Play it Forward, November 2021, The Montana Natural History Center, Brennan Walker, Larysa Blavatsky

The Montana Natural History Center

Brennan Walker, Larysa Blavatsky

Sunday // November 14th // 7:30 PM // Free, but please consider donating as 70% of funds received go to support the Montana Natural History Center //

Donation link: https://www.montananaturalist.org/give-nature/

VIEWING LINKS
ZACC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thezacc/
Zootown Arts YouTube:
MCAT Local Live: https://www.mcat.org/watch-now/local-live/

Thanks for tuning in and playing it forward.

FULL EPISODE:

KBGA College Radio and the Zootown Arts Community Center (ZACC) have teamed up to bring you 'Play It Forward', a live-streamed music series and podcast program curated to unite and uplift community artists and organizations in Missoula. Once a month we will partner with a different organization and host a local music event, with 70% of proceeds going to that month's organization. In conjunction with the music event each month, KBGA will run a podcast program on-air featuring interviews with the people behind the organizations and the artists themselves. We’re here to have a conversation with community organizers and creatives, artists, and activists on what community means to them and how they engage in their community.

November’s Play It Forward features Brennan Walker and Larysa Blavatsky. A live concert at the Zootown Arts Community Center will take place at 7:30 on November 14th featuring both artists. They will be playing in support of The Montana Natural History Center. The Natural History Center serves a vital and unique role in Montana conservation: connecting people of all ages with the natural world and educating them about the intricacies and beauties of natural systems.

This podcast features Brennan Walker and Larysa Blavatsky as well as Thurston Elfstrom, the Executive Director of the Montana Natural History Center. This episode’s host is Peyton Butler, KBGA’s Media Director.

The song you’re about to hear is Spiced Wine, by Champagne, featuring Brennan Walker.

Peyton Butler: I'm ready to get started. So for those of you who might not have met me before my name's Peyton Butler and I'm the media director here at KBGA. Um, and I thought we could just start off by everyone going around and introducing themselves as well.

Thurston Elfstrom: Sounds good. I'll go next. I'm Thurston Elfstrom. I'm the executive director at the Montana Natural History Center.

Brennan Walker: Howdy, I'm Brennan Walker and I'm a student, a wildlife biology student at the University of Montana

Larysa Blavatsky: Uh, I'm Larysa Blavatsky and I'm a music ed major and a violin performance major at the University of Montana.

Peyton Butler: If you guys are ready, I'm cool to get started with questions as well. So my first question is for Thurston, could you just talk a little bit about the Natural History Center, like where you're located, what your goal is, what you guys do.

Thurston Elfstrom: Absolutely. So, the Montana Natural History Center was founded in 1991.

So, we're actually celebrating our 35th anniversary and we are located, uh, we're kind of in the heart of Missoula, right? Um, in the kind of triangle that forms McCormick Park and then the new poly square, that new, um, all those new apartments. And there's some new restaurants going in. Uh, so we're right off of Craig Lane and Hickory Street.

We're in a building that was an old railroad, uh, depot warehouse. So we're right along the Milwaukee trail. And we've done a great job of converting it into an awesome natural history museum and learning space. Um, also Peyton, you did ask me, um, kind of about our goals, missions, uh, you know, our mission is to.

Create citizens stewards, um, by teaching people about nature and the environment, uh, this belief that, uh, knowledge leads to care leads to loving and nurturing and stewards something, stewarding something.

Peyton Butler: Thank you. For Brennan and Larysa, could you guys both talk a little bit about, your musical backgrounds? Like when did you first get into music or playing music. Brennan, do you think you could go first?

Brennan Walker: Yeah. Um, so I started playing guitar when I was about 10 and my mom played, uh, I was, grew up going to a little school that my mom started and we played music like every day. And so she taught me around 10 and just taught me a few chords and then.

Never took lessons or anything just found out what the sounds did while I played up and down the fret board and started writing songs when I was about 12. And, uh, I always just liked wordplay and messing around with that stuff. And it always, really intrigued me to just find a word combinations that hadn't been used before and just put words that are really different and close together. Always intrigued me. And then, uh, yeah, I've been playing ever since.

Larysa Blavatsky: Yeah. Uh, I've been playing music pretty much my whole life. Um, like I said, I'm a music ed major and violin performance. So those are kind of my two things are teaching and playing the violin, but I also play guitar and piano and I like to sing. Um, and I kind of started writing music a little bit later in life.

I used to write like fun parody songs and then it kinda got into more serious things around COVID. Yeah, I'm still pretty new to this song writing game, but I've been doing music a very long time.

Peyton Butler: And then could you both describe the kind of music you guys create? Like does it fall into a specific type of genre or category? Would you say.

Brennan Walker: So definitely when I was younger, like singer songwriter stuff, and that's sort of still what I'm limited to just with timing. If my, I have a few different projects with myself and then my friends and, um, one project that I released last year was me and my buddies project Sleep Chamber, which is very much folksy singer songwriter type of stuff. Um, but I generally would try to make like synth pop and, uh, psychedelic uh, synthesizer music and stuff like that. But if I'm playing by myself generally, um, to singer songwriter style stuff.

Larysa Blavatsky: Yeah. I'd say the same thing. I definitely a little bit more singer songwriter, but I'm trying to write an EP and I'm kind of trying to make every song, a different genre, which is weird, but I dunno, I'm trying to expand outside of singer songwriter

Peyton Butler: And Thurston, could you talk about some of the education initiatives that the natural history center does like childhood education or maybe for some older people as well?

Thurston Elfstrom: Yeah, you bet, Peyton. Um, we do offer a really broad range of educate, uh, environmental in nature, education and science. Um, we have offerings early education offerings.

Meaning Pre-K uh, one of our largest, our two largest programs actually are youth focused. One is a formal program within almost all of our Missoula areas, schools, including the Bitterroot. And also CSKT. That's called visiting naturalist in the schools. We take fourth, uh, fourth graders out on two field trips throughout the year.

And we also visit them once a month in their classrooms. And we do lots of, um, Learning about nature through observation. So using your ears, using your senses, uh, recording and observing phenomena, writing about it in a journal, um, we also offer. Uh, lots of summer camps for youth. Um, pre-K through age, through grade five, uh, and then on the adult end of things, we offer where the state provider for what's called the master naturalist course.

And that's a class that teaches, um, both naturalist skills, but also how do I identify organisms. Um, you know, mammals, big gregarious mammals like elk and black bears, they're pretty easy, but you look at, uh, uh, gymnosperm like one of our, um, uh, black cottonwoods or a river birch, or what's the difference between a lodgepole pine and a ponderosa pine.

And as we teach those skills about how to be able to identify, uh, those, those species as well.

Peyton Butler: And the Natural History Center just opened a new exhibit within the past few weeks. Could you go into a little detail about this new exhibit?

Thurston Elfstrom: Yeah. Thanks for asking about it. It's really exciting. It's a Montana fossils exhibit Montana is really, um, well-represented in the fossil record of the planet. We have fossil remains of organisms from almost every major geological period. Um, part of that's just because, you know, we're a really large landmass, but part of it is um, this large landmass is situated on a lot of really old earth that was in place, you know, before like what's west of us in Washington and Idaho uplifted from and was created by vulcanism.

So we have lots of great fossil beds and outcroppings. And one of the things that we've used as kind of a lens for this exhibit and a theme is extinction and mass extinction, and very, nearly all of the Earth's different mass extinctions are re are linked to climate change due to the organisms that were populating the Earth.

And we in the exhibit with the question, are we going to experience another mass extinction? Uh, and we will the age of humanity, people, be the cause. So really, really putting forth a strong message about climate change. We also send people on their way with ideas and things that they can commit to, uh, to think about how they can lessen their impact on the climate and on the planet.

Peyton Butler: And your new exhibit features this giant T-Rex head over in the corner, lots of people, especially young kids are just so fascinated with dinosaurs. And why do you think so many people have this innate fascination with dinosaurs?

Thurston Elfstrom: I, you know, that's a really great question, Peyton. I think it's due to several factors.

I think one is the mystery of these fossilized remains, these big skeletons and skulls and what would they have looked like in real life? Um, and we'll never be able to know, right? Like that's, that's the, that's the mystery. We, we are learning more and more about, uh, dinosaurs. Um, you know, we're, we're finding out the link between birds and dinosaurs and reptiles, and is really amazing, but we're never going to know exactly what a T-Rex or a triceratops looks like. Um, you know, I also think it's just kids are just fascinated by the thought of these huge creatures that once roamed the earth. Cause it's just unlike it's. So unlike anything that we could possibly see today, unless you subscribed to the Jurassic park film series, but yeah, I think, I think it's just, they're just so amazing.

They just set people's hair on fire and it's a really great point of inspiration for folks.

Peyton Butler: Brennan and Larysa, could you guys talk a little bit about your songwriting or music creation process? Like what goes through your head when you're either creating new music or performing?

Larysa Blavatsky: Well it depends. I don't have a lot of time for some song writing these days because I'm student teaching. So sometimes it's, it's just a matter of me, like sitting down at the piano and just kind of experimenting with a melody and then sort of putting words with it. Um, if I have more time, maybe I'll like do, um, a thought writing process.

Where I'll write a bunch of things that I'm thinking, or like, just write about a topic and then sort of make that into a song. I don't know. I can be kind of all over the place. So it depends on how much time I have.

Brennan Walker: For sure. Definitely depends. Like, like people ask me all the time, whether they, like you come up with the melody first or you come up with the words first and it's like, it depends because, uh, and it's honestly, you can, like, the craziest is when someone comes up to me after a show and says, you came up with the lyrics for that before you found the melody, didn't you.

And they're like spot on because they could just tell. And, um, that honestly weirds me out. Cause I like, I don't have any followup to that. They just knew that. And I'm like, okay, well how, but, um, yeah, it's always weird because normally if I write the lyrics first, I might even not even write all of the lyrics.

It will just be one line that's been repeating in my head. All day and then I'll find one more line. And then sometimes I'll just like sing lyrics just off the top of my head with the chord progression that I have until I find stuff that sticks. It makes sense. And then other times I'll be really methodical about it.

But, uh, when I was like 16, I had this whole dichotomy in my head of like, cause Neil Young believed that if it's not coming to you and the muse, isn't there that you'd have better luck. If you just go mow the lawn and just let it come, find you again. Whereas Leonard Cohen took six years to write Hallelujah and he worked on it every single day of those six years and edited.

And I don't believe in absolutes or that either of them were right, but I definitely lie somewhere in between, depending on either of those projects, I'd go bounce back and forth. It's kind of a chaotic, pretty little process.

Peyton Butler: For both of you, what's your favorite part of live performance or is there something that you do before a show to like kind of shake out any pre-show anxiety?

Larysa Blavatsky: Um, not really. I don't drink caffeine during the day before performance. Cause it's kind of affects me, I guess. That's a pre-show thing I do.

Um, I I'm used to performing with my violin, mostly singing and playing guitar is still. It's something that I wish I could do more often. So I do get a little bit more nervous with that, but yeah.

Brennan Walker: Yeah, I'd in terms of habits, uh, I hadn't performed in front of people in like a year and a half since pre COVID. Like when, even when I was back in like Alabama and I noticed like the day that I woke up, I started drinking honey again. And I was like, I forgot how that felt. Cause I always just drink honey.

Cause I get really nervous about my voice. And then my sister was like a drama kid and she always told me to eat like McDonald's fries. Cause it greases up your throat. So, uh, definitely eating fries and honey as if I'm some kind of. Gluttonous Winnie the Pooh all day. So yeah, stuff like that.

Peyton Butler: And what do you think makes the music scene and Missoula so special or different?

Larysa Blavatsky: I think it's cool because there's like a lot of small artists that are, you know, people know of and they'll go out to sea and there's also lots of like big artists that come through Missoula too. So it's just a mix of. Lots of different types of music that people enjoy, whether it's like smaller people or bigger groups that come through town.

But I think music is definitely at the forefront of like the Missoula downtown scene for sure. Uh, and I really like that a lot.

Brennan Walker: Yeah. Um, it's definitely got. A tight knit kind of atmosphere about it. And one of the cool things that I've been to music scenes in different cities where there's like some kind of inherent shame for dancing, and that does not exist here at all. Everyone just goes crazy, which is really nice because I don't know.

I like going crazy. So that's just the super fun. But, um, I think it also just has to do with like what makes Missoula great in general, which is like, you can just go to any bar or cafe and just look out and just see mountains. So just experiencing one of the best things in life, which in my opinion is live music while also sitting in the middle of a valley and looking over a bunch of mountains, it's pretty special.

Peyton Butler: And this is for Thurston, what importance do you see in environmental education?

Thurston Elfstrom: Well, uh, first of all, I think environmental education is a great pathway to a lot of other science based disciplines. So, you know, especially work with youth, I think it allows kids to see potential in many different career paths from, uh, doing, you know, like riparian and restoration with a group like Montana Trout Unlimited to working as a wildlife biologist for Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks.

Um, I also think, um, you know, environmental education embraces oftentimes, you know, this natural history perspective and, um, you know, natural history, uh, interweaves a lot of art, um, and science together through nature journaling and, um, you know, recording, listening, kind of the whole research process. I've, uh, seen lately a lot of bird um, research about the songs birds sing at night and, um, I've even seen some crazy, um, very cool constructions out of, um, sounds recorded in nature that allow. Like the end-user just on a website to create their own kind of nature sound symphony, if you will. Um, so I think it, I think it can be very inspirational, um, for, for youth.

I think also for adults, it can be incredibly inspirational and life-changing as well. I think, um, The most important part role that environmental education nature based education plays is just keeping that stewardship perspective in the forefront so that we're never forgetting, um, how important the nature all around us is, and that it needs that we can act to conserve and steward those natural places and animals and plants and organisms.

Peyton Butler: What are some ways that our KBGA listeners can demonstrate environmental stewardship?

Thurston Elfstrom: Lots and lots of ways. One of the primary things is to get involved in volunteer with any number of a lot of great organizations here in town. Um, there's the Clark Fork Coalition, um, organizes awesome river cleanups that are a lot of fun.

Um, Five Valleys Land Trust offers, volunteer opportunities to, um, clean up and keep weed free different, um, um, conserved land spaces. There's, there's just a lot of opportunities. Montana Natural History Center has opportunities from helping assist with teaching, um, to uh, just coming in and helping some staff our front desk and, you know, it's, it's, that can be a fun experience because you get to see parents with kids come in and kids get to discover, like you were talking about before Peyton, the big T-Rex skull and touch fossils and that kind of thing.

Um, so yeah, I think, I think volunteerism is, is a great way to begin to get involved with, with environmental education.

Peyton Butler: And then my next few questions are open to everyone. Do you see any overlap between music and the environment.

Thurston Elfstrom: I'll jump in and I'll say, yeah, I think there's, there's a lot of great artists and pieces out there. I think, um, kind of less so when you put on pop radio, perhaps, um, but I'm always really excited about music that does touch on, on be it any kind of difficult subject, right? Anything that's not just a love song.

Not that I don't love lots of love songs, but I think, you know, taking on something that's a bit of a more cerebral and hard to, um, something harder to swallow in and telling a story about that is, is incredibly powerful.

Brennan Walker: Um, even just to like branch, not away from music, but at the end of the day art definitely just like mimics nature for sure. And, uh, what Thurston alluded to about writing on really hard topics, like just in terms of how we're actually treating the planet and it might be quintessential, but my favorite person to write on topics like that is father John Misty.

His, uh, he just really like sums up how, um, morose and what's the word. Um,

Not when you're sluggish. I can't think of the word right now, but just how a sluggish we can grow towards like, uh, the world's already screwed up. We can't do anything about it. Like abandon all hope and how we just have gotten to this point where, uh, we're just like, like he really sums up in his album, Pure Comedy.

It's just about how, no matter what we do. Uh, humans will not be able to like destroy all life or all species, and it's gonna take up whether we were just going to destroy our world, not the world. And so I just think that music has an insane ability to make you see the big picture. And it kind of has like the same effect as comedy does where it's a really good medium to make it not political or not hit any pushing anybody's buttons because it grows political and it can just hit it from, um, a really eye opening perspective. I don't think you change anybody's minds by yelling at them. I think you changed their minds by, uh, making them laugh or making them.

I don't know, touching them as like music is like cooking dinner for somebody's ears. It's really hard to be mad at that.

Peyton Butler: And then my last open-ended question for everyone is, what do you think is the most rewarding aspect about your work either through the natural history center or making music or performing.

Larysa Blavatsky: Yeah. Um, I guess the most rewarding aspect of my work kind of depends. Cause I've got a lot of things going on, especially I think. It's a big thing. That's super rewarding for me. And it's also super rewarding when, um, people enjoy the music I create. I mean, I shouldn't be wrapped up in like people's opinions, but it's also rewarding when someone's like, oh, I really connected with your song or, you know, really enjoy the work I'm putting out.

So yeah, definitely.

Brennan Walker: I haven't been able to do this too much, but definitely making music with, uh, with friends of mine. Whenever you do that. And you'd like something clicks and you just make something with somebody. Um, cause then I know it's just so much fun. It's like the best kind of play. That there is when you just like, figure that out and make your own new sounds and stuff like that.

And then another rewarding part would probably be when. I ride some song that I just know hasn't even occurred to me. It wasn't it. Cause sometimes I just hold ideas and they're just pins and a little bills and board in my head and they'll happen later. And I know that I just have to incubate that thought until it happens, but when something new happens and it all happens in five minutes and it's just new and I'm staring at it, that's one of my happiest moments is when I just, boom, there it is, for sure.

Thurston Elfstrom: You know, we've talked a lot about connecting, um, connection and connecting to people and the connection of people to nature and, um, much like Larysa and Brennan. I think that, that I get a lot of, um, satisfaction and, um, just, just a general feeling of, of great value and worth. Um, in, in that very thing, connecting with people.

Um, with this, you know, this mission of, of stewarding nature and it's yeah. Yeah. It's just a, it's a, it's a great feeling. It's a very powerful, um, humbling feeling when you see kids in nature learning and having fun. And you know, that it's, it's where they need to be. And I, but the same with adults too. I love when I.

Um, Peyton, we're talking about the big dinosaur head and we had the fossil exhibit opening and there were just seeing people connecting, um, with the exhibit, with the speaker that we had Kallie Moore from the UM Paleontology Center. And there they were, loving it and loving every minute of it, their hair was on fire and they were just soaking things in.

And so that that's really, um, what I get out of what I do is just, uh, just a huge feeling of connection to people.

Peyton Butler: And for Brennan and Larissa, do you guys have any new music in the works right now or anything, any exciting projects coming up that you're really stoked about?

Larysa Blavatsky: Like I kinda mentioned before, I'm hoping to write an EP um, like a mini album.

Uh, I don't know when

that'll come out, I've got everything kind of, sort of like written that I want to put on there, but I need to start recording it, but I have only really put out one single, um, on Spotify and Apple Music and all those streaming services. So I'm hoping to put out a lot more in the future.

Peyton Butler: And do you want to plug any of your social media handles or where people can find you on Spotify or Apple Music?

Larysa Blavatsky: Yeah, you can find me under Larysa Blavatsky. It's kind of hard to spell my last name, but if you just type The Wolf and then L A R Y S A, it should come up. Um, it's on Spotify, Apple Music. Uh, my single, The Wolf.

And then if you want to follow me on Instagram, um, my username is at kinglare_, L a R E underscore. So

Brennan Walker: I will have, um, the time for me to make music is normally over winter break. So hopefully I will be recording with one of my friends and we will make something and release it. But, um, just to plug. Um, my solo project is down as Champagne and the singles name is Spiced Wine and that's on all streaming platforms.

And then me and my buddies project, um, Sleep Chamber is the EP's title is Chewed Tarantulas, and that's on all streaming platforms.

Peyton Butler: Thurston. What are some ways that people can get involved with the Natural History Center or show their support?

Thurston Elfstrom: Uh, again, volunteerism is great. Um, come, come for a visit. Our website has a calendar of all the various programs and, um, we are doing more and more, especially as we somewhat emerge from the COVID pandemic.

Um, of course, uh, donations are appreciated. That's how we fund the organization is through, um, donations and, uh, Grants and gifts from foundations. So we're complete, we're not, we don't receive any government funding. We're all community-based in, in grant funding. And all of that information is available on our website at montananaturalist.org.

Peyton Butler: All right. Thank you guys so much for taking part in this little conversation.

Thurston Elfstrom: Thanks

Thanks for tuning in. This has been KBGA College Radio 89.9 in Missoula Montana. On November 14th at 7:30 pm, you can catch a live concert at the Zootown Arts Community Center, or watch a live stream of the event. The event is free, but please consider donating as 70% of the funds go directly to the Montana Natural History Center. You can find that donation link and live stream link on our website at kbga.org under the Play It Forward page. The song you’re about to hear is The Wolf by Larysa Blavatsky.

KBGA MissoulaNovember 12, 2021