The Kalamazoo trio which played a special Bell’s event recently has a new EP and big plans. Get their back story at Local Spins.
‘Keeping the Torch Lit’: The Incantations from Kalamazoo play Bell’s on Wednesday. (Photo/Derek Ketchum)
UPDATE: The Incantations play SpeakEZ Lounge in Grand Rapids for the first time on Friday, March 7, as part of the Local Spins Fridays series. Get information about that here and scroll down to listen to a track from The Incantations’ new EP.
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The Incantations are sitting in a study room in the Nashville Public Library during our phone interview.
Looking out the window, they spot a cat, basking in the Southern sun.
Coincidentally, The Incantations — Lisa Mackie and Ryan Gladding, along with drummer Joe Garcia — happen to be basking in the glow of their debut studio recording and a special upcoming show Wednesday at Bell’s Brewery Eccentric Cafe in Kalamazoo: “Celebrating Irene Stearns Day & The Kalamazoo Gals Who Built Gibson’s WWII Guitars,” a fundraiser for Kalamazoo’s Sounds of the Zoo boasting lots of special performances and attractions. (Scroll down for more about that.)
The Kalamazoo Americana/rock/folk band that fuses wistful imagery with a smoldering electric backbone released its self-titled debut EP in November after recording it at La Luna Recording & Sound.
Earlier this month, band members participated in an exclusive Local Spins Q&A with writer Enrique Olmos to discusses their work, their life and a recent trip to Music City where they happened to be when Local Spins caught up with them.
Enrique: Where are you? What’s your set and setting right now?
Ryan: Well there’s sunlight. There’s a library cat. He’s outside. Sunbathing.
Enrique: I see. His life sounds very serene. We can all hope for that kind of existence, right? Y’all saw Ringo Start at The Ryman Auditorium. How was that?
Ryan: Yes. Last night, we saw an amazing show at the Ryman. There were a lot of special guests at Ringo Starr’s show there. Let’s see, there’s Billy Strings and Jack White. Molly Tuttle, Sheryl Crow, Emmy Lou Harris.
Enrique: What was that like? What did that feel like?
Ryan: It was pretty surreal. I’d never been to the Ryman, so you’re sitting there, and tickets were ridiculously affordable.
Ryan Gladding (Photo/Derek Ketchum)
Enrique: Why do you believe in the music you make yourselves as The Incantations? Why are you guys in it?
Ryan: For me, you mentioned being an artist. I’m the typical guitarist art school dropout. I went to Kendall College, but I found myself working late shifts at a liquor store. As far as what drives me, it’s the peace of mind that you find in the day to day of playing music. But I appreciate the tangible things. There is no opening up the vinyl and reading the liner notes. You don’t have that graphic design that draws you in as much. For me, it’s all about the creativity of it.
I make our posters and I love doing the postings. As much as you can still have that tactile feel in this day and age, it’s just an all-encompassing thing that drives me personally. It’s to just put the music and the art out there and just keep it alive because generation after generation, that’s what it’s all about. Keeping the torch lit and literally watching an 80-something-year-old Beatle playing with Billy Strings last night was a very symbolic thing because Molly Tuttle and Billy stood up there and did a song together. It’s like, wow, this is like the new June Carter and Johnny Cash. That stimulated me big-time to keep going.
Enrique: Lisa, how about you?
Lisa: As far as why we keep at it, I’ll just say that I feel like the world is … it can be a very dark place. With the society that we live in, there’s so many things to stress us all out. This is just like a refuge. It’s where I go for peace of mind. It’s always been that for me ever since I was young. I think I was 12 when I got a guitar.
LISTEN: The Incantations, “Dark Shadow”
Enrique: How did ya’ll meet?
Lisa: Ryan and I, we met at an open-mic at Louie’s in Kalamazoo. It’s like the oldest bar in town. It was hosted by Carrie McFerrin. We met in early 2019. I was tuning up my guitar before my set. Ryan was back there talking to me and he had his guitar out. As I was tuning up and getting warmed up, he started playing along with me. He was playing with me. We’d never met. From that moment, I instinctively knew that this was different from any other music I’d done. It was sudden. That feeling was like lightning. I knew that this was something different.
Enrique: Tell me about your drummer, Joe Garcia.
Ryan: Joe joined our band in September of 2023. That’s just been a game changer. Joe actually kind of came in and saved us on a couple big shows that we had lined up. And then he just never left. He’s our anchor. He’s so solid. Just a timepiece. Like a metronome. He’s not overly flashy, but he knows where to sit and he knows when to embellish. He just really gets it as far as what he’s supposed to be doing.
Lisa Mackie (Photo/Derek Ketchum)
Enrique: You’re playing a couple West Michigan shows coming up, what can you tell me about those?
Lisa: So we’re looking forward to the Bell’s show on (Wednesday) and the SpeakEZ Lounge show (in Grand Rapids for the Local Spins Fridays show) on March 7th. And then we got some festivals, but they’re ones that haven’t been announced. We’ve been kind of late on the booking right now because honestly, Ryan is putting like blood, sweat and tears into the studio. When he says he’s building a studio in his home, like, he’s not building a home studio. He’s building an amazing, professional studio.
Enrique: Ryan, what can you tell me about the studio you’re building?
Ryan: I always fantasized about having a studio, a place to just create all the time. And I’m finally nearing completion after decades of creating it and getting it the way I want. And that’s exactly what it is. It’s coming together with other people and being there to create. It’s a musical coloring room. The skies open up and it sounds heavenly or maybe it sounds like hell. You’re finding energy and manipulating it into something sonic, which is just amazing. I look at it as like a playroom or a coloring room or like with sounds. I’m doing this all on a very budget build. You know, the studio was built when I built my house between 2009-2011, and through a lot of life changes, the plans to finish the studio got derailed.
I started pricing out some of the materials and I needed a lot of oak to get, to build slats for diffusers, and whatnot and just got discouraged. And then one day, I just had this idea and I’m like, you know what’s got a lot of oak is church pews. So I found a place that was literally like, ‘You got three days to get them out of here,’ and I scored about $9,000 in oak. I was chopping up a bunch of church pews.
IRENE STEARNS DAY FUNDRAISER AT BELL’S
At 6 p.m. Wednesday, The Incantations will lead an impressive lineup of performers and participants in the Sounds of the Zoo fundraiser, “Celebrating Irene Stearns Day,” at Bell’s Brewery Eccentric Cafe in Kalamazoo.
The event featuring performances by The Incantations, Ellis & M.E., Chris Canas, Zero Sun and Marisa Aguirre celebrates the 103rd birthday of Irene Stearns, the last surviving member of women who built Gibson guitars in Kalamazoo during World War II.
The show will include the world premiere of the trailer for the upcoming “Kalamazoo Gals” documentary which will debut at February’s Golden State Film Festival in Hollywood and screening of a video of Stearns’ 100th birthday celebration. In addition, John Thomas, author of the 2013 book, “Kalamazoo Gals – A Story of Extraordinary Women & Gibson’s ‘Banner’ Guitars of WWII,” will make a special appearance.
Silent auction and ticket sales proceeds will benefit Sounds of the Zoo, an annual multi-cultural music festival that takes place in Kalamazoo at the end of September.
Tickets, $20, are available online here, with doors opening at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. Minors 17-and-younger admitted with adult guardian.
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