With a new record deal, Looming moves to the next level
He had no way of knowing it
then, but the first time a teenage Mitch Baker attended a concert at
Springfield’s Black Sheep Café – the scrappy, all-ages music venue that
has been the linchpin of the Southtown punk scene for a decade – his
three future bandmates in Looming were all onstage, performing in
various combos. “A while after that, I remember being surprised to see
Brandon at the local guitar shop,” he says. One of the cardinal traits
of DIY scenes like the one at Black Sheep is the implicit erasure of the
usual class barrier between audience and musicians, something which can
take some getting used to.“I thought there were rock stars and then
there were fans.”
Perhaps
such a distinction did once exist but if so, in the years since that
first encounter, Baker, 20, has surely been through the looking glass.
He is co-founder and guitarist for Looming – the fierce but accessible
Springfield band which has recently signed to prestigious
Californiabased independent record label No Sleep. As a result, Baker is
perhaps as close to a “rock star” as it is possible to get while
continuing to reside in Springfield.
That is, unless you are Jessica Knight.
Looming’s
lead vocalist is a tiny whirlwind of angst and energy, her powerful
voice like a tuneful banshee perpetually on the verge of some great
epiphany. Both on stage and on record, Knight’s presence is always the
clear focal point of a band with a lot going on, in terms of both music
and personality.
Looming
began humbly enough in 2013 with a text. “I wasn’t doing anything
creatively, and I wanted to, and Mitch knew that,” recalls Knight, 26,
of Springfield. “He messaged me, ‘Do you wanna get together and play
some music?’ And we did.” Not long after that, Brandon Carnes, 25, who
was living with Knight at the time, heard the duo playing and asked if
they could use a drummer. The last member to join was guitarist Jordan
Fein, 22, who previously played with Knight in perennial Black Sheep
favorite Our Lady and had been friends with Carnes since high school. “I
asked if he wanted to join the project to play guitar and it just
worked out,” says Knight. “Like magic!”
I’ve always maintained that culture starts at home, in local communities, through creative interaction. Revolutions always come up from the grass roots, not top-down through
corporate hierarchies.
– Bruce Pavitt, founder of Sub Pop Records (Nirvana’s first record label), Seattle, Washington, from his 2014 book, Sub Pop USA
Looming’s debut EP was
self-released by the band on vinyl and digital download in September
2013, coinciding with the band’s first concert. “We booked a show and
decided we wanted to have a recording for it,” explains Knight, “so we
just kind of threw together this EP as we were still figuring out our
sound as a band.”
“The
cool thing about recording that EP,” says Carnes, “was that we each
wrote one complete song, with Jess’s vocals tying everything together.
I’d never played in a band where there was so much mutual input – in
other situations there had always been one leader, but here we all
teamed up.”
Reaction
to their debut recording was enthusiastic and Knight marvels that she
continues to get compliments on it from new listeners almost two years
after its release. “What was most exciting to me about the response to
the EP,” says Carnes, “is that the punk scene always feels like such an
isolated thing, but with this record it felt like I was also getting a
lot of positive feedback from people who weren’t involved with punk
music and culture at all. That was encouraging.”
Looming
did not come together in a vacuum. All around the country and beyond,
small, independent, DIY-embracing punk scenes have been popping up in
cities large and small since the early 1980s (a phenomenon well
documented in the book Our Band Could Be Your Life by Michael Azerrad and Bruce Pavitt’s recent Sub Pop USA collection).
Springfield’s NIL8, still active and popular, was a product of that
first ’80s wave, which also produced influential artists like Black Flag
from Los Angeles and Washington D.C.’s Minor Threat. Nirvana and the
other “grunge” acts of the early ’90s were incubated in similar
circumstances, along with countless hardcore, ska, thrash and just plain
unclassifiable bands which have never stopped springing up in the
ensuing decades.
Wherever
punk rock occurs, skateboarding is rarely far away. Since 1988 the
Springfield punk scene has coalesced around venerable indoor skateboard
ramp Skank Skates International, on the corner of 11 th Street and South
Grand, in the heart of the Southtown neighborhood. In 2005, allages
music venue the Black Sheep Café opened up next door to Skank’s, its
mission to provide a safe, alcohol-free environment for young bands and
audiences to perform and meet up. The place is something like a youth
outreach center with an edge, along with the added attraction of the
(benign) lunatics very clearly running the asylum. In just the past year
or so, this same block in the once-blighted neighborhood has seen the
opening of a record store (Dumb Records), a recording facility
(Southtown Studio, owned and operated by Brandon Carnes) and a skate
shop (Boof City). Enabling all of this industrious
activity is George Sinclair – owner and founder of Skank Skates, as well
as landlord and de facto spiritual godfather to what has turned into an
unprecedented concentration of the DIY ethos.
The
recent departure of Black Sheep cofounder Kevin Bradford was a major
turning point for the Southtown scene. Brian Galecki and Miles Fowler
are officially the new coowners of the venue along with Carnes, who
characterizes the overall enterprise as a collective, community effort.
The emergence of two ambitious summer festivals – Dumb Fest which began
in 2013 and was held for the third time last weekend; and Black Sheep
Fest, first held in 2008, set to return July 25 – has been important in
raising Springfield’s national profile. “I think Dumb Fest was a major
turning point in the music scene,” says Carnes. “It concentrates mostly
on out-oftown bands and it has gotten the message across that, ‘Hey
look, Springfield is a spot not to skip when you tour,’” he
laughs. “We just have this really neat centralized location where we can
write and record music at the studio, play shows at the Black Sheep,
and if we want to sell our music in Dumb Records we can – and buy other
people’s records as well. It’s like a utopia. Bands from out of town
have never seen anything like it.”
Jessica Knight
Age: 26
Instrument: Bass guitar, lead vocals
How would your mother describe you in one word? Beautiful. She always says that. She’s cute.
What is your favorite flower? Orchid
What is the most insane question you’ve ever been asked? “Can I wrap you in mushroom ragu and lasagna noodles?”
What word in the English language do you wish you had invented? Shit. It’s my favorite word. Sorry.
Current non-Looming musical projects: Knives, Asthma, Teen Freak (part time), occasional solo performances
Brandon Carnes
Age: 25
Instrument: Drums, backing vocals
Where would you like to live? I’d like to live somewhere by an ocean.
What is the first quote that comes to your mind? “This is how we do it” - Montell Jordan
What animal best describes the kind of girl (or boy) you’d be interested in? Ke$ha
What do you miss about your childhood? Pants that zip off into shorts
Current non-Looming musical projects: Diaper Rash, FUCK///MOUNTAIN, Stevie Thunder
Where did you attend high school? Springfield High School
Jordan Fein
Age: 22
Instrument: Guitar, backing vocals
If you could change your name, what would you change it to? Martin Lovejoy
What is the main fault in your character? Devilish charm
Who is your favorite historical figure? Keith Haring
Describe how you kiss in one word. Ferociously
Where did you go to high school? I went to Springfield High School.
Mitch Baker
Age: 20
Instrument: Guitar
If you met the right girl (right boy) today, would you propose tomorrow? No wayyyyy, I’m still a baby!
What in the world do you least desire? [redacted]
Why do you think most girls (most boys) would want to date you? They read about me in Illinois Times
Finish this sentence: “Happiness is a thing called... Looove, maaann.
Current non-Looming musical project: Wir Konnen
Where did you go to high school? Rochester High School
Where did you attend high school? Actually I graduated from Lanphier (I only went there for three months)
All
survey questions shamelessly swiped from a questionnaire filled out by
members of The Monkees in Tiger Beat magazine, March 1967.
“We
all grew up at the Black Sheep,” says Knight. “I was coming here when I
was 19 and didn’t know about myself. I definitely didn’t even have it
in my mind that I could play
music at that point, and I never would have if I didn’t come to Black
Sheep. That’s the beauty of it. From the start we’ve been playing with
all of our friends and everyone we love, and that keeps growing and it’s
just great.”
No Sleep
Records was founded in Huntington Beach, California, in 2006 and is
known worldwide for its roster of highly individualized young musical
acts. The label will be releasing Looming’s first full-length album,
“Nailbiter,” on Aug. 14. Looming was put in touch with the label by
Pittsburghbased band Run Forever, also on No Sleep.
“We
met them six years ago playing in a chicken coop in Chicago [when
Knight and Fein were both in Our Lady] and have stayed in touch and
played together when we’ve crossed paths,” says Knight. “They helped us a
lot by just putting the word out that our band exists.
Chris [Hansen, No Sleep founder, owner and CEO] listened to the EP and
has been talking to us ever since. They’re really wonderful and we’re
very excited to work with them.”
“The
whole experience has been cool,” says Carnes. “Growing up I always
heard stories of bands working with record labels and it being weird and
sterile and suit-y and forced, you know? But it’s been really casual
and they’re very much into the same sense of ethics that we have.
They’re the same kind of people that we are.”
The
resources provided by even a smallish label like No Sleep are a huge
contrast with the experience of a band releasing and promoting its own
music. “They have a lot of connections that we don’t have,” says Knight
bluntly. “They have been doing this for a long time and are able to talk
us through every step of the way. And of
course they’re there to help us with funding and they are there to make
sure we have everything we need to hopefully find whatever success we
want.” One advantage of a label is long-established relationships with
websites and other media outlets across the country and the globe. “No
Sleep has the ability to invest in us in ways that we can’t invest in
ourselves,” says Carnes.
Looming
has a full summer ahead. After playing Dumb Fest this past weekend,
they packed up for their first tour as a band, a one-week sojourn
accompanying their friends Run Forever. In July, they will be playing
the prestigious music festival known simply as The Fest in Gainesville,
Florida – a high-profile gig that would have been unthinkable before the
No Sleep deal. Then in August they will be back on the road to promote
the release of “Nailbiter.”
The
music on “Nailbiter,” as on the debut EP, is hugely personal and
emotionally galvanizing, but easily relatable. “I think it has a lot to
do with being in transition and a lot of it is open as to what type of
transition you might be going through,” says Knight of the record’s
themes. “For me it just had a lot to do with inward thinking and
self-worth and self-doubt at the same time. A lot of the songs are just
talking yourself through those types of problems. I think that’s the
theme of most of the album – the word tends to be ‘bittersweet.’” Jordan
Fein agrees. “It’s hopeful – it promotes change, change is good. I feel
like musically and lyrically there’s a lot of hope on that album. Some
parts might be a little weird and slowed-down and dark but I feel like
always at the end of the songs it leaves people hopeful.”
For
Baker, the making of the album was itself a nail-biting experience. “I
feel like a big theme for me was nervous energy. We got great feedback
on that first EP and it was nerve-wracking trying to live up to that.
You’re writing the songs and all you’re thinking is, ‘Is this good? Is
this good? And there’s a label? And they’re into it?’”
“Meanwhile I was finishing a lot of the lyrics while we were in the studio,” says Knight. “So, you write how you feel.”
Outside
of their collaboration in Looming, the four young musicians keep busy.
Knight supports herself as a barista, Carnes works as a printer and
Baker is a student at the University of Illinois in Champaign. All but
Fein play in other bands (Baker is in Wir Konnen and Knight and Carnes
are in three other active groups each) but it is clear that Looming is
closest to all of their hearts.
This
is clearly a band on a precipice – excited by the potential of their
suddenly raised status in the music world, but still unclear as to what
this will mean going forward. “I think it’s smart not to get too crazy
with ambitions,” says Knight. “I think we’re trying to be happy with
this right now before we take a moment to think about what we want to do
next. We’re still taking in the weight of what this means to us.”
“We just want the most people possible to hear our music and take something good from it – that’s our ambition,” says Fein.
Combining
their raised national profile with a vested interest in the Southtown,
scene –particularly considering Carnes’ ownership stakes in both the
burgeoning Black Sheep and his recording studio – Looming has the
potential to help put Springfield on the musical map in a way that has
never happened before. Will Looming rise from its humble environment to
find success in a larger city? Or will the band continue to place
loyalty to their origins front and center? Only time will tell. For the
time being, at least, Looming’s potential seems off the charts.
Contact Scott Faingold at [email protected].
For more on the Looming check out a mini documentary and a music video at www.illinoistimes.com
