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Sara Billdt
172 Plays5 years ago
Great new episode with Indigenous artist and musician Sara Billdt!!!
We chatted about her music, her graphic art, and her traditional bead work. It was exciting to learn more about her philosophy, her experiences in the heavy metal scene, and finding her remarkable voice.
Sara has been involved in the music scene of Eugene, Oregon for over a decade. Starting out as a solo artist, she went on to found and front Sara B3 and the 45RPM Soul Revue, as well as the heavy power trio, Coyote.
Influenced by both cultural and natural forces, she has continued to create music and artwork that reflect her position in a world that has gone awry.
https://eugeneweekly.com/2016/10/27/sara-billdt/
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
You are listening to Something Rather Than Nothing, creator and host Ken Vellante, editor and producer Peter Bauer. This is Ken Vellante with the Something Rather Than Nothing podcast.
Meet Sarah Bilt: Artist and Musician
00:00:21
Speaker
And this episode we have Sarah Bilt, who is a singer in a metal band, a Doom metal band, Coyote.
00:00:31
Speaker
Uh, based, she's based in Eugene, Oregon. Uh, she also sings for the Sarah B three 45 RPM soul review, um, kind of classics, uh, soul, uh, soul music. Uh, she sings in that. She also does, uh, bead work and some other, uh, graphic art. And, uh, it's great to have, uh, an artist that's local here nearby me and Eugene, Oregon, Sarah built one to welcome you to the podcast. Thank you.
Sarah's Roots and Inspirations
00:00:59
Speaker
Sarah, the first question I asked guests is what you were like when you were younger. Did you always have an artistic inclination? I did. I was a really shy child and grew up as an only child mostly. I had two older siblings through my mother and my father's only child. So I kind of
00:01:30
Speaker
spent a lot of time with myself and uh started out writing like poetry mostly and singing and drawing too but i kind of filled my time singing mostly uh definitely go ahead i'm sorry oh definitely um
00:01:58
Speaker
Spent a lot of alone time just kind of out in nature as well. I grew up on a farm in Northern California. And what type of, um, what type of art, I mean, you mentioned you, you sang, um, did you take any lessons for singing or is, I mean, you, you have an incredible voice. I mean, folks will hear the track where you, where you sing later on. I saw you live.
00:02:24
Speaker
um before you know before the pandemic and was just blown away by your voice and your you know your other ability so let's talk about you know just beginning with that with with singing did you you started that early did you take lessons do you just learn from somebody in your family um my father was a professional musician uh
00:02:46
Speaker
He had his own band in the late 60s, early 70s and recorded for Warner Brothers. He also sang and played guitar. And I was always really guarded about my voice and my art and just kind of, it was very personal to me. And so even though he offered to,
00:03:14
Speaker
lend a guiding hand. I was pretty stubborn about that and insisted on kind of finding my own way. But definitely a lot of musicians on both sides of my family and that came out regardless. But I never took lessons. My father, I grew up with a lot of music playing in the house.
00:03:44
Speaker
he always listening to music would ask me to study different artists and kind of notice like instrumentation and arrangement and different styles and things like that. And I think that kind of primed my brain to really follow that path. And with regards to the band that I had seen you,
The Evolution of Coyote: From Formation to Sound
00:04:15
Speaker
has seen you open up for Blackwater Holy Light, another amazing band in Eugene in March. I want to learn more about Coyote. I want to learn about who's in the bands and just generally why you put Coyote together and what you're trying to do with the music. I love it.
00:04:40
Speaker
Categorically, I know metal is crazy about categories. It has a soulful sound. People say like stoner doom or doom. It has this noticeably imbued soul element that comes out through your voice and the instruments. But tell me about, I don't want to assume anything. Tell me about how Coyote came together and your role within that. So when I moved to Eugene,
00:05:09
Speaker
In 2004, I was 19 years old and just really kind of coming into my own as a songwriter and gaining confidence and started out playing open mics and kind of had that singer-songwriter thing going on, which I was never really comfortable with. And that role of kind of
00:05:40
Speaker
You know, the young woman with the acoustic guitar at the coffee shop, I didn't really identify with that so much. And I really sought out other musicians to help me get away from that role and kind of move into where I knew I wanted to be, playing harder music.
00:06:10
Speaker
I had a few punk bands and surf punk bands early on. But after I really delved into the music scene in Eugene and started meeting more people and realizing how much talent there is here and how many great musicians are out there,
00:06:38
Speaker
found a few people that I could relate to and felt comfortable playing with. Because as a young woman in the scene, it's kind of intimidating and can be tricky finding your way and maintaining your vision. But a friend of mine, Jeremiah, who I always admired as a musician and a person,
00:07:08
Speaker
We decided that we were going to jam and I had some songs. You know, some of those songs that we play, I wrote in high school and have morphed and changed over the years into what they are now. But really, in that first incarnation of Coyote, I just was sort of feeling out the sound that I was going for.
00:07:39
Speaker
And it didn't start out that heavy. But as I became more confident in finding my guitar tone and finding my voice, it quickly headed down that path. And Coyote has had a few personnel changes over the past six years. But currently, my partner, Jeff, is playing bass.
00:08:06
Speaker
And our good friend Ken plays drums. And Jeff and Ken have been in bands together over the past like 10 or 12 years. So they have a really strong connection. And I think that comes through in our performances. We haven't been able to record with this lineup yet. Hope to soon.
00:08:35
Speaker
Yeah, that has really lent itself to a lot of great sounds. And as far as the songwriting, I write an entire completed song and then kind of show it to the guys. And you're like, all right, well, where do you think your parts fit in here and there? And they just kind of go with it. And luckily, they're gracious enough to let me do that because
00:09:05
Speaker
Not that I've ever kept anyone from bringing songs to the table, but that's just always how it's been.
Women in Metal: Sarah's Experience
00:09:15
Speaker
It's also one of the more difficult things to navigate in the band as far as the creative inputs. It sounds like you have some space within that. You're talking about
00:09:31
Speaker
is songs that, you know, the songs that you're talking about creating getting heavier and kind of maybe become immersed a little bit more into, into the metal scene. Did you have to deal? I mean, did you have to deal with, you know, shit as being like a woman or an indigenous woman in the metal scene? I find the metal scene to, to be a warm and inviting scene, but I'm a 47 year old white guy who grew up listening to metal, you know? So.
00:09:59
Speaker
Did you find any difficulties in that way in general? I did not. I started out going to, I don't know if you ever went to the Samurai Duck back in the day when it was open here in Eugene. And that's kind of where I met some of the metal community. And everyone was really warm and supportive.
00:10:28
Speaker
the booker there, Steph, she kind of took me under her wing a little bit. And that's back when I was playing solo and playing electric guitar solo. And she she would book me and let me play and kind of just cut my teeth and figure things out. And I was really grateful for that opportunity to grow. And
00:10:56
Speaker
People have been supportive. You know, there's sketchy people in every scene, but as far as here, I've been really impressed with how warm and welcoming people have been. Yeah, I find I found myself is, you know,
00:11:19
Speaker
I've been around Doom Metal for a bit and in Oregon for a few years, going to a lot of shows and it's a very comfortable, it's a very moving experience for me. And I'm glad to hear that you've had, like you said, in any scene there's always an element and Metal does have some intensity in it, which brings that out in folks.
00:11:44
Speaker
I wanted to play, Sarah, I wanted to play a track of Coyote's called Glad Hands, and I'm gonna play that now, and we could chat about the track after we play it. Does that sound good? Sounds great. All right.
00:12:14
Speaker
Wow.
Art and the Pandemic: A Reflection
00:16:29
Speaker
Thanks for putting that song together. That's incredible. Thank you. I love that song. I love your vocals. So one of the questions I have is, and I've asked folks who play metal before, you know, do art, is with the pandemic right now, what do you think the role of art or of
00:16:59
Speaker
say metal, you know, heavy metal in the pandemic. What what are your thoughts on that? Oh, well, I think. I think that it's definitely, you know, an outlet as far as. You know, we're all trapped.
00:17:27
Speaker
presumably in our houses and cut off from a lot of experiences and people that we're usually surrounded by. And I think that creating and giving yourself an outlet is important to process something like this, for sure. Because that's something
00:17:58
Speaker
just about all of us have not experienced until now. So it's a new challenge for everybody. Do you feel, like I mentioned at the beginning of the podcast, you do bead work and you do some graphic design and also some sketching and drawing.
00:18:26
Speaker
Have you found that your mode of expression has changed or there's been greater output or less output or more pressure or less pressure? Uh, I definitely feel pressure, uh, put on myself, you know, to maintain a certain level of productivity, uh, which I've kind of, I know a lot of us have been struggling with because, you know, you feel like, Oh, I have all this time on my hands.
00:18:56
Speaker
So it would seem natural to take advantage of all of that time and just be creating as much as possible. But really, in my personal life right now, a lot going on, I've been taking care of my father who's been recovering from surgery and just kind of
00:19:27
Speaker
trying to maintain a comfortable situation for him and also myself and my partner and my roommate in our household. And just trying to make things feel as normal as possible, which is a challenge. But we've been getting through it okay, you know, and looking at it.
00:19:58
Speaker
But yeah, it's just a really strange, crazy time. And I have been drawing a lot more and starting to get back into my beadwork. I usually do a market in the Whitaker neighborhood during the summertime. And that, of course, has been canceled for this season. So I haven't really been creating
00:20:24
Speaker
as much as I usually do, as far as beadwork goes, but I'm getting back into it and, you know, having to make money some way. So that's kind of been my mode lately.
Soulful Beginnings: Forming a New Band
00:20:39
Speaker
And with, um, I, one of the things that, uh, I had mentioned to you before, uh, chatting with you is I didn't realize that you, uh, had sang you sing in a, in a soul review, Sarah B and the 45
00:20:53
Speaker
45 RPM. Can you tell the listeners a little bit about that project and kind of what type of music you sing and how that project came about? Sure, yeah. So going back to my upbringing, my father and my mother both are huge fans of like early soul and R&B
00:21:24
Speaker
And so that, I was surrounded by that music growing up and that was my first love. And when I was first starting to play with other musicians, one of my friends invited me to this lady jam, you know, all,
00:21:49
Speaker
All older ladies than me at the time. I was 21 or 22. I can't remember. But ladies that I looked up to. And I was just so blown away to be invited to play. And they just accepted me. And it was a great learning experience for me. But we ended up playing a couple Otis Redding songs
00:22:20
Speaker
And after that session, we sat around and we're like, man, wouldn't it be great to have a soul band? And I kind of just took the idea and ran with it and devoted all of my spare time to putting this band together and got on Craigslist and put an ad out for musicians.
00:22:49
Speaker
and kind of put together this ragtag team of people who didn't know each other. And we managed to learn like 10 or 12 songs. And those songs are not easy to play. But we managed to do it. And we had a show on the 4th of July. And I remember it was at Sam Bond's garage. And I remember going to the door guy and like putting a couple of people on the list. And he was like, you know,
00:23:19
Speaker
I wouldn't put too many people on the list because it's gonna be as, you know, he was, I forget how he said it. He was nice about it. He was like, you know, you're not gonna get very many people in here tonight because of the holiday. And I was just like, oh, you just wait and see. And we packed the place and it was really a profound moment for me, kind of realizing my potential. And it was really difficult to keep
00:23:49
Speaker
that going in that incarnation. But every couple of years, I'd get the itch to do it again and put together a different group of people. It was always around 10 people in the band with the backup singers and the horn players and everything. This most recent time that I got a band together with new people that
00:24:19
Speaker
uh, we're just really incredible musicians and, um, just really reliable and confident people. And it just clicked and it worked really well. So we decided to keep doing it. And it's been two years now going with that incarnation of the band. And it's been, um, really important for me this time, also like having that experience with coyote and then coming back to the soul band.
00:24:47
Speaker
because singing those songs, we do a lot of really challenging vocal parts. And I've really had to step up my game and really learn a lot more about technique. And having that experience and singing in front of hundreds and hundreds of people, which I had never done before, really gave me
00:25:14
Speaker
a lot more confidence to get back into the coyote material and not be afraid of my own voice. I think before, I always knew what my potential, like my desired style was, but I wasn't, I was unsure of myself a little bit and I kind of held myself back. And the experience with the Soul Band has really dissolved all of that for me.
00:25:45
Speaker
And I'm really grateful for that experience and we hope to keep doing it if, you know, if live shows are still going to be a thing in the future. But. Oh, yeah. And in that, you know, I heard some of the tracks that you played and myself, my parents, they listen a lot. I heard a lot of I just hear like Stevie Wonder and Otis Redding and like Marvin Gaye and things like that. And you mentioned Otis Redding always about
00:26:15
Speaker
like a particular connection to him when I worked in, um, I lived and worked in Madison for about a decade and his plane crashed in Lake Monona. Um, so there was always this like close connection that's written near where my office was and they had a nice plaque for that. And, um, just kind of one of those like incredible soulful voices. And it was challenging for you to sing those. You mentioned, um, it looks like a lot of fun singing those. Are they as fun to sing as they look?
00:26:44
Speaker
Oh my God, it's the most fun I've ever had. Every time we play, it's just the best night of my life. And to be able to sing those songs that I really love and admire. For example, we did a Stevie Wonder tribute back in November, and he is my favorite.
00:27:12
Speaker
vocalist and songwriter. Love Stevie Wonder. And to be able to sing those powerful songs and to have the crowd react the way that they do and to see just everyone having so much fun and just smiling and dancing. And it's just an incredible energy to experience.
00:27:40
Speaker
I love that album. I think I heard a song off Inner Visions, that great Stevie Wonder album. It looks a lot of fun. I'm glad that it's a lot of fun. I know you'll get the chance to do that again. I know you will.
Defining Art and Creativity
00:28:01
Speaker
Hey, Sarah, I got a question, one of the big questions here. What is art?
00:28:12
Speaker
Yeah, it's difficult to describe. But I think, you know, there's so many different forms of art and so many different ways to identify it and have it hit you. But really, I think it's anything that kind of
00:28:40
Speaker
you know, hits that buzzer that makes you feel something or elicits this kind of like primitive response in people, whether it's, you know, laughter or sadness or like introspection or, you know, it manifests in so many ways, but I think it's just something that hits a person
00:29:10
Speaker
and makes them feel something. Yeah. And I asked that question throughout the podcast. I'm always fascinated because it's one of those questions I like to ask a lot of different people because everybody has some sort of experience or appreciation of art. And I think once you get into that question a lot, one of the main things that comes up is kind of like the emotional connection that people have to
00:29:39
Speaker
you know, what they're hearing or what they're performing. And, um, I just found that there's, there's a lot of emotion that comes up about it rather than like, it's comprised of X, Y, and Z. Um, and I hear that in, in your answer as well. Did you, when you, um, one of the questions I asked as far as the creative process, um, the question is why you create, do you, do you feel that you're compelled
00:30:08
Speaker
to create music and otherwise, and it's kind of just what you have to do? Or do you ever step back and say, why am I doing this? What am I trying to do as a creator when I'm creating something? Sure. Yeah, it's definitely, I think that creating, whether it's music or visual art or theater or whatever,
00:30:38
Speaker
It's something that you're compelled to do and it's like beyond your control. I think that people who have that drive, it's hard to figure out where it comes from and it's hard to describe, but it's just there. And this is a conversation I have with my dad a lot.
00:31:09
Speaker
And, you know, really, I think through those conversations, we both come to the conclusion that really a person is just a conduit and that these ideas and these feelings already exist and they're up there floating around somewhere. And if you're in the right place at the right time and you're receptive to it, it will just come through you and out.
00:31:38
Speaker
into the world for other people to experience. I can confirm your your your answer in seeing you live. I mean part of the thing was I was reaching out to you because like um haven't seen you live and heard the music like when I heard your voice and how you're singing and I heard the soulful element to it I started to look around I'm like does anybody else see what's happening here because
00:32:04
Speaker
because metal, metal, metal brings that in. Metal has incredible vocals. A lot of people kind of get confused about that who aren't into metal. It has incredible vocals, but I, there was a sound that you were bringing in that was like channeling, that was a motive that was a deeper soulful resonance within metal. And that's where I looked around me. I'm like, anybody else see what's happening here? So I, I told like I was there when you did that. And I totally connected to your answer because
00:32:34
Speaker
Um, that was the piece of like, whoa, take a look at this. So that, and then, you know, in, in due reverence to what, what, to that, to that moment. Um, I think that's where the power is. At least that's what I saw. And particularly with the metal, with the metal music, which has so much power inherent within it. Um, definitely. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's okay. I feel like, um, especially art that is performed.
Connection Through Creation: The Performer-Audience Relationship
00:33:01
Speaker
where you have that person to person connection with artists to audience. That element is so much larger as opposed to just like walking through a museum and looking at creations. And really the performance for me is like, I have to go to a place where
00:33:31
Speaker
I know I won't get in the way. Like I kind of, you know, people have brought to my attention like, oh, you always have your eyes closed. Like you should engage the audience more. And really it's like, if I'm, I look around, you know, every once in a while, but really I, it's not a concentration, but it's more of just like letting myself dissolve away and just let the music
00:34:00
Speaker
come out and be. I love that description. I got the big question for you, Sarah. Why is there something rather than nothing? I think that people can't help but
00:34:31
Speaker
create and, you know, distill whatever it is down and find a way to relate to each other. And I think that, you know, considering all the ancestors past and, you know, every there's no, if you believe it or
00:34:58
Speaker
You could say there's no original thoughts. There's everything that exists has always existed. And I think that there's something about human beings that just grab on to those ideas and those feelings and put them out into the world. And we're lucky that we get to do that.
00:35:26
Speaker
Yeah, thank you so much, Sarah.
Connect with Sarah's Art and Music
00:35:30
Speaker
In conclusion, one of the things I wanted to ask is if you can let listeners know how to connect with your music and how to connect with you if you wanted that. But also, you had mentioned some of the artwork that you do or the beadwork, if you can just kind of
00:35:50
Speaker
let us know too if any of that type of stuff's available. So it's totally in your control as far as where to lead listeners as far as, but just what's the best way for them to come in contact with you and your work? So for Coyote, we have a Reverb Nation page, we have a Facebook page, we have an Instagram, Coyote the band with underscores in between.
00:36:19
Speaker
Sarah be 3 and 45 RPM. We also have an Instagram and Facebook. My bead work. I put out into the world under the coyote creations and I also have an Instagram and Facebook for that. So yeah, the normal channels. Yeah, yeah, and I just I just.
00:36:48
Speaker
You know, as I've expressed to you, I really enjoy everything you create. I found I'm fine in admitting that your voice just blew me away in a style of music that I adore. And then I found the Motown, the soulful element of your singing. So I just wanted to thank you for everything that you do artistically. I truly appreciate it and to make sure
00:37:17
Speaker
that listeners really get the ability to connect with what you do. Sarah Bilt, it's been an incredible time chatting with you, and I appreciate your thoughts and wisdom. And again, every piece of art that you put out, Swanda, deeply thank you. Oh, I appreciate that. Thank you very much. You take care, Sarah, and best to you and yours and your dad as well. Thank you. You as well.
00:38:08
Speaker
Take care now. You too.
00:41:28
Speaker
We can see it
00:43:52
Speaker
Hey.