Voices in the Back (VITB)

Guest bio:

Lt. Sunnie is a dynamic multi-disciplinary artist out of the heart of Minneapolis, Minnesota! Through her passion of rap music and dance, Sunnie creates art for all people to pull inspiration and light from.

She has graced audiences at venues such as First Avenue Mainroom, Soundset Music Festival, Pourhouse, Icehouse, Hennepin Theatre Trust, The Cowles Center for Dance and many more! Sunnie is also the host of “The Sex Talk Podcast By. Lt. Sunnie”. An analytical research based podcast centering Big Body, Queer, black, fem folks - cultivating quality conversation to normalize communication about sex, sexuality, and sensuality.

With an inspirational, uplifting, and bold expression, Lt. Sunnie brings light to the importance of freedom, identity, and individuality. She is ready to shine with you!

Guest social media:

https://www.facebook.com/LieutenantSunnie

https://www.ellteesunnie.com/

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Guest Bio:

Laura Hugo is a Native American singer/songwriter from Teec Nos Pos, AZ located in the Navajo Nation. She moved to Minnesota in 2010 to pursue her music and has since played all over the Twin Cities and around the Midwest. She has used her experiences with grief, mental health and general confusion about her place in the world to write honest and relatable songs.

Guest Social Links:

https://www.facebook.com/laurahugomusic

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Guest bio:

A multi-faceted, international professional in the entertainment, marketing, and tech industries. 

SYM1 is a Minneapolis native pop artist, making music for misfits by night and a record label owner by day. 

Guest social links:

https://www.no1butsym1.com/

https://www.facebook.com/no1butsym1

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Guest Bio:

Kokou Kah is a True Fusion Liberian-American artist; a term coined from mixing their American culture and Liberian heritage within their music. Kah grew up listening to Tupac & Bob Marley with his late uncle, and Liberian pop music whenever around his maternal grandmother. Every beat you find Kokou on will make you want to dance and his lyrics will take you into a journey of his life not far removed from yours no matter the depth of his traumas and joys.

Guest Social Media:

https://www.facebook.com/willyyarq

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Guest bio:

Butter Boys are a band from Minneapolis, MN. With their tongue-in-cheek brand of pop punk, Butter Boys’ songs are upbeat, somewhat snarky, and full of singalong rockers. Versatile singer Katie Drahos goes from lighter melodies to full-blown snarl while delivering punchy synth lines. Joe Marxen’s jangly lead guitar cuts across a tight rhythm section by drummer David Garcia and bassist Ollie Nordman.

Guest Social Links:

https://www.facebook.com/butterboysmusic/

https://butterboys.bandcamp.com/

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Guest Bio:

Rachel Lime is a songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, born in Seoul and raised amidst the cornfields of Minnesota. Her songwriting is accordingly both alienated and sentimental, searching for that elusive place in-between. Her debut album, A.U., was released on Inside Voices Records in June 2021, and was selected as an Essential Release by Bandcamp, and one of 25 notable Minnesota albums of 2021 by The Current.

The first songs of the album began on GarageBand, with a laptop keyboard as a midi controller. The vocals and instrumentals were recorded in the strange spaces brought about by the pandemic: her bedroom in a two-month emergency sublet, an empty recording studio, and an airbnb in rural Connecticut. Instruments included her flute from high school, a kayageum and janggu (traditional Korean instruments) she bought in a parking lot, and a piano in her former college’s music building that a current student snuck her in to play. These improvisations and workarounds, rather than detracting from the album, contribute to its sound: pop intentionally made strange, with shifts in tone and genre from one song to the next. It’s an album about voyaging to other worlds - and all of its contents were made mid-voyage.

The album’s title stands for a lot of things - Alternate Universe, astronomical unit, the name of gold on the periodic table. It’s about the longing for Someone Out There, whether it’s extraterrestrial life, a fantasy of a past relationship, or a 6th century Korean princess obsessed with the stars. Lime draws from influences as varied as Kate Bush, Beach House, Enya, fantasy novels, Carl Sagan's Cosmos, and Korean mythology. Though the genre shifts throughout the album, the songs are united by melodies rooted in pentatonic scales and folk music, and a sense of wonder, nostalgia, and longing.

Guest Socials: 

https://www.facebook.com/rachellimemusic

https://rachellime.bandcamp.com/

Guest's Bio:  

Sophia Eris is a renaissance woman currently residing in Minneapolis, MN. She graduated with a Music Business degree from IPR in 2009 and immediately jumped into artist promotion as an employee at Tinderbox Music for 3 years while working on her own artistic journey. Since 2012 she's grown from a respected solo artist to an international touring DJ with Atlantic recording artist Lizzo, to a morning show host at Go 95.3, the most forward-thinking hip-hop station in the country. She’s collaborated with Prince, appeared on the Power Rangers soundtrack, released a solo EP,  performed at major festivals like Glastonbury, Bonnaroo, and Lollapalooza, & also made her television DJing debut on Ellen, David Letterman, & Stephen Colbert.  When she’s not on the road Eris stays locked in the studio, currently working on 3 separate projects that will debut in 2021. She is currently in the process of building and funding a WOC-owned venue called Auntie's that will not only provide performance, but workshops and seminars for the youth to focus on career development within the arts.    

“The city’s next music star. Sophia Eris is the music-biz equivalent of a three-sport athlete: Radio Host, DJ, and MC.”  - Mpls St Paul Magazine   

"Sophia Eris is on a mission" - Nylon Magazine  

Guest's Social Media: 

https://www.auntiesvenue.com/ 

https://www.instagram.com/sophiaeris 

https://twitter.com/sophiaeris 

https://www.facebook.com/SophiaEris 

Thank you for tuning in! To keep our series alive please support us by donating to our Give MN page: 

givemn.org/story/voicesintheback  

Make sure to follow us on social media:  

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPHarMCVPZVVguSeQ8vsESA 

https://www.instagram.com/voicesintheback/ 

https://www.facebook.com/voicesintheback 

https://twitter.com/voicesintheback

Guest's Bio:   

Christopher Dijon-LaRoy Parker (born September 10, 1988) known professionally as Chris Parker, is an American songwriter, rapper, and producer from Chicago, Illinois. He is also the founder and CEO of the record label SelfMadeGlory.  

Guest's Social Media and Website:  

https://www.selfmadeglory.com/ 

https://www.facebook.com/ChrisParkerSMG/ 

https://twitter.com/chrisparkersmg 

https://www.instagram.com/chrisparkersmg/ 

Thank you for tuning in! To keep our series alive please support us by donating to our Give MN page: 

givemn.org/story/voicesintheback  

Make sure to follow us on social media: 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPHarMCVPZVVguSeQ8vsESA 

https://www.instagram.com/voicesintheback/

https://www.facebook.com/voicesintheback 

https://twitter.com/voicesintheback

Guest's Bio:   

Smellkin Ernesto was adopted as a baby in Bogota, Colombia and was relocated to rural Minnesota where he grew up. Minneapolis has now been his home for the past decade. Attempting to normalize front leading POC and the transracial international adoptee narrative via bedroom pop music.  

Guest's Social Media and Website:  

https://www.smellkinernesto.com/ 

https://www.instagram.com/smellkinernesto 

https://www.facebook.com/SmellkinErnesto/ 

https://twitter.com/smellkinernesto 

Thank you for tuning in! To keep our series alive please support us by donating to our Give MN page:  

givemn.org/story/voicesintheback  

Make sure to follow us on social media: 

https://anchor.fm/voicesintheback 

https://www.instagram.com/voicesintheback/ 

https://www.facebook.com/voicesintheback 

https://twitter.com/voicesintheback

Welcome to Voices in the Back (VITB), a multimedia initiative for BIPOC artists and professionals in the Minnesota music scene, featuring live performances, critical conversations, and exclusive content. 

This series will be available as a podcast and on YouTube. On YouTube, you'll be able to see our guests be interviewed and perform on the Hook and Ladder Theater stage while the podcast will have include more from the interviews with our guests not shared on YouTube.

We'd like to thank our sponsors for their support: Minnesota Music Coalition (MMC), The Hook and Ladder Theater, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council (MRAC), Indeed Brewing Company, First Avenue, The Warming House, and The Current. This series was made possible by our fiscal sponsor MMC, funding from MRAC, and Hook and Ladder Theater for filming and allowing us to use their space.

To help keep VITB going, we need your help. Please donate to our Give MN page: givemn.com/story/voicesintheback 

Make sure to follow us on social media:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPHarMCVPZVVguSeQ8vsESA

https://www.instagram.com/voicesintheback/

https://www.facebook.com/voicesintheback

https://twitter.com/voicesintheback