Kynwyn Sterling
Kynwyn Sterling is the drummer of Heirloom, a band with math and folk influences in the LA area. She is an administrator of the well-known experimental music group, Odd Times & Atmospheres. Kynwyn is currently finishing up her studies in jazz drums at the California Institute for the Arts. In this interview, she talks about safe spaces for music, dynamic drumming, creativity from limitations, and guitar hero.
(Courtesy of FacebookWhy did you start Odd Times? What hopes did you have for it?
In the old group, any time a female musician would be mentioned at all, someone would comment something along the lines of, “She’s only popular because she’s a woman.” So we publicized our new group as a safer place, where beginner musicians could put out their music, where women didn’t feel like they were picked on every time their gender was mentioned, where people of any identity felt accepted. Genre-wise, we started from math rock, but we try to make it open to any genre, as long as it was in the same spirit of experimentation and progressiveness.
Has your musical journey changed direction at any point? How so?All the time. There will be moments where I feel like I might want to focus more on a different genre, like modern jazz for example but I’m also so engulfed in the math rock scene that I feel like I want to keep going along with that. Rock has always been my thing, like progressive rock, post rock, and math rock. My band Heirloom is more folky—perhaps a subtle change in direction?What is the dynamic of the band? How did everyone meet?
Jayce and I met about three years ago on Craigslist. He lived in Colorado at the time and said that from doing a nationwide Craigslist search for his favorite bands, my post was the only one that came up. We started an online collaboration with some other people. About three years later, we started dating, and he moved down here.We met our bassist Ashtin because one of my best friends, Dani, played bass in his old band Apathean, who were super heavy and interesting. We didn’t get to be good friends until years later when I ran into him at Alaska show, and he was one of the original members of OT&A.Our violinist Nigel went to Calarts with me and just graduated with an MFA. He is by far the most formally trained. He wrote out sheet music for all of his parts, and the first time we ever heard them, they were all nearly perfect.
Our dynamic has been great—we get along really well and have solid communication.
How was your experience been as a woman in music?
I’m sure this affected me when I first started, but looking back, I was personally oblivious to the lack of women making music. My parents never implied anything of the sort—they were just like, Hey, do you want to learn drums? I didn’t realize there were so few of us until it was pointed out to me. When I started playing, I felt like I was just another person starting out on the drums - but the more I played, the more I was singled out for my gender.
I always hear things like, “I’ve never heard such a good female drummer before.” So the sexism is subtle for the most part, phrased in the form of backhanded compliments. I’m fortunate not to have faced much blatant sexism, but in online music communities, people tend not to hold back in the things they’ll say.
People make you think there’s like one female musician in all of math rock, but there are a lot more of us than you think.
What was the most important thing you learned from music school?
I went to school at Citrus College in Glendora for two years, with no particular intention of graduating with a degree—I just wanted to learn more music. It was fine, although I didn’t like a lot of the ways in which they taught there. What I really gained was meeting other musicians and people that inspired me.
After that, I applied to Calarts. Now that I’m so close to graduation, I’ve realized that it’s my ideal school for sure. It has given me the tools to get better at my craft without boxing me in. I’ve especially learned a lot about world music (like Indian, Ghanaian, and Indonesian), which has broadened my horizons. I love the amount of freedom I have had here.
Music theory can be hard to enjoy, but I believe that knowing more is usually good, as it means having a wider vocabulary. At the same time, the more knowledge you gain, the easier it also is to get stuck. For example, I have played piano since I was a kid, but I’ve never been able to write on it. Meanwhile, I picked up guitar in the past couple of years and didn’t really worry about making my chords interesting; rather, I Just played what sounded pretty. A lot of the songs are simple, but I still ended up having complete music. Having limits gave me the space to be creative. Music theory can be really beneficial, but it has to be taught in the right way.
Who are your most inspiring music friends?
Where do I even start? I’m super lucky to have people I admire as friends and acquaintances. All the people in my band inspire me tremendously. I’ve had the opportunity to play with tons of great musicians such as the folks in Curling, Crying and my old bands Tails and Utena.
Curling (Courtesy of Facebook)
I love seeing my friends grow. When I first started listening to CHON, for example, they had their 2008 demos, and now they have their whole own scene. And Covet—I knew Yvette Young, as a lot of people did, and seeing them grow has been incredible.
Being a part of the online community, I’m constantly reminded of the vast talent that exists in the scene. Even just within OT&A I’ve met so many people who are doing really original stuff.
Songwriting can sometimes feel formulaic, especially when you’re not feeling particularly inspired. How do you combat this kind of stagnancy?
I like to try different approaches, though I usually start with a rhythm. I’ve written a lot on drums with bandmates but only recently started writing more on guitar and piano. The only songs I’ve completed have been really simple stuff on guitar because I’m not as worried about making it impressive.
For writing drum parts specifically, it’s a natural process. I usually try different rhythms over each other, coming up with new ideas through exercises in polyrhythms and limb independence. If I feel like I’m repeating myself a lot, I’ll work in a different feel or time signature for a while. I enjoy finding different concepts based in numbers to work with. People often tell me my drumming is creative, but I feel like I really just experiment a lot.
Jayce Benton Greenleaf and Kynwyn Sterling (Courtesy of Facebook)
How long have you been playing music? How did you get started?
I’ve played piano since I was a kid. In junior high, I decided to try out percussion in the school band. At this time, I also played a ton of guitar hero and DDR; in fact, I played more music games than actual music.
My mom bought me my first drum set for my 15th birthday. It took a while for drums to become my main instrument. It wasn’t until I went to school for drums, honestly, that I really saw the musicianship that was possible with the instrument.
More recently, I’ve been playing a lot of guitar. But drums still feel like my thing. With drums, I feel like I always know the next step, like I can always get better through practice, like I can jam with people from the start.
A big part of music for me is communication and collaboration. I always enjoy playing music with people rather than alone. With drums, it was always easy to do that. While with piano, even though I had more background, I didn’t have the theoretical knowledge to put it into use in a jam setting. Drums were always the vessel I could use most easily to communicate through music.
For most, creating original material and having your own voice is preceded by imitating other musicians. Who are some drummers you look up to or have tried to emulate? What was your transition like towards developing your own voice?
The drummer from toe, Takashi Kashikura, changed my approach altogether. Before that, I didn’t have many conceptions about what a drummer was supposed to do besides keep the time. Drums in toe—the dynamics, the accents—define the music. I love how you can recognize any toe song just from the beat.
It’s definitely important to recognize the people that inspire you. I didn’t come out of a vacuum—no one did. I don’t think I’ve tried to imitate anyone’s style specifically, but there are so many drummers that inspire me. My friend Forrest Rice introduced me to another side of drumming. He was into hanging out and jamming with other drummers all the time, and through him I got more involved in the drum community, practicing more efficiently and putting more focus on technique and skill.
Over the past few years I’ve gotten more into a lot of jazz drummers, like Nate Wood, Eric Harland, and Mark Guiliana.
Developing your own voice can be hard to do as a conscious process, I think. My current style came about as a combination of all of my influences, my life experience and the specific things I’ve focused on practicing.
Five years from now, where do you hope to be?
This has been on my mind a lot recently. Right now, I’m getting support from my parents until I graduate, so I’m trying to figure out how to continue this path of playing music and touring while still surviving.
Honestly, I just want to be on the same path, but further down. I also love teaching so I imagine if I were to make a living off of music, it would be from a combination of original and session work, teaching lessons, and helping bands through OT&A. We’ve got some plans for making merch and hosting live sessions, as well as starting our own label further down the road.
