By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Magen Holgate wants you to listen.
“People don’t realize they could be listening to great West Seattle music,” she laments, as we chat in a local coffee shop.
One great place to start: Tomorrow night’s free in-store show at Easy Street Records (7 pm June 18) by the local band Chewing Gum. It’s a CD release show, and the CD is on the label that Magen leads, The Big Dark Records.
Chewing Gum – four girls, three of whom are high-school students – is the second band on Big Dark Records; the first one, also an all-girl band, is Sad Dad Autumn, who you might have seen at some gigs around town, including last year’s Admiral Block Party.
The three members of Sad Dad Autumn happen to be Magen’s daughters with husband Kellen Holgate, and they’re an integral part of The Big Dark Records’ story. “My husband and I were in California bands … we’re now a family full of musicians … life is music at our house, instruments everywhere … Last year we realized we had all the skills to start a label.” So they did, and started by recording their daughters’ band (here’s the album, “The Great Dying”). “It’s important to us to produce music; Seattle is such a music city.”
For some people, that perception is stuck in the ’90s, and if you ask about Seattle music, they’ll recite a list of grunge bands from back then. But that’s because “sometimes nobody is listening,” so Magen is determined to show them why they should be listening to the new young artists.
Not just the ones she’s recording; she says that since they only have so much recording capacity, so far, she’s intent on mentoring, too, and connecting other local bands to opportunities. She’s also been teaching local musicians about music publishing: “We create a playlist of all-local music … I update it every month” on Spotify. (It’s called SoundCheck – Seattle – here’s the link.)
Tomorrow’s Chewing Gum CD-release show “will be our first physical release,” and they’re serious about getting the music out first in that format: “It’s not going to be streamed” for several weeks – “we hope people will support it.” (You can check out their single online in advance – go here.) Believe it or not, Magen says, in the same way that vinyl records have seen a resurgence among adults, “kids are buying and trading CDs.”
She decribes Chewing Gum’s sound as classically Seattle – in the same way that her label’s name is – “It symbolizes our big dark season … the creative season.” (The logo is a crow stealing the sun.) You can spend the fall and winter creating music, and then in the (short) warm season, you can enjoy it.
Toward that end, Magen says, The Big Dark Records will play a role in West Seattle Summer Fest music this year (July 10-12 in The Junction) – the festival usually has a small second stage, and she says they’re programming that one – with local musicians, of course, including soloists on Sunday.
But first, the Thursday show by Chewing Gum (whose CD, by the way, is produced by the Holgates’ oldest daughter). Magen will of course be there to meet and greet the public. They’ll have a merch table, too, and you can talk with her about local music. She’s sure that once you hear more of it, you’ll be hooked. “Our goal is for people to listen to local music again … I want to create excitement about West Seattle music.”
Next stops on that road: Easy Street at 7 pm Thursday, followed by West Seattle Summerfest next month.