As the chief organizer of the unique multi-media, mostly-impromptu, once-a-month show known as the Round, Nathan Marion has had the opportunity to host talented local and national musicians, poets and painters on the tiny basement stage in the Fremont Abbey—a church built in 1914 that was remodeled and made into a community center focused on arts and performance education. Tonight (July 7) the event celebrates its 50th incarnation at the Triple Door with musicians Jessie Sykes, Rosie Thomas and Damien Jurado; poets Buddy Wakefield and Christabel; and artists Scott Erickson (who paints the murals for Easy Street Records) and Skye Graves. In anticipation of the very special Round 50, Marion sat with Sound for a cup of coffee and shared the story of the Round.
SOUND: Tell me about the genesis of the Round here in Seattle.
NATHAN MARION: It’s been around for four years. It started right here in what used to be the Living Room Tea House in 2005 with a songwriter workshop. This was before I was working with the Abbey. A live show on its own can be good, but for me I was a bit bored just standing around at shows, so I wanted to see more interaction. I’d seen some other artists at gallery shows or theater shows and thought it’d be really cool to involve more collaboration. The idea was to try and involve other art forms, with music being the core part of it.
SOUND: How did the Round find its home at the Fremont Abbey?
NM: It was late 2005 when we moved in there. And that was super funky as well, like little lamps from the living rooms and our stage was kind of pieced together and volunteers were painting the day before. It was a hell of a lot of work to try and move the show, and to get people fit in there and get them through the door. There was something about giving the Rounds numbers that made us look forward to the next. It was like, “We can make it to Round 5,” “Let’s make it to Round 10″ and it just moved on from there.
SOUND: What do people enjoy most about the set-up of the Round? What makes people come to this tiny basement to hear music?
NM: People keep coming back because they feel a sense of camaraderie. The collaboration is there, and even though they’re not really on stage, the volunteers are an important part of that. And as you saw, you’re so close—they’re on stage, and you’re right there. It’s not a big venue, where you’re 40 feet away. And halfway through the Round everything really clicks and everyone is cracking up and smiling and laughing and telling stories, and the audience is part of that.
SOUND: You bring in a lot of great artists, most of whom have not played with each other and you ask them to collaborate. How do you make sure that things don’t fall part?
NM: (Laughs) Well, maybe at times they have. There are definitely times at the beginning of the Round when people are uncomfortable, and the audience doesn’t quite know how to respond. But after a couple songs they start to relax, someone tells a joke, and people start to realize that they’re sitting in a room sharing an artist’s experience. But the bottom line is that I carefully curate the artists for each show, doing my best to find people who work best together on stage.
SOUND: Is it scary or exciting to know that so much of the show is out of your hands?
NM: Scary and exciting because I do my best to pick people and describe the show to them, give them context, but once they get on stage, they’ve got poetic license.
SOUND: It is easier to find good musician, or poets and painters?
NM: I think the poets are the key. We started with poetry on Round 9 on a whim, something I thought would be funny—it was an anti-Valentine’s Day Round—and it was hilarious. But it is a challenge. We definitely didn’t want it to be just like an open-mic, like a coffee shop with random people reading off napkins, so we wanted a system with planned poets—really good planned poets that are at the top of the Seattle scene. Ninety percent of those have come from Youth Speaks and Seattle Poetry Slam.
SOUND: Has the Round retained its original spirit over the years?
NM: Yeah. We still have the same household lamps—the voodoo lamps from the living room—which we’ll bring into the Triple Door. It’s important to keep it in an intimate and casual and comfortable setting. Round 50 is going to be a lot of fun. It’s been exciting to see it change and develop over the years and to watch it go from getting artists together to create something unique and seeing it come together with the audience. One of the most exciting things I’ve seen is the inspiration that is carried with the artists. One of the performers might be an 18-year-old poet playing with an older musicians who’s been playing bars forever and they’re suddenly working together, and that is really refreshing. That’s the core of the Round: inspiring artists to continue grasping and working at their art, and for the audience to be a part of that.
Round 50 takes place tonight, July 7, at the Triple Door in downtown Seattle. For more information, click here.
July 8th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
thanks Sound & Michael! really fun to see this article.
p.s. Glenn Case was the 3rd painter at the Round, and he’s the muralist for Easy Street Records. Scott has probably done some awesome murals somewhere though.
p.s.s. Not sure what “voodoo lamps” are.