The Local 913 Podcast

Zach Rock, frontman for the Pittsburgh folk rock group Nameless in August, has always been around music. In fact, he owns a very cherished musical family heirloom “There’s a guitar in my family. It’s Awesome! It’s a 1938 Gibson F-hole. It’s beat at this point in life. But, John Rock has playing it, Joe Rock has played it, Jean Rock has played this guitar, Zach Rock has played it and my daughter, Brooklynn Rock, has played this guitar. Five generations have played this one Gibson guitar.” Rock’s been fronting Nameless in August for 6 years, the last 5 he has been practicing yoga, which helps him in with band life. “I love my bandmates more, as a person who can take a breath and appreciate people for [being] individuals. There hasn’t been 6 years every day with sunshine, but we love each other and I love every bandmate. People aren’t trying to be mean; it’s just them being themselves and they’re being the best they can be. I’m trying to be the best I can be. It’s helped me understand them and understand myself when I go and rehearse. You just have to know we’re all there to love.” Nameless in August’s new record Scars and Stars is out now. More information at their website. (https://namelessinaugust.com/) Photo by Sarah Bizanovich.

Pittsburgh’s Garter Shake brings to mind power feminist voices of rock music’s past presented for a modern world. The band features 3 vocalists, including guitars Jenn Jannon-Fisher. Well… kind of. “I’m more of a screamer [laughs]… In Garter Shake, Becki  is the main vocalist and is the front person. Maura, our bassist is this beautiful harmonizer and back up vocalist. Then I come in with this screaming that my bandmates call “chatty bratty” vocal style [laughs], so that’s what I bring.” Jenn Jannon-Fisher partnered with Becki Gallagher of Lofi Delphi to write songs that just happen to have political and feminist themes, and are already inspiring younger listeners and their parents. This was evident after they opened for Shonen Knife, Jenn was approached by a couple after the gig. “They were like ‘Oh my gosh! You guys were amazing! I have to take my teenage daughter to come see you guys!’ And that was the week before it was our release show and they came! The mom came and she brought her daughter and 2 or 3 of her daughter’s friends. It was really cool that a parent was like ‘My kid needs a role model like this wild group of women singing about misogyny’ [laughs]” Garter Shake’s new EP “Dirty Hair” is out now. Photo by Douglas Cole

Caleb Pogyor, front man for the indie rock back Talkers, has been thinking about ego quite a bit lately. His clarity for understanding the usefulness of the ego in songwriting is impressive. “During the songwriting process, I think it’s always interesting because I have my ego step out of the way. These songs come to me and then after I put down something, the ego steps back in and starts to rearrange it all. It feels like the ego steps out of the way, I put up an antenna and these songs come. Then the antenna drops and the ego comes back and I start working on the material.” Pogyor is very mindful, caring and pleasant person. It makes you wonder where his kind demeanor comes from. His mom? His dad? “Both my parents are great! I love both of them. Honestly, I think that I get all my good vibes from my Duda, my grandma, I call her my Duda. She’s 92 now and every single day I see her, she’s always super uplifting, super happy and fun to be around.” Talkers new album Dive is out now.

Rapper Nardo Says, a Virginia native who moved to Pittsburgh a in recent years, has always been a curious and creative person. This is evident in his first experience with a rap tape. “My aunt, she used to give me Fat Boy Tapes. I would try and play the Fat Boys tape on my Teddy Ruxpin, you know, back in the 80’s, I had a Teddy Ruxpin. I’m thinking ‘Well, maybe if I play this Fat Boys tape, maybe his mouth will move!’ So, of course it didn’t work! But, from Fat Boys, it came to LL Cool J. As I got older, I fell in love with Tribe Called Quest. I found them and Native Tongue and all that in my teenage years going into my adult years.” Nardo got his musical start young in life in his community’s church choir, where he also learned the drums. On his latest album Y.S.D.M., he writes about something he’s lived with since he was young – his stutter. “I always wanted to write a song about it because I felt like no one ever talked about it- especially in a rap song. A lot of people also have struggles with speech and this is something I’ve been dealing with ever since I was a kid. It helped shape who I am. As an adult, I embrace it. I think a lot of people don’t understand the other side. It’s easy to laugh and make fun of. But I don’t think people understand how difficult that is. I think people take for granted the basic function of talking and communicating.” Nardo Says’ song “Well Did I Stutter” is out now on his new album Y.S.D.M. Info at his website. (https://nardosays.com/)Photos by Annie Brewer

Pittsburgh’s Dan Getkin cites Ryan Adams as his entry to the alt-country genre. “When Cold Roses came out! One of my best friends in college was a big Ryan Adams fan and he showed me some stuff. Then Cold Roses came out, and he’s all over the genre- every album sounds different. That was the one that had it dialed in perfectly, I mean every track! “Blossom” was the first dance at my wedding, so yeah, it’s everywhere.” Music has been a part of his life since high school, however he has different professional aspirations. “I have a masters of divinity, which is a weird one to put on a resume if you’re not apply to be a minister, which I’m not. If you’re not the kind of person who went to youth group a lot, the idea of going to seminary is very confusing because I’m married.  You go into seminary with two paths: either your study strengthens everything OR it just shatters it, which is kind of what happened to me. It challenged my faith a lot and that comes across a lot in my music. Maybe this will be the last album where I deal with that.” Dan Getkin and The Twelve Six’s new album “Feeling Good About The End Times” is out now and more info is at their website. (http://dangetkin.com/) Photo by Sara LaCroix

The indie rock band Mariage Blanc, at this point are veterans of the Pittsburgh rock scene. The band was inspired by the songwriting chemistry between frontmen Josh Kretzmer and Matt Ceraso.“We write very well together and don’t have a lot of conflicts, which a lot of times in songwriting partnerships, people struggle with that kind of stuff. We’re always on the same page about things and it just happens to be an easy, natural thing for us to do. When you do something for so long with the same group of people… Josh Dotson and Josh Kretzmer and I have been doing this since the fall of 2007. They very much feel like brothers to me.”  After a Kretzmer made a huge move to California in 2014, the band made the bold choice to continue as a bi-coastal band. They recorded No Autobiography right before he left town, so their new album, Mirror Phrase, is their first project created with him on the other side of the country. “When he would come here, we would work on a tune and then he would go away for a while. It gave us a lot of time in between those visits to really sit with the songs and let them marinate, which I never really had a chance to do. Because when he’s here and we’re working, we’re focused on X Y or Z. The songs all really went through quite an evolution. We boiled them down to songs that we felt were vibing and very evocative. Mariage Blanc will release their new album locally October 12 at Brillo Box with a national release in November. More at their website. (http://music.mariageblanc.net/)

Singer songwriter Alan Getto began playing music as a teenager to keep up with some friends who were getting together to jam one summer. He started on harmonica and eventually switched to guitar because he knew he wanted to write his own songs. “I always had a proclivity with words. I wanted to be able to write words and I also used to be fascinated with the power of words in a poetic sense, like how to achieve the affect you’re going for. To be honest, it’s not about words or music. I feel like putting them both together is what gets me going and what gets me excited.” Getto’s been based in Brooklyn for the past couple of years, but made his way to Pittsburgh where his family lives. “I lived in Brooklyn for 2 ½ years. I was gonna release this album and go on tour. My family over here needed help rebuilding a grist mill from 1798, which is a story in itself, but I’ll leave it at that. They needed help with that and I needed to not pay Brooklyn rent while releasing this album.” Alan Getto released his latest album Versus last summer. More on his music at his website. (http://alangetto.com/ )

Treble NLS – “Lately”   Pittsburgh MC, Treble NLS got his moniker in kind of a round-about way. The rapper first started out under the name “Trouble”   “There was a point in my rap life where a lot of my raps were angry and very violent. It [sounded] like all I [wanted] was trouble. I used to have anger issues and literally that’s all I wanted when I got angry, was trouble. I had the foresight [to know that I was] not gonna be like this for the rest of my life. [It was] a phase [I was] going through. I [didn’t] want to have to live up to that angry persona. So how can I make this more neutral? I liked the way “trouble” sounds phonetically, so I’m like ‘Ooooooooh Treble.’”   Treble tacked on “NLS” to differentiate himself from other possible artists with the same name. The NLS stands for a couple different statements, including “Never Lose Sight.” Something that’s striking about Treble’s music is the guitar work against his rhyming. Treble’s history of the guitar started as a teenager when he taught himself by ear.   I would start off trying to play songs I heard on the radio. I listened to Bob Marley, his music had a lot of guitar. I learned how to play “Redemption Song.” Then I heard this song by The Weeknd called “Rolling Stone” and I’m like ‘Ooooh this sounds intricate! If I learned this, I could do anything.’ It took me a lot of time to learn that. Once I learned that, I learned that it was called “Finger Styling” and I liked finger style and prefer the way it sounds over chords.”   More on Treble is at his Soundcloud. (https://soundcloud.com/reb1e )  

Gregg Welty is an award winning banjo player who, at first, did not like the banjo. “I actually really didn’t like it for a long time. Banjos are loud and they have that sound. When you’re a little kid and you’re trying to talk to your dad, it’s right in your face. I really didn’t like it. When I was in middle school I wanted to learn to play an electric guitar. My dad plays very minimal bluegrass guitar, so he taught me everything he knew- on an electric guitar, by the way. Trying to learn those bluegrass licks made me appreciate how challenging bluegrass is.” Welty, a Pitt medical student is about to release his second album, Community that pays tribute to the Bluegrass community. This follows up his debut album, Memoir. “The first record was like ‘I’m a medical student now. I really like music and I’ve always been passionate about music. I don’t have that much time to perform, but I’m gonna release a record and see if I can do it!’ It was more about me. During that process, getting people to come together and build this project, it made me reflect on where I’ve been is more about how people have helped me get to where I am and how the bluegrass community has helped me get where I am. It’s more about other people and that influence on me. That’s really what this new project is about. And how can I represent what I think the bluegrass community is about in a project.” Gregg Welty’s new album Community will be released on October 1st. More information is at his website (https://www.greggwelty.com/ ).

The electronic duo Metacara is made up of Kyla Rae and Vince Nania, who met at the University of Pittsburgh. Vince was in another band that Kyla sang guest vocals on. While in that band, he had always been working on a certain type of music he thought Kyla’s voice would sound perfect on. “It’s rooted in pop as well as hip-hop; hip-hop especially for the instrumental part of it. You’ll hear a drum machine and maybe some distorted samples as maybe the backing track and then soulful or poppy vocals on top of it. It creates this really cool contrast and juxtaposition in the song, but its balanced enough where it sounds natural.” It’s not every day you come across a band that is strongly influence by both Joni Mitchell and Kayne West. “Although those artists are very different on the surface value when you dig into it, the common factor is soul. Joni Mitchell does that in a different way than Kanye, but that common factor is there. They’re both a little weird and they’re both very honest and genuine.” Metacara, who are releasing a handful of songs this year, more info is at their website. (http://metacara.com/) Listen to the full conversation with Vince on The Local 913 Podcast.Photo by Dylan Rosgone

The Living Street are made up of two very long time friends from Lower Burrell, PA, where they found a supportive music scene. “There was a music scene. It was actually Natrona Heights, a place called Roundhouse, Roundhouse Pizza. Lots of local bands played there. We had to work our way in because I didn’t know anyone that played in the music scene. Finally I made friends with a kid that played there and he got us a show there. The rest, as they say, is history on that.” That’s Nick Guckert of The Living Street, who along with his bandmate Edward Angelo, take influence from folk, rock and pop music. Guckert cites the band Fun. as an act that expanded his musical possibilities. “I remember thinking that this was really cool, new indie music. I really thought it was an interesting take on music that I hadn’t heard yet. That started my whole fascination with indie music and looking up these bands. I didn’t realize that you could look up music that wasn’t on the radio- there’s all these other bands! It kind of opened up this whole world.” The Living Street’s debut album is out now. More info on their website. (http://thelivingstreet.com)

Brittney Chantele is a Pittsburgh rapper who is very involved in local activism. Her activism is informed by a college degree she earned when she once thought she would become a police officer. “I figured I might as well go for criminal justice and political science. After my freshman year, I really wanted to chance my major. I recognized that being a police officer was not the way I wanted to go. I wanted to be a teacher of some sort. I ended up not changing my major. I am grateful for the fact that I majored in criminal justice. I learned a lot and it’s helped my activism.” Chantele is quite at home in the hip-hop and R&B genre, although lately, she’s been working on breaking out of that sound with an experimental pop album. “There’s been this thing brewing in me. I really want to do something so out of the box and so creative. I’ve really been struggling [with], you know, “Should I stray into a genre and is that okay?” What I’ve noticed is a lot female artists get a lot of backlash for changing their genres. I always was just like “Well, I’ve branded myself as a hip-hop artist and I can’t move into anything else.” And it’s not true.” Keep an eye out for future releases from Brittney Chantele that defy her current hip-hop sound. More on Brittney Chantele is at her website. (https://www.brittneychantele.com/ ) Listen to the full conversation with Brittney on The Local 913 Podcast.Photo by Dylan Rosgone

Electro-pop band Balloon Ride Fantasy’s sound has shifted over the years from a very tight indie rock outfit, to fantastically layered synth.“I felt like a lot of bands were doing the super-indie thing and it kind of got saturated. I was like “We should switch over to some synths; get some really hardcore cool synths and electric drums.” We tried to add a lot of harmonies. As we’ve progressed as a band, it’s more layers and more stuff,” says Chris Olszewski front man for the band.  Olszewski claims he’s totally fine giving up his guitar to primarily focus on lead vocals. “Actually I haven’t brought my guitar to show in like 2 or 3 years. I was like “Ah, I hate carrying my amp and my guitar. Forget it! I’m just gonna sing from now on.” It’s hard to sing and play anything complex.” Balloon Ride Fantasy lives up to its whimsical name not only sonically, but also in lyrical content “I feel like we actually write about fantastic things, like robots and stuff. There’s no allegory, I’m really just writing about robots and unicorns. It sounds stupid, but it’s not as stupid as it sounds.” Balloon Ride Fantasy’s new EP: BRF is out now. Find more on their website. (http://www.balloonridefantasy.com/ )Listen to the full conversation with Chris on The Local 913 Podcast.Photo: Tim Evans

The indie rock band Bikini Islands is fronted by Kyle Wacker, who, despite his band’s sunny name and surf-rock disposition, got the name from an ominous source. “I can up with the Bikini Islands name from this Gang of Four song called “I Found This Essence Rare.” And it’s about the H bomb because they did all the nuclear testing on Bikini Atoll.” Wacker’s approach to Bikini Islands was not so simple, at first. “For a while I was really into being weird and doing weird time signatures and all these key changes in my songs. I feel like I never really understood the fundamentals. I was just trying to do something that was super difficult. With this project in the beginning we were just going to really be simple.” It actually turns out, that the pop-punk band Blink 182, one of Kyle’s early influences, still has a strong pull for the songwriter. “That simple structure that they have in their songs; the dynamics they use somehow find a way into the stuff that I’m doing. Even though I don’t want to be pop-punk-sounding, I still feel like it’s embedded in there and there’s nothing I can do to get rid of it entirely.” Bikini Islands’ latest is the EP New Haunts. More on the band is at their website. (https://www.bikiniislands.net/) Photo by Kevin Gubish

Pittsburgh MC Jimmy Bucek has a very interesting vocal delivery. Matched with his unusual lower register, he sounds more like he’s reciting poetry than rapping. He claims he used to go a lot faster, but that progressed as he worked out his style. “I needed to slow down a bit. I got real into pauses, like where to take correct pauses. My friend Garrett started talking to me about the swing and to not leave everything on the one. Trying to be very precise with cadence and making it snap right before the snare and the one. I put a lot of focus on how things line up and how to complete the story.” To top it off, Bucek has gracefully matched his passion for hip-hop with his love of jazz. Although, according to Jimmy, the two genres are more alike than they are different. “Hip-hop is all about the feel and the feel is welcoming. You put on a beat, it should be casual and you should be enjoying it. Something about those elements in jazz are very similar. Hip-hop is four bars and a loop that repeats over and over. It’s about getting that loop so perfect that you can listen to it over and over again and it’s still beautiful. Something about creating that feeling in hip-hop is very similar to the feeling in jazz.” More music from Jimmy Bucek is on his Soundcloud. (https://soundcloud.com/jimmybucek) Photo by Alex Corrie.