thelittlestillnotbigenough
Interview by Grant Scott-Goforth
Words, pictures and sounds - thelittlestillnotbigenough is a band and art collective that plies its trade from the Northern California coastal city of Arcata. Recently back from a northwest tour where they recorded an EP, thelittlestillnotbigenough plan to tour again in the late fall. Between arts, crafts, writing and touring, it’s a wonder that cofounder Philip Deniz Kumsar found time to sit down for an interview in September.
What’s going on with your band lately? Where did you guys tour? More tours coming?
Well, we got back from our summer tour a couple of weeks ago and we feel the goals we set for ourselves were triumphantly achieved. Except for one mishap in Olympia (where the school bus we tour in almost got towed along with all of our equipment and our mighty dire-wolf-dog Link) which cost us much of our reserve fund, we had great shows throughout Cascadia. We got to play at an adorable place on Whidbey Island with Eli from Baby Island (and LAKE) and some other local acts which was amazing PLUS we stayed at a cabin on Whidbey, which is a gorgeous place.
We hand-screen printed a plethora of CD sleeves and shirts and patches with images provided to us by our fans and friends... it was a superb team effort by everyone we know to make it happen. Our big bus managed to champion its way without a hitch; every time we stopped and started the engine was a huge victory.
How did you get started with the group? What motivates you to continue playing music?
About six years ago I and Sage moved up to Arcata to go to school and were steadily writing, recording and performing as thelittlestillnotbigenough around the area. Our drummer Devon joined us many years back and now we have an awesome core of friendly faces. Along the years we evolved into a collective of sorts that added pieces and styles and art forms and has still kept going. I think we all appreciate the cathartic and awesome power of musical collaboration and the ability to create a moving piece of all our expression. Outside of our musical time together we are a happy family and have worked together in resistance and social justice for years. We inspire each other and respond to the energy we all spit back and forth. We’ve experimented with any form we feel we can yield without looking foolish, recorded it and consider ourselves bound to each others progress...and we have a responsibility to the vibrations of the universe to contribute something back.
Can you describe your sound? What would you say are your biggest influences?
We play songs. That is to say, we appreciate the song craft and enjoy manipulating its popular format and its ability to be off-kilter with the right movement. A lot of our songs are long form and have extra recants and verses and thingies that make some songs, like, 10 minute epics...of what is essentially folk-rock music with lyrics we consider to be important. We have 4 people singing at times and take vocal inspiration from contemporary acts we love from hip-hop, to folk, to prog-rock and ultimately create guitar driven stuff that is nuanced and melodic.
You also make comics. What kind of comics? What inspires you to make those?
Yes, I have been aspiring to create quality comics lately. I’ve always been a drawing kid and have gone in and out of what my ‘thing’ is in the comic world and only now am realizing what I like to do. I really appreciate concise vignettes of scenes or ideas. Sage and I created a comic art and lyric zine for a hip-hop project we finished about a year ago called “blackhole, bye bye” which explored psychedelic scenes that tell a 20 panel story throughout the scope of the album. I compiled a short picture story called “The Listmaker’s Apprentice” which was a lot darker than ex pected and was inspired by the Perry Bible Fellowship comics. Comics are really the pen-to-paper form of cinema that gives the maker total creative control, which I get off on. In the coming days I hope to have a local comic compilation completed called “Future Tense” that will have a bunch of stuff by friends and local people here in Arcata. Just gotta make it happen.
thelittlestillnotbigenough is: Philip Deniz Kumsar, Sage Brush, Devon Ferrucci, Lauren Dahl, Steve Dugger, Lisa McNeely, Kate Jamison Alward.
