Artists
Isabeau Waia’u Walker
Isabeau Waia’u Walker has had to get creative to attempt the question of genre: “bright gloom,” “joy adjacent;” “island of broken, demented toys.” Hailing from her homeland Hawaii and having spent the latter half of her life in Oregon’s Pacific Northwest. Unless touring with Y La Bamba, in which she sings backup vocals, her feet and roots are always close to the shores of the Pacific Ocean (yearning for and pulled by her packs). Experience, observations and negotiations with race, culture, gender and class are inextricably woven into her purpose and product. Songs of love. Songs of community and fight, of life and self. She lives in attractive vulnerability and sincere humility despite the power of her performances and songs. An early retirement as a full time secondary school teacher in 2019 has allowed her to tour, play local shows, and record more, releasing her EP, Better Metric, in 2020, then her first LP, Body, in 2022, with engineer, bandmate and friend Ryan Oxford at The Center for Sound, Light and Color. Since those releases she’s unsurprisingly caught the attention of and has been featured in and on several publications, podcasts and programs such as OPB, Live Wire Radio, Vortex Music Magazine, Willamette Week, KEXP. Isabeau has dedicated this last year to the anticipated release of her third record, an LP titled Heavyweight, out in 2024.
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ann annie
ann annie is the stage name for Portland based composer Eli Goldberg.
The project began as a way for Eli to explore the world of modular synths and ambient music. As the project grew and took form, he slowly introduced various acoustic instruments into his compositions – most notably in their recent album ‘the wind’.
This new sound combines aspects of classical orchestras with string and horn instruments, old country guitar twang and that original electronic modulation to form something wholly unique.
Their live show consists of a trio playing piano, saxophone, cello and modular synth performing dreamy, sometimes improvisational, chamber music mixed with atmospheric synth soundscapes.
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Ryan Oxford
Growing up in rural Ohio, Ryan Oxford never really experienced any sort of formative music subculture. His friends back then were more likely to drive a tractor to school than to host house shows. He’d watch MTV’s 120 Minutes, but rarely connected with anything he heard. Instead, his interest grew independently from more personal experiences.
He remembers being strangely drawn to the smell of the old RCA turntable in the attic of his grandparents’ duplex. There was also the deep admiration he felt watching his dad embarrass his sister with shameless air guitar solos to Bowie’s “Five Years”. Perhaps that performance inspired his own debut - at age six, dancing to “These Boots Are Made for Walking” in front of his mom’s full-length mirror with an audience he didn’t exactly know was there.
As Oxford got older and moved away from home, this interest became an obsession. His self-education started in Akron, listening to salvaged, broken and moldy 45s at Jimi Imij’s unofficial Ohio Historical Music Society. From there, inspired by reading about how Brian Wilson stayed in the studio to write and record Pet Sounds while the rest of the Beach Boys were touring, he spent his entire tax return on an 8-track tape machine and taught himself the only way he knew how - by making mistake after mistake. Ten years later, Oxford’s a producer, composer and songwriter based in Portland, Oregon. He lives in a loft above his studio, Color Therapy Recording, where he recorded, produced and mixed his debut album.
Fa Fa Fa Fired is a long time coming for Oxford, a testament to his determined, singular path. It’s full of twangy guitars, sassy backing vocals and the sweet hiss of reel-to-reel tape that he still can’t shake. The songs are playful, charming, melancholy and honest. They’re mostly about being dumb and in love and sometimes just about being dumb. The album was recorded with help from Dominik Schmidt and features Christian Blunda (Mean Jeans, Patsy's Rats), Nick Dewitt (Pretty Girls Make Graves), Scott Hartlaub (Jessica Lea Mayfield) and Arjan Miranda (Black Mountain, Strand of Oaks).
Fa Fa Fa Fired is available now digitally and on limited edition white cassette.
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