 Make Music Davis, Davis Independent Music Initiative Showcase 2021. In honor of the International Make Music Day, celebrated every June 21st, this program features five emerging young local musicians and bands from the Davis Independent Music Initiative. Recorded by Davis Media Access at the City of Davis Veterans Memorial Theater with funding support from the City of Davis Arts and Cultural Affairs Program. Hosted by Peter Pistor, producer and host of Listening Lyrics on KDRT 95.7 FM. Welcome. Welcome to our first act this day for Make Music Day in Davis, California. With us today is Josh Wisterman. And Josh has made quite a name for himself around the northern California area. Welcome. Hello. Hello. Josh, I would imagine this, if this isn't the first performance you're doing since COVID, it probably is one of the first. I mean, I actually kind of, I've been going for a while, to be honest. Oh, you have? Yeah. Under the radar. We haven't been breaking rules necessarily, but we've been outside and doing this and that. But this is weird, like, indoors at an actual place with folks around. Yeah, yeah. So how has COVID influenced you artistically? It got me into writing songs and I wasn't so into doing that before. Just not being able to play music with other people. I wasn't so much into, like, getting better at the guitar. But I was more into, like, maybe trying to express something with some words instead. Yeah. Ironically, I won't be doing that today. Okay. Yes, I heard you've worked on your voice, which is new, fairly new for you. Quite new, yeah. So we'll look forward to hearing that another time. I know it's not today. Today you're going to be doing some improv selections for us, a couple of them. Yeah, just going to be trying to start and stop and in between, I don't know. Alrighty, I have to ask you, what goes on in your head when you pluck that first note? Do you start thinking about a thing that'll take you down this road or what? Sometimes I think of words to kind of guide or I'll think of a picture or try to imagine something that I'm seeing or just look at a thing. Okay. But I think whatever it is, it's to not, just to keep yourself focused and not worried about what am I going to do next or this or that. Because you can certainly get caught up in a whole lot of negativity if you don't have a plan. So I just try to pick one thing and stay with it. Okay. So you're also in a number of bands from Pop Rock to other things. Do you prefer playing, if it's your go-to performance, do you prefer playing alone or with others? I found that I really prefer playing with guitar, bass and drums the most. Really? There's a good amount of, like I can rely on them a certain amount, but it's also, I can also kind of do whatever I want to still. I'm not locked in too much. Right. And I heard you've started a group with just those instruments. Yeah. I've been playing with Nico Martinez on the bass, and I've been doing a group with him and Jacob Svedlo on the drums called Co-Creators, but also a slightly different group with Gabe Carpenter on the drums that we typically call Joshua Wistram and Trio. We've been playing around. Okay. We're starting a gig at a sack yard, brewing whatever on Wednesday evenings. Follow me on whatever to find out when we're playing. So when you say that that's a permanent gig you have on Wednesdays. Yeah, it's going to be starting up on the 16th, and the great Mike McMullen will be joining us for that first one on saxophone. And what's the date on that? The 16th of this month. Okay. Which this may be out after that or before? Not a hundred percent sure. No, it won't be. So that's good. We'll be out there Wednesday nights though, six to nine. I have a question to follow you. Do you have a website? Yeah, I typically just post wherever I'm playing on Facebook and Instagram for the time being. Yeah. Joshua Wistraman. Simple. Okay. Well, we're looking forward to it. I'm going to have you close your eyes, think of a picture, and go for the improv parts. All right, let's do it. Thank you very much for contributing to this. Cool. I think we're going to be in for a real treat with our next act. It's a multicultural hip-hop artist by the name of Satch Dubey. Welcome, Satch. Thank you so much for having me. You're more than welcome. You're a student here at UC Davis. Yeah, I'm my second year. Second year student. What are you studying? Right now, computer science. Computer science? Yeah. Okay. Very good. So, you work as a hip-hop artist on the side, I would imagine. Do you, and you're putting a project together, I understand, called Langhorn Drive? Oh, it's actually called Bay Area Bourdain. I'm sorry? Bay Area Bourdain. Okay. What's that about? So, it's my first nine-track project, and it's supposed to be my first full, thorough body of work, and it's trying to showcase my ability to personify my own personal struggles throughout my music. I'm really trying to connect to an audience and show them my own personal struggles through my work. It's also a tribute album to Anthony Bourdain. I'm trying to kind of use the same themes he uses throughout his career in my music and pay homage to him. Please look out for that. So, it sounds like your message, hip-hop artists usually have a message in this portion anyway. It's a very personal one. Do you have a general message when you do other songs that you prefer to focus on, whether it's social, cultural, political, whatever? So, in my work, I try to tackle a lot of different issues from, like, political to, like, more personal. And I would say, like, if I had a message, I would say it would be to stay true to myself and stay true to the music because my name in Hindi literally means truth. So, I try to encapsulate that in my music. So, you mentioned Hindi, and you mentioned you're a multicultural artist. So, I imagine some of that multicultural is, involves India? Yes, both my parents are from India. I'm a first-generation immigrant. Okay, so you have family in India. And of course, as we all know, India is in the depths of a huge struggle with their COVID. Make Music Day is a worldwide event. And I'm sure in India, many, many cities participated, probably either very limited this year or not at all. Would you have a message for your family and the people in India? To the people in India and my family, I would say, stay strong, stay healthy, stay safe. It's a dangerous time in the world right now. And it may seem that times are, you know, crucial and there's not enough medical supplies, but, you know, just try to stay together and stay safe. If you can donate and have the means to, please do. You know, they're in need of so much over there, and every single dollar you can give counts. There's so many different donations out there. If you could find one and give a few dollars, you know, every single dollar counts. Okay, and what is the, thank you for doing that. Absolutely. What is the song you're going to be singing today? So, today I'm doing a track called Langhorn Drive. It's the third track for my project, and it's a narrative-driven track. It's about my childhood friend, Sriram, and our experience together. I'm looking forward to hearing it. One time from my mind, hey, hey, two times from my soul To all my, I don't know, is it the bed walls or phones? Is it the company? I don't know. Can I call my place home if I'm alone? I used to play on Langhorn Drive as a kid A bunch of misfits, trying to get her kicks in Kick flip and live for the day My friend Sriram told me stay fine Years later, feel like I understand this mental Filled cabinets probably meant that you Well, we're in for a treat today. We've got a young man here that is going to be playing some music in which I grew up with. So, we're talking probably two, three generations before Mr. Max Riley was with us. Welcome, Max. Thank you. Thanks for having me. You're a rock kind of guy, huh? Yeah, you can say that. Kind of like more psychedelic rock, but it's rock, yeah. Psychedelic rock. I'd say fusion, like funky fusion. Okay, yeah. So, you're a young man. You grew up with hip hop and a sort of a lot of other things. What brought you down to music that was before your time? The person who really exposed me to this kind of music was like my grandpa and then a cat named Mac DiMarco. He's a lot of his influences are like Steely Dan and John Lennon and so that kind of... I always have this thing where I just kind of dissect the music I listen to and like to listen to who influenced the people that I like, you know? Right. So like, I went back and listened to who influenced him so I just got hooked on Steely Dan and then I found my way to like Dire Straits and Herbie Hancock and all that kind of stuff and then I went back with them. So now, because of Steely Dan, I listened to like Dave Brubrek and a lot of like older jazz stuff and because I'm Mark Knopfler, I listened to a lot of like Chet Atkins and JJ Kale. Boy, you were all over the board. Yeah. Really. When you're playing, do you always play on your own or are you in bands? I am kind of trying to piece something together but every performance I've done so far, it's all been like during quarantine so it's been like a live stream type thing where it's just me but eventually I am going to have like a whole band and I'll be doing my own kind of thing. Okay, let me ask you a question here. I hear that musicians in a band feed off each other. Now you're on your own. Who do you feed off of? There isn't really anybody to feed off of and that's kind of one of the things I was thinking about today is just going to be me, but yeah, it's definitely a completely different environment to be playing with other musicians and to be able to have a musical conversation, you know, and there's not a lot of that going on but I have my own way of making it work. I just have fun with it. Okay. Are you on any sites that people can hear your music? Yeah, yes. So wherever you listen to music, Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, whatever, it's on there. If you look at Max Riley, The Cosmic Cosway, you'll find it. You'll find it for sure. Okay. It'll come up. Alrighty, so you've been now in isolation music-wise. You can't perform anywhere. Yeah. How has that affected you? Did you write more music? Did you write less? I've heard people put away their guitar for months. Others didn't. I just have been like writing like crazy and learning and it's just like, it's kind of put me in this place where for a really long time I was so focused on performing live that now it's been forcing me to focus on my writing more. So it's kind of helped me kind of progress a lot faster than I think I would have otherwise. So it's helped me and it's limited me in multiple ways for sure. Okay. Any formal training at all? No, not at all. No formal training? I had like maybe a month of guitar lessons but that was just because I couldn't figure out how to play a G chord and I needed some help. But after that I've just been learning. I've always taught myself. I taught myself how to produce music. I taught myself drums. I taught myself guitar. So everything's pretty much self-taught. YouTube? Yeah. A lot of YouTube and a lot of sitting in my room not hanging out with friends just grinding on music. Typical. Yeah. Very typical. So what are you going to be playing for us today? So the first song I'm going to do is called Athens of the West and it's kind of, it's two things. It's one kind of my ode to the Bay Area because I think a lot of people call Berkeley the Athens of the West. So that's where the name comes from. And then it's really a tribute to kind of my love for Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler's guitar playing style because he plays with his fingers. So I've developed the same kind of finger playing technique so I use that in the song and it's, it's, there's elements that are similar to the song, their song Once Upon a Time in the West. So it's kind of like, but it's like, there's some Miles Davis influence in there because there's a lot of trumpet and it's kind of, but yeah. And the second song? The second song is the Cosmic Causeway and it's about the causeway from here to Sack because I just, I had friends that live in Sack and I would always be driving across that causeway and it's just kind of this, I don't even know what to go, it's more rock for sure. It's just kind of like a big, epic kind of, I don't even know like an opus or something, something like that. So yeah. Reminds me of the song Staying Alive by the Bee Gees. Yeah. Do you know how that song was created? How? He was driving over the causeway going to the island in Florida's and that rhythm Staying Alive, Staying Alive popped in his head and he created that song. Right on. So maybe this one will become a big hit like that one. I hope. That would be something else. Ladies and gentlemen, Max Riley. Well, we have another surprise guest for you today. If I were to say he shoots, he scores, what sport would I be talking about? Because it's that sport that brought these two gentlemen together now known as the racket bangers. And that sport is hockey. And with the racket bangers, we have Tmar Katnilson and Robert Pullon. Welcome, guys. Thank you. It's really nice to be here. Thanks for having us. So I have to ask you, you met playing the sport, correct? You play for UC Davis. Hockey is a very physical game. So while you guys are playing and you're holding someone against the board, do you whisper in the ear? What instrument do you play? And finally, you found someone that you could play with? Yeah, exactly. We had a practice and we were talking trash each other. And I mentioned something about how I play guitar so I'm better than him. And then he was like, well, I play piano so I'm better than you. And then it was like, love it for a sight. Both of you, you can answer this individually. Have a background in music. I mean, you seem very proficient in both guitar and keyboard. So why don't we go with Pullon first? So I grew up in a household where my brother and my dad both play guitar. And it was always a little bit isolating being the one in the house who didn't. So I guess seven or eight years ago when I was starting high school, I decided to pick up the guitar. And I think it's spent for the best. And I grew up having a lot of piano lessons growing up. But I guess I never really took them too seriously until I matured and really, I guess, found music that I was interested in and wanted to play it on the keyboard. So I picked it up sort of again in high school and college. And yeah, here I am. Did you have lessons at all? Yeah, I had a lot of lessons. If you guys perform around town or around the country? No. So we mainly play parties that our friends kind of force us to play at because they know that we play. And then we started out a couple years ago doing covers of just our favorite songs before we wrote any music. And people responded well to it. Thank God. And kind of encouraged us to make our own. So like two years ago now, we started writing songs and then it's been just a train that hasn't stopped ever since. OK, very cool. When, first of all, do you have any site online that people can go to that they can see some of your music? So we're on, our music is streaming on all platforms. We have a demo out right now called Annie Lin, which is one of the songs we're playing today. And you can find that anywhere you stream music, Spotify, iTunes. We also have an Instagram where we kind of keep people in the loop as to what we're doing if we're playing somewhere or if we've already done something and you can go find it on YouTube. We also have a YouTube, you can just look up RacketBangers, R-A-C-Q-U-E-T-B-A-N-G-E-R-S. And speaking of that name, how did you come to that name? We, in our spare time, we would play racquetball at the gym at the school and eventually created a Spotify playlist called RacketBangers to listen to while we played. And then we started playing music together and we just somehow kept that. It was also our name for our I Am Tennis team. And neither of us had played tennis before we got to Davis and then we played I Am Tennis and the only name we could think of was RacketBangers. So when it came time to do music, there was nothing else that would fit more. Alrighty. The two songs you're going to play, are they covers or did you write them? These are our original songs. Your original song. Who does what? Who does the lyrics? Who does the music? So for these ones, Timor does all the lyric writing and then we kind of write the music together. And then we change the songs a lot and these ones are what we feel are final form. So not much is going to change about them before we record them. And what are the two songs you're going to be playing for us? We're going to play Annie Lin, which is the song that we have out as a demo and another day. And which one of you dated Annie Lin? That's a fictional character. I'll leave that alone. Ladies and gentlemen, the RacketBangers. Thank you. A waste of breath, a waste of mind. Oh, I know that soon we can't even throw Our own museum gets filled with more than Mark Sugar. Yesterday, tomorrow, now and then. When, how you see him? He's changed soon. The season's gone, but I could go. We wait for him to be here. Tomorrow's new. An hour or two goes by. You've done so much. You gotta rise in time. If you can't find your time, it's a waste of breath and a waste of mind. Oh, I know that soon we can't even throw Our own museum gets filled with more than Mark Sugar. Yesterday, tomorrow, now and then. All depends on how you see him. If you can't find your time, a waste of breath, a waste of mind. No chance to get his love done, but I awake to see that it's still night. A voice in the sea of dots and finish it. A dream is not before the now bright. A chance he's running hot. Some finish another day. Might see another day. One of the benefits of the worldwide event called Make Music Day is that our little town of Davis participates in that. And lo and behold, we have had so many new artists come forward with incredible talent from all different genres. And our last act of the day is no exception. We have a band called Minor Inconvenience. And to introduce the band, we're gonna introduce the lead singer and rhythm guitarist, Julia Bates. Welcome, Julia. Thank you. So would you mind introducing the band? Yes. Jenna, no, I lead guitar and backup vocals on bass. And our drummer, Grace Malley, isn't here today, but we wanted to introduce her too. So one of the bands we had on today, they met on a hockey rink because they were part of the UC Davis hockey team. Do you have a similar story? Sports brought you together or is it actual music that brought you together? It's actual music that brought us together for most of us. I met Jenna in the dorms last year. We were all second years on stage. And we met actually because we both liked my chemical romance. That's one of our big influences. And then I kind of low key Facebook stalked Casey to find a bass player for this band. And then I found Gracey through KTVS, which is the radio station that Jenna and I DJ for. Okay. And so you're a band now. Do you perform as a group? Do you perform covers or do you write your own music? We write our own music. We actually haven't gotten any covers together yet. We've been working towards that, but our own music took precedence thus far. If there was a cover band you'd like to follow, which one would that be? A cover band? Like a band, yeah. Like a band you admire. We've picked songs more for their thematic content, but we've been considering bands like Pali Royale and My Chemical Romance to cover. Okay. It says here in your bio that you're working on a concept album. What is this all about? Yes, we are working on a concept album. It's called Dream of Shadows. And it's basically a commentary on the hospital system and what it means to be chronically ill. And the album then would include several songs addressing that? Yes. Very good. And now I'm really curious about this other sentence in your bio. It says here that you were summoned to form a band. Was this a court order or something else? That was... Jenna and I were trying to figure out something interesting to put in our bio, and we figured that that was probably the most interesting way to say that we all came together during quarantine. Have you learned as band members how to work with other people playing the same kind of music? We talked about with other groups that have been in here about feeding off of each other. Has that happened in your group? Oh, within like the band? Yeah, your band. Yeah, it's actually been very interesting. So far we've all been kind of sending audio files back and forth because Jenna and I live together, but Casey and Gracie are in different households. So we all send audio files back and forth, and then when we get together, it's usually the kind of basis of what Jenna and I came up with, which is sometimes just the way that the vocals sound, and it's sometimes the two guitars and the vocals. And then Casey has a fantastic ear for bass stuff and just kind of comes up with it sometimes on the spot. And then we all play it together and see how it sounds. Very good. So you're going to be playing two songs for us. Could you introduce each song and a little bit about what it's about? Yes. So our first song is called Dying to Dance. At this point we're at towards the beginning of the concept album. This song is about sort of the confusion that comes with not quite knowing what's going on and not knowing who to ask about things. And the second song is called The Stars Never Rise, which is more about being... It's sort of the downward spiral of not knowing what's going on and being very confused, and then coming to kind of the bottom of that emotion. Well, we're looking forward to hearing to it and why don't we just start right into it. Here we go. Playing a group called The Minor Inconvenience. Thanks for watching and listening to The Make Music Davis, Davis Independent Music Initiative showcase 2021, featuring five emerging young local musicians and bands from the Davis Independent Music Initiative. Recorded by Davis Media Access at the City of Davis Veterans Memorial Theater with funding support from the City of Davis Arts and Cultural Affairs Program.