A Short Chat with Stagbriar

“We’re looking forward to getting this pizza into your ears.”

Photo by Kati Baldwin, from left to right, Cam Powell, Alex McCollum, Brendan Bull, Emily McCollum, and Roger Caughman

Siblings Alex and Emily McCollum started Stagbriar over 10 years ago on a back porch. All though the band has since grown from a duo to a full band, and their sound has evolved as a result, their perfectly synchronized harmonies and poignant lyrics remain. Read on to find out what they have been up to and what’s next.

JASPER: What are you guys most excited about right now?

STAGBRIAR: We finished a new record in August. We’re pretty excited about how different this one sounds compared to our first two, and it’ll be fun to begin sharing bits and pieces of that in the next few months. 

JASPER: What is your favorite song off your last album? 

STAGBRIAR: We’ve really leaned into Bought the Rights when we play live—amped it up a bit and used it for sound check pretty often. It’s a good mid-tempo bop and it always feels good when we get to it in the set. 

JASPER: What does your writing process look like? How has it changed or evolved over the years? Do you each write something and bring it to the other for input or is it more collaborative? 

STAGBRIAR: The writing process has generally been centered around the songs we siblings bring to the band, but that’s changed a lot on the record we just finished in July. The band really put this one together as a team, and our new guitarist Roger Caughman had a heavy hand in a lot of the heavier guitar stuff you’ll hear throughout. A much more collaborative effort from the beginning through the end. 

JASPER: Do you have any tips or tricks for finding inspiration or getting over writer's block?

STAGBRIAR: Write a lot of bad songs. There’s probably another record’s worth of incomplete stuff that was thrown away for this latest session. We like to record everything twice—once at our house, and then a second time in the studio, hopefully giving us a chance to hear things from beginning to end. This can spark ideas that are more album focused instead of sitting down and trying to write from scratch — you can ask yourself “okay now what does the *record* need” instead of “what song am I going to write today.” 

JASPER: How do you know when something is done? 

STAGBRIAR: We don’t. We put it down and come back to it and repeat the pattern until one of us says stop or the money runs out. 

JASPER: If each of your albums were a meal, what would they consist of and why?

STAGBRIAR: Quasi-Hymns is like a really good hot dog and fries you made at home. It hits the spot cause it’s the best you could muster up at the time. It’s familiar and you can watch Wheel of Fortune while you eat it.  

Suppose You Grow is like a rustic bistro dish that took some time to get right but is still rough enough around the edges to appeal to the mentor that taught you how to fish. Served on a steel plate.  

The newest unreleased record is like a surprise pizza party in elementary school. You didn’t order pizza but it’s really tasty and you don’t know why but you suddenly feel like a ninja turtle.  

We’re looking forward to getting this pizza into your ears.

You can see Stagbriar September 24th at New Brookland Tavern with Alan Charmer, Cor De Lux, and Twin Toasters. Tickets and details on New Brookland’s website.

-Bekah Rice

In Jasper Vol. 3, No. 3: Young Bands on the Brink -- Stagbriar

"There are certain assumptions you are going to make about a band that calls its first album Quasi-Hymns, Murder-Ballads, and Tales of How the Hero Died, but perhaps the most accurate one for Stagbriar, an indie folk-rock band led by brother-and-sister duo Alex and Emily McCollum, is that they are nothing if not artistically ambitious. The album opens with, true to its title, a murder ballad of sorts. But, aside from that, it is probably not what you are expecting. ..." -Kyle Petersen For the full story and photos, check out the magazine starting on page 15 below:

SC Music Goes to SXSW - Guest blog by Greg Slattery

Jasper loves it when SC artists go forth and make our talent known so we asked Stereofly's Greg Slattery to write about their new project. Read on. South Carolina is teeming with fresh, exciting and unique art.  We've seen Main Street, a former district of wasted opportunity, turn into a vibrant street filled with businesses that promote art. First Thursday is one of the greatest events in Columbia, a monthly gathering of art lovers for wine, music and gallery openings.  In many ways the historical under-appreciation of the artists within South Carolina has led to where we are today.  The fight has made us stronger, and I think it will all be worth it.  Perhaps it is arrogance, but I believe we are surrounded with some of the greatest artists that ever lived.  Rather than wallow in the fact that the national view of South Carolina is not that of a progressive community when we can take to the streets and go on the national campaign to tell the world.  With enough people spreading the word about South Carolina's artistic merit, we will start to see the bigger changes Columbia needs that national recognition can help facilitate.

We have the foundation. With publications like Jasper, Free Times, SceneSC and Stereofly, artists have the opportunity for exposure and attention from a variety of viewpoints. We have great venues like Art Bar, New Brookland Tavern, Conundrum Music Hall, Tapp's Art Center, Foxfield and great house shows happening at Queen Punx Palace. Radio stations such as WUSC 90.5FM, The Palm 92.1FM and WXRY 99.3FM are constantly spinning local music. Columbia Arts Academy has two schools now teaching the younger generation guitar, piano, bass, voice and drums. Jam Room Studio is hosting a yearly free music festival on Main Street. With more attention on a national scale, we know that Columbia and the state of South Carolina can start building something more sustainable. More attention leads to more opportunities, and Columbia is ready to grow.

One of the steps we are taking to champion the musicians of South Carolina is featuring them at the Stereofly SXShowcase 2014 on March 11th and 12th in Austin, TX during SXSW at Javelina Bar. Tastemakers and music lovers from around the globe gather in Austin for one week in March to find new artists, and we have 22 bands from South Carolina (14 from Columbia) we're showing off. 

The Restoration - FatRat Da Czar - Rachel Kate - Say Brother - Carnaval - Megan Jean & The KFB - Mason Jar Menagerie - Shallow Palace - Stagbriar - Cole Connor - Grand Royal - Ran Bruce - Ned & The Dirt - Abacus - Sein zum Tode - Zonaea - Cancellieri - Signs of Iris - Slick - We Roll Like Madmen - Dear Blanca - Chadd Downing

We are hosting a Kickstarter to raise money to promote the showcase and make sure our message is heard. The more we raise, the more promotional campaigns we will be able to roll out to reach the 25,000 SXSW patrons.  We have the talent; we need to make sure they're heard.

We have split the two days and two stages into four categories of sound: Rustic, Fluid, Saturated and Aggressive. Pigeonholing artists into genres and subgenres is not what we have in mind, and these adjectives serve as an identifier in the most basic sense, leaving the listener the choice to further connect and identify with the artist.

If you're interested in checking out the complete lineup of artists performing, you can visit HTTP://KICKSTARTER.THESTEREOFLY.COM to read more about each artist and to preview music from each stage.