Every music scene has its key players; the people who religiously attend shows, who organize events, who always hype their fellow artists, and who live their love for the community out loud. Two such individuals in La Crosse, Wisconsin’s growing scene are Esther and David. They perform solo under the respective monikers Small Chainsaw and D. Janakey, and together as Sewer Pigeon. The pair are singer/songwriter types who make country-influenced folk music with an ethos that’s undeniably punk. On top of writing and performing, they work day jobs and operate the community DIY house: the Chili Manor. We took some time with them to chat about playing music, band names, DIY shows, and more. Check out the first episode of the SPR podcast for the full interview!
SPR: How did you start making music?
Esther: I mean I always wanted to do music stuff but I was never really good at it I bought a $75 guitar at Old Town Music in Portland Oregon and barely learned how to play it. Then I moved to Eau Claire after college and started trying harder but then we didn’t play together for a long time I think we just decided to start doing it because it’s fun. experience with performing at all but in college there is a group of friends my freshman year actually I got to go to a lot of DIY shows in Portland and there’s like a super cool DIY scene, like grungy basement stuff and like guys that I hung out with were just like music nerds and taught me how to play like my first chords in my little dorm room. Then I started playing with some friends. I played a little bit in high school with this human named Eliza Hansen and we did like Tegan and Sara covers and stuff like that but then in college I did a little bit more kind of fell off just got really involved in other stuff like my outdoor job and stuff like that but there’s something about the Eau Claire music scene that makes you want to do more music stuff. You just get really excited about it seeing all of your friends who are all super talented and fairly successful in their music world just playing shows and doing cool things.
David: I used to play guitar in church when I was in junior high and high school like yes I took the car license for a little bit like I was missing out of my sister’s old guitar she had a knockoff Ovation guitar like with when they have like a plastic back part. Like a weird red acoustic and then I was kind of messing around with that for a little while and then my parents were like well if you’re going to mess around with guitar we’re going to make you take lessons cuz they knew I wouldn’t motivate myself to do it so they kind of forced me and then I sort of start learning on my sister’s old knock-off Ovation. the brand was like SX which is not even like I think a brand that’s like legal in the United States (this was in Bolivia) and then I got a a Squire Stratocaster and that was my main guy for a long time.
SPR: How did you start writing your own songs?
David: I tried to write a few songs, like I didn’t really write a full song in high school. I had a couple ideas that were really bad, I wrote poetry and stuff. Then I moved to England for a year I was working at a rehab center in England and I started to write my first couple songs and I had a couple songs that I just never played for anybody that I just played in my room and kind of had some ideas. Then, I moved to Lacrosse like 8 years ago 9 years ago, and lived here for a year and then by the end of my time living here I had start playing Open Mic at the Root Note with Andrew Bowman and Ryan Hartkopf and some other people. Then I started doing a couple originals and me and Andrew worked on songs together and we put a couple of random songs he wrote and then I think I played my first show was like I was playing with Jerry and Beth Miller. They would do like a family show thing. They both had played music for a long time they’re both really good musicians and I hung out with them a few times and they told me they were playing a show at The Earth Fair or something at Myrick Park and they ended up letting me play a few originals with them. It was just like kind of a fun midday random show.
SPR: Do you write songs together for Sewer Pigeon or do you both come to the table with songs you’ve already written?
Esther: As of right now it’s just us bringing songs we already have and figuring out how we can play them together. Personally I don’t want to really play music by myself anymore so I’m probably just going to bring everything that I think we could do together to the table but I know you David have your stuff that you don’t want to do with other people.
David: I guess we’ve worked on a couple things like when we were working on the song together like I’ll have ideas for stuff to change in Esther’s songs and she has stuff for mine that makes it fit better, but yeah, mostly we bring our own songs to and see what ones would fit for like a duo setup. I’ve been playing my solo stuff for a long time and most of the songs probably would work. We just haven’t got to all of them yet.
SPR: What’s the story behind the name?
David: We were trying to come up with the band name and I wanted a band name with the word pigeon in it, I don’t know why, but pigeons are a cool animal they’re like weird urban birds they like the only bird that seems like they just live in cities for no reason they’re not like like pigeon just hang out in cities and they like are dirty and they just eat garbage it’s just like a weird bird that and I think it’s probably already bands called “the Pigeons” or something, so I wanted to do something Pigeon.
Esther: We were shootin’ the shit at the Root Note and our friend Hannah said sewer pigeon or pigeon sewer or something. She’s the one who came up with it, and I just remember thinking that feels like us cause we’re gross, yeah.
SPR: It sounds like a punk band.
David: Totally. Like a folk punk band which makes us sound cooler than we actually are. We play heartfelt folk songs, so it makes it seem more exciting than a traditional folk band name. It would be like the Grass and the Willows or the Forest and the Sun or some shit.
Esther: Our band would be the Sewer and the Pigeon or like the Sewer and Pigeon.
David: You have to use like the…what’s the “and” symbol called?
SPR & Esther: Ampersand.
David: We’d have to use an ampersand for the logo and do it in like some cursivey writing.
SPR: What was your first experience going to a DIY house show?
Esther: I remember the first time I show I went to and I still listen to that person and I don’t like and they haven’t put out music since before that house show in 2014 or whatever it was Lady Wolf Portland Oregon. Probably the first time I ever saw surf Rock. But it was good. I got convinced to go cuz I didn’t know what I was doing and I loved it and I will always remember that show and like to this day remember like how that is and I hope people at our house is if even if I guilt them into coming they still remember that they saw that band.
David: I’m trying to remember how I ended up going to this one my first one ever was… pretty sure it was… at Softly House, which was a house where some of the members from band called Softly Dear in Eau Claire lived at and they had played a Downtown Music summer kind of outdoor show and I found them on Facebook or something and they posted about some show and it was like message for the address and I remember writing like a whole like “this is my name, I like your band, I am not a weird guy, can I come to your show”, It wasn’t exactly that but it was overly long, “can I please come and get the address” and they send me the address or whatever they give an explanation cuz like later on you know if people just ask for the address that means they probably are fine. You didn’t have to like vet people I guess for DIY shows. But then I went to the show their house and it was me and like eight other people maybe, and I didn’t know anybody and it was…I was very uncomfortable, but the music was really good and it wasn’t the full band it was just the lead singer from the band and the guitar player. They played different songs, they did a weird joke song where the main guy read a poem from his poetry class while Josh who is later the bass player for Idle Empress played keyboards. He’s really amazing musician, so he can play whatever. He was playing the like sort of the the theme from The Dark Knight like the sort of epic swelling score from the movie, he’s playing that over like this poem that Tyler the singer from Softly Dear and was reading. This poem about his dog, this goofy poem. There was some touring band I can’t remember their name and then Miles Coin who was a band from Milwaukee who had kind of a folk-punk sort of vibe. Then at that show I heard they were doing Glassworks Fest I think it was at the Playhouse which was a consistent venue for a while. It had a really big nice basement that was all decked out at all like the you know like they have like silky cloths and tapestries, and a little stage and stuff theater stuff. It was an improv place, but they also had bands play. It was the second DIY show I went to in Eau Claire and that was the last show at that house Probably like in like June or something of that year because it was all these house show venues that had been going for a while and they all were moving out or they’re graduating and so it was like that was my first house show and then it was like two like big blowout house show fests at each of these houses, one was Glassworks. It was their last show ever. I went to that one, a bunch of bands played. Hemma played, Adalyn Rose played, Glass Works improv who are the people who live there. Safe, who was a big rapper in Eau Claire and Wealthy Relative played and I think some out-of-town bands and then like a week or two after was Softly Fest which was back at the first place I went to and that was their last show at that place and they were moving out of there so they had a whole going away sort of event. I met a bunch of friends at that show, I didn’t know anybody going to either of these things and I just tried to talk to people and whatever and then at Softly Fest I met some friends there that like I’m still really good friends with, you know 7 years later. you know real like exposure to like a really great DIY show you can just make an event and play music and invite people that it’s way more fun than going to a venue or it’s just different in a special way you know so yeah it is its own thing.
SPR: How did you start hosting DIY shows?
David: I guess the first one I did was probably when I recorded an album with my buddy Gabe Larson. I record an EP that was pretty shitty. He just had heard some of my songs when we were hanging out a campfire and he asked me if I wanted to have some of those recorded. He had just gotten into recording and he got Logic or GarageBand or something and so we recorded some songs in the living room and then it sounded okay I guess. We just recorded them all live, one take for most of the stuff, and I was just like all right let’s just put this out. Not that much thought into it and we decided to do a release show. I booked a DIY show at our house in the living room, we had a really big living room, and a bunch of people came for some reason. I remember I had Hema open who I didn’t know her that well, and she opened and there might have been somebody else playing I can’t remember I think it was just her and then me and that was my first event that wasn’t at a venue. Since then I helped start a couple different DIY venues and I ran a couple DIY venues in Eau Claire that got to be like really good spots. The main good one was Cherry House and then Barnacle. Both of those, I started. A lot of people helped out with them and it’s a whole Community effort to make them go.
Esther: Something I love and hate about DIY spaces is I’ve never known one to last long ,you know? It’s a couple years and then you just remember, like the Cannery, Cherry House, and all of the different places. When we drive through Eau Claire David can just point to houses like “that was Vicky…” what was the name? Vicky?
David: Vivian.
Esther: “That was Vivian…that was Paul..” You can drive through and remember really cool things happened there at one point, people put in an effort at one point. And at Cherry House there were paintings all over the walls, they were super cool, in the basement. They painted over them one day, ’cause they had to otherwise they’d get fined. Just knowing that there’s that somewhere under paint is really cool.
SPR: What’s up with your current DIY space, the Chili Manor?
Esther: We make chili for every single show. Just like a veggie chili on the stove that we just let simmer all night long. David usually makes it. It’s so good every time and it’s just the idea that you can come in and put 5, 10, 20 bucks in the bowl for the artists and then you got a bowl of chili and a meal and food and people really appreciate that. We did that in Eau Claire at my old house, The Cannery. So we just usually have a thirty rack of Hamm’s in the fridge. But otherwise it’s BYOB. 21 +. We do not charge for any of the alcohol or food and we don’t keep a penny. There, that’s all my legal stuff.
SPR: Do you have any events to plug or closing thoughts?
Esther: We’re playing up in Medford on July 9th. I know that the person who reached out to us makes amazing tacos and we might be playing at the Taco Shop there on July 9th but it’s like a Bluegrass Festival in Medford. Then, July 23rd, it’s a Saturday, we are playing in Winona at Island City Brewing opening for Gaily Wallup and Dylan Whitaker I haven’t I have it written down but it’s okay we posted about it on our socials.
David: So I don’t know when all my shows are, but it’s all right they’re going to be on my Instagram. If you can, follow D. Janakey. Follow chili Manor on IG if you want to hear about the future DIY shows that we’re doing at our house. Next one we have booked is July I think it’s 16th or 15th it’s Saturday and that’s going to be Jerica Meghel and some surprise guests.
For the rest of the interview, including tips for people aspiring to operate a DIY, check out the first episode of the Side Project Records Podcast with Esther and David. Be sure to follow @smallchainsaw, @D.Janakey, and @chilimanor on Instagram.
2022. Carter Wiedenhoeft. Side Project Records.
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