{"id":345,"date":"2022-12-08T01:23:45","date_gmt":"2022-12-08T01:23:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/revelance\/?p=345"},"modified":"2022-12-13T00:36:01","modified_gmt":"2022-12-13T00:36:01","slug":"all-the-kings-horses-and-iven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/revelance\/all-the-kings-horses-and-iven\/","title":{"rendered":"All the King\u2019s Horses and Iven\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

A Blast From Goucher’s Independent Music Club Past And Present<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

by River Rowe

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Photo courtesy of River Rowe<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n

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On December 2, students, family, friends, and fans gradually gathered in the Haebler Chapel Undercroft for the Goucher Independent Music Club\u2019s (IMC) final concert of the semester. The show featured performances from the Goucher solo act, David Einhorn, the debut Goucher band, All the King\u2019s Horses, returning solo artist Iven, and Maryland-based shoegaze group, Heaven\u2019s Gate. As IMC\u2019s fifth and final show of the semester, and ninth show since returning from virtual learning, highly anticipated performances by new band All the King\u2019s Horses and three-time IMC artist, Iven, made for an excellent close to the semester.

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Illustration by Jandro Clemente<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n

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The Goucher Independent music club, first formed in 2017, has organized Undercroft shows for longer than the current Goucher community can remember, providing Goucher students (free) and others (for $5 at the door) the experience of seeing local and touring independent artists on their home campus. The Undercroft, a classroom-sized room in the basement of Goucher’s Haebler Memorial Chapel, has hosted the musical talent of numerous East-Coast-based bands within the intimate and charmingly cramped space.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n


Prior to the pandemic, IMC audiences could expect a wide arrange of emotions and experiences at every show: from mini mosh pits and high-energy punk\/metal\/alternative performances to lighter-wielding and entrancing story-time-esque serenades. Now under new leadership, in the early days of returning to Goucher, the IMC took a few months to get back to its previous reputation, but after a couple semesters, the shows are back and better than ever.

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Illustration by Elie Siegal<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n

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On Friday, the Undercroft doors opened at 7 p.m. as band members warmed up and checked that all their equipment was in place. Spectators slowly trickled into the space, accumulating around thirty audience members by the start of the first set.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n


Following the first set, audience members socialized or went outside as usual, returning to the Undercroft when All the King\u2019s Horses member, Nick Jackson, took the mic to introduce the band. Comprised of four Goucher seniors performing together for the first time, the band features Elie Siegal (bass\/drums\/vocals), Nick Jackson (guitar\/bass\/vocals), Jandro Clemente (piano\/vocals), and Omar Sass (keys\/vocals). Despite playing and producing music together in the past, the four members had never performed in a show together, and many hadn\u2019t performed at all in several years.

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Photo courtesy of River Rowe<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n

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\u201cIt felt like the beginning of a roller coaster,\u201d Jandro explained. \u201cLike, I love going on roller coasters. And they’re so fun when I’m on it. But then the lead-up before it, my imagination just gets the best of me and it’s super nerve-wracking. And so it was really, really fun but I definitely had I think way more nerves about this performance than some of my other ones.\u201d

All The King’s Horses Extended Interview<\/a>

When planning their set, each member chose two songs, then they listened through them to eliminate what wouldn\u2019t work. In the end, they eliminated two songs (\u201cFruit Salad\u201d by The Wiggles and \u201cDear Simone\u201d by Jacob Banks) and switched one cover. The set list the band finalized was \u201cFrances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle\u201d by Nirvana, \u201cJerry Woke Up Today\u201d by Nick Jackson, \u201cShitlist\u201d by L7, \u201cStrictly Conversational\u201d by Omar Sass, \u201cHurt\u201d by Johnny Cash, and \u201cDrop It Like It\u2019s Hot\u201d by Snoop Dogg and Pharrell Williams.

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Illustration by Omar Sass<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n

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\u201cThis is our first time ever doing it together. And it’s our first time ever, like setting it up independently,\u201d said Nick, previous member of the former Goucher band, Welsh Commons. \u201cWe’ve played so much music with each other already that it kind of came naturally, so we just had to do the planning and then it all fell into place.\u201d

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With all members having a vast experience with music since early childhood, they were able to work with the songs technically to best utilize their strengths and to produce a unique version of both original songs and those that others may have heard before. \u201cIt was a lot of fun to mess around with and like create our own styles and spins on the songs,\u201d Jandro explained, \u201cespecially for songs like \u2018Hurt,\u2019 which is a cover of a cover.\u201d

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Illustration by Nick Jackson<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n

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During their performance, the crowd wasn\u2019t still for a moment as they shifted through genre after genre, switching instruments and styles with every song. It was a lot of firsts for everyone: Nick and Omar were excited by hearing their original songs being played by a group for the first time; Elie excellently executed vocals and rapping while simultaneously drumming; and most of them rapped in front of people for the very first time. Through their set, audience members danced, moshed, and sang along to well-known songs such as \u201cFrances,\u201d \u201cHurt,\u201d and \u201cDrop It Like It\u2019s Hot\u201d, while the band ripped off their shirts and immersed themselves in the performance. When everything came together, the band was very happy with what they had accomplished.

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\u201cThe crowd felt pretty enveloped in it,\u201d said Omar, \u201cand the energy was good.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cIt was a very nice-feeling space to play,\u201d added Nick. \u201cIt felt very welcoming.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

After another brief social intermission, the audience was again drawn back by Nashville-based acoustic folk artist, Iven opening his first song, \u201cOn This Roof,\u201d with a sorrowful outstretched moan. As the audience filtered in, they sat around him on the floor, elementary-school story-time-style, and watched in awe as his voice flooded the room.\u00a0

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Photo courtesy of Carmen Canedo<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n

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Also playing music since early childhood, Iven (Isaac Q. Horton) began releasing music under this name in 2018, launching his first tour in 2019. Prior to this show, Isaac had performed at Goucher twice before, once in 2019 and another just before the pandemic in 2020, and has been long beloved by IMC frequenters. Over this period of time, Isaac has released two albums: Eight New Songs<\/em> (2019) and Iven in 2k21<\/em> (2022). After primarily releasing music virtually for almost three years, his third show at Goucher featured mostly songs off of Eight New Songs<\/em>, such as \u201cOn This Roof,\u201d \u201cIt Had You,\u201d and \u201cMy Pretty Face,\u201d as well as two new songs: \u201cWhat if We Moved Like That,\u201d and \u201cPastries.\u201d<\/p>\r\n


\u201cThis is my first one since the pandemic started. I got back from tour and then it was like three weeks later pandemic hit,\u201d explained Isaac. \u201cIt’s terrifying. It feels really good. I’m very nervous. It\u2019s just I haven’t played a ton of shows in general, since the pandemic. When I come to Goucher, it’s like, pretty much if anybody does know me here, they pretty much only know me for my music, which is a different kind of feeling, I guess. Getting in front of people.\u201d<\/p>\r\n


Iven Extended Interview<\/a><\/p>\r\n


\u201cFor a while there, I just like kind of entirely lost touch with it,\u201d Isaac said of his relationship to music during the pandemic. \u201cAnd so it was like, just for like a myriad of reasons, music became less and less a part of my everyday life and in for a while there, I even stopped listening to music. I had really bad writer’s block and I was getting frustrated.”<\/p>\r\n

When asked about art’s relationship to ‘productivity,’ Isaac laughed. “There is a relationship to making music for passion and then the idea of, ‘It’d be nice if I could eat and not, you know, work at the mud factory.’ I became frustrated with myself for not being able to finish a project instead of being excited by the act of creation. And so I totally stopped doing any sort of music for a while. The past six months, I’ve been trying to crawl back into that. I’m very excited about tonight, to be able to share something in a way that hopefully, you know, feels good.”

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Illustration by Nick Jackson<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n

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One of Isaac\u2019s greatest skills is connecting to his audience, not only through his music but also through the way he interacts with them. After three years, he\u2019s finally back in front of people, sharing his soulful sound and choked-up lyrics to a peaceful crowd. As he had done at his last Goucher show, Isaac concluded his performance by thanking the crowd and promoting the \u201cChristmas Day\u201d-scented candles his mom made, selling merch and conversating as Heaven\u2019s Gate prepared for their set.<\/p>\r\n


\u201cWhat I really like to do is playing music in front of people is a very cathartic and intense experience for me,\u201d shared Isaac, \u2018and I’d like that to be something shared rather than something presented. It takes a little bit away from that barrier of the musician-audience divide.\u201d

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Nick Jackson on SoundCloud<\/a>

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Omar Sass on SoundCloud<\/a>

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Elie Siegal on SoundCloud<\/a>\u00a0

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Iven on bandcamp<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

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<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Blast From Goucher’s Independent Music Club Past And Present by River Rowe \u00a0 On December 2, students, family, friends, and fans gradually gathered in the Haebler Chapel Undercroft for the Goucher Independent Music Club\u2019s (IMC) final concert of the semester. The show featured performances from the Goucher solo act, David Einhorn, the debut Goucher […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":438,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[88159],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/revelance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/revelance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/revelance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/revelance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/438"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/revelance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/revelance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":546,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/revelance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345\/revisions\/546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/revelance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/revelance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/revelance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}