How did you get into making music, and how did arts education (or lack thereof) affect you and your music?
Deanna Steege: I’ve always been into music and thought it’d be awesome to be in a band, but didn’t really think I could until college. There weren’t any women in the local Iowa music scene I grew up in, so the thought of me being in one seemed impossible. Moving away from home and meeting people who expanded my music taste beyond the handful of punk bands and crappy emo music I listened to in high school energized me and inspired me to start making music. I realized hey! there’s more to music than a sad kid playing in a ring of candles and punk bands who all sound the same! once max and I moved to Minneapolis we delved further into the local music scene, meeting countless bands who have supported us from the beginning. They’ve pushed us as we’ve pushed each other to continue to create new music and tour the country.
I think the arts and music are extremely connected, they definitely overlap in our songwriting process and performances. I’m not sure if it’s from arts education that I became interested in making art (other art forms such as painting and drawing) but I think it was more so due to the people I’ve surrounded myself with who continually fuel my desire to create. I find it extremely sad that when funding for schools gets cut because it’s these two categories that feel the economic crunch the fastest. Sure it’s important to give kids adequate education on subjects like science and math, but without the arts playing an important role in their schooling, they’re missing out on enhancing their creativity in a way other subjects can’t do.
Max Clark: I was totally 14 and I had this awesome friend who wailed on me with major sweet punk records. Growing up I mostly listened to the Lion King soundtrack over and over like eight times a day and drew pictures of Lion King characters hanging out together like awesome friends. I drew pictures of Batman and the Joker on giant paper bags and gave them to my mom. I stopped that when I started watching my Ramones VHS over and over. Basically I realized that if these punk kids can be super awesome and not even be as good at music as Cyndi Lauper or Paul Simon then I can do what I want to also. I told my parents that and they didn’t believe me. So I never stopped. One day my mom and dad will look at me and say something like, “You are really good at everything you do and we are super proud of you!” But until then I will keep telling them, “I am really good at everything I do and I think everyone is capable of awesome amazing things. It is just a matter of believing in yourself and fighting for those dreams and never giving in even when people tell you that you can’t live your life the way you want.” It is easy to say I believe in you and that you can be anything you put your mind to but it is much harder to really believe that your 22 year old son who has just graduated from college with a degree in Marketing is actually capable of becoming successful filmmaker or that your daughter is going to just make art for a living. The reason that is so hard is if you never learned to believe in yourself on that level.
I was totally encouraged in the visual arts. I think I showed some basic proficiency early on and people got tricked into thinking my Lion King drawings were awesome. I was never good at drawing roses. I am working on that lately. I always felt like the art department was completely insufficient and underfunded when it was present at all but it was in those classes that I learned to value creative expression and to value myself. Maybe I do both of those too much though. I believe in people in crazy amounts I think we can all accomplish anything and do exactly what we want to if we refuse to let anything stop us. I could not have that faith in other people on the level I do if I didn’t first find it in myself. Living life is like casting a miniature magic spell where you have to light five candles and make a circle with some glitter while you remember your dad. There are very integral parts that must be present and if they aren’t there the spell doesn’t work. Art and music are totally integral parts of that gigantic super awesome conjuring of education. Without the arts life would be so much less mystical and I have a really hard time finding the beauty in a world where all your spells fail.
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