Ware's the Music: Spotlights of Local Artists

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Tanajah (11/19/19)

Tanajah Raps? Oh, yes she certainly does.

My first experience interviewing live on the air was with Tanajah, a twenty-something female rapper who reached out to me via Facebook. She and I had briefly met a while back but I couldn’t say I knew what I was getting into — mind you, I was also choosing to do my first ever interview live on the air, with a person I did not know/have previous knowledge of. Suffice to say I was a bit nervous.

Cut to Tanajah hopping out of her car, huge smile on her face, crocs proudly on her feet, and reassuring me that this is all gonna be great: “I’m not really a morning person”, she says, introducing herself to me. I’m already on board.

Tanajah has a delightful sense of humor and realness that I was lucky to experience in just the brief hour we spent together. Her music speaks to the trials and triumphs of being a young black woman in our modern times, all through the effortless flow that she has on lock. Her studio beats are solid, always putting the vibe before the complexity of the thing — but don’t sleep on her live performances. The full band dynamic behind her is a force of nature. I’m saying, think Tank and the Bangas intensity. She’s got a lot in store this year with a new EP coming out this Spring, so stay tuned. Follow her on Facebook here.

Peep the full interview, with two of her songs featured, here.

Smoke from all the Friction (1/07/2020)

Duality, tension, contemplation, dynamism, resolution: all of these qualities are what I look for in a cup of coffee. Coincidentally, they also appear in the work and personalities of local electro-pop band Smoke From all the Friction (don’t at me on the genre title. That’s what they said, okay?), whose members include founder Cam Gillette and percussionist/everything-else-ist Kenny Andrews. Honestly, putting instrument roles next to either of these fellas names is a bit pedantic — they seem to do it all, and relish the ever-evolving nature of their craft.

I am so lucky to have had the chance to chat with Cam and Kenny about their music, philosophy, and approach to life in general. We got into the nitty gritty, reflecting on the difficulties between taking a richly produced in-studio sound to an in-the-moment live performance — we also got into the broad and contemplative, considering what spectacle means to us personally as well as the music-goers of the populace at large.

You can follow Smoke From all the Friction on Facebook here.

Peep the full interview here, replete with two never heard before tracks at the time of airing.

Introduce Yourself (Example Post)

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
What topics do you think you’ll write about?
Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.