artists statement 2

Bucktown Anthem from Fereshteh Toosi on Vimeo.

This project was a collaborative project I worked on with two other people. The project was supposed to tell about a specific community in Chicago. We decided on the area of Bucktown, because Arbob was familiar with the area. Our first job was to find out about the area. 

We all met up in Bucktown one day and walked around the area to get more familiar with it. We wanted to interview a lot of people, but it was not exactly a nice day out and there were not many people outside. We did, however, manage to interview three or four people and got a general understanding on what bucktown was all about. Residents of bucktown see it as kind of an oasis in the city. It feels more like suburban living than living downtown. At least until you get past Western Avenue. Then you get into gangs and drugs. 

After getting a general understanding of the area we started discussing what to do for our project. After talking to each other we found out that Arbob could rap and make hip hop beats. I play guitar, so we decided to record a song because Arbob had a free hour at a recording studio he could use. 

We ran into a problem when we found out that the only time we could get into the studio was after the project deadline. We decided to stick with the song and just do a live performance of it. 

One of the guidelines for the project was we had to use at least one "gleaned" item. A gleaned item is something taken and used in an unorthodox manner. We actually used two gleaned items in this project. The underlying melody to Arbob's beat was from a song by the Alan Parson's Project, the song is commonly known as the Chicago Bull's theme song. Also, the "drum kit" Siobahn was playing was actually a rock band drum kit for an Xbox 360. We wished we could have gotten into the studio and actually made a recording of the song, but I think we did a good job for the limited time we had to put this project together.

This project just basically asks the question "What is it like to be in Bucktown?" The hip-hop beat showed how past Western Avenue is kind of the rougher part of the area. The rock portions (such as the distorted guitar over the beat) reflects the "suburban" part of the area. This piece is saying that while some of the area is rough, some parts are great places to raise a family.

I think audiences will take this project for what it is, just a song. I do not believe they will have much reaction to it, but hopefully they find it entertaining.

The strongest part of this project is the way the beat, guitar, and drum went together so well. The project could have been stronger if we had made it longer and if we actually recorded it, but since we didn't have a whole lot of time we did the best we could.