About Me
Keep for Cheap's gear, Photograph by Reilly Miller (2019)
My first and most impactful release was the 2016 album Yūgen by my former black metal band Ashbringer. This was an experience that forever instilled a sense of accomplishment and worth within me. This album was extremely well received by the broader atmospheric black metal community and has been printed on multiple physical mediums (with its vinyl pressing giving me the most pride). While time and spatial limitations have since caused me to leave Ashbringer, I cherish the time and experiences that I shared with the other members above all else and consider it to be an important part of my coming of age.
Outside of my academic aspirations, much of the time that I spend I am deeply engaged with music. I am an avid lover of sound and performance and have been playing in professional music settings since I was 14 years old. Since finishing high school I have had the privilege of going on a number of independently planned and funded tours across the United States and Canada, as well as having recorded a number of official releases with different bands. outside of the satisfaction that I get from performing, music is the biggest part of my social life and something that I have always cherished for the deep friendships that I have been able to develop through it.
Yūgen cover art by Tryfar Illustration (2016)
Currently, I am in two active musical projects, both of which have only been possible due to the connections that I have made at Hamline. The older of these projects, Sal Paradise, started in my sophomore year and has continually made promising growth over the past three years, both in terms of our music and personal relationships we have been able to forge together. Sal Paradise's jazzy indie rock sounds stand out in the Twin Cities scene and help set us apart sonically and aesthetically from the more mainstream bands in Minnesota.
Sal Paradise looking tough, yet sensitive, Photograph by Sophie Warrick (2019)
Keep For Cheap, the most recent of my musical projects has really gotten rolling as of late 2018. I was asked to join the band by our vocalist (and a long time friend of mine) Kate Malanaphy after she began studying at Hamline. Sonically this has been the most eclectic band that I have been a part of with much of our sound borrowing form pop-punk, country music, and shoegaze. This is the first band I have been in that is not dominated by cisgender men, and this simple change in demographics has made a world of difference. Our music showcases two extremely powerful female vocalists, and this gendered dynamic is clear in the lyrical themes. While I would not necessarily consider Keep For Cheap as being explicitly part of my social justice work, it is nonetheless a project that I am proud to be involved with because it is implicitly part of a movement of change within the music industry.
Keep for Cheap on Stage, Photography by Reilly Miller (2019)