Artists Off Stage - Kelsey Reckling
Kelsey Reckling has been keeping busy during quarantine in Los Angeles, CA by recording new music, doing a ton of baking - and watching 13,500 birds migrate over the Santa Clarita mountains, epic.
Hey Kelsey, hope your weekend has been great so far! Did you have anything going on today?
My weekend was good! It's hard to keep track what day of the week it is these days. I've been spending most of my time in the kitchen as of late. Baking. It occupies so much time. And I also think it's really hard, so it's been challenging, and also forces you to be really present in whatever it is you're doing. No time for head wandering. It is weird to look at the calendar though and see that we were supposed to be playing a show this weekend...and, well, every weekend since lock-down started.
So, with the live music industry essentially postponed for the foreseeable future we've been asking artists how they're spending time off-stage - what things have you enjoyed putting your energy towards lately?
Oh man, I've been trying to keep busy... I've been writing a little bit, recorded two new songs, one which we released as part of Burger Records Quarantunes Compilation called "24 Hours". It's about quarantine. I also recorded a Urinals cover with some friends from Houston, under a project called Britney, which has a bunch of different musicians collaborating on each song. I think that will be released soon. Other than that... baking, bird-watching, gardening (which really means fighting the earwig army who attack my plants every night)... haha, I sound so wholesome listing those activities. But that's what's up!
Have you preferred being inside or outside more these days?
Both! This is the most I have ever hung out at home...ever. It's weird. With all this time at home though, I keep rearranging rooms and finding things I want to change or get rid of. Nitpicking. Being outside frees me from that. Secret hikes, walking the dog, getting sunburned, checking on the vegetable garden, chasing earwigs at night with a flashlight... I've also been going up into the mountains in Santa Clarita every week before sunrise to monitor mass migration birds. There was one morning where we had ~13,500 birds come through right over our heads. Amazing.
Over here, we're all super stoked to get back to hanging out at live shows 24/7 again - what are you most excited to do when we're all able to go out into the world again and be social? In person of course!
Definitely so stoked and anxious to get back out into the world. It's crazy to imagine..."the year of no shows". I feel like I used to complain about it a lot, haha, going to shows all the time. Now I'll keep my mouth shut and appreciate it a little more once we're all back. I do wonder what it will be like though...when it will start, if there will be any restrictions...sharing microphones? I don't know, we'll see. I think I'm most excited to just go get a cup of coffee with a friend, or go sit at a restaurant. And to lose my shit on stage and let go of whatever has been pent up during this time.
photo by Frank mojica