Hello, Lady Brain Presents community-

I am writing you today with an announcement that makes me a little weepy. Effective Tuesday, June 1, 2021, I will be dissolving the Lady Brain Presents LLC and stepping away from leadership/organizing responsibilities. 

Many factors contributed to this decision, including a pandemic that wouldn't quit and a baby on the way. In short, there is not enough space or capacity in my body or brain to lead and grow this group the way I originally envisioned, and that’s not fun for me or fair to members. I've been pulled toward leadership my whole life, but now I feel my body and spirit telling me to explore some of the other ways I can be in service to community without sacrificing my physical and mental health or creative identity.

Part of me can't help but feel like a failure as this project comes to a close, but that's just capitalism trying to make me feel bad about myself, so I shall resist those feelings with lasting memories and great friendships. I know we did a wonderful thing here. And I know that good thing will grow into some other good thing. I have high hopes that everyone in the collective will continue developing relationships, resource-sharing, using the platform for good, and showing up for each other in a myriad of ways. I hope that by leaving the "reins" open for any and all to grab, the group will become a truer collective with many leaders and more of a blank canvas for everyone, which is the intended vision anyway.

I will be taking the name “Lady Brain” with me because it's a business/entity name that I invested much labor into and would love to keep it, along with its guiding principles, intact should I decide in the future to rework it back into the community (one-off festival, etc.). A new tentative name for the group is Creative Siblings Collective SD, so be on the lookout for potential member collaborations and showcases. 

To all our members who participated, performed, organized, podcasted, produced, presented, wrote, designed, and so much more for Lady Brain Presents and all its endeavors, you are all my heroes. Special thanks to Jules Stewart who was instrumental in so much of the branding and design work and Cathryn Beeks who hosted one hell of a podcast and produced one hell of a festival. 

I want to thank all of you in our community for showing up for our events, which means you showed up for our amazing members and the causes they care about. Your attendance not only demonstrated the value of supporting marginalized genders in the local creative community, it allowed our members to raise funds and awareness for organizations that most need our attention and support. I often think about the great waves of positive, loving, healing change that could come about so quickly in this world if only those with means lifted up marginalized artists with the resources they need to get their incredibly innovative and community-building ideas off the ground. I hope you all continue to find the artists who would flourish with that kind of support. In becoming an ongoing patron of their work, you will literally change the artist, the community, and the world for the better. Please be a part of that change. (Need an example? Check out member Miki Vale and SoulKiss Theater)

I have no doubt this collective will grow into whatever it’s meant to become and I have so much faith that the folks who are meant to lead the way will do so with all the grace and creativity in the world. I hope we can count on your support through that transition. Thank you again for everything!

Lindsay White
www.lindsaywhitemusic.com 

PS - This site will be removed within the next week or two. To keep up with myself and other members, be sure to visit our Members page and click through each profile to follow your favs on social media!

Great news, fam! It's been over a year, but we finally have a real live (& livestream) showcase scheduled!

If you are able, please join us on Sunday, May 30 from 3-6pm for a private backyard concert and fundraiser celebrating our API headliners Tricia Lynn and Thea the Band (both performing as trios) and raising funds for the SD API Coalition. Special guests include Lady Brain members Chloe Lou, Shayna, Lindsay White, and Christina Bernard.

About Our Headliners:
Tricia Lynn is a musician, DJ, multi-instrumentalist, and vocalist who is inspired by a variety of musical genres from all decades. Locally, she has performed with some of San Diego’s finest musicians on the late night talk show “Tonight In San Diego” as the house band front woman. She has DJ-ed all over the city from corporate events to clubs in Downtown and continues to play live music and DJ at her resident venues and private functions. Her most current project is a weekly music stream that raises money and awareness for local charities and organizations called “Positive Change Vibrations.”

The new sound that is Thea the Band is singer/songwriter Thea Tochihara & drummer/producer Jeff Litzman.  Tunes that you can only fit into a genre with no boundaries.  Thea the Band is Cosmic American Music from the heart, for the soul.

A limited amount of reservations are available, so if you've been missing live music, make haste over to our Eventbrite page and reserve your spot! It's free to register, but we suggest a $25+ door donation, all of which will go toward our headliners!

For those who prefer to watch from home, we will also provide a livestream from our Facebook page at no cost, though we encourage Venmo donations to our lead organizer Shayna, all of which will go toward SD API Coalition. ​

SPECIAL SHOUT-OUT: Before you navigate away from this page, we'd love to direct your attention to a few more API Lady Brain members and performers who we want to lift up even though they can not physically be with us on May 30:

VOXY: Voxy is a San Diego vocal band, created to deliver a fun a cappella vibe to events in the SoCal region. Voxy is not yet accepting physical gigs, but we look forward to when they start back up! Check out their video "Anthem (Empowerment Medley)" featuring Karen Lindenberg, Emily Liu, Jenna Jones, Jessica Gottdank, and special guest member Kris Celario. Videography is by Lady Brain member Jaymee Carvajal-Witek. ​

Woweeee, it's been over a year since our last Brain Candy Calendar! It's lovely to see more virtual and live (or hybrid) gigs on the books, and it's even more exciting to see Lady Brain members getting back to work and having some of their income streams revived. Please do us a solid and show up for these incredible working musicians - buy the tickets, buy the merch, shower them with tips, and let them know how much you appreciate the time and energy that goes into arts and entertainment! Check out the action this month:

Wednesday, May 26 - Tori Roze and The Hot Mess at The Casbah on TWITCH Livestream
Tune in and join Tori Roze and The Hot Mess as they celebrate their 13th anniversary by rocking the famous Casbah stage, broadcasting live from Twitch. More info. 

Saturday, May 29 - Julia Sage and The Bad Hombres at Quartyard in Downtown's East Village
Julia Sage and The Bad Hombres will play two shows, opening for The Sleepwalkers. Early show, 5:30pm. Late show, 7:30pm. More info.

Sunday, May 30 - Lady Brain Presents: API Appreciation House Concert and Fundraiser
​An afternoon backyard house concert featuring live (& livestream) music to benefit the SD API Coalition and to support/lift up our API Lady Brain member headliners Tricia Lynn and Thea the Band. Featuring small opening sets from Chloe Lou, Shayna, Corina Rose, and Christina Bernard. Leading up to the event, we'll also be shouting out/lifting up additional API Lady Brain members who can't make it to the event but will be there in spirit, so make sure to keep your eye on the Lady Brain blog! More info.

If you're a local woman or gender-marginalized creative interested in learning about the Lady Brain Collective membership, please visit our About, FAQ and Join pages to read more! If you're interested in supporting and contributing to our community, please consider becoming a Lady Brain Lover!

Welcome to Boss Ladies, the review column written by members for members! Below, read Lizzie Wann's take on the latest three singles from Lindsay White.

We haven’t had any new produced music from Lindsay White since she released “The Funeral” in December 2019. Since then, well, you know, there’s been a pandemic, extreme ongoing social injustice, and an insurrection(!). For most of 2020 and continuing indefinitely, everyone is asked to stay home as much as possible, which makes creating and recording music extremely difficult, but not impossible. As we all made adjustments to how we manage our lives, White ran through the gamut of emotions, often daily, from anxiety and depression to gratitude and yes, happiness. She also made things happen (and if you know White, this is not surprising). She reached out for help from fellow musicians and her Patreon supporters to figure out how to record her own music at home. And through the immense benefit of technology, she was able to remotely collaborate with various musicians, producers, and engineers to fill in some of the blanks. Which leads us to December 2020, a full year since her last official single, when she debuted “Everything But Loving You,” the first in a string of three new singles. Of her production efforts, White says, “It's not perfect or polished, but what feels more important to me than being perfect is: making an effort within my capacity, being proud of any small progress in that effort, being compassionate about any setback in that effort, and letting go of any attachment to other people's perceptions of that effort. It's a good way to fight anxiety. It's also a good way to approach art. And life.” ​Shortly after this single, White also released “Crickets” (also with a video) and earlier this week, “Nothing Worse.”

“Everything But Loving You" (released 12/8/20) 
Her first self-produced release (with mixing from Amelia Sarkisian and additional instrumentation from bandmates Jules Stewart, James Staton, and Steve Nichols), “Everything But Loving You" is a melancholy celebration of the depth of love. It also is a triumphant acknowledgement of feeling defeated. If those things sound incongruous, you haven’t been paying attention. In this tumultuous time of being alive, it’s a delicate balance of feeling like your life has purpose and meaning and feeling like you have any control over those ideas. White admits that this song was written “from a pretty scary place” as anxiety gripped her in the face of, personally and professionally, losing her musical livelihood and, as a human, the community issues of health and a society locked in a battle about which citizens actually matter. But what she was ultimately able to focus on and cling to is the deep and healing relationship she has with her wife, Audrie. In the first verse, White admits she doesn’t want to do any chores, but even beyond that, “i don't wanna be ambitious anymore / you're the only good news / walking in and out the door / so i'm thinking that i could use / a new plan moving forward.” Her new plan is to “quit everything but loving you” because she’s “so good at it.” But then White broadens even that. She sings, “cause i don’t have a fucking clue / how to save the world / but i can love my girl.” But what we know, and I expect White also knows, is that loving her girl is, in fact, how to save the world. This song reminds me of the quiet, beautiful tones of Corrine Bailey Ray, and it’s a well-done debut production effort for White.

“Crickets" (released 12/15/20)
Lindsay White is not afraid to write about subjects that many writers tend to avoid. In the case of “Crickets,” White brings the realities of infertility to the fore. She uses the metaphor of a cricket, which has been seen as a symbol of good luck, but also the silence of asking for something and getting no response. White and her wife have been trying to grow their family, and “Crickets” details their heartbreaking journey of not yet being successful. The video that she released at the same time is a dramatization of the cycles they endured: the medication, the hormone shots, the love, the waiting, the pregnancy tests, the rituals, the tearful realization when White reaches for a tampon; another failed effort. The song is mournful and spare with just her voice and electric guitar in the verses, then more instrumentation and harmonies arriving in the choruses, but it’s subtle and adds just the right amount of extra depth. In the first verse she recalls her mother’s death, and the second verse transitions to her and her wife’s personal journey as they repeatedly endure the negative outcomes of each attempt to conceive a baby. White sings, “mother nature's coming at me / speeding down a westbound track / hanging out a boxcar swinging / a slow motion baseball bat.” But what may be the most heart wrenching lines come in the third verse when White admits, “of course i should have seen this coming / i should have never picked your name.” The song (mixed by Amelia Sarkisian, mastered by Trevor Hamer) captures the intense feeling of loss for something that was never there, just the possibility of it and the inevitable thoughts of what could come after. The song, the performance, and the video are emotional without being melodramatic, and this balance is something at which White excels.

“Nothing Worse" (released 1/7/21)
For this tune penned in 2017, Lindsay White recorded vocals at home and called upon band Jules Stewart for drum tracking and longtime producer Alexander Dausch for additional instrumentation, production and post engineering.  As White summarizes, the song is “about that dreaded sense of hope we still somehow manage to feel during incredibly hopeless and lonely times.” Well, if that’s not a song for these times, I’m not sure what is. White is at her lyrical best in this song with clever wordplay like “there's a pillow i keep punching /i always take you lying down,” “i'm fighting the finale, like a novice novelist / i'm pacing like Penelope, hope for my homecoming kiss,” and “i'm testing several theories hoping to prove the same thesis.” But what I like most about this song are White’s phrasings of the lines that are unexpected but extremely pleasant on the ear and the unusual structure of the song. There’s no real chorus per se, but the crux of the song is the line repeated at the ends of the 2nd and 4th verses and at the end of what could be considered the bridge (White is not a huge fan of bridges). The line, which also provides the song’s title, is “there's nothing worse than hoping at a lonesome time like this.” The tasty fills by Dausch after the first chorus lines are also especially lovely and imbue the song with the hope that White hopes still exists. (Spoiler alert: it does.)

These three releases from White are each unique in their subject matter and presentation. White has an impressive style that comes through each song with ease, from her expressive voice to her well-crafted lyrics and her burgeoning production ear, plus with help from talented colleagues, we can look forward to more great music from White in the coming months and years. Purchase and download all three songs, plus her full-length album and other music, writing, and merch directly from her website.

Welp, that was certainly not the year we planned for. But despite everything, Lady Brain Collective members stayed creative and stuck together, and Lady Brain Presents did our best to showcase their awesome work to the community. Here's a quick video recap of just some of the work we did and fun we had. Thanks to all of our members and Patreon contributors for supporting us - and if you're not yet aboard the Lady Brain train, find out how to join and/or contribute - 2021 will be even better with you in our fam!

Welcome to Boss Ladies, the review column written by members for members! Today, Jules Stewart will share all her feels about Keys, the latest album release from Cristina Cooper. 

Cristina Cooper's newest album, Keys, is an incredibly honest and intimate look into her emotional journey from the past 25 years. This collection of songs, some of which were written over 20 years ago, is an open journal, chronicling moments from tender insecurity and heartache to bold declarations of love and dignity. Keys was released independently on November 28th, 2020.

Though it’s hard to use the term “silver lining” about any part of 2020, the slower pace of life for many artists who are accustomed to busy gigging schedules has allowed unique introspection and time for projects that have been pushed aside. Cooper used the time to revisit songs from her catalogue that she had never shared with the world. This collection of songs, along with five beautiful musical interludes, became Keys. It seems clear that these songs had been kept private not for lack of quality, but because of the vulnerability it takes to share such deeply personal and introspective work. 

Cooper's choice of stripped down instrumentation and subtle production perfectly compliment the intimate nature of these songs. Perhaps the most elegant example of this is seen in “Come Back to Me” where the vocals are given space to breathe and soar over a steady piano rhythm and gentle synth swells. The vocals are consistently stirring and excellent throughout the album but are showcased perhaps most of all on “The Bar” with its impressive, expressive runs and complementary harmonies.

Cooper played every instrument and part on the album with the exception of the violin on “Long Road”, played masterfully by Evan Price. If that isn’t impressive enough, she also engineered, produced, and mixed the album herself in her own home studio. Her musical mastery is apparent but not ostentatious; every note seems to have purpose and serves the message of her songs ideally from the gentle guitar in “Wake Up” to the anchoring bass in “I Miss You When I Sleep”. 

All in all, Keys is a phenomenally beautiful, emotionally vulnerable endeavor. Cooper's full range of artistic and technical talents are on display from songwriting to multi-instrument performance to engineering and production. The emotional candor and heartfelt lyrics of the songs shine brightly from start to finish and provide ample space for catharsis and connection for listeners. While we’re not done savoring Keys, we’re already looking forward to Cooper's next project, an instrumental mood music album. Stay tuned!​

Listen to Keys:
Spotify - Apple Music - Tidal - Amazon Music - YouTube - Pandora - YouTube Music

1. What are some narrative devices or styles you commonly use? And for what strategic purpose, if any?

2. How have you been able to articulate traumatic/painful experiences for your own healing or to help others heal?

3. What does complicity and responsibility look like for you as a person or as an artist?

4. What stories live inside you that won’t exist in the world unless you create them?

5. What stories have impacted your capacity for empathy? How can you use art to help others empathize with what they might not identify with or understand?

6. What is "expected" of you, your identity, your culture, etc? In what ways do you want to embrace or resist that as an artist?

7. What did you need in your past that you didn't receive or couldn't quite articulate? How can you ask your community for what you need now?

8. ​In what ways can you  anticipate or listen to the needs of your community and respond to those needs within your capacity?