Kaiti Jones is our EBASS/RLR songwriter for the month of October. Last week we previewed her last record “Growing Things“. Today we catch up with her to talk about her music and what is coming next for her…check it.
RLR: I understand you have played a few more venue type shows lately and have just started playing out again (prompted by the Lizard open mic?). How have you felt as far as EBASS being there when you jumped ‘back in the pool’. Has it been a good support system for you and your music? Anything else you want to mention about playing after not being “out there” for a bit?
KJ: The month of September was definitely a whirlwind. I’ve kept a very sporadic live schedule for the past several years, playing mostly house shows with a group of great local songwriters and occasionally gigging at more brick and mortar venues around Cambridge and Somerville with my good friend Emily Baker, another up and coming bluegrass/roots artist who y’all are sure to hear more from in the coming months. In September I started grad school and simultaneously stumbled into the EBASS community. I had no idea such a delightful and intentional community existed right down the street from me. Everyone has been effusively welcoming to me, and as a result I ended up playing out more in September than I usually do in half a year.
RLR: A big part of what Red Line Roots stands for is collaboration, community and bringing folks together and fostering an environment where artists help each other. How do you feel about that preservation of unity and family sentiment in the folk music community around your own town or city? How does it play into your own music and where you come from?
KJ: I’ve always loved folk music because it’s about telling stories. And the great, inherent thing about stories is that they only exist insofar as the people who they’re about, who tell them, and who will listen to them and tell them again are present. Folk is intrinsically communal, and that has always been a great fit for me. I’ve been doing community development in Cambridge for the past five years, and as I’m stepping out of that right now to go back to school, finding Red Line Roots and EBASS has been a welcome and timely discovery for me. I like the model of creating community and camaraderie among storytellers, and I love that it seems to be largely focused in my community of Cambridge/Somerville. I grew up in Portland, Maine, and I think I’m drawn to the particular blend of small-town community with a city-level arts scene that both Portland and Cambridge offer.
RLR: If you could collaborate with anyone (dead or alive) musically, who would it be?
KJ: I would probably do pretty much anything to be in a folk trio with Joni Mitchell and Anais Mitchell. I would change my last name to Mitchell and we would solve the world’s problems with our excessive diction and cryptic metaphors.
RLR: What is 1 record that shaped you when you first started playing and also, who is 1 ‘lesser known’/independent artist or an album that you are listening to now that you think folks really need to hear about?
KJ: Oh gosh, when I first started writing I was in middle school and into some awful vanilla brand of pop punk, so I won’t go there. I will say that down the road, once I had traded in my power chords for finger picking, I became mesmerized by Dylan’s use of the ballad. So many songs with no choruses! At first I was resistant and now it’s so much of what I write.
Right now I cannot say enough about David Ramirez. His songwriting is ruining my life in the best way. He’s got a great new record out called “Fables,” but recently I have had his 2012, “Apologies,” on endless repeat. Please listen to it.
RLR: Aside from making music, are you able to make time for any pastimes or other activities? What would you want people to know about you aside from your musical endeavors?
KJ: I tend to keep busy! As I mentioned, I’ve just started a two-year MSW program where I’m studying fun things like community development, organizing, and advocacy. I also DJ weddings and parties (DJ MAJ1K, if you need someone!), play on a variety of intramural sports teams, and get to do a lot of neat stuff in my neighborhood of North Cambridge.
RLR: Anything else you want to plug?
KJ: I’m getting ready to head back into the studio. It’s been a few years since my last record and I’ve got some things to say! I hope to have some new stuff out in the beginning of 2016. Stay tuned!