Local Musician Moves D.I.Y. Performances Online

About this time last year, you could walk into certain duplexes or galleries around UW-Milwaukee on a Saturday night and follow a Funkadelic beat carrying through the air straight to the doorstep of one of the venues that hosted some of the hottest local artists around the city.

For $5 to $10 at the door, students could enter the enchanting world of the D.I.Y. music scene for the rest of the evening.

With a global pandemic, that experience has been snatched from the ears and hearts of music-lovers in the area.

Online live shows, like the Mid Coast Milwaukee concert series, have soared in popularity since spring 2020. Local musicians have been taking advantage of technology to enrich their community and continue their passions for music.

One such music-lover and local artist, Isaac Repinski, has been instructing guitar lessons and taking part in efforts to return beloved elements of live shows to eager audiences with a comfy listening space and a couple hours to spare.

Q-Angelika Ytuarte: You just performed with your band, Dogbad, at the Mid Coast Milwaukee concert series recently. What was the outcome of the performances? How many people tuned in, and how much money was raised and what did it go toward?

A-Isaac Repinski: I believe they raised at least $1000. It went towards two organizations [Mid Coast] is sponsoring, Milwaukee Community Fridge, which is a food pantry with fresh food for people who need it in the area. The other organization is Black Space… they provide counseling and a safe space for POC. Like they help people find psychiatrists who are also black or “of color” so they can find someone better to relate to. They were able to raise a good amount of money for that and give the artists an opportunity to perform.

Q: My next question is about what’s dropping April 10^th with your other band, Moonglow. What can listeners expect from the new project?

A: Right now, with Moonglow, we’re just kind of releasing songs as we make them. We are planning on releasing a full EP or album sometime in May. So, this is the next single we’ve worked on, it’s called ‘Opinion’ and it’s definitely a different tone from our other stuff. We’re going a little electronic heavy with the production side of things. The leader of the project, the vocalist Joe Humiston- he primarily does a good chunk of the songwriting and he kind of oversees the stuff we do. Yeah, he’s just been on a roll with writing songs and it’s coming along really swell.

Q: Do you think that you’re relying more on electronic production because of COVID?

A: There’s definitely that component of it since it’s pretty difficult to record live instruments remotely. I think also just within our group we have a lot of different influences. Two of the four members of the band just graduated from school for music production. One of them specifically makes a lot of hip-hop kind of beats, lo-fi stuff… so we already had that kind of influence there- that kind of sound. I think we’re just kind of infusing more into the Moonglow style.

Q: What are some notable differences in the music styles between Dogbad and Moonglow?

A: I would say with Dogbad, we have AJ on drums, Ellen on bass, Nick on keyboard, and Carter on vocals and rhythm guitar. Carter kind of spearheads the lyrical content and the sound. A lot of Dogbad is we take song he’s written ideas [for] and we just embellish on them and make it our own- because Carter does have his own project, Barf Lord, where that’s solely him doing all the production… It all kind of combines into its own thing. There’s also a lot of surf influence that comes from all of us.

Moonglow has Sterling, the drummer who’s also one of the producers, and Brent on bass who’s a producer. They’ve got pretty heavy hip-hop, lo-fi influence. Joe and I, when we first started Moonglow, it was actually originally called Denki City, we were Japanese city pop and made music based off of that particular genre. We haven’t really touched into that sound as much but that’s where it started.

Q: Do you think that, throughout the pandemic, giving guitar lessons helped you reach out to new people or get more acquainted with friends [and clients] you already have? Has COVID affected factors contributing to it?

A: Yeah, I think with COVID and the shutdown of live shows, we’ve definitely kind of had to adapt. A big part of music- for me at least- is networking and that’s done through shows: meeting people, listening to music, seeing what’s up and making those connections. Now that live shows aren’t a thing everyone’s had to adjust. Obviously, we live in a time where technology’s at a point where we can do a lot to connect with people. I mean, with the Mid Coast show that was a big thing for us… being able to connect to people, see bands again and get connected to different audiences. As far as guitar lessons go, I have been teaching some friends and kind of reaching outside of my friend group. I’m kind of advertising myself. I’m actually teaching a person over Reddit… you know, support myself and also reinforce what I’m learning.