#iamnucisspace, Camp Amped Edition: FISHBUG!

On May 21st, here at Nuçi’s Space, our friends in the band Fishbug will be hosting an Artists Market and celebrating the release of their new album. The members of Fishbug are Stella Perkins (guitar, vocals), Moss Ivey (guitar), Parker Dillard (bass), Isaiah Pope (drums), and Anne Domizi (piano). Since all five members are Camp Amped alumni, we asked them to sit down and talk with us about their experiences at Camp Amped for our #iamnucisspace series. Here’s the interview in its entirety:

Nuçi’s Space: How did you find out about Camp/get connected to camp?

Moss: Me and Stella were in one of the first ones. I was friends with [Camp Amp Alumnus] Everett [Verreen] and I started playing guitar when I met Everett.

Nuçi’s Space: How long have you been playing guitar now?

Moss: About seven years, now.

Nuçi’s Space: So you were how old?
Moss: I was in seventh grade.

Nuçi’s Space: How about you, Stella?

Stella: My parents wanted me to do it, but I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t think I was good enough. I knew you had to audition, and I thought “I’m not doing that.” I didn’t think I was good enough, so I thought “There’s no point.” My mom signed me up and I told her “Well, I’m not going to do it” and she said “OK, you don’t have to.” Then, the day before, she said “Oh, you have a Camp Amped interview tomorrow,” and I was like “WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?” I freaked out, but then I went, and it was great, and I got in.I had this huge complex about it. I was super jealous of the people that did it, and I wanted to do it, but I was afraid that I wouldn’t get in. That would have been the most embarrassing thing, in my mind: to try and fail to get in. So I decided “I just won’t try.”

But I got in and I’m so glad I did. I wish I’d gone for more years.

NS: How many years did you go to camp?

Stella: Four years.

NS: If you knew there was a kid out there who was nervous about auditioning and didn’t want to try out because they were scared, what would you tell them?

Stella: I’d tell them “If you know how to play your instrument, even a little, it’ll be fine. It’s so worth it.” There are other music camps, but Camp Amped is the only one where you have to audition. But it’s not like you have to be the Cream of the Crop to get in. There’s a very wide range of levels of musicianship.

Parker: I got involved in camp because all of my friends were doing it. I first found out about it from my fifth grade teacher. She put up fliers in her room and talked to the class saying it would be a really fun experience, even if you don’t know how to play an instrument, everyone can sing or hit a tambourine. I wasn’t interested in music at the time, but as time went on, everyone I knew was doing it.

NS: Who was this teacher?

Parker: Sarah Cross. I don’t know what her connection was to Nuçi’s Space, but I’ve always wondered why she was such an advocate for Camp Amped.

NS: What was your first summer like?

Parker: It was great. I only had two years of Camp, so I was already 16. I had already had bands with Moss and some other friends of mine, so I only knew MY way of being in a band. It was great to have that sort of switched up. It seemed like something that was intentional: to break down your comfort zone and force you to learn to be in a different kind of band. That really helped me be a better bandmate overall.

NS: Did some of those skills carry over into regular life?

Parker: [thinks for a second] YEAH, actually. I think it definitely helped with my communication. It helped me be less aggressive. In Moss and I’s other bands, if we butted heads, we’d just scream and scream and scream, and then it would be over and we’d have a better understanding of each other’s side of things. But when you get put into a band with kids who are younger than you and have less experience than you, you can’t do that.

Moss: My first band was a Camp band. I knew how it was to be one of the little ones. I learned what it was like to be at every level of the Camp experience.

NS: What was your first Camp experience like, Stella?

Stella: Pretty immediately, I was shocked that so many teenagers could be in a space and be so quiet. In the morning, sitting in a circle, listening to what everyone else had to say. It was so interesting: you could tell immediately by how everyone was acting that it was a sacred space. I didn’t know what it meant, because it was my first year, but just the way that every was, I knew “This is, like, A THING.” It was like, a whole situation.

NS: What was your band called?

Stella: Sine. We had Jojo Glidewell as an instructor, and, like, they sort you into bands on the first day, and Jojo said “OK, I’m very excited about this, because they’re finally letting me have a synthesizer band. I own over 20 different kinds of synthesizers. I’m very excited about this,” so we all got to play synthesizers. It was SO FUN.

NS: Parker, what was your first band called?

Parker: My first band, well, there were two. Spectra Light was one, and the other was Polyglot.

NS: Moss, do you remember?

Moss: I don’t remember.

NS: What’s your favorite camp memory?

Moss: Going into the studio for the first time.

NS: What studio was it?

Moss: Full Moon. It’s such a big and impressive space. It felt  like an alchemy lab.

Stella: My last year my band had a song that had a Dungeons and Dragons theme. I wrote all of the lyrics and we all had a script. Everyone had different parts. We went into record it and Chris Byron was the engineer. I love Chris so much, but he’s pretty deadpan, which I love by the way, but he thought it was the funniest thing in the world. He liked it a lot, and I was so happy about that. “I made a song that Chris likes.” We had so much fun recording the parts because we all had to go into the studio. It was the first time I’d written parts and everyone had to go into the studio and sing them. The drummer, everybody. It was so fun.

Moss: During our first Camp show, one of my bands was playing last and this crazy storm started. About halfway through our set, the power went out. We were like “What do we do?” Like, maybe the power is going to come back on and maybe it’s not. The drummer, Thomas, looks at me, and the power comes back on, he does a count-off, and we go right back into it. It was so fun.

NS: Tell me about the closest friend you made at Camp.

Moss: Probably Roan [O’Reilly].

Parker: I was going to say that, too. I knew Roan before Camp, but my relationship with him really grew at Camp, and became more musical. Moss and I invited him to join our band and we became really good friends really quickly.

NS: What do you feel you’ve learned from your experience at Camp?

Stella: How to be a Nice Creative. I feel like there’s just so much emphasis at Camp on community and working with other people to make something awesome, instead of “Here’s how to be a Rock Star.” I felt like it was really cool how much emphasis was placed on being a community. Like, now we’re trying to organize a tour and we’re talking to other bands and we’re working out scheduling and other details that affect other people. And we’re talking to venues and we know how to do that because Camp taught us our place in how things work. It helped us understand how we fit into booking shows or going into the studio.

Moss: It turned me from a guitar player who plays riffs in his bedroom into actually being a band member. It’s an interesting transition that Nuçi’s Space opens your mind to.

Stella, nodding: YES, but the way they do it is so kind. There was never any “Don’t be THIS GUY” or “Don’t be one of THESE PEOPLE.” It was taught in a way that was so… gentle.

NS: Have you been given the tools to pursue music outside of Camp?

Moss: I mean, we live in Athens. That’s all you really need.

Stella: Yep.

Parker: I think musicians who live here are incredibly blessed.

NS: Did Camp reinforce your confidence in musicianship?

Parker: I think, yes, but not at first. It challenges your confidence. From that challenge comes confidence. When I first went to Camp, it was the first time some outside source challenged me to get out of the box I was in. And, in certain situations, you’re not forced to, but if you play a certain way and you get put in a band that doesn’t play the style you were into or you were used to, you have to change the way you play.

NS: What was the style that you were used to playing?

Parker and Moss: The Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Moss: Also, there’s just an incredible amount of talent in that circle.

Stella: I was definitely pushed to do different things. I mean, at Camp sometimes you’re in a band with strangers. Like, four complete strangers that you don’t know, who play completely different music at completely different levels. I always had so much fun because I was never the smartest person in the room ever. That’s so important, especially when you’re younger. It helped my confidence and my musicianship a lot.

NS: Do you believe that music could be a career for you?

Stella: I like to set my expectations real low, so maybe? If the opportunity came upon me, I’d take it.

Moss: We all have different views on that.

Parker: I really want music to be my career because I won’t be happy doing anything else. I have a day job and I go to work, get my stuff done, but when I think of an actual long-term career, I don’t think I could be truly happy doing anything outside of music.

What I want to do in music changes all the time. At first I felt sure that I wanted to be a performer, but now I am a lot more interested in other aspects of music production. Engineering and mixing, production of all kinds. As we’ve been finishing our record, seeing all the possibilities that are out there has helped pull me out of the box of thinking that I have to be a performer.

Moss: For me, if the rock star thing happens, great, but I don’t want to have to make music not on my terms. I don’t want to do it and have it stop being fun.

NS: What role does music play in your life now?

Moss: Well, we live in a band house, now.

NS: How many bands are in that house?

Parker: Two. It’s taken over our house.

NS: How many spin-off bands?

Moss: Stella’s in a spin-off band.

Stella: It’s Roan’s side project.

NS: What’s that band called?

Stella: It’s called Good Host. It’s kind of math rock. It’s REALLY cool. I just write some lyrics sometimes. For, like, some of the songs, but so much of it could just stay instrumental, it’s so good on its own.

Moss: Other musicians come over all the time and gawk over the gear.

NS: So, there’s a lot of nice gear in the house?

Stella: Parker has made a substantial investment in nice equipment.

Parker: We have everything we could possibly need. We have instruments that we love and have made our own, and everything sounds really good.

Stella: Some of the new album was recorded at the house.

NS: What would you tell to kids considering camp?

Stella: Do it.

Moss: Yeah, do it.

Parker: Absolutely do it. Don’t think about it, just do it.

Stella: I’d say, if you’re nervous about it, just come and be a fly on the wall until you feel more confident. Just feel it out.

NS: Have any of you ever used any of the other services, like our mental health referrals, at Nuçi’s Space?

Stella: I have not, but I have thought about it.

Moss: I have. One time, I was having panic attacks. I thought I was having a heart attack. I felt numbness in my hand and wrist. Once it reached my elbow, I called the ambulance. When they told me it was a panic attack, I was like laughing and crying at the same time. I felt like “I don’t know what my body is doing right now.”

I came here and I was set up with a therapist. I had a great experience and it only took three sessions before I felt like I was back on track.

Parker: I’m in the same boat as Stella, in that I haven’t but I’ve thought about it. I think the only reason I haven’t is because with my parents’ insurance, they felt like we could just handle without having to come to Nuçi’s.

Stella: I think that Nuçi’s is really cool if people have to come and get help without parental support. It’s so inexpensive that they don’t have to get their parents involved, which with some people is really important.

NS: You guys have always had a practice space, but have you ever come here to practice?

All: YES.

Stella: I mean, we have other roommates, and sometimes we have to come here out of politeness.

NS: And you’ve played here?

Parker: Oh, yeah.

Stella: Back when I was in high school, I was in SAGA, which is the Sexuality and Gender Alliance, and some friends of mine and I formed the club, and we organized some shows here, with the money going towards the Women’s Homeless Shelter. I got Fishbug to play- I think that was one of our first shows. We were just babies.

NS: Do you feel like being a part of what Camp represented, and also Nuçi’s Space in general, has made you more comfortable with who you are now?

All: YEAH.

Stella: We were just talking about this- how sometimes being a musician, when people are talking to you about music, you have to ‘Be That Person’ and understand that in that situation, there’s an expectation and pressure on you to Be Cool, and around other musicians there’s not that pressure. In my case, it always feels awkward when I come offstage and people treat me differently. It’s easier.

NS: Do you feel like having Nuçi’s Space as a community gives you a place where you can talk honestly to people about stuff like that?

Moss: It introduced us to a whole community.

Stella: I feel like living in Athens, you can pretty much go anywhere and not feel like a weirdo, talking about music. Nuçi’s Space helps a lot, but I also don’t think there’s any backlash to being a musician.

Moss: It was really interesting to see these people, the Camp Amped Counselors, all be their own thing. Everyone was completely living their own life and it was all so fascinating. There wasn’t one life that was better than any other. Like, it just showed us that there were a multitude of options available to musicians that were different ways to be successful. 

NS: If there was one thing you could change about Nuçi’s Space, what would it be?

Parker: I wish it was bigger.

Moss: I like that it’s small, though, because it’s such a community.

Parker: I’m just imagining more practice rooms. You hear all of these bands practicing, and if you know someone when they step out of the room, you say hello, but if there were more practice rooms, every time you walked in, there’d be even more people to talk to. I mean, I’m just thinking of hypotheticals, because I can’t think of anything else I’d change.

Moss: I think that Nuçi’s Space is, like the Best in Class, so finding stuff to improve it is really hard, but adding the recording studio was genius. Finding ways to foster more creativity is good for the community.

Stella: Two things: I think it would be super cool to have more, like, gear-oriented education. I know they were talking about having a camp that was oriented towards engineering and recording.

NS: What about something like Ableton Live clinics?

Stella: YES. And more sides of the gear and processes of making and recording music- I know people who love music who don’t play but might want to build a guitar pedal or something. And also, I just wish there was more diversity here. I feel like that will come with time and or funding for scholarships for Camp Amped and PreAmped.

NS: What do you think it is about Athens that makes it such a special place to make music? Do you think Nuçi’s Space is something that could work in other music cities?

Stella: I think that Athens being a college town helps- having so many young people here matters.

Moss: I think that now, so much of what makes Athens special is built on history. The first big wave of Athens music that hit, I think it being a college town made it a breeding ground for creativity and ideas. I think now it’s such a fundamental part of the town, when you are involved in music in some capacity, you’re just part of it.

NS: Do you think that a thing like Nuçi’s Space should be in every music city?

Parker: I think that what helped make Nuçi’s Space be what it is was word of mouth and naturally growing as part of the community. Camp Amped is part of that.