Britt Olsen-Ecker & Melissa Wimbish of Outcalls on 'Blast!' and Genre-Bending Music

Rob Lee (00:00:10) - Welcome to the truth in his art. Thank you for tuning in to my conversations at the intersection of arts, culture, and community. I am your host, Rob Lee. Today, I am thrilled to welcome two returning guests a duo revolutionizing pop music with their unique sound and dynamic live shows. They've established themselves as prominent figures in the music scene of Baltimore and beyond. Please welcome Britt Olson, Ecker, and Melissa Wimbish out calls. Welcome to the podcast.

Britt (00:00:40) - Thank you. So happy to be here again.

Rob Lee (00:00:43) - Happy to have you. You both here?, it's,, the beginning of, of the spring season where we're recording this in March, so,, yeah, it's it's going to be a treat. And, you know, kind of I try not to cover old ground because we had this initial conversation. So, you know, you know, you'll have some folks that go back and listen to the first one, like, I don't know if that's the same answer.

Rob Lee (00:01:06) - How's that changed?

Britt (00:01:10) - But,, for.

Rob Lee (00:01:11) - For starters, I like to do this now, like to, you know, before we get to the larger topics, I'd like to give both of you like the space to do sort of your, your personal, like, introductions and I and I say that because, you know, you I get these artist statements, I get these bios and they're very breathy and I see more and more that are going through ChatGPT. And I'm like, bro, that's who are you? Who's the essence of you? So,, if you will give the the listeners your, your bios like in your own words. So if we can start with you, Brit.

Britt (00:01:42) - Sure., my name is Brit Olsen Ecker, and,, I'm a musician. I'm a photographer. I'm an actor sometimes. And obviously a band member of Outcall's the greatest band in America. Damn right. Or even the world's, depending on how you. Who you ask? No., but,.

Britt (00:02:00) - Yeah, making art is my lifeblood. I love doing it. I love making art with Melissa,, who is not even a best friend. Like a friend that transcends,, best friendship., I just actually read a book about, like, friends and and really important friends in your life. It's a really interesting book. Anyway, we don't need to, like, go into that. But anyway. Yeah. Outcalls,, is,. What else should I say? Melissa, I my bio. Yeah, I probably should have run myself through chat GPT before coming up. That was great. No, it was good. Well, now, keep the brief. I'll keep it brief so Melissa can go ahead.

Melissa (00:02:40) - So I have the book that was alluding to. And that's just tells you how giving and wonderful of a person she., I am very,, much a singer in classical singer mostly, but also, of course, in out calls. And that's about it., but within the category of singer, I guess I do a lot of,, I try to keep I try to keep myself in all of the different repertoire and not just kind of pigeonholing myself into,, you know, opera singer or early music singer,, or new music singer.

Melissa (00:03:22) - I try to do everything because I it really all interests me. And I guess that was kind of a natural path to, to starting to write music with Brit. And,, it's the being in the band and writing together has been such an influence in every walk of, of singing that I do, and I'm so thankful to have it.

Rob Lee (00:03:45) - It's great. So yeah, the answers are a little different than last time. See, I knew it. Okay., so.

Britt (00:03:52) - Well, growth, I bet, I bet..

Rob Lee (00:03:57) - And thank you. So how what was the thinking in sort of, you know, the this this fusion, like, when I read about sort of Outcalls and, you know, the, the sort of genres that it's not just one obviously, you know, you have the operatic, you have the sort of pop it's I mean, look, I got, you know, you go through my YouTube, you know, we out here. So what was the the sort of like, you know, inspiration of the fusion and sort of maybe some of the challenges and opportunities that, you know, it presents and infusing things because I've, you know, I like to mix like sort of these unexpected or these things don't really fit together.

Rob Lee (00:04:40) - I'm going to show you how they fit together, and they're going to fit together very well and be very unique. So how so? So speak on that a bit.

Britt (00:04:46) - Sure., I would.

Melissa (00:04:49) - Take it., well, I don't know that the fusion was something we said, hey, we're going to be a fusion. We just started writing music together, and I guess,, it was,, it's like any relationship that kind of works really well, and you can't really explain why it works really well, but you're like, wow, this is really great that this works so well. And that I would say that that's that's our relationship as writers., you know, all the places where I kind of feel unsure or weak. Brit is strong. And I think she would say the same about me. And so it just it's just like the perfect complement., and of course we were going to be influenced slash, all of our training has come from this very specific sort of style.

Melissa (00:05:36) - So of course that's going to bleed over. We never thought let's, let's try to repress that., when we started to write music together. So I think, yeah, just sort of naturally shines through.

Britt (00:05:49) - Great. Yeah. I mean, something to add is like, challenge wise, sometimes I find it hard to define like what? You know, we're pop, but we're pop extra like pop. Plus,, and we as Melissa mentioned, it's like kind of a song by song approach. Today we might write something a little funkier. This time we may write something closer to the classical, you know, bent., so it just depends on what we're feeling. And it does present.

Melissa (00:06:19) - The challenge because it's really difficult to describe the music. And so when someone asks, well, what is your genre? It's really hard,, to write to, to like, not.

Britt (00:06:34) - Think that we're so.

Melissa (00:06:35) - Original. And no, there's never been a sound like us. But, you know, it is kind of like, well, if they listen to this song first, they're going to think we're this kind of band.

Melissa (00:06:43) - But if they listen to this song, they're going to think we're a totally different band. And I think that is kind of a unique quality of ours., we haven't ever said, let's try to write a cohesive album where all the songs really kind of sound the same or complement one another for, you know, what's the theme here? The theme is always, let's make the song good.

Rob Lee (00:07:03) - It's good. Like when I'm going through this and, you know, I as they say, you talk to everybody. Rob I was like, I do, I do, but sort of and folks might ask like, what is the curation of it sort of that how we funnel it, how can we shape it. And I'm like, is the person interesting or the people interesting?, do I think their work is cool? It's kind of that that's that's the curation part and trying not to sound kind of like a dick, like, look, yeah, it's me. I got taste and I think it's good, you know? That's just what it is.

Rob Lee (00:07:33) - And, you know. And in shaping it, where I might have a given month where it's like I'm talking to comedians. Cool. You know, you're going to know that this is sort of this guy who's interested in this particular area, asking questions that go a little bit deeper than, hey, so what's funny? How do you make jokes? Or as I'm asking someone who's in the music space, it's like, yeah, so what was you like your first concert or what have you? I might ask it in a more provocative or weird or way like I'm about to ask right now. We all remember our firsts.

Britt (00:08:05) - What?

Rob Lee (00:08:07) - What? What? And it doesn't have to be specific to music, but what was the first piece of art or something creative that comes to mind? What was the first thing that you made that had like a creative sort of like energy behind it?, I go back and look at some of these early recordings. I can remember my first podcast back in 2009, and I was complaining about the Washington Football Team, and I hate sports talk.

Rob Lee (00:08:35) - So to be doing interviews with creative folks. And my first podcast was talking about Albert Haynesworth getting $100 million from Washington Football Team. It's such a departure. So what was that like the first creative thing for you, respectively?

Britt (00:08:50) - I think I mean, for,, creatively. I did a lot of like just composing at the piano in high school. And I remember I,, I was in the competition that was like the, like a composers competition, or it was like, I forget something. I forget exactly all the details. But I played some, like, piano pieces that I wrote, and I think I got an award. I, you know, I should remember this, but I don't remember all the details. But that's the first time that I was like, this is a piece of music that I wrote, that I'm performing in front of people and getting getting critiqued or getting an award or something., and that to me was like, okay, cool. I'm there's obviously that's the the wheels are turning, but also very specifically which speaks to what Melissa said.

Britt (00:09:37) - It was a it was a piano camp composition where I could kind of hear lyrics or a melody in that my head, but I didn't have the wherewithal to really write that stuff. And that's in our in our relationship. In Outcall's relationship. That's where I lean heavily on Melissa for like, lyrics and melody, for the vocal stuff. So it's kind of interesting to hear. Okay, in high school, I leaned very much towards, you know, just sitting at the piano. So that is me.

Melissa (00:10:04) - That's a really great. That's great because I have a perfect counter to that story, which is I wrote a piece for my choir and I only wrote one line, and it was it. The concept was it was a Halloween piece, and nobody asked me to write this piece. I was not commissioned or anything. I was like, I wrote a piece for the choir, and the choir director was like, okay, let's look at it. And it was basically just like., the one character who was not afraid of Halloween was like, Fuck Halloween.

Melissa (00:10:40) - And guess what? That already exists. It's called. Isn't it like the Charlie Brown Halloween special anyway?, I made the guy really skeptical about Halloween, and it just kind of like, was this back and forth and all these,, the choir functioned as the things that were trying to scare him. But I had written no vocal parts for the choir, like it was just one. We all sang in unison., and again, no music, just me saying, here's how the melody goes, and here's the words. Figure it out., but but that, like, sticks out as the first time I ever really kind of put myself out there and was like, hey, I wrote this thing. And I mean, I can't I can't even think of, like, writing a song again, you know, until maybe I was in my, my teens or something like that. But that was definitely like, I think I was 9 or 10 when I did that.

Rob Lee (00:11:32) - Those those youthful moments like,, when,, just go out there, just do it or you're gonna make it happen.

Rob Lee (00:11:38) - It's none of the stuff that we get as we get older. It's like,, it's it's gonna hit, especially if you're on social media. It's like,, that post ain't slapping. It's not going well. Or,, I always go back as I learned it from this podcast. I'm so thankful for the sort of,, I guess, remembrance or this illumination where I was talking to a theater person who, ironically, I well, I later learned that her brother and I went to school together, and I was like, when did that happen? You know, and she we're talking about theater, we're talking all this different stuff. And she's like, so what was one of the earlier things that that you did? She's doing an interview. She's flipping it on me. And I was like, I remember being an emcee at like five for like graduation. I had these giant glasses and I looked about the same, but just, you know, obviously smaller. And she was like, that might be the beginning of you being a podcast or you being a show host or what have you.

Rob Lee (00:12:29) - And I was like, no, it was. And she was like, you sure? I was like, all right, cool. It terrifies me now, though. The people. No, why would I want to do that?, and so I, I know in this part I'm moved to this next question. I know that I almost yell it from the mountaintop, you know, and it's in this podcast, they do the intro to the outro, you know, it's arts, culture and community. Like those are the threads that kind of connect everything. And each one of the interviews, that's the the goal as best as the theme, if you will. So themes are important obviously. So could you, you know, speak on some of the themes that kind of show up in your, your music as we're going along in this sort of like outdoors journey, what are the themes that just they're always there regardless. They're always going to be there hating men.

Britt (00:13:19) - I mean, we.

Rob Lee (00:13:19) - Suck, we do.

Britt (00:13:20) - Suck. Oh no, I mean, I it's so horrible to say those things because I have two sons and like, I have married to a man who I love very much, but it's,,, you know, it's an inspiration. Like when we, when we kind of when the band formed to its current status, which is myself and Melissa,, our first song that we wrote was called No King. And it was like about, you know, the kind of about the breakup of the band or the split of the band and, like, taking over and like, you know, like down With the King and stuff., but no, I mean, like hating men,, the common themes that we go through with sexism and other stuff in the industry, I'm sure it also can also make it a little bit.

Melissa (00:14:07) - Know all that, all that stuff. And and then of course, things that most people can relate to. Who? I mean, most people can relate to hating men too, but,,, you know, just a different spin on relationships.

Melissa (00:14:24) - And you know what? It's how how relationships are the way they are when you are women, when you're walking around as a woman all the time and,. I mean, it's not. I feel like I got I wish I could go back and delete everything I just said in the last 30s because I'm just rambling.

Britt (00:14:42) - Me too. I'm like, oh my God, someone's gonna listen to this better than me. I mean, you just gotta listen to the music. You kind of get the idea. It's like it's kind of.

Melissa (00:14:52) - It's just like, you know, venting. Like it's a it's a place to vent. It's a place to exaggerate. And then you can go back to life and be like, okay, I got this., yeah. It's. Right. It's just I think we just try to be as much of our as much ourselves as we can with our music. And we try to we if we if there's something silly that we want to say or something we don't want it to be so serious or sentimental.

Melissa (00:15:20) - You know, Brit is not a very sentimental person. So try writing a sentimental song with this bitch, you know?

Britt (00:15:28) - But I think that's the thing, though.

Rob Lee (00:15:29) - I think it's something where when, you know, I was reading some of this quote around, like, be serious about the thing that you do, but don't be too serious about yourself. Don't be like self-serious in it. And, you know, I'm very serious about this. I'm an educator in this space now, which feels really weird and whatever. But I, I remember and I keep talking to different, like, you know, people I've interviewed. And I was like, look, I feel like there's going to be a Patreon exclusive where I'm just going to do an interview, interviewing myself in character as an artist and all of the pretentious things I hear. I'm going to have an artist statement about the diaspora of these Baltimore, all of this different stuff, and just start working and stuff that doesn't quite work, but it's all come out of other podcasts that I've done.

Rob Lee (00:16:15) - But I want to just be interviewing myself. And there are so many artists like, don't bro, do it, do it. But I was like, I'm a serious podcast. I'm a journalist, damn it. It's like, no, please do it. Look, put out on April for that year.

Britt (00:16:27) - Absolutely. I love that idea. We gotta laugh at ourselves and we have to be, you know, I think that really touches on it, like not to be too serious. And I think Melissa and I, when we write, we both feel very serious. But there's something about sometimes writing the music that goes behind some of these serious elements that even today, when we had met and did some stuff that I'm like, oh, this doesn't feel so serious because of some of the the underlying chords or kind of what's happening in the band at this moment. So it's interesting to do that.

Rob Lee (00:16:58) - And even even this thing where the sort of,, genesis of even doing as even pursuing this, it's 700 plus episodes in at this point.

Rob Lee (00:17:06) - And, you know, this podcast was born out of frustration and like, nah, fuck all that. That was literally my response when I heard some of the things that were being said. The Trumpism is about cities like this and the people in it. And this, you know, that's the key motivator. So definitely sort of the feeling and what the experience is like, you know, that we, we, we share like and having those experiences and let it kind of work its way into our creative pursuits. So I definitely relate to that.. So I want to I want to talk about the Baltimore connection, since it's we're kind of right there., how has the sort of like, local scene here, like, played a part in your growth as artists like and as as creative folks, as musicians, like, speak a bit on sort of like being here in, in this city., and, and I say that with sort of like from this perspective, like from, for this thing all is a self-taught, you know, like I'm figuring it out as I go along and I still don't know what I'm doing.

Rob Lee (00:18:12) - But, you know, being DIY here and just having all of this kind of concentrated, creative stuff and everybody knows each other, all of those things are like baked in. So what does that experience been like for the two of you and being creatives in this journey?

Melissa (00:18:27) - It really fun. And over the years, you know, we we felt very much self-taught. At the very beginning, I mean, we are very much self-taught, not just felt. We are, and what we always feel so grateful that that it happened in Baltimore because there are other places in the, you know, in the country that we might have kind of felt swallowed up or gotten discouraged. And I think Baltimore is just the kind of place where it's there's it's not only,. There. Well, I could complain about all the like the lack of support, the fact that we don't have the press, the fact that we don't have this, the fact we don't do that, whatever. But within our communities, that's music.

Melissa (00:19:11) - That's that's art., performance art.. Whatever. Like people writing shit, I mean, poetry, all that. All the artists in this community, I think, really want to see everybody succeed. I know there are exceptions, but at least as far as like, you know, the DIY scene or whatever, it's being held up by the skin of its teeth because people are so determined for there to be an art scene here. And,, well, so many of our friends over the years, like our close friends that we've collected, our artists, our people in other bands we've learned things from, you know, I've taken guitar lessons from people, piano lessons from people. I've given voice lessons to people all within our music community. So it just feels like, you know,, it's been it's been a. Baltimore is an amazing city because we are all out here trying really hard, and we run into each other so much more than we would in a city like New York or LA or whatever.

Melissa (00:20:22) - . And yeah, something about that just makes it feel.. You know, you walk into Clavell and fucking Future Islands is eating there. You know, like, I mean, maybe I should have led with that.

Britt (00:20:37) - No, no, I read that. I was like, I remember passing them and I was like, the future islands. And Alice was like, give me a CD. And I was scared. And she went right up to them and she's like, we're big fans. Here's our CD. And I was just like, that's, that's the magic of the city.

Rob Lee (00:20:55) - Shout out to Sam.

Britt (00:20:58) - Exactly.

Rob Lee (00:20:59) - Yeah., I've only had I had that once because of everyone so, so close. I was I was having one of those things you talked about Melissa with the, the sort of press thing. I encounter it all the time, and I try to serve as that sort of sort of outlet, I suppose. And but at the same time, it's just like, you know, I can't also do it.

Rob Lee (00:21:20) - I didn't try to like, blast it and blow it out there when we had these larger arts centric and culture centric things that are kind of, yeah, Peter to P, but, I remember I was coming from a thing and I was feeling all down about it and I was like, man, this is wack man. Who knew support man. I was doing all this stuff and some rando, some random dude. He was like, yo, you truthiness, art. I was like, just in a car. And my partner, she was like, see, that's Baltimore right there. They rock with you. I was like, the light is green, dude, you're going to get into an accident.

Britt (00:21:52) - I appreciate you.

Rob Lee (00:21:53) - , drive safe, you know?

Britt (00:21:56) - Yeah, exactly. It's so it's so great. And,. Yeah, know that sometimes we get recognized and that's just like, whoa. People know us and our fans, and it's very special. It really is every time.

Rob Lee (00:22:10) - So I want to say, the last time that I saw the two of you was a,, I believe it was at the WTM, Wypr 20th Anniversary Bash, which was very interesting.

Rob Lee (00:22:23) - It's very unique. I was like,, look. Yes., and I think it was like, you know, just being on a train, it was very like, sort of like a dope setup. And I was like just talking to so many people. I was like, yeah, I just just experienced the performance on a moving train. Like, why is there not more of this? And obviously YouTube crushed it., so shout out to you on that.

Britt (00:22:49) - Thank you.

Rob Lee (00:22:50) - Could you, could you speak a bit on like, you know, where these, these ideas and sort of the what the asks might look like for these dynamic and theatrical, you know, performances. And these is I see that in the bio and it's all over online like dynamic performances. So speak a bit about like the ideology, the thinking, the ideation around like all right. So how are we going to like top this, this performance. What are we going to do in this performance that's going to be special.

Britt (00:23:19) - Oh my gosh. Well shout out to Sam Sessa and Wmbd. We love them. And that performance was so fun. And I remember when Sam approached us with that idea of performing on the train, and Melissa and I were like, yeah, yeah, because our philosophy is the yes to the gig and worry about it later. And I'll tell you, we said yes to the gig and boy, did we worry about it later. We were like, well, what? Wait, but we can't play acoustic and like because I play keyboard and I can't play. I really can't play accordion. But we want to involve, you know, Justin needs to play and we we figured it out. We obviously figured it all out. And when we got there we were like, well, okay, this is and it's going to be moving, right. And like, you know, all of the twists and turns. But it was really so fun. It was one of it will always be one of my favorite performances, because it just felt like we were performing in a way that we really love, which is in very intimate concerts with people like right in front of you.

Britt (00:24:15) - , you know, obviously the moving train was definitely a new element, but anything that's weird. Two thumbs up for Outcalls.

Melissa (00:24:26) - Yep. Weird pop.

Britt (00:24:28) - Weird pop. There you go. That's a that's a genre, a weird pop. Look.

Rob Lee (00:24:32) - Don't don't threaten me with a good time. Weird pop is. But,, speaking, speaking in that same direction,, I gotta say. So, you know, I heard there's there's something that's going to melt my ears that is dropping very soon. So let's talk about this. This. Well, as we're recording this, this will be out after the single is released and all, but so you have a new single that's coming out. Can you tell us a bit about that? I want to just, you know, lobby it up softball style to you guys., tell us about the new single, please.

Britt (00:25:04) - Okay. Most disappointing to me. So yes, blast with an exclamation point at the end., we're so excited to release this song.

Britt (00:25:13) - This was a a project we did. We were invited to record at Peabody, our alma mater, which we've done a few times,, for their recording class with their graduate students. And,, the extra special icing. And the kick of this time was that,,, gentleman named David Rosenthal was going to be producing this or, you know, in the producer role. And David,, a wonderful,, human, amazing musician talent. He is Billy Joel's music director. And we were like, say yes to the gig and worry about it later. And I will never forget how hard my heart was pumped, like beating when we walked into that studio the first day we recorded. So,. David is amazing. The class was amazing. The song sounds amazing., so the students recorded it with his help, with Scott Metcalf's help., and it's Melissa. Maybe you can speak to what it's about now that I've given some background.

Melissa (00:26:09) - Or that was great. The song, it was inspired by Lisa Nowak, and,, well, Britt and I have talked about song ideas over the years.

Melissa (00:26:18) - We've we've been concocting this plan to,, create an album of songs that are that highlight women, like historical figures, but writing pop songs from their perspective. And one of the first subjects was Lisa Nowak, who,, was an astronaut who allegedly drove from Texas to Florida to confront her lover's lover. So a love triangle sort of situation, and there's a whole movie about it. Natalie Portman stars in it. It's called Lucy in the Sky. I want to say,, but we wanted to we were just so fascinated with the story, as many people were, and,,, wanted to write a song from her perspective. And that's what it is., and it turned out really beautiful, like, it's,, it's a jam, but it's also really touching. And,, I'm so excited for everyone, for everyone to hear it.

Britt (00:27:15) - Yeah, it's it's exciting to have the single coming out. Like, I think Love to Fight was the last one and that was 2021. Yeah.

Britt (00:27:23) - Right. Yeah. So very exciting.

Rob Lee (00:27:25) - Yeah. Because as I wrote that down I was like, no that's not true. And I was like, it's been. So it's been three years.

Britt (00:27:30) - Yeah. Yeah.

Melissa (00:27:31) - It's been we've had new songs, but they've been on the albums. We haven't done a single release. Right.

Britt (00:27:37) - That's right.

Rob Lee (00:27:39) - Got it. So I would imagine that there's just, you know, all of the things that are happening, as we were talking about before getting started in earnest, just like busy week.

Britt (00:27:48) - Yeah. It feels like, I will say like it's hectic, but I feel more in control with some years under our belts. I don't know, I mean, that's that's what you would hope for is to be like, okay, I know exactly what we need to do, and here's the marketing plan. And it's like, oh, right, this is we got this, we got this.

Rob Lee (00:28:09) - Do you do you feel that because I actually was writing this question earlier, it was it was framed around like sort of creative confidence.

Rob Lee (00:28:17) - But I think that's sort of in the same kind of kind of vein of with having those reps and having those years down, like there were times when I would interview folks, like in the first interview with you too, I was like, I don't know what to say. And and this is I'm going to bomb it. And it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. And but with time removed and, you know, and actually more reps in I suppose, and like being able to find and strike that balance of having some time away from it because, you know, it goes on social media. You have to just always be churning something out there. And all of it can't be good. But when you have time to be more of an artisan about it and be very intentional and strategic with how you're going about these releases, I'd imagine that that feeling is okay. Got some nerve. Because, you know, we all creatives, we have that sort of nerve thing. But also it's like, that's going to be great.

Rob Lee (00:29:06) - It's going to work out. It's going to be fun.

Britt (00:29:08) - Totally, totally. And that's that's so much applies to our experiences now recording where even even last year or two years ago, it was still like, what are we doing? But recently when we went into the studio, I was I couldn't get over the fact that we were accomplishing things in way fewer hours than previously, and that was just very eye opening for me. And I think both of us be like, we're we're home, not at midnight. We're home at like maybe 8:00. What? What a concept. So very cool.

Rob Lee (00:29:42) - I like it. It's like,, I, you know, since I do these, these gym and training sessions, it's kind of like that. It's like I can lift more. Now. This is a bit easier. Wow., stronger, you know, creatively stronger or whatever., so I got, I got sort of like one last real question., and it's, it's more so like, what's next?, in terms of, you know, upcoming, we're definitely going to have shameless plugs because I always do the shameless plug some, some shameless, but like, what can folks expect from like upcoming like sort of like releases upcoming like work projects, things of that nature.

Rob Lee (00:30:19) - , because there's some festivals we're getting into, warmer weather. So, so many things on the horizon. What are some things that you can share,, that are. In the next weeks and months.

Melissa (00:30:29) - Well, we have a great,, recital slash concert we're playing on April 23rd in D.C. at a at a place called the Westchester. They have a music series there., and I think this has been a really amazing,, result of our parlor tour series, which we did in October of 2023,, where we took our trio,, and, and did concerts in intimate settings. So we're talking 50 people or less in like, a living room or, you know, something like that. And it was so amazing to be able to just hear ourselves in a different way and make music in a different way,, be able to respond in a, in a different way because, you know, you're not dealing with the club scene in the bar and somebody else running your sound and whatever.

Melissa (00:31:18) - So that was really great. And I think it showed another side of what we can do as, as performers., anyway, word got out and the,, the person who asked us to do this would like,, for there to be a 25 minute,, kind of quote unquote traditional recital of classical music, which I will sing and then,, out calls will perform for the for the second half., and I think that's going to be really cool. I think it might actually be one of the first times we've done this exact thing. We've performed in recital halls before, but not something where it's, you know,, such a traditional sort of intro. And then we're playing the beloved Remington Fest,, on May 11th in Baltimore, in Remington. And,, we are currently in the studio. We're recording new music., we just we were just in the studio a couple of weeks ago, and we are in the studio again at Peabody Recording,, some great new music, and we're gonna steadily release things.

Melissa (00:32:20) - It's really exciting.

Rob Lee (00:32:21) - That's that's wonderful. And I it's funny, like, I kind of initially skipped over the question, but you got it. It's as if, you know, you had the questions beforehand., this, this whole notion of like, you know, the direction I like that, that sort of parlor like piece that you were describing, kind of leading into this sort of next kind of this combination of doing a recital component, then it's just like Outcall right after that that hits. And, I've.

Melissa (00:32:48) - Done we did do that. We did it a couple times at Saint David's. So I'm sorry about that. We we did, but this is, this will be this will be a very different vibe. I think.

Speaker (00:32:58) - It's good.

Rob Lee (00:32:59) - It's good. I love it. And I'm gonna make it my business to start pulling up, because, you know, I've been playing the recluse game, you know, for a while.

Speaker (00:33:06) - Yeah.

Melissa (00:33:07) - I love that game. My favorite game is on the top.

Britt (00:33:09) - Same same.

Speaker (00:33:12) - . Yeah.

Rob Lee (00:33:14) - , so I got I got a few rapid fire questions, that I want to throw you away., so since we're talking about games right., so, and, and then we'll kind of wrap up from there. So,, and as I tell everyone, don't overthink these, these just regular questions. Your regular work. Okay., so. This is for both of you. Because you both because it's been a lot of synchronicity here, you know? So, you know, I just want this. All right. Favorite song to perform?

Melissa (00:33:49) - Keep falling.

Britt (00:33:52) - Blast the new one.

Rob Lee (00:33:54) - Saying already causing this dissension.

Britt (00:33:57) - I just love this, I love it, and now I know things that one first.

Speaker (00:34:00) - But then I was like.

Melissa (00:34:01) - Okay, anyway, next.

Speaker (00:34:03) - .

Rob Lee (00:34:06) - In in one word,, describe the creative process for you, whether it be writing, whether it be like the ideation phase of it. But describe the creative process and in one word.

Britt (00:34:18) - Excruciating.

Rob Lee (00:34:22) - The letters are back and back. The first letters are back to back. That's great..

Britt (00:34:27) - For me.

Melissa (00:34:31) - That's perfect.

Rob Lee (00:34:34) - This is almost like a monosyllabic like., is,, being creative is like, is work and energy is needed, right?, I before we got started, like, I was doing this, like, fasting thing and I was like, yo, I'm going to eat these, like, broccolini. What is like a go to snack for you, like in those long.

Speaker (00:34:59) - You get it?

Britt (00:34:59) - We agree on this Cheetos. I literally my husband buys me bags of Cheetos whenever he decides he wants to tell me he loves me. And I eat those things, like at 9 a.m.. I'm not going to fucking lie, I love Cheetos at 9 a.m..

Speaker (00:35:14) - That's.

Rob Lee (00:35:14) - One of the things that I've learned. Like, if you're trying to stay in the good graces of your partner with the woman you're with, it's like, yo, make sure she's flush with the snack that she enjoys.

Rob Lee (00:35:25) - I, I dealt with some real weirdness this past this week, getting some Caribbean food for my partner. She's like, I'm a New Yorker, I'm gonna need that beef patty. And I was like, all right. So I went to DC to go get beef patties from this place near Howard.

Speaker (00:35:42) - Wow.

Rob Lee (00:35:43) - It was a birthday extra mile.

Britt (00:35:45) - Quite literally. Love. Literally amazing.

Rob Lee (00:35:49) - She was like, do you have the coco bread as well? I was like, you know what?

Speaker (00:35:53) - That sounds.

Britt (00:35:53) - Delicious. It's fun.

Rob Lee (00:35:56) - I know there's none left for me., so here's the last sort of rapid fire one., and this this question came up because I was in Austin,, for, for doing some interviews. And it was the first time, like I did interviews, like touring, if you will, like traveling for the podcast. And, you know, I always walk to a new city I've never been in. It's like I got to see these different things to walk around.

Rob Lee (00:36:18) - And I saw this bumper sticker that was kind of hokey, you know, Arts, the new Magic Man. I was like, all right, I guess. And in that, this sort of vein, I saw it as a unexpected source of inspiration because I got three questions based off my response to that, that I ended up adding to my list. Is there like a source, an unexpected source of inspiration that, like, shows up in your music? Like all the context I added there to? I really dug deep in there and went low and went to the, you know, another level on that one.

Britt (00:36:48) - Just our friendship. I feel like that's an that inspires me every day because I know I can always lean on Melissa.

Melissa (00:36:54) - Same. Yeah. It's good.

Speaker (00:36:59) - It's good. Is it okay?

Rob Lee (00:37:01) - No, no, no, it's no good.

Speaker (00:37:02) - It's just it's.

Rob Lee (00:37:04) - No, no, it's it's actually great because,, you know, and doing this and doing anything that's, you know, collaborative, you know, when friendship is a big part of it, it it shows up.

Rob Lee (00:37:15) - It shows up all the time. So,, because, you know, I used to do a podcast with a partner and we did it together for ten years, and we are no longer friends. And the friendship disintegrated, and the podcast was the first thing to go. And then the friendship went right after. So it is good.

Speaker (00:37:31) - You know, he's.

Rob Lee (00:37:32) - Yeah, a white guy on me. He's just like, oh, he's like your ego's out of control. And I was like, oh.

Britt (00:37:37) - Oh no.

Speaker (00:37:40) - .

Rob Lee (00:37:42) - Anyway.

Speaker (00:37:43) - That's come on white guys.

Rob Lee (00:37:46) - Look, there's a, there is a burner account of my musings of white dudes. A white.

Speaker (00:37:53) - Podcast is.

Rob Lee (00:37:54) - Great.

Speaker (00:37:55) - Love it. Love that.

Rob Lee (00:37:58) - , so when these, these final moments, I want to do two things., one, I want to thank both of you for coming on. I think we got it. I think we got it.

Britt (00:38:06) - Thank you, thank you.

Rob Lee (00:38:07) - Absolutely. And,, and two, I want to invite and encourage.

Rob Lee (00:38:11) - This is where that shameless plug we hammer at home yet again. Give us all of the details. The social media, the website, the dates, all the stuff you might want to share in these final moments. The floor. You know it's yours. You know I'm not my ears off the floor of yours.

Britt (00:38:26) - Wonderful. So blast is,, we shall be streaming. You can stream it on all platforms, but if you love or care about us. So go to bandcamp.com and purchase the song for $1,000 million because you can name your own price. Just kidding. We'll take $2 if you feel like it., so you could do that. We're streaming everywhere. Share the music., out calls, band, dot coms or website. You can find us on Instagram at Outcall Band. I think that's our TikTok too. I haven't tweeted in a really long time. It's not even called Twitter anymore. So that's how long it's been. Don't I wouldn't go over there., we've got a concert on,, April 23rd and DC will put that information on our website.

Britt (00:39:13) - Remington Fest on May 11th will be in New York City on June 15th for the Chamber Queer Festival, where we are remounting our show Release the Gowns. We're really excited about that., and there shall be some more things that are popping up. Melissa, did I miss anything?

Melissa (00:39:29) - Everything.

Rob Lee (00:39:31) - You ladies are busy.

Britt (00:39:33) - We're trying to be.

Rob Lee (00:39:36) - And there you have it, folks. I want to again thank Britt Olson, Ecker, and Melissa Wimbish from our calls for coming on to the podcast and returning to chop it up with me. And I'm Rob Lee saying that there's art, culture and community in and around your neck of the woods. You've just got to look forward.