In anticipation of the release of the song collaboration with Echo of the Low Light (ELL), I wanted to share some backstory of who they are and how I came to be involved with them. So—I looked back through my instagram feed to see if I could figure out when I had first had contact with them and how this all came to be.
In late 2020 I had gotten more serious about releasing home recorded music and making accompanying music videos that I would film, edit and produce myself from my home studio. I would then released them to internet on sites like Instagram and YouTube. It was the beginning of the pandemic, and while hiding out in my spidery basement art studio in Seattle Wa., I had an epiphany. I realized that not only had technology improved to make DIY music recordings and content easier to create and still look professional, over the years I had actually acquired a lot of the skills to actually do it well.
I have been making music since the early 90’s, with varied success in getting myself ‘out there’ playing live and recording — It’s been a life interspersed with years of fighting a debilitating stage fright (AKA severe performance anxiety- here’s an essay about my early years in the '90's Seattle Music scene), all the ins-and-outs of learning adulting and the very time-consuming, albeit a role I love— being a parent. These and other intersections of my journey as an artist all have had their part in the supporting and delaying of my personal discovery, and in my figuring out what, how and why I am driven to the life of being a creative.
It was with the magic of DIY movements, Social Media platforms and video/music streaming that I began to learn how to embrace my growing sense of self-confidence as an artist and musician. So, in that damp, dark, isolated winter of 2020, I started being even braver to fully commit to my music and my studio art practices by putting my best foot forward and sharing it however I could.
It was in January of 2021 that I began to see the Instagram hearts appear from the @echo_of_the_low_light handle. I remember I was intrigued by their cool name and so I looked into who it might be. Thus began a back and forth of hearts—ELL to my Instagram posts and me to theirs. Then the comments started posting back and forth of support of each others work —and of course—more hearts!
It was April of 2021 that I received a DM from ELL. It was a beautiful moment for me, while still in isolation in Seattle— the message read: “Would you be open to collaborate? We have a song we are working on that could be great for you to join on.”
!!!
For me it was validation of something I had been working to manifest over the years; finding meaningful connection with other artists and creatives. It had been a while in the making, but I think I had been unconsciously trying to find a bigger picture for my multidisciplinary creative work to be a part of. Perhaps in the time of the forced isolation from the pandemic— I was able to see how lonely it was in the dark corners of my artistic practices and that it would be through communication and collaboration that my art would be the most impactful. I wanted that!
So, to receive that message from ELL was oxygen for all the thoughts that I had been intuitively trying to let breath.
Although, both ELL and myself lived in Seattle at that time, we had never met, didn’t even seem to have any mutual friends in the virtual or real world…and since it was still covid times—we didn’t meet up IRL at that time. And it wouldn’t be until the Fall of 2021 that ELL reached back out to say they were ready to start the process of our collaboration. At that time I still didn’t quite know who I had been messaging back and forth with. To me ELL was just an entity that I was communicating with. It wasn’t until we finally had a zoom meet up in the late fall of 2021 that I met Kerri Holland and Pam Drago, the founding members of the collective and veteran musicians from the Seattle music scene.a This Zoom meet-up was my first face-to-face with them and by this time I had already had to move cross country to Lexington Kentucky where I am currently living.
In February 2022, after our initial zoom planning session and a lot of emails back and forth— I finally received the first sketch recording of the “ As Yet To Be Titled song! …in the key of D”— from ELL.
ELL calls itself a GDI (goddamn independent) collective- and in their words, they are a “collective of rotating Pacific Northwest artists experimenting with an aleatoric (“throw of the dice”) approach to creating music.” I guess since until my move to Kentucky in September 2021, I had lived most of my life in the PACNW and a whole lifetime on the west coast— I was happy to be grand-mothered into the Pacific Northwest artist identification!
The process ELL uses when working with collaborators starts with a ‘skeleton’ song that is written by Holland and Drago. They leave large parts of the composition open to chance to allow each collaborator to bring their own style and vibe to the table—the only instruction they give the collaborators is to keep the emotional integrity of the song intact.
After they sent me the ‘Skeleton” track, I had to sit with it for a while to get a feel for what I wanted to offer. Once I started to record with my guitar and my voice, the tracks just kept coming. I must have sent them a half dozen guitar and a half dozen vocal tracks. And then I had to wait, try not to bite my nails off in anticipation to find out which tracks they would end up using and what parts of my offering would end up on the cutting room floor.
Just to reiterate—I only had a skeleton of a song ie. a bass-line, basic guitar and vocals and a basic drum track to work off of. The tracks I then began to create were based on what I heard listening to their track and then tried to embody it and let my ear take me where I intuitively needed to go with it
I played around with so many sounds, effects, styles until a feeling started to emerge of how this song needed to feel for me to believe it, know it, trust it. And then—- it just started to flow!
As most musicians know, to get to the final production of a song, you need to move through infinite universes of possibility. I had no idea if what I heard in their skeleton track was going to be embraced, so I tried my best to find an equanimity through it all, and not have any expectations for the final outcome—a lesson in non-attachment to the highest level.
After a few more email exchanges, and a request for me to create some additional vocal tracks (all the while still unaware of the direction the song was being taken in their studio) I tried to once again be patient until I got the full reveal of the final cut!
It wasn’t until August of 2022 that I finally heard the final version of our song! I cried a little, because up until then I didn’t know how much or how little of my input had been mixed into the final cut! And, not only is the song a total bop, it’s filled with the kind of depth & emotion that makes music meaningful to me. Furthermore, to hear how so many of my offerings were included and layered into each part of the song was a gift to me as a musician and artist! Hearing the blending of their original song idea with the parts that I offered to them—combined with the magic that happens in the final mixing in the studio —is an alchemy that I can’t put into words. Or maybe I just did…you’ll have to let me know how I did!
And now for the big reveal! This year, ELL is releasing two new singles. The song “Wild World Away” that I worked with them on, and the song “Valley”, both of which they partnered with producer Don Gunn (Death Cab for Cutie, The Lonely Forest).
This has been an unforgettable and valuable experience. Working with Holland and Drago has taught me so much about the benefits of following intuition, being brave, being vulnerable and being flexible and patient. As of today, I feel authorized to call myself a proud GDI’er and I am so excited for Wild World Away to release to the world Tomorrow, September 23, 2022.
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