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Intothewoods.tv

Directed by Jordan Kinley and Matthew Gamlen Audio by Jeff Hylton Simmons Camera by Rodrigo Melgarejo and Tara Swenson Edited by Matthew Gamlen Words by Claudia Meza and WG

The Portland music scene is a gigantic pool of artistic incest. Collaborations are happening all over town, and with increasing frequency.

And it makes sense. Now that there are fewer restraints on when and where and how we create, record, and perform our art, it's only a matter of time before the idea of having a "band" collapses into a lawless orgy of cross-genre fornication. Some would argue that the process is already well underway.

Stay Calm is the new project featuring Claudia Meza (formerly of Explode Into Colors), Zac Pennington (Parenthetical Girls, Xiu Xiu), and Joe Kelly (formerly of Panther and 31 Knots). Given the diversity of their backgrounds, it's hard to predict where the band is headed (Claudia admits they're "still trying trying to figure out where everyone's musical interests/aesthetics converge"). But one thing is clear: with this much expert musicianship crammed into one place, it's kinda hard to go wrong.

A couple winters back, when we brought Explode Into Colors to a cabin in the woods, Claudia made sure that her new friend Zac came along for the trip. One of the tracks we shot was a duet they performed; a cover of a Ramones song.

I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend ft. Zac Pennington

We had no idea then that more than a year later, we'd be shooting the two performing again, although this time in a completely different context, and with a completely different allocation of their talents.

The beginnings of Stay Calm had unfolded right in front of our cameras, but there was a lengthy chunk of time in between our two snapshots of their progress. We got in touch with Claudia to help us out with the rest of the trajectory. She tells the story much better than we ever could.

My collaboration with Zac came out of our friendship and the Ramones song, "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend." Before I really knew him and was simply just charmed by his presence, I asked him to work on a cover for an Explode Into Colors show playing with The Raincoats. That was back in early October of 2009. It was a really exciting show for me since The Raincoats have been one of my favorite bands since my teens and I had it in my head that something special had to be done.

No one else in EIC seemed to share my sentiments, so I emailed Zac to see if he wanted to learn a Ramones cover I had reworked, and play it with me as a dedication to the Raincoats. I think we had just become Facebook friends so somehow it seemed totally appropriate for me to call on him with this random request. He was very gracious and not creeped out in the slightest (which, thinking about it now should have been a warning sign). He learned the song in a couple of hours and ended up writing this really great keyboard part for it.

Joe Kelly is the other non-Zac and non-Claudia member in Stay Calm. He used to play in Panther and in 31 Knots. The space we practice in is Joe's woodworking shop. In addition to drum shredding, he is an amazing furniture maker. He is also a proud owner of a black Vanagon with a license plate reading, "FAGX." Nope, he is not an undercover gay superhero, nor is he a gay guy with straight-edge leanings. This is just what the DMV sent him.

Continued on Intothewoods.tv