MAEVE BELL-THORNTON

By MOLLY WALLACE

The sophomore solo artist chatted with us about opening for Magic Man, her involvement with Midnight at Tufts, her Nashville roots, and her new blues project with the aforementioned Sam Cantor. And then Sam showed up, which is probably why he butts in toward the end there.

Ireally enjoyed your opening for Magic Man,

how’d you get that show?

MBT: I’m in Midnight at Tufts. That is a club that gets together local artists. I just joined this year and yesterday they had Magic Man perform… and I got a free t-shirt! So they needed someone to open and I had mentioned to Gabe that I had been doing this blues band thing with Sam [Cantor, bandmate], and I think he had been to the 3 Capen shows…

Those are great.

MBT: So they said they needed someone for free because they have a very limited budget, and they hadn’t found anyone and they were like “wait yeah you guys do stuff right?” And we were like “yeah! Lets do it!” And I think it works better when you have a clear-set goal like that, because we’re all really busy but its like—okay, we have two weeks to do something so you get it done. That’s how it kickstarted, and since we were opening for Magic Man… we do more folksy stuff but it was like, to even it out, they probably want something a little harder…

A little louder.

MBT: I’ve always done really folksy stuff, as well. I had a band in high school and a band last year that were both very folksy-acoustic-guitar and I had never really played in a band with a drum set... which was just really exciting. I brought my electric guitar to college; which I didn’t last year, and I’m getting into a heavier sound… I just think

rock is way fun to play live and performing is just so fun to do.

I notice that you cover, at least at the 3 Capen shows, a lot of soul.

MBT: Yeah I love… I really like jazz. I started out singing in a jazz band in art school, and it kind of morphed into liking rock as well and then I got really into the blues.

A lot of Sam Cooke, Otis Redding.

MBT: yeah I like stuff with a bit of color in it.

…

[laughs] Noooo! Okay, okay, but really I just dig the blues!

About Midnight—How did you feel when you got to Tufts, about the music scene here?

MBT: Just… so-so. I mean coming out of a band, to this culture… like I’m from Nashville. So like, everyone is in a band and everyone plays something. It was just so normal for me growing up there… in Nashville everyone’s like: “you’re in a band? So the hell’s everyone else.” “You’re learning banjo? Oh me too!” So here it was harder to find people that were into the same stuff as me.

Same, before Tufts I really hadn’t ever been to a party that wasn’t also a live show.

MBT: See yeah that’s awesome, and I love live music, and I wanted to go somewhere to see bands play and that wasn’t really around or I didn’t know about it because I was new.

You have to go to Crafts house.

MBT: You HAVE to go to crafts house! And that is only because of Applejam, and thank goodness for them. Yeah so [Sam and Hayes] actually really got me into this stuff, because I was pretty depressed for the first month or two of college and then I saw them perform in Hotung for some Japanese thing… Sam Cantor: but you were already in a band by then! MBT: But that was our first performance, we hadn’t done anything and I was just jamming with those guys like the week or two before. But like that was it… just playing for fun and then you guys actually go up there and do Bon Iver and I was like “Oh my god! My people! Finally!” They were playing “Flume” backstage and I heard it from across the room, and I immediately ran over. I was like “I don’t know them and this is gonna be really creepy but I just love this song and want to talk to them.”

What year are you again?

MBT: I’m a sophomore.

So you don’t dig Hotung, huh?

MBT: It just doesn’t vibe right! No character whatsoever. I wish Brown & Brew was a little bit more involved. They do open mic’s still but they only have one mic, so you can do acoustic guitar but eh… and the counter is still open and its really loud, and the acoustics aren’t great. There’s not much.

What about midnight?

MBT: Yeah but you have to like register, and leave at a certain time, and pay for event staff, and it’s such a mess, such a tangle of administrative stuff. And now there are apparently some issues with Applejam because they’re like, you can’t do this without through Tufts administration and they might start having to have event staff there.

That’s pretty lame.

MBT: Yeah its gonna piss me off.

Sam’s said a lot about there being no handed down space for Tufts musicians.

MBT: Yeah! I feel like there are probably some freshmen out there who are really talented, and I want to pass stuff down to and get involved. But there’s no way to know. I mean I’m lucky I found [Sam and Midnight] but I want to know that this keeps happening and there’s some momentum and it starts to grow a bit.

Well Applejam, like Melisma, was one of those things that was big six or so years ago, but just lost steam until recently.

MBT: We have a problem with passing stuff down! You have to start it yourself or it doesn’t happen. A lot of event-staff calling the police problems, too, I mean this is a college campus. Its like the frats can get away with all this stuff and we can’t even throw a concert! It’s ridiculous. What a weird discrepancy.

One good thing, though, that is kind of getting better, I’d say, is probably the Tufts Musician Collective.

And that’s like brand new.

MBT: Yeah it started last year. Just… facebook. Facebook! That’s the thing—it’s just this group and people just post sharing equipment or stuff they’ve been working on and its been growing and the only thing is that you just have to know about it. And I’ve met a few freshman, or I meet people down the hall and they show me some stuff and I’m like you’re great, I’m going to add you! You have this network that’s starting to form, which is a positive sign. Sam: its really unpretentious, too, people post like… pretty raw stuff (laughs). Not… MBT: “I play trumpet, wanna jam?!” Sam: I’m starting like a poppunk, wanna play bass in my band? I’m like, I don’t, but someone will. And people comment and it gives… if and when something strikes your interest you can find it just by scrolling down.

I wanna know about your singing. How’d you get into that?

MBT: Well I actually grew up with piano and violin, singing wasn’t a thing really… I mean church choir, but it wasn’t my main thing… it just kind of morphed into that. In high school when I was a sophomore I saw our jazz band perform at this student function thing, and they’re really good, they’re one of the best… like top high schools in the nation. And I was floored, and I saw one student come up and do “God bless the child.” I love Billy Holliday, but she was just phenomenal. Actually I was very shy at that point and really wanted to change the way I was doing things. I tried out, which is something I almost didn’t do. And the director was like, “oh, this is great! You sound like a big black woman!” I was like “what?” So he had me start singing a 20-person set for practice. And, gosh, I used to get so nervous and worry about it all the time. People thought at first that I was doing vibrato with my voice but I was just shaking because I was not used to being on a stage and vocals. As compared to piano and violin, vocals can be so personal and specific to each person that it makes you very vulnerable, in a way. And I wasn’t used to that, so much emotional inflection and variety. So started out singing blues and jazz, and then my mom had a banjo and, being in Nashville, you hear a lot of bluegrass. So I started getting into folk and I met two girls in high school and we started doing a three-part harmony—one played violin, one guitar, and we’d switch out banjo and then we formed a band, basically. We were just doing it for fun but once we got up on stage and played in a band for the first time… what a rush. Wow, its just the most incredible feeling ever. So its so easy to start playing gigs in Nashville, and everyone knows someone, so we played like ten shows in three months and it was just phenomenal being able to do that. So then I was like—wow, this is actually possible, not just in my room by myself but as an emotional outlet. Like “I have a lot of feelings let me write a song!” [laughs] what a high, getting up there and performing. I need it! I’m addicted!

I would say that you have one of the more unique voices that I’ve heard live… ever, probably.

Sam: some might say the best voice at Tufts.

Some might.

Sam: Some have.

You have.

MBT: It was just me realizing that it was something that was possible that changed everything.

Are you gonna… go for it?

MBT: Maybe.

You really should.

MBT: We’ll see.

What do you study here?

MBT: Music and Anthro. Like if I don’t go for it, and if I do and it doesn’t work… I’ve been very resistant to that idea because people are like “Oh, what you’re gonna go into MUSIC?” I feel like that’s stupid but in the back of my head, you get that drilled into you that it’s very risky and a little scary.

But wouldn’t you say in the 21st century, with all this technology, its also easier to try and still do other things?

MBT: Oh you can network so easily now! Its still daunting,

but now its just like… its worth it. I don’t really care. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll still do it on the side. I just stopped worrying about it. We’ll see.

The next Tracy Chapman, our only claim to fame.

MBT: Yeah! And I don’t want to sound like I’m just dissing Tufts because I love it, I do, but the scene… it’s like a gradual process. It’s exciting and disappointing at the same time.

You get to grow it yourself, but when you first get here you’re a bit in shock.

MBT: Exciting, but hopeful.<