Posts in Profiles
Silversun Pickups Share Evolution of Sound Before Starting US Tour
Silversun Pickups Share Evolution of Sound Before Starting US Tour

It is odd to think that a major rock band had to be brought out of its shell. That, at least according to Brian Aubert, is exactly happened with Silversun Pickups.

Aubert, front man for the Los Angeles-based alternative rock band, explained that the group honed it’s signature distorted-yet-bright vibe in its early days from being inside intimate venues. That the SSPU sound wasn’t coaxed out in a marathon rehearsal or songwriting session but from playing live in front of small audiences in intimate local clubs.

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ProfilesJake UittiAmerican Songwriter Magazine
TONY MILLIONAIRE’S JOURNEY FROM DISHWASHER TO NOTORIOUS CARTOONIST
TONY MILLIONAIRE’S JOURNEY FROM DISHWASHER TO NOTORIOUS CARTOONIST

Before becoming a renowned cartoonist, Tony Millionaire struggled to find any work at all. But after quitting a middling dishwashing job, he had an epiphany. He decided to go door-to-door in wealthy neighborhoods and draw the manicured mansions and sell the pictures to the people who lived there, earning a living one $25 piece at a time. In the winter, though, the drawing work dried up and Millionaire had to scramble to find new income, eventually landing a job as a demolition man.

“The people who had money to spend on drawings lived in big, fancy houses,” recalls Millionaire, a nationally syndicated cartoonist. “If you have a nice, big old house, the garden comes in perfectly, the roof is fixed, the flowers are coming in nicely. How do you put a period on that? You have somebody draw a picture of it. But you can’t really do that in winter. So, I had to find a job in construction. I used to do the demolition inside houses. I’d tear them down in winter and draw them in summer.”

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ProfilesJake UittiBARE MAGAZINE/TMR
UPPER HAND: THE MOST NOTORIOUS CARD COUNTER IN AMERICA
UPPER HAND: THE MOST NOTORIOUS CARD COUNTER IN AMERICA

Professional card counter, David Drury, began his career calculating odds and beating casinos because of a little “divine intervention.” Dury, a regular churchgoer, had picked up a few card counting tricks from books and was instantly hooked. Not long after, a friend from church started a high stakes blackjack team (“What are the chances?” Drury says). Dury joined and honed his skills and since, he’s flown the country, stayed in suites and bet thousands of dollars of other people’s money. For a time, he was even known as the Most Notorious Card Counters in America.

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ProfilesJake UittiBARE MAGAZINE/TMR
Celebrate Black History Month With Seattle Chef Edouardo Jordan
Celebrate Black History Month With Seattle Chef Edouardo Jordan

When chef Edouardo Jordan encounters something, he examines it thoroughly. For the Seattle-based restaurateur, winner of two prestigious James Beard Foundation Awards (Best Chef Northwest and Best New Restaurant for JuneBaby), nothing important is taken at face value. Rather, Jordan is interested in a thing’s origin and what it might be used for in the future, whether traditionally or untraditionally. Which is why, when he decides to celebrate and highlight Black History Month in his trio of stellar restaurants, it means something both flavorful and educational.

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ProfilesJake UittiSeattle Weekly
On Being Trans: J Mase III Creates a Space to Feel Welcome
On Being Trans: J Mase III Creates a Space to Feel Welcome

Trans-identifying, Seattle-based artist J Mase III has held many jobs in his life: in the nonprofit sector, in university settings, and as a boots-on-the-ground human-rights activist. But it wasn’t until Mase was fired from his most “cushy” position in higher education six years ago that he finally chose to hang up the nine-to-five lifestyle and become a full-time working artist. Ever since, Mase has been creating opportunities for himself and others while also making a living. In fact, his next artistic endeavor is centered on that delicate balance.

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ProfilesJake UittiSeattle Weekly
Travis Thompson’s Ride From Burien to the “Corner Store” and Beyond
Travis Thompson’s Ride From Burien to the “Corner Store” and Beyond

After performing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in support of Macklemore (aka Ben Haggerty) alongside fellow Emerald City rapper Dave B. (aka Dave Bowman) and world-famous DJ Premiere last year, Travis Thompson got stoned with two of his best friends atop his Times Square hotel. The moment, both in metaphor and in real life, was a high point for the Seattle-born lyricist. But, Thompson hopes, it won’t be the last view from atop a peak on the landscape.

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ProfilesJake UittiSeattle Weekly
Blues Traveler Still Giving the Run-Around
Blues Traveler Still Giving the Run-Around

John Popper can sing the complicated jazz tune “Whiplash” practically in his sleep. The song, featured prominently in the Oscar-winning movie of the same name, is burned into Popper’s brain because of the same man who inspired the devilish bandleader in the film: Anthony Biancosino. “Dr. B,” as he was affectionately known, was an award-winning high school band teacher at Princeton High School in Princeton, N.J. (where Popper and Whiplash director Damien Chazelle both attended, decades apart). And while he wasn’t nearly the authoritarian as he’s exaggerated to be in the 2014 movie, Dr. B did help Popper — the frontman and harmonica player for the Grammy-winning band Blues Traveler — flourish as a musician.

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ProfilesJake UittiSeattle Weekly
Springtime with the Decemberists
Springtime with the Decemberists

For their new album, “I’ll Be Your Girl,” released in March, the members of Portland-based rock band The Decemberists set out to challenge themselves. The group hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with its 2011 LP “The King Is Dead” and has built a following for creative sounds and lyrics. But fresh tactics, says frontman Colin Meloy, had to be taken to keep making invigorating music.

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ProfilesJake UittiAlaska Beyond/TMR
Easy Street's Matt Vaughan Talks About Thriving for 30 Years in Music Retail
Easy Street's Matt Vaughan Talks About Thriving for 30 Years in Music Retail

Thirty years ago, while Matt Vaughan was attending Seattle University, he established the monument to local music that is West Seattle’s Easy Street Records. In the interim decades since, Vaughan has watched the neighborhood around him change dramatically and watched friends, like members of Alice in Chains, rocket to stardom and then tragically fall. Vaughan was there when Sir Mix-A-Lot first began hustling his debut, Swass; there when Macklemore sold his first CD; and he’ll be there when the next sensations—Thunderpussy, Car Seat Headrest—rise to the top of the charts. No one has followed Emerald City music quite like Vaughan; in a way he is the eye of the local scene’s storm.

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ProfilesJake UittiThe Stranger
SHE’S MIGHTY, MIGHTY: BRIQ HOUSE AND HER SUNDAY NIGHT SHUGA SHAQ
SHE’S MIGHTY, MIGHTY: BRIQ HOUSE AND HER SUNDAY NIGHT SHUGA SHAQ

Ms. Briq House—a burlesque performer, sex work advocate, professional cuddler, stripper, educator, and entertainer—wants you to see the light. Raised by her grandparents as a Southern Baptist Christian, House was an active member of the church as a youth. She worshiped. She spread the word. But, at twenty-five, she sought a divorce from her then-husband (with whom she remains in amicable contact), and that is when, “We saw people’s true colors,” she says.

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ProfilesJake UittiSSE
Traveling Musician
Traveling Musician

While visiting nashville, Tennessee, singer-songwriter Aloe Blacc found something he did not expect. Inside the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Blacc stood before a large mural depicting the origins of the museum’s central genre. The painting showed a cultural mashup of players with West African banjos, as well as fiddles and other harmonic and melodic elements that originated in Europe.

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ProfilesJake UittiAlaska Beyond/TMR