Listening in to Bozeman for a double release day
Two Bozeman-born EPs have arrived just in time for some folky fall charm. A warm welcome to Ava and Tiny Iota.
We called up Ava Swanson (AVA) and . Connor Smith (Tiny Iota) to learn more about what goes into their music.
AVA and Tiny Iota will play their tandem EP release show tonight at the Filling Station in Bozeman. Doors open at 7 P.M and music is at 8, the event is 21+ with a $5 cover.
AVA, Vaba Este
https://www.ava-music.net/listen
Ava Swanson is on a quest to explore the world through political performance. The Bozeman native recently finished her studies at Quest University Canada in British Columbia and spent the summer recording. Her songs are poignant, deep with folk roots and breezy jazz-tinged vocals. Clever lyrics reckon with existence in a late capitalist America.
Ava was inspired by the Estonian Singing Revolution and invigorated by many hours on her family’s the sailboat,‘Vaba Eesti,’ naming the EP ‘VABA ESTE’ and “weaving personal narratives into theoretical explorations of the nation’s claims to freedom.”
Ava will be on tour following the EP release, you can catch her tour dates on her website www.ava-music.net/tour.
We called up Ava to talk about her roots and the theme of freedom in her new EP.
Q&A
KBGA: How did you get into music?
AS: My mom was a music teacher and my dad is also a musician who has played in bands throughout his life, so growing up everything was a song. I showed a propensity for music and performance at a young age. I started writing when I was 4 or 5, nothing serious but little songs and then I got my first guitar at 5 and started taking lessons at 7.
KBGA: What music has influenced you the most?
AS: My capital H hero is Joni Mitchell, I don’t go a day without listening to her. Rachel Price of Lake Street Dive influences me vocally, I love her phrasing, voice control and tone. In terms of writing, lyricism, and production, Adrianne Lenker and Mitski.
KBGA: How did growing up in Montana influence your music?
AS: The biggest thing is having a folk brain. I grew up on folk, country and bluegrass and because of that my young musical mind learned chord transitions, melodies and harmonies within those styles. It is a blessing and a curse, it is so natural to write that style of music that is makes it challenging to add in other genres and styles.
KBGA: The title of your EP Vaba Este has the Estonian Singing Revolution in mind, what about it inspires you and feels relevant to the world we live in today?
AS: I am constantly amazed by the persistence and resistance of persecuted people, we see it everywhere all over the world and all throughout time. For me I love social movements and political movements that aligned with arts practices. These people harnessed songs as a non-violent form of protest, a super powerful form of human connection and strength, the fact that there was a movement organized around this that lead to the liberation of a nation is mind-blowing to me.
KBGA: How does the idea of freedom play into western narrative and how does that play into your music?
AS:There is a difference between promised freedom and actual freedom. My songs try to explore the ways our nation and system build false promises of freedom. We also reclaim our identities within that system and can find human spirit freedom. I am a white, fairly affluent woman which affords me freedom and I connect to the traditional idea in that way. But as someone who identifies as queer and young and a woman, I still feel barred knowing the American model for freedom never was meant for me or my body. My songwriting explore those false promises and realizes the ideas of meritocracy, mass consumerism, and ownership, whether it is land or monogamy or ownership over other people.
KBGA: What song changed the way you saw music?
AS:Joni Mitchel’s “Cactus Tree.” That line, “she is so busy being free,” I loved it. It was empowering to hear and made me feel like I was in charge of my own life and made me realize music made me feel that way. That experience helped me understand the power of song to make change.
KBGA: Since it was just Halloween: If your EP was a special potion, what are 3 key ingredients?
AS:
1. Crumpled up dollar bills, like the types you shove into a bag after you get tipped out if you work in the service industry.
2.My own blood. Some of the songs are about family members, love and relationships, they are less explicitly political and more personal.
3.A kaleidoscope. It is representative of the fact that the end thing is one output, but there are so many moving parts. My community is a huge ingredient, it wouldn’t have happened without so many hands on board.
KBGA: What is your patronus?
AS: Orangutan
Tiny Iota, Town Crier
Photo by Rachel Leathe
This moody folk pop album just might have you falling apart. Connor Smith is originally from Helena but moved to Bozeman and has been playing in bands in the local music scene since. He is currently in three different rock bands, but Tiny Iota is his personal project. It is a place for Connor to spill his soul, these songs are deeply personal.
Tiny Iota’s Town Crier is self described the “whiniest” yet. Connor sings about loss of love and just about any other void that can fill a human heart. The songs are solemn yet resolute, simple but moving. The EP was released by Rumble Gut Records today. We spoke with Connor to get a taste of what these Tiny iota tears are made of.
Q&A
KBGA: How did you get into music?
CS: I started listening to intentionally to music in high school, before then it was just movie soundtracks and Weird Al. But when I started really listening to music, my dad bought an acoustic guitar and had it on hand and so I started playing.
KBGA: What have been your biggest musical influences for this project?
CS: For this new EP: Thom Yorke and Radiohead, Big Thief, Father John Misty and John Frusciante, the guitarist for the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, he has some really interesting solo project stuff.
KBGA: What do you tend to write about?
CS: Overall a lot of feeling sorry for myself songs. I write with a journaling technique. My Tiny iota songs are a way to process my life and the events that are happening in a way that makes sense to me. Heartbreak is a big theme but also in a lot of songs the writing is more abstract. It can be about the minutiae of everyday life, living in society, you can read in probably multiple different ways.
KBGA: How has your writing changed since your first EP?
CS:I have become more playful lyrically, putting intention into the melody and the way words interact with each other is something I have been paying with. Town Crier is more varied in genre, it is conventional pop but more of a country influence.
KBGA: What is the biggest theme of Town Crier?
CS: This is my most explicit heartbreak record, but I would like to think of that as looking at heartbreak in a different way. I tried to be more on the outside and analyze the ritual of meeting someone, having them be a part of our life and the loss of a relationship. It isn’t all necessarily about a romantic relationship, it could be about your relationship to anything and the loss of that.
KBGA: What influences you lyrically?
CS: Stretching lyrics in interesting ways, taking a word that should only be too syllabus and turn it into too many, or maybe sometimes you can’t decipher what they are saying.
KBGA: You are in a few different Bozeman bands, Panther Car, Tiny Iota, Wire Rider How do you feel like these individual bands are different outlets?
CS: Panther Car, I play guitar in and it is very open and democratic songwriting process, deconstructing traditional song structure. Tiny is more songs I write and make based around a skeleton that already exists. Wire Rider is fun for me because I get to play lead guitar the song structure more traditional but still psychedelic.
KBGA: You are @tinycryota on Instagram: what is your go to sad song?
CS: Into my Arms by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
KBGA: If your EP was like a special potion, what are the 3 key ingredients to it?
CS:
1. Salty tears
2. Smoke from a campfire
3. Lock of chopped off hair from the floor of a dirty kitchen
KBGA: What is your patronus?
CS: A sloth
Assembled by KBGA Music Director Noelle Huser
November 3, 2019