ARTIST HIGHLIGHT

from Issue 02 - Featuring Kendra Farber

Kendra Farber

Photographers: Sam Wake - @samwake_ Tyler Cobbs - @tylercobbsart Eddie Rehfeldt - @fatforhead Clementine Hage - @clementine.hage

ARTIST HIGHLIGHT

Spoon Benders

We were super stoked when Spoon Benders (a Portland local band) agreed to be featured in this issue. Before COVID, you could often bump into Katy and AJ at a local favorite coffee shop just of the Ladd’s addition in Inner SE Portland called Cellar Door. In this article, Spoon Benders tell their tale and share a bit about how they have weathered COVID as a band.

@spoonbenders Lets start with an introduction! Who are the Spoon Benders?

Spoon Benders are Katy Black (Vox/Guitar), Buffy Pastor (Vox/Guitar), Aj Herald (Vox, Drums), and Velvet (Bass). As a whole we are a psych-punk band based out of Portland, OR; as people we are an amalgamation of bad jokes, riffs, friendship, and have a general appreciation of jazz and all things heavy.

What are your names?

Katy Black - Santa Cruz, CA Buffy Pastor - Tampa, FL Velvet - Sacramento, CA Aj Herald - Santa Barbara, CA

Katy - Somebody in my high school said I’d like it and so I moved without visiting.

Aj - I had to get out of Los Angeles.

Buffy - I was living in Olympia, WA and wanted to live in a bigger city and my partner and I shared the feeling to move to Portland. Was definitely inspired to move to Portland for the music scene.

Velvet - My family moved here when I was a young Velvet. How did you meet?

KT & Aj met while Aj was working as a dog walker in Portland. Aj would stop into the coffee shop that kt was working at. They exchanged numbers but didn’t reach out to one another until serendipitously they ran into one another at a bar and decided there was something bigger than them pulling them together. Kt met Buffy at a house show that Buffy was hosting and performing in, in Olympia, WA. Kt met Velvet through working together at a local music store Do any of you ride motorcycles?

Aj - nope, lol. Been on the back of a motorcycle once in my life, rode around the grassy countryside in Gainesville, GA. kt - Grew up on the back of my Dad’s Harley. Buffy - I do not but I am very much looking forward to having a motorcycle someday. I love the movie Easy Rider. Velvet - I’ve spent a lot of time on the back of them.

Unofficially, the band started when Aj asked Katy if she wanted to jam sometime in late 2018.

Officially our first show was in May 2019 Where did the name come from?

The name comes from an acquaintance Katy had made who let her in to know that she was a Spoon Bender. She told Katy that she felt Katy had the ability to bend spoons as well.

It was weird but felt right, she still hasn’t tried to bend a spoon though. She also refuses to watch The Matrix because everyone thinks that’s where the name came from. What are some of your inspirations?

Kt - Books make me write; neuroscience - shows me how metal nature is and how important (and how unimportant) life is. Jazz reminds me that I’ll never be a “professional” musician and the Pleasure Seekers remind me that I have no excuse.

Aj - meditation and the larger connection and musical language I can tap into while playing the drums. Breath. Books. Love. Gospel and Jazz drummers. R&B singers. Human resilience. Grit. Growth made through challenges.

Buffy - The maelstrom of the 60’s. Music, movies - everything about it is so inspiring. Comparing late 60’s politics to today and reflecting on the things that have changed and what has remained the same. Traveling and living in new places. The Simpsons.

Velvet - Music, obviously. Films, and specifically special effects. I’m a huge horror nerd, and really good/so bad that they are really good horror movies with low budgets are a huge inspiration of mine. Injustice always inspires my music, and me, to do better. And also cute animals and beautiful women.

What was 2020 like for you? How did you find a way forward when there was nowhere to play?

Taking a moment to think back on 2020, as an individual and collectively as artists - brings up a lot of stark thoughts and with those come complex emotions; and further, each of our own reactions to the emotions.

(Aj) In 2020 I woke up thinking about living in a country with a leader whose ethics, beliefs, global policies I dissent from. It brought up fear and anger to be living in my homeland with a leader who, to me, seemed to cherish discord over connection. Which led us as a band to be closer and love each other more.

I think about waking up to watch our community and communities beyond ours falling apart.

Waking up and having to make the heartbreaking decision to cancel our first tour as a band…

(Aj) One of my initial thoughts about being a live performer during a time of Shelter-in-Place and quarantine was - ok, take pause. there’s a massive metaphorical boulder that was just thrown in my path; now how do I move around it? I came at the predicament with curiosity. I pitched pre-recording a live set and streaming that on the web, however as a band we did not want to participate on the open social media platforms that were available during the beginning of 2020. There were a handful of show offers thrown our way but we felt it was too risky to call a group of people to gather and possibly contribute to the spread of COVID-19. So we went inward.

At the beginning of 2020 we had some lineup changes to the band that also added struggle. There were definitely moments that felt like everything was slipping through our fingers. But we kept getting together. We were a “pod.” Our own little Spoon Benders ecosystem. We continued meeting twice a week to rehearse. We continued to create and release new merchandise. We shot our first music video and recorded three new singles. All of these things done together collectively, connecting our creativity and building the hivemind that Spoon Benders is.

Our first year as a band was a whirlwind, sometimes playing out as much as 4 times a week. Our second year we were forced to stay underground, but that didn’t stop us from working. We feel like we’re being wound back on a catapult and are fucking ready to soar.

Kt - Bunk bar with Mr. Elevator, Bellingham Gross Fest, Firkin when Matt Pike put a shot of Tequila on my amp. Liquor Store was always a fun show. Our NYE house show that went fully awry - we were booked to play a house show that approx 300 people showed up to; when the cops were called to address a situation. We made a quick call, rolled up to the DP house and played into the new year.

Aj - American Legion was surprisingly fun; Bellingham Gross fest was amazing, had the opportunity to meet and play with great bands. Liquor Store was ALWAYS great. Anarchy Beach birthday show was beautiful, playing drums and looking out to the Willamette River

Buffy - NYE 2020 - having our set be cancelled then end up playing at the DP House as the ball dropped was a magical night. Killingsworth Dynasty was a perfect size and great turn out.

Favorite venue that’s not a venue: Anarchy Beach. Favorite venue that is a venue: The Karate Church in Bellingham, WA for Gross Fest. Firkin will always have my heart.

What are your favorite songs to play?

Kt - Cut Behind Aj - No Exit Buffy - Croaker Velvet - Cut Behind

Tell us about the music video you filmed?

(Buffy) Quite the learning experience, I’d never done a music video until that. It was so cool to work with Ed (dentist) and have his vision to help us and not confuse us while making this. Certain challenges like having to do the same makeup for each day of shooting, which the quality definitely went down by the last day. All-in-all it made me want to shoot more music videos, I didn’t want it to end.

Spoon Benders

Dura Mater in Latin means “Tough Mother.” aj originally pitched this as a band name idea, was inspired by this name while studying about the brain; Dura Mater is the name for the cells that create a tough, outer layer around the brain.

Dura Mater is a collection of the very first songs the Spoon Benders wrote, recorded, and performed together.

Kt: This album was the first time that I ever processed a lot of heavy stuff that happened to me during my childhood. The name Dura Mater is symbolic of my decision to become my own tough mother, you can take that however you want to. Making music has been my pathway through processing experiences I went through as a child. When performing this album my intentions were to open a portal of empathy between me and the listener. I handed off harbored emotions that can live inside other people now as what hopefully will be a good experience or at least something they can relate to. Without doing much, the people who have listened to this album have helped me more than they know, and all I can hope for is to be able to help them a little in return.

Aj: Making this album with Katy, Buffy, and our then bass player Phoebe was an amazing, self-challenging experience. Being the oldest member in the band I felt humbled to play with such talented and brutally tenacious musicians and friends. Following in the steps of Prog Rock, Jazz and classical music, we took the chance to deconstruct the traditional pop song structure for every tune on Dura Mater. Everyone in this band is a self-starter and is eager to have their paws in every creative endeavor we approach, which made this album even more fun to work on. Working with our engineer Hadrian Kindt and the rest of the bandmates to live record, mix, and master was so fulfilling. The struggle to “get it right” or play your part “perfectly” versus accepting the human condition of being imperfect and accepting those imperfections into your art can be expanded into so many regions of my everyday life.

Buffy: It was the first album I’ve ever recorded to tape all the way though, and made it in 3 consecutive days. There was something classic about going into the studio and busting out the entire album in 3 days. It was my first experience recording with someone who was recording a full album for the first time and observing them going through that experience. Was a reminder how important it is to be patient and not rush a recording process.