In this interview, I hang out with Ian Kelly, a versatile rapper and storyteller from Oakland, California. We talk about community, the artist's evolution, intentionality, and of course, all of this involves music.

As I’ve continued to talk to artists recently, I’ve noticed that there are certain things a few have in common in their growth. It’s part of being intentional and part of letting go. This can seem strange because it’s contradictory, but it also seems true. Ian and I discussed this relation to his evolution. I don’t know; we’ll see where this goes as I interview more artists.

Something unique I appreciated about Kelly’s process is this idea of motion and imagery. He says that he “creates in motion” and that he takes opportunities to create, to imagine, while walking in the park or in the ideal passenger seat of the car. This is when he imagines, sees, and conceptualizes. He’s an imagery person, and I like it when sentences, bars, lines, and words produce images in my brain. I don’t always think about this, but it’s nice when I hear someone's words, and a scene is laid out in front of me, in my head. It’s funny how image and imagine are so closely related because one is so concrete, and the other extremely expansive.

Kelly has a few singles out, leading up to his Concrete Ocean EP, which will be released this May (2025). He also has three LPs.

Here are a couple of the latest singles:

WTA, featuring DJ D Sharp

SLIDIN, featuring DJ D Sharp and Iamsu!

You can also hear Kelly freestyling on Sway in the Morning HERE.

Ian Kelly website: https://www.firstnameian.com/about

PHOTO BY Lara Kaur

Lara Laur Linktree

I recently reviewed Friedman's debut album, New Thing, in Post-Trash magazine. The album is great, and I reached out to her team to see if she had time for an interview. Knowing she had limited time because it was the week of the album's release, I came up with three questions that focused mainly on community and performance. Oh, yeah, and there is one bonus question.

This interview with my OLYMPUS Digital Voice Recorder VN-7200 was recorded over the phone, so it's fuzzy. To me, it feels like one of those voice memos on a Midwest emo song, where someone is playing some slow single-string notes on a guitar, and someone is talking over it, contemplating something.

BIG BIG shout out to AUDIO ANTIHERO!!

Check out the Album HERE

Check out the Album Review HERE

P.S. I am obsessed with the song "Finger Painting."

In the early 2000s, I lived in Ypsilanti, Michigan, a few blocks away from Mark Paffi. Through friends of friends, I ended up going to these Wednesday night parties Paffi threw, hosting friends in the community. I remember meeting John Gaviglio there, and we were sitting on a couch. We talked about music, and he told me he was in a band named Bear vs. Shark. I was excited when he mentioned that one of their many influences was At the Drive-In, as I was enamoured with that band at the time. I started going to Bear vs. Shark shows right after that moment, which were a string of basements, punk houses, and small venues.

The spacing in their songs was unique to me. Not everything was in 4/4 timing; the sound each guitar player made was unique, different, and unfamiliar. Paffi would periodically shove the microphone in his mouth, gyrate his body, press his head onto fans' heads while singing, and perform as a conduit for some unseen energy. They’d switch instruments for different songs throughout the set. There were so many moving parts. It felt good to watch them. It felt exciting and explosive. The sound they produced was expansive, energetic, and coordinated, while unpredictable. I went to every show of theirs I could because I wanted to keep feeling all of those feelings.

I always got those feelings when I saw them through the years—in the Los Angeles area a few times after Michigan, mostly because I lived there for a long time—and I still got those feelings when I saw them on 2025 April 13, 2025, in Philadelphia.

For the first time, it dawned on me when I saw them play at this recent show, that Bear vs. Shark carried with them through the years this raw, anamalistic, charged energy. And it reminded me of literal bears and sharks, the power of music, and the desire for self-expression - to burn white hot with instinct, and what organized energy can become.

I’m grateful that I got to interview Marc Paffi and John Gaviglio of Bear vs. Shark in one of the many greenrooms backstage at Union Transfer. We talk about intention, composition, life, Fugazi, and music in general. Thank you guys! Much love!

Jonah