Posted by snowsera
Snowsera formed in 2007 at the University of Illinois. Originally consisting of Ian Erard on guitar, Bill Arteaga on vocals and Nate Christenson on bass, the group soon added drummer Jeff Wagner for his love of English rock band Muse and their dislike of playing with a drum machine. After playing countless shows and recording a pair of EPs with Chicago producer Brian Zieske at his Gallery of Carpet recording studio, the band began migrating from the badlands of Champaign-Urbana to Chicago. Since then they have played shows at legendary Chicago venues (Schuba’s, the Metro, Sub-T) and been commended for their debonaire live show. They are in a continual process of writing and recording new material.
BILL
I think to certain degree we all crave sort of escape from our lives. At one point or another you want to be taken away from the day-to-day activities that flood your mind, to be taken somewhere that is beyond yourself. Music does this, its what I love most. I live for this aspect of music. Granted I also love the way music brings people together, sets a mood, enriches life, and allows you to relate to others. Still the fact that music can take me away from my busy head make it priceless. Ever since I can remember I gravitated towards the melody being sung on the radio or cassettes in my parents’ car, I was enthralled with the way the tones and compositions made me feel. I connected with something I didn’t even understand. To this day, I feel feel the same. Music goes far beyond me, it reaches deep into my brain/heart/soul, whatever it is that signals it to me, and reiterates that I’m alive. I guess, to me, Music reiterates life.
NATE
To me Music has always been omnipresent. And I could not image it any other way. Music does not mean or represent one thing for me. Rather, music is everything. It’s my emotions. It’s my escape. It’s my passion. It’s my fun. I play and listen to music at an almost constant rate. Music was there to give me goosebumps as a little child, and it continues to do the same today. It’s a complicated medium, and it’s extremely simple. It’s in a continual state of flux, but it’s familiar. I think of Kurt Vonnegut’s quote, “The primary benefit of practicing any art, whether well or badly, is that it enables one’s soul to grow.” That’s what music is for me. It’s everything.
IAN
Vacuum tubes, copper wire, magnets, lacquer, mahogany, maple, and steel – add these things together and what do you get? A language. These parts make up the musical equipment that I use to create my own language. Sometimes I make it cry with emotion like a Goethe story and others I break it down and simplify it into a Hemingway sentence. Each word pregnant with meaning. Sometimes I am able to caress the words out of the elusive tapestry of creativity and piece together sentences to tell a story, and other times I flail about and only tear out bits and pieces – fracturing the entire delicate balance. This is the magic that is in music. I have always felt that the last bastion of magic existed in music – its ability to stop time, give us confidence or break down our emotional defenses – is astounding. That a collection of notes and words and rhythms can convey so much must be magic. Hendrix was a wild, sexual voodoo incubus; Page a regal heir to Merlin’s throne; Clapton an interloper of the blues. As musicians we strive to use this language that we create to craft spells and share our worlds with you.
JEFF
The old English root of Music is “men”, which then meant to think, and reflect, but it also described a spiritual activity. For me, music is the simple part, its the honest expression of my spirit. The complexities come from the make up of that spirit, and since we’re all blessed with our own individual notions about spirituality, we’re all blessed with different abilities to translate what music means to us.
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May 11th, 2009
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