Musician Feature: Sam Hurwitz

    Today's interview features Sam Hurwitz, a senior in high school and an incredibly talented and passionate songwriter. He's a writer as well as a musician, and his poetic lyrics and distinct voice shine through in his newly released songs, "Anaranjado" and "Forests on Antarctica," both of which can be found on Spotify by clicking here. Without further ado, meet Sam Hurwitz.

    What do you like about being a musician?

    What I love about being a musician is the ability to make something that wasn't there before. As with all creative endeavors, one is using their thoughts and feelings to make something new, even if it's not a physical object. Music allows me to do this not just with writing but with sound - melody, rhythm, instrumentation, and more. I am an avid music listener and I love the feelings music can give. I take inspiration from the music I listen to to use the medium to emit feelings and use it as a form of expression.

    What are some things that are hard for you when it comes to being a musician?

 

    Something that is hard about being a musician is that it sometimes is hard to feel like I'm doing something new. I like to make alternative folk songs, and often it feels like I'm repeating myself with the same chord progressions or melodies. Often this can result in writer's block, or a feeling that I'm not using music to its fullest potential.

    What's your favorite lyric from one of your songs?

 

    One of my favorite lyrics from one of my songs is "I know it's hard to remember to love these days" from the song "Peter" on my upcoming album. It's a simple lyric, but I think the power of lyrics is that they can take on a new meaning when paired with music. That lyric, when paired with the happy and victorious instrumentation of the song, conveys the theme of the song perfectly. The song is an ode to love, how sometimes everything is dark in the world and it's hard to remember to love someone else, especially within the context of LGBT relationships, when everything is so clouded by others' hatred and discriminations.

 

    Who are some other musicians that you look up to?

 

    My favorite artist is Jeff Tweedy of Wilco. My parents always played the band Wilco for me at a young age and it has always been my favorite band. I find inspiration in Tweedy both as a songwriter and as a person. I love his abstract lyrics, the way his music is different on each project, and above all, him as a person; he's authentic and real, with no nonsense. He stands up for what he believes in, and I feel that my values are very much aligned with his.

 

    How long have you been a musician? How strongly has music influenced your life overall?

 

    I've been a musician for as long as I can remember; even when I was a toddler I would strum a guitar, even if it sounded horrible! I began taking guitar lessons at age 6 and never stopped. I also began writing songs around then, and at age 10 I started learning piano at Lagond Music School. Lagond taught me a lot musically - I also took guitar, voice, and composition there, and I was part of a jazz band. Music is a huge part of my life. My parents aren't musicians but they love music and it has always been a huge part of our family. Going to music festivals is a family bonding experience for us. My family shares a lot of favorite artists, and listening to music as well as making it has always been among the areas where I am happiest.

    Are music and creative writing linked in some way for you? 

    Music and creative writing are very much linked for me. My love of music is due to my love of writing and creating. I love playing music, but I don't find satisfaction from just playing without writing. Creative writing and songwriting both feel like I am creating something new, expressing my feelings, and sharing with the world.

Musician Feature: Pluto Forest

Hi! Although Lit Space has primarily published visual art and writing so far, we’re always open to featuring original music written and/or performed by teenagers. And over the next few months, we’ll be interviewing young musicians about their experiences, their creative process, and their interpretation of the connection between music, visual art, and writing.

Today’s interview features Pluto Forest aka Foster, a seventeen-year-old singer/songwriter with a beautiful voice and a unique creative vision who’s recently released her very first single, “High Holy Days,” just in time for the Jewish high holidays! Shanah Tovah to all who celebrate, and without further ado, meet Pluto Forest.

 

What do you like about being a musician?

The cool thing about music, or, at least, songwriting, is that you have two different mediums to play with- lyrics and sound. So I get to write my lyrics, and then choose how I want to showcase them with sound. For example, one of the lines in High Holy Days is “Underwater, hands on hips” and that line is quieter than the rest of the song, which was intended to reflect the singer being underwater. Getting to utilize melodies, silence, and instrumentals in addition to words to tell my stories is super fun, and I’m excited to experiment with that more as I get more experienced as a producer. I also really love performing live. There’s a sense of connection that I feel with an audience (even if it’s just my parents) when I’m playing my music live that’s really unparalleled, at least by any of the other art forms I’ve tried. Music (in my opinion) exists to be danced to, heard, sung along with, and celebrated. When I play live, all of those things are within reach.

What are some things that are hard for you when it comes to being a musician?

Right now specifically, isolation has been really hard for me. My music existing to be heard is sort of a double edged sword, especially when it feels like there’s nobody to hear it. I did a Zoom concert at the beginning of quarantine and I’ve performed in a few virtual shows, but the experience virtually just isn’t the same. Recording and releasing High Holy Days has helped- the quality of the song is much better over streaming services than Zoom- but I’ll still be relieved when it’s safe to play live again. It’s also generally difficult for me to write instrumental lines. I was a singer before I was a guitarist, and I was a writer pretty much as soon as I learned how to write my name. As such, my lyrics and vocal melodies tend to be a lot more interesting than my guitar lines, and I’m often frustrated by my own lack of technical skill. I feel like it holds me back from writing more compelling music. Ordinarily, I’d ask someone else to play guitar for me, but collaboration is a lot harder during quarantine. 

What's your favorite lyrics from High Holy Days?

I think my favorite lyric is “Your pool is only four feet deep, but hey, the water’s clean,” in the second verse. That was the first lyric I wrote, and the easiest one- probably because it comes directly from my life. The whole song is mostly written from the perspective of my younger self, but about experiences that I’ve had more recently, and the pool lyric is about one of those experiences. I like it because I think most people won’t necessarily understand it, and it sort of comes out of nowhere in the context of the song, but I get it, as does the subject of the song. 

What inspired you to choose the stage name Pluto Forest?

My girlfriend came up with it, actually. Forest is an anagram of Foster, and I was always going to use something involving Pluto because I just really like Pluto. The interesting thing about Pluto is that it’s really, really close to being considered a full sized planet. It meets two of the three criteria- it’s in orbit around the Sun, and it has sufficient mass to have been almost perfectly molded into a sphere by gravity. The only thing Pluto is missing is clearing its debris field. That means having absorbed all of the objects in its vicinity into its own gravitational influence. But Pluto’s orbit draws it too close to objects on the Kuiper belt (like the other plutinos, which are too big to be absorbed into Pluto’s orbit) to be considered a full sized planet, so it’s relegated to being a dwarf planet forever. Or until NASA changes its classification criteria, anyway. I think most people can probably relate to that- you’re really close to accomplishing something, but there’s an obstacle that’s just too big to move out of your way. Pluto gets it. Anyway, I’d like to live by a forest on Pluto. It sounds like prime real estate. The inhabitable temperatures might be a deterrent for some, but I’ll bring blankets. 

How long have you been a musician? How strongly has music influenced your life overall?

I’ve been singing since I was little- I started taking it seriously in fourth or fifth grade- but I only started playing guitar around three years ago, and I didn’t start taking lessons until last year. Music has influenced my life pretty heavily. I started actively choosing what music I listened to, rather than just listening to the radio, in seventh grade, and since then I’ve pretty much always had headphones on. The genre of music that I’m listening to at any given moment in time influences the way I dress, the way I speak, and sometimes even the way I act. And I listen to a lot of different genres, so you can imagine how hectic that gets. 

Are music and poetry linked in some way for you?

Oh, absolutely. I started writing poems before I started writing music, so I’ll always think of my music as poetry that rhymes, with melodies added. I go to school- LaGuardia High School- for vocal music, and I’ve taken some theory there, which has made my melodies more interesting and less like a background to my lyrics, but I’ll still always be a lyricist first and a songwriter and musician second. I’m always writing something, even if I’m not actively typing words, and usually I can tell before I finish it whether it’s meant to be a poem, a song, or something else entirely. But I have, on a few occasions, sat down to write a poem and ended up with a song, or vice versa.

 

    Thanks for reading! You can listen to Pluto Forest’s single “High Holy Days” on Spotify here! https://open.spotify.com/track/5cImfpxpfm5iJ9pge6REV4?si=PsR3jdbqT-Cnde6jvKnWDA

Photography: The Many Faces Of The Sky, by Andrew R

 

Fiction: Undercity, by Bird Gjaja

    I walk along the narrow aisle, crystals sparkling on all sides of me. Each step I take is measured, precise; I pull in my shoulders, careful not to interrupt the neat rows around me. I walk slowly to an intersection and pause. The sheer scale of the crystalline library sinks in. I look at a shelf, watching the thousands of clear marbles. Not a sound, but a small flame in every one. Each one contains a fire, burning more or less brilliantly. Some of the fires seem to consume their marble from the inside while others flicker feebly. Some have only blackened candle wicks and sit on their shelves, silently dead. All those with fires seem to emit silent chants of “I am alive, I am alive”, that those marbles who are truly silent are jarring to my expectant ear. I look to my left at yet more rows of chanting orange and yellow flames. Among them is a marble who’s clear sheen reveals a small blue fire. It isn’t quite flickering, but it does not reflect the same energy and exuberance as the orange clear marbles. It doesn’t chant. It isn’t silent. Instead, it emits a slow, sorrowful tune. It sings like it is alone in the night, singing for no ear. I watch it a while as it sits on it’s place on a tray placed on a row on a tower of these marbles. This one, this small one with a light blue flame, I want to hold. I reach for it, across hundreds of other marbles, momentarily forgoing the fear of crushing all of these flames. As my fingers near their goal and my sense of curiosity heightens, I suddenly remember the risk, the pointlessness and moreover, that the sorrowful tune is nothing more than silence. The marble does not sing. I pull back my arm and watch as my fingers back by my sides again, idle, waiting. I look down at the floor I am standing on and see down for miles. The glass separating me from millions of other marble towers has no supports in view. It just reveals what is beneath me. Me. I consider me for a second, my curious fingers, my teardrops beginning to litter the glass floor, my New Balance sneakers for running. Running? Among these aisles? I slowly sit down, cross-legged, looking up now at the immensity of billions of small flames above me. The rash idea to pick up the marble with the blue flame now seems ludicrous to me. Why should I pick up a marble who’s only request is the ability to flicker and undulate naturally. As I sit there, I wish silently. For that marble’s eternal movement and for it never to burn out. I laugh out loud a little. Eternity. The dream of everyone, every marble on these millions of shelves, every wishing soul.

    As I look back down again, I see words under me. Among towers and towers of marbles are little strips of text glowing yellow. I can’t see all of them very clearly but a couple drift close enough to catch a glimpse. January. October, May. At random, months float past my eyes. A little hopeful, I latch onto this idea, looking for August. An idea comes to me that among these billions of flaming marbles is my own. As August drifts by, I latch onto the idea and press my hand to the damp glass. Marbles and I drift into the air, the towers static as the glass opens. I find myself breathless on the other side of the glass, my hand still pressed, all the marbles on this side intact. Through the glass, I see some marbles on the other side still drifting in search of their towers. I push back from the glass and float downwards, headfirst. Towards August. Towards August. In this place, on this side, among these spheres, I almost forget my original intention. I push through the air, towards the word I saw previously. August floats past me and I reach out to grab it. My hand meets soft cloth and the word disappears. I let go for a moment, surprised. And then it reappears, a little further, lingering around a tower I had not seen previously. I rush towards the tower. Scanning numbers now, 1 through 31. I arrive at my number and pause momentarily. A little nervousness still lingering, a feeling that I shouldn’t look. I shake off the feeling and pull out the shelf with my number. I see tiny words next to each marble and look for my name. I look. And look. And look. At the back of the third row is one that looks familiar. I’ve never seen it before, but a strong feeling of déjà-vu comes over me.

Instead of reaching, I stare at it, unsure whether or not it is my own. The light inside is reddish orange, flickering, struggling to truly explode within. I quickly reach for it, overcome with anger. Checking the name, checking it, double-checking it, then I fling it to the ground. The dull sound it emits is sickening. I reach to pick it up, slightly dizzy and fall to the ground. The marble has a small scratch but hasn’t shattered. I pick it up and place it on my palm. I stare at it, until it starts to rain on me. I look up, only to find my tears from earlier, from the other side, have someone started to drip onto me and the marble. I sigh and let the tears from this reality, the one I’m in, fall onto the marble. It glows for a second then dulls again and the flame inside is still struggling to flower. 

    From the floor, I see the billions of marbles around me and realize that every one, once shattered, spreads like a wildfire. It dulls thousands of marble, torches shelves and covers the floor. I hold my marble a little more tightly, frustrated and regretful, and place it back on the shelf. As I get up and start to walk away, I glance at it and watch it flicker for a little while, the scratch scarring it but not shattering it.

    I walk away slowly, a weight lifted from my shoulders, a little exhausted and reach my hand up towards the glass ceiling. As I slowly float towards it, towards the marbles and towers on this side, I look back once more. It looks almost like a city, like New York City from an airplane. My hand reaches the ceiling, shoots me to the other side, past the second layer of light cities, towards streets and cars and honks and masks. The sidewalk is grimy, trodden with millions of footsteps, the sky is gray and bright. The air is humid and sticks to my skin. Yet I would never trade it for the glittering undercity, for the truth about each of us. I look at the passerby and wish each of them, each of their marbles and their flames and their souls good luck.

    To you, too.