WBCA Presents: American Beauties & Ramona Silver

0:00You are tuned in to WBCA Presents on WBCA 102.9 FM Boston. I'm your host Tommy Schenefield, and today we're talking about an upcoming show from American Beauties and Ramona Silver. You can catch them at Salio Brian's bar on September 12th from 730 to 1030 PM. We're going to be talking to Ramona and Michael from those bands in just a moment, but first of all we're going to hear run to hide from Ramona Silver. It ain't true, I am not you.

1:01You are not listening to one thing I say, but you're gonna tell it to me anyway. If I've been held, it's on weight. I'm not listening to one thing I say, but you're gonna tell it to me anyway. I'm not listening to one thing I say, but you're gonna tell it to me anyway. It ain't true, I am not you. You keep dragging always I've been. You're alive, don't run it back into that cell in all my shades or a fucker. And I've run some of the neighborhood could you ever think to love me?

2:08Paying a better picture of me but it's not true, I am not you. This is WBCA Presents on WBCA 102.9 FM. WBCA Presents is a show where we highlight some of the best local musicians around Boston and Massachusetts. And today we're very lucky to be joined by Ramona of Ramona Silver as well as beautiful Michael of American beauties in the studio today.

3:09And thank you so much both of you for coming on the show. Thank you for having us tonight. So first of all, we just heard the track run to hide from Ramona Silver. We're gonna hear some of American beauties music in a little bit. But I wanna hear from both of you. What's your first musical memory? I can take that one. I grew up in Detroit, Michigan and had some older siblings who had a phonograph record player. But they were all in touch with all the Motown music that was being played, all the top 40 music that was being played. And it was all on 45s at the time. And I remember they would be in playing music all the time and I would just be lying on the couch with them and listening along. So I had a good experience with some of the four tops and the temptations and ultimately the Jackson 5 and some of that other music that was kind of early on in the process. And it just got me used to listening to Top 40 radio, which I did through my whole younger years.

4:11Used to fall asleep with a transistor under my pillow here and there. That's the earliest. That was probably seven years old, I think then. Well, yeah, I'm definitely relating to the older sibling influence. You know, we the Beatles, Blue and Red, double out, Volmes were in my house. And I remember pushing the furniture back because of the time I was in gymnastics and pushing the furniture back so that we could. Oblady Oblada around the room. So yeah, definitely. And that was because I had siblings 10 years older than me. At the time, but also I grew up going to church a lot and there was a lot of music in the church. And so that's probably the first time I heard music was something related to other people singing in a group. So a lot of harmony. You know, I was noticing a little bit of Beatles influence on that first track run to hide. I don't know if I would have predicted the church influence, but that's for so many people, you know, a place that. It's like it comes from yeah, right.

5:12Exactly. Yeah. The two of your groups will be performing at Sally O'Brien's bar in Union Square in Summerville. How did the two of you meet in and what led to your groups upcoming performance? We were fortunate and actually Glenn was hosting one of the singer songwriter nights at the square root. And we were both asked to do it. But we didn't know each other prior to that night, but it turned out to be really, really good night. A lot of people showed up for the night and you know, the three artists that played were all pretty different and interesting. And so we met that night and we talked about how she'll be doing a show together. And then I eventually saw her band play live at the square root this past summer along with her husband's band as well. And just knew that we had this show. We had another slot to fill. And we just thought it would be a perfect match. Graciously invited. Yeah. Ramona, yeah. Yeah. Ramona, it was a fabulous show.

6:13And I'm just glad that we were able to kind of connect through that. Yeah. And I think you're also talking about the importance of having these spaces to perform because you were at the square root for anyone who doesn't know Glenn is Glenn Williams, the general manager here at WBCA and BNF. And he's also very involved in the Rosendale music scene and at the square root right in Rosy square. So it's great to have these spaces where musicians can can meet one another. Yeah. Again, we talked about how you two first got interested in music. What was the first time you you performed, whether it was an abandoned or or on stage? I can remember well again at church. So my mom and my dad in their own youth played. My mom especially played a lot in her church. They were always pushing us to get up there. I have, I come from a big family and they were like, okay, get it, get up there and share what you got that kind of thing. I do remember being up there at the age of five, you know, playing a ukulele.

7:16And, you know, people enjoying it so much that they're laughing because they love it. But I'm mortified because I'm thinking it's the, I'll never do that again. Type of thing, but it's really just because you're a little kid, you know. So, but I do remember that and we did it and I'm still doing it. My first memory is my brother was in college in O'Neill, New York. And he would have me, I was kind of his support, written guitar player and I'd sing backup vocals on occasion, maybe play some harmonica. And I think I was 13 and he used to do these little copy house shows at Hartwood College in O'Neill, which are kind of side by side there. I think my first show was like the age of 13 just kind of dealing backup for him in a little copy house there in New York. But after that, you know, you always felt nervous about it. I know him because you're young and you don't know any better, but it was nice to do it at that age because I think after a while you just got more used to the idea of, you know, performing.

8:20But never takes all the bugs away. That those feels, you know, the butterflies are always kind of there for every show and some capacity. But the more you do it, the more comfortable you feel. Thank you for sharing that I was like to talk to musicians about how they got involved in performance because I feel like often it's quite young and then you get the bug and. Yeah, it becomes your whole life. That's a good question, actually. Of course, you've been, you know, you've been at this for a while producing lots of great music. Would you say that the experience has changed over the years of what it's like to be a live performing musician? We played a lot. My first release was in 1995 and then we played a lot for about 20 years. And I think the idea of doing it, it's almost, it does have something to do with the DIY part, but it's about balancing your life. And in order to keep doing it, you know, there's, you know, there's economics in it. There's time economics, not just money, relationship.

9:21There's just so much going on the older you get. And I want it to maintain its joy and the respect for the people that say, yeah, I'll play with you, which is a lot of time and travel for them. So I think for me now, it's just, we play a few times a year. We don't play as much as we used to, just trying to balance life, but it's really significant to me to like keep my community together. That's what I focus on a lot. It's like, okay, is this going to work for you? How are you feeling about it? We really want to be together. You know, we want it to be non stressful. So, yeah, I think maybe that's the part of where we are in life too, but it can be stressful because it's hard to get. You have to just, if you really want to go after it, it's like going to be a full-time job. And I just, I can't, I can't do that now and balance my life, but I can have joy for the amount of time I can give and the people that say yes. And be choosy about the people too, you know, that they, you know, they really want to be there.

10:25And you work well together. So it's about the music, but it's about that community being healthy. Yeah. Definitely. And did I, did I catch this correctly Ramona that your husband is your engineer on your music? Yeah, he actually was in the band for the first 10 years. So I'm working with two people now that were in the band the first 10 years. And then he also was in it. And he's an engineer. That's what he does for a living. He's a traveling tour manager, live engineer, but everything we've done, not all the mixing and mastering, but everything we've done, we've basically done from home. Or maybe he rented out and he's been the main engineer for the most part. So yeah, that's how I feel like I have had the wealth is to have him be willing to do it because that's a lot of time on his end. And he just has the bug for it. He'll come home off the road and still be like, oh, you want to record for, yeah, yeah, you don't have to pay much money. I want to stay at, you know, attach to people doing this from the beginning.

11:29And I mean, so it's just the creativity bug is really significant to keep alive. So yeah, that's how I've been able to do it, honestly. Yeah, I have trouble hearing back from my engineer. She was. I'm sure a very nice. To extreme. Yeah, I guess it helps to bring if you find a good engineer, marry them apparently. I'm hearing. Yeah. That could be another question. How do you get a good engineer? Yeah, I'm grateful. So, so we're going to listen to a couple more tracks from your bands. First of all, we're going to hear matters of love that's from American Beauty's sophomore album, Sound of Mind. And then we're going to hear another track from Ramona Silvers EP exercise the spirit that's going to be landmine. And then we'll be back with you. This is WBCA Presents on WBCA 102.9 FM. Music

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