In this episode of Portrait of the Artist, Jonah Evans and Meredith Hobbs Coons talk to Christopher Rountree, conductor and artistic director of Wild Up. They talk about the June 19th release of Wild Up’s fifth volume of their GRAMMY-winning Julius Eastman compendium, Gay Guerilla. The three of them explore touch on the agency, notation, and radical interpretive freedom of Julius Eastman’s work, as well as his philosophy of power, and how performers navigate collective sound-making.

Wild Up: https://www.wildup.org/

Wild Up IG: https://www.instagram.com/wildup/

Christopher Rountree: https://www.wildup.org/people/christopher-rountree/

Wild Up Tiny Desk Performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhWkvi8OPkc

From Wild Up's website/about: “We’re Wild Up. We’re a band. An experiment in its second decade. We make shows, and records. We make projects and tell stories that live somewhere between new music and theater and performance art and pop. The press says things about us. Our leader has a beard. We embrace the kindness of friends and strangers. We have dogs and gardens and kids. We once made the Himalayas out of cardboard, and sang atop them to the stars. We take photos with talismanic art objects. We’re repped by David Lieberman Artists Representatives.”

Photo by: Michael Leviton

Jonah Evans: https://jonahinthesnow.com/

Merideth Hobbs Coons: https://www.meredithhobbscoons.com/

Intro/interlude Music: "XXO" from the album Teeth by Magana: https://maganarama.bandcamp.com/album/teeth

Valley Boy’s new album, Children of Divorce, dropped recently, and Thrin and Jonah get into it with him about being a child of divorce.

Do you see a connection between your mental health and body health? Did your parents ever get divorced? What are some ways you process trauma? Thrin Vianale and Jonah Evans have a conversation with Valley Boy (James) that explores these questions. His album Children of Divorce weaves together stirring vignettes from his childhood and the people who shaped it, after he became a child of divorce at age 12. Other topics they get into include validated feelings when you're a child, unprocessed trauma, getting hives, and how the body keeps score.

Valley Boy: https://valleyboysucks.com/

Big Hassle: https://www.bighassle.com/valley-boy

IG: https://www.instagram.com/valleyboysucks/

tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@valleyboysucks

Photo/Album Cover by: Delacey

Intro Music: is "XXO" from the album Teeth by Magana: https://maganarama.bandcamp.com/album/teeth

This segment of Spare Notes is called Three Questions. At least one question is about the artist's current project, and the other two are usually about ideas connected to their artistry overall. We cheated a little bit in this episode but ah, C'est la vie.

Jonah Evans was joined by guest host and writerMeredith Hobbs Coons where they interviewed Eric Colville of the band The Low Stakes. The Low Stakes has a new self-titled record out and also a recent single called "End of War." The conversation slipped into the topic of war, the relationship that music and war have, and the woe's of social media.

Web: https://lowstakesband.com/about

IG: https://www.instagram.com/lowstakesband/

Merideth Hobbs Coons: https://www.meredithhobbscoons.com/

Photo of The Low Stakes by April Piotrowski of Black Mill Photography: https://www.instagram.com/blackmillphoto/

Intro/interlude Music: is "XXO" from the album Teeth by Magana: https://maganarama.bandcamp.com/album/teeth