On September 8th a group of talented local musicians will be sharing their gifts in an intimate acoustic performance at the Carpenter Center to raise funds in support of Arts programs for kids in Long Beach schools. Justin Hectus, one of the event’s organizers, and a long-time supporter of arts and music in Long Beach, took some time to talk about the event.
Justin: I got involved when Jay Buchanan approached me and suggested that we pair up to bring these acts to a premiere venue in the city in support of music education in the schools. It kind of started with a conversation where we were talking about where the next generation of LB musicians will be coming from. We decided to start small, by supporting existing programs rather than launching our own endeavors from scratch. We’re also making the show very accessible to the public. Ticket prices are very affordable – $10 to $17.50. And, as I mentioned, it’s all-ages. A lot of us (fans and musicians alike) have kids and we’ve not had many opportunities to bring them out to see our favorite bands.
Sander: How did the line-up come together?
Justin: It was a pretty organic process. All of these bands played together on a pretty regular basis at a warehouse affectionately known as The Space. It was on Orizaba and Anaheim years ago and then it moved west of the 710 on PCH. All of these acts celebrated their musical journeys together at that sacred place and I think we’ll bring that spirit of celebration on stage and to the Carpenter Center for this show. It was truly difficult to limit the list to just these bands. Even with eleven bands, we felt like we left good friends and great musicians out of the mix, so we’re already excited to plan Schooled in Song II.
Sander: Please tell me about who is performing
Justin: It’s a pretty full bill, so I’ll just go over a few starting with Leldon (www.myspace.com/leldon) who was the singer/songwriter from MCA recording artist One Way Ride. He’s amazing with his band, but I think he’s mind-blowing with just an acoustic guitar. His vocals have an amazing, almost animalistic strength. He’s a favorite balladeer of punkers and he still makes girls swoon.
Sara Overall is sweet goodness. She’s got the voice (and the face) of an angel and she will be playing with her piano player and also playing a few songs accompanied by an acoustic guitar. Sara is another artist who was with a major label (Sony) at one time and she had a song in the Hillary Diff movie The Perfect Man in 2005. She’s back in the studio recording a new album on an indie label and she’ll no doubt be playing some of her new stuff at the show.
The New Fidelity just released a new album and they’ve received some play on 103.1. These guys dress to the nines and play “their own brand of 60′s influenced Mod Power Pop.” Dan from The New Fidelity, formerly Dan Lo-Fi Champion, is one of my favorite singers.
AJ Degrasse and Chris Paul Overall are both former Orange County Music Award winners. They just came back from a tour of the west coast and apparently had a great reception in the San Francisco Bay Area.
There are plenty more… The DIBS (Long Beach Supergroup), Deccatree (who have had label, radio and television success), SAS (a beautiful and gifted voice, songwriter and person), Mention (a reunion show from the band that tore a hole in this town), Brett Bixby (currently touring the country with Rocco DeLuca) and of course Jay Buchanan, who has opened for John Mayer, Counting Crowes, The Veronicas and a bunch of other killer acts. Anyone interested can hear a small sample at www.myspace.com/schooledinsong.
Sander: Let’s talk for a moment about the goals for this show… How much money are you planning to raise, and how will it be spent?
Justin: We wanted to keep the show affordable. We made it a conscious decision to keep ticket prices low so we could introduce as many people to the bands and the cause as possible. The downside to that is that we’re not going to raise a ton of money without some donations beyond ticket sales. Our goal is to raise a net total of $10,000 and it’s going to be tough to get there.
The programs benefiting from these contributions will be the Passport for the Arts and Artist in Residence programs administered by the Arts Council for Long Beach. I’ve worked with the Arts Council on a volunteer basis for almost four years, and I’ve been impressed with these programs because they offer employment and professional development to real working artists and they bring our kids (kids in Public Schools of every district in the city) in close contact with lessons that they would never have access to in other circumstances. Arts and music education helped to make me a more well-rounded human being and certainly helped me to enjoy life when the chips were down, and I’m happy to get the opportunity to support programs that will introduce other kids to this part of life. These funds are being delivered with the restriction that they are used specifically for music programs.
Many of the people playing are, or have been, educators or are married to educators and they are all very supportive. They’re all donating their time and the emotion and genuine enthusiasm that they’re bringing to the show is going to make it something extra special.
Sander: Has the venue been donated, or underwritten?
Justin: Neither (yet). There are two donors who have underwritten a good chunk of the cost, but we’re still a long way from covering the cost of the venue. I’m still working on that, though and I have faith that we’ll find assitional champions yet!
Sander: So, I think you should tell folks where they can get tickets.
Justin: Yes! I would encourage everyone to support our friends at Fingerprints Records. They have been very kind in sponsoring the advertising for the show. Buy your tickets there while you’re picking up new and used cd’s! If for some reason you can’t make it to Second Street, you can but tickets at www.schooledinsong.com or www.myspace.com/schooledinsong.
One last comment: When I first came to Long Beach, I was blown away by the quality of artists (visual, music, performing, etc.) and their determination to do it themselves regardless of the support they received from the establishment or the community. If music is your thing, please come to the show and I promise you will enjoy yourself. If music isn’t your bag, I hope you’ll go out and support other working artists in the city. They’re responsible for making this city something special and I think we should all go out and support them with encouragement, attendance and dollars. Buy a painting. Go see a play. Listen to a local musician and buy her CD. Do what you can to keep them here – they’re the heart of Long Beach.
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Editor’s Note: Derrick Brown, a nationally renowned poet, was scheduled to be included in this event but, unfortunately, he had some health problems. He’s continuing to recover, but doesn’t expect to be well enough to participate.