I worked with Eleanor Henderson for a year at Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY, during the 2022/2023 school year. She was the chair of the Writing department at the time, and I was a lecturer. We had a lot of conversations about teaching, writing, and ideas. We've stayed in touch since, and still to this day, talk about said things, while keeping each other up to date as our lives keep moving on through new milestones. I was so excited and a little nervous to interview her. But she is a teacher, and a novelist, and her presence is very present.

During my time teaching at Ithaca College, I learned that she wrote a book called Ten Thousand Saints where the characters lives were heavily involved in the straight edge hardcore music scene in New York City in the 1980s. Her husband was heavily involved in the scene during the time, and though they met later, by proxy, he spurned her hunger and curiosity to delve deeper into the movement that's influenced so many people and musicians. Naturally, as a gigantic music fan, I thought that maybe we could talk about the book she wrote a bit ago, and it being the 10th anniversary of the movie that was made (for the record, Eleanor is celebrating this!), We get into a little hardcore, Ian Mackaye, ethnography, ethics, writing, expanding or exploring ideas, and life.

She's currently working on her 4th book!

Her other books are: The Twelve-Mile Straight, and her memoir, Everything I have is Yours

Catch them here: https://eleanor-henderson.com/

I met Misha Tentser at graduate school in Syracuse, New York, four years ago and we became friends not long after. He's a poet, writer, and teacher, and it's always a pleasure to talk to him! We get deep into dream logic, mental health, the figurative weight of objects, being nerdy about your art, emotional confrontation of the self, psychogeography, and what it's like to be a writer.

Here are some links to Misha's published work!

"Before" in Midway Journal.

"BoJack Horseman Visits Chagall’s America Windows," "BoJack Horseman Visits the Strip Mall Optometrist" in Had Magazine

"Landscape," "Goodyear, AZ" in Sonora Review.

Gory and I had a nice talk about what it's like for her bing a nomadic musician. She's from Panvel, Maharashtra, India, and it's difficult to play there as a musician unless you are performing covers. This spurned her musical journey. We talked about the challenge of finding a place to play at home, while finding so much by way of traveling to play. Not just artists to colaborate with, but the joy and comfort of becoming a part of a larger music community. She's got.

She just released her first EP, called Teen Error. Link to the different streaming platforms for the album is HERE.

I think I fell in love with winded sometime in 2022. I used to play "Swallowing Hair" and "I know it's Thin" on repeat during my drives from Syracuse, NY, to my job in Ithaca, NY. Mostly rolling hills and farms, and deep green walls of trees and fields, calm scenery. The songs soaked into my veins with their melancholic, grunge-infused, lonely, haunting guitars, and outbursts of crunchy, searing melodic static.

It was great to have a winding conversation with Thrin Vianale, the originator of Winded! What a great soul, awesome music creator, and community organizer! We went deep into grief, music as a healing process, and much more.

Check out their music on Bandcamp or Spotify.

In the interview, we talk about the benefit/competition they're in. To learn more, check out this Global Citizen website HERE.

Matt O'Connor recently started a record label inspired by the need to help trans youth, creating Worry Beads Records' first release, a compilation of 18 different bands called True Names: A Benefit for Trans Youth. We talked about how we can create space to honor and support trans youth, while not only with fundraising, but also through the impact of literature and music. We also talked about literature, the origin of True Names, and learning how to open the self by letting go of control.

Trans Youth Emergency Project Website

True Names: A Benefit for Trans Youth compilation on Bandcamp

Worry Bead Records Instagram

I tracked down David Schellenberg after listening to the new record of his band Tunic, A Harmony of Loss Has Been Sung. Listening to the album was an intense experience and a pleasure for me. I liked listening to this record in my car the best, surrounded by the dark tones, the grief and pain in the lyrics, and the absolutely stunning composition of instruments, dragging me into the depths of this loss. The deep bass, the wretched pain in Schellenberg's voice, wails of loss, and a cathartic expression through dissonant sounds and distorted guitars. The album is a gut punch, and it hurts so good.

We talk about the Winnipeg music scene, creating and growing as an artist, composition, communication, pain, and grief.

Tunic - Ordinary Unique Pain (Official Visualizer)

Tunic Instagram

Tunic Website

In this interview, I hang out with Ian Kelly, a versatile rapper and storyteller from Oakland, California. We talk about community, the artist's evolution, intentionality, and of course, all of this involves music.

As I’ve continued to talk to artists recently, I’ve noticed that there are certain things a few have in common in their growth. It’s part of being intentional and part of letting go. This can seem strange because it’s contradictory, but it also seems true. Ian and I discussed this relation to his evolution. I don’t know; we’ll see where this goes as I interview more artists.

Something unique I appreciated about Kelly’s process is this idea of motion and imagery. He says that he “creates in motion” and that he takes opportunities to create, to imagine, while walking in the park or in the ideal passenger seat of the car. This is when he imagines, sees, and conceptualizes. He’s an imagery person, and I like it when sentences, bars, lines, and words produce images in my brain. I don’t always think about this, but it’s nice when I hear someone's words, and a scene is laid out in front of me, in my head. It’s funny how image and imagine are so closely related because one is so concrete, and the other extremely expansive.

Kelly has a few singles out, leading up to his Concrete Ocean EP, which will be released this May (2025). He also has three LPs.

Here are a couple of the latest singles:

WTA, featuring DJ D Sharp

SLIDIN, featuring DJ D Sharp and Iamsu!

You can also hear Kelly freestyling on Sway in the Morning HERE.

Ian Kelly website: https://www.firstnameian.com/about

PHOTO BY Lara Kaur

Lara Kaur Linktree

I recently reviewed Friedman's debut album, New Thing, in Post-Trash magazine. Knowing she had limited time because it was the week of the album's release, I came up with three questions that focused mainly on community and performance.

This interview with my OLYMPUS Digital Voice Recorder VN-7200 was recorded over the phone, so it's fuzzy. To me, it feels like one of those voice memos on a Midwest emo song, where someone is playing some slow single-string notes on a guitar, and someone is talking over it, contemplating something.

Check out the Album HERE

Check out the Album Review HERE