Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on the Ann Arbor District Library’s Pulpblog.
One Track Mind features a Washtenaw County-associated artist or band discussing a single song.
Standout Track: “Our Eyes” from Kelsey., aka Kelsey Detering, an Ann Arbor singer-songwriter, bassist, and pianist. Her latest single examines a new relationship between two people and their shared sense of connection, while also exploring themes of authenticity and validation. “That’s really the core of it, knowing that someone sees you almost chillingly well, that they understand the core of you, and in this case, your music,” wrote Kelsey. in an email interview.
“It’s almost too good to be true, just the connection itself. And what this song is really about is wanting to be the person they see, that they love and believe in. And also the reverse, which is how you see deep inside of them, and how all that is conveyed in just one look. You feel like you’ve truly known this person your entire life.” Continue reading “One Track Mind — Kelsey., “Our Eyes””→
Dennis Proctor. Photo taken from Dennis Proctor’s Facebook page.
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on the Ann Arbor District Library’s Pulp blog.
One Track Mind features a Washtenaw County-associated artist or band discussing a single song.
Standout Track: No. 2, “Blue Streak Blues,” from Dennis Proctor, who lives “on the border of South Canton and Ypsi, a few hundred feet from the Washtenaw county line.” The latest solo album, Deuce, from the Haviland frontman and honorary Washtenawtonian explores themes ranging from living in the current landscape to getting second chances to dealing with change.
On “Blue Streak Blues,” Proctor recalls an awkward encounter at Cedar Point and pays tribute to the longtime wooden roller coaster that bears the song’s name. At the start of the song, he sings about running into a naked man screaming in a restroom outside of the amusement park gates. “The opening lines are literally about that event: trying to understand what that man was going through and how I could’ve helped,” writes Proctor in an email interview. “The idea of someone in that much pain and not being able to properly express it got me thinking about writing from that perspective more.”
The Lansing, Michigan, trio celebrates being present and adopts an easygoing mindset on its latest EP, Enjoy the Journey.
“At this point, I would say it’s sonically closing a chapter,” said Lindsey Taylor, the vocalist and guitarist for La La Delivery. “After this, we’re in more of our fun era. We have to close that [old] chapter of our lives and move forward. We’re going to be a little sillier from here on out.”
Along with bassist James Mitchell and drummer Dan Zanetti, Taylor takes a lighthearted but intentional approach to La La Delivery’s songs about overthinking life, feeling nostalgic, and overcoming depression.
“There will still be some melancholy that writes its way in there because that doesn’t just go away,” she said. “You can’t control how it comes out of you, because when you write, it’s just gonna be what it is. You just have to let it come out and get it out of your system.”
Enjoy the Journey also reflects the personal thoughts and experiences of all three members since the pandemic.
“A lot has gone on both in the world and individually for all of us,” Mitchell said. “This EP definitely feels like we have gone through so much. We are—like Lindsey said—closing that chapter and headed toward something [new].”
Like the band, listeners can explore those relatable themes and moments through contemplative songs and introspective lyrics.
“Just like anything, it’s a craft, and we just keep building on it,” Zanetti said. We keep honing, finding efficiencies, and learning. It’s just one big learning opportunity and growth for all of us.”
Sonically, the six tracks on Enjoy the Journey come to life through ethereal vocals, vibrant electric guitars, thumping bass, and driving drums. The EP also reflects a variety of styles, ranging from indie rock and shoegaze to post-punk and alternative rock.
I recently spoke with La La Delivery about the inspiration behind Enjoy the Journey.
The San Francisco composer, multi-instrumentalist, and sequential artist saw Brando as Mark Antony in the 1953 film based on William Shakespeare’s tragedy and became intrigued.
“I said, ‘This is just amazing,’ especially with all of those fantastic actors in it,” said Berry, who also fronts Nubdug Ensemble, an experimental music collective.
“At one point, I was thinking about adapting Julius Caesar as a comic strip and thought, ‘I can do a little bit each day.’ Once I started plotting it out, I had to draw so many panels a day and realized there was no way I could do that. I kind of abandoned it, but it was always in my head.”
While the comic strip didn’t work out, Berry eventually landed on doing a musical adaptation of Julius Caesar instead.
“I said, ‘Well, I know that because I’ve done all that research already on the comic strip, so why don’t I do that?’” Berry said. “I just started fiddling around with it, seeing how the words would work over the top of it.”
Berry spent the next two years composing, arranging, and recording Third with Nubdug Ensemble. He assembled 17 notable musicians to help him record 11 tracks for the ambitious album, which includes elements of jazz, funk, and prog rock.
“Once I had a structure and the pre-existing characters of Julius Caesar, I said, ‘I can write a song from this person’s perspective and from this person’s perspective,’” Berry said. “They can be different, but they’ll be unified because it’ll be under the overarching themes of the play.”
On Third, Berry explores themes of ambition, power, corruption, and political violence. The album includes compelling instrumentals and vocal tracks to reimagine Julius Caesar as a musical adaptation for the 21st century.
“It’s talking about the end of the republic, and the story is timeless and timely,” Berry said. “It seemed like this would be the time to do it, if ever there were.”
What resulted is an innovative, genre-bending album filled with poetic lyrics and cerebral instrumentation. Third refreshingly chronicles the political assassination of Roman dictator Julius Caesar and his murder by a group of senators led by Cassius and Brutus.
“These are all archetypes, and these are things that keep coming up again and again through history,” Berry said. “Leading up to the [2024] election, I had that sinking feeling and thought, ‘I think I see how it’s gonna go, but I hope it’s not.’ I personally wanted to be able to work through those feelings in a way that could somehow be positive and not just worry myself to death.”
To learn more, I spoke with Berry about writing and recording Third.
Mike Green intentionally wrote a song about blind spots.
The Ann Arbor, Michigan, singer-songwriter wanted to explore that concept while working on new material for what would become his second album, Blind Spot.
“I hardly ever do that,” Green said. “Usually, I play with ideas, and it starts to coalesce into something. But then, I have to really craft it. Sometimes, the song ends up being very different from how I started, so I try to follow the creative muse.”
That creative muse led Green to the song, “Blind Spot,” which acknowledges accepting and loving someone despite their flaws.
Backed by carefree electric guitar and organ, Green sings, “You have a blind spot when it comes to all my faults, maybe you don’t just care / I’ve made enough mistakes to fill a goddamn vault, you gotta be aware / So if it’s true, you love me, too, well, that just prove the same thing’s wrong with you.”
“I had a version of the song with a whole verse about Trump,” he said. “And then I had a love song version. I brought it into the songwriting group, and they said the other one is funny, but doing it as a love song, it has more legs to it.”
“Blind Spot” soon became the title track for Green’s new folk album, which features 13 tracks about identifying and understanding different gaps in life.
“A lot of writers will say truth doesn’t have to be factual truth; it has to have emotional resonance,” Green said. “There are a lot of love songs, and I write about [experiencing] joy and depression, paying attention, and [recognizing] the resilience coming through all of that.”
Green easily conveys those truths and emotions through anecdotal lyrics, warm vocals, and earnest instrumentation.
“In a lot of ways, [my songs] start out autobiographical, but I don’t want to write in great graphic detail about my own life,” he said. “I have to draw on what I understand.”
I recently spoke with Green about the inspiration behind Blind Spot.
The Tucson, Arizona, vocalist-bassist examines loss and love through a new lens on Weekend Lovers’ latest album.
“My mom’s passing away was a big deal,” said DeLeon, who fronts the indie-rock trio. “My dad, sister, and I had been estranged these last few years, but we’ve come back together recently. It’s processing a lot of the grief of losing my mom for all of us.”
She tackles that shared grief on “Not Chill,” which explores the need for acceptance and closure.
DeLeon sings, “But you were lucky to have found her at all / It ain’t my peace. Is it all my fault? / I was waiting in a different time / But we don’t feel this, and it’s almost gone / Cuz deep inside we don’t know.”
“The song, ‘Not Chill,’ is about that … and it was hard to finalize the lyrics for it because I wanted it to capture that emotion,” DeLeon said. “The night before I went into the studio, I was still [figuring] out the lyrics. I didn’t want them to be too simple or too repetitive.”
DeLeon features cathartic lyrics and ethereal vocals across nine tracks on In Your Dreams. Weekend Lovers bandmates Dane Velasquez (guitars, keys) and Rick Bailey (drums, percussion) help DeLeon build that sonic world through emotive instrumentation.
“There’s a lot more band collaboration because I started playing with Rick and Dane in mid-2021,” she said. “We had been playing out for two years, and then we went into the studio in 2023 to track the first half of the songs. Then, we tracked the other half in 2024.”
I recently spoke with DeLeon about the inspiration behind the album.
The Pinckney singer-songwriter burned CDs to sell at shows in Livingston County and the Metro Detroit area.
“Back then, they had those CD burners and CD labelers,” said Cogswell, who’s also a teacher and coach for Pinckney Community Schools. “I would print the paper out and then stick it on every single CD. That’s how it started, and I probably sold 1,000 overall.”
Two decades later, he’s decided to revisit the album and put it on streaming.
“The last couple of years, students of mine and my own kids said, ‘You should get this online,’” Cogswell said. “I emailed Darryl [Schmitz], the guy who recorded my album, and said, ‘Hey, do you still have the files for this?’” And he shared them with me. I got it on my Chromebook and then went on DistroKid. I sent them the files, signed the waivers—and then boom!—it was on [streaming] platforms.”
Putting Back Home on streaming has given the country-pop album a new lease on life. Now, his family, students, and fans don’t need a CD player to hear it.
“If anybody can do that, I should start doing that,” Cogswell said. “That’s why I went back and got the old album and put it out there.”
Featuring heartfelt lyrics and earnest acoustic instrumentation, Back Home is a snapshot of Cogswell’s life and relationships in the early 2000s across 16 tracks. It also reflects on the time he spent in Nashville.
“Back Home is a mix of autobiographical experiences and stories,” Cogswell said. “I would take a story that actually happened and create that. Being back home was a big part because I had moved back from Nashville. The song, ‘Your Favorite Song,’ the last one, that’s about being there.”
To learn more, I spoke with Cogswell about his background and the album.
“I’ve always loved split releases,” said Wixson, who performs in Frank White, a punk-rock band from Detroit. “When I was younger, bands put them out all the time, both locally and nationally.”
It wasn’t a big surprise when Wixson pitched the idea of a split album to three other local punk-rock bands: P.T.’s Revenge, Newburgh, and Middle-Out.
“The idea for the Triple Threat LP came from P.T.’s [Revenge] booking their holiday show far in advance,” Wixson said.
A few months before the holiday show, three of the four bands recorded 12 songs for Triple Threat with drummer-engineer-producer John Kowaleski at Stu Stu Studio in Livonia.
“It felt like a great way to revive that tradition,” Wixson said. “Originally, it may have even been a ‘quadruple threat,’ since Middle-Out was invited, but their schedule didn’t allow it this time. Hopefully, that’s something we can revisit in the future.”
On Triple Threat, P.T.’s Revenge, Frank White, and Newburgh each contributed three original tracks and one cover.
“We said, ‘We’re going to produce it, and we’re going to put it on vinyl,’ and it’s a lot easier when you have three bands splitting the bill,” said Kowaleski, who’s also the drummer for Frank White and P.T.’s Revenge.
All three bands appreciated the guidance and expertise Kowaleski provided during the recording process for Triple Threat.
“He played to our strengths as musicians, boosted our confidence in ourselves, and with his years of experience as a songwriter, he really helped us dial in our sound,” said Nic Engler, a vocalist-guitarist with Newburgh.
I recently spoke to Wixson, Kowaleski, and Engler about the album.
It was December 2019, and the indie-folk band had played an opening set at the Detroit music venue.
“We opened for Brother Elsey just right before COVID,” said Alison Wiercioch, one of the band’s vocalists. “That was one of our first times playing as a full band.”
At the time, Wiercioch had performed with sister and vocalist Tessa Wiercioch, guitarist Jimmy Showers, bassist Steve Lehane, keyboardist John Raleeh, and drummer Steve Stetson.
“There’s something special, too, I think about a venue like The Shelter,” said Showers, who makes up the core of the band with the Wiercioch sisters. “I feel like the best place to see a band is at a small club show.”
Now, seven years later, it’s a full-circle moment for Jackamo: they’re gearing up for a February 21 headlining show at The Shelter.
“We said, ‘OK, we want to do a headlining show,’” said Alison Wiercioch. “We want to see what we can do and what type of room we can try to fill.”
The show will feature new music and old favorites from Jackamo, who’s been diligently working on their debut album at Royal Oak’s Rustbelt Studios.
“With the album coming out [later this year], we’re trying to find our sound and what we want to sound like,” said Tessa Wiercioch. “I feel like we almost went back to the basics. We thought, “Well, what are our biggest inspirations, and who are our influences?”
Those influences range from Lucinda Williams and The Staves to The Milk Carton Kids and The Lumineers.
“I was really inspired by The Lumineers’ album, III,” said Alison Wiercioch. “There were all of these music videos with stories, and I was following the storyline—I was enthralled. I looked forward to every time they would release a new music video for the songs. I think we have that idea of interweaving these songs together.”
To learn more, I spoke with Jackamo about their music ahead of the show.
Initially, the Detroit vocalist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist wanted to take a fun and intuitive approach to writing and recording The Idiot Kids’ latest album.
“As I was working on this record, I was running with the initial ideas for the music and the riffs,” said Bartee, who fronts the punk/garage-rock band.
“I thought, ‘Just keep going. Take the demo and run with it,’ but the songwriting ended up being just as introspective and autobiographical as anything else I’ve written. I was trying to have fun with [the album], and then all of a sudden, I was writing more songs about addiction, suicide, and super heavy topics.”
What resulted is a cathartic album that explores acceptance, authenticity, and recovery. The nine tracks on Instants serve as a finite point in time for Bartee to process and heal from past trauma.
“These songs are about … what’s happening with me, or it’s me addressing old feelings, but from the perspective of [last] year. I can look back at it as a time capsule,” he said.
“It was all written here, and everything was finished in [that] year. Almost all of it was recorded in my apartment, and then it was mixed and mastered by me [there as well]. It’s an unintentional, very personal album.”
Outside of his home studio, Bartee brings the songs from Instants to life on stage with Andrew Maslowsky (drums, backing vocals), Jarrett Koral (bass, backing vocals), and Carmel Liburdi (bass, backing vocals). Together, they make up the live edition of The Idiot Kids.
“The Idiot Kids is still a band and not just a solo project,” he said. “Andrew Maslowsky has been with the band since 2017, and the other members rotate live, including Jarrett Koral, Carmel Liburdi, and other guests.”
I recently spoke with Bartee about the album and its creative process.
The Stratton Setlist 