Minnesota artists Anna Devine and Ryam Kemp of Chutes stopped by The Current’s Morning Show to talk about the Melt ICE compilation.

Listen to the full interview in the player above, and find a complete transcript below.

Interview Transcript

Jill Riley: Well, I've got a couple special guests in the studio this morning on The Current. As musicians, both local and outside of Minnesota, have been raising money and gathering supplies to help families in Minnesota affected by Operation Metro Surge in the form of benefit concerts and special song releases, and now a very large group of Minnesota musicians have come together for a benefit compilation called Melt ICE. And to talk about it this morning, Ryan Kemp of Chutes, and Anna Devine, who you would know as a solo artist, but also as a collaborator of Chutes, they are here in the studio to talk about this project. Good morning, you guys.

Anna Devine, Ryan Kemp: Hi, good morning.

Jill Riley: Hello and welcome to The Current's Morning Show. Wow. This is quite the list of artists that have contributed to this project, this compilation, Melt ICE. I mean, I'm seeing Night Moves, Yam Haus, Ber, Kiss the Tiger, Durry, She's Green. The list goes on and on. Ryan, why don't we start with you? Where did the idea come to put together this compilation?

Ryan Kemp: Yeah, so the idea came from our friend Johnny Fuller, who makes music under the name Jonny Darko. It was the days following the murder of Alex Pretti, he called us and wanted to do something as artists, and we threw around the idea, what if we do a benefit show, or what can we do to help? And we kind of landed on this benefit album so we can have this sort of landing page for people to continue to donate and continue to support the community.

Jill Riley: And did you cast out the net to see who would bite? I mean, or the line, I guess, if you're netting, you're not really asking to bite. But did you just put out the word to see who would respond? I mean, did you expect 110 bands of musicians to respond? Because that's quite a number.

Anna Devine: Yeah, I think we each had our own networks. Let's say, I've played a show with this person, Ryan has played a show with this person. So, we each played to our different strengths and connections in the community, and we were hoping to get, I don't know, 30 to 50, and then almost everybody said yes. And I think a lot of musicians just have demos or songs that they've been sitting on that they haven't released. And so a lot of people were like, "Yeah, I have this thing. I'll send it to you by the end of the day." And we were just so impressed by the immediate turnaround and, it was just incredible. So we ended up compiling 110 musicians, which was beyond our wildest dreams.

Jill Riley: So the compilation is called Melt ICE. There are people, like you said Anna, [who said] yeah, I've got a song that I can contribute. And what I've seen from this track listing is songs that are completed, there are demo versions, there are live versions. What is the goal with this compilation? I know it's a benefit, but what are you hoping to do with it?

Ryan Kemp: Yeah, I think the immediate goal was to raise money for the immigrant community who have been affected. So we chose MN Together as the organization, because of the fact that we wanted to put it out as soon as possible to help these families. That's why we asked for demos or just kind of whatever the artists can contribute. I think also a part of it was to raise awareness. There had been a lot of media coverage about Minneapolis, but including some of these bigger artists, like Night Moves or Raffaella, these people who have national and international outreach.

Jill Riley: Well, even the national artists. I mean, when Tom Morello comes to town and Bruce Springsteen shows up, or what Brandi Carlile did with her concert. But you really centered this on the local music scene.

Ryan Kemp: Yeah, absolutely. We just wanted to have this kind of album that includes so many artists from so many different genres, just to show our support and also to raise as much money as we could.

Jill Riley: And what does this say about the community, especially the Minnesota music community?

Anna Devine: Yeah, I mean, it's just so tight knit. And I think a lot of musicians would say the same thing. And as musicians, it's hard to feel — we already don't make a lot of money, so it's hard to feel like your songs could raise a lot of money.

Jill Riley: “What could I possibly do,” right? Yeah.

Anna Devine: But, you know, a lot of people, like I said, had songs they were sitting on. We had a great selection of artists who wrote songs for the cause inspired by everything going on. A few great ones, one by Elijah Herchert, which I've really been enjoying, called "Villager." That's a great one, really poignant lyrics. It's just really great to feel like we have a voice as artists, and they give us microphones, so let's use them.

Jill Riley: Sure. I'm talking with Anna Devine, which you are hearing on The Current's Morning Show, and also Ryan Kemp of Chutes, and we're talking about this benefit compilation called Melt ICE. Now, where can people find it?

Ryan Kemp: Yeah, so it's a Bandcamp exclusive album, so you can find it directly there. A lot of the artists have it linked in their bio on Instagram. If you search up "Melt ICE" it'll be there. The album cover is by Connor Hryhorysak. It's got a candle represented with a Loon.

Jill Riley: Okay, and is there a benefit to using Bandcamp to do this?

Ryan Kemp: Absolutely.

Anna Devine: Yeah, they take the least amount of royalties for themselves. They give artists the most out of all the streaming services. And actually, the first Friday of every month is called Bandamp Friday, which is when the website donates all proceeds to the artists. So normally, we would get about 80% of every donation, but on Bandcamp Friday, it's 100% so this coming Friday is the first Friday of March.

Jill Riley: Oh yeah, good point.

Anna Devine: If you haven't yet listened or streamed or purchased the album, we would really, really appreciate that. And it's all going to a community organization, MN Together, which helps match funds to families who really need it.

Jill Riley: The compilation again, featuring, what was it? 110 songs from Minnesota musicians. Again, the compilation is called Melt ICE. You can find it on Bandcamp and this morning, talking with Ryan Kemp of Chutes, Anna Devine is here as well. So, when you put together a compilation like this, I mean, it really shows that when you put out the question, you're getting a lot of yeses, which shows that the Minnesota music community really wants to show support for members of the community. And speaking of the community, when putting together a compilation like this, what is the hope, I guess, going forward? There is the help in providing aid to families who need it in the Twin Cities and beyond. But then, is there anything else that kind of came out of this?

Ryan Kemp: Yeah, absolutely. I'm sure a lot of listeners have heard of the Dropkick Murphys show that's happening this Friday in the Black Forest Inn.

Jill Riley: We've heard a couple things about it.

Ryan Kemp: Yeah, I organized the local lineup of that, and that kind of sprouted from finding the Bandcamp album. So I booked the six acts that will be playing on Friday, and I tried to pick a very diverse list. Almost all of them were included on the Bandcamp album. So that's kind of the first live display of the Melt ICE.

Jill Riley: Okay, wow. So yeah, Dropkick Murphys have their show Friday night at Palace Theatre, but they're going to be doing this special acoustic set as part of that, during the day. So it's Abolish ICE: A Fundraiser for the People. You want to talk a little bit about that lineup? Because really it is including Chutes, and also Sophie Hiroko and Kiss the Tiger and I feel like a group of brass players that have had such, really musically, such a central role in what's been going on. Brass Solidarity, I went, “Oh my gosh,” I've been hearing so much about them.

Ryan Kemp: Yeah, totally. So there'll be some — Brass Solidarity, and some of the other Irish bands are going on before Dropkick Murphys, and then afterwards, it's Kiss the Tiger, and Sophie Hiroko, Laamar, Obi Original, who is a great Afrobeats artist in the city. So tons of different genres, from indie rock to Afrobeats to pop.

Jill Riley: We're super excited. So that gets started at, looks like about one o'clock at Black Forest Inn in Minneapolis. And then, Dropkick Murphys, they've got their big show on Friday night at Palace Theatre, but they're going to be definitely among the Minnesota music community during the daytime in Minneapolis. Well, congratulations on that. That's a pretty cool thing to come together.

Ryan Kemp: Thank you.

Jill Riley: Yeah. So the compilation that we've been talking about this morning, you can find it on Bandamp, It is called Melt ICE, and 110 Minnesota musicians coming together to contribute music to this compilation, and it's a benefit for the MN Together mutual aid fund. Well, guests this morning, Ryan Kemp of Chutes, Anna Devine. Now I also know that Anna, you have contributed some music and some ideas to The Scouting Report here at The Current, kind of aiding Diane in that. Because I'm like, I know I have read your name in other places. So thank you for doing that and keeping us up to date on what's going on in the Minnesota music scene.

Anna Devine: It's my pleasure.

Jill Riley: Well, you know, one of the bands that contributed a song to this compilation, we had them in here recently, and we've been playing their song on The Current, the band Durry, “I Told You So.” This one coming out, I think it was a pretty quick reaction to the moment in Minneapolis, but Austin Durry told us that he's been working on this song for quite a long time, and it seemed like this was the good time for it to come out. So we'll go out as this is one of the songs included on that compilation. Durry with “I Told You So.” Ryan and Anna, thank you so much for coming by The Current.

Anna Devine, Ryan Kemp: Thank you. Thanks for having us.

Jill Riley: You are listening to The Current.

Credits

Guests – Anna Devine, Ryan Kemp
Host – Jill Riley
Producer – Derrick Stevens
Digital Producer - Natalia Toledo

External Link

Minnesota Artists United Against ICE – Bandcamp