Tag: Midtown

Spring Forward – Earthwork Music Celebrates the Season with Michigan Tour and Sampler Album

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A Michigan music collective is ready to spring forward with a new tour and music sampler.

Earthwork Music, a collective of artists and musicians that fuses music with cultural and environmental awareness, is kicking off its first collaborative tour in five years this week with a run of Michigan shows.

Tour stops include April 19 at Kalamazoo’s Dormouse Theatre, April 20 at Lake Orion’s 20 Front Street, April 21 at Grand Rapids’ Midtown, April 22 at Traverse City’s The Alluvion and April 23 at the Ludington Area Center for the Arts in Ludington.

“The spring tour features 18 musicians and will be a cabaret-style show featuring each person leading one song with a varying backing band supporting. It will be beautiful, chaotic and absolutely magical,” said Nicholas James Thomasma, a Grand Rapids folk singer-songwriter and an Earthwork Music collective artist.

“Sometimes it will just be one or two people on stage; sometimes it’s a full band. Sometimes there are strings, sometimes drums, sometimes acoustic guitars and sometimes all 18 of us will be on stage together. Part of the excitement about this tour is that even the artists aren’t sure how it’s all going to work yet!”

Thomasma will share that anticipation alongside 17 other Earthwork Music artists, including: Dede Alder, Earthwork Music founder Seth Bernard, Ralston Bowles, Sari Brown, The Antivillains’ Sarah Cohen, Samantha Cooper, Chris Good, Jordan Hamilton, Amber Hasan, Josh Holcomb, Audra Kubat, Elisabeth Pixley-Fink, The Crane Wives’ Dan Rickabus, The Appleseed Collective’s Vince Russo, The Go Rounds’ Mike Savina, Jo Serrapere of Stella! and Ben Traverse.

“The thing I enjoy most is the thoughtful and creative people that make up our collective,” Thomasma said. “It’s a treat to play music with these folks, but even more so it’s a treat to simply know them as friends and spend time with them off stage.”

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Snapshot in Time – Pia Revisits Past Friendships on ‘Old Days’

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Pia gets nostalgic on her new single, “Old Days.” Photo – AC Backus Photo

Pia thoughtfully shares a personal snapshot in time.

The Detroit indie rock singer-songwriter reminisces about a past friendship and recalls vivid moments of connection on her nostalgic new single, “Old Days.”

“It’s the singular event of a friendship not really ending, but dissipating and changing the way that it used to look. It’s a shorter realization of like, ‘Oh wow, this person that I used to either talk to every day or had this certain relationship with, it’s now different,’” she said.

Throughout “Old Days,” Pia wonders what her friend drinks for breakfast and whether they remember summertime highway jaunts or stolen firewood adventures.

Alongside those inquiries, an emotive swell of wistful electric guitar, quavering bass, thumping drums, shiny cymbals and jingly tambourine seamlessly transport Pia to the past.

She sings, “It makes me sad something changed in your eyes/Ask how you’re doing seems like a big disguise/December’s long and we both know/That the sun is coming and it’s melting the snow.”

“When I reached the end of writing ‘Old Days,’ it helped that I similarly was realizing, ‘Oh friendships and relationships end, but not always for the worst, and that time is still special,’” Pia said.

Pia penned her sentimental track in May and recorded it with a talented team of collaborators, including producer John Katona of JK (Not Kidding Studios), Minihorse’s Ben Collins (lead guitar), Tom Mihalis (lead guitar), Stoop Lee’s Ade Olaniran (drums) and Matt Jones (bass).

“I recorded the demo and basis of the whole song with Ben Collins and myself on guitar and vocals and Ade of Stoop Lee on drums. Then, I sat on the song for a little because I got busy with residency, and then ended up finishing it up at John Katona’s,” said Pia, who’s also a pharmacist.

To accompany the release of “Old Days,” Pia dropped a thoughtful new lyric video, which features her roaming around Belle Isle.

“I asked my 16-year-old sister to videotape me doing random stuff on my friend Matt’s camcorder. She was like, ‘Oh, I get to use a camcorder?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, try it out.’ She followed me around, and I used that footage in the video,” she said.

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