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rainydawgradioblog · 5 years ago

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: Treefort 2019 - Tres Leches Interview

This year, Rainy Dawg Radio was invited to attend Treefort Festival, an annual celebration of art that takes place in downtown Boise. The festival took place over the course of 5 days on a surprisingly sunny March weekend and included musical acts spanned across multiple venues which ranged from large standing concert halls to small independent bars. Down at the Shredder, a beautifully grimy dive bar, Seattle band Tres Leches played a daytime set that paired perfectly with the drizzling Seattle-esque weather outside. The three piece band consists of Rainy Dawg alumnus Alaia D’Alessandro, Ulises Mariscal, and Zander Yates who cycled through drums, guitar, bass, and theremin throughout the set like a game of musical chairs. I talked to the band the following day over free coffee and treats (shout out press room) to talk about college radio, the band’s formation, and the current state of music in Seattle. Note: The following script has been edited for clarity.

Tres Leches live at Treefort. Photo by Willy Picton.

Chelsea: First I’m going to talk about some radio stuff because Alaia was a DJ here at Rainy Dawg.

Alaia: I was, yeah!

Chelsea: What was your show called and what did you play on it?

Alaia: It was either called Phonic Earth or Phono Seattle, I forget which rendition I used, but I played a bunch of different kinds of music. I think it was Phonic Earth because I played music from all over the world. Not just in Seattle but we had some cool people come in to do small in-studios. We had Hijos De Agüeybaná play bomba music. They played barriles which are these big drums. They have African heritage and it combines with Taino, which is indigenous Puerto Rican, and played other percussion instruments. They make it up to dance and some of the dance movements and lyrics are Spanish. It is like a big combination of all the different backgrounds of puerto rican culture. We also had a local band at the time called Night Train and did an in studio with us.

Chelsea: Do you feel that your time at student radio and the connections that you made help you in your starting career with music?

Alaia: Yeah definitely. Now I work at KEXP and that’s been a huge help. Having some experience behind the board at Rainy Dawg helped me. I really enjoyed being able to use that as a platform to help local bands too and get them on the radio or have them in for conversations. It taught me a lot about networking. Our band puts packets together to send to other radio stations. Also, curating shows was helpful, like how Rainy dawg does like a once a year concert.

Chelsea: Yeah, now we do three shows a quarter.

Alaia: That’s great!

Chelsea: I meant 3 shows a year with one a quarter sorry haha. But I think the show that you’re talking about is our birthday fest.

Alaia: Oh okay yea that might have been it. When I was there, Unknown Mortal Orchestra was playing. That was kind of a new territory for the station at the time. It was kind of a big deal to have that band there. It wasn’t the first time they had a big band there, but it was one of the first times the students had really done all the curation for it. Got the band, got the funds so that was a really cool step forward. So it’s really awesome that you do three shows a year now, that’s incredible, congratulations!

Chelsea: Yeah! We do two of the shows with local bands only and the last show is where we get national acts, usually we have a local band or two as the openers. And the other thing we do is a battle of the bands which is our next event actually. So then I guess if you all didn’t meet in Rainy Dawg, how did you guys come together?

Zander: Alaia and I met at high school.

Alaia: We met in the band room at school.

Zander: At Nova High School, we started jamming. We were in bands together back then.

Alaia: I still remember when he walked in, he looked very different. But yeah it was funny, I think you seemed kind of sheepish at first.

Zander: Yeah, I was pretty nerdy.

Alaia: And then Ulises and I…

Ulises: I went to Bumbershoot in 2011 I think and I saw this Mexican electronic band that was playing Bumbershoot, Nortec Collective. They were doing like Norteño and Electronica. I didn’t know Alaia and Zander and all of a sudden I heard someone talking in the background and it was Alaia and she had like a really loud voice.

Alaia: (loudly) What are you talking about!

Ulises: Like in a good way, haha! I was just listening in like I wonder who that person is? And we kinda look at each other like we kinda vibe you know really like *snaps* that. We didn’t have to talk or anything. And then we realized that she liked some of the same bands from Mexico like I’ve never met anybody that knows bands from Mexico and I was just like “how do you know those bands?” and we stated chilling and she pushed me to play the drums cause, you know, I’m a painter, so we went to the EMP museum and we kinda started jamming there and I was like “I’m gonna buy my first drum set!” And then we kinda just started jamming from there. And it was fun!

Alaia: At the time he had told me “I’m a DJ!”

Ulises: I’m a DJ actually!

Alaia: Now you are! Now he DJs for Hollow Earth Radio! But at the time I think I looked back to Zander and was like “Ah yeah, I met this DJ”

Zander: I forgot about that!

Alaia: You did not DJ!

Ulises: I was thinking in the future. “I am a DJ, I know what I am not right now” but it worked!

Chelsea: Do you think Seattle is still a place where bands can emerge or do you think that the emergent music scene is being pushed out?

Ulises: Well, in my opinion, I think that all these problems that we have with housing and homelessness is kinda in a good way pushing artists to get out there with their art you know? I know it’s bad but as an artist you kind of have to do that art and make yourself hurt. And now we’ve got to be more of a community to keep going.

Zander: More pressure with [Amazon] not getting taxed, it makes it really easy for them to come in and do whatever they want as a business and it makes it really hard for small business to come up because they have to pick up the bill. The small businesses have a really big hand to play in the music scene of course and venues are having a really hard time. And again, with property prices raising, it’s affecting the kind of music you hear in Seattle, which isn't inherently bad all the time. It is sad to see bands move out because it is really hard to have a drum kit in a small apartment. It’s harder to have band practice, and it’s also just harder to practice and create music that has a lot of complexity or virtuosity to it because it’s hard to put a lot of time into practicing, because there’s no way you’re gonna make it if you’re not working 40-50 hours a week. You hear that in the music a lot. There’s a lot more solo artists because it’s really hard to have a band and there’s a lot more bands that just have really simple music, again not an inherently bad thing but, it is just kind of interesting because you hear it and you’re like “this band sounds like this because of this economic factor”.

Zane: Do you think that has changed during the time you all have been together in the music scene in Seattle?

Ulises: It’s changing really fast. I feel like sometimes we don’t even have time to stop and say “this is where we are”. It changes so fast you have to just get with whatever is happening because it’s just very chaotic and all over the place. It reflects what [Zander] was just saying about how the city is changing. Like the scenery of capitol hill is just construction and there’s constant noise which definitely reflects on your music without even thinking about it. So it definitely plays a role and I try to take it as part of the artwork, like “okay, there’s nothing I can do and at least I can get something from it.” I know it affects a lot of people and it sucks that bands have to move out so I want to make sure that it stays in the music so when people listen in the future they know what was happening today so we don’t make the same mistakes.

Alaia: I will say that I think the community’s response to all of this has been really strong and you have all these bands that are fighting for their independence and fighting for their community, like the Black Tones come to mind, and then you start kind of really having to create community. I love the shows we’ve been playing, I love all the shows we’ve played, but the ones we’re playing currently seem the most supportive. The artists want to stay and see the other bands like “hey all my fans, I want you to see something new!” And that changes with genre mixing too, which is not about staying part of one scene, it’s about breaking down all the scenes because we all need each other. And we can’t divide things into scenes, or north and south and west and east, because we all need to see each other right now and see our resources and pool them together, so it doesn’t matter if you’re playing with an electro cumbia artist like Terror Cactus or a hip hop jazz afro-latinx artist like Guayaba or also DoNormaal and Bearaxe. Everyone right now needs to come together and if artists affected by issues are able to express themselves and be themselves consciously or subconsciously, then those artists are gravitating toward each other and really starting to support each other. It’s not cool anymore to be the loner artist and I’m glad that fallacy is dying.

Zander: It’s cool how that’s the norm now. I remember being in shows or booking shows back in 2012 when there were mixed bills, cause I wasn’t thinking about the bill I just asked my friends if they wanted to play a show and didn’t care that they played a different genre. But I remember all the sound engineers and booking managers thought I was really weird for doing that and now it’s the norm. In Seattle it’s hard to find a show that only one genre, and I love that because it brings everyone together where people can interact and share ideas which is really cool.

Chelsea: People are all over Spotify, Bandcamp, whatever now and you don’t see as many pure metalheads or die hard rock fans or people interested in only one genre, so there’s genre blending for fans and artists. So you said that you’ve been enjoying the shows you’ve been playing lately, is there anyone that you saw either here at Treefort or in Seattle recently that you’ve liked? Anyone that really surprised you?

Alaia: I liked ORUÃ who played last night. They played a couple bands after us. They were definitely really groovy in an unexpected way. When I think of groovy I think of genres that are classically dance music like soul, or RnB, or dance pop and electronica. This was very psychedelic. The beats that the drummer had were really danceable.

Ulises: I’m excited to see Carrion kids. I think their singer is the drummer of another band that came to Seattle and played with us a while back called Los Honeyrockets. Definitely excited for them and Y La Bamba. They’re probably playing right now, but we’re seeing them later.

Alaia: Oh, See Hurricanes at freakout fest in Seattle. They were fun to play with.

Zander: Well we’re excited to play with the black tones again, and go see them.

Ulises: They’re releasing their first album. We’re excited to go see them.

Chelsea: Are they a Seattle band?

Ulises: Yes, they’re really amazing. Another band that I saw that I didn’t know and was surprising was Velvet Q.

Alaia: Yeah!

Ulises: Yeah, I was very impressed. It was one of those moments where you just walk in and you’re like “holy shit this is a great band!”

Zander: I saw Gaylan Lee here and he was pretty freaking good. He’s just a ridiculously good songwriter. It’s really cool to see people and just be like “Oh this person’s really going to be remembered” Well I guess everyone is going to be remembered in some ways, as long as the internet doesn’t get solar flared into non existence, but it’s cool to hear people that you’re like “Woah, this is a legendary singer-songwriter and just a very legendary person” and see someone perform like that. That venue was great, the Boise contemporary theatre.

Chelsea: Yea! I saw Wend there yesterday. They described themselves as chamber psych.

Zander: Oh that sounds awesome, I wish I could’ve seen that.

Chelsea: It was really good, they had a harp and a bunch of strings and everything. It was one of the bands that has like 12 people.

Zander: Oh those are the best kind of bands.

Chelsea: Definitely one of my favorites that I’ve seen. I’ve loved the whole curation of the festival. And I was surprised that they reached out to us to give us these press passes.

Alaia: I think that the festival actually cares about who’s coming to it, and that everybody can at least make connections, and they care about connecting people throughout the community here and throughout the world. I got that state from the stage we were at, the whole curation for that stage was great. It felt like they booked people saying “I think these people would be friends.”

Ulises: Also, the hotel we were staying, at a lot of bands were staying there too, so it was good to talk to some people who were playing. (to Zander) You talked to somebody in the bathtub right?

Zander: (laughing) Hot tub!

Alaia: There was a band High Hazel in the artist home upstairs who we talked to, they’re playing tonight.

Chelsea: Well the last question I have is: do you have any upcoming dates in Seattle that we should tell the UW community about?

Ulises: Alaia and Zander have shows in Seattle coming up, they have their own solo projects.

Alaia: I’m going to be playing April 6th at the clock out lounge with with my band, it’s just my name Alaia, A-l-A-I-A, and sometime it looks weird when you look it up. My name is Alaia D'Alessandro. When you look it up it’s A, lower case l, A, uppercase I, A so it’s like 3 A’s with 2 lines but they’re actually letters it’s just for being cute, but it might not be functional. Also, we’re going to submit a video for a tiny desk so tell ‘em to watch it.

Zander: I’m playing a show April 25th at Vermillion. And if you google my name you’ll find it, I’ve got a bunch of crap out there, I’m starting a YouTube channel and all that, I’m doing some cryptocurrency projects, I kind of want to save the universe so I’m doing a lot of shit. And then after these shows we’re also playing a benefit on May 31st. It’s a benefit for Nova high school because they have to fund some teachers out of pocket, because the school district is not doing their job.

Alaia: That was the high school we met at. That was the high school that just let us make bands.

Zander: We’re working on some new music. We’ve got side projects and you know, we put out a really cool album last year and we might put out some more stuff this year but we’re kind of creating an expanded universe like Star Wars nerds. And Uli’s got some really cool projects he’s working on too, I don’t know if it has to be secret.

Ulises: Oh, well I’m just working on some artwork for the city, I’m pretty excited about it. I was selected out of thousands of artists and I didn’t even have to apply because you know, most art that you want to make you have to make a resume, and submit photos and everything, but for this, they contacted me. I thought it was a scam at first, as an artist nothing good ever happens to you, but no, it’s awesome, it’s going really well for most of us. I think at the beginning I’ll say to all the artists, it’s going to be really hard at the beginning and you’re going to want to quit and you’ve just got to keep pushing.

Alaia: As the buildings are going up in Seattle we’re also building our own thing, just to sound like a dad.

Zander: That’s legit though, to be able to create your own space, to create your own existence. I was reading this argument on YouTube, like it wasn’t really an argument just this person being really down on themselves being like, “what are we going to do? We’re never going to be free, or have liberty because there’s this battle for wealth and resources” And a lot of people don’t want to create, they just want to hoard, or take, or inherit because work is hard, even artwork! Any of it is hard, and someone said the route to freedom is through new technology and creation like creating new spaces. I guess it’s like the original idea behind DIY, and I agree with the root ethos of DIY, and it become more of an aesthetic like ordering things on Amazon. Like I got this DIY pin on the internet.

Ulises: Yeah, I think we’re losing that with technology. I know a lot of people my age who do not know how to do things DIY, like when you have less, you have to go and kind of create things, and a lot of people are losing that creativity 'cause we have technology, which is really sad.

Zander: But some people are gaining it through technology. I mean, crypto is DIY currency. But I think it’s cool that most people even learn just a little bit of HTML growing up, just so we could make our myspace look cool. It’s kind of neat when you think about it, like HTML didn’t even exist when our grandparents were alive, it’s a form of coding. And it’s interesting how people adapt, I also agree with Ulises; I think it’s sad that people don’t know how to fix things.

Ulises: I think there needs to be a balance, we’re losing from one, but we’re also gaining from both. That’s what I mean when I say we should be working toward both, instead of just going into technology and leaving the other.

Alaia: There’s a way to have diversity in the way you do things and in your tools and your resources.You can value the DIY cryptocurrency and you can value the handmade things that take maybe a little more time to make, or maybe a little more of your physical labor to put in, and that gives you a different result and that’s special that they’re both different things and they can provide different kinds of value.

Ulises: (pointing to Alaia sitting in between him and zander) This is a balance right here.

#treefort #monsterwatch

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