Dear avid readers, thank you so much for joining me for the Issue #2 of Momo Mail. I hope that you guys are having an amazing spring, with the lovely weather, the blooming flowers, and lest we forget the allergies. I’m currently writing this issue during my spring break!

Do you know about music therapy? Music therapy is practiced by qualified music therapists and uses different musical interventions to address the needs of individuals. It can involve active music therapy (making music, playing in groups, improvisation, etc) or passive music therapy (listening, music/lyrical analysis, and guided imagery). Music therapy along with CBT or DBT is an effective method in treating symptoms of depression and anxiety! I know from personal experience that listening and playing music is a great way for me to manage my own emotions and stressors, I hope it helps you too!

A Day in the Life

The Botanical Building in San Diego is an iconic monument in Balboa Park. Both times I visited San Diego, the building was under construction. Despite this, the building and surrounding area still look beautiful!

The Botanical Building began construction in 1913, and was officially opened to the public in January of 1915. The greenhouse inside contained multitudes of tropical plants and outside the building is a 50,000 gallon pond, La Laguna, that hosted water lilies and blue agaves. During WWI, the pond was used as a training pool for the navy. Over time, the building grew less and less maintained. During the US’s involvement in WWII, the city even voted on removing it! There have been many restorations to fix the building. In 2019, the state was given an $8.2 million grant to renovate the building, and the renovations should be completed this year. I can’t wait to visit it when it’s finished!

Evan’s Picks:

Young Adult by slashpattern, released on December 20, 2023, is an indie rock/vocaloid song on Vampire Patterns. This song perfectly encapsulates the inner-conflict of choosing between nostalgia and living in the present. Guitarist and songwriter, slashpattern, chose to use the vocal synths Kasane Teto AI and Xia Yu Yao to sing over warm piano, guitar, and bass guitar tones. The bridge section features an awesome instrumental that quickly takes you through fuzzed guitar chords that resolves into a chill questioning of current ideals that further contextualizes the chorus. One of my favorite songs released last year! You can read more about the album in my interview with slashpattern below.

♫“If no one has to grow up, if I don’t need to be well, then I am choosing to be.
I forgive myself.” ♫

Whiplash (2014) is a movie about a gifted jazz drummer, Andrew, who is struggling to make an impression on the studio band director and an impact on the jazz world. The film, directed by Damien Chapelle, has won many awards, accolades, and high praise. It gets incredibly tense as you squeamishly watch as Andrew destroys his body and relationships in pursuit of perfection, all while receiving mental and physical abuse. This movie shows the price of ambition, and will definitely have you at the edge of your seat. If you haven’t watched it by now, you won’t regret seeing this one.

Fallout (2024) is a new TV series released on Amazon Prime Video, based on the Fallout series video games. It’s dramatic, gory, full of interesting sci-fi lore, and is campy fun: exactly what makes the Fallout games enjoyable. It seems like we’re in a golden age of video-game adaptations, with the success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023), The Last of Us (2023), Arcane (2021), and Detective Pikachu (2019); all of which are of varying degrees of quality, but I definitely enjoyed all of them. This show is definitely worth checking out, whether you’re a fan of the franchise or not. Fallout (2024) has really intriguing plot elements as you follow the three protagonists who represent the different RPG alignments that you can play as in the Fallout games, as they survive the wasteland. If you do decide to give this show a shot, I have to warn you though that there’s a lot of body-horror elements that made me squirm!

Today I had the thrill of talking to my good friend and experimental-guitarist slashpattern. 

You just released your album Vampire Patterns last year, a collaboration between you and [Valendar]. How would you describe the initial concept for this album, and was a split always in the works?

SP: I was always bugging her like, “we should do something together, you know, we should do some kind of collaborative project.” I don't think it was always going to be a split, like just my songs and her songs. I think it was supposed to be more “we make the songs together,” but somehow it evolved that way. I'm always sitting on a bunch of songs. So basically, I was just like, “Hey, let's make a split. Let's do it.” There's also there's a song on my first album, [Library Books], that's basically me and her producing together.

Awesome. Where did the name slashpattern come from?

SP: It's the most random thing and not a lot of thought was put into it. Basically, I just wanted something that sounded like a username and sounded vaguely cool. The direct source of it was it was some kind of pottery video where they took different colors of clay or ceramic that were striped, then they cut them into cubes, and then offset the rows by one like blocks, and it had “Slash Pattern” at the bottom of the screen. So yeah, that's where it's from.

That’s funny. I always assumed it was like a coding thing.

SP: Oh yeah, I wish that now. I kind of don't like the name anymore, and I don't think I'm going to use it for much longer.

Oh really? Do you have any ideas of what we're gonna change it to?

SP: No. I was playing with these people for a while. It’s over now, but we were talking about calling it Rain Rain. But then there's something I have in mind, it's like White Apple Blood Plum. But that might be a song name. I think me and Valendar want like “Something Night.”

Before the interview, you mentioned someone posted something on your Bandcamp?

SP: Yeah, people for some reason a lot of people read slashpattern as splashpattern. I was talking to [Blush Cameron] at his concert, and he was like, “wait, it's not splashpattern?!” I was like, oh. The one review on Bandcamp for Vampire Patterns is like really sweet, like it's a really nice message, but they call me splash pattern. And I'm like, like my eye is twitching. Please go back and fix that! [Laughs]

That's so funny. This is your second complete album you’ve worked on, not including your compilation. How do you think your songwriting process differed between Advice and Vampire Patterns?

SP: I don't think it's changed that much. I think both of them kind of came from sitting on a few songs and then being like, “okay, well now I want to do a song that's like XYZ,” and then crafting something around that concept, rather than just like writing something new. I guess songs on Vampire Patterns kind of have more of a less rocky sound in the sense that they're more produced.

I felt like there was more storytelling on Vampire Patterns than Advice.

SP: Yeah, I do think my lyric writing has changed a little bit in the sense that I'm trying a little harder. Lyrics are generally my least favorite part, and one of the last things I work on. I think the storytelling thing is easier when you're working with vocal synths. I find it easier to almost play a character, you know what I mean? Like I'm not the one singing it, so I can just make up whatever I want. I also think it lets me like be cornier than I would normally because I don't have to be the one singing.

Has using vocal synths impacted your music writing too?

SP: I think it impacted how I write melodies. I'm now going back into writing for my own voice and I'm finding that I'm writing stuff that I basically can't sing. Melodies that are really fast and go up and down wildly. I guess I got too used to the perfection of the machine…

You can read the full interview here.

Your Picks:

Here’s what you guys had to say about your favorite songs, albums, and shows!

• “I like [The Muppet Movie Soundtrack] the best. All the songs represents the trials and tribulations of trying to achieve your dreams!” - Julia 

• “My fave song rn: [This Time Is Different (Feat. Solaria & Kasune Teto) by Cereal Experiments], and also into [Cheerleader by Porter Robinson]. I’m really looking forward to Miku Expo in May!!!”

  -Rachel 

• My favorite song at this very moment is probably [Show by Ado]. My wife covered it which is where i heard it first it is a j-pop song although it's not j-pop in a kyary pamyu pamyu way or something like that it's not very cutesy or anything IDRK how to describe it…
  One of my favorite metal bands Agalloch reunited a while ago so i'm hoping they'll tour or do a festival closer to me and i can see them soon…” - Cacodaemon 

• “What im up to: working on decor after moving. why are sofas so expensive? and bed frames? why is everything so expensive?!
  Favorite song rn: [Gold by Death Team]; check them out, they're pretty cool. kind of remind of if you mixed uffie with junior senior.
  Concert im looking forward to: i am working on gaining the courage to go to concerts... but if Jungle, Destroyer or Alex Cameron end up in seattle i’ll definitely go!!! ...probably.” - Bran

• “Heyyyyy, I've been obsessed with DnD content and daydreaming about running a campaign myself. Recently I've really loved this big band cover of [Beneath the Mask from Persona 5 - Full Big Band Version ft. Aisha Jackson]. This band always pulls together such a good big band sound and Aisha Jacksons vocals are just stunning. I didn't have plans for a concert necessarily but I would love to see Mitski perform. I keep seeing clips from her performances and she has these smaller, more intimate concerts that look so good. -Sam D

Thank you guys so much for submitting responses for the first issue! There were way more submissions than I anticipated for the first issue! All the songs/albums you recommended were awesome. I greatly appreciate it and I’m so happy to see what you all had to say!

The winner of last issue’s submissions is: cacodaemon! The $5 Amazon gift card has been sent to your email! Good luck to everyone next time! ^_^

I’d love to hear from you guys! In each newsletter I want to feature things that you guys submit. Each issue I will provide a prompt in case you don’t know what to submit, but I want to hear about anything.

The next newsletter will be animal themed! Here’s a prompt for you: What is your favorite animal, bug, sea creature, etc?

If you are an artist or musician, feel free to post about anything you’ve made!

One randomly selected submission will receive a $5 Amazon e-gift card sent to your email, so don’t miss out on that!

The last day to submit a response will be May 21st.

Thank you again for reading and being a part of this newsletter! I’m so appreciative of you all, and I plan to stick with releasing these for you guys. I hope that you read future issues, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

With love,
Evan (Momo) <3

References:

1. Tang, Q., Huang, Z., Zhou, H., & Ye, P. (2020). Effects of music therapy on Depression: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. PLOS ONE, 15(11). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240862

2. https://sandiegohistory.org/archives/amero/botanical/

3. https://balboaparkbotanical.org