Margaret Marinic recently had the pleasure of interviewing Macie Stewart of "Ohmme". Macie has been in the Chicago music scene her entire life, and was a member of the hit band Kids These Days. In The Loop did an artist spotlight of Ohmme earlier this year, so we were happy to interview this young, passionate, Chicago-born, musician.

What is the most up and coming genre in the Chicago music scene currently?

“Wow, I feel like that is kind of a hard question to answer because I feel as though Chicago is really a genre-less city. Umm, yeah, everyone likes to dabble in everything and do a lot of crossover things. I mean, I was in Kids These Days, but that’s completely different from what I do now, and even the kind of music I play outside of Ohmme, that’s more improvisation. But if you were to ask any chicago musician, that’s kind of the norm. No one really sticks to one thing, they are open to exploring different sounds and different genres of music. I would say, I don’t know, there are just many different scenes, like jazz, improvisation, indie rock.”

Why do you think Chicago should be on the music scene map?

“Chicago has this kind of I don't give a fuck vibe a little bit. Everyone that’s playing music here is really playing for the sake of the music. That’s not to say other cities don’t do that also, but we are just going to do what we do, and if you don’t like it that’s your problem. I think that’s a very midwestern thing, you just work at it, and just keep working and go for it. I just think that that attitude is really reflected in the city, just that attitude of working for it, going for it, and making it happen; however you see fit. There’s not a heavy label presence in the city, so I think that relieves the pressure of having to fit in a certain mold or box as well. There’s not that pressure of trying to fit into something that you’re not. You never feel like you’re being stifled in any way.”

What is your musical background?

“I started piano when I was three, umm, just doing classical piano stuff. My mom’s a musician as well, and she was like, ‘yeah, I want my daughter to do music.’ I started classical violin when I was five, like a school program, and that’s when I started those instruments, and then I went to Depaul, like the community Music program at Depaul for pretty much the majority of my life, for both violin and piano lessons and it was like and incredibly influential program. It was really amazing, had some really good teachers. And then I played Irish Music for years, I did a tour of ireland with that group when I was like 11-12 until I was like 15. It was really cool because it was one of my first experiences being a gigging musician and learning what that means, because it would be a Friday night and then I would have to go work. I had a lot of string quartet experience in high school, I worked in the High tea room at the Drake Hotel. So like every Saturday we would play for four hours at the Drake for the high team. I did choir and orchestra for two years, and I did a lot of theater, and I was in one musical at Whitney Young, and Sima heard me sing, and helped me to get with Kids These Days, and yeah then I was with Kids These Days for that period of time until 2013, that’s when that band ended , and then Marrow, and then today.”

Who are some musicians that influence or inspire you?

Jeff Tweedy is definitely one, I didn’t end up listening to him until late in high school, but his songwriting was revelatory to me, so definitely him. I really love Fiona Apple, she was probably the first person I heard who wrote songs after I started to become a songwriter, that was probably when I was like 12, and I was like, ‘I want to be a songwriter?’. And then….my mom!

Do you remember your first solo gig, what were your thoughts? Were you nervous?

“yeah, I did one solo gig during Kids These Days with songs that I had written, umm and yeah I was really nervous, it was really scary. And even still solo gigs are terrifying, yeah that first one I had to figure out how to do band arrangements to get people to play my songs, and that was really scary. So I did that maybe twice during Kids These Days. I did perform a lot of solo classical piano so that gave me some training to prepare for being on stage alone. And nowadays, with Ohmme I was nervous for the first few years of playing because I had just learned guitar for more songwriting reasons, but I would not say that I was a guitarist, at that point, so playing in Ohmme was definitely a challenge because the guitar was it.. We had two guitars and two voices and we had to hold it down with just those two things. Yeah so it was very nerve wracking, but that was the point, to push us into a zone where we felt uncomfortable to create something new. And I played a show two nights ago and I was terrified. So that feeling never really seems to go away, it’s just something you learn to do.

Any advice to younger up and coming artists?

“I mean, just go out. You have to go out, go places, you have to meet people, try to lay as much as you can. Something I hadn’t heard until 3 or 4 years ago is yeah, you have to hang out! You can’t just not talk to people because that’s how you make those connections sustainable. We met people 4 years ago and we still talk today, and you have to create a network. Just get out and participate in the community you want to be a part of.”

What’s the process for your songwriting? How do you find your sound?

It’s kinda hard to say, I have found my sound within Ohmme. When I write at home, I just go into it, and kind of don’t necessarily know how it will turn out. I think a lot of my songwriting and a lot of how I perceive my music comes alive in my arrangements of it. But yeah, when I’m writing songs sometimes it will be inspired by a passage from a book and it's making me think of all this imagery, or I'm listening to someone else and I’ll try and reinterpret it in my own way. And then, I’ll choose whatever songs sound more like Ohmme, and then I’ll bring it to Ohmme and we will arrange it together. I think finding your sound is not something that has to be intentional, it can happen accidentally.

What are you currently listening to?

There’s this record by Loma, which I’m really into. That record is amazing. We listened to Cutworms, they are pretty cool. I listen to Mike Reed's, “Places and Things”, he’s a really great free-jazz drummer in the city.

If you could perform with any musician, dead or alive, who would it be and where would it be?

Ok, so I know I’ve always wanted to perform at Red Rocks, it’s in Colorado in a natural amphitheater, so I would definitely say there. So I want to say David Bowie, but I know that's kind of a cliche answer, but either David Bowie or Sun Ra.