Play it Forward, October 2021, Homeword, Cosmic Sans

Homeword,

Cosmic Sans

KBGA College Radio would like to present 'Play It Forward', a music series and podcast program curated to unite and uplift community artists and organizations in Missoula, with this month’s event sponsored by Bernice’s Bakery. 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.

October’s Play It Forward features Cosmic Sans, playing evil psychedelic jazz punk rock for the people of Missoula. A live and in-person concert performed by Cosmic Sans will take place on October 8th at 6 pm on the Oval at the University of Montana. They will be playing in support of Homeword, a Missoula non-profit organization using sustainable methods to strengthen Montana communities by teaching homebuyer education and financial skill building and creating safe, healthy homes people can afford. This podcast features Jake Howell, Seamus Jennings, Will Stoskopf, and Lane Ulberg, some of the members of Cosmic Sans, as well as Jessica Burson the Communications and Fundraising Manager at Homeword.

The song you’re about to hear is Mind Crosser by Cosmic Sans.

Friday // October 8th // 6:00 PM // The Oval at the University of Montana // Free, but please consider donating as 70% of funds received go to support Homeword //

Donation link: https://secure.givelively.org/donate/homeword-inc

Thanks for tuning in and playing it forward.

FULL EPISODE:

Transcript of Podcast

<Peyton Butler> Good afternoon everyone, and welcome to this month’s Play It Forward event. I’m super stoked to be able to talk to you today, my name is Peyton Butler, I use she/her pronouns, and I’m the Media Director here at KBGA. Today’s podcast interview will be featuring Homeword a Missoula non-profit organization that uses sustainable methods to strengthen Montana communities by teaching homebuyer education and financial skill building and creating safe, healthy homes people can afford. We will also be featuring local Missoula band, Cosmic Sans. They will be performing a live and in-person concert on the Oval at the University of Montana on October 8th at 6 pm, with donations going towards Homeword. And I was thinking we could go off and introduce ourselves in a circle? Why don’t we start with Jessica?

<Jessica Burson> My name is Jessica Burson, I am the communications and fundraising manager at Homeword. I use she/her pronouns and I have been with Homeword for eight years, Homeword has been working in Montana for 27 years, both in Missoula and across the state.

<Lane Ulberg> My name’s Lane Ulberg, I use he/him pronouns and I play bass.

<Jake Howell> I’m Jake Howell, I use he/him pronouns as well, I’m the vocalist for Cosmic Sans, I write a little music.

<Seamus Jennings> A little…

<Seamus Jennings> I’m Seamus Jennings, I also use he/him pronouns, I’m the lead guitarist in Cosmic Sans, and whose coming in the door?

<Jake Howell> Oh we’ve got another member.

<Seamus Jennings> I’m so sorry, but here he is, Will Stoskopf in the flesh, the other guitar guy. Do you want to introduce yourself and pronouns real quick?

<Will "Stos" Stoskopf> My name is Will, a lot of people call me Stos because my last name’s Stoskopf, my pronouns are he/him, I am the second guitarist of the band.

<Peyton Butler> Alright, I’m gonna get started with the interview questions, and my first question is for Jessica. Could you explain a little bit about what Homeword is and what your role in the organization entails?

<Jessica Burson> Yes, so Homeword is a non-profit that was started in Missoula 27 years ago. We were actually started as the housing program out of Word, which was a long-time non-profit in Missoula. Women’s Opportunity and Resource Development. So in 1994, we started as a housing program, we actually built some homes for purchase in Missoula. And we worked with local women to provide that opportunity for them to purchase those homes. And we have been building and creating and renovating that Montanas can afford ever since. We also like to help the community by empowering them through some programs. So we have a homebuyer education program here in Missoula that helps people determine if, when, and how they should purchase a home. We have a free financial skill-building program that literally everyone can learn from as far as how to navigate the different pieces of the financial world and what options might be available to them that they may not know about. And then we have a rent wise program that supports renters who are especially trying to find a place to live in the market and they have some additional barriers such as a past eviction or a poor credit history, and we help them meet those challenges. As communication and fundraising manager, my job is to tell stories, and connect people to the work that we’re doing, and help them understand how it is that when people in our community can afford to live in a safe and healthy home, that contributes to the strength of not just them personally and their families, but to our entire community. And why that’s really important, as a community goal for us to focus on. And I also work with many different funders, sponsors, and individual donors to support the work. So we in partnership want to make sure that we can keep our classes free, except our homebuyer class is $35, but our classes and our counseling are free. We want to make sure that we can continue to offer homes Montanans can afford. Right now we have 1,300 across the state and we are building as many as we can to continue to help Montanans be able to live here, and stay here, and thrive here.

<Peyton Butler> Awesome! My next question is for the members of Cosmic Sans, could you talk a little bit about how Cosmic Sans started?

<Jake Howell> Um, yeah, that was me and the old bassist that we had, he broke off from the band about last year, but before that, me and him were living in the same apartment complex and we wanted to psychedelic rock I guess, I don’t know. We were both kind of in the same boat with what music we wanted to make and we just kind of gathered a bunch of people and auditioned some people. And I had been in a band with Will prior to this, so I knew I wanted him in there. But I didn’t know Seamus, and Seamus was brought to us when we auditioned our drummer, and we were like “we gotta have this guy, he’s really good.”

<Will "Stos" Stoskopf> I remember it was a funny moment because I went to practice once and I knew they were coming to audition a drummer, and I couldn’t show up to practice on time so I showed up thirty minutes late, and they had Seamus there and he was just ripping on guitar, and I was like, well they don’t need me anymore. I’m gone. What the hell is this? But then eventually its worked into a beautiful partnership.

<Seamus Jennings> Yeah, it’s actually two years ago that, almost exactly two years ago in like a week or two.

<Jake Howell> Yeah, we formed because me ad Kyler [their old bassist] had originally said yes to a show, and we didn’t have a band, so we were like “awe shoot, well we gotta get this together in time.” So we got a bunch of people together and we’ve been together ever since. We’ve had some roadblocks, we’ve lost a few members, we’ve gained a few members. But yeah, I guess that’s kind of our little tale.

<Peyton Butler> And then could you guys describe a little bit about the kind of music you guys create, would you say your music falls under a specific type of genre?

<Jake Howell> I’d say like it’s pretty rock and roll oriented. I think we try to do a lot of psychedelic rock, we do a lot of jazz influence. There’s some punk in there. What am I missing?

<Seamus Jennings> Country.

<Jake Howell> There’s a little country, a little folk. Yeah, there’s a little country in there, a little alt-rock. A little alternative.

<Seamus Jennings> Ultimately though psychedelic rock. If you were to see us play one song it would be probably be described as psychedelic rock. Okay

<Peyton Butler> And then Jessica, could you go into a little more detail about why Missoula in particular is being hit so hard by the housing crisis? Does it have anything to do with Missoula being a college town?

<Jessica Burson> Yeah, that’s a great question. You know Missoula has always been a desirable place to live, I mean Montana in general is that way. And so we have historically seen, in Missoula and across the state, kind of this tension between higher costs of living and lower wages. And a lot of us have been able to make that work because we want to live here and maybe we’ve gotten a little creative as time has gone on. Each year we’re seeing an increase in prices, you can see probably in almost any medium there are stories every week. I would like to point out that the median home price in Missoula is up over $100,000 from what it was last year. And that is something that, the trend is for it to continue to increase. But that’s quite a jump. And that is something that we’re a little shocked to see of course. We are seeing as Homeword, because we work in Missoula and across the state, that Missoula is not the only one being hit by this trend. One of the things that we believe is contributing to it is that is a desirable place to live and that one of the things that makes it desirable is that it being a college town. But what we are seeing is that there’s a lot of factors for the cost of living, and what’s happening in the market, whether a rental or home buying that really have to do with people making choices that were catalyzed by the pandemic, people with out of state buying power, people who can work remotely for those wages from where they were, and an increase in vacation rentals. So we take all of those and you add in this college town and this awesome music and this wonderful food and this natural beauty, and it becomes, it makes a little more intense. We’re definitely seeing some of that trending around the state. Montana is just a place where people like to be, and Missoula in particular.

<Peyton Butler> And then that kind of feeds into my next question, which is how does the housing crisis in Missoula compare to other cities in Montana, and then how does Montana compare to other states in the US? Like are we better or worse off than other states?

<Jessica Burson> Yeah, I have some very specific information when it comes to the rentals, which is interesting. It’s a national report that’s put out every year. So the report’s name is called Out of Reach, and so it just came out for 2021, and what’s interesting there is that they break it down by what they’re calling a state housing wage. So basically it’s how much do you need to make per hour to afford the average two-bedroom rental. And so as a state we need to be making $17.76 an hour as our average for an average two-bedroom rental. That 81 hours a workweek for someone making minimum wage. So you can see, that’s an incredible amount. When it comes to where we’re at with our rentals, we are 33rd in the nation for the highest, so we’re like, ya know we’re not the worst, we’re not the best. But there are definitely challenges here for sure. What I can tell you when it comes to the mean renter wage, is that Missoula’s actually the, Missoula county, is the fifth most expansive county in Montana, so again not the worst but definitely not the cheapest, and our housing wage then is $18.83 an hour in order to afford the average two-bedroom rental. And the range for Montana in our 26 counties is from $14.41 an hour to $21.15 an hour. So when you say there’s a lot of people making $8.00, $10.00, $12.00 an hour, you can see how that’s challenging for them to be able to keep up with that cost of living. And our real estate market is following that same trend when it comes to home buying. So, for instance, in this report, Gallatin County is the most expansive, and we see that too. They’re much more expensive when you’re looking to purchase a home, but at some point, those costs become relative to the community, and we actually have at Homeword.org, on our About Us page, a cost of living activity that is specific to Missoula. And it will, we ask people to take that challenge and see if they can balance their budget just using very actually conservative numbers for the market. And it’s very very eye-opening when you do that to understand that there are a lot of factors at play, and not anywhere near the top is personal choice, but it really comes down to what path we and the whole community, and how we can help coach people to do well and to feel like they’ve got good options in the midst of that.

<Peyton Butler> Awesome, thank you. And then for the members of Cosmic Sans, could you guys talk a little bit about your songwriting process, and what you go through when you’re creating or writing a song?

<Seamus Jennings> Oh boy. There’s no set process I would say, I mean Jake out of all of us probably has the most set process just because he writes most songs but…

<Jake Howell> I would say with me it’s more of, I will go for like two or three months sometimes without writing anything, and then in like a week I’ll write two songs. It really depends on, like, inspiration, I guess. I feel like it’s really easy for me to finish a song if I have an idea to start one. It’s very difficult for me to come up with an idea to start one. And then usually I’ll just come up with a basic frame of a song and then bring it to the band and we’ll workshop it and like add other ideas to it. Usually ends up being severely different than what it originally started as. I would say as a band when we write songs our process has kind of been to play for 45 minutes straight with no direction, and then we record it and see what sounds good and pick those parts out of it. It’s almost like watching sports tapes or something, it’s like review and finding out what works and what doesn’t.

<Seamus Jennings> Yeah, the highlights, the highlight reel.

<Jake Howell> Yeah, essentially.

<Will "Stos" Stoskopf> It’s like, for me being like an outsider, cause I don’t really contribute much to like the actual basic songwriting format, it’s just like add-on from what’s been put on there. But there’s like, the difference between Jake and Seamus is I know Jake usually comes up with like a framework of like the verse and like chorus and then like some sort of melody, and then we like jam it and add on top of it. I know Seamus when he comes up with a song, at least for me, he has a lot of parts written out specifically and he has a more structured framework. And then we just like, do little smaller tweaks and alterations to it. But then we also like, there’s some songs that just show up as like we’re all playing together and we all come up with something interesting and pinpoint on that.

<Jake Howell> A lot of the newer stuff we’ve working on has seemed more band-written than individual I would say too. Like a lot of the stuff we haven’t really quite worked on as much yet, there’s a lot more band influence rather than just one person.

<Seamus Jennings> Well and stuff, like often what, like the way that we transfer a song that’s been written and taken to the band and to like full maturity so that we can record it or something is performing it, and then things naturally just kind of fall into their place.

<Jake Howell> Yeah that really hones it, I would say that any of the songs that we’ve recorded have been played, uh, I don’t even know how many times, it’d be like dozens of times live at this point. So that really helps get a sense of, again, what works and what doesn’t. And then it gives you new ideas cause sometimes like the pressure of playing live kind of takes you in a different direction with the song.

<Will "Stos" Stoskopf> And then it’s like, especially with the pandemic, I know when we were like, like all the songs that, well most the songs that we recorded on our album we never played live while we were recording and like writing the songs. And so since we’ve been playing them live they’ve evolved in a lot of different ways and honestly they sound a lot better because you get that more like real-time experimentation to like adjust and tweak things.

<Seamus Jennings> It’s like reading a sentence out loud ya know, in your head, it can sound good but then you read it out loud and you’re like oh god.

<Jake Howell> It’s like “this isn’t how a human being talks.”

<Seamus Jennings> And also I think one of the other biggest things that influences how a song comes out is personnel. For example, we have Lane now on bass and Cole Bronson on drums who unfortunately was not able to be here today. But they have greatly impacted the directions our songs are going in.

<Jake Howell> Well and for a lot of the recording process too with this album, we, us three, played bass on a lot of the songs and we’re not bassists. It's like, I mean, we can play bass, but it's a different approach when someone’s like studies the bass.

<Lane Ulberg> Dude, there’s like four strings, how hard can it be.

<Peyton Butler> And then in your music, are there any important themes that you hope people will pick up on while they listen to your work?

<Seamus Jennings> Hmm, anger!

<Jake Howell> I think, yeah, I think with my lyrics at least there’s a lot more of a like complimenting the music type deal. There's not too much meaning in a lot of the lyrics that I write. I think. I try and make it sound like they have meaning. But I know, I think it works more like certain words that you say and sing sound better than other words. And so it adds, it's almost like an instrumental effect rather than it having to have any sort of meaning. That's not speaking for all of them. A lot of the songs do have meaning, but I, I'd say my approach typically to that is more of like less of meaning, more of letting the music sound like how it means in a sense.

<Seamus Jennings> Well, that's the interesting thing that we're seeing with ourselves right now is because, you know, we've been a band for two years, a year and a half of which has been pandemic and. So we haven't, you know, January of, well, I guess it was early February of 2020 was the last time we had played, until, I guess last summer in August, we played one time. And then earlier this spring we started playing actually again. But the, the interesting thing is like we, so we just finished an album, our first album, and it'll be released in about a month. And a lot, like some of those songs, were recorded, you know, a year or a year and a half ago. And so it's interesting, you know, honestly, at this point, I feel like we just want the audience to pull, you know, a listener to pull from it, what they want. Like it's ultimately just like, rewarding to have people pulling meaning from our work in general. So I don’t know if we have anything specific…

<Jake Howell> That's a, that's a better way of saying kind of what I was going to say too. I think leaving things open-ended is better than trying to prescribe meaning to them, especially in like any type of art, like music, paint, it, literally any facet of art. If you get too restrictive with the meaning that you want to impose, it kind of takes away a lot of the enjoyment of art, which is interpretation. I don't know. That would be. I guess the closest way I would describe it.

<Seamus Jennings> Ultimately we just like when, when people are hearing us, we want to make sure that people know that we don't take ourselves that seriously. It's, it's, it's nothing pretentious or so we hope.

<Jake Howell> Maybe a little…

<Peyton Butler> And then Jessica, Homeword’s mission statement mentions using sustainable and ecological solutions to address high home costs and the challenges that causes Montanans. Could you explain how Homeword implements sustainable and ecological solutions?

<Jessica Burson> Yes. We like to do it, in many ways, the traditional way that you're thinking of as far as what materials we use and what our approach approaches when we're creating homes Montanans can afford. And we also like to make sure that in our programs, what we're teaching people is sustainable in their life and helps them sustain a good life for them. But when it comes specifically to those sustainable and ecological methods, we employ those within our office itself. And then in Missoula, we also offer up to our residents as part of their utilities may include recycling. We build when we're building new, we do our best to use, reuse material in a sustainable and ethical way. We have low VOC paints and carpets that we put in. Basically, our idea is that we want to create safe, healthy homes for people to live in. That includes like, making sure that, like, there's not a new paint smell when they walk in, because we don't have those VOC for them to be breathing in. We also build, like what we've built our solstice and Equinox campus on the corner of Russell and Broadway. That was actually a really good illustration of how we use these methods. We were actually able to take over 90 tons of construction waste and divert it, because we deconstructed the original Liberty lands bowling alley. We repurposed that and sold part of those lanes through Home Resouce, who we partner with on different things. We actually still have some of them in our building as well. Now that we incorporated them back in, we put our parking underneath the building so that in between the two we can have a green space for our residents to enjoy. And one of the paths that goes by the Equinox, now we have branded this way, connects to the trail along the Clark fork river there. So there's an easement, that anyone in the community can use now in order to access that transit. So we also are really careful to make sure we're building close to trails and transit and services. We don’t want people to be warehoused on the outskirts of town. We really want them to be living within the community, a part of that, able to access things very easily and to do it sustainably. We also, within that, and when I'm talking like the sustainable materials, we also have like counters that have recycled banana peel content in them. And it almost functions as like cork. It's really cool. so there's a lot of like very specific things like that. And then also. I have partnered for many years with Mountain Line. In fact, years and years ago, we used to purchase bus passes for our residents in Missoula. And then when they rolled out their partner program, we supported them for many years in that. And, and now we're able to wind down from that because they've been able to move forward. And so we're very proud of being able to help provide that for Missoulians to use, to help reduce not only their impact on the environment but then also when we're talking about that sustainability in their lifestyle, that helps save them money. The other thing I'd say is in the Soltis and Equinox buildings we build with high R values, very well insulated. We are using solar panels on the roofs. And one of the things we're doing with that is we're not only then having a good impact on our environment and keeping that riverfront cleaned up and so on and so forth there. But we are providing an additional savings and utilities to our residents. So they're not only saving about $300 a month in rent, but then they're having a very efficient place to live that gives them a reduced utility past. And I have had residents tell me that they're maybe used to pay like one or $200 a month in utilities where they lived before. And in that particular building, they never paid more than $60 a month.

<Peyton Butler> Could you go into some other solutions that Homeward implements and is focusing on that would help to better the housing situation in Missoula?

<Jessica Burson> Absolutely. You know, there's a lot that we are doing. We are involved and have been for a long time in policy at both the local and the state level. And so when you’re hearing folks in Missoula talk about some of the efforts around the 10-year plan to end homelessness, where we're involved in helping implement those. And being a partner in that network. And then also when they're talking about the housing policy that was rolled out in the last couple of years, we sat on those boards, we had given some of our expertise and tried to let folks know, like what would be helpful in creating that policy. Started over almost three decades working in this industry and what we can see as challenges can see as opportunities. We're also a member of the Montana housing coalition that goes to the legislature and, and tries to advance efforts there as well. Very specifically in Missoula. We have out of our 32 properties there are quite a few that are in Missoula. And right now we're actually partnering with the Blue Line Development and the Missoula housing authority to create Trinity apartments and navigation center. So that's 202 new apartments. They won’t be online for another year and a half, and we've been planning them for about three years. But those will be coming into Missoula and being available for Missoulians to rent. And then we also have a navigation center, which is new. That's a new thing, that we're proud of, that we can bring to Missoula, and then that'll be a place where folks can come. And if they need to be plugged into certain services, we can do that. And within the Trinity apartments of those 202, 30 of those will be what's called permanent supportive homes. So basically we'll be able to get a voucher to cover the cost for people to live in those homes. And for people who’re experiencing chronic homelessness, we're going to be able to intervene for them so that they can work with the navigation center and then living within those homes to be able to address some of the challenges that kept them in that perpetual cycle. So we're very excited about that. And then with our programs that I mentioned before, we were really going all out to do what we can. We are offering our programs virtually because of the pandemic, long before the pandemic and that just started as a catalyst for us to get it started. So we have probably 50 people a month in the homebuyer education class. And we are talking through with folks because we know that it can be really overwhelming to look at these home prices. And showing them their options and that it's not that they can't be homeowners, but the path might look a little different than they thought. And it might be a little bit longer than I thought, but still, in the meantime, there are things that they can be doing to work on increasing their credit, score their down payment savings, and maybe investing in some other ways that can give them traction while they're waiting for the right opportunity to come along. And then, like I mentioned before, we're working through our rent-wise program to really connect folks who are having challenges, finding a place, and working with local landlords, who are willing to do that. We're also starting to do some more work on eviction prevention because we see that just being a challenge for people as the cost of living is rising. And then our financial skill-building class is free to everybody. And actually, we can make that statewide because it's virtual. It's an absolutely wonderful thing for people to come to and to figure out what they can do with what they've got. And the financial skill-building and the homebuyer education have free coaching sessions for graduates of those classes. So they take the nine-hour class, they can then have two to four counseling sessions that are very specific to their situation. And I actually was on the phone with someone last week. Who's a single mom, lived in Missoula since 2001, and she's having to move on October 1st out of her rental, where she's been for 15 years. This is the story we hear constantly because her landlord is selling. And so she's having to find a place for her to live with her son and trying to figure out over the next 12 months cause she just signed a 12-year lease. What is she going to do to change that situation? Is she going to be able to purchase a home? Is she going to find a different rental situation? She desperately wants to stay in Missoula. It's where her, the father of her son is. It's where her son can go to a very specifically needed kindergarten, and it's where her network is. So our goal is to empower Missoulians and Montanans to be able to kind of take charge in some of these situations that can be really overwhelming and show them their best options and support them in those goals as they're working to achieve them.

<Peyton Butler> This is a question for everyone. What do you think is the most important or rewarding aspect of your work, either through making music or your work through Homeward?

<Jake Howell> Uh, I would say…

<Seamus Jennings> Live performance.

<Jake Howell> Yeah live performance. I think it's really fun to get an immediate reaction from like the work you do in songwriting and performing and everything. Performing in front of people is awesome because you get to see, I mean, just from the perspective of someone who's gone to so many shows, it's like, you're very grateful that the band is playing music for you. So like experiencing that from the other end is very rewarding I would say.

<Will "Stos" Stoskopf> Music is just a very social thing. I think. It’s definitely, you take it for granted, but especially after the pandemic and not being able to share music with anyone for like a year or so, it was, you can definitely tell, like, that is like the most cogent purpose of music is to be able to share experiences with others.

<Seamus Jennings> I also think music, like, you know, of course, I love performing as well, but I think, um, another beautiful thing about music, and the fact that people are, you know, willing to pay to go and see, a musical act is for events like this, that we have coming up where, you know, even though we are poor college students who, have very little financial support to give to, you know, really awesome organizations such as this, because we play music and because there are great opportunities in Missoula, we are able to play events such as this, that can go to benefit these organizations.

<Jessica Burson> And we certainly appreciate that. You know, our, our goal is to support our community. We want people on all the income levels to be thriving and, and empowered to know that they can move forward, with whatever situation they're in. And so what's rewarding for us is that we see that there are these life-changing things that happen that benefit people right now, as they're working on whatever is right in front of them, affords them so many different things because of when they can afford that then they can afford to go out to those social and musical concerts and enjoy them and be interacting in their community in that way, when they're healthy and they're not distracted by that, they're able to participate more fully within the community and at work. And one of the biggest things we've seen with that too, and we have some stories going back decades at this point now is what kind of a change that creates for the children in our community because when their parents have knowledge about how to manage the finances and that's what the environment is within their home. And then they're modeling that for their children, their children, who start out with that advantage and the same thing when they're living in our safe and healthy homes, they just get to be kids, right. And go and play and learn and grow and thrive the way that they really should. And so that’s, very rewarding for us to be able to support strength and community and all the things that we enjoy living here in beautiful Missoula, Montana.

<Peyton Butler> That was wonderful! Cosmic Sans, could you guys talk a little more about your upcoming album?

Jake Howel: Yeah, that uh, we’re aiming for October 9th as the release day. We're going to be doing a few shows in between then and now to kind of build-up to it. We’ve been working on it for almost two years now. It's been, it's been a really long progression. Yeah. It seems like a very, very long time. It's all recorded in Montana. A lot of it's recorded, the middle of nowhere up by Great Falls in a cabin in the woods.

<Seamus Jennings> And then the rest of it's recorded in like small apartment rooms in Missoula.

<Jake Howell> And like a garage-type space that we play in.

<Will "Stos" Stoskopf> There's definitely a learning curve to the recording process.

<Jake Howell> Yeah. The first two years were probably like three songs. And then since then, we've gotten a little more footing. But yeah, the, the album is self-titled. So it's just Cosmic Sans, that we’ve like expended all of our creative energy on the album. So can come up with a name.

<Seamus Jennings> But we're very proud of it. We're very excited to share it with the community. And I mean, the most rewarding thing about it is, you know, being, being from Montana, you know, you never really, at least like I grew up in Great Falls and there was just not that much going on, but when stuff, you know, when, especially to be a part of something like this, that is Montana, born and bred, It's really cool to see the project come to fruition and to see that there is in fact, a community, if not communities in Montana that, support and, insulate the creation of these projects.

<Peyton Butler> Jessica, are there any ways that people can get involved with Homeword or like how they can find or contact you guys online or on social media?

<Jessica Burson> Absolutely. They can go to our website. It's homeword.org and it's spelled H O M E W O R D, as a throwback to Word, which we were born out of. They can also find us at HomewordMT on social and there are different ways people can get involved right now. Our opportunities for in-person event volunteers are a little lower than they would be since we aren’t doing those right now, but we actually used experts from their particular industries in our financial and home buying classes. So we have realtors and lenders. And home inspectors come and teach those particular parts of those classes. So if you are one of those folks and you’re interested, you can reach out to us at info@homeword.org. And we'll put you in touch with the right educator who might have some spots available and people can also learn more again at Homeword.org and they can support us just by following us on social, letting folks know, what we have available as far as our programs and sharing those events with folks to encourage other people to attend and participate, and then they can always support us financially as well if that's something they would like to do.

<Peyton Butler> Cosmic Sans, could you guys plug your socials as well? Where people can stream your music, where they can find you on social media?

<Seamus Jennings> Yes, we were just realizing that we hadn’t done that.

<Lane Ulberg> Tell them about the Russian site!

<Seamus Jennings> Oh, right right. Well, all those standard stuff, we’re on Facebook and Instagram in terms of social media. We have music up on Spotify and Apple Music, YouTube. As Lane mentioned random Russian and Chinese streaming websites.

<Jake Howell> We’re everywhere.

<Seamus Jennings> And, I just wanted to say as well, that we have our album release show officially booked for October 9th. There will be posters going out soon. It's at a brand new venue that no shows have ever happened that before, which is super cool. And also, it's great to have a community like this where new venues just pop up and suddenly there are shows happening, but, it's called the Furnace. There will be posters out. I don't know the address because it's brand new, but, yeah. And thank you so much for having us on here.

<Jake Howell> Yeah, thank you very much.

<Peyton Butler> Yeah thank you all for coming, I really appreciate it.

<Jake Howell> And thank you Jessica for all your work. That’s awesome. I did not know that much about Homeword, so it was great to hear you talk about it.

<Jessica Burson> Yeah, it's definitely our pleasure. You know, we love to be able to do that and connect with folks in the community. And as you were talking, I realized, okay, one, it's been a really long time since I've done any music events because I have a high-risk three-year-olds. So I've been teleworking for a very long time and will be for a few more months. I'm very grateful that I can telework, but I, I haven't been out and about at all. So I'm missing that. And actually my mom was in the music program at the U of a few years ago, she went back to school at age 50, and then she was top in performance and composition. And, I am not musical by nature. Like I don't have the gift of music. You guys have a gift of music. But I know enough to be able to appreciate it. I'm really, really impacted by it. So, Taking this as an opportunity personally but yeah. Sort of connect in that way if I can't physically get out and about, and just make sure that we're retaining that in our lives because music, you know, it means so much, and it adds so much. I think like, you know, it's important for all of us to be doing what we're doing. To contribute to the overall holistic health of our community. So it's really a great opportunity to get to connect. And I really appreciate you thinking of us and reaching out to us and giving us that opportunity to do so.

<Jake Howell> Of course. Thank you very much.

<Peyton Butler> Thanks, guys. This has been an awesome conversation, I’ve had a blast.

<Seamus Jennings> Yeah, thank you, Peyton.

<Peyton Butler> Cool, I think that about wraps it up, I don’t have any more questions for you. This has been such a blast and such a fun conversation to have, so thank you all so much for coming

<Everyone> Thank you.

Thanks for tuning in. This has been KBGA College Radio 89.9 in Missoula Montana. On October 8th at 6 pm, you can catch a live concert performed by Cosmic Sans on the Oval at the University of Montana. The event is free, but please consider donating as 70% of the funds go directly to Homeword. You can find that donation link on our website at kbga.org under the Play It Forward page. The song you’re about to hear is Alright by Cosmic Sans.

Episode produced by Peyton Butler KBGA College Radio

KBGA MissoulaOctober 1, 2021