Out of the seeming infinity doldrums comes a new collectively run series full of SOUNDS. We grabbed just a little bit of time from Chris and Olivia, two of this installments organizers, and asked them about what it is that is happening!
Boston Hassle
So this is Find Out #3 coming up right? How were the first 2? Anything you’d like to share about them??
Chris Strunk
I attended the first two Find Outs as a civilian before I got involved, but I’d say they were great! The room the shows are in is a great mixture of both being majestic and also kind of cozy, and I enjoyed all the performances and was really happy that this series pretty much popped up on my doorstep, since I live about a five minute walk away from the First Church. Great turn outs as well. Honestly, I was just very happy to see DIY shows put on by people much younger than me and that the shows were really good musically and organized really well. It gave me hope for the ultra gentrified ultra dreary late era (hopefully) pandemic era Boston music scene.
Olivia W-B
The first two were awesome! There was modular synth, video, triggered drum kit samples, stuff that was written and stuff that was improvised, songs – people who’ve played out before and people who are newer to performing – and a good turnout each time. Like Chris said, the room is big but also cozy, and the high ceilings make things really resonant – it doesn’t take much volume for something to totally fill up the space.
BH
What is the raison d’etre of the series? How did you all come to work together on this project?
CS
I don’t want to speak for everyone, but the way I view it is an attempt at rebuilding some of the artistic communities that were decimated by the pandemic. I do feel that a lot of the music communities in and around Boston got kind of scattered during the pandemic because there was just not much going on and people weren’t out as much. I still was in regular contact with my close friends that I knew from the punk and experimental music scenes, but so many other more casual friendships of people I would talk to at gigs just kind of withered away. I think FIND OUT is an attempt to rebuild those kinds of relationships so music scenes can start sparking again. Also, I think we all feel it’s really important to have spaces for people to experience music outside of bars and clubs. There is something magical about experiencing live music outside the confines of venues where the only reason they really gather you there is to sell alcohol to you, and it allows the shows to be all ages, for greater community building. Bars and clubs are kind of a necessary evil for live music, and there are a lot of great bookers doing great work at these places, and I’m not putting them down, but it is kind of infuriating that really most live music exists in the US as a way to lure people into rooms to sell them alcohol.
I think credit goes to Olivia W-B for getting the ball rolling on this whole series. I believe Matt Delligatti (who is also involved in running the series) was the connection to have the shows in the First Church. I got involved because Liv asked me and it seemed like a fun thing to do! I also think a big inspiration for the series was Andrea Pensado’s wonderful Sonorium series in Salem.
OWB
Yes to everything Chris said !! Every aspect of that went into the thought process. I also know a lot of people under 21 who want to be a part of music scenes who just aren’t allowed to even play at the few remaining venues in Boston and that sucks. Finding music scenes in my teens and earlier twenties massively impacted my life and I want to pay that forward. I also just want to see what people are up to, people who might not yet have the following or whatever to be able to book at more expensive venues.
I also want to give a shout-out to Ben Eidson and Caleb Duval (both incredible improvisors) who were setting up pop-up shows in this random spot by the Charles River before winter hit. It was at one of these shows that I was talking with some people about how few places there are to book in Boston, and then we started brainstorming this series.
BH
Please describe how it feels for you all to be experiencing live music among a group of people again after so long without being able to do so.
CS
It feels really great and wonderful, but we are also keeping safety measures in mind! Be sure to bring your vax card and wear a mask.
OWB
It’s amazing, I mean, nothing can replace the feeling of being a part of a larger kind of community of people with overlapping interests. I felt like especially at the beginning of the pandemic there was this big rush to try to simulate that sense of community through social media and zoom but there’s nothing quite like actually having a physical location where you can run into old and new friends and see and be a part of what each other is up to.
BH
Let’s talk about the upcoming show! I’m already a big fan of Forbes, Matt D, and Brittany Karlson, but who and what else is going to be happening on the 17th?
CS
I’m going to have to defer to the others about a few of the acts, because I’m actually not familar with them and I will discover them along with everyone else, but Jeb Bishop is also playing in the quartet with Brittany and Matt, and Jeb is a trombone legend who played with everyone from Ken Vandermark to Peter Brotzmann to Jaap Blonk and he’s just an incredible player. James Paul Nadien who is playing in that quartet is a great drummer. I’m also a huge Forbes Graham fan.
OWB
In an effort to do more community building, for Find Out #3, there will be a number of exciting vendors present. Local tape label Dead Pet Tapes will be there, along with Sam of Pain Chain and Mutual Aid Tapes. Other vendors that will be there are Luci Dead Limb, Harrison Ruth, and Jilliane Mortimer. Please support these folks.
Boston has a major problem with a lack of rehearsal spaces and artist studios. The Sound Museum practice space in Allston recently closed, so we asked Chelsea Ellsworth of Entropy Tether Studios to inform people about that frustrating situation.
It’s such a stacked lineup! First of all, Lux Lucidi (part of the FIND OUT booking collective, vocalist in SEED, and selling art as luci dead limb) is the one who came up with the vendors idea – he’s had so many good ideas for how to incorporate more visual artists into the series.
As for the music, we’ve got four sets: Forbes Graham playing solo computer; a trio of zithers with Yoona Kim, Anwei Wang, and Marie Carroll; a quartet exploring themes of pain and euphoria with Will Fredendall, Kai Burns, Diego Martinez, and Noah Mark; and the quartet with Jeb Bishop, Matt Delligatti (also part of the FIND OUT collective), Brittany Karlson, and James Nadien.
BH
City Life/ Vida Urbana is such a great org. The show is a partial benefit for them. Why did you choose to raise money for their cause?
CS
Twenty years ago or so, City Live/Vida Urbana helped me and some fellow tenants in a building on Lourdes Ave near Franklin Park form a tenants union to fight steep rent increases and get the landlord to do some much needed repairs. I was so impressed with their work on tenant’s rights that I try to do benefits for them whenever I can. With the cost of rent in Boston going up 40% in the past year, their work is needed now more than ever.
OWB
I’ve plugged into City Life/Vida Urbana on and off for years but they also really supported me and my housemates at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 when we organized a tenants’ union in our apartment building to negotiate for reduced rent because several us were suddenly out of work. They’re also so good at pointing out the intersections between local housing justice struggles and larger issues of systemic racism and capitalism. A lot of us are negatively affected by the recently proposed plan to demolish the Sound Museum, a rehearsal building in Brighton that tons and tons of bands practice out of, so we want to draw attention to that struggle and also connect it to larger housing justice issues in Boston, because ultimately the economic and social forces that result in artists and musicians losing venues and rehearsal spaces are the same forces that have been displacing communities in Boston for decades now. So that’s why we’re going to have both Chelsea Ellsworth of Entropy Tether Studios (located in Sound Museum) speak about the struggle going on there, while also donating a percentage of the door money straight to CLVU.
BH
What does the future hold for you all and FIND OUT?
CS
I think we’re just going to try to keep the series going for as long as we can, and also hopefully draw as many of the disparate music scenes in Boston into the series to hopefully make them aware of each other and foster more scene unity. Other than that, I’m going to keep working at the library and hopefully get back to playing music in a serious way since I’ve been kind of slacking on that lately.
OWB
I definitely want to see FIND OUT continue for as long as possible! We’ve worked on making it more of a collective effort so that we can draw in different groups of people and creative scenes to be a part of it. There’s a bunch of other people currently involved with planning the shows too.
As for me, I’m working on a lot of different music projects, like RONG is almost done recording our second album, and I just released some music that I wrote for another band called PREMIUM VELVET HEADACHE PILLOW. I’m like, really in love with exploring music that is a combination of being both written and improvised and that inhabits the weird spaces between genres. FIND OUT definitely feeds that interest and a lot of my own motivation to keep writing and recording and performing.
I would also love to have access to spaces where we can put on louder shows – because this space is so resonant, it can be hard for louder bands to play without the sound getting washed out by the reverb. Soooo if anyone reading this has leads on that, please hit me up! <3
