Elements Lakewood 2019 Stands Out Among Small Festivals

(Credit: AJR Photo)

By presenting diverse lineups in an immersive summer camp setting since 2017, Elements Lakewood Music and Arts Festival has been edging towards becoming the premiere electronic music festival in the northeastern United States. This year on Memorial Day Weekend, they solidified that spot by taking their stage production, logistics, and guest offerings to the next level.

Lakewood was nominated in DJ Mag as one of the best boutique festivals in all of North America in 2018. We’re not sure what criteria make a festival boutique - the size of the audience or its socioeconomic status, the festival’s infrastructure, its budget, or its independence - but these accolades may have surprised those who attended Lakewood’s first two years. It’s been fantastic, sure, but best on the continent? Well, BangOn! NYC went above and beyond this year, taking care of patrons, focusing on the details, creating a ton of that old magic, and truly earning this continental distinction.

Lakewood stands out among small festivals for its ability to blend different musical subcultures. This is reflected in their bookings, which center on house and techno but range into dubstep, ambient and jam. The fest also plays to fans who prefer different levels of experience, by emphasizing glamping and tiered cabin packages in addition to regular old tent-pitching. Catering to these audiences all at once and balancing their different desires and patterns of behavior is no small task, but BangOn! pulls it off year after year. One fan reflected beside the lake about how Lakewood was deepening his understanding of the wider electronic music culture, enabling him to experience parts of that culture he was unfamiliar with and helping him to “connect some dots”, in his words.

(Credit: Jess Bernstein Photography)

Lakewood pulls an international contingent that’s attracted to the all-star house and techno lineup. Lakewood lineups are truly all-you-can-eat buffets for four-on-the-floor fans. The bass crowd continues to show out for niche bookings and late night takeovers by area crews. Most importantly, Lakewood draws on New York City’s massive electronic music scene. BangOn! truly brings the best of New York nightlife, in all its weirdness and wonder, out to rural Pennsylvania. When you see Lakewood’s resident “Funtender” and House of Yes mainstay Rawb Lane presiding over a crowd on top of a huge welded art installation in a Webster Hall t-shirt banging out the rhythm on the tower with a gigantic metal spoon, you know it’s some New York shit. Many of the same individuals and collectives that hold down Brooklyn parties contribute to Lakewood, and it shows.

These diverse audiences were spread across Lakewood’s diverse stages. More mainstream house fans could see acts like Disclosure and Dirtybird artists on the Fire Stage, sponsored this year by Dancing Astronaut. The production and pyrotechnics here, always on point, were even better this year thanks to fire-breathing dragon art car and a fresh Hennessey Sound Design system held down by Tiaga Sound and Lighting Group, a crew based in Washington State. Bass music was concentrated on the Earth Stage and in the Theater Stage lodge, both of which were equipped with LEDs controlled by Rhizome, which has provided world class visual production at Lakewood since the festival began. Regional crews Sermon, Good Looks Collective, The Rust Music and The Gradient Perspective threw down at the Theatre Stage each night.

Local house DJs spun during the day lakeside at the Water Stage. The Brooklyn nightclub House of Yes curated the stage this year and brought their inclusive freak party to the beach every afternoon. Techno and the more rarified side of house music is found on the Air Stage, Lakewood’s premiere stage and the focal point of the energy at the festival. The best sound on the grounds could be found in the vector of the Air Stage’s Funktion One rig, controlled masterfully by One Source Productions. Sponsored by Mixmag and tucked deep into the woods, the Air Stage is the most remote stage at the festival and the most immersive. It includes platforms built into the trees, decorated huts surrounding the dance floor, viewing platforms and VIP-esque chill spots that anyone can access, and the greatest decoration of all - lush Northeastern forestry.

(Credit: Jess Bernstein Photography)

Memories are made in many ways at this festival, from interactive art installations and gorgeous murals to tiny enclaves of relaxation, curated activities, and dedicated spaces for wellness and harm reduction. Heck, you could raise the jolly roger with your homies and cruise the lake on a pirate ship. Your correspondent found his zen in the middle of the placid lake. Here I discovered the elusive East Village cabins, which are on the opposite side of the lake away from the action, arrayed in rows atop an open lawn which rolls down to the shoreline. Kids were playing soccer in the field, one cabin had Brazilian and Spanish flags flowing in the breeze, and Tycho’s “A Walk” was wafting across the waters from the cabins. “This is what it’s all about,” I thought.

The real and unexpected solace I found here was powerful. Music festivals can be a unique paradox. Weekend warriors take time off work and leave behind tiring routines to attend them. Functionally, they’re a vacation, but in practice, they can be anything but relaxing. But alone on a paddle board soaking up the hot sun and swimming in the cold water, I found energy that helped me float for the rest of the weekend and beyond. Space to truly get away and unwind is one of Lakewood’s key assets.

Musically, too, it was hard to predict where the best vibes would come from. I found them at dawn on Saturday at the Air Stage where David Hohme spun an unscheduled 6:00-8:00am sunrise set following five mesmerizing hours with Seth Troxler then Damian Lazarus. Hohme captured the energy in the air and pumped it back out with deep, ethereal house. There’s certain melodies, certain series of notes, that unlock certain emotions in the human being. We’re programmed to enjoy these archetypal sounds. They create a sense of unity and oneness when they wash over us, and it’s often these melodies that people spend a lifetime on dancefloors chasing. Hohme hit these notes just right, creating a spiritual experience for the small group of dedicated attendees seeing the night through to its beautiful end.

(Credit: Julian Cassady)

The Belgian livetronica act Stavroz was the weekend’s biggest surprise. A band on the Air Stage? Unheard of! But sure enough, with guitars and synthesizers they put down dark and funky four-on-the-floor grooves garnished with trumpet solos, offering a twist on dance music that few attendees were expecting. Their energy was feverish, especially when they turned Daniel Norgren’s "Howling Around My Happy Home" into a full-blown house track with soulful guitar and pure, honest vocals. Another livetronica act offered fans an unorthodox presentation of groove at the Earth Stage; the 5AM Trio. With producer and multi-instrumentalist Tygris on bass guitar and turntables and ZONE Drums holding down the pocket, the Philadelphia-based group led by producer 5AM combined the psychedelic sound of glitch hop with the improvisational style of jazz and jam.

Attendance at Lakewood jumped this year, and the production team made key moves to enable this. They moved the Earth Stage into the forest from atop the hill near the entrance, which created more space up top for GA camping. Cabins are a key piece of the ecosystem at Lakewood, providing solid shelter and encouraging attendees to crew up. BangOn! moved artists off-site this year to a nearby lodge, which freed up more cabins for attendees. The parking and shuttle system was the festival’s achilles heel in 2017 and 2018, but this year it was a breeze.

(Credit: Julian Cassady)

Perhaps the key to Lakewood’s success is that it treats people right and encourages them to do the same to themselves and others. A safe, mellow atmosphere presides on the grounds, even during the most intense musical moments. The event promotes irreverence, new interactions and group activities. In addition to carving out more space in the northeastern festival market, Lakewood earned another distinction - the No. 1 Summer Camp for freaks, music heads and fun lovers.

Here’s one more detail worth sharing. Ella Mint’s Phonebooth Tiny Home was an art installation in the woods near the Air Stage featuring a phone booth decorated 1950s style with a white picket fence and garden plot to boot. Inside, there was a phone book hanging on the wall. Opening the phone book, I found it was actually a photo album full of smiling faces from the first two years of Elements Lakewood. Here’s to many more.

FOLLOW Elements Music & Arts Festival:   Elements Lakewood   /   Elements NYC   /   Facebook   /   Instagram

Elements Lakewood Music & Arts Festival - DeeZ [Interview]

Despite dreary early afternoon rain Andy Widdecomb aka DeeZ did at Elements Lakewood Music & Arts Festival what he always does - throw down. For the second straight year Andy helped lead a thorough cast of bass musicians into Lakewood, Pennsylvania or BangOn! NYC's raucous camping festival. Elements Lakewood was the first in a string of festival performances for DeeZ. It caught him fresh off his second annual tour with Mickman, which saw the the pair of producers lug a Funktion One sound rig from city to city, into and out of basements and venues, to play their unique roughneck bass music. 

Andy grew up in Maine and now resides in Boston. He’s known for hard beats in the dubstep and drum and bass wheelhouse and vicious side-swiping sound design. Beyond the crisp color and sheer edge of his music, what distinguishes DeeZ is his work ethic. He’s what you would call a producer’s producer, admired by his peers for doing all the little things right. His mix-downs are meticulous, his mastering skills continue to improve, and he pays acute attention to detail. “He’s got it going on, and people are going to get hip to it soon,” says Jake Maxfield, a fellow bass producer and Bostonian. “He needs a tipping point. But its going to happen. He’s writing great music and he's working harder on it than anyone I really know. And thats what it really takes.” 

DeeZ is indeed one of the hardest working dudes in bass business, and he brought brought the fruits of labors to Elements Lakewood for all to enjoy. Highlights from his set included cuts from his latest EP Strange Matter, fat remixes of Beardthug, Phers and Smigonaut, and an unreleased remix of Tsimba’s “Sendai”. He also brought a killer attitude and left with a great appreciation for the event. “I love the different vibes that are cultivated here,” he said in the cool shade of his campsite canopy as we rested before a much anticipated set from Stickybuds. “This morning going down to the Water Stage it’s drinks on the beach, people are boating around, house music, it’s early and everybody’s vibing. Then you go down a little further to the Air Stage in the woods and people have their hammocks set up. Such good vibes.”

Andy’s been at the production grindstone for years. Besides his talent with the decks and DAWs, he’s got a nascent desire to be involved in event production. “There’s talks in the future of collaborating [with Mickman, whom DeeZ grew up with] on some land, and getting a stage installed there with some Funktions and doing an intimate festival.” The Air Stage was his preferred setting at Elements Lakewood. “Just that little area alone is almost the size of an event that I would like to start off with. Something in the woods; dancefloor, treehouses, installations. That’s where I grew up, in Maine in the woods, so that’s my vibe.”

The producer's appreciation for Elements Lakewood wasn't limited to the stage designs and the diverse vibes. “All the house music at the Fire Stage is so cool. House was the first thing that I really got into. Before I know about bass music, dubstep, or anything like that it was just house music;  tech house, minimal house, pretty much anything.” Elements did well to merge different audiences from the house and bass music worlds; two communities that interact less and less these days. “That was uncommon in Maine. I think the scene’s a little smaller there so it’s not big enough for those sounds to separate."

Much to our surprise, Andy floated the idea of a house music side project in the future, or at least a couple house tunes under the DeeZ project. Indeed, four on the floor music with DeeZ sound design would be formidable. But how does he achieve the vicious broken beat grooves that he’s currently rocking with? For one, he’s been utilizing a technique lately that many premier sound designers are keen on, which is to separate sound design sessions from composition. “It’s a game changer,” Andy says. “It allows you to transcend the boundaries of your own imagination. You basically make these long audio samples of bass patterns and filter movements. Then you have this random stuff and you build out the structure of your tune and start placing the chunks of that big audio file. Almost like pieces to a puzzle. Scrolling through these audio files and arranging these little bits, you find things that you would have never thought of.”

We were close to wrapping up our long conversation under Andy’s EZ-Up in the shade of evening outside the West Village at Elements Lakewood when he almost jumped off the inflatable couch to communicate some news he almost forgot. Andy’s been collaborating with Smigonaut on a set of new tunes which the producers anticipate releasing under a new project name. Smigonaut is a bass wizard in his own right whose strength lies particularly in his melodious and learned approach to composition. A fusion of Smigonaut song writing and DeeZ sound design, or vice versa of course, as these gentleman are multi-talented, is a tremendously exciting prospect. What could their combined energies sound like? Time will certainly tell. 

Perhaps the simplest but most profound pleasure of Elements Lakewood for Andy was the simple fact of being there. The man works tirelessly and spends countless hours in the studio. Getting out to the music festival is as refreshing for him as for any attendee, he implied. “I always liked music festivals even before I was a producer. But now that I’m getting older and becoming more resistant to going out and partying, it’s good to be booked for something like this and sort of force myself to enjoy the weekend, relax, and see friends. We all need that.” Indeed we do. “We all want to work really hard and achieve our goals, but if you just grind yourself into the ground….” His voice tails off for a moment as a quad rumbles past on the dirt road behind him followed by the voices of happy people. “The breaks are important.” 

FOLLOW DeeZ:   Soundcloud   /   Bandcamp   /   Facebook   /   Instagram

FOLLOW Elements Music & Arts Festival:   Elements Lakewood   /   Elements NYC   /   Facebook   /   Instagram

Elements Lakewood Creates a Musical Melting Pot

In a world bursting with musical trappings, tastes, intrigues, and developments, where does one find the nexus of it all? Music is, as it always has been, a labyrinthian mosaic that pushes and pulls at our fluid emotional states, and for every person on the planet, there is some tone that rings just right in his or her ears. As a natural result there’s a multitude of social scenes and collectives that create their own bubbled zions of aural stylings, so as to connect with like-minded individuals and explore the depths of familiar genres. The modern music festival often attempts to cross-pollinate various music cultures, but Elements Lakewood Music & Arts Festival achieves this vision to its fullest capacity.

Elements Lakewood, hosted during Memorial Day weekend by NYC-based production company BangOn! NYC, is an experiment in combining the often at-odds camps of broken and steady beat electronic music. On the surface these collectives could not be further apart; from phenotypes to vernacular, waves of influence, venues, clothing, and demographics. The 4x4 dust-kickers and heavy bass head-nodders seem like spiritual opposites. This dichotomy is, however, only skin-deep. Push past the vain and perfunctory surface of either music scene and you’ll find that many of the same speaker creatures inhabit both worlds simultaneously out of their sheer love for all things boisterous within the wildest music of our generation.

Elements Lakewood is situated in a pastoral rural community in Northeastern Pennsylvania that is its namesake. The grounds themselves are a wondrous cornucopia of rolling hills, forest glades, throughways swampy and dusty surrounding a petit, picturesque lake. Across the expanse of property are the familiar trappings of any purebred American summer camp, all of which would be leveraged to create a well-organized and immersive festival experience. The facilities and materials were all available, the proper permits were filed, all the revelers were gathered. From the start of the weekend, BangOn! and a host of collaborative production companies presented a multifaceted aural adventure offering passage through every rabbit hole imaginable. Backed by eight stages of varying design, power, and vanity, the force of over 100 musical acts was unleashed on a torrent of jubilous weekend warriors. Each stage was tailored to curate a particular atmosphere and headspace, but was simultaneously inviting to anyone who wandered close enough.

Wax Future were part of a small handful of livetronica acts to rip the Earth Stage

The Reliquarium worked wonders on the Earth Stage for the second straight year

At the entrance to the festival, you’re presented with the most technologically equipped stage at the event. Conceived and designed by The Reliquarium and Rhizome, the Earth Stage presented a formidable array of well-tuned speakers, lasers, lights, projection mapping, and fidelitous LED screens. Surrounding it stood a series of art cars and asymmetric structures that created the natural boundaries of the dance space and added dimension to this particular party. The soft earth bore the wounds of a thousand boots, birkenstocks, and bare feet kicking and pounding at the grass and dirt below, a sure demarcation of the round-the-clock revelry at hand. The talent featured here varied stylistically, but was unified under the theme of broken-beat bass music and eclectic livetronica acts. Some of the movers and shakers tapped to perform on the Earth Stage included Detox Unit, Wax Future, Somatoast, Charles the First, DeeZ, Smigonaut, and the legendary Stickybuds, whose first Northeast US set in four years exceeded expectations. As the result of a last minute cancellation and some help from a few friends, 5AM assumed the stage and pulled off a surprise slam-dunk performance to close out Saturday night.

Bad Ginger offering her presentation Mushroom Madness: Into to Mycology in the WellNest

Rolling past the Earth Stage one arrived at center camp surrounded by a host of repurposed cabins and structures inhabited by festival staff and some of the various companies recruited to add their flair to Elements. Harm reduction organizations DanceSafe and Harmonia set up shop around center camp and maintained staff throughout the day and night to keep folks safe, educated, and at an advantage in this complex, indulgence-laden atmosphere. Here was also the WellNest, a multifaceted workshop space that supplemented the overarching theme of health, cognizance, and connectivity with yoga, flow workshops, meditations, and lectures on everything from consent to mushrooms. A stone’s throw across the road from the WellNest was an innocuous front porch with an equally innocuous name; the Porch Stage. A laid back alignment of singer-songwriters and groovy instrumental bands cycled through here during the day. By night the building came alive as the Wub Hub, welcoming a host of deep frequency freaks seeking prime cuts of contemporary low-end production. Saturday evening saw Good Looks Collective and Sermon join forces to present another installation of NYC’s beloved After Dub events, bringing along the talents of Honeycomb, Brightside, Ethan Glass, Saltus, Zoo Logic, and Doctor Jeep.

Descending from center camp towards the lake, the Water Stage hosted light fair during the day. Party-goers were splayed along the beach lounging in the sun, washing down crab cakes with obscenely overpriced Modelos, dancing and bouncing atop a docked pirate ship, and occasionally testing the water on one of many free kayaks, canoes, and rowboats. This stage featured no flashy fanfare, just a DJM mixer, a few CDjs, and a full serving of bread-and-butter house DJs to maintain the vibe during those peak daylight hours. Noteworthy musical curations were provided by Agents of Vibe, The 1989, NSR, Trotter, and Dropkat.

Fun in the sun is usually fun for everyone, but we all need reprieve from the heat. Lucky for the sandy-haired shufflers, the bounty and sprawl of the neighboring woods would provide more than just shade. One step into the forest at large revealed a bevy of art installations and visually-appealing structures. Here among the scattered branches and curious forest pathways one felt immersed in the core of Element’s creative ethos. The deepest layer of this topographical adventure housed the Air Stage. Constructed from a plethora of reconstituted wood and miscellaneous building materials, this organic structure overlooked a muddied glade that would host all manner of delinquents, dragon-chasers, ravers, techno heads, and casual party crawlers. A treehouse and a series of canopy walkways loomed over the stage creating a delightful spatial dynamic and morphing the traditional one-dimensional dancefloor into a true woodland hideaway. Swaying to the sounds of Lemurian, The Alchemist, Experiment.al, Maceo Plex and especially Lee Burridge in these woods was a nearly unparalleled pleasure.

Doubling back deeper into the woods a rising hill gives way to the Alchemy Stage. A small pavillion decorated with medieval flare, a few strong speakers, a fire pit, and a curious tent housing the mobile shop of Ambrosia Elixirs created a self-contained but welcoming atmosphere. This nestled space served as a resting ground during midday and a hip-shaker’s battleground by night. The earthy aroma of those organic elixirs filling the nostrils of passersby. As the sun passed its midway point in the sky above and the surrounding air began to cool the Alchemy Stage would spring to life. So began the longest running micro-party of the event, running nonstop until 10:00 AM the next morning on the first day alone. Psychedelic variants of house and its related genres pulsated from the sound system forcing every passerby to give themselves up to the aural journey at hand for at least a few minutes. Here the disparate audiences from the four other elemental stages were fused into a new micro-community; alchemy.  Some of the performers elevating the vibrations here included Soul Potion, Eli Light, Bushwick AV, and Devotion.

Emerging from the tree line past the edges of the Alchemy Stage, a grassy knoll overlooking the vast expanse of the festival bore the weight of the final stage and its vivacious, feet sweeping crowds. Created from an amalgamation of Incendia domes and light fixtures, surrounded on all sides by massive art cars and makeshift lounges, the Fire Stage lived up to its name figuratively and literally. This space hosted the most bawdy and brawny of the weekend's house music as oncoming waves of libidinous dancers took to the blasting pyrotechnics like moths to a flame. The rumble of high-powered subwoofers was felt far enough away to get a body moving with nothing more than rhythm alone, and once fully submerged in the growing mud marsh in front of the decks, there was absolutely no escape. Serving as the yin to the Earth Stage’s yang, the Fire Stage featured some of the most esteemed 4x4 producer/DJs currently running their slice of the scene, including Lee Reynolds, Chris Lake, Ardalan, and the venerable Claude Von Stroke.

It could be assumed that respective heads would gather primarily at the stages curating their particular flavor of electronic music, but that assumption would be not entirely correct. The extent to which true cross-pollination occurred within Elements Lakewood cannot be overstated. It was evident that every corner of the electronic music counterculture was well represented at all stages simultaneously. Elements Lakewood wasn’t just a hodgepodge of fandoms finding common ground with one another, but a destination sought by audiophiles and countercultural types aware that the worlds of steady and broken beat music and their corresponding cultures exist as one wide culture of which we’re all a part.

BangOn! set the stage for the 2018 festival season, and has since received a roaring response from all involved parties. With travelers coming in from seemingly the world over, BangOn! created a true melting pot and stirred it properly. Elements Lakewood has made an indelible mark on the community that propped it up in the first place, solidifying itself as a major contender for the affection and adoration of the Northeast US counterculture. With production companies and wellness services coming together across the board, this festival provided a fully engaged, responsive, and dynamic experience for all who made the trek.

FOLLOW Elements Music & Arts Festival:   Elements Lakewood   /   Elements NYC   /   Facebook   /   Instagram

Harmonia Builds a Strong, Safe Community at Elements Lakewood

The organizers and partners of Elements Lakewood Music & Arts Festival promote wholesome vibes and values and you could feel it in the air all Memorial Day weekend. At the verdant Lakewood Retreats in the Northeasternmost corner of Pennsylvania, there was so much to see and do, from the festival’s array of art installations to its innumerable stages. One aspect of the festival which was not so conspicuous was the strong infrastructure in place to keep attendees safe, supported and sanctified during their experience.

At the foundation of this infrastructure was Harmonia, an Asheville-based organization that provides sanctuary spaces, harm reduction, and so much more to the festival community. A harm reduction presence offers such peace of mind and added value for a music festival, albeit value that most attendees don’t see. It may be surprising, then, that only four dedicated harm reduction and sanctuary space organizations operate in the United States. Elements Lakewood was wise to invite one of them, Harmonia, back for the second year in a row.

Harmonia was founded in 2015 by a passionate perennial festival worker named Maegen Coral. The organization has grown in the hippy holler of Asheville, North Carolina, and has begun to broaden its impact up and down the eastern seaboard and as far west as Missouri. Harmonia can be many things; an attitude, an intention, how one carries oneself. Specifically, Harmonia is an on-site professional support team and task force that promotes health and safety at music festivals. Going beyond the role of the Good Samaritan, this team actively promotes self care as a preventative and harm-reducing technique.

Harmonia believes that widespread health and safety vastly improve the festival experience and allow attendees to truly open up and explore themselves and the world. By bringing back this group of volunteers for a second year, Elements demonstrated its commitment to this ethos as well. “It changes the energy, it changes the expectation,” Maegen says as we chat cross-legged in the grass next to a row of EZ-Ups outfitted so that each resembles a spiritually-aware living room. Ideas tumble from Maegen, the next one arriving before the last one is completely wrapped. With a radio strapped around her shoulder, her shock of bright dyed red hair belies the fact that she’s all business when it comes to safety and ops at festivals. While we spoke, she maintained a sporadic dialogue with other workers through the radio strapped to her shoulder. Now and then she executed some surely needed leg stretches.  

“What we’re doing here is 'iso', which is isolation - individual pods for people who have augmented situations and who are highly distressed.” Here Harmonia volunteers provide one-on-one support to guide festival attendees experiencing amplified states, and help de-escalate their experiences as necessary. “We have a lot in common with the philosophy of the Zendo Project,” Meagen says, referencing the organization at the forefront of harm reduction at music festivals. The Zendo volunteer training, offered annually at Burning Man and available for free online, became the first building block for Harmonia’s volunteer trainings.

Harmonia was positioned adjacent to the Well Nest at the center of the festival grounds. Their three isolation tents, each walled in on three sides by rich tapestries, may have been the most comfortable and serene spaces to be found on the grounds. Next to them was a table, a practical music festival oasis. Upon the table next to an amethyst geode, a small picture of Albert Hoffman and fliers for Solasta Festival was bug spray, sunscreen, hand sanitizer, condoms, aloe vera, and body lotion all available to the public. Elements Lakewood is early in the festival season. Many folks, especially city folks of which Elements was chock full, were stretching their festival legs outdoors for the first time. As such, the availability of these provisions was truly appreciated by all. (Your correspondent visited Harmonia’s space more than once for sunscreen after spending time down on the lake, though fortunately a return visit for aloe vera wasn’t necessary).

The sun bore down Saturday at Elements as Meagen and two of Harmonia’s volunteers, Laura Eshelman and Greg Pool, continued to share their experiences in the shadow of their sanctuary space. Elements Lakewood had an infectiously groovy vibe from start to finish. But while talking to these good Asheville folks, I couldn’t help but feel an even greater confidence, a nascent feeling of empowerment that my newfound company was bringing out of me. “They create an environment of great peace and relaxation, not just physically, but more importantly - metaphysically and spiritually. The importance of this should never be lost on an event promoter,” according to the Tipper & Friends crew. They call Harmonia their “go-to” for harm reduction. At the Tipper & Friends 4321 event in Astral Valley last summer, Harmonia established their public sanctuary space. At Elements, just the isolation tents were present due to budgeting constraints. Maegen gets a note in her voice and a smirk flashes briefly across her face when she mentions the public space.

It was a relatively slow weekend in and around the Harmonia space at Lakewood. Ironically, that can ultimately be positive for this group. It hopefully means people are already implementing the practices that Harmonia promotes. What are those practices? Most are more simple than you’d think. “You’d be a surprised at how much your mood and energy levels and emotions change when you have a lack of water compared to when you’re drinking water. It’s a physiological, emotional shift. So drink water and offer it to others who may need it,” Maegen suggests. “You need nourishment; a lot of deficits come from lack of nutrition or lack of water. Check in with your friends, check in with your neighbors. Pay attention.” 

Indeed, the crowd at Elements Lakewood was a self-aware and sophisticated bunch. Bad scenes were few and far between. Unhealthy behavior was a bit harder to find than usual. In addition to providing a sanctuary space and a cache of healthy resources and critical knowledge, Harmonia offered indirect benefits to the festival. The group serves as a backstop of sorts for festival security. After all, security staff ought to be handling issues of safety. They’re not trained in compassion work and harm reduction. The Harmonia crew, then, can handle “augmented situations” and allow security to allocate more of its own staff to the safety and ops work that is their purview. Elements Lakewood appeared slightly understaffed this year, so this added value was essential. According to Eshelman, also an Asheville resident, even when Harmonia's space isn't too busy it's value endures. "It's a symbol," she says.

During the offseason, Harmonia hosts shows - fundraisers - in their native Asheville and elsewhere in the Southeast US. It takes some resources, after all, to transport a box truck full of care items, festival decor and zen trappings across the Eastern US. Yet these events are more important than the windfall they provide. “One of the ways we seek to spread our message out in the community is to actually be an active part of the community. So the best way to really influence these festivals and this electronic culture in a positive way, encouraging people to be conscious and aware of what they’re putting into their bodies and how they’re caring for themselves, is to be an active part and create the container for that,” says Maegen. “So it’s not just us asking promoters ‘hey, will you support this mission?' We actually create and produce these parties where that’s at the forefront.” To that end, Harmonia is co-hosting its own festival called Solasta Festival in the hinterlands of Eastern Tennessee on August 17 & 18. 

The need for capital, though, persists. A few weeks ago Harmonia established a Patreon account to help sustain their enterprise through crowd-funding. Patreon seeks monthly contributions and targets monthly funding goals while also inviting patrons to immerse themselves more deeply into the Harmonia crew and culture. There are tiers of support, and some are pretty hilarious. A $5 monthly donation earns you the title of Harm Reductor. “By choosing to be a Harm Reductor, you are choosing to actively maintain and support a healthy festival culture for everyone. Along with those karma points, you get access to our Patron-only Live Feed as well as our undying love and appreciation.” At $25, you’re a Pillar of Support. With $500 you’re a Healing It Homie. “You are literally *The Homie*. With your contribution, Harmonia can be more free and available to give our all in the service of others.” Different contributions earn physical and sonic swag like stickers, t-shirts, exclusive artist mixes and guest passes to Harmonia events. (If you’re in the Southeast US, Harmonia events are no slouch. Check out their past bookings).

Harmonia’s ethos and the core of its volunteer training are empowerment through education and self-care. These principles, not limited to Harmonia’s sanctuary space, were on display everywhere at Elements Lakewood and made for a wildly wholesome party. Music festivals, particularly those in far-flung retreats like Elements Lakewood, can be physically and emotionally challenging experiences. So empower yourself, says Harmonia, by taking care of yourself and making sure your crew does the same. Self-knowledge is the real vibe, and the vibe was thick at Elements Lakewood. “So many of our interactions are intuitive,” Maegen says. “You go off of facial expressions and body language, so what are we paying attention to? How can we put it in our minds to prioritize our well-being and the well-being of others. Because when we’re all feeling good, we’re going to have a better time. When we’re all looking out for each other we're going to feel safe.”

SUPPORT & FOLLOW Harmonia:   Patreon   /   Official   /   Facebook   /   Instagram

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Elements Lakewood Music & Arts Festival - Stickybuds [Interview]

Stickybuds usually has one goal in mind when he takes the stage - to give the audience an opportunity to dance, connect with friends, and have a great time. Tyler Martens aka Stickybuds the glitch funk pioneer hails from Kelowna, British Columbia, a small city known for leisure and recreation. While he’s a household name in Western Canada and a low key legend the world over, Stickybuds doesn’t come to the Northeastern U.S. often; his last performance here was in Boston in 2014. Elements Lakewood Music & Arts Festival, itself a space dedicated to recreation, dancing, and connecting, has done the region an extraordinary service by hosting this mighty vibe conjurer for Memorial Day Weekend in Lakewood, Pennsylvania. 

He’s among a rare class of DJ producers whose sound is accessible to almost anyone. He’s performed at Burning Man and in Ibiza clubs, in Hong Kong and across Australia. His singles have hit #1 on Beatport’s Glitch Hop charts almost a dozen times. Though Tyler has brought the glitch to a worldwide audience, perhaps his proudest achievement hits closer to home. Stickybuds has been a resident performer in the Fractal Forest of Shambhala Music Festival in his native British Columbia for thirteen years. Despite all these accolades, Tyler has astonishingly never released an album; that's about to change. Today marks the release of his first single - "Crooked Politicians" (video below) - off his first album "Take A Stand".

Stickybuds has a smoother step than your favorite hip-hop and breaks DJ. His sound design cuts as deep as that of any premier glitch hop prism splitter. He’s got enough dub, drum and bass, and reggae gems in his bag to impress even the baddest bush doctor. Tyler bundles these elements into a signature sound that isn’t replicated anywhere in the world. His performances feature obscenely good stem mixing, as he seamlessly stitches together tunes while repurposing everything from James Brown and Rare Earth to Burro Banton and Cypress Hill. Tyler’s utilizes turntables, too, and generally pans between Stickybuds originals and remixes, contemporary glitch hop heaters, and some of the nicest drum and bass this side of the Atlantic Ocean. Ahead of his rare Northeastern get down at Elements Lakewood, we were privileged to correspond with Tyler about music, careers, health, and reggae music.  

The Rust: How did you first engage with bass music?

Tyler: I started going to raves in Kelowna, which is the town I grew up in. I was in high school, and I believe the first one I attended was in 1999. From then on I really enjoyed the music, and eventually decided to teach myself to dj about 5 or 6 years later.

The Rust: What do you feel was the most pivotal moment(s) in your career?

Tyler: There have been a lot of little things along the way. Sometimes a very small encounter or interaction can snowball into something so much bigger down the road. Learning how to collaborate with people has generally been a very big part of my career; producing tracks, sharing stems between friends, getting dubplates cut, making these complicated and awesome relationships along the way has all really helped sculpt the direction of my music in so many different ways. Just reflecting on that, it's pretty profound to me how much joy and how many amazing things have happened from these relationships. I produced a track with my friend K+Lab called "Clap Ya Hands Now" last year. It was picked up by Sony and put on the Spider Man: Homecoming movie trailer and broadcast literally around the world to millions of people. That was wild and just completely came out of nowhere. Another pivotal moment was playing my remix of Mista Savona's "Clean Air Clean Country" at Shambhala in 2011. That song was such a passion project for me and took 2 years of bugging Jake (Savona) for the stems so I could remix it. That was the start of a long relationship that has really transformed who I am as a person and a musician.

The Rust: How did you come to know and love reggae music?

Tyler: It's been a gradual transition over the last 15 years I guess. I loved just listening to it - the feel and positivity that is encapsulated in a lot of the reggae music is infectious, combined with an unmistakable style of musicianship and lyricism. Then when Jpod and I used to dj together as Stickypod Connection (circa 2006 - 2009) we found this torrent that had hundreds and hundreds or various reggae acapellas that we started dj'ing with during our mashup sets. That also led to a deeper understanding of the music and culture as we started to pay attention to what some of the artists were talking about. There are definitely some messages amongst certain artists that promote hate against certain groups of people, so we made sure to not play any of that. We made sure to focus on the vocals and artists that promoted unity and positive messages. Then from there I started to work with people like Mista Savona and Ed Solo, and doing remixes for world class reggae artists like Sizzla, Burro Banton and Blackout JA.

The Rust: Have you ever played a BangOn! event before? Is there anything about Elements Lakewood that you’re particularly stoked about?

Tyler: It's pretty rare that I make it out to the East Coast United States so I'm really looking forward to seeing the scenery, meeting some new people, and playing a festival I've never played at before.

The Rust: How does the practice of harmonic mixing guide and impact your sets?

Tyler: To me it's just such an important part of the equation. Especially for the style of dj'ing where acapellas and stems are used to transition through multiple genres throughout a set. Mixing music harmonically helps keep people engaged as you move throughout tracks and genres. You can take the vocals from the track you were playing, or are about to play in four tracks and bring them in for a second, and it sounds cohesive because it's all in the same key signature. You can do so many tricks, but it also takes a lot of prep work beforehand, at least for how I do things.

The Rust: I read that you're very goal-oriented. What are your goals at this point in your life and career?

Tyler: I'm finishing my first album right now, so that's at the top of the list. It's been a lot of work, but now that the deadlines are in place and the singles are coming out right away it's really pushing me to get everything done. I've been learning a lot, and I'm stoked to focus on singles again when I'm done this, but it's been a very fulfilling project. Another goal that's been nagging on me was taking control of my health. I've quit smoking and have been trying to exercise more and drink a bit less alcohol. It's tough being in a party scene but I feel like I'm starting to be able to control that part of my life more and become better at saying no, or not giving into temptation, and embracing a more healthy and balanced self.

The Rust: An interview from five years ago in your hometown newspaper said you plan to retire in six years to a tropical beach and just dabble in music production. How do you feel about that now?

Tyler: Haha, well.... If I really wanted to I could go live on an island now and retire, but that's not what I want to do at all, at least not right now. I have a wonderful girlfriend, two cats, and a really happy home since we just moved to Calgary recently. There are tons of opportunities to explore, and for the most part I feel free to do whatever I want, and to me that's becoming a better artist. I don't want to remove myself from Canada or the scene here, but there will come a point where I want a secluded and chilled out life out of the rat race. So whenever I hit my threshold I'll be pursuing that at some point. I know my partner isn't ready for that yet, so, I'm happy and grateful to be doing what I love here in Canada still.

The Rust: You’re electro reggae funk sound (“ghetto funk”) is truly one of the coolest, most original things in electronic music. Can you describe how you cultivated this sound, in the beginning, and over the years?

Things have just organically culminated into what they are now. Harmonic mixing allows me to take all sorts of different musical influences and combine them as long as they're in the same key. This opens up an endless amount of possibilities for me to combine any sort of music I love. Then combining that with the relationships I've made over the years, my producer friends and music partners, as well as my own push to try unique things...it's just a big mixed bag. There isn't a name for it. Ghetto Funk is a label that a lot of us released tunes on back in the day and they are dear friends of mine, but I have never called the music I play that. I don't know what to call it. It's just music, party music. I know it's easier to sell yourself when people can easily sum you up in a few words, but I don't really care.

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Neither do we. If there's one thing Stickybuds has proven, it's that you don't need to sell yourself to be successful and have an impact. We encourage all dancers and denizens at Elements Lakewood be they wobble chasers or four-on-the-floor fiends to peep Stickybuds on the Earth Stage at 9:00pm on Saturday, May 26. If you don't have tickets, single day tickets and weekend passes are still available. 

FOLLOW Stickybuds:   Official   /   Soundcloud   /   Facebook   

Elements Lakewood Music & Arts Festival - Zoo Logic Warmup Mix

Presenting the second promo-mix in anticipation of Elements Lakewood this summer, Zoo Logic has provided a well-crafted smorgasbord of melodious interplay, evolving sound design, and excellent cuts between tracks. The mix features a majority of original Zoo Logic tracks alongside a few choice remixes and selectors, and is sure to whet a multitude of palettes with its varying stylistic directions.

Zoo Logic is the brain child of Austin Rogers and Jeff Blair, who have carved out a following for themselves through their intuitive combination of high-polished production and beefy bass tones. If you’re itching to catch them up close and personal, then make sure you find your way to Elements Lakewood in Pennsylvania this summer. The get-down is scheduled for May 25-27, and features a host of like-minded producers and DJs ready to serve up something extra hot for Memorial Day weekend.

FOLLOW Zoo Logic:   Soundcloud   /   Facebook   /   Spotify

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