News & Updates
April 2024: ROOTS FUNK! I’m on tour this month again, with a new sound I’m calling Roots Funk / Modern Americana. I’m trying to mix the Roots music I can’t escape considering my background with the classic funk/hiphop grooves I love. I was listening to G Love and some Gorillaz again to see if that’s what I’m doing, but honestly I’m way too much a Cab Calloway (I wish)/Freddy Mercury to pull of that kind of chill. So really this is a sound I have no reference for, it’s just me. I’ve also been inspired seeing Buffalo Nichols doing so well for having a modern take on the Blues. So many folk artists have spent their time trying to recreate sounds of the past, probably thinking that the way to contribute as an artist is to remind people of the good parts of what mainstream culture has left behind. But think about what was also going on back in the 1930s, etc. Being Queer, Black, being a woman…maybe that wasn’t a time you really want to dive back into, so using music for nostalgia about a time that really wasn’t so great in many many ways is not my thing. I want Banjolectric to really create something new, to look forward, again as I say, to a future free from rigid thoughts about our culture and ourselves. Be curious, be undefined, be flexible, and be yourself - not just a postcard from a time that never was.
March 2024: Well hot damn! Just when you thought things were going to sit an simmer for a bit. I’ve started adding gospel-inspired organ into my loops for that instant-happiness a soulful organ brings, and sonically to add sustain and even some new lead lines into the mix. I’m experimenting with multiple drum kit patches to give different songs more individual character, and I’m adding some deep low synth sounds to fill out the banjo’s “pluckiness” a bit. All of this is working so well! Being in France has also helped me see that Banjolectric really is an Americana show, there’s no escaping that with a banjo show, so I’m leaning into it. I have a sound I’m calling “Roots Funk” and some cool upcoming shows where I get to really premier that new emphasis in my sets….including my next Baltic Tour! I’ve been really lucky to spend the last two years with a nice balance between performing and woodshedding. I can’t tell you how many times I have left my “music studio” just feeling so lucky to be making the sounds that I discover in there. I have a goal for this summer to write more new songs, though. I want to see how my songwriting might change now that my song arrangements have gotten so much fuller than when I started out. Let’s see…..
November 2023: I wasn’t expecting this, but I have the feeling that my Banjolectric show is somehow “complete,” at least for now. I feel like creatively, the “ding” from the creative oven has gone off, and now I really have the show I intended make when I started this project in Detroit. It’s an immensely satisfying feeling, so now my focus is really going to be on finding some kind of professional development/management team to get Banjolectric in front of more audiences. Still, so much is happening…since my last update, I’ve gotten an endorsement deal from Pietsch Banjos, one of the highest-regarded banjo makers in the world, recently inducted into the Banjo Hall of Fame in Oklahoma. I still don’t have words to describe my epic tour in Estonia and Latvia…but I’m going back in April, and really as many times as I can from now on! I pushed out a self-produced 9-track album of my “Global Funk” live show sound, and I teamed up with Balkan Bump and Mah Ze Tar back in the USA for a massive global-electronica party. I have my fingers crossed to be selected to perform at Tallinn Music Week this year…wish me luck! But no matter what, the train keeps moving, so I’ll see you soon.
July 2023: Holy Mole what a Summer it has been. I’ve played a ton of shows in France, Germany, and Holland, and I have a killer tour in Finland, Estonia, and Latvia coming soon. I have a new album in the works updating my sound to the “Global Funk” genre I’ve settled into. I produced the live video for Come With Me that I’ve needed so I can approach management companies in France. Honestly, this is a really short post for now, because this train is rolling, and I gotta get back to work so I can have the album done before my September tour! Wooot!! Global Funk train keeps rolling on down the line….!
March 2023: The US National Tour with Dirtwire, Vincent Antone, and Balkan Bump was such a great experience, the crowds, the venues, the conversations in the tour bus (“Ruvca.”) The trip felt like a transformation for me - my time wandering in the desert finding out what I really have to offer as a musician/performer and what Banjolectric is really all about. The show is about Joy. It’s about the Joy of playing with the unexpected, and about the Joy of being in the moment and surrendering to the music. I’ve taken the last four months to workshop my sound here in France (Bretagne) and to get to know my new city. I’ve added live finger drumming/samples, I’m letting my songs breathe more- taking the time to develop, and I’m playing with more total-mix effects to give the set more of a dance club feel. Banjolectric is becoming more like a “Live-Electro” looping show, but through real SONGS that you can take home and remember the next day, not just instrumental grooves. Also importantly Banjolectric is 100% LIVE. All live sampling, live looping, live effects, no automation, no click. One of the things I really learned from the last tour was how sometimes, my mistakes were the best parts of the set! My entire mix crashed in Los Angeles from a computer glitch and I had to start over, but in the moment that became really fun, joking with the audience, and when I came back everyone in the room was with me 100%, like we were doing my set together. Being completely LIVE, I can adjust the tempo and the groove to the specific moment. And the huge performance risks I take by being live lets me show the audience I TRUST them, and that we’re really in this together. My favorite times on stage are when it feels like I could get off the stage after my song and someone else would jump up to take my spot - we are all just sharing an experience, and keeping it LIVE equalizes the relationship of the performer and the audience through vulnerability.
August 2022: I’ve made the decision to split my time between the US and Europe. I’m landing tomorrow in Rennes, France where I will have a second set of Banjolectric everything for European shows. A phenomenal banjo luthier, Pietsch Banjos in Bremen, has even offered to make me a custom instrument, so I am one step closer to having the Moroccan-inspired banjo I have dreamed about all along! Meanwhile I am getting prepared for a 7-week national support tour with Dirtwire that kicks off in October! We’ll be playing massive shows all across the US starting in good ol’ Detroit, so Banjolectric is throwing a special show for the friends and fam I haven’t seen in a long time. I’ll be joined by my favorite clarinet badass, Leni Green for the first three shows of the tour, and hopefully Rocky will come on stage to dance “To Be Alive” with me, like she used to perform with my band “Sold Only As Curio.” Meanwhile I am starting a new project based in The Netherlands called “2 Frontiers” with the famous banjoist and multi-instrumentalist Sjoerd van Ravenzwaaij. That band is Dark Western Fantasy music and the first few shows have been really exciting. Every time I write an entry in this “news” section I am surprised about how much is happening.
June 2022: So far this year I’ve played a pair of amazing raucous shows with Dirtwire, hosted one of the coolest immersive events I’ve ever been involved with (in May,) upgraded my setup to include a lot more DJ control effects that will up the danceability of my show, and I’ve decided to move the base of Banjolectric operations to France. I’m starting a new musical project in The Netherlands that should be released to the world next month, and so we’re going to just try living in Europe for a while. I’ll be back in October for a massive US tour - details TBA. The future of Banjolectric is looking wild in the best possible ways!
December 2021: Despite everything in the world, this has been a great year. I released my third EP, two videos, played some great shows at killer venues, went to make music in Europe (even if the pandemic made that a different kind of tour this time) I’ve upgraded my gear, and if you were at my Wonder Ballroom show you’ve heard some of the new sounds taking the show into the dance-driven realm of heavy beats it has meant to be in for a while - it’s been a blast. So where are we now? I’m taking a little break from shows and looking for a producer to work with to put out some pro-level studio tracks of some songs from the EPs. I’m also looking forward to working with a graphic designer for a bit of a graphics makeover. And as always: practicing, refining, innovating, collaborating, and having a blast! I feel like I’ve been working up to 2022 for a while, and now I’m excited for what the new year will bring.
November 2021: Holy Shish Kebab! I’m opening up for Dirtwire at the Wonder Ballroom!! This is such a perfect opportunity for me to reveal something I’ve been working on for a while now - creating more of a dance music experience during my shows. I’ve always wanted Banjolectric shows to be more danceable. Now I get to unleash all those hours of practice while getting to open for one of my favorite bands, AND a band that was super encouraging to me when they first premiered - Dirtwire proved to me that there was space in the world for modern global fusion pop, using banjo in unorthodox ways.
ALSO - My new album “In The Center” is finally releasing with two music videos, and there’s a show all about that at the Alberta Street Pub - we’re going to project the video featuring 75 Portland dancers, too. :)
October 2021: Back in the United States! It’s been great to digest everything I saw, experience, learned while I was traveling. I’m thinking a lot about Naowel, the only other person in the world I know of doing original banjo looping with old-time technique, and Alambaya whose shows prove how deeply and richly you can experience comparatively minimal music played on one of the banjo’s progenitors, the Takamba (from Mali.) I also started a new two-banjo project based in Amsterdam…but more on that later.
September 2021: I’m taking the month off an traveling France with my banjo. I played one show in Paris and then tracked down three banjo players that I only discovered because of their live streams during quarantine back in the early days of Covid: Alambaya, the project of Paris’s Marco Fonalf, a player, Jordan Kay from Saelkie Folk an Old-Time banjo player in Paris, and Nowel which is Léna Rongione’s act out of Rennes using banjo with live looping to do original beat-driven music - the ONLY thing I have found that compares to the music I make even if our styles are quite different.
August 2021: Hello from Holland. I’m taking a month in the lovely village of Almere to work on a new two-banjos project with the incredible Sjoerd van Ravenzwaaij. We’re calling the project “Two Frontiers.” It’s an acoustic Americana project, all original songwriting. It’s been absolutely lovely being in Holland and such a pleasure to be working with such a virtuosic musician as Sjoerd.
July 2021: They said I couldn’t do it - They said I couldn’t finish the most ambitious music video I have ever done (to the most ambitious song I have ever done) while also packing for Europe at the end of the month and playing a massively cool Banjolectric / Sold Only As Curio show at Alberta Street Pub…BUT I DID IT! Wow - July has been craaazy. The Alberta St. Pub show featuring Sold Only As Curio’s Detroit drummer, Julien Saker, plus special guests like Cam Brown, Andrew Alikhanov, and Zaji Cox dancing to multiple songs…what a great show! We got video of it, so expect something to get edited from all the footage at some point. And when the In The Center album releases on November 12th, look out for the video for “افترقنا / To Be Alive” featuring the incredible Bevin Victoria dancing…what a great way to wrap up the summer in Potland before heading off to Europe!
June 2021: I am shooting a fun music video for “How We Get Through,” one of the songs on the new album. The song is about how sometimes the things that really have the most power to cheer us up in life are pretty easy to come by - things like being outside, spending time with friends, dancing….so the whole video is regular people out in the world dancing to the song and being happy. Yes - I’ve been randomly approaching people on the street with a bluetooth speaker and my video camera. DIY music video, baby! I’ve met so many great people making this video (a little over 75 to be exact) and together we’ve made something pretty special. The In The Center album releases November 12th, so look out for it!
May 2021: Working with Kevin Hahn at Opal Studios has been great - the newest album “In The Center” sounds awesome! This album completes the three-album project I started where all sounds on the record are made with a banjo. I’m hoping for some equally good press around the project. The official release will be this Summer before I…wait for it…head BACK TO EUROPE in August! I can’t believe this is happening again, but there’s a recording project waiting for me in Amsterdam, and some performing opportunities in Italy, France, Belgium, and even North Africa so I’m going! Locally, I’ve been performing on top of my completely independent mobile truck stage, and meeting a lot of really great musicians I’m excited to work with for future projects.
April 2021: Mixing for the new album “In The Center” has started at Opal Studio in Portland, OR. It looks like this installment will be 6 songs, and I am very excited about how this album branches out a bit. The majority of the material is new - written during the difficulties of the past year. This makes the album a very personal one for me. There will be guest players featured, including a vocalist from Tunisia, singing with me for an original bilingual English/Arabic song. Expect a mix of genres and also music that completely defies genre, and again, all the instrument sounds were made from a banjo.
March 2021: Tracking for the new album “In The Center” is almost finished. Next comes mixing/mastering, and creating a new music video so I can release the last installment of Banjolectric’s debut series of EPs. This is so exciting! The new album is mostly songs that were written during the multiple crises of 2020, although none are explicit about that context. You’ll hear the influences of neo-soul, hard rock, swing, hip hop, afro pop, and maybe I’ll be able to squeeze in a tune in Arabic I have been writing, too. I look forward to sharing this album soon!
April 2020: Stay safe everybody. Banjolectric will be doing lots of streaming concerts and recording for the new album “In The Center.” For streaming shows I am hosting myself, go to www.facebook.com/banjolectric. I’ve also submitted to the NPR Tiny Desk Contest with a song I wrote in this moment called “How We Get Through” which will now be on the upcoming album. You can check out a live version here in the Videos tab.
March 2020: Banjolectric will be playing a very special concert in collaboration with Carlos Capacho, one of the world’s preeminent Venezuelan cuatro players. Capacho is known for having expanded the sonic repertoire of the iconic Venezuelan instrument, and he will be joining my set of boundary-breaking banjo music for a visionary international concert as part of the festival series: Destination Venezuela.
December 2019: Recording starts for “In The Center” the third and final album of the Banjolectric debut. November 26th 2019: Pop Matters reviews the new music video saying: “Banjolectric continues to pedal forward with boundary-breaking, banjo-centric musical innovations.”
November 19th 2019: Official release show for “As Above” album at Heldeke in Tallinn Estonia, featuring Estonia’s premier bellydancer, Berit Aicha Vill!
November 18th 2019: Americana Highways previews “As Above” album saying: Banjolectric combines innovative technical skill with raw gritty vocals to achieve an enchanting effect. You’ll be absolutely mesmerized by the eclectic blend.
November 4th 2019: Banjolectric’s “As Above” European album release tour, engage!
November 27th 2018: “So Below” was named one of PopMatters’ 20 BEST FOLK ALBUMS OF 2018
November 26th 2018: Track, "Pope Lick Road” was featured on Americana Daily
November 20th 2018: Nice write-up from Grateful Web calling Banjolectric “Fresh” “Original” “Innovative”
November 14th 2018:
Great review of the So Below album by Jonathan Frahm of PopMatters! “Banjolectric Rebrands the Instrument As A Modern Pop Machine” Article: https://www.popmatters.com/banjolectric-so-below-album-premiere-2619597760.html
October 2018:
The album release tour in the EU was a blast! Thanks to everyone who stuck around after the shows to talk and pick up merch. Now I’m back in Detroit getting excited to release the album digitally on Nov 16th and physically in February, details TBA. Look for the album preview in PopMatters international magazine: popmatters.com !!
July 2019: Dates are all confirmed for the EU album release tour! 21st Century Americana crosses the pond this summer - check out the tour schedule and come say hi!
March 2018: Banjolectric was an official selection at the 2018 Detroit Performers Expo. Here are some comments from the jurors:
"So fresh! Banjolectric's originality leaves you wanting to hear more."
"It's amazing what Banjolectric can do."
"Banjolectric's blending of genres is great for summer festivals."