From Pandemic Disruption to Personal Utopia

We all do it You have a night for yourself but don't like the sound of the silence, so you turn on the TV just for the ambiance It's a little trick that helps you feel like you've got company and aren't alone And other insurers, well, they may make you feel alone. But when you switch to GICo, you've got clas reps available around the clock So whenever you need, you'll have people around to help. And let's turn on the washing machine, just for good measure Isn't that soothing? It feels good to have support. It feels good to Geico. Every week Switched on Pop opens with a windup of tape loops, layers of vocals, and some very funky mogues at the sizers an Welcome to Swish St on Pop I'mong wrriter Chlie Harding. That is our show's sonic identity that we documented on episode four hundred one. We called it the biggest theme song Fail. We gave our very outdated theme a little glow up with the help of musicians Josie Adams and Zach Tonario Josie and Zach, alongside drummer Ray Belli are in a band together called Arc Iris. They've been around as a group pretty much as long as we've been a podcast. They're genuinely some of the most talented musicians I've ever known and are a deep source of inspiration to me Since you hear them every week on the show, I wanted to give you a chance to get to know Jossie and Zach through some of their music music that has helped me find a sense of hope. these dystopian times I hope you'll feel the same We just start by can I ask who are you? My name is Zach Tenorio and I play keyboards with Arciris. My name is Josie Adams and I play bits and bobs and I sing and arrange and wrriite for Arciris. And we make prettyretty Wild music? Yeah You have a project coming out called Ie Tomorrow that has been long in the works. What is Ie Tomorrow? Ie Tomorrow is a hopeful yet quite dystopian, futuristic concept record. It started as a performance art piece. In twenty twenty, we had a performance of the performance art piece or maybe I should call it a what do we call it? A sci fi ballet? A sci fi ballet. A sci fi ballet. All the little pigies come out and they want to, right I tomorrow is the name of the record, but it's also the name of the mega corporation. basically rules the world in twenty eighty We start with a sort of dystopian broadcast jingle.out Followed by like a pleasant music bed to an advertisement But there's something a little discordant about it. Aittle sinister. And a narration, we are introduced into a sci fi world. What the heck is going on in the world of IP? That's just to give a shout out. That's our friend Noah Harley, who plays the voice of Lucian Greg, who is we call him the face of I toomorrow. He's like the spokesman for I tomorrow. And then that's also our friend Willow, Willow Smith Who is the voice of the virtual ration Where does this future world lead us Well, the story of I toomorrow takes place in twenty eighty. and there's our every man, Robert, and in this first track, virtual Rations A lot of us are out of jobs so we don't really have a purpose. and if we do have a job, many of the most interesting aspects of our job are taken by AI. and a lot of the thinking that we would be doing is stolen by it And so the solution that this giant corporation comes up with is that they create a bunch of AI driven pods that supposedly enrich our lives. And here in the song we see Robert making his daily visit to the Virtual Rations pod where one can dream any dream and lives a dream through virtual reality It for here aties when the satellite comes Some foos and treasures will come a body and from my chest everything She disconnecting from And so you make this sci fi ballet, you're putting on these performances. and then what happens? So we did two shows. at Obern in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This was January of twenty twenty So you know what happens next? W bum, bumom, bum. Global pandemic happens. Yeah, exactly. and we were all set to to a New York premiere of the show at L Plissain Rouge And yeah, basically the day before That show, that was when like the full mass lockdown. happened. So The show died and the spirit of I Tomorrow was lost for a while. Yeah At this moment, your life also gets entirely upended as so many peopleop's did You made a move from Providence, Rhode Island to Los Angeles What happened in the in between between I tomorrow being shut down and you putting it out, you know five, six years later first, a period of mourning and depression and confusion, as many musicians such as ourselves went through. And hope, we had a lot of hope that things were going to open back up and we're going to be able to do it and I think it was August, it was pretty clear that we were going to just pick up our stuff and travel across the country and kind of start a new life. It started with there was a a house that was completely dilapidated that we Basically brought back to life. And while we were working on it, Josie and I lived in one hundred and twenty square foot shed kind of way too long for like eight months. With cats. With her cats and our synthesizers And we didn't really have much as far as, you know plumbing We didn't have a kitchen, so we cooked everything on a propane grill. and yeah, we pooped in buckets for kind of a while whichich is honestly, man Underrated Hving visited you in this time, I will say that also you were living on this beautiful piece of land that you were rehabilitating. and it wasn't just this you were also building the studio. and Oh yeah. you were building a stage, a whole place to perform. sort of your own musical reality. If the venues that you wanted to play at were shut down, you basically built your own venue It was a very romantic time. Like when we finally finished working on our house Jossie almost started crying because she didn't want to move out of the shed. It was a really, really difficult time, but Coming out the other side, I think there was a lot about The gift of time became positive Personally, a few positives happen, perhaps. Oh yeah, we also got married We got married kid we started a concert series called Glass Hill and we hosted Almost forty of those shows We hosted artists like Reggie Watts And Willow. and Liv and Luke Temple and Kimbra and basically all of our favorite artists We've somehow managed to convince to play in our backyard. So you made musical work about a future dystopia That show was disrupted by a real dystopia Yes. There's a song on I Tomorrow that I feel like actually reflects what was going on for you A little I mean the exact meaning of that song is that the ocean's coming in and it's literally eating away the shoreline taking Providence into the ocean. But yes, also goodbye Providence Hello, LA. Exactly. And you know, let's just recap Mary child concerts, studio, this beautiful land that you've made and finally in a moment where Perhaps our fears that could be realized inonight tomorrow areort most present This work is finally arriving into the world How does that feel It is such a glorious feeling that this music is finally coming out because Honestly, Seven years later. It still feels fresh, it still feels good. and maybe because the meaning of all the songs is constantly shifting and replugging itself into our current reality Very excited that is coming out. It's yeah, long time coming. Is there a song? on I toomorrow that you feel like presresents This moment for you that we could go out on I mean, I would say that Dreamer of Dreams is really special in that I the string arrangements and conducted the string players and sang it onene or two weeks away from giving birth That also gave gave that peace, a whole new life and a meaningfulness that It won't ever be without it tw with these things I hear the melodies, You smile, cheers my d Is it just another song that's built for me to sing along to?es What do you smell like daylight thenen you gave birth and pretty quickly, you were back in the studio. I can see the moment I was literally carrying Azzie in the recording studio. I was holding him with one hand breastfeeding, conducting with the other hand. and the tenderness of the feeling And actually in the singing of that song, you can hear that my vocal cords are like a little bit heavier and more swollen from my pregnancy. When I you Is it me about whom I'm d about? You're my reflection. It's me perfection. I sort of feel like you turned T tomorrow a sci fi, future kind of dystopia into your own personal utopia Yeah, the amount of work that we put in and the amount of satisfaction and beauty and communication of idea and feeleing like Arc Iris was truly heard and seen for the first time in a lot of ways I I love that. I think that's right. In that way, I think that is very much true This whole time, you've been listening to Ie Tomorrow by Arc Iris. The underscoring included, all of it comes from Ie Tomorrow. It's a beautiful album. Go check it out. I know you're gonna love it We'll be back in on Tuesday Mse for Stompower. And until then, thanks for listening When I scraped my car in that parking garage, I was worried that it could be a long process to take care of. L like a landscaper's first day trimming a hedgem. I have definitely already been here