn. One of those artists for us is Katie Pruitt. A soulful mix of old school country and indie-rock, she fills every song with sweet southern vibes and a dash of punk rock no-shits-given attitude. Both a vocal and lyrical powerhouse, Pruitt uses her music to explore the societal turmoil befalling American youth today; from mental health to love and acceptance in the LGBTQ2+ communities. She’s spent a good chunk of 2018 playing across Europe and the United States and will kick off the new year touring with Donovan Woods and is slated to be releasing new music in 2019.
SKA/PUNK
DINNER CLUB WINNIEPG, MANITOBA
FACEBOOK • INSTAGRAM • LISTEN PHOTO: JULIO CÉSAR NIECKARZ ASSIS
Upon the release of their debut album, Paid In Change, Dinner Club injected the Canadian punk scene with an adrenaline kick we didn’t even know we needed. Their 11-song album is a high-energy offering that surprisingly serves up a mix of traditional ska/punk with early emo and a 90s so-cal vibe. Aside from releasing their debut album, they also capped off the year opening for their long-time idols, The Ripperz, and teasing for more surprises in 2019.
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ARTISTS TO WATCH +
FOLK/AMERICANA
AMYTHYST KIAH JOHNSON CITY, TENNESSEE
FACEBOOK • INSTAGRAM • LISTEN PHOTO: ANNA HEDGES
It’s easy to lose yourself in the folk stylings of Amythyst Kiah. Displaying her vivid storytelling with powerful vocals, Kiah blends old Americana, traditional folk, blues, and R&B to bring an unforgettable sound that immediately paints rich imagery of a past in the deep south. Kicking off the new year with shows up the east coast of America, and the release of a new project, Songs of Our Native Daughters out in February, we imagine she’ll continue to spend the new year wooing audiences with her mesmerizing brand of folk.
EMO/POP-ROCK
SMALL TALKS MYRTLE BEACH, SOUTH CAROLINA
FACEBOOK • INSTAGRAM • LISTEN Catchy pop that’s also oh-so-emo, that’s what we get from Small Talks. Melding the sweeping melodies of classic emo with the softness of indie-pop, Small Talks gives you big anthems for the broken-hearted. Pulling inspiration from common growing pains, the overall message of her songs is to spread love, acceptance and to inspire, which is a beautiful and much-needed sentiment in this day and age. 2019 is slated to be a huge year for Small Talks with her debut album, A Conversation Between Us out February 1st and hitting spots across the United States opening up for Can’t Swim.
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PUNK
SCREAMING AT TRAFFIC WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
FACEBOOK • INSTAGRAM • LISTEN 2018 was a whirlwind for one of Winnipeg’s favourite punk outfits, Screaming At Traffic. The year ended with the guys signing to Little Rocket Records and playing the ears off of listeners at countless local shows. The guys kick off the new year sharing the stage with Bleed American, Nice Cops and Sour Days and gearing up for the release of their much-anticipated full-length slated for early 2019. Since SAT aren’t ones to slow things down, the release of brand new tunes also undoubtedly comes with another year full of insane Screaming At Traffic shows.
INDIE-POP/ROCK
THE STILL, SMALL VOICE PHILADELPHIA, PENNSILVANIA
FACEBOOK • INSTAGRAM • LISTEN The Still, Small Voice has the ability to both break your heart and stitch it back together all in one go. The project created by Christiana Benton beautifully blends elements of the folk singer/songwriter, with indierock and pop and brings listeners a superbly moving repertoire of down-to-earth, honest songs. Benton ended the year writing and hitting the studio to record a brand new album, and we couldn’t be more excited to get our hands on these new tunes in the new year.
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SPF 7.1 ARTISTS PLAYLIST Snag a listen to the artists featured in Sound, Phrase & Fury 7.1 on Spotify. SoundPhraseFury • SPF 7.1 Artists
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GREAT THINGS COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT A lot goes into starting a band; from finding the right members to experimenting with who you want to be and how you want to sound. Halifax pop-rock quartet, Kids Losing Sleep, knows solidifying these elements early on is the key to longevity and success. Thus, for months, the members kept their project hushed from the public. It wasn’t until they felt complete with all the pieces in place, did Kids Losing Sleep make their debut. We caught up with Jarod Gallant (Guitar/Vocals), Owen Williams (Guitar/Vocals), and Brycen Gunn (Bass) to talk about building their pop-rock sound behind closed doors, the art of the album, and the sense of community in their local scene.
STORY BY JANET ADAMANA PHOTO BY HARLEY SHEA
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JA: Since you all have different muscial backgrounds, how did you go about developing your sound and decide that this was what your band was going to sound like? JG: Some major influences for the band as a whole would be The 1975, The Killers, and The Tragically Hip is really big for us, as well as more major pop stuff like Katy Perry and Taylor Swift. When we met, we all were going for this pop-rock kind of thing. When we formed the band and started writing music together, we were a band for about a year before we went public with anything or announced the band. We were jamming, writing and hashing out the songs to get them to sound exactly how we wanted them to sound and really crack that. We took a long time to do that.
OW: We tried a bunch of different things without really realizing we were doing it before we actually settled on what we wanted to do. All our influences we look at like a big Venn diagram. We all have different backgrounds, but we can always find common ground. When we were first jamming, it was finding what parts of that common ground were going to shine through in the music that we were playing. There's lots of stuff that we all enjoy that doesn't make its way into the sound, so it was figuring those things out. It was trial-and-error more than anything and trying different ideas. That's kind of why we did it behind closed doors for such a long time. We didn't want to go through those growing pains with other people listening.
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'All our influences we look at like a big Venn diagram. We all have different backgrounds, but we can always find common ground.' JA: You've toured outside of your province now, and Nova Scotia isn’t a place people get to tour often. How would you describe playing in Halifax opposed to other places? JG: It's home for us, so it's a little more safe. People love music here. If this is more aimed towards other artists to get them to come here, I know people love music and if you've got the right local people playing with you then shows are almost always pretty good.
JA: You released your single ‘In Love No More,’ last summer. Can you tell me more about that song? JG: We hadn't written anything in a while, and it was our first time going back after hashing out the other songs. We just pieced it together one night. It came out of nowhere, and when we played it together for the first time, we all just looked at each other and knew it was the one. It was definitely the one that needed to come first.
OW: It's smaller here. Just from spending a little bit of time touring in Ontario, there's just so much more happening there. But everything that is happening here is really good.
OW: We had plans before we even wrote that song to have one single recorded and ready to go before our band even went public. When we played that song that was like, 'all right, this is the one.'
JA: Do you think that influences your music at all or your work ethic as far as the band goes? BG: To some degree for sure, not the sound of the music but the way we do things. The way things get done around here is very much through people lifting each other up and helping each other.
JA: Bands are doing releases differently these days. Are you going to be releasing mostly singles or doing a whole EP or full-length? BG: We're old school in the way that we look at the art form of the album. We're all album listeners. That's how we consume our music, so that's how we want to release it and present ourselves.
OW: For the most part, bands aren't in competition with one another out here, or it's not seen that way anyway. It doesn't feel that way as much as it does in a place like Toronto per se where you can feel that competition a little more or just that sense of urgency.
OW: As far as traditional album cycles go we're not going to find ourselves in that mold of doing the full-length and waiting two years and doing another full-length. Those things are kind of dead, but we're always looking for new ways to take that on.
Stay-up-to-date with Kids Losing Sleep through their official website, Facebook and Instagram. Snag a listen to ‘In Love No More’ and keep your eyes and ears peeled for a new single in January 2019.
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LISTEN
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DIGITAL LOOKBOOK
SPF ALICE RL
2018/2019
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SPF X BRINGS SOUND, PHR MAGAZINE TOGETHER WITH ILLUSTRATORS.
THE AIM IS TO BRING READERS LIMITED EDITION MERCHANDISE THAT CELEBRATES OUR MANTRA, “GET LOST IN SOUND” THROUGH T EYES AND STYLES OF NEW ARTISTS
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RASE & FURY H LOCAL
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For the project’s inaugural year, SPF X has partnered with Alice RL, a non-binary, Ojibwe artist whose work draws inspiration from their experiences and cultural teachings and melds it with a signature palette of bright, playful hues. Their artwork creates stunning juxtapositions of human brutality and emotion with hope and whimsy. Alice’s projects include game and comic book art, digital and traditional illustration, and graphic design aimed at presenting beautiful and emotional stories that are LGBT2SQ+ inclusive.
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SPF X continues our aim to create platforms for artists - from the musicians we cover to the writers we work with.
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ORTION OF EVERY SPF X ALICE RL LE GOES TO THE ILLUSTRATOR.
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Our hope is to give SPF supporters a glorious piece of wearable art while connecting local artists with new audiences.
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Photography by Kerri Martens
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SOUNDPHRASEFURY.COM/ALICERL
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