Thalia Anderson of WLUW sat down with Kalmia Traver of Rubblebucket before their show at SPACE Evanston. They discuss inspirations, Ben and Jerry flavors, advice for starting out musicians, and more! Check out the interview below!
Thalía: Do you want to give them your name and little facts about you? Who you are?
Kalmia: Oh, yes.
Kalmia: My name is Kalmia Traver from the band Rubblebucket and I’m so happy to be here with you today.
Thalía: Thank you
Thalía: Starting off, I usually like to ask, Where do you call home?
Kalmia: That’s such a great question. I mean, I live in Brooklyn. New York and I’ve been living there for 12/13 years, so that’s definitely like my home base right now. But I also bounce back and forth between there and Vermont. Where a lot of my family lives, my parents live there. So I kind of feel like the East Coast, like the Northeast is my home New England, New York. Yeah.
Thalía: I love it there.
Thalía: Did you go into UVM knowing that you want to produce music? Did you ever think about doing anything else while you were there?
Kalmia: Yeah, definitely early on in my like first year going into college. I didn’t have a major and I kind of thought I wanted to do stuff with like kids and farming or like leading trips. Like I really loved working at this amazing summer camp I used to work at in Vermont called farm in the wilderness that was started by Quakers and it’s like, the most woke camp. So amazing and the people are so sweet. And then I don’t know, music. I’ve always loved music and I knew I wanted to produce music actually. Yeah, from a really young age like in eighth grade. We had to do this job shadow unit in our school and I shadowed a composer in Massachusetts and my mom drove me down. We contacted this guy. I don’t know how I found him but I was like, searching for composers and we found him in Bedford, Mass and I shadowed him for a day and watched him like compose for like some jingle for some commercial and that was in eighth grade. So I definitely knew I was very interested in, in producing music from a young age.
Thalía: Did you know that you wanted to end up kind of like in a band and doing that?
Kalmia: Yeah, I have a really, really strong drive to being in bands and like especially traveling. Even in high school, like my best friends, We had this friend group that we would like drive to go see concerts and we went to Dave Matthews Band concerts together two summers in a row. And I was like this is the dream and I’m totally doing it more than 20 years later. I kind of laugh sometimes when I look back at drawings I made of that time like just saying like “I want to be in a traveling musical act” and then I’m like, Whoa, I really did that. Like I did it hard.
Thalía: You manifested that lifestyle for you.
Thalía: So, can you tell me about the name, the name and meaning behind Rubblebucket?
Kalmia: Yeah, okay, so we used to make up all kinds of stories about this. So I could do that. But our first one of the other founding members with me and Alex was a man named Craig Meyers, from Burlington, Vermont, who’s a wonderful person and musician. And he’s a percussionist and he is a stonemason by trade. He builds stone walls and rubble bucket is a tool used in stone masonry. Actually, this is like better than anything you could make up anyway. And it’s just like a 10 gallon bucket that you use to carry around rubble that I don’t know that I guess you need so I don’t, I don’t know. But he gave the band the name. In the early early early days, like one of our, I think, our first ever gig before we had any music or anything. It was just fully improvised at an art party. In Burlington during art hop week in September. They have it every year and it’s always so fun. We improv the whole time. And there was like one or two songs that Alex had written out for a different project. And we played those charts and like improvised the rest and for some I think we were built as Rubblebucket because we just didn’t have like any other name. Yes, it has come a long way from then.
Thalía: So cool
Thalía: Kind of a deeper one. But what is your favorite song to perform? And what song are you most proud of?
Kalmia: Great questions. I okay, one of my favorite ones to perform. We have been touring it right now is from Earth Worship and it’s called “Mockingbird” and I just totally selfishly like it because it has this ripping flute line at the end. That’s really hard and it’s just so challenging and fun and we haven’t been playing it. We kind of narrowed down the set for the fall tours. So that one kind of fell off the set but I love that. For one that I am proud of? I would say I’m really proud of “Sweet Spot” right now that’s from Earth Worship. That ones been, it’s just like become such a staple part of our new set. And I kind of like I just really enjoyed writing that one. I mean, Alex and I write together a lot but we also like bring in our own seeds. And that was one of the seeds I brought in and I’m so glad that we saw it through to the end because it’s such a banger and it’s really just like, we usually play it like midway through the set and it’s like it’s a real cathartic release.
Thalía: What would you label your genre as? Because like on Spotify and everything, it’s like indie pop kind of like alt. What would you say personally?
Kalmia: Yeah, I would say definitely. I feel like indie pop is more of its change- what that is is changing. I feel like because the world is changing and the way people like devour music is changing and there’s like, the middle ground of what pop is is like, going so much into like such weird places like doja cat and friggin shoot what’s his name the like mouse something. Okay anyway, my brain it’s been a long no sleep.
Thalía: I feel like I know what youre talking about
Kalmia: He’s Spanish, sings things in Spanish
Thalía: Oh, bad bunny?
Kalmia: Yeah, I keep mixing up my cute animals
Thalía: We love Bad Bunny
Kalmia: Oh my god we played in Buffalo or no, it was Albany and Bad Bunny had like played a few nights before us. And they’re all these little like light up bunny ears and just all around the venue. So we wore ’em for our set.
Thalía: Yeah he’s massive
Kalmia: I know…
Thalía: Going off of that, what are some- what are some of your favorite artists currently and who you take inspiration from when you make music?
Kalmia: Oh my gosh. Yeah. The ones I just listed just listed totally, i’m obsessed with Doja Cat. Though we can’t listen to her.
Molly: Who isn’t you know?
Kalmia: We have this playlist that we listen to every night after the show when we get in the van to drive to the hotel. And it’s kind of like obsessional. Like we listened every single night to Scatman by Scatman John and it’s kind of messed up like how many times we’ve heard that song. And then yeah, anyway we’ve been checking we’ve been listening to the like, what the cow Moo by Doja Cat. Oh, love that one and yeah, I love Rosalia, too. She’s popping into mind right now. I’ve always just been like diehard Bjork fan, and obviously Beyonce i mean..
Thalía: I LOVE BJORK
Kalmia: Really love. I’ve always loved jazz. That’s been like, kind of my center point of sounds that I love. And Sam Gendel is this young guy who’s like a jazz saxophonist, but he makes really gorgeous kind of ambient, adventurous music. He does tons of stuff, but yeah, I’ve been checking out some of his new stuff lately. And I love Ruth Garbus like, talking about my friends now, but she’s amazing. She’s another Vermonter who just released an awesome live album and she’s like one of the most adventurous songwriters that I know of right now. So those are a few.
Thalía: So would you say that you take inspiration from like all of them collectively? Kind of just like all your taste in general?
Kalmia: Yeah, I really do feel like inspiration. For me. It’s like, um, it’s just like, comes from so many places for music, and just like the world and energy unseen, like all kinds of yeah, so many places but music. Yeah, gosh. I love I also love like, Afro Caribbean music and salsa music and Merengue and I could go on and on.
Thalía: Again, going off that, if you had to share a stage with one of your favorite artists who do you think would mesh the best with you?
Kalmia: Whoa, wow. Oh my gosh, it’d be so fun to play with Bjork. That would be a dream. I feel like just getting to do that would be like an education in itself. Wow, what else? I’m gonna just go with that. That’s a cop out. It’s easy, but ill just stick to it.
Thalía: Less serious one, favorite song of this week?
Kalmia: Oh, like currently? Oh, okay. Yeah. My listening has been so weird because I’ve just been I like didn’t bring headphones on this tour somehow.
Thalía: Oh, my god
Kalmia: How I’m surviving? I don’t know. I think these van drives have been really chaotic. And I just sit there and like eat snacks and like, don’t do anything. stare out the window and talk with people and everyone else is listening on their headphones. But okay, so I went to meow wolf in Denver this summer when Rubblebucket played a bunch of shows in Colorado and I was trying to just shazam the whole time because the music was so cool and there’s this, I couldn’t find any of it online. And finally, I found like this area in Spotify, where there’s a lot of Meow Wolf soundtrack music and there’s this one song called Tubes by the artist Federici and I don’t know if that’s kind of going back a couple months. So maybe it’s not like I don’t even.
Thalía: Yeah, it’s applicable because you don’t have headphones.
Kalmia: It’s, it’s really, really great. And then Oh yeah. Oh my gosh. Today just we came in the playlist coming in was it was Lorraine radio on Spotify and Lorraine. There’s another artist that I’m obsessed with, who’s in our like friend community. We love her so much but everything she does I love so much.
Thalía: Now these are just like little fun questions.
Kalmia: You’re making it easy
Thalía: Oh my- sorry!
Kalmia: No, no in a good way. The interviewer last night went for the jugular, I was like I’m still recovering.
Thalía: Oh, Yeah. If you had to describe- this one came from Molly. If you had to describe yourself as a kitchen appliance what would it be?
Kalmia: Oh, easy instant pot.
Molly: See i told you, everyone knows what they would be.
Kalmia: Really?! Okay. I thought you’re gonna say everyone would be instant pot
Molly: I think I’d be a soup spoon
Kalmia: Oh, that’s cute. That’s very traditional.
Molly: Yeah, one with a cute little design you know?
Kalmia: Yes, definitely. Yeah, I’m obsessed with Instant Pot. I think it’s one of the most rugged appliances. We’ve actually toured with it in the past and dude, in like 30 minutes you can have this like rich soup. It’s so good on the road because it’s so hard to find good food. Yeah. And it’s got really just so many fun buttons. There’s just like egg, rice, and I don’t have to do anything. I can just press the button and relax.
Molly: It makes life easy
Thalía: I didnt even think of InstaPot
Molly: I thought toaster as well
Thalía: Toaster is a good one
Thalía: You’re from Vermont, you know this question is a classic best Ben and Jerry’s flavor
Kalmia: Coconut almond fudge chip
Thalía: Oh wow! I disagree
Kalmia: What’s yours?
Molly: We’ve been adventuring in Ben and Jerry’s recently
Thalía: Their new topped line, so good
Kalmia: Do they just have something on the top?
Thalía: I’m obsessed with the raspberry cheesecake.
Kalmia: That sounds delicious.
Thalía: It has like a graham cracker layer on top. Oh my god it’s so good.
Molly: Mines americone dream.
Kalmia: Okay, wow, we’re advanced.
Thalía: We’re connoisseurs.
Kalmia: Yeah, I can tell you did your homework. My cousin worked for Ben and Jerry’s one summer as like a tour guide, because it’s when you grew up in Vermont. You have to do that and he got like, I think it was absurd. It was like five or six like pints, free pints a week. So it was just filling up. He was just like giving it away. We had so much ice cream that summer. It was great.
Thalía: That actually sounds like a dream. Like I need to go and just so I can like find someone who’s doing that. And yeah, munch off them.
Kalmia: There was like an article in some like the New York Times or something Vermont, maybe it wasn’t the New York Times but it was like how Vermonters who work at Ben and Jerry’s who get all this free ice cream. It’s become a form of currency and people are like trading it for like, I have extra like zucchini, here I have extra ice cream and it’s like, you know, it’s a good bonus. It’s legit.
Thalía: I need that, I’m gonna go.
Molly: Lets go just for Ben and Jerry’s.
Kalmia: It’s worth it if you haven’t been to the factory.
Molly: I’ve been to the Hershey factory.
Kalmia: Oh, me too. And yeah, it’s good one.
Thalía: It’s not the same.
Molly: It’s not the same but still, we’ve all been to places.
Kalmia: Facts
Thalía: What’s your biggest pet peeve? Or I like to add on because recently I’ve been like, these things are really insignificant, but they like really make or break your day. Whats something like that, that you would think of.
Kalmia: Well ugh man, I my first thought was like, there’s I yeah, okay. I definitely have them but I’ve been working so hard to like be going with the flow because dude, on tour if you like, start to let things get under your skin. It is like an endless pit of despair. There’s just like so much. But yeah, not getting enough sleep is really hard. And just, I don’t know weird sounds that other people make.
Molly: That’s so real
Kalmia: It’s like, why are you making that sound right now and you have to just be nice about it. We all have our things.
Thalía: No, yeah, exactly. It’s like the little insignificant things. I’m on to something my list just keeps on growing with those.
Kalmia: What are some of yours?
Molly: You have a list?
Thalía: I do have a list! like hiccups! They are just so insignificant.
Kalmia: Yeah, oh yeah. That’s true, but they do, they are a pain in the butt.
Molly: My hiccups are bad, I can tell they are annoying
Kalmia: Well, I mean, yeah, I mean, people can’t really get mad at other people’s hiccups because it’s like they’re going through that pain, you know?
Thalía: Yeah. But like, everyone kinda just normalizes it. They’re like it’s just hiccups, It’ll go away. For those three minutes.
Kalmia: Yeah, it’s rough.
Thalía: It doesn’t feel like it will.
Kalmia: Yeah, It’s true.
Thalía: That one, and not being able to untie your shoe fast enough.
Kalmia: Yes. So now it’s starting to flood in. It’s like so many things with tour where it’s like I loaded in but then I forgot like one thing in the van. I forgot my like my sweatshirt and then I’m like, “I have to walk all the way.” Especially if the venue has like long hallways. I’m just like, “ugh i’m so annoyed.” Then you get it and then you’re like, “oh now I forgot another thing” or, like so and so didn’t deal with this and like communication, that kind of thing. It really adds up.
Thalía: No, it does because it’s like it’s just one trip back to the van. But it means much more. It’s the principle.
Kalmia: You’ve got to tack on five minutes on either end for getting stopped, interrupted and the conversations.
Molly: It’s deeper than that
Kalmia: It really is deeper than it is
Thalía: Now going back to the serious last question because we have to wrap it up. But for starting artists, what would your message be to them?
Kalmia: I would say I mean, one of the most basic things but like just do it. It’s like and try to do just have it be regular. Like, have it- It’s better to do it bad than to not do it. And experiment and yeah, like try not to judge yourself or you can judge yourself but like compartmentalize that so only give yourself certain times where you can judge and then other times be like this is completely just like make a failure, try to make 10 failures, you know, and and and just like grant yourself that and then see where you’re at on the other side because I think there’s nothing like the embodiment of feeling what it feels like to be on the other side of creating something rather than thinking and planning and sort of hesitating. Like that world will just keep going unless you make a move and do some actions around it. Yeah.
Thalía: That’s really motivational
Molly: That could apply to a lot of things
Thalía: “It’s better to do it than to sit and watch someone else do it”
Kalmia: Yeah!
Check out Rubblebucket on Instagram and on Spotify below!