Tonight, EMP Museum hosts the final round of Sound Off! 2015, the premier ?battle of the bands? for young artists in the Pacific Northwest. Now in its 14th year, Sound Off! supports the local music scene by giving musicians 21 and under an opportunity to showcase their work, connect with the larger artistic community, and perform live at a top venue in the region. This year?s musicians range in age from 15-21 years-old, and hail from various parts of the northwest including Eugene, and Oregon City, OR, to Seattle and Bellingham, WA. The winner of Sound Off! 2015 will have the opportunity to perform at a major music festival in the region. Prizes for the top four finalist bands include gear, studio time, radio airplay, and one-on-one consultations with music industry professionals. This year Magnolia will be represented at the finals.? Bleachbear (recently named ?Seattle?s Best Underage Band? by?Seattle Weekly) won a qualifying spot the first night of the competition and will compete against 3 other bands for the? winning title.
Bleachbear is: Tigerlily Nakagawa Cooley – vocals/guitar/bass
Annabella Bird Nakagawa Cooley – drums/percussion
Emiko Nakagawa Gantt – bass/bells
Magnolia Voice caught up with Magnolia’s Emiko Nakagawa Gantt. ?The Ingraham High School freshman maintains an A average and lettered in varsity cross country this year. She?took some time out to answer some of our questions:
MV: How did you get started in music?
ENG: We?ve been playing together since we were young. We used to go back to our mother?s hometown of Walla Walla in the summer and sing in the county fair ?Little Buckaroo? contest and do acapella renditions of songs Tiger wrote. Then in middle school Tiger learned to play guitar, Bird began drums, and we had our first show was at the University Street Fair. At that show I just sang harmonies and played tambourine but I soon learned bass and Bleachbear was born.
MV:??What inspires you?
ENG: We?re inspired by a lot of different things; the 1960?s, old friends, Twin Peaks, postcards and poems, other bands we love like Radiohead and the Breeders, Napoleon Dynamite- the list goes on and on.
MV: What are your goals?
ENG: We love playing music together and want to take this as far as we can! As far as short term goals, we?re about to begin recording our second album, we’re getting our website up, we’re planning to release a music video, and we’re hoping to play at some local music festivals this summer!
MV:?Any funny/crazy performance stories?
ENG: The first time we played at the EMP it was to open up their ?Women Who Rock? exhibit and it was by far the biggest show we?d played yet and a ton of famous woman rockers there but Tiger got laryngitis the week of and sounded like a dying frog.?However, we went onstage anyway and everyone was super supportive and it turned out to be a great way to spend the last day of school!
CONGRATS!