Salome Songbird joins KGNU DJ Indra Raj to discuss their music and performance at Swallow Hill, as well as share some of their background on how the group formed. The group explains their “scathing lullaby” style of music and how their training in music has influenced their vocal and instrumental performances. (Interview date: 1/8/2025)
Indra Raj: I am very pleased to welcome Musician Salome Songbird into the KGNU studio. So welcome to the show. It’s great to have you. We have Joy, Ariel, and Brian here gonna play some music for us. You have a performance at Swallow Hill on Friday, but before we talk about all of that, why don’t we just hear some music?
[Salome Songbird plays Moon Song]
Indra Raj: You are listening to Salome Songbird Live here in the KJNU studios this morning on the Morning Sound Alternative. What a beautiful piece of music. Can you tell me a little bit about that tune? When was it written? What’s it about?
Salome Songbird: Yeah that tune is called Moon Song, and I wrote it for my nephew when he was three. It was almost ten years ago, and I wrote it because he was briefly hospitalized at the time. He’s fine now. But it was scary, and I had already written most of this song before he was hospitalized, and I decided to just finish it and send a memo so that he could hear it while he was there. And actually, I just saw him recently, and he said that he remembers listening to the song at the end of the day during his stay.
Indra Raj: Wow, that’s incredible. That brings tears to my eyes, actually. That’s beautiful. How wonderful. The healing power of music, really. It’s so great to have you all here. You’re going to be at Swallow Hill this Friday, performing with Sturtz. I’ve been reading a little bit about your background and how you all came together, but I’d love for our listeners who don’t know as much about you to hear a little bit about the origin story of this group and how you got to where you are now.
Salome Songbird (Joy Adams): Yeah, this is Joy. Ariel and Brian and I all went to school together at the University of Miami in Florida. And this band started as a duo with Ariel and I. She had a gig playing at a coffee shop, playing her songs, and she knew that I wrote songs, so she hit me up, was like, “Hey, play this gig with me.” And it was really fun. Our voices blended pretty well without too much effort. So we were like let’s keep doing this. And then over time we added Brian to the band and all relocated to Colorado on our own timelines. But we’ve been really happy to get this band going again. And we just really love making music together. I think it hits a spot for each of us that we don’t find in any of our other projects. So it feels very special to us.
Indra Raj: Yeah. And how long has the Colorado iteration of the band been together?
Salome Songbird: It’s been about three years. Yeah.
Indra Raj: Great. Yeah, I had to say it like when I read that y’all met in Miami. I was like I don’t hear about a lot of string bands from Miami. But it makes sense that you were part of the music program there. So does the University of Miami have a specific. Were you all in the same program or were you in?
Salome Songbird (Joy Adams): We were all at the Frost School of Music Jazz, Brian was in the jazz side of the school and Ariel and I were in the classical side of the school, but that’s a very unique program down at the Frost School because it’s very integrated. The jazz, normally you have a pretty clear dividing line between the departments and this one was very cross pollinated, if you will. So we benefited from that and I think it’s evident in the music of this group. Pretty grateful to have gone to school there.
Indra Raj: Yes, for sure. And did they encourage branching into other genres outside of classical music and jazz? It sounds like it.
Salome Songbird (Joy Adams): Yeah, definitely. Yeah, the dean at the school there is a jazz pianist and that was his whole spiel. was being musicians with porous borders. I can hear him saying it.
Indra Raj: Yeah, totally. 100%. And what was like, again, it’s like you think of Miami, you think of music from all these different Latin traditions and things like that, and not always like string band music. Ariel when you were out in the coffeehouse playing your songs or you know all sorts of things like that. What was the reception like? Is there really an audience there for this type of thing? What’s the scene like over there?
Salome Songbird (Ariel Macadangdang): So for that particular gig it was very much a background music vibe. Some people were really into the songwriting. I think it depends on the venue down there. There’s a couple nice listening rooms, but not as many as out here I would say, and very few string bands. Definitely not a folk or a bluegrass scene as big as the one out here in Denver. It felt like a nice change to come out here and play these songs and just have more of an audience that was interested in this kind of music.
Salome Songbird (Bryan Dubrow): I will say, I found that there was a larger audience for bluegrass music than the venues like to recognize, because every time we got to do it, people loved it. Yeah. For a few years, we played in what was like the only bluegrass band in Miami. I don’t know who’s playing there now. Everyone who was in that band does not live in Miami anymore. Yeah. That’s just how it goes sometimes.
Salome Songbird (Ariel Macadangdang): I do want to give a shout out to that, the old time jam that’s happening there now. It’s a few friends are putting that together and it seems like they’re going pretty strong,
Indra Raj: That’s great. It just goes to show that you shouldn’t make assumptions about what people want and based on whatever preconceived notions you may have. So very cool. Great to hear about that. Why don’t we hear a couple more songs and then we’ll chat a little bit more.
Indra Raj: You’re listening to Salome Songbird live in the KGNU studios ahead of their performance at Swallow Hill this Friday.
[Salome Songbird play a few songs]
Salome Songbird live in the KGNU studios. They will be performing live at Swallow Hill in Denver this Friday. Performing alongside Sturtz. That was really great. Two very different songs. But, they work together and one of the things I was reading that is on your bios and stuff is that you all put together scathing lullabies, which is such a wonderful way to describe something, but I’d love it if you could expand a little bit upon how that came to be.
Salome Songbird (Ariel Macadangdang): Yeah, Joy and I, our songs are written about some pretty dark topics. We lean heavily on mental health. Subjects drawing from our own experiences and some religious trauma thrown in there too. So we write about dark things, but the way we present them in our songs, we like to think of as a whimsical lens. And when we say scathing lullabies, that’s what we mean. We have the darkness balanced with the whimsy.
Indra Raj:. Just learning that you all met at conservatory and classical and jazz programs, finding your singing voice is not often something that classically trained musicians or jazz training programs really encourage so you all are great singers. How did you all find your voice that way? And obviously that’s a huge part of what you’re doing with lullabies being such a huge part of this music.
Salome Songbird (Bryan Dubrow: I was going to say, I believe, but I know I came to singing, latest of the three of us. I really did not sing until after I was in school playing jazz, that’s when I started getting into bluegrass and it was just a situation where I was like I guess I have to sing songs. So I started singing songs and practicing it and now I enjoy it a lot. But yeah, it’s definitely much newer to me than a lot of the guitar stuff.
Salome Songbird (Joy Adams): I started singing After undergrad, like I went through a whole degree program, not singing. Everyone in my family sang. And I always felt like the rebellious one being like, “I don’t sing. I play cello.” And but then I got out of school and I was playing gigs and there’s a thing that happens to you when you’re a female musician not in the classical world, but anything outside of the classical world where you show up and they just look at you and they’re like, and now sing one, but just assume that you sing, because that’s all that girls know how to do, and I did, and I was very proud of the fact that I didn’t sing, but I then I shifted my perspective and I was like, oh, but I could make more money if I sang, if I showed up to gigs and I could also sing. That’s real. So unfortunately, my motivation to sing was all financial but I do I’m glad to be a singer now.
Indra Raj: That’s true though. I talk about it all the time. Women are put into this, you’re a singer box and that’s all you can be. And wanting to rebel against that totally makes sense. Totally. How about you, Ariel?
Salome Songbird (Ariel Macadangdang): Yeah, coming to singing definitely felt like bridging my experiences, and it was actually challenging to find my voice. I’m glad I wrote these songs, because it forced me to work on the skill of singing. I guess I wrote them before I was more confident to try playing in public. But yeah, like Joy, I didn’t really start seriously singing until I was in my graduate degree. And singing alongside her and other folks who are more experienced, in my opinion, than me, has really helped to give me that confidence and also keep working on that skill.
Indra Raj: Yeah. Do any of you feel like it’s informed your instrumental playing for
Salome Songbird (Joy Adams): Absolutely. Yeah, for sure. At least in the classical string world, they’re always all your teachers are always talking about phrasing things like a singer, and you don’t really know what that means until you’re singing yourself because it really changes how you group notes together and how you space things out. It’s huge. And if you’re a musician listening, I can’t recommend it. Singing, even if you don’t sing publicly, but singing through the things you’re playing on your instrument will change your whole world. It’s the most powerful thing you could learn how to do is sing and then play like you’re singing.
Indra Raj: Multidisciplinary music training for the win. All right. And then we want to hear one more piece of music before we do that. I want people to know if you’re just joining us, we’re listening to Salome Songbird live in the KGNU studios. They’re gonna be performing at Swallow Hill this Friday. We’ll talk a little bit more about that, but you do have some singles coming out soon. So do you want to mention a little bit about that?
Salome Songbird (Bryan Dubrow): Yeah. Towards the end of last year, we recorded a couple of our songs. So a few of the ones that we’ve been playing this morning will be coming out in the next couple months. The first one probably very soon, possibly at the end of this month. We don’t have a hard date for that yet, so just, you can find us online and keep up with us and then you will know for sure when that’s coming out.
Indra Raj: Yeah, what is your website or social media? How can people best find you?
Salome Songbird (Bryan Dubrow): We’re Salome Songbird, so it’s SalomeSongbird.com. Salome is S A L O M E. Instagram is @Salome Songbird. We’re also on Facebook YouTube, yep, I’ve been putting some things on there lately.
Indra Raj: Great.
Salome Songbird (Bryan Dubrow): Yeah, those are the best places to find us. We have a mailing list, which you can find on the website. So whenever we have a show coming up, we’ll put it on there for sure. For anyone who’s, understandably, social media, of course.
Indra Raj: Yes, that is a fair thing in this day and age, in 2025. Alright, let’s hear one more piece of music and then we’ll finish things up. You’re listening to Salome Songbird here on KGNU.
[Salome Songbird plays Jellyfish]
Indra Raj: You’re listening to Salome Songbird here on KGNU. That was wonderful. Thank you so much for all the beautiful music today.
Salome Songbird: Thank you so much for having us.
Indra Raj: Of course, and if you would let our listeners know just a little bit about the show on Friday, you all are going to be there with Sturtz. Anything our listeners should know about it.
Salome Songbird (Joy Adams): Just that if you liked this and you don’t know Sturtz, you’re gonna love Sturtz. We’re so happy to pair the two bands together because there’s so many similarities. One of which is that both bands have cellos in them, which is cool. Both bands really have a lot of delicate, thoughtful music.
And if you haven’t been to Swallow Hill before, it’s just a wonderful collection of rooms, run by really sweet, lovely people. Yeah, we’d love to see you there. We’ve been looking forward to it for a long time. We’re very excited to be. playing with Sturtz. The show is at 8:00. Doors are at 7:00. They have not told me to stop saying that tickets are available. So you can get your tickets at Swallow Hill.org, but yeah, you can find it.
Indra Raj: Many KGNU listeners who listened to this show in particular are familiar with Swallow Hill. We love partnering with them and are really excited to have you all there. And it’s my pleasure to get to know you all and to hear your music today. And we can’t wait to have you back in the KGNU studios soon.
Salome Songbird: Thanks so much.
