David Fodel discussed the Lafayette Electronic Arts Festival (LEAF), a multidisciplinary event featuring visual arts, electronic music, and live audiovisual performances. This year’s festival runs from May 14th to July 13th and includes a new “Electro Kissa” listening room series and two nights of performances on May 30th and 31st in Lafayette. (Interview: 5/7/25)
Indra Raj: We have a wonderful guest in the studio with us, David Fodel from the Leaf Festival. Welcome to KGNU.
David Fodel: Thanks for having me. It’s great to be here.
Indra Raj: It’s great to have you. We’ve been chatting for a while. You know, so many people who are part of KGNU are actually part of our Electronic Air program. This is a festival that’s near and dear to them, and it’s also something that we’re really happy to support here at KGNU’s sponsorship.
David Fodel: Yeah. Well, I wanted to thank KGNU for that sponsorship. It means a great deal to us. It helps spread the word and ties us into the great KGNU community. Just want to say that the Electronic Air show is very near and dear to me as well. I was a former member of the crew with that show, so I know many of those folks, and it’s great to have them involved in the festival as well.
Indra Raj: When were you involved with Electronic Air?
David Fodel: I think it was around 1997, maybe even earlier. It had several iterations. The crews have changed over the years, but it’s always been a great bunch of people and continues to be so.
Indra Raj: Yes, and electronic music in 1997 feels like a pretty significant time. There was so much more happening before and since then. It’s always evolving.
David Fodel: Yeah, absolutely. And that’s a big part of what the Leaf Festival is. LEAF stands for Lafayette Electronic Arts Festival. It’s based in Lafayette. I’m a former Boulderite who moved to Lafayette, so it’s great for me to continue working with the local community to produce something that is important to me. That timeframe you mentioned — we actually like to go back even further than that with some of the artists we invite. In the past, we’ve had Morton Subotnick play, we’ve had Negativland play, and we had Raji play last year. All of those artists fit into our ‘Legends of Electronic Music’ series. We try to tap into the history and bring in key artists who have made an impact on electronic music and the community. But we are primarily focused on audiovisual art. What that means is that it’s not just audio or musical art, and it’s not just visual art with some music added. It’s an integrated form of expression that combines sound and imagery using technology in a live context. It’s a live performance where mistakes can happen. It is performative in its own way. The goal of the festival is to educate people on what makes for a good audiovisual performance. Sometimes, it’s someone up there tweaking knobs and sliders. Other times, there are more performative elements, like lasers or video projections. There are often theatrical components woven in. That’s really the focus of the festival.
Indra Raj: So, it’s truly multidisciplinary.
David Fodel: Yeah, for sure. And sometimes, it can be a single artist approaching it from all those perspectives at once. Other times, it’s a collective of artists, each bringing something to the ensemble, making it a more immersive experience.
Indra Raj: We’re going to get into what’s happening at this year’s festival in a moment. But why don’t we take a break and listen to some music from a featured artist who’s going to be at this festival?
David Fodel: This is a track from Lara Cosmo, based in Longmont, Colorado. They have performed at the festival before and will be performing a brand new set on Friday, May 30th, at the Center for Musical Arts. We’re excited to host them again.
Indra Raj: All right, let’s listen to that now. It seems like it’s going to be a slow start, and then we’ll chat more about the Leaf Festival right here on KGNU.
[Music break]
Indra Raj: We’re back, talking with David Fodel from the Lafayette Electronic Arts Festival. So, when did LEAF actually start? What year did it get off the ground?
David Fodel: LEAF started in 2015. Before that, I had been producing a festival at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art called MediaLive. I was one of the founding curators for that effort. After a few years, we parted ways for various reasons. Then, the director of the Center for Musical Arts in Lafayette approached me and said, ‘Hey, we have a space here that’s sometimes underutilized. Would you want to do something like you were doing at BMoCA here?’ I jumped at the chance because it was essentially walking distance from my house, and it’s a beautiful venue — a former church with two spaces. That’s how LEAF started in 2015. We’ve been doing it every year since, once a year. The first year, we tried to do it twice — a spring and autumn LEAF. It was too much.
Indra Raj: Two festivals in one year? Wow.
David Fodel: Yeah, it was a bit nuts. This year is our ninth year, but technically it would be our tenth festival. In 2026, it will be our 10-year anniversary, so we’re already planning something special for that.
Indra Raj: Awesome. So, lots of things are happening starting at the end of this month. Can you tell us about one piece of it?
David Fodel: Absolutely. This year, we have a visual arts exhibition component called ‘Recess,’ starting next week at the Collective Community Arts Center in Lafayette. It runs from May 14th to July 13th. We’re featuring new media artists working with sound, visuals, data, and social issues related to technology. It’s a really compelling exhibit. We also have ‘Electro Kissa,’ a new event happening on May 27th, 28th, and 29th. It’s based on the Japanese Jazz Kissa concept, where people would gather in a cozy space with a high-end sound system to listen to jazz records. We’re doing that with electronic music. It’s going to be a three-night event with charcuterie, a cash bar, and a great vibe. Then, on May 30th and 31st, we have the live audiovisual performances at the Center for Musical Arts. We can get into more detail about those artists in a bit.
Indra Raj: Yes, and we actually have a pair of tickets to give away for the Saturday performance. That will feature Spices Peculiar, Mark Mosher, and Jason and Deborah Berna of Signal Culture.
David Fodel: Yes! I hope some listeners will come out and join us. It’s going to be a fantastic weekend of art, music, and community.
