Electric Forest. An amalgamation of
sights, sounds, performances and, of course, the mystical, magical forest.
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| Sherwood Forest |
I had the privilege of
attending Electric Forest (for the first time) this year, as a guest of Super Seed
Magazine (facebook.com/superseedmagazine), and what a privilege it was! I was able to meet and interview several
performers of all types, saw more String Cheese than I could have hoped for,
and was rewarded – as if I needed more incentive – with full access and a primo
camping spot. What more could a girl want?
The first artist I interviewed,
Luna Breeze, is a professional hoop dancer out of Kansas City. She actually
first discovered her love of dance (she was previously a cellist) at a String
Cheese Incident concert when she was young. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh! Dancing!
This feels so good.’” Luna performs, teaches – she taught two classes over the
course of the festival – and makes DreamWeaver hoops, a beautiful combination
of hoop and dreamcatcher (you can find out more about them at her website, lunabreezeperformance.com).
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| Luna leads a hoop class |
Upon our first venture into
Sherwood Forest – the carefully executed dream world that blends nature, visual
art and high production – we came across another performance artist, this one a
professional juggler named Jason Divad (jasondivad.com). He impressed us with
his complex, and sometimes dangerous, act (at one point he was juggling knives
on a unicycle), and so I later came back to catch a quick interview. Turns out
he is also from Kansas City, and he and Luna are actually roommates. Imagine
what that house is like! He got his start juggling after getting a job at a toy
store about nine years ago, and now practices his craft full time. I commented
on the wealth of performance art to be found at Electric Forest and he
remarked, “They’ve really treated us really well here.”
Elm and Oak, the record label out
of Denver (elmandoak.com), had a pretty heavy presence at this year’s
festival. I spoke to Alex B of Paper Diamond fame, as well as Sherwyn Nicholls
of Two Fresh. Both are keeping busy. Alex B recently released an EP on Mad
Decent label, and is currently working on a new record. He’s already been to
several festivals this summer, but called Electric Forest, “one of [his]
favorite times.” If you’ve never heard of Paper Diamond, or even if you have, he
describes his sound as “unique, New York,” and all of his music is available
for free download at paper-diamond.com.
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| Poolside flipcup |
The twin brother team of Two Fresh
has an EP coming out with Cherub – another Elm and Oak name – called Unplanned
Parenthood, to which Cherub lends its 80’s funk influence. The brothers are
also working on an instrumental rap EP to be released soon. The duo has been on
the road for three years, with the added live element of Colby Buckler on drums.
Sherwyn had this to say about their time spent traveling: “I wouldn’t turn this
in for anything else. Being able to travel countries and do whatever I want,
it’s the best.”
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| Me with Kendrick Nicholls of Two Fresh |
