Natasha W. In the middle of the Grove House gallery, students sit on a purple mattress, their gazes drift over a collection of dreamy artwork and poetry. To their right lies a journal and a note inviting them to add their favorite dreams to it. The atmosphere is whimsical but peaceful: it’s a space for reflection, creativity, and conversation. Danielle New, PZ’19, a double … Continue reading Danielle New: On Dreaming And Community
The Outback Team wishes to express their disappointment with the underfunded status of the arts at Pitzer College. Student creators have little to no budget available to procure their supplies, student event organizers are forced to use student equipment to run events, and student spaces for creativity are either missing, scarce, or derelict (in the case of the Pitzer Music Co. Room). The Outback Team … Continue reading The Outback’s Statement On The Status Of The Arts At Pitzer College
Anna Koppelman & Eamon Morris To be honest, Lost Sock is pretty hard to find. The four-person band, formed earlier this semester, is nearly impossible to find in the same place, and the members are so busy with their own projects that you start to feel a little excited just from talking to them. Lost Sock is an eclectic collection of people. Some of them … Continue reading How to Find a Lost Sock
Sharrieff Muhammad ‘21 officially started making music when he was sixteen but he has been rapping at every opportunity for as long as he can remember.
“Music was something that was always there for me, it was something that I could always fall back on when I had a bad day,” said Muhammad.
He describes his music as being influenced by hip hop, jazz, and soul music, and the creative process as a state of constant self-editing. This, he says, pushes him to constantly be better and is his favorite part of making music.
He says for this project he was particularly inspired by Amy Winehouse and Saba because of their abilities to take pain and reproduce it in a beautiful way. Some of his all-time favorite artists include Kanye West, Childish Gambino, and Jay-Z, because of their versatility within and outside of hip hop music.
Two of the songs on his album,“Used to Be,” and “Southside Soliloquies,” take some of Muhammad’s challenging times and tell stories of self-evolution.
His album, “Hubris Insecurities,” dropped today, April 26th, on Spotify, SoundCloud, Tidal, and Apple Music: it’s about the ups and downs in life, and the necessary lessons that the downs bring.
Carson Barry is someone you’d want to go on a long car ride with. She’d leave the windows rolled down, let you eat in her car, and would never comment if you un-clipped your seat belt and let your feet swing onto the dashboard. She’s likable. She gets the joke before anyone else in the room does and has probably seen more of the world than you have, but she’d never be the one to announce this.
She’s secure enough in herself to simply sit, and to watch as her universe of people and things move. This ability to observe and to see the beauty of the reality in front of her for what it is, shows in her songs, which hum with all-knowing confidence.
There’s a hug to her voice, a certain comfort, that finds you as you listen to her music. In their tone and lyrics, her songs seem to whisper “it’s all going to be okay, you’re okay.” On her track “Sunday,” Carson sings,
“And the ocean hits me like she’s made of wine. And I’d let her break me if I had the time, but instead, I’m alright, we’re all fine, come over on Sunday because on Sunday…we can lie down between the Autumn trees and see everything as it seems.”
Carson’s music validates you. She’s exasperated by the pace of the week right alongside you, but as an artist, she has an ability to see from above, which lends her music to also give you the promise of hope— to let you believe that there’s a Sunday to come. A Sunday to be young, to feel joy and the air on your skin.
I sat down with Carson to talk about her creative process, her EP release, and how being at Pitzer College has affected and changed her work.
Kevin Woods is brushing his teeth and dancing to a song I never would think someone could dance to.
I’m sitting on a beanbag chair in his warmly lit room on a Saturday afternoon waiting for our interview to start, and I’m utterly transfixed.
Woods, a first-year at Pitzer, has been making music his whole life. He’s drifted from instrument to instrument, stopping only when he’s gotten bored.
Woods was born in the United States but spent most of his life in the Cayman Islands. “It was amazing. We’d just go out into the woods and do really stupid things. We’d climb trees and get bitten by these crazy yellow ants. We called them Wee-Wees. We had this childhood club called the Wub club.”
His description, like his impromptu dance recital, is surreal. In a way, it makes sense, because his music is the same way. His songs contain youtube clips of music ranging from jazz to eccentric Italian vocals. He then combines, adjusts, and alters them with his keyboard and a music production software to create a (genre-type) of sound.
Continue reading “Inside Kevin Woods’ Ethereal, Trippy, and Surreal Music”
