#Anna Bulbrook

[ladykailitha]

Whatever You Need I've Got It

Just a little silly thing I thought of watching The Airborne Toxic Event music videos and how it seemed like whenever they needed violin, piano, tambourine...whatever it was always Anna Bulbrook playing.

So what if we steddified it? Steve just picking up whatever instrument Corroded Coffin needs to fill out a song and suddenly he's on tour with them and Eddie still isn't sure how it happened.

****

Eddie was getting frustrated. The band had been working on this song for the last two weeks, but there was still something missing. And he only had mere minutes to finish it before Steve came to pick him up.

Not because they were dating or anything, though...Eddie mentally slapped the side of his head. He was getting off track. Steve was picking him up because his van was in the shop until Friday and Steve had offered to taxi him around.

Like the fucking saint he was.

He screamed his rage, digging the heels of his palms into his eyes. But into the resulting silence, he realized it had become too quiet.

When he looked up he saw Steve standing there with a shocked expression on his face.

"You good there, man?" he asked with a grimace.

"Don't mind him," Brian huffed. "He always gets like this when we're stuck on a song."

"Can I hear it?" Steve asked.

Everyone just looked at each other, not speaking.

Steve rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, not a metalhead, I know. But I am a classically trained musician, maybe I can figure out where it's gone wrong."

"Fine by me," Jeff said with a shrug. "What's it going to hurt?"

Eddie looked up at Steve's earnest face and sighed. "All right, if there are no objections. Let's start it at the top."

And the band played.

"Play it again," Steve muttered.

They looked at each other again, but Eddie just shrugged and they played it again.

Steve nodded. "Okay, I think I've got it. Can I borrow that old keyboard for a sec?"

Gareth looked behind him with a frown. "I mean I guess."

Steve set it up and plug it in. "Brian start on your cue."

The band watched as Brian laid on the base. Steve nodded in time to the music and then began to play a melody on the keyboard. He pointed to Gareth who immediately started banging away.

Eddie came in on vocals and suddenly the song was really coming together.

They practiced it a couple more times, Steve playing the melody line on the keyboard and when they were done all four of the Corroded Coffin boys stared at him in shock.

"Holy shit dude," Jeff said. "What the fuck was that?"

Gareth nodded. "Yeah, man. Eddie hear can play by ear and read music, but that was something else entirely."

"You're going to have to play it with us on Tuesday at the Hideout," Brian said.

Jeff and Gareth agreed. They all turned to Eddie, Steve included.

"I don't know why you're looking at me," Eddie huffed. "I'm down."

Steve just grinned.

****

But then it kept happening. The song was a hit with the Tuesday crowd because of course it was.

They were working on a song and again they were running up against a brick wall. They had already incorporated Steve's piano into it, but it was still missing an extra beat.

They had gotten permission to practice at local college's music room and Steve was getting bored.

He had his part down. There were only a couple of parts were the piano came in so he cast his eyes around the room looking for something mess around with.

His eyes lit up when he spotted his prize. He walked over to the table and picked it up, the clatter of the small metal jingles rattling as he did so.

The band stopped playing and glared at him.

"Don't mind me," he said smugly. "Keep playing."

They went back to starting from the top and as Gareth came in on the drums Steve hit the instrument against the side of his leg in time to the beat.

It stunned Brian so much he missed his cue, his jaw on the floor.

"Stevie..." Eddie said warningly. "What was that?"

Steve grinned. "You said you needed an extra beat. I'm providing the extra beat. Just trust me."

The other band members looked at each other, but did as he suggested.

Sure enough when the chorus came in, and Steve started playing the tambourine, it took everything ounce of professionalism the band had not ground to a complete stop. Then for the verses Steve would play his part on the piano and it just blended so well.

Eddie ran his fingers over his face. "Jesus Christ, Stevie, warn a dude, yeah? You are just sitting over there like a musical genius and it's seriously making the rest of us look bad."

Steve thew back his head and laughed.

"So it's a hit then?"

Everyone groaned.

Jeff shook his head. "Yeah, man. It was a hit."

Steve just grinned.

****

They were recording their first real album in a real studio and while the producers were a little unsure about this weirdo who dressed more like Bruce Springsteen than Kirk Hammett, they had contracted the whole band so they let it slide.

It took Steve two weeks to impress the producers.

Steve had been using the studio off hours (which he did pay them for) to record lullabies on the violin for Robin and Lucas. Violins were the only things that would soothe their anxieties and keep the nightmares at bay.

He had finished his little recording about an hour ago was merely laying down melodies and such that he would play back to see if he liked them.

If only his parents could see him now. Using all that classically trained music to guess Russian code, play lullabies for frightened kids, and preform in a metal band.

Clint Harrington would probably keel over on the spot.

He was so wrapped up in the music, just letting it flow over him that he didn't notice that he had gathered an audience.

He finally stopped and the mic from the sound booth crackled to life startling him.

"Shit, Stevie," Eddie's warm voice said from above him. "Do you think you could play that haunting melody again?"

Steve blushed and then shrugged. "I mean I guess. It was just me playing around. Why?"

"Because everyone in here thinks it's just what Blood-Red Skies needs."

Steve furrowed his brow and then nodded. "Can you pump the track in through the speakers?"

"Yeah," Eddie said breathless. "Just give me a moment to find it."

It was barely a moment or two before Steve's tape was replaced by the recording of the song.

The song was hauntingly beautiful. Eddie only singing vocals as rest of the band played.

It was raw and emotional.

Steve let the song play through before he signaled to play it again.

This time when Eddie begins to sing, Steve begins to play the violin. That beautifully sad sound he had played just to get it out of his head beginning to raise.

"Holy shit!" a new voice came through. It was their producer Kenny Fontaine. "You made that up?"

Steve shrugged. "Sometimes I get music in my head and I need to get out."

"Teach me to play the piano part!" Eddie blurts wrestling the mic away from Kenny. "So that when we play it live you can be on violin and I can sing and play."

Steve grinned. "I'd love that."

I love you.

****

They are playing it on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson to promote the release of Blood-Red Skies.

The tension between Eddie and Steve is thick that Johnny calls them out on it.

And that's when Steve leaned over and kissed Eddie right on the lips.

Johnny is absolutely freaking out and in a good way.

They spend the rest of the interview tucked into each other's sides like puzzle pieces.

Even later, ten years down the line when Corroded Coffin is selling out stadiums, Eddie and Steve always end the song with a kiss.

****

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@tinyplanet95

[open-their-minds]

TATE family,

It’s been a while since we were all active and close on here, but it’s time to get the band back together, so to speak.

Today is sad. Real fucking sad. I got the notification from twitter and cried in a supermarket. And I know plenty of you will feel it to.

So let’s do something positive, post your favourite Anna pic or memory under this. Let’s chronicle just a fraction of what The Airborne Toxic Event with Anna meant to us, still means to us, and always will mean to us.

Love you all

[airbornetoxicevent]

Setlist from tonight's show!!

[seafoam-elephants]

[imjustexistingtbh]

why you should listen to the airborne toxic event, an essay (kinda) by me: 

i grew up listening to this band. my parents had been fans of them since i was a little kid. i had their songs on my ipod, and they were one of the first bands who i followed when i first got spotify. 

the airborne toxic event is categorized as an indie rock band, but they have so much depth to them. they have sad songs. they have happy songs. they have angry songs. but the thing that all their songs have is true emotion. they don’t have a song that isn’t chock full of pure emotion. i think this is the only band where the majority of their songs give me chills, not just a select few. 

the lyrics are so, so amazing. mikel jollet, the singer, songwriter, and guitarist, wrote many of the songs in a depression, and tons of the songs are a commentary on the world or have some basis in his experience growing up in an experimental commune society and abusive family. so many of the songs tell a story, and the lyrics are never just there to fill in the gaps of the music. 

they have songs that will freaking destroy you once you know what they’re about. take the kids are ready to die, for example. without knowing the context, it’s a sad title and an even sadder song. but then you learn that it’s about 11 year old children in war-torn countries being sent to fight in a war and your heart is absolutely shattered into pieces. 

musically, they’re just as great. some of their songs have violin in them, and it just elevates the entire thing. the former violinist anna bulbrook, is absolutely amazing. she gives the songs the most haunting but beautiful ambience that is amazing beyond words. 

honestly, i feel like “haunting but beautiful” describes most of their first two albums. their music is genuinely so amazing, and i’m begging you all to give them a try. 

some of my favorite airborne toxic event songs: 

welcome to your wedding day 

this is london 

sometime around midnight

the graveyard near the house 

innocence 

wishing well 

gasoline

brother how was the war?

this is one of my favorite bands, and they’re extremely underrated and not a lot of people know them. so please, give them a listen, and maybe you’ll fall in love with them like i did. 

[evelynmcdonnell]

Turn It Up!

Liz Warner, Allison Wolfe, Kate Nash, Solvej Schou, Evelyn McDonnell and Mar Sellars at Turn It Up! mixer

What happens when 50 female-identified musicians, DJs, journalists, scholars, publicists, sound engineers, podcasters, etc., come together in a subterranean hotel bar on a rainy Superbowl Sunday? “I feel the earth move under my feet, I feel the sky come tumbling down.” On Sunday, February 3,…

[simplypearl-blog1]

More, please!

I have been patiently waiting for the release of new music from The Airborne Toxic Event. When I last saw them in March, they sparked an eagerness and desperation in me for some of their new material.

Any TATE fans out there? Drop me a message and let me know what your favorite song is, or, what your favorite show of theirs was.

[laurastudarus]

Last weekend’s Grammy ceremony, where only one woman received a televised award, Lorde refused to perform, and Recording Academy President declared women need to “step up” if they want to be recognized, only served to underscore a familiar narrative. Music is a boy’s club. It isn’t enough to ask female and female identifying artists to “try harder, do gooder.” In a broken system where everything from radio play to festival lineups is male-centric, they’re already fighting a losing battle.

(via Anna Bulbrook on Her Female-Led Music Festival GIRLSCHOOL | Under the Radar - Music Magazine)

[joedlc1971]

Shirley Manson: Thank you to the WIMN She Rocks Awards for celebrating the talents of so many great women last night. So chuffed to hang with Anna Bulbrook, Kat Corbet, Exene Cervenka, and muthafrickin’ Kate and Cindy from the B52’s. What a night. https://www.facebook.com/shirleymanson/posts/10155536484476387

[lisaeharris]

Let’s be changed. Let’s do it differently this time. And differently tomorrow. And then, LETS OPEN WIDE on THIS Saturday at #SILENCEatDescanso. Look at this incredibly mindful line up. I will be listening for Truth. Will you join me? Ticket link in Bio!!! I'm excited to be performing a very special set as part of the new experimental music series SILENCE at @DescansoGardens on Saturday, 9/28. 7pm doors, 7.30pm (sharp) concert. All ages. Seating is open; come early to choose your spot. Tickets and details here: descansogardens.org/silence #lisaeharris #SILENCEatDescanso . . . About SILENCE Created by artistic directors Christopher Rountree (Wild Up) and Anna Bulbrook (Girlschool) in partnership with Descanso Gardens, SILENCE presents music and performance unconstrained by genre at specific sites within Descanso’s “living collection” of horticulture. SILENCE is an ideal, a fantasy. Silence is, in practice, a making-of space. Silence is one way that we gather together around the ritual observation of created sound. Silence is an opportunity to see what sound does when we choose to listen, and how that act changes us or brings us closer together. Silence is open to all possibilities. Did I mention I am beyond energized to team up with the vibrant @annabulbrook and @orionrountree (at Descanso Gardens) https://www.instagram.com/p/B24x3qVpRVc/?igshid=1fc1ld7dkp9xm

[easterwings]

11 Questions

RULES

Always post the rules

Answer the questions given by the person who tagged you

Write 11 questions of your own

Tag 11 people (or however many you want)

I was tagged by @jiksax! Thank you, love!  

Who are three writers/artists who’ve been most influential on your style/taste? @magicalrocketships because you don’t write Tomlinshaw and not get influenced by all that brilliance, Charles Dickens because I’ve spent a lot of time listening to recordings of his books and I’ve picked up and started using a lot of his sentence structures (the dialogue tag “returned” in my writing is lifted directly from him), and The Airborne Toxic Event because I love what they do with music and words and if you look at any of my fic playlists, they’re guaranteed to be on there.   

What’s the fanwork you’re proudest of and why?  One Blink and Then My Heart  Hands down.  Because second chance stories are my favorite thing in the entire world probably, but in this one I just wanted two people who found each other again and no one was the villain and they were just in a better place to get together again.  And there’s gentle teasing but they’re so fond of each other and they look after each other and it’s not finished but the nearest thing I’ve ever read to it, to that sort of chemistry, is that wonderful Big Bang fic by @bigbrotherlouis  (And I’ve probably read One Blink and Then My Heart three times but shhhhh.)

Tell me a secret.  I told someone very recently that things were okay, but that was a lie.

What sort of music would you put on a sex playlist?  “How It Starts” by The Features, maybe also “Slow Hands.”  I like something with a good rhythm.  

What’s your favorite lyric?  We grow old all at once // And it comes like a punch // In the gut, in the back, in the face from “All At Once” by TATE.  I don’t think there’s a truer lyric.

What’s on your bucket list?  I don’t have a bucket list, but before I kick it I’d like to know that my kids are going to be okay when I’m not around. 

What’s the most irritating thing to you about fandom?  The idea that we’re entitled to more of his private life than what our fave shares with us. My fave is Louis, and I know way more about his private life than I know about Mikel Jollett or Anna Bulbrook’s (both from TATE) and he’s so much younger than they are and it pisses me off sometimes.  Some things he’s shared but a lot of things he hasn’t, and it bothers me that people won’t let him keep some of those things for himself. 

What’s your biggest fear?  That I’m not good enough.  That for some people I will do to talk to until the person they’re much more interested in comes around and starts talking to them.  That I’m a placeholder.     

What’s a book or fic you wish you’d written?  Japan Fic.  I have so many ideas but they seem to prefer to live in my head.

Fuck, marry, kill, go on a cruise with: Ryan Gosling, Harry Styles, Amanda Seyfried, James Corden.  Kill Ryan Gosling (I only know that you were in The Notebook and I’m sure you’re lovely but also sorry my dude), Fuck Amanda Seyfried (because heck yeah, she’s gorgeous), Go On a Cruise Ship With Harry Styles (So I can yell “Fuck off Nigel” or the equivalent with him) and Marry James Corden (because he is the loveliest, most delightful human and he’d make me laugh and still hold my hand when we’re both old and disgusting).

 What’s a band you wish you’d been in? I wish I knew how to play the violin so I could have been in The Airborne Toxic Event.

I thought of questions this time!  I’m going to tag: @ihadalittletroubleintintingclass @thingsicant-even @81199breakfast @allwaswell16 @im-here-sammy @napoleon-ln-rags @stylingmrstyles  @carswinky @robotcorsair @dictacontrion @citycrushed @lirryonce and in case you guys want to go again, @dearmrsawyer @writsgrimmyblog and @alligatornyc  But none of you have to do it and if you’re reading this and want to, please consider yourself tagged.  

What does your favorite pair of shoes look like?

What was the last thing you read? Book, fic, doesn’t matter. Did you like it? Do you think I should read it?

What kind of names do you like for a pet? Do you like people names or the more cutesy ones?

Do you fall asleep easily when you go to bed?

Do you have a favorite sandwich? If so, what is it?

Do you like your singing voice?

What is your opinion on Marmite?

Why did you choose your current tumblr icon?

What is your preferred social media platform and why?

If you’ve sent someone an anon message and they take forever to get back to you but when they do come back it’s with a very long, detailed answer, how upset are you likely to be?

Share a happy memory (please).

[airbornetoxicevent]

[chelseawolfemusic]

Chelsea Wolfe interview ahead of GIRLSCHOOL performance // Lenny

photo by Kristin Cofer // words by Dianca Potts

Last January, GIRLSCHOOL, an LA-based collective dedicated to supporting women in music, celebrated its inaugural music festival at Bootleg Theater. Featuring acts like Gothic Tropic and Maria Taylor, GIRLSCHOOL's first festival confirmed that powerful things can happen when women collaborate for the greater good. This year, founder Anna Bulbrook and co-founder Jasmine Lywen-Dill hope to conjure a similar spirit of solidarity and community. "It's my ultimate dream to have a nexus of incredible women thinkers and doers around us," Anna says. This year's lineup is not only intersectional but also sonically diverse. "In today's political climate, it especially matters to have these outlets that unify and celebrate women," Jasmine says. "I hope [we] can be a vehicle for change and for raising awareness of girl-positive organizations in the arts." Set to kick off this Friday, GIRLSCHOOL's weekend extravaganza is exactly what we need right now. I was lucky enough to catch up with the festival's headliner, the forever busy and immensely talented Chelsea Wolfe. Best known for haunting dirges like "Dragged Out" and hypnotic ballads like "Mer" and "Feral Love," Chelsea's fusion of folklore, Jungian theory, and gothic motifs is as beautiful as it is brooding. A week before the festival, I chatted with Chelsea — who's currently working on a new album — about the importance of taking credit for your work and why darkness isn't always a bad thing.

Dianca Potts: What did music mean to you when you were growing up?

Chelsea Wolfe: When I was a kid, my parents divorced, and my mom was always a creative person herself, making clothes, drawing, and painting, and she'd listen to great music like Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt. On the weekends I'd go to my dad's house, where he had a home studio for recording and practicing with the country band he had with my stepmom. Hearing them harmonize and work on Fleetwood Mac covers was my first inspiration to write my own songs.

I really connected with Lindsey Buckingham's voice. I think I took some vocal styling from him back then that I still use today. Over the years, I've been drawn to singers and bands with androgynous voices — Nina Simone, Placebo, and bands who go to extremes musically, like Sunn O))) and Swans. I find some comfort in things that aren't easy to define, maybe because I always felt like I was an in-between myself.

DP: In a feature for Under the Radar, you mentioned that in the past you haven't given yourself enough credit for the work that you do. I feel like this is something that a lot of creatives, especially women, struggle with. What advice would you give to younger creatives who feel hesitant to celebrate their accomplishments in fear of coming off as prideful?

CW: I'm glad you're bringing that feature up. I spent a lot of time doing a full interview about "sexism and misogyny in the music industry" and they only used that one line from it, of course. I do think there's kind of an unspoken societal thing where we're not supposed to talk about our accomplishments very much. I always felt like my work spoke for itself, and I wanted people to be able to relate to it in their own way, without everything being over-explained. But as I slowly gained more of an audience, someone's gonna be offended by what you're doing, and there was a person who tried to start a campaign against me, making false claims of what I was inspired by or what my music and videos meant. I didn't fight back publicly because, well, I'd rather spend my time on music than Internet drama, but all my friends in real life and in the music industry who knew about this reached out to me with messages of love and support and reminders that they know I've always followed my own path and been true to myself. That was really heartening when I was bummed about being attacked like that. I learned that I need to take credit for my work more publicly, and be a little more outgoing with what I share about myself and my music.

My advice to younger female and nonbinary artists is this: take credit for your work, always and rigorously, otherwise some jerk might come along and try to take the credit for you, or they'll say that a man wrote your songs for you. Fuck that. I think Grimes is a great example of someone who makes sure it's known that her work, ideas, and production are her own. Follow her lead.

DP: Your music is often described as dark. What do you feel is the value of exploring the dark side of emotion and human experience?

CW: From a young age, I wanted to know both sides to every story. I used to have these recurring nightmares of macro and micro. I would be in a white room with an object in the middle, like a book or a telephone, and the object would grow really, really large and fill the room, smashing me against the wall, and then the object would grow small again, back and forth. It was maddening, but I think it kind of represents how I approach writing songs. I'm hyperaware of the macro, the world as a whole, and all the fucked-up things that are happening at the same time: bombings, rapes, suicides. That is all really dark stuff to write about, but it's not like I'm making it up. At the same time, I'm also able to focus in on my own life or community and write a song that comes from there. It's all a contrast of the hideousness of life and the beauty of life. My first album, The Grime and the Glow, was kind of the beginning of this exploration in contrasts.

DP: How did you get involved with GIRLSCHOOL?

CW: Through the Echo Society, which is a group of composers who put together this great night of original music with an orchestra and guest collaborators each year. They reached out to me to compose a piece, which I did with the help of my bandmate Ben Chisholm, since he's a master of arranging string samples and percussive elements. Anna Bulbrook was running the Echo Society show in LA. On day one of the rehearsals, I was in the wrong place at the right time, and Anna was so kind as to relocate me to the place I was supposed to be.

On the drive there, we got to know each other a bit, and she told me about GIRLSCHOOL. I had heard of it before and was blown away to be talking with the person who started it. My drummer Jess Gowrie and I had just been talking about how inspiring it is to see women musicians onstage when you're a young, aspiring female musician, and we were hoping that we could help do the same for the younger generation. So when Anna said there was a festival involved, I was like, "If you'd ever want my band to play, I'd be honored."

DP: What makes organizations like GIRLSCHOOL so vital?

CW: They normalize the idea of an instrument in a young woman's hands, or a woman being the leader of a band. And of course they encourage young people to explore music and the arts and gain confidence and self-acceptance through that. I know I grew up feeling the pressure to be society's typical, subdued definition of "feminine," even though I never felt that way inside, and my body type has never represented that either. It was difficult for me to assert myself as an artist when I was starting out. I'm here representing for the late bloomers. Nowadays I think a lot of younger folks are moving past all those antiquated gender restraints much quicker than I did, which is great to see.

(via Lenny)