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Laura Hopkins (Death Parade)
175 Plays5 years ago
For this episode of Something (rather than nothing) we engage with the talented music artist and activist Laura Hopkins. Hopkins discusses her classical piano training, writing songs, growing up around music, playing guitar and creating some ‘louder’ music.
Hopkins exquisite work with the band Death Parade straddles wide emotional terrain and floats into space only to be brought back in and grounded in our beautiful and strange world.
We grapple with life, death, something and nothing. The soundtrack to this episode includes the music tracks Ghostworld and women of the internet (woti)
https://deathparadepdx.bandcamp.com/album/it-was-worth-it-to-love-though-it-hurt-so-bad
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
You are listening to something rather than nothing. Creator and host Ken Valente. Editor and producer Peter Bauer.
00:00:17
Speaker
This is Ken Vellante with something rather than nothing podcast.
Interview with Laura Hopkins: Music and Activism
00:00:20
Speaker
And this episode, we have Laura Hopkins of the band Death Parade and a really talented musical artist, an activist, somebody who I've followed for a little bit. And I'm just really pleased to be able to welcome you to the show, Laura. Thank you.
00:00:41
Speaker
One of the first questions we try to get into on the show is to find out what you would like when you were younger. You tend to be interested in artists when they were younger. Were you always interested in music, art, or is that something that developed later on? I have always loved music. My dad played piano.
00:01:09
Speaker
great piano player and so was my grandfather and we grew up like singing songs around the piano and then I tried to play but I didn't want to learn how to read music so I just watch his hands and pretend like I was reading the music but I was just copying his hands so I liked playing piano and I grew up with a lot of classical music I pretty much only listened to classical until I was
00:01:40
Speaker
10. So that was me in the early stages of my musical upbringing.
00:01:53
Speaker
Yeah, it's a good foundation.
Laura's Musical Journey and Influences
00:01:56
Speaker
Actually, I just saw that the Portland Symphony just hired a new director. So I know I've gone to the Portland Symphony and I got into some classical music much later on, but it's obviously a style and a tradition that is very foundational. But for you, as you developed, I know you've played in
00:02:20
Speaker
at least a couple bands. Do you want to talk about just kind of how you ended up, you know, developing as a musician, as a songwriter, singer and guitarist and just kind of take us along with, you know, your projects, a couple projects?
00:02:37
Speaker
Yeah. Um, I, I started teaching myself how to play guitar. Um, when I was 13 and I'd sing really quietly in my bedroom, cause I'd never wanted anyone to hear me. So I, I, uh, I, I like practiced, you know, making sure every note was on point very quietly. Um, and then playing guitar as well.
00:03:08
Speaker
And kind of always just traveled and had an acoustic guitar with me just because I just had to play wherever
Evolution of Death Parade's Sound
00:03:19
Speaker
I was. And I was writing songs pretty much since I was probably younger than 13. But I just loved to play. And then getting older, I wanted to play a bit louder. And that was kind of weird for me.
00:03:38
Speaker
play louder because I was so used to like hiding and like I didn't ever want to sing in front of anybody. And then I got out there in the world and slowly got a bit louder and was in some bands that I had to wear earplugs when I was playing because it was so loud.
00:04:02
Speaker
Yeah. How did that feel for you? I mean, I can hear in your description, you know, with the piano and some of that training. And then, you know, as it became more intense and louder, how did that feel as far as you as an artist expressing yourself in that very different way? It felt... It was like I needed both. Like I needed the quiet and I needed the loud.
00:04:33
Speaker
to equal out. So like having a heavy project and also having like, you know, some acoustic guitar songwriting was important to have like both. But I've been really into songwriting and like, you know, melodies get
00:04:54
Speaker
stuck in my head at night and so I just I'm like making up songs in my head and have to like go write them down or I hear them in my head before I make them and it's like experimenting with like fuzz pedals and getting louder and a more you know intricate ways of songwriting
00:05:18
Speaker
Lately with the music, it's like a mixture of these like folky kind of songwriting ways into like a heavier, just the heavier feelings of the music.
The Role of Art in Society
00:05:36
Speaker
Like I wouldn't say it's like a genre thing. It's more like the songwriting style that I do. It's like how my emotional,
00:05:48
Speaker
where I'm at emotionally or like my mood or something like it's more in like the heavy as in like moody or a feeling that needs to be expressed and like having you know a band especially now with we just got a new drummer for Death Parade and he hits a little harder on the cymbals
00:06:16
Speaker
and on the drum set in general. So it's given us the ability to even create more sound and layers. I really like the sound of Death Parade. And there's something about, you said, that prompted
00:06:35
Speaker
My one thing I was trying to figure out in my head because there's this element of a dream pop in for the audience will be playing a track ghost world of Death Parade in a bit. But Laura, there's this like kind of dreamy pop element of it. But there is that heaviness and there is that gravity to it. So I think there's this really interesting tension.
00:06:56
Speaker
within the songs or recent songs within Death Parade of that kind of like rooted heaviness, but also a dreamy kind of spaciness too. And you usually don't see those two elements combined. I think you do a fantastic job doing that. Do you see that dynamic in the songs? Definitely. I think that the dreamy pop feeling is
00:07:17
Speaker
It's totally totally in there like I can't I feel like when I'm writing it just it kind of turns into a poppy thing because it's catchy and like I like melodies that stick so
00:07:28
Speaker
It kind of goes to that, but I also like when I'm, when I'm creating a space with music, like I want it to be like, there's like, there's a sway to it. Like there's a dreaminess where you can kind of close your eyes and like go to somewhere, like a feeling or a memory and just like kind of sway around in that feeling or memory. So it's like create, like, I like to create that space for people and myself. Yeah.
00:07:54
Speaker
Yeah, I really love that space too. I know you're really interested in art and creativity. I was wondering, for you, what role do you see art serving, right? We live in turbulent times, the stark relief and justice.
00:08:23
Speaker
and disparity in our society. And then sometimes art's role, for me it seems, is questioned within that. What do you think the role of art is?
00:08:36
Speaker
Historically, it kind of either reinforces what exists or disrupts what we exist. What do you see as art doing today, right now? I think it's doing both. It's disrupting and absorbing and being present with
00:08:54
Speaker
what's happening you know like that that's why i can connect to like art from coming from feeling like because everyone's feeling so much like you know they talk about like solace music um and because people have like solace music because they they're not feeling anything they're just like existing and like getting by and everything's working out like
00:09:16
Speaker
You know, like a cardboard box. It's just like, you know, it's it fits. It works, you know, but there's no there's no depth to it. And right now there's so many people experiencing such depths of like being alive, you know, and like not being alive, like dying. And I think with art, like is the only way to really like like it's to express that magic of being alive.
Pandemic's Impact on Perceptions of Death
00:09:45
Speaker
Like, you know, so with you're creating, like art is magic. Art is like radiance of where you're at and how you can deal with like what's going on around you and like what's going on inside of you. So I like want to encourage everybody to like, you know, everybody's been going through something, especially this year, especially with artists in isolation and
00:10:14
Speaker
without other people. So they all are feeling something. So to be creating right now is like to be like letting it out somehow, like letting, letting out that, that feeling, that magic that you're experiencing of being alive before and like the grief of being alive, you know, before it all
00:10:41
Speaker
before you can't anymore. And then like, really, that's it. Like, it's over. And like, that was your shot to like, get all your feelings out. And if you don't do it, then you didn't do it. And then that's all that's it. Yeah. No, I really connect with what you say. I mean, one of the one of the things I mentioned, there's this
00:11:02
Speaker
you know this heavy darkness in the pandemic right it's like the presence of death like it just feels closer right and it causes a reaction and i found for myself as far as my attempt to be healthy is just to recognize that like it's there like it's in front of you it's scary um it but it's really prompted that kind of reaction of everybody because
00:11:28
Speaker
everybody's experience in the pandemic, but everybody's pandemics are different and their experience of them are so different. Yeah. I feel like maybe before a lot of people weren't like, maybe even didn't believe in death. Like it was something that just happened to their grandparents, you know, like for a lot of folks, like it just was so far away from reality.
00:11:53
Speaker
and now it's like everywhere. You can't be a death denier anymore. It's not like we're all immortal and we can just take drugs and be like forever people. You're being sold youth and you're being sold that this is, we can have this forever, but old people, they're like, oh, well, they had their shot. They had their shot, right? Yeah, but it's like, no, now it's like,
00:12:24
Speaker
You can die right now. You can die all the time. That's a made-up reality that you can't die all the time. Yeah. There's something square about that. So me, I'm trained in philosophy and doing this philosophy podcast. And historically, going back to the Greeks with Plato and Aristotle, Plato was basically saying that
00:12:48
Speaker
you know, philosophy is just a consideration of death. You know, I mean, it's just like we're mortal. All right. So then, you know, what what do we can what do we consider? But out of that, there's a lot of positivity and like a recognition of reality of like interrogating the world. But but on that, a big big question related to that, I was starting to talk about art. But that's a big question I ask in this show is what is art?
New Music and Collaborations
00:13:19
Speaker
What do you think art is? I think it's the things that, you know, if it's human made art is what, you know, the synopsis in our brains extrude, you know, create. It's all just everybody's mind is making up all these things.
00:13:49
Speaker
And then art is just a photograph or a video or like a sound of what somebody inside is trying to put outside. So it's a reflection of, human-made art is a reflection of humanity. Yeah, thank you. Thanks, Laura.
00:14:18
Speaker
Folks, we're going to move to a track, Ghost World. We're with Laura Hopkins of the band Death Parade. And we're going to cut to Ghost World, Laura, and then play it and like to chat about it when we cut back. Sound good? Sounds good.
00:19:25
Speaker
That's a beautiful song, Laura. Thank you.
Perception of Reality and Live Performances
00:19:30
Speaker
We got new stuff coming from Death Parade? Yes. So in the midst of this pandemic, the beginning of the pandemic, our drummer decided to focus on his own music. So we didn't meet up for a while, but then we met up with them.
00:19:53
Speaker
Robert who used to play or he plays in tribe Mars and him and I used to play in a band together called the tamed West and I Played bass in that band and we had a lot of fun. So this year has been us meeting up when we can and we've we've got eight new songs working on a ninth one and
00:20:22
Speaker
going to go into the studio soon and record them making another full length. Yay. That's so exciting. Yeah. So glad. Tell us more. Yeah. Yeah. It's got all sorts of different feelings on the full length. I just was looking at the songs and how they all sound. And I feel like there's different genres in every song a little bit.
00:20:51
Speaker
But they're all played by us. So I'm like, it can't be that big of a switch. I'm really looking forward to hearing the new tracks. I do love the band and I love your work in the band. Laura, a big question that I tend to ask is, could you let us know what or who made you who you are?
00:21:22
Speaker
What or who? And who, who I am. Yeah. I feel like, um, I was talking to people about the pandemic made a lot of people go through an ego death. So I found a lot of new parts of who I am, uh, just this past year. Yeah. So I think, uh,
00:21:51
Speaker
I think it has to be maybe a what, like it was a situational. Roast to become, you know, this person, you know, every, every experience I experienced has made me get to this present moment and be the way that I am. Yeah. I, um.
00:22:17
Speaker
The phrase ego death, I'm very influenced by Eastern philosophy and Buddhism and Taoism and just kind of the role of the ego, right? And where the ego dying or ego suffering and the kind of regeneration that's within that. And I love those themes, particularly in art and how you talk about them personally, right? Being honest about
00:22:43
Speaker
how things have changed in getting through adversity, right? Yeah. Big question, Laura. I don't mean to do two in a row to you. Two of the big questions. But the strange question that forms the basis of the show is why is there something rather than nothing?
00:23:11
Speaker
It's that general question, but sometimes folks apply it to creativity and where creativity comes from. And does it come from within or outside or from nothing or are things just kind of a reconstitution of what exists? So why is there something rather than nothing?
00:23:34
Speaker
I think you can have the choice, like each individual can have the choice of either having something or having nothing in the same exact experience. Like it's up to you to, you know, you kind of, you kind of choose your own reality.
00:23:52
Speaker
So like, if, if you're like, Oh, it's, it's nothing, like there's nothing, then like, that's real. Like that's valid. That makes total sense. Like that's your reality. And then if you're like, okay, there's, there's something, you know, and same person, and they just switch their mind around and they're in the same life, like then that's a new reality, you know? Yeah. You get to, you get to choose how, you know, what, what makes,
00:24:23
Speaker
the reality, like, you know, there's, there's facts and things and stuff. And then, but then you're, you're stuck in this, you know, flesh box and then you get to make up your own choice. Is it something like, does it matter or, or doesn't it? And it's kind of liberating if they were like, Oh, it doesn't matter. Cause then, then you can really do whatever you want. Yeah.
00:24:48
Speaker
And all right, so let me do this speculative question. And I'm really interested in hear what you say. So you mentioned flesh box. So your flesh box is up on stage. And so this is safe to perform whatever level the pandemic's at. There are public concerts. There are concerts of which we recall them being like, you're on stage.
00:25:15
Speaker
What's going to happen? What do you feel, Laura, for the first time going back? Well, I think, I mean, that show that I threw, the Underneath the Bridge show, was a little taste of what that feels like having that show this fall. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for doing that. Yeah.
00:25:44
Speaker
I, um, I definitely am planning on doing more of those. Um, because, I mean, it was successful and safe and it worked.
00:26:00
Speaker
Um, and it was like this, this kind of new, new reality that I wanted to live in where like the people just do whatever they want, you know, like, and they can take care of themselves and they can take care of each other.
Authenticity in Post-Pandemic Live Shows
00:26:14
Speaker
Um, especially when it comes to community and music, you know, like you, we, we set up that show to, to w we didn't ask anybody if we could be there. Like we just occupied the land and.
00:26:29
Speaker
and did what we did and like I think you know shows moving forward being up on stage like now I'm realizing like how like how much you can do with that being the flesh box up there with the microphone like what you can do and how you can interact with um the people and that are watching and and
00:26:57
Speaker
how you can impact them. Before, I wanted to just give people a space to have feelings. I wanted to create a safe environment for people to close their eyes and feel and cry and laugh or move and just be like, you're accepted, you're safe here to be yourself.
00:27:20
Speaker
Um, and then going forward, I think I want to utilize that as, as kind of like pushing people a little bit more to explore themselves. You know, like, yeah, I'm, I'm standing up in front in my flesh box, but then all these people in saying in front of me.
00:27:43
Speaker
You know, they're, they're just, they're exactly the same, except they're not talking. They're not, you know, being looked at, you know, there, there's all these, I always imagine I'm like, there's so many floating brains out in front of me, you know, you know, I'm just this floating brain and we're all just like looking at each other and like, we're trying to get something out of us this moment. You know, it's all just like time spent moments.
00:28:11
Speaker
being there. So I think when getting up on stage and kind of like giving more space to being like, Hey, do you guys know what we're doing right now? Like, are you aware of this time period? Like we're only going to be here for two hours. Like this is just two hours of your life. Like, yeah, this is, are you present? Are you here? Like, like this is a moment.
00:28:41
Speaker
in your life that will never happen again. Right. I think like the last, one of the last shows when I was in my other band, we played in LA and I knew the pandemic was coming and I knew that that was it. Like this was going to be it. Like there was not going to be shows like this anymore. And I just screamed at everybody. I was like, this is it.
00:29:07
Speaker
Like we were in LA and I was like, do you know like that? This is like, I hope that you're living so hard in this very moment because this is
00:29:17
Speaker
This is going down. It's going down now, right? Yeah, it's gonna be different from here on out and I was so excited about that and I like that show every single second of being there like I was so present and I lived it up like I like if I'd have to show I'd be dead like that was it, you know, like and I kind of just want to
Connecting with Death Parade and Conclusion
00:29:39
Speaker
like carry that
00:29:40
Speaker
And I feel like a lot of people are closer to that. I feel like when we were in LA, people were just like, I want to go backstage and get drunk and I want to be cool and all this shit. And I was just like, you know that your life is never going to be the same after this. Wow. And so I hope to share that with the music of being like, let's be here now as much as we possibly can be because it can all be taken away. Like we took advantage of it.
00:30:09
Speaker
um in portland having shows every single night and so many different bands you know like it was all the time and now it's it's all gone so to like come back into like having a music scene like it can't be bullshit you know it can't be it can't be fake it can't be like just a pass but like
00:30:33
Speaker
It's important. It matters. And everybody's art that they're making should matter to them. And what they're doing should matter to them because, you know, that's it. Yeah, that's all you get. And thanks for sharing that particular, you know,
00:30:55
Speaker
that sensei, the feeling that you had like of experience and it's going to hit everybody. You had a realization being like, okay, this is serious. I think things are changing right now. And for that time that you had the LA time where you're like, you must have just experienced that whole experience differently than you had before with that realization. And that's, that's, that's, that's, that's pretty darn intense. Um,
00:31:21
Speaker
Laura, I was wondering, I connect with your music with Death Parade, and I know you're on Instagram. I was wondering if you could let the listeners know where to connect to your music, Death Parade's music, and if you could just kind of point people in the right direction so they can interact with your art.
00:31:47
Speaker
Yeah, I have Death Parade PDX on Instagram. I have my own personal Instagram that I post a lot of stuff that's going on in the community and stuff that I think people, if they saw it, they would think about it and maybe it would promote action in their own life. On my Instagram, at Terrahaunt,
00:32:15
Speaker
um which that name is slowly evolving into like a a solo project of maybe more synthy stuff and keyboard or piano stuff but um that's to to be later in life slow process a lot of things i learned from the pandemic is like take your time it's fine it doesn't have to be instant and
00:32:41
Speaker
It doesn't have to be right now completed and done and the internet doesn't have to make you go faster. You can take your time.
00:32:50
Speaker
But that's besides a point. Death Parade is on Bandcamp and we're working on putting stuff out on Spotify, but with this new album, definitely. I'm thinking about releasing a single that I recorded, produced and mixed.
00:33:15
Speaker
Maybe next month I want to make a music video and that's been kind of hard to do. So that's coming soon. I'm very excited about that single, but that'll be on. Yeah, and that's that's that's that's a great bonus. Thanks for sharing that too. Yeah, I mean, I know a lot of artists that have on musical artists. We always like to try to plug band camp in the great
00:33:42
Speaker
Um, you know, the great, uh, service that that is, uh, more of a direct connection to, to artists. And, uh, I, I tend to use that service, um, uh, a lot. And in a recent, uh, episode I speaking with, um, uh, the photographer for the doomed and stone who do the doomed and stone. Yeah. Yeah. Um, Randy J. Bird. And, uh, we got the chat a bit about, you know, about being camp and about, um, kind of how.
00:34:12
Speaker
with doomed and stoned or band camp as a vehicle putting together compilations that really kind of reflect a local scene, right? The doom scene in Portland or Australia or Canada. And it's nice with you, you know, being part of the Portland scene and me hearing, I can hear sounds out of Portland that I recognize out of Portland. It's a mixture of sounds and it's nice to get that vibe, right? Get the vibe of what's going on. So.
00:34:39
Speaker
Yeah, I always love the plug plug band camp. But Laura, I have to tell you, I really enjoyed chatting with you.
00:34:53
Speaker
And I'm really looking forward to your new material with Death Parade and your other projects. I just wanted to say a lot of your realizations and what you've expressed about experiencing the pandemic as an artist, as honestly as a human being, I just want to let you know, have a lot of worth. And I've been thinking about those things myself.
00:35:20
Speaker
All the best to you and to Death Parade. Heck of a band. Love the music and really looking forward to the new sounds, you know, the new sounds coming out. Laura, thank you so much. Yeah, thank you. Thanks for these questions. I appreciate it. All right. Hope you have a great day. And from what I know, it is a strange day where snow may be arriving in Portland.
00:35:51
Speaker
Stay safe for that strange event and we'll talk to you soon. All right. Thank you so much. Okay.
00:37:27
Speaker
You can do it.
00:38:23
Speaker
you
00:40:37
Speaker
you