Sometimes I forget that I get to do cool things. If I had to pick some of the coolest things from 2021, this is top 5. I mix all the sessions for 2 of our stations 94.9 The River and 100.3 The X. The X hadn’t had a session in 2 years because of Covid. I was so excited to hear that we were getting a session with the Mongolian Throat singers, “The Hu!”

I want you to know how magical it is to do remixes. With a session like this, I mix it live and then I go home and remix by isolating the tracks and putting certain EQ and effects on each channel and making them stereo, and then sync them to video. Hearing individual channels brings out all of the harmonics and crazy throat singing this band is doing, the full session doesn’t really do it justice. Many sounds are coming from each vocalist, it is very goosebump-worthy. On this next song about one minute in, they make their cellos sound like horses!

The Hu made my year, what a great session. They used a translator for the interview, and were all very kind. The instruments were all pieces of art, the cellos had horses heads on them and it was all unlike anything we’d ever seen. The mouth harp player sometimes played flute with his teeth more than his mouth. I could have listened to them all day.

FILM STUFF

There’s a yearly film competition for My Rode Reel. I will forever swear by Rode microphones for anything to do with film. Many of their mics have a 10 year warranty. Anyway, they do a yearly 3 minute short film fest. My entry this year is based on my last 2 interviews at work. This time I excluded my questions, which were fairly controversial. This film only shows the answers. It’s called “What Was the Question?” Feel free to vote if you want to. Features the amazing Mary Lambert who was here for Boise Pride, and also Orchestra Gold from Mali, Africa, who played at Treefort Music Fest. At the end of the Orchestra Gold question, I needed time to try not to cry. Both of these interviews were on the weekend with no staff or audience, so I felt a little more safe to ask non-traditional questions. One of my favorite things is to ask musicians about non-musical things.

Please watch and vote HERE!

“Violin Scratches” is in yet another film fest after 2 years on the film circuit. It will be at India’s “We Care” disability film festival. I am so excited to see this film there, as Gaelynn Lea continues to rock the world AND BROADWAY and is currently making music for MacBeth! Nothing from this amazing woman surprises me anymore! I was so lucky to interview her at Treefort and make this film.

BOISE SHORT FILM FEST

Locally, I’m really honored to be a part of Colossal Film Fest in Boise November 7th.

I LOVE this local film fest! They have been so supportive to include me in their local all-star cast of filmmakers. My stuff is usually pretty low-budget, and this movie “Firedance,” was literally recorded mostly inside of my VW van when people were most afraid of Covid. I love poi and fire poi. The biggest thing I got our of this evening was that I had watched a breathtaking fire performance from one of the artists. I asked if I could list her name. What I had just watched was amazing. She said, “probably not, because my parents had expected so much more from me.” Yet, what I’d seen was unbelievable. Please buy tickets to Colossal Cinematic Showcase HERE. It’s really fun and supportive of local short film folk. You can get a red carpet photo, grab some popcorn, then meet at Mad Swede for beers!

The featured filmmakers of the November 7, 2021 Colossal Cinematic Showcase are:

Steven Zunich- “Unter”

Rochelle Smith- “Firedance”

Heather Horner- “Affective”

Elizabeth Findley- “The Task of Reconstruction”

Hutt Wigley- “Max Helm: Curse of the Relic”

Timothy David Orme- “Grip”

Cary Judd-  “Give Me”

Tom Sanford- “Going Back”

Brandon Freeman and Christina Lane Hawkins- “El Matamoscas”

Andrew Ellis- “Mentor the Drone”

Nichole Stull and Brian Morgan- “Girl From the South”

Jordan Gore-“Lethal Jack”