Latest / Resource Report / Resource Report 9 - Markly Morrison

Transcript

Resource Report 9 - Markly Morrison · Resource Report

0:20
Hello and welcome to Resource Report, where we
0:22
share with you important information about local
0:25
nonprofits and resource organizations that support
0:29
the community we share, produced by Pathways
0:32
to Agency. I am your host, Rainmaker. I had a
0:36
remote interview with Markly Morrison, who
0:38
is involved in a few productions, that we're
0:41
going to discuss today. These include Low Profile,
0:44
Markley's podcast, which you can catch right
0:47
here on KAOS, and the Olympia Music History
0:50
Project, as well as the outdoor concert formerly
0:54
known as Scherler Sundays. Here's Markley. I
1:09
am here with... Markley Morrison, and he's involved
1:14
in quite a few different things that we're going
1:16
to talk about today. But he has been working
1:19
with Low Profile the longest. Hi, Markley. How
1:24
are you doing? Doing good. Doing good. Getting
1:27
over a bug, but on the up and up. Awesome. I'm
1:32
so glad that you can be here today. So let's
1:36
find out about Low Profile. Tell me about that.
1:41
So, I guess low profile started when I had been
1:49
sort of out of the live music touring game, which
1:53
is why I moved to Olympia in 2006. I moved here
1:57
to join the band Lake. Some of my old friends
2:01
from the L .A. area had moved up here and started
2:05
this band called Lake with some Washington folks.
2:10
was looking for a reason to get out of the Mojave
2:14
Desert where i grew up and they said come up
2:18
to Olympia check it out maybe you should join
2:20
our band and hang and uh i i did and i think
2:24
by the time i was here i was in like six or seven
2:27
bands within a month oh my gosh um just like
2:30
house shows every night and uh i think gosh four
2:36
or five months into living here i was on my first
2:39
tour um continued touring extensively for like
2:44
10 years and then uh in that time i got married
2:48
and we started having kids by the time we had
2:51
our second kid i was like well i don't think
2:53
i'm going to be going on tour for any time in
2:56
the near future and so um i kind of stopped performing
3:01
with Lake they the project had kind of split
3:05
out between different cities at that point and
3:09
uh I wanted to be involved in music still in
3:13
some way. And it kind of stems from all I could
3:19
ever talk about and think about was music. And
3:21
I think I was getting on my wife's nerves by
3:25
only ever talking about the music that was interesting
3:29
me. I'm like, well, there's people out there
3:31
who want to hear about this stuff. And so I started
3:35
doing research on this. pedal steel guitar player
3:39
named Pete Drake who was a Nashville session
3:43
musician and producer who died in the 80s and
3:47
I started reaching out to people who had worked
3:49
with him I reached out to his widow I reached
3:52
out to his son and I taped these very off -the
3:57
-cuff interviews with them and worked for months
3:59
stringing it all into an hour plus podcast episode
4:05
And I was really enjoying doing that work, wanted
4:09
to get better at it. So I released my first episode,
4:13
started kind of finding the format, figuring
4:17
out what exactly the show was. And about a year
4:21
into it, I had talked to a lot of my favorite
4:24
musicians that were kind of up on a pedestal
4:26
to me at this point. And gotten to know them
4:31
and really know their backstory. Like kind of
4:34
more obscure artists who not many people are
4:37
writing about them. Not much is known. And so
4:40
I was able to get info from the source. And I'm
4:43
like, okay, so this is an oral history project.
4:47
And that was in 2018 when I started working on
4:52
that. In 2020, I enrolled at the Evergreen State
4:57
College. And started working with different professors
5:01
on an independent contract that was primarily
5:06
working on Low Profile and getting better at
5:09
my craft. As far as technical, production skills,
5:14
interviewing skills, research, all that. And
5:18
I was there for a little over two years. Graduated.
5:28
what I learned there into working in other adjacent
5:34
fields, having to do with music history, organizing
5:38
concerts, and just kind of bringing awareness
5:44
to music that, as far as I can tell, isn't getting
5:49
the exposure that I think it deserves. So I've
5:53
been doing low profile for... over six years
5:57
and it is slowing down now because I'm so busy
6:03
with all these other projects that are somewhat
6:06
similar and maybe a little bit connected. Okay.
6:10
Wow. It kind of sounds like you were doing kind
6:14
of what I'm doing. Right before I started doing
6:18
it, I started Evergreen in 2018, and by 2019,
6:24
I was learning how to be a DJ at KAOS myself
6:30
and had an ILC. It's like, well, it's similar
6:33
things. You're like doing the Resource Report
6:35
of the music world. That's pretty cool. Yeah.
6:40
Yeah. So the Olympia Music History Project, you
6:52
kind of sounded like you were talking about that
6:55
for a second there. Tell me about that. Yeah,
6:58
that came up a little over two years ago, I guess.
7:04
2023 is when we started getting out. So let me
7:12
rewind a little bit. The Olympia Heritage Commission
7:16
put out a call to invite applicants to take on
7:22
the task of collecting oral history about the
7:27
Olympia music scene in the 80s and 90s. Then
7:31
Elaine Vradenburg from Window Seat Media and
7:35
Kelsey Smith, who runs Community Print. various
7:40
other nonprofits in the area. They teamed up.
7:44
They put together a team of interviewers. I was
7:48
on that team, no doubt having something to do
7:52
with my work with Low Profile. So I was keen
7:56
on recording some interviews, doing some research
7:59
beforehand with people who were active in the
8:04
Olympia music scene during that time frame. We
8:07
stretched the time frame out to 2002 because
8:11
between 2000 and 2002, that's when we had some
8:16
big milestone events happen here before my time.
8:20
But the transfused rock opera that happened at
8:25
the Capitol Theater and Yo -Yo -A -Go -Go was
8:30
still going. That was a festival here in Olympia.
8:32
And then Homo -A -Go -Go, which was sort of a
8:35
spinoff. of yo yo go go queer themed and we wanted
8:39
to include those in the scope as well so we branched
8:42
out a little bit past the 20th century and i
8:47
uh yeah i was super excited to be a part of that
8:50
team the project sort of uh lost traction as
8:57
far as uh the city goes they just didn't really
9:00
know what to do with it once we had all these
9:02
interviews recorded I had been tasked with editing
9:07
a lot of the transcripts as well, and always
9:13
thought that the audio should sound a little
9:15
bit nicer, a little more cleaned up. But I was
9:19
just like, well, I did what they asked. Then
9:22
Kelsey approached me in 20... I guess it was...
9:29
Around the end of 2023, Kelsey approached me
9:31
about joining her and Mariella Luz, forming it
9:36
as a new nonprofit, our own, and we would continue
9:40
the work we started. So that's what we did. I
9:43
immediately jumped on the opportunity to be the
9:48
audio editor. So I went through all 26 interviews
9:53
we recorded during that first phase. and made
9:58
them a lot more listener friendly you know just
10:00
getting rid of all the stumbling blocks in the
10:03
conversations filler repetitions the kind of
10:07
stuff you might edit out right now and um yeah
10:13
and then I was also involved with like I uh commissioned
10:18
my friend Jack Habegger who was currently working
10:23
on artist portraits for low profile. I was like,
10:27
well, if we want our website to look nice and
10:30
have it all very uniform, it'd be great if instead
10:34
of photos, we have portraits that are all very
10:37
similar stylistically of each artist. So we got
10:41
that going. We've been recording more interviews
10:46
ever since. And we're in the midst of that right
10:50
now. We're in our second phase of oral history
10:52
recordings. And I'm so excited about everything
10:57
that we've been doing. We are planning, we have
11:02
at least five events scheduled for the rest of
11:07
this year in the state of Washington, mostly
11:11
in Olympia. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. It's
11:18
just like kind of a, it feels like a small revival
11:22
of sort of this classic era of Olympia music.
11:28
Wow. Yeah. Oh, we're, we're, we swim in similar
11:31
circles. I actually had an internship with Window
11:36
Seat Media myself, and that's actually how I
11:38
met Kelsey. So it's like, wow. Where can people
11:51
find out about those events for the Olympia Music
11:54
History Project? So at the moment, if you go
12:00
to olympiamusichistory.org, you can get on our
12:05
mailing list and we send out regular emails that
12:12
update whenever we have something new happening.
12:15
Sounds fabulous. Y 'all had a fundraising event
12:19
recently at the Brotherhood Lounge. Yes, that
12:23
was a blast. Yeah, I showed up towards the end,
12:27
but that was a lot of fun, and I got in on the
12:29
raffle. Are y 'all going to have any other fundraising
12:32
events coming up that you know about right now?
12:36
I don't have any specifics on more fundraising
12:41
events, although we're... always accepting donations.
12:46
So that's something that you can find a portal
12:50
to on olympiamusichistory.org. If you appreciate
12:53
what we're doing and want to contribute, we will
12:57
absolutely not turn that down. But the events
13:02
that we have scheduled are more like panel discussions.
13:06
Say we've got... Let me... Let me pull up my
13:13
schedule real quick. You might want to... Never
13:26
mind me for just a moment. Let's see. So coming
13:46
up on April 18th, we are doing an event called
13:51
That Summer Feeling, 30 Years of Yo -Yo -A -Go
13:55
-Go. And we'll be having a panel discussion with
13:59
the founders of Yo -Yo -A -Go -Go Festival. That's
14:02
Pat Maley, Michelle Noel, Kento Oiwa, and Ed
14:06
Varga, and Pat Castaldo. And we're going to just
14:11
talk through the formation and evolution of that
14:15
festival and the impact it had. It was a series
14:18
of festivals, so for those of you that don't
14:22
remember or weren't here, pretty impressive stuff.
14:26
It was all documented on film and audio as well,
14:30
and we are working with them to archive all of
14:35
this material, which... Up to this point, only
14:40
little tidbits of it here and there have been
14:43
made available. But we're trying to put as much
14:46
of these archives out to the public as possible.
14:50
Wow. That's coming up on the 18th of April at
14:53
Evergreen at Purce Hall. 4;00. Friday,
14:58
April 18th. Right on. That sounds exciting. And
15:04
we'll be having a... Discussion as well at the
15:10
Olympia Timberland Library downtown. That is
15:14
going to be on July 28th. And that'll be at closing
15:22
time, I believe. It starts at 6 .30, maybe 7
15:25
o 'clock. But we'll be talking with people who
15:28
were involved in the Transfused production. And
15:32
it should be a very nostalgic event. The 25th
15:37
year anniversary. Ow. 25 years. Excuse me? Yes.
15:50
The Bridge is a non -profit organization that
15:56
helps the youth try to understand that writing
15:59
and music can be one of the many outlets used
16:03
to deal with life situations. Our work is done
16:06
through songwriting workshops where youth work
16:08
together to write, record, produce and perform
16:10
original music that shares their stories. We
16:13
have kids from all ages, from all different backgrounds,
16:17
all colors, all creeds. It's a very open and
16:21
accepting environment to be in. It's just so
16:24
beautiful to see everybody come together and
16:26
work together. You can become a volunteer with
16:30
our organization or you can donate, which helps
16:32
make our work possible. You can visit our website
16:35
at www.bridgemusicproject.org or even find
16:40
us on Facebook at facebook.com/thebridgemusicproject.
17:02
What if somebody wants to help out and volunteer
17:06
with the Olympia Music History Project? Well,
17:12
I know that we're going to have more work than
17:15
we're cut out for coming up here. At this present
17:21
moment, I think we're pretty... pretty in the
17:27
sticks with what we have going on that we haven't
17:31
figured out what the next step is as far as volunteers
17:34
go. But again, that's something that we will
17:37
be calling out on our mailing list when the time
17:42
comes. Okay. I know that we're going to have
17:45
like scanning flyers and other ephemera, you
17:51
know, transferring things, web. Web help. We're
17:58
all pretty green as far as it goes running a
18:02
website. So we're open to any help we can get
18:07
there as well. Awesome. Yeah, and just shooting
18:12
an email. Oh, yeah. One thing that's kind of
18:15
a fun project for people who grew up in the music
18:18
scene here is our website has a... archive of
18:23
bands you can just scroll through and we list
18:27
all these different bands what year they started
18:30
if they broke up what year they broke up who
18:34
was in the band brief description of what they
18:36
did and I imagine that there are a lot of fallacies
18:41
or things that you know we may have gotten wrong
18:45
there we're trying to be on top of that as possible
18:48
but that is one thing that We have been very
18:52
grateful for people stepping in and saying, actually,
18:55
so -and -so wasn't really in that band. He filled
18:57
in at a show one time. Okay, we'll make a note
19:01
of that. The initial band list was called not
19:08
from, like, the original band list that we have
19:12
on there was called from people we interviewed
19:16
saying things. So if somebody was talking about
19:20
a band and they say so -and -so and so -and -so
19:22
was in this group, they were around at this time,
19:26
we saw them play at this club, then we go ahead
19:29
and put that in the archive. Anytime somebody
19:31
said a name, we would make a little tag for it
19:34
and create like a little mini page for them.
19:37
Oh, okay. Just sort of going along and jotting
19:40
down information left and right that you're given,
19:43
but you definitely need some fact checkers. Definitely.
19:48
And we're trying to be very transparent about
19:51
that. Right on. Right on. With so much like that
19:57
going on these days, it's like just owning up
20:00
to that. Like, hey, we realize that some of this
20:04
information is wrong. Come help us out. That
20:07
takes some of the heat off. Definitely. Yeah.
20:11
Okay, cool. Anything else that you want to talk
20:15
about with Olympia Music History Project before
20:18
we move on? Well, let's see. I don't have all
20:26
the specifics, but we are doing a second event
20:29
at the Washington State History Museum. That's
20:34
coming up in November. Oh, that's a big deal.
20:38
Yeah. At present, we have not settled on a theme
20:46
for that evening, so that's going to be a surprise.
20:49
Okay. Yeah. Might even be a surprise to you guys.
20:55
Could be. Could be. All right. But yeah, that's
21:01
the nonprofit, my first nonprofit gig, and I
21:09
just feel so... incredibly blessed to be a part
21:13
of it. It's just right up my alley and nothing
21:16
like doing work that is just tremendously meaningful
21:21
and interesting to me. For sure. For sure. You
21:25
gotta do what you love. Yeah, so let's move on
21:49
to the Scherler Sundays. What is that, and how
21:52
did it get started? Why did it get started? So
21:57
that, also, Scherler Sundays definitely stems
22:02
from Low Profile. It was an offshoot, and it
22:08
was, the concept came from The owners of Three
22:14
Magnets Brewing Company, Nate and Sarah Riley,
22:17
approached me saying, hey, what if you took what
22:22
you do with Low Profile, but we brought it to
22:25
a live audience and included concerts and we
22:29
made like a free all ages family event like outdoors.
22:34
This was in, gosh, I guess four years. no yeah
22:43
it was uh about this time of year like uh march
22:46
2022 it came up with this idea and i said i love
22:51
this idea and they're like okay well we better
22:53
get on it because it takes time to plan one of
22:56
these and uh so what what we decided the format
23:02
would be is that we would have an afternoon of
23:06
music starts at three o 'clock Bands come either
23:09
on tour or local bands. And after every performance,
23:14
I'll sit on stage with them and interview them.
23:18
So the audience gets to, you know, I get to pick
23:22
their brain and the audience gets that sort of
23:24
intimate connection to the artist as well as
23:28
getting a feel for their sound. And I feel like
23:31
it's just a really cool way to bring. To bridge
23:36
the gap between the stage and the seating, you
23:39
know? Yeah, for sure. I don't know that I've
23:41
ever heard of anything being done like that exactly.
23:45
That's really revolutionary. Yeah, and we record
23:48
it all professionally. So we get video, multi
23:53
-camera video, and soundboard recordings. And
23:59
I've been repurposing not all, but a lot of them
24:03
for low -profile. that air later after the fact.
24:09
And it's grown. We're currently on our fourth
24:16
year of doing it. That first year, I was really...
24:20
It just came together so, so nicely. And we booked
24:27
about 25 to 30 different artists. With just a
24:33
few months lead -in time. And managed to bring
24:38
people out every week. And the audience just
24:40
kept growing. And people really caught on. And
24:45
now we're four years in. I've already got the
24:48
schedule completely booked. It's every Sunday
24:52
in July and August at 3 o 'clock. And we will
24:57
be... Doing it as a non -profit for the first
25:01
time. We started a new non -profit called Free
25:04
Music Olympia. And the purpose of it is just
25:10
what it sounds like. Accessible, all ages, free
25:13
concerts that anyone can attend. We're just trying
25:17
to tear down all the barriers. And everyone's
25:21
welcome. And it's a unique experience. That's
25:27
awesome. That kind of reminds me of the Shakespeare
25:30
in the Park. Everybody coming together and experiencing
25:35
some sort of performance outside for free, all
25:40
ages, family, just come as you are. It has that
25:44
same kind of vibe to me. Then you get the added
25:49
experience of watching a live interview off the
25:54
cuff. of these musicians. Yeah, definitely. And
26:01
I don't, I will say with the amount of performers
26:05
we have, I'm not doing intensive research on
26:10
every artist the way I do with low profile. I'm
26:14
doing enough research to talk to them for, you
26:18
know, about 10 minutes. Which also keeps the
26:23
show flowing as well. Sure, sure. But it's really,
26:29
I think it's still, in any capacity, if that's
26:33
happening, it's going to be memorable. Definitely.
26:51
Where are they located? Where is the show located
26:55
on Sundays? So it's on a little grassy knoll
26:59
on the backside of the now defunct Carnegie Library
27:04
building. That's on Franklin and 7th Avenue downtown.
27:10
Oh, wow. That's right here. Right here. And it's
27:16
in the parking lot. Same parking lot as Three
27:19
Magnets, so there's a brewery right there. You
27:23
can get your beverages there. There's food trucks,
27:27
vendors, ice cream, games in the alley. You can
27:34
really spend all afternoon there, and it's cozy,
27:40
and it's warm and welcoming. What would you recommend
27:46
people, how do people prepare to come hang out
27:51
and spend time and enjoy the Sherlock Sunday
27:54
show? Do we need to bring chairs, folding chairs?
27:58
Do we need to bring, like, cooler, umbrellas?
28:03
Is there food available? Like, what's the whole
28:07
deal? Yeah, there's a couple food trucks on site.
28:14
There's beverages. You can definitely bring lawn
28:17
chairs. That's encouraged because seating is
28:21
pretty limited. I think they have maybe like
28:23
a dozen or so picnic tables. But those fill up
28:29
pretty early on. And, you know, when it gets
28:34
to be like a more lively... perform as if it's
28:37
like a rock and roll band you know there's not
28:39
it's most mostly standing room at that point
28:42
but you can spread out and sit on the outskirts
28:45
or you know some people like to just lean up
28:48
on the on the grassy knoll right next to the
28:51
band and take it in that way uh but yeah mostly
28:56
just come prepare to have a good time you can
28:59
bring a sack lunch if you don't want to if you're
29:02
you know short on funds no problem you don't
29:05
have to buy anything to be here um there are
29:09
you know our artists the artists who are performing
29:14
generally bring merchandise to help support their
29:17
their travels so that's always encouraged but
29:21
um we we just want everyone to feel welcome and
29:24
not obligated to do anything but enjoy themselves
29:29
that's awesome that's awesome um How can people
29:41
get involved in that? Well, so the website for
29:48
this is freemusicolympia .org. And from there,
29:54
you can contact us. And if you're interested
29:58
in volunteering at the events in any capacity,
30:02
uh, I'm sure we can, we can, uh, put you to good
30:06
use. There's, it's a lot of me running around
30:11
like a chicken with my head cut off, trying to
30:13
keep everything organized. Cause I'm, I'm the
30:16
host, the curator, the stage manager, the set
30:20
builder, the marketing guy, the, uh, I'm doing,
30:26
I'm doing a lot of the heavy lifting. So, um,
30:30
Any skills that you can bring, I'm definitely
30:34
open to working with you. Hanging flyers in advance
30:39
of the show, for instance, that's a very helpful
30:44
thing. And, yeah, I imagine we're going to need
30:49
a lackey, a gopher, to run around, maybe go grab
30:52
some pizza for the performers or help tidy up
30:58
at the end of the show. There's endless opportunities
31:02
to volunteer. Let's go back to how it's become
31:20
a nonprofit. Did it start out as a nonprofit?
31:23
Or tell me about that a little bit more. No,
31:27
it started out where I would be on the clock
31:33
for Three Magnets Brewing, and they would foot
31:38
the bill for the performance fees and everything,
31:42
just in hopes that they would break even with
31:45
pushing out their beer and whatnot. And it's
31:53
the sort of thing where it was, Very ambitious
31:57
and very hard to stay in the black doing something
32:02
like that. And now they are just basically they're
32:09
a in -kind sponsor donating the use of the space
32:14
they rent and their equipment and some staffing
32:19
to help. get things all set up every week, set
32:24
up and torn down. That's all done as in -kind
32:27
donation now. And we decided that forming a non
32:34
-profit would be the most surefire way to be
32:38
able to keep this a free event, but also be able
32:43
to compensate the musicians fairly. Which I will
32:50
admit, Before this year, I wouldn't say we compensated
32:53
any of the musicians fairly because we just didn't
32:56
have a budget for that. Thor. It was very much
33:06
a thing of love if anybody agreed to play this
33:10
thing for what we were offering. Got it. So we're
33:17
in the position of now more people are open to
33:23
say yes. Okay. Which is tremendous because before
33:27
we had some incredible, some really incredible
33:32
musicians come and play for Peanuts just because
33:36
they thought it was a cool thing we were doing.
33:39
It's still the case. I just wanted to mention
33:47
that. So there is a tie in to connecting it all
33:51
on August 3rd at Scherler Sundays. That's the
33:56
first Sunday in August. That day is going to
34:01
go into the night. Usually these things wrap
34:04
up by dinner time, but this one's probably going
34:06
to go till eight or nine. And it's the Olympia
34:10
Music History Showcase. So it's all. Bands and
34:16
performers who were active in the Olympia music
34:19
scene from the 80s into the 90s, many of which
34:25
do not play regularly or have not played shows
34:29
in forever. And we have a whole afternoon into
34:34
the evening of bands from this era, and that
34:37
is coinciding and co -curated with Olympia Music
34:41
History Project. Two nonprofits that I am the
34:48
common denominator in working together. And we
34:53
are looking forward to collaborating with more
34:56
local nonprofits as well and similar things.
35:00
But that's going to be a really exciting thing
35:03
for a lot of people, especially enthusiasts of
35:07
the local scene. We've got Pet Products, who
35:10
were Olympia's first punk band. their 1981 album
35:16
just got issued on vinyl by kill rock stars and
35:20
so they're gonna perform uh the noses were a
35:24
band active here from like the mid 80s to mid
35:27
90s and uh their singer guitar player went on
35:32
to form uh the band c average uh john marathew
35:39
so the noses are playing some velvet sidewalk
35:43
Early K Records Band. Started back in the 80s.
35:47
They're going to be here. And Transfused Community
35:53
Sing -Along. Celebrating the 25th anniversary
35:56
of the Transfused. Wow. And I'm definitely leaving
36:04
out... Oh, yeah. Human Jukebox, which is a project
36:08
of Justin McCoy that started in the 90s. And
36:12
has been kind of intermittent ever since. So
36:15
that's going to be a wild, nostalgic ride. Sounds
36:22
like it. Yeah. Sounds like it. It kind of sounds
36:27
like... It kind of sounds like since Scholar
36:33
Sundays has become a non -profit group now, it
36:38
seems kind of... The vibe I'm picking up from
36:41
just listening to you is that that's actually
36:44
boosting it with its visibility and ability to
36:49
continue. I mean, there's also the difference
36:55
between donors and sponsors, and people are,
36:58
I feel like, a lot more open to doing a tax -deductible
37:05
donation. Then just like here, I'm going to give
37:09
you X amount of cash for getting my logo on on
37:15
an Instagram ad or something, you know, like
37:19
it's it's got a little more lasting power, I
37:23
think. And more credibility. And yeah, we've
37:29
seen a lot of gosh, I think there's something
37:32
like like 20 different local. businesses and
37:37
organizations that are chipping in to make this
37:40
thing happen. Yeah, it's, I think, you know,
37:45
we're switching, switching gears into nonprofit
37:50
at just the right time because we've built the
37:54
credibility from the ground up and now we can,
37:58
you know, say that we have an established platform.
38:03
And we are ready to do big things with it. It
38:26
kind of sounds like, I don't know. They're blending
38:33
together. Low Profile, Scherler Sundays, Olympia
38:37
Music History Project. Has it crossed anybody's
38:41
mind that maybe these three things could combine
38:45
into one thing? Like a super group? Yeah. Well,
38:51
we're sort of doing that for the August 3rd event.
38:56
Because it's curated by Olympia Music History
39:01
Project. It's going to be recorded for low profile,
39:04
and it's happening at Scherler Sundays. So there
39:08
you go. I think it's the start of more things
39:14
along those lines in the future, for sure. Cool.
39:19
Yeah, that sounds really cool. Just all of the
39:24
different things, you know, working together.
39:29
Yeah, definitely. And I should mention that Free
39:45
Music Olympia, which Scherler Sundays is operating
39:48
under the banner of now, is going to keep creating
39:53
events beyond Scherler Sundays. So once that
39:59
ends in August, starting in September, the plan
40:05
is that we're going to have a monthly free All
40:08
Ages concert. for the community to come to that
40:13
will be in in the similar vein i probably won't
40:17
be the full like uh interview uh extravaganza
40:23
kind of thing but but quality curated free concerts
40:27
that anyone can go to at accessible spaces in
40:32
town because it's really nice to be able to go
40:36
to see music In the wintertime, for example,
40:41
or when it's really wet outside, you know. So
40:45
we're going to have some indoor events happening
40:48
later on in the year and moving forward. As well
40:53
as outdoor events, we've done, I've been putting
40:56
together free concerts at places like San Francisco
41:00
Street Bakery, for instance. I've done probably
41:03
about a dozen free concerts there. Or free or
41:08
by donation. Not a FLOF, as they say. No one
41:12
turned away for lack of funds. Right on. But
41:16
we're looking forward to expanding and collaborating
41:23
with other nonprofits. We're talking with Decay,
41:27
which is a multi -use art space downtown, about
41:31
hosting some of these concerts. coming up in
41:34
the fall and winter. And we're still working
41:37
that out, but it's very promising. Yeah, that's
41:42
awesome. I'm glad that you mentioned that. I
41:44
was going to ask, is this going to be like a
41:46
year -round kind of thing? That's the plan. It
41:51
would be great to have something like that to
41:53
go do in the cold, dark months, which we have
41:58
more of those than not. Right, right. Yeah, definitely.
42:04
I think just that we're pushing the Scherler
42:09
Sundays series into just every Saturday, July,
42:13
and August. Because whenever we've done stuff
42:16
in June, it's been a coin toss, whether it's
42:19
going to be a nice day or it's going to be a
42:21
tsunami. Sure. I have no idea. So it's definitely
42:28
a limited window when we can pull this exact
42:30
thing off. And we have had a few very wet, stormy
42:34
shirtless Sundays that were a little bit of a
42:37
panicked fiasco. Like, you just, like, you show
42:43
up and it's a beautiful day, but you see off
42:47
in the distance in the mountains a big black
42:49
cloud and it's getting closer and closer. Yeah,
42:53
how do you prepare for that? Do you, like, bring
42:56
the big canopies and stuff? Uh, and so the way
43:03
we've dealt with it is we just, uh, have a bunch
43:06
of tarps and plastic and stuff on hand. And if
43:10
we need it, we run and grab it. And usually just,
43:13
uh, I, it happens so quickly. I can't even tell
43:16
you how many of us do it, but everybody all hands
43:20
on deck just grabs protective covering and throws
43:24
it over all the equipment. Take a break, take
43:27
a break. If we have to keep it going, if we can.
43:31
Sounds fun. Yeah, last summer we had a show in
43:37
June that just the opening band played, and about
43:42
10 minutes into their first set, they looked
43:44
behind themselves, they saw the cloud, and they
43:46
said, well, I think that's our set. And then
43:49
we wound up taking an hour and a half break because
43:53
the storm was so bad. Bigness. And then... And
43:58
then just sunshine for the rest of the day. So
44:02
very unpredictable. But yeah, tarps. Gotta love
44:07
tarps. You're listening to KAOS 89 .3 FM Olympia,
44:26
and that probably means you're a fan of eclectic
44:29
music. But did you ever wonder what's the story
44:32
behind these songs? Who are these people? What's
44:35
their deal? That's where I come in. I'm Markly
44:38
Morrison, and for the past five years, I've
44:40
hosted and produced the show Low Profile, intimate
44:44
conversations with these musicians from proto
44:47
-punkers like Suicide. To folk and country artists
44:51
like Holy Modal Rounders and Lavender Country.
44:55
Northwest artists like Jenna Riffis. Funk and
44:58
soul like Steve Arrington. You can hear their
45:03
stories here on KAOS Fridays at 4 p .m. Low profile
45:08
with Markly Morrison. Check it out. Anything
45:23
else you want to share? Well, I'm very excited
45:30
about, because Low Profile is also, as the listeners
45:36
may know, it's on KAOS Fridays at 4 o 'clock.
45:40
So really proud to be a part of the KAOS family.
45:45
And I just want to say that I've been listening
45:49
to KAOS. regularly for you know since I've lived
45:54
here and there was a bit of a there's definitely
45:58
a bit of a decline following the the pandemic
46:01
as far as like uh variety and programming there
46:07
was a there's a definitely something lacking
46:11
and it's been picking up tremendously i'm hearing
46:14
new voices on the radio there i'm hearing new
46:18
shows i'm hearing uh I'm hearing a whole lot
46:22
of new on KAOS, and that is just really exciting
46:26
to me. So I just want to shout out to KAOS that
46:31
y 'all are doing terrific work, and I'm so proud
46:36
to be affiliated with y 'all. In fact, tying
46:41
back to Scherler Sundays, I was driving around
46:46
back in... maybe January earlier this year and
46:53
i heard this amazing song on KAOS and my daughters
46:58
were in the car and they're like what is this
47:00
music i'm like i don't know so i shazammed it
47:02
on my phone and uh turned out to be a band called
47:06
Pearl and the Oysters and i was like this this
47:11
is great i and by the end of the day i had listened
47:14
to all of their recorded material and put out
47:20
my feelers on the internet and was like, does
47:22
anybody I know know this band, Pearl and the
47:25
Oysters? Like, is there some kind of connection?
47:28
And my bandmate, Eli from Lake, texted me. He's
47:33
like, yeah, I know those guys. Put me in touch.
47:37
And I booked them to play the third weekend of
47:42
Scherler Sundays, and I couldn't be more thrilled.
47:45
They're a French French expats that live in LA
47:49
make really nice funky synth pop stuff and i
47:54
never would have been turned on to them if i
47:57
hadn't been just dialed into KAOS that day so
48:00
uh KAOS figures into all this as well that's
48:07
awesome That's awesome. Yeah, I was going to
48:10
say, John Hamilton, the director of KAOS, has
48:14
been conducting new DJ training lately. So that
48:19
would be why we have new voices on the air there.
48:24
Yeah, yeah, it makes a big difference. If you
48:28
want to get on the air, go check it out. If you
48:33
really want to do it, you can do it. Yep. KAOSradio
48:39
.org. That's how both of us started out, isn't
48:45
it? We had DJ training. Yeah, I had my DJ training
48:48
back in 2008. And I was planning to do a kind
48:58
of obscure country music show all on vinyl. I
49:06
did the training. I did a few sets on air. But
49:11
at that point, I didn't have wheels. I don't
49:18
think the bus was free yet back then. And it
49:20
was just too much of a burden for me to get out
49:23
there on a regular schedule. So I trained in
49:27
2008. And then I wasn't on the air until 2020.
49:35
Going way back, that is the start of it. And
49:38
having my show on KAOS definitely brought the
49:43
sense of urgency about keep creating good stuff
49:48
and put it out there for people. For sure. For
49:52
sure. It was existing only as a podcast for two
49:58
years before that. And still does. Low Profile?
50:05
Yeah, LowProfilePodcast.com. It goes all the
50:09
way back to 2019. Oh, so you were doing that
50:13
as a podcast before you ran it on KAOS? Yes.
50:19
Oh, I don't think I realized that. Yeah, yeah,
50:24
it started as a podcast, but when I was at Evergreen,
50:28
I decided to... make sure that i was formatting
50:32
it in a way that could also work as radio so
50:36
that's when i got into bleeping things say bleeping
50:42
uh profanities out and uh and making sure making
50:47
sure it didn't go over one hour like because
50:52
people always say with a podcast it's just like
50:55
it needs to be exactly long as it needs to be
50:58
no longer no shorter But that gave me the constraint
51:02
of it needs to be exactly an hour show, maybe
51:07
a few minutes shorter, definitely no longer.
51:09
And I feel like that constraint has helped me
51:13
put out better work, honestly. Yeah, you get
51:18
a little more concise, a little more focused.
51:20
There is definitely something about having to
51:25
have a certain time constraint for things. Definitely.
51:31
Yeah, and I did the Anarchist Songbook and Community
51:36
Heart were my two programs on KAOS in 2019 and
51:41
20 that I ran. But that's how I got started with
51:49
this and led me into Resource Report, sort of
51:53
like the next level of Community Heart. With
51:56
that one, I was interviewing. community members
52:00
and sharing their story on how they were giving
52:02
back to the community. So not very different,
52:04
just a little different focus. Yeah. Okay. All
52:14
right. So once again, last call, anything else
52:20
you want to share? Well, if, if you're out there
52:25
and you're, doing creative work, good on you.
52:30
Please keep doing it. And if you're not doing
52:34
creative work, do what you can to assist the
52:37
people that are. Because that's one of the most
52:42
valuable resources we have in this world is creativity.
52:48
Whatever your angle is, whatever your medium,
52:53
it's... That's life to me, you know? And I'm
53:01
just so grateful to be... It's a pretty wild
53:06
shift that I made from being a songwriter, musician,
53:13
to for the past six years, I've been primarily
53:17
focused on other people's music. And that's where
53:21
my passion lies. I haven't been compelled to
53:24
write a new song in half a decade. And that doesn't
53:28
bother me because there's so many good, so much
53:32
good stuff coming out and so much stuff that's
53:35
been there that I'm still catching up on. And
53:38
I'm really happy to be a champion for all that
53:42
stuff. Wow. Yeah. And so, so, so thanks. Thanks
53:49
to all the creatives. And I got your back and
53:52
I'm on your side. Awesome. And bless up chaos.
53:57
And thank you, Rainmaker. You're welcome. Thank
54:02
you for being here with me, Mark Lee. All right.
54:14
While there have been DJ trainings over this
54:17
last quarter, I checked with Jonny H., our director
54:20
here at KAOS, and there are no DJ trainings
54:23
this quarter so far. But if you are interested,
54:27
please fill out the contact form on KAOSradio
54:30
.org or feel free to swing by the station. here
54:34
on Evergreen Campus. As for my time speaking
54:37
with Markly, it was great and I found out we
54:40
share some great connections as well as more
54:43
about some groovy free music to check out. If
54:46
you would like to donate, volunteer, or look
54:49
up what's happening with the Olympia Music History
54:51
Project or Free Music Olympia, you can go to
54:55
their websites at olympiamusichistory.org and
55:00
freemusicolympia.org. Till next time, and thanks
55:05
for listening. That's it for today's Resource
55:17
Report produced by Pathways to Agency. At Pathways
55:21
to Agency, we are driven by the belief that everyone
55:24
should have the tools and support to achieve
55:27
their goals and thrive in their communities.
55:30
Our mission is to bridge the gaps in understanding,
55:33
accessibility and trust by connecting individuals
55:36
to resources and sharing information and processes
55:40
that can lead to personal and community growth.
55:45
Resource Report offers information about existing
55:48
and emerging nonprofits and resource organizations.
55:52
Find out more at pathwaystoagency.org. You can
55:57
also find our shows archived indefinitely on
56:00
rss.com/podcasts/resource-
56:07
report. KAOS Radio is not responsible or liable
56:11
for any views or opinions expressed in the interviews
56:15
conducted by Resource Report. Till next time,
56:18
and thanks for listening.