Take the Stage at Sunday Drip

Sunday Drip was born from the frustrations of being a burgeoning artist in Salt Lake with limited places to perform. For performers with unconventional approaches to live entertainment, such as live electronic music artists or interdisciplinary art performances, like live music and dance, Sunday Drip has become home to these artists. It has also become a space to experience music and art that is raw and intimate.

Prior to the birth of Sunday Drip, there were two shows at Sugar Space that laid out the direction for what Sunday Drip would become. The first was This Whole Time, a dance and music collaboration showcase where artists were paired at random with the goal of creating live dance and music performances. It was expansive and cross-disciplinary, and more than a few collaborations were born from the event. Dante Lerae, one half of the team that puts on Sunday Drip, was one of the performers in the show, and Jon Philpott, aka Fezmaster, was in the audience. This got the wheels turning for Philpott about other opportunities at Sugar Space.

“The genres that are played are subservient to the vibe we are trying to create”

Not long after that, Philpott organized a lofi hip-hop show called Lofi Sunday with Lerae, Fischloops and Far Out Nicky. After that, Britney from Sugar Space approached Philpott with the idea of starting a regular event, and thus Sunday Drip was born.

“The genres that are played are subservient to the vibe we are trying to create,” Philpott says. The original intention was chill – lofi to ambient and downtempo – but has expanded to include anything from dungeon synth to film score to experimental noise. This lack of rigid boundaries around genre has led to a wide array of interesting showcases from local talent.

A favorite in the scene was the music and dance collaborative show performed by Briana Gillet, Nora Price and Carina Gillet. The performance was an aerial dance with live accompanying music provided by Briana on flugelhorn and Nora on guitar, with the dance and choreography by Carina. “At one point Nora joined Carina on the aerial silks and was playing the flugalhorn while swinging around the stage,” Philpott says.

For artists who are up and coming, Sunday Drip provides an event that is a springboard to playing live. “I think there have been quite a few people who have started playing at a Sunday Drip and then went on to book other shows around town,” Lerae says. Philpott agrees, saying, “The way I see it, there is a big difference between an open mic and a show.” Sunday Drip provides a space to hone your live performance in front of a real audience of creative people. There are certain technical aspects of live performance that can only be learned through actually doing it. Sunday Drip provides an environment for artists to test out their new material and polish up the aspects of performance that are almost impossible to do at home.

As Sunday Drip has developed, the curation process has adapted to a changing scene. Each show is curated based off of the other musicians and their sound so that each show is cohesive. A good example was last year’s Sundaye Deluge. Late July, KVEG and Spaceseer created three separate performances of dungeon synth, a genre that has been growing in popularity over the last few years. It combines dark ambient atmospheres and black metal textures to create sounds that evoke a dark fantasy-esque setting.

For Philpott and Lerae, the future of Sunday Drip is to continue to provide a space for community and to build onto that community by expanding out to other disciplines and making space for unconventional performances and genres.

Read more about local music:
Local Review: Baker, Christiansen, Ishikawa — Days Over
Accelerated Nihilism — Mixed Messages For The Maladjusted – SLUG Magazine

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