Play it Forward, December 2021, The UM Food Pantry, Pale People

The UM Food Pantry,

Pale People

Thursday // December 9th // 7:30 PM // Free, but please consider donating as 70% of funds received go to support the Montana Natural History Center //

Donation link:

VIEWING LINKS
ZACC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thezacc/
Zootown Arts YouTube:
MCAT Local Live: https://www.mcat.org/watch-now/local-live/

Thanks for tuning in and playing it forward.

FULL EPISODE:

KBGA College Radio and the Zootown Arts Community Center (ZACC) have teamed up to bring you 'Play It Forward', a live-streamed music series and podcast program curated to unite and uplift community artists and organizations in Missoula. Once a month we will partner with a different organization and host a local music event, with 70% of proceeds going to that month's organization.  In conjunction with the music event each month, KBGA will run a podcast program on-air featuring interviews with the people behind the organizations and the artists themselves. We’re here to have a conversation with community organizers and creatives, artists, and activists on what community means to them and how they engage in their community.

December’s Play It Forward features Kurt Skrivseth and Mack Gilcrest, two of the members of the band Pale People. A live concert at the Zootown Arts Community Center will take place at 7:30 on December 9th. They’ll be playing in support of The UM Food Pantry. Since opening their doors, the Pantry has distributed nearly 35,000 pounds of food and hygiene products to UM students, staff, and community members. They ask that people please consider donating, as every donation helps.

This podcast features Kurt Skrivseth and Mack Gilcrest from the band Pale People, as well as Collin Zollinger and Kat Cowley from the UM Food Pantry. This episode’s host is Peyton Butler, KBGA’s Media Director.

The song you’re about to hear is Inner Space by the band Pale People.

<Inner Space by Pale Pale People>

Kurt Skrivseth: Uh, yeah, so, uh, my name is Kurt Skrivseth. I am a member of the band pale People. Uh, I primarily played bass in the band, but I'm also our audio engineer and sound designer and blah, blah, blah, all that nerdy stuff. Um, and, uh, yeah, that's my job.

Mack Gilcrest: I'm a Mac Gillcrest on the keyboardist and lead singer for Pale People and the lyricist.

Kat Cowley: I'm Kat Cowley I'm the director of Bear Necessities on campus.

Collin Zollinger: And I'm Collins Zollinger, I'm the student coordinator over at the UM food pantry. And I oversee all the day-to-day operations at the UM food pantry.

Peyton Butler: I've got my first question for Kat and Collin. Could you guys just talk a little bit about what the UM food pantry does and where you're located?

Collin Zollinger: Yeah. So we're located in the university center on campus at the University of Montana, uh, specifically in room 119, right next to the ASUM offices. Um, and what we do at the pantry is we offer free food assistance and, uh, provide free personal care, hygiene care products to any student staff, faculty, community member, any person that walks through our doors, uh, can come in and get a free food or free hygiene products whenever they need, and however much that they need.

Uh, and we also help students in applying for a snap assistance services, um, if they need a little bit of that extra help in their life, um, and just generally give them support, uh, because students need a lot of support with basic needs and that's something that's been often overlooked.

Peyton Butler: And then for Kurt and Mack, , could you guys talk a little bit about how you both first got your start in music?

Mack Gilcrest: Uh, I've been playing percussion since I was 10 years old. Um, and I've been, uh, playing keyboard off and on throughout that, uh, went to a music school, which is how I met this guy. Um, I'm trying to think.

I'm trying to think of a more interesting way to put any of that, but that's not about sums it up.

Kurt Skrivseth: Mine's much more interesting. So, um, when I, when I was 14, I got to go see my first live concert ever. And I was so enamored by it that the next, my next birthday, I decided I wanted to start playing guitar.

Uh, got my first guitar when I was 15. And have more or less aspired to play professionally ever since. And like my grades suffered from it. It's all I did. It's all I cared about. It's still all I care about. Um, now I'm a full-time guitar technician for other people as well. Um, but I got into recording at a young age as well.

And so I was doing my own mixing and producing and all of that. And then that ended up working out well, cause it turns out every band needs that. So now I work for our band and other bands. And, uh, yeah, I'm just, uh, involved on a number of levels, instrumentally and started out on guitar. And I switched to bass cause nobody had a bass player and I also play mandolin a little bit and it's just kind of all over the place.

Peyton Butler: And then for, for Kurt and Mack, how would you guys describe the kind of music that you create?

What kind of genre would you say that it falls under?

Kurt Skrivseth: I'd like to point out that Kat is smiling right now.

Mack Gilcrest: Yeah. Uh, we've struggled to answer that question for many, many years. Um, Broadway punk is the closest that we've gotten. I think.

Kurt Skrivseth: I like to call it like aggressive piano rock. There was one time we were in the post office, mailing submerges to someone and somebody heard that we were in a band and they were like, what's your band sound like?

And I was like, I don't know. It's kinda like if Billy Joel were really honest,

Mack Gilcrest: I've heard, I've heard that we sound like Meatloaf and I've heard that we sound like Ben Folds. And so in response to that, I have never listened to any Meatloaf or Ben Folds because I'm afraid of sounding more like that.

Kurt Skrivseth: I'm very glad that we didn't decide to call ourselves the Meat Folds.

Mack Gilcrest: It's not too late.

Peyton Butler: And then for Kat and Collin, who's able to utilize the food pantry? Is it just students or can anyone in the community use it as well?

Collin Zollinger: Yeah. Like I was saying anybody that walks through our door can use our services. So we have a really open policy of never turning anybody away. Uh, cause we're there to help people.

And it doesn't matter if that person's an enrolled full-time student at UM or if they're somebody passing through on a road trip like they could be anyone person and walk through our door and we'll make sure that they get food or any assistance that they need.

Kat Cowley: We also have policies built-in, so we don't do any income checks.

Um, so cause we understand everybody goes through hard times. Um, and all that we care is that people eat no matter who they are, where they come from.

Peyton Butler: And then why do you guys think that food pantry matters?

Collin Zollinger: They support students, uh, in our case, um, if a student, uh, lacks the ability to food, have food security in their life, it affects their classwork and affects their ability to succeed on campus. Um, and likewise goes for any person in their life, if they're hungry, uh, their ability to perform, succeed, um, and be on the same level as somebody who may have had a full breakfast that morning might be very different.

Um, so I think it's incredibly important that, uh, food pantry is like ours exists to help people function on an even playing field in their day to day, um, and break down barriers to food access

Kat Cowley: And kinda to get to the real root of it. Um, I was on board when the food pantry was first found it, uh, so I got to be part of those first conversations and it really comes down to food is a human.

Right. Um, regardless of your background, who you love, what you look like, who you are, you gotta eat eventually. Uh, so making that easier for folks, um, is really near and dear to my heart.

Peyton Butler: Kurt and Mack, how did Pale People first get started or form as a band?

Mack Gilcrest: As music school wore on. I got progressively more unhappy with the kind of music I was writing. And I discovered Amanda Palmer's band the Dresden Dolls. I have issues with Amanda Palmer, but at the time the Dresden Dolls blew my mind and I discovered, you know, dark cabaret and that, that kind of punk movement.

And I decided to experiment with writing music in that vein. And it made me a lot happier. I, uh, I called up this guy because he's the best bass player I know still. And, um, that's how it started. Yeah.

Kurt Skrivseth: I had always wanted to be in a band where I could play bass and do whatever I wanted and the way that I always wanted to accomplish that was I wanted to play bass in a band that had piano because a lot of what the pianist left-hand is doing would already be doing what a bass player would have done.

And it allows me to have kind of free rein, do another goofy, random fills here and there. And, uh, I, that, that freedom really interested me apart from that. I also love the songs, so.

Mack Gilcrest: Okay. Um, what, making that a little easier as the fact that I'm not very good at piano. So my left hand isn't doing anything.

Peyton Butler: And kind of going off of that, what's your music-making or songwriting process like?

Mack Gilcrest: Uh, there'll be a germ of an idea that usually takes the form of a chord progression or a riff. And I will ruminate on it for several years and then eventually write four to eight verses on. Sex or corpses or a combination of the two.

And, um, and then I'll, I'll bring it in for a more kind of massive workshopping.

Kurt Skrivseth: A lot of times what will happen, a good number of the times. Um, we found that some of our better songs are the ones where we're kind of, we have kind of an equal share of the writing process. I'll write maybe part of the verse or like the rift for the verse and then Mack'll write the chorus. It'll be something like that.

But typically whenever I've written, part of, one of the songs, Mack will practice it too much and then ended up playing it too fast. And that becomes a great point of contention.

Mack Gilcrest: And we fight all the time. We're fighting right now verbally.

Peyton Butler: For Kat and Collin, could you go more into detail about the kinds of things that the food pantry has? Like is it just food items or personal hygiene items as well?

Collin Zollinger: Yeah, lately, we've been really striving to have a lot more access to non-food items in our pantry, uh, because it's really important to have that one-stop-shop model, uh, because a lot of people that need assistance services, uh, don't always have the time to go elsewhere because they're often working multiple jobs to make it work, or, um, just the fact that poverty in some cases is a full-time job.

So, um, some of the stuff that we offer. Anywhere from like menstrual care products. We just had some menstrual cups donated the other day, which was awesome. Uh, but we also get socks donated, like packaged and new, uh, that we can hand out or tide detergent. Um, one thing we've been really pushing lately is infant care products.

Uh, because the amount of non-traditional students coming back to school, or just students in general that have kids that they have to take care of while they're in school and making sure that they have the formula mixes, that they need the diaper sizes that they need, um, any sort of baby food, um, that they need to make sure that their kids are taken care of while they're in school.

Um, so we've been really trying to push hard to offer those non-food products. Um, but in terms of food products, we're also pushing hard right now to offer more variety. Um, whether it be like culturally diverse food, but also food for people of various dietary restrictions. So vegan, vegetarian gluten-free, um, whatever it is and making sure.

Uh, for people that don't eat meat, they have a variety of protein options. Um, and for a gluten-free people, it's not just gluten-free pasta, uh, but other gluten-free items that we can have on hand for them as well.

Peyton Butler: And could you talk a little bit about how the food pantry was started and when you got started?

Kat Cowley: I can cover that one. Um, so the food pantry opened February 2019 after about a nine months-long push, which is really short, uh, to develop a program that has become what it turned into. Um, it started with an internship.

I got at the Renter Center right after I finished undergrad. I graduated with a degree in women's studies and sociology and experienced a significant amount of. Food and housing insecurity as well as other hardships, um, in my last year of undergrad and kind of leading up to that as well and recognize that while I had spent pretty much all of my money and almost all of my time on campus at UM it felt like there wasn't really a safety net.

For the particular needs that I was having on campus. And after speaking to my friends and digging around a little on campus, I realized I wasn't the only student experiencing that. So we formed a committee with folks all over campus, lots of staff from the UC, um, advisors, faculty members, ASUM, Um, the provost office at the time, I believe was also involved and did research.

Uh, we brought the real college survey, which is hosted at the Hope Center for College Community and Justice in Philadelphia. To get some more quantitative data, because we had a lot of stories that a lot of anecdotes, but we didn't have the hard numbers that a lot of funders want to see before you get started.

So we brought the survey, we ran the survey, got our hard numbers, got our funding. And then when we started, we were in the. I don't know what it's called now. The storage closet that's behind what used to be the source desk. Um, and my first desk was a stack of cases of green beans, canned green beans. So we've come very far.

Uh, if you look at the food pantry and what it looks like today, um, I'm so thrilled about how much it has grown since we first got started and that hopefully it continues to grow until it's not needed anymore. One day.

Peyton Butler: For Kurt and Mack, where do you guys get a lot of your musical influence from? Are there any specific artists that you take a lot of influence from?

Mack Gilcrest: Yes. Um, we're, uh, we're both huge fans of Rush and REM, um, Radiohead all those are bands, another art band. Yeah. Um, I'm a bigger fan of the Velvet Underground than he is

Kurt Skrivseth: I'm the opposite of a fan of the Velvet Underground.

Mack Gilcrest: We both love Talking Heads. Um, we've also both listened to a weird amount of classical music just because of, you know,

Kurt Skrivseth: We, we both studied composition in college.

Mack Gilcrest: So, um, it's, it's pretty, it's pretty eclectic and we try to keep it as eclectic as possible.

Peyton Butler: And do you guys have a favorite song that you've created and why would that one be your favorite?

Kurt Skrivseth: We've got, we're working on our sixth album presently. So we've got a few to choose from, but it might, I don't know. I don't know if I've ever asked Mack this question.

Mack Gilcrest: The one that I'm most personally proud of might be the last song off our most recent album, which is Lizard Monster eats everybody our Godzilla rock opera. Um, and the song is called roll credits and it takes place a step removed from the rest of the narrative wherein lizard monster awakes from the depths of the pacific ocean and wreaks havoc on Tokyo.

Scientists have to construct mecha lizard monster in an underground bunker in order to save themselves. And then mecha lizard, monster throws lizard monster the first into space, and then subsequently enslaves, the world under, you know, the totalitarian grasp of her iron fist. And after all, that occurs, then the last song Roll Credits pulls back the layer and it is about.

The joy and beauty of making bad black and white B movies about Kaiju. Um, and, and I think that there's something really elegant about it, and I'm very proud of the lyrics on that one. For me, that whole album was. And immense joy to make. Uh, but Kurt doesn't feel entirely the same way about it.

Kurt Skrivseth: Oddly enough, in the song he's talking about, apart from a little bit of organ, I'm actually the only person playing any instruments on that song.

 As far as my favorite, probably any. So we, for the, for the beginning, part of our band, we started as a three-piece and we were that way for the first three or four years. Um, we've since added guitar, but prior to that, I was doing all of the guitar work in the studio and then somewhat live on, switch off between guitar and bass.

If the songs didn't really need a bass, um, and I've always liked the songs where it sounds like way more than three or four people. So whatever, whatever that comes with. I mean, what are you thinking of Inner Space maybe?

Mack Gilcrest: Oh, Inner Space is fun.

Kurt Skrivseth: See, now Mack's changing his mind cause he forgot about inner space.

Mack Gilcrest: Inner space is a Cronenbergian body horror song about a couple so blissfully in love that they decide to merge into one another's flesh and become a single chaotic, but deeply romantic organism.

Kurt Skrivseth: Another way to put that as you get surgically sewn to your girlfriend and kinda see what happens, but, um, the way, the way we wrote that song, I I'm super proud about how it turned out harmonically, just because it, it sounds like it's in a weird, altered, open tuning and it's not.

And I would, I have defied people who are other guitar players to try to figure out how to play it. Most people can't do it and it makes me feel real good.

Mack Gilcrest: Not that you're cocky or anything.

Kurt Skrivseth: Not at all.

Peyton Butler: And this next question is open to everyone. But what do you think is the most rewarding thing about either making music or the work you do for the food pantry?

Kat Cowley: For me, it's especially, uh, having spent the last. Nine ish months, um, working off-campus and another position at a nonprofit in town and having come back, I realized how much I missed working with the students, sorry, emails and getting to spend every single day, hearing their stories and their struggles and their wins and their losses.

And just remembering how. Much school took over my life, but also how much I learned about myself in that process and getting to show folks that there's no one way to do it. There's no one path. And most importantly, that hunger and loss isn't the right word. But, uh, financial insecurity for lack of a better term is not a rite of passage.

Um, academia should not equal suffering. But somehow we got lost along the way, trying to find that. So helping folks get through it and get to celebrate their wins with them means the world. To me,

Collin Zollinger: I'll echo everything Kat just said. Um, but I also, uh, one of my favorite parts of the job and the most. The reward that I guess that you'd get from, uh, working at probably any food pantry, um, the variety of people that come in and getting to like really truly be tapped into the community and not just like the parts of the community that you have friends in, or like your specific classes, but truly.

Every part of the Missoula community walks through that door and getting to feel, um, like you were a part of every part of that community, um, by being there and helping out, um, every community in Missoula being there for every which person and being able to feel like a part of it all, even if it's just a small part sometimes, but yeah, it's really, it's the best feeling.

Kurt Skrivseth: I love getting to demonstrate things to people that are, it creates, I guess, that it creates an emotional response or, or make them experience or feel things that they hadn't otherwise felt. There's a sort of excitement that, that happens between an audience and a band, as soon as you're performing that sort of a, almost like a feedback loop where the energy feeds off of itself, there's something about the, the thrill and the rush of that, where, I mean, I wouldn't trade that feeling for anything when there's a song that you're playing, that you've written, that's going very well and you can see the audience responding in real-time to it.

Um, that's certainly what keeps me coming back. Um, and even that I get almost the same feeling whenever I'm mixing audio, if it just comes down to the, there's a weird thing where like there's a good chance that once I've finalized the mix for a song that I get to be the first person who's ever heard that song in the history of the world, as it would then be completed.

And there's something about that. Um, maybe the sentimentality of it, but also just kind of uniqueness of getting to. It's very, it's very selfish thing that I get out of music, but I love it.

Mack Gilcrest: Um, historically I've been a kind of socially awkward and self-conscious and uncomfortable person. I don't know if you can tell that by my tone of voice or mannerisms or everything else about me, but, um, music was. Back in the day, my only real social currency. Um, and it was the only way I knew how to make friends.

And it was the only way I knew how to impress anybody. Um, things are, things are a bit different now, but music still functions socially for me, kind of in that respect. Um, I also just feel. Bliss when I'm creating things, um, in a way that I can't really comprehend or describe in detail, it's just, it's just bliss.

Kurt Skrivseth: There are things you can say when you're writing a song that you can't say verbally. And it's, I think it's that exchange of emotion. The, um, I think that's what keeps us. in it.

Peyton Butler: Thank you. And then, for Kat and Collin, does the food pantry have anything coming up in the near future? Like events or fundraisers?

Collin Zollinger: Um, actually, uh, well we've break coming up, so it will be altering our hours very soon, um, to being only open Tuesday, Thursdays from 10 to three. Uh, but we actually are rebranding, um, alongside, uh ASUM Bear Necessities opening up under Kat in early February. Um, so we'll probably have some events in late January, early February surrounding that.

Um, and I'd really urge everybody to keep an eye out on our social media is for that @UM_pantry, um, uh, and keep tapped into that. Uh, and we're actually working on developing all that right now. So that's probably the biggest thing coming up. That's a little bit further. Um, but obviously the holidays are a really big thing for pantries everywhere every year.

Um, so right now we're gearing up to make sure that we're here and present for our community coming into the holiday season. Um, because especially for folks on campus, uh, with a lot of their food resources shutting down for the holiday break, um, it's never more important for us to be present and be able to supply food for those people.

Kat Cowley: Yeah, the next big actual event coming up will be February 1st at noon in the University Center, atrium celebrating the grand opening of Bear Necessities. The new one-stop-shop basic needs support service for students and the food pantry's second or third anniversary. Uh, the math escapes me in time.

As hard. Third anniversary says, Collin

Peyton Butler: Are there any specific items that are in high need or demand, especially during the holiday season that people could consider donating?

Collin Zollinger: Um, I would always urge people to donate, um, infant care products and truly any hygiene products, um, because those are often some of the more expensive and harder to get items for us.

Um, but also being that. We would really love to help serve students that may be stuck in the dorms over winter break and not have access to full kitchens, dorm, friendly foods, um, any sort of snack, any sort of like ready to eat item, um, is really important. And it's not just for people living in dorms, but also, um, with the increased amount of people we see, um, without homes to go to right now, um, for those people to have those ready to eat foods is so important.

So I really urge people to donate ready, foods, hygiene products, and infant care products going into this holiday season.

Kat Cowley: Along with those items, anything that has a pull tab, a can that has a pull tab to open is really helpful, particularly for unhoused neighbors and friends in the dorms. Um, and one more item that we don't see donated a lot, and that is pretty cost-prohibitive for us to source for the food pantry.

Are spices, dried herbs, cooking oils, um, anything that makes canned food a little more exciting to eat, um, would be great. We very rarely see those donations come in, but when we do, we get so excited and they usually walk out the door almost immediately with students.

Collin Zollinger: And just to note, we can accept anything within two years of its expiration date for non-perishable foods, uh, because it's still safe to eat.

Um, when you're thinking about what to bring in for a donation

Peyton Butler: And lastly, for Kurt and Mack, do you guys have any new music in the works or any exciting shows besides Play it Forward coming up?

Mack Gilcrest: We do have exciting new music in the works. And speaking of which I've given this a lot of thought, and I don't know what the hell I was talking about earlier, because actually my favorite song that we have is called Summer Land and it's going to be on the next album.

Um, sometime within the coming year and it is about a developmentally disabled guy I used to work with who died of cancer a few years ago. And it is my attempt to work past my own atheistic tendencies. And imagine for him the kind of afterlife that he deserves.

Kurt Skrivseth: It's really good. I can't listen to the demo without getting kind of choked up and, um, yeah, it's, it's a, it's a really special song. Um, we don't have any other gigs lined up at the moment, but it's been so hard between COVID and, uh, trying to get. Like we've actually had more gigs this year than we thought we would have, but, um, trying to get everybody's schedules lined up even just to rehearse has been tricky, um, to get through this interview, you got half the band.

Uh, uh, so, so, um, but, well, we're, we're looking forward to rehearsing this coming week and then, um, just kicking as much ass as we can at the gig, but, um, yeah, uh, music's on the way. We've got a couple of new songs that we might try to debut at the show.

Mack Gilcrest: We got a song, uh, coming up, um, that's about Gigi Allen's last day on earth.

It's called Gigi Allen Goes to a Party and Dies. We've got, um, we've got a song about the kid who inherited the royalties is to the children's book, Goodnight Moon, and whose life just became. An abject disaster. Um, and we I'm working on a song right now about Dr. Linda Hazard, who operated a starvation treatment clinic in Puget Sound back in the early 19 hundreds.

Kurt Skrivseth: They didn't have a food pantry.

Mack Gilcrest: No.

Peyton Butler: And do you guys want to plug any of your social media accounts or where people can find your music online?

Mack Gilcrest: Uh, we're on Facebook even though I'm not anymore. Um, and our website is palepeoplemusic.com.

Kurt Skrivseth: Yup. We've got merch, we've got all kinds of goodies on there. I made a really cool discography page on our website where you can see it's got a dedicated player for each one of our songs, corresponding to each album.

It's on a, but then there's also little liner notes and fun behind-the-scenes stuff in each description. And they're also color-coded. Um, we're on Instagram @palepeoplemusic. Um, you can find a bunch of our stuff on YouTube, which you just type in Pale People band or, Pale People music it'll come up.

Um, conveniently the song Mack was talking about a moment ago about, uh, the kid that inherited the royalties to inherit the moon. Um, that song we did for NPR’s Tiny Desk contest this last year, and there's video of that up on our YouTube channel, uh, highly recommend people check it out, and, uh, yeah, we're just excited and looking forward to the gig.

Peyton Butler: Thank you guys so much.

Kurt Skrivseth: Much appreciated. Also hi Kat. Kat used to be our merchant lady at all our shows.

Kat Cowley: I also used to help you guys set up for shows in bars that I couldn't actually stay in. Cause I was underage way back in the bright ideas era.

I've been around

Kurt Skrivseth: Our drummer was also underage. It got very weird.

Thanks for having us.

Mack Gilcrest: Thank you. Dude, thank you. That was awesome.

Collin Zollinger: Thank you.

Thanks for tuning in. This has been KBGA College Radio 89.9 in Missoula Montana. On December 9th at 7:30 pm, you can catch a live concert by the band Pale People at the Zootown Arts Community Center, or watch a live stream of the event. The event is free, but please consider donating as 70% of the funds go directly to the UM Food Pantry. You can find that donation link and live stream link on our website at kbga.org under the Play It Forward page. The song you’re about to hear is Roll Credits by Pale People.

<Roll Credits by Pale People> 

This podcast was edited and produced by Peyton Butler