MAKING SPACE FOR EXPERIMENTATION THROUGH MUSIC
A lot of you have asked what the name "Sand Box" means, so I wanted to unpack it. The phrase "sandbox" gets thrown around a lot, but have you given the concept any deeper thought, what really comes to mind? For me, it's an entire way of life that feels like a constant process of discovery, and I feel compelled to share it with as many people as possible.
With any art, it'a all about finding a way to get your ideas from the ether into reality. That is an ongoing process and it's never perfect, which is exactly why we need to make ourselves spaces to play, experiment, discover, fail, grow, learn, and follow any possible whim.
Enter, Sand Box!
Music is alive in the same way that a sandcastle is. Each grain of sand in our metaphoric box serves as a node of DNA for wonderful structures we just have to discover. We have to play to find them, teach ourselves to recreate them, and hopefully inspire others to get in and play a little more too.
This is a comprehensive idea, meaning that I might learn something about music through cooking, or vice versa. Specialization is something that is conditioned into us, but not our default state. Every time you put more ideas, knowledge, and experiences into your head, you literally have formed more brain pathways and given yourself new physical ways to come up with ideas. I cannot stop, my curiosity is perpetual, and this constantly feeds me to be even more curious. More sand!
SOME HISTORY
I started my self-determined quest of learning guitar when I was 6 years old - my parents split up so I got to pick a new toy, and I guess my old soul chose this. Learning to cover other peoples' songs was my way in, but I have always wrestled that feeling of wishing I had been the one who had conceived of those classics. Yes, I was that kid that only wanted to play "band," who was lip syncing to The Doors CDs on my deck to the animals, drawing chalk band logos, printing out my MS paint album covers, making light shows with my brother, and trying to find ways to make my Barbie Karaoke machine glitch out and feedback. Don't get me started on all the cardboard guitar designs. It wasn't good or bad, it was fun!
Around this same time, I also became obsessed with cameras. I quickly recognized them for their true nature: time machines. I would often take my Dad's point and shoot camera into my room at night and play with it, trying to use it like a paint brush to conjure things I couldn't see with just my eye. I'd carefully erase the evidence of my experiments and return the camera by morning. It was all about the process.
Going forward, instruments and cameras started accumulating and this was a very obvious passion. I also got a master class in documentary from my Grandpa, who's frugality led to the amazing ability to capture an entire vacation in just 8 photos. My Midwestern family all assumed I would either become a doctor or lawyer because thats what "smart people" do. I'm very grateful that I was able to introspect enough to realize that I had to follow art.
At age 18 I moved from Wisconsin to Los Angeles, following cameras and my gut feelings. In less than a decade, I have done so many things that would make my child self so proud, working alongside so many huge influences and finding ways to keep becoming better than myself yesterday.
My chosen industry has been suffering since the pandemic, and I am coping by finally doing that other thing my child self has always wanted, which is to write some of those epic timeless songs I love so dearly. It takes time to find your voice, I've been playing in other peoples projects for years, but now all the parts have finally revealed themselves as Sand Box.
DIY and Self-Expression
The language of music goes far beyond lyrics, instruments, and chord progressions. Being obsessed with music history has shown me that there isn't one right way to make a song, there is just what is true to you. As a filmmaker by trade, who also studied music production in college, embracing this well-informed DIY is completely true to me, and the only way that some of these sounds will ever become manifest is by directly creating them. In our album, there are all sorts of sound design details like rain drops, broken mugs, and other things that aren't at all traditional. It is entirely self produced, and it's like a self portrait. My eternal thanks to Cam, who is both ripping the sax and also the ultimate life partner.
It's all about what works best to bring each unique sandcastle to life. I consider this process to be my time in the sand box, and the name just kind of followed suit. You might say, it's inevitable that we lose sandcastles, and I agree, but I see it is a way to uncover the ideas are permanent, and with us regardless of tangibility. That's precisely why the name is about the metaphoric space itself, and not the objects. If the name is our setting, then I suppose the songs are like sandcastle blueprints, which come to life every time we choose to build them.
So, what do songs, sandcastles, and photos all have in common? They all capture moments in time in ways that words, on their own, cannot.
Me and My 4 Walls
At the end of the day, this is my default state - mining my brain for ideas and seeing them come to life through experimentation. Sometimes this process helps me untangle a knot in my brain, sometimes it's to define a complex new feeling, other times it's to live in the bliss of being in flow, and ultimately it's boundless because I can do anything I want with this sand!
If it's just me and my 4 walls listening, I will be quite content, and I'll still be here doing this regardless, but I hope you join us too. Life is more fun when it's playful!
LISTEN TO SAND BOX NOW ANYWHERE YOU STREAM, AND DON'T MISS ANYTHING BY SIGNING UP FOR OUR MAILING LIST NOW!
Written by Kylie Hazzard
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