q and also a :: Landowner
Daniel of Holyoke, MA’s own Landowner sent us these answers to our questions in this next installment of q and also a.
q: What is the last song you (really) heard?
a: Subliminal Appeal by Freak Heat Waves, on my iPod towards the end of work today.
q: What is the first album you remember purchasing?
a: Even Worse by Weird Al from a kid in elementary school. But Nirvana’s Nevermind is the first album I bought that made a long lasting impact.
q: What is the last album that you purchased?
a: Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) on LP, over at Electric Eye Records on Friday.
q: What is your favorite memory of experiencing music in a live setting?
a: There’s no single greatest memory, I think I get my mind blown at shows pretty regularly just by not settling and continuing to go out and trying to discover new things.
I remember the very first hardcore band I saw as a teenager, 16 years ago. I got my sister to drive me to a diy show at UMass, and there was a band called Blame the Victim playing. People in the audience started moshing and slamming, and I had just never seen that before and I had absolutely no frame of reference for what was happening- I just thought these people looked like a bunch of malicious goons the way they were moving- but I was really fascinated at the same time, and I understood that there was “something going on there” that was worth digging into more deeply. It’s really funny to think back on that.
Then fast-forward half my life, and another top favorite memory is from just a couple weeks ago. I saw my friend Ian’s solo recording project “Beret” come to life with this amazing live band up in Montreal while Landowner was on tour. Ian’s someone I’ve played music with over many years and I think we’ve helped shape each other’s approach as musicians, and after digging on the Beret albums for a couple years now, seeing that stuff live just totally blew me away, I totally recommend that band. Seeing what friends are doing in music is always a highlight!
q: What are the best and worst things about being a musician in Western MA circa 2018?
a: Wmass rules, I love being a musician here. Within a half hour radius there’s all these college towns, small cities, and rural villages with d.i.y. music happening, and it all works together as one diverse music community. There ends up being a lot of different bands and a lot of different stuff going on at all times. One of the best things about being a musician here is that it’s not as “competitive” as a big city, in terms of starting off as a new band trying to make friends and play cool shows. When I moved back here from Seattle, something that struck me right away was that rent is more reasonable here than in a city, so it’s easier for musicians to afford spaces to practice and have shows without being completely stressed all the time. Of course people will complain about rent anywhere (rightfully so), but the scale of the problem is just so much worse in certain big cities at the moment. I found when I moved to western mass I could cut out the bullshit and get to work being an active musician much more quickly than the time it took to get a foothold in Seattle, and at the same time the diy scene here in wmass is robust, diverse, and well connected to other places enough that it feels really satisfying to create music here. I’m too grateful, I’ve got no “worst things” I can think of at the moment.
q: What piece(s) of culture are you really really excited about right now (if any)?
a: The prevalence of underground music just in general is something I’m constantly excited about, wherever I go. I think passively going with the flow of American culture leads towards vicious competitiveness and isolation, and being involved in diy music offers a whole alternative to that, including having friends and community sharing the same passion. By being able to go to shows every week, I get to see a bunch of friends regularly while also seeing amazing music. And since diy music is inherently easy to participate in, everyone’s actively building culture instead of just consuming it, so you just end up around all these rad, confident, creative, inspiring people all the time. I’m only half joking by saying I have no idea how (or if) people outside this whole diy thing find friends! I mean I’m sure they pull it off, I just don’t understand how.
Apart from that, in terms of culture, I’ve been really obsessively listening to Cate LeBon lately.
q: What should we know about Blatant?
a: It’s an album reacting to the blatant ignorance and hatred that’s becoming more and more visible in the mainstream in the last couple years. It’s me reacting in horror to the “new normal”. The album builds tension and focus by using repetition and restraint, and the music is played by Josh Owsley, Jeff Gilmartin, Josh Daniel, Elliot Hughes, and myself, and Born Yesterday records put it out.
Listen.
Purchase Blatant @ http://landowner.bandcamp.com/album/blatant
Or buy it at the merch table at this upcoming show… on October 24, Landowner is playing a show at the Root Cellar in Greenfield, MA with Courtesy, Forever House, and Strange Fate, and they’re presently working on booking an east coast mini tour November 8-11.
Read more about Landowner @ http://post-trash.com/news/2018/5/30/landowner-moving-again-post-trash-premiere
Landowner is on Bandcamp
Landowner is on Facebook
Landowner is on Born Yesterday Records
