Teddy Avestruz DJs in his room. Photo by Carolyn Bick
Like a dream, Theomatic’s music tends to be soft and intricate. It typically induces a state of relaxation and transports you to your own headspace, provoking thoughts or simply letting them wander.
Five records and countless shows in, South End musician Noah Gundersen hit a roadblock: He no longer loved what he created. The very things Gundersen used to define himself growing up felt foreign. So he did what any songwriter would do: he played it out, creating his newest album “White Noise”
This entire video was produced and edited by me, but I did have some help from Charles Johnson, who graciously accepted being a second cameraman. Suggestions from my editors, Stacey Jenkins and Jen Germain, also helped as well. The video was accompanied by an article I wrote:
Christianne (Christy) Karefa-Johnson is adding a distinct sparkle to the Emerald City’s music scene as DoNormaal.
Christy’s journey began long before her rise in Seattle. While her first release was fairly recent — an EP in June of 2014 — her passion for the arts are firmly rooted in the poetry she wrote as a child.
When it comes to DoNormaal’s sound, the genre is hard to pin down. There’s a trap music feel to it, intertwined with hip-hop and remixes, but also something else. Something nameless, distinctly poetic.
“It is genre-less,” she concludes. “But based in hip-hop. That’s the tone. I love hip-hop… that’s what inspired me to make music in the first place. But I’m very experimental and I’m really trying to… not have a box.”
After a week full of media screen-shotting tweets between Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift, there’s more to take away than a sensationalized “war” between the two.
Minaj has had a reputation for addressing societal issues, especially ones that directly affect her person, her identity, and her culture. Aside from media and social networks, these types of things can be found in something much more simple and much more intimate: her music and performances.
If you really want to analyze it, Minaj’s “Anaconda” video set the record of 19.6 million clicks in its first day, only beat when Swift’s “Bad Blood” received 20.1 million on its release.
But that’s just stats, and there were five slots for MTV’s Video of The Year nominees. These were taken by Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar’s “Bad Blood,” Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk,” Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright,” Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud,” and Beyoncé’s “7/11.”
Michelle Habell-Pallán, UW associate professor of gender, women, and sexuality studies, explained how some people question Minaj’s tweets about black women being unrecognized simply because Beyoncé was nominated.
“There’s not a limit or a quota,” Habell-Pallán said. “There’s more than one black woman who has influence in popular culture; do we have to limit it?”
