Jack

Brittany Costa vocals & guitar
Adam Malchoff drums
Kiril Orenstein drums
Jacob Galenski guitar
Corey Bzibziak bass

Years Active 4

Latest Release “Alchemical Rounds”, “Demos 2”

Favorite Local Band or Artist Award Show

Current Album on Repeat “Green Twins” by Nick Hakim – The perfect record to dance to/explore your body with or groove to on a solo walk.

Words of Wisdom Be open to what arrives and trust yourself. There are so many paths to take — don’t hold yourself to just one. Let it carry you to unknown territory. It’s okay to let go of who you were and who you knew to become.

Photo by Emily Finlan

What do you think is the biggest lesson we can all take away from this experience?

There are many lessons… The fact that uplifting and supporting your local community is extremely vital to everyones well being physically and mentally, the fact that our inner worlds could use a lot more inquiry, love, & compassion, the dismantling of a capitalistic mindset in many ways, namely the idea that we need to constantly be productive…etc.

Tell us about how this project got started?

Something that I don’t talk about much is that I was involved in theater for a big portion of my life. At the time Jack came to be, I was coming back home to Queens from doing a play in Scotland that the theater company I was in had worked on/written for about 2 years. It was an incredible and fulfilling experience to be a part of a devised theater company, but I remember feeling very drained from theater in general. I’d been involved in a few bands in between theater shows throughout the years and would write songs here & there for them, but those projects never felt like my fullest expression. I was always tip-toeing around music — never fully committing to it, but constantly feeling drawn to it. Like many who turn to music, I had a complicated/traumatic childhood and music was always the outlet that made me feel safe and helped me to heal some stuck emotions. I knew it’d always have a place in my life, but I didn’t know how it would manifest itself.

I slowly started to peel away from other music projects and right before we left for our production, I had a taste of my first solo show at DBTS, just under my name. I remember I couldn’t stop thinking about the energy at that show — I think it was being a part of something much bigger than myself in a way that theater used to make me feel. I felt held and seen in a different way because the art I was sharing was my story, not a play someone else wrote. That music scene was truly something electric and special at the time and I felt inspired to contribute. When I came back from Scotland, I decided to put theater on the shelf and apply that energy into a solo project, which I named Jack. Songs were written and I started playing more shows. I honestly felt shy about being 26 at the time and only just starting to play my own stuff, but I kept at it anyway. Solo shows were great, but there was so much in my head that I couldn’t transmute on stage so I went looking for a drummer. I had met Kiril Orenstein once or twice before through a mutual friend so I reached out to see if he’d like to play together. There was an unspoken trust/bond I felt with Kiril that was very grounding and allowed me to just be completely vulnerable through my music.

Are you working on anything new / specific at the moment?

The past year and a half has been more about traveling, self exploration, deepening my spiritual practices, and opening up to what is sustainable/will fill my cup in the career realm, but I’m looking forward to planting my feet down in one place again. There’s a wheelbarrow of songs I’m ready to plant when I can afford to fly all the band members out to one recording studio. Until then, I’ll continue writing and growing the pool. Maybe there will be a double album or maybe none of these songs will ever be recorded. Who knows!

Any Buffalo Artists you admire that you’ve never met?

I’ve always admired Irene’s (of Alpha Hopper and DilDon’t) energy and commitment to their performance.

Anyone you’d like to Collaborate with?

There are a lot of Buffalo artists I’d love to collaborate with, but the first one that comes to mind is Suzanne of Space Cubs. We share a similar background and I’d be interested to see what comes out of that. I also just really miss collaborating with my own bandmates. It’s been a really long time since we were all in one place together.

What does Buffalo have to offer aspiring musicians?

Buffalo is a great place to work on your craft. There’s a lot of time and space to practice, play shows, and explore your sound. Shows aren’t relatively hard to book there so if you want more practice in the performance realm, it’s a great place to get really comfortable on stage.

What areas could Buffalo Improve on?

I think Buffalo could improve on its inclusivity and openness in the music scene. As someone who just came through for about a year and a half, my experience was that there were a lot of labels applied to bands/people/scenes. Sometimes when this happens it locks people into a box and doesn’t allow for growth or alternate perspective. I remember people coming up to me a number of times and saying something along the lines of you play this, or your music is this thing, you are this person, you are dating so-and-so, before even introducing themselves or us getting to know each other. When that happens, you create this idea of someone in your mind, naturally developing prejudices based on your own interests and experiences, without ever getting the opportunity to find out who they are. Often, the conversation would just end there because their mind was already made up about you. This is a very human thing to do to help us make sense of the world and because sometimes we’re nervous or awkward and don’t know how to approach certain conversation, myself included, but with a local music scene that has so much potential for exploration, I think it’s important to carry that openness to each other. There’s also still some misogyny in the scene that needs to be destroyed — this exists in most places, but there’s never been an excuse for it and there never will be.

What’s the next move?

I’m excited to be settling in the PNW and seeing what becomes.

*Interview with Brittany Costa