On April 29, 2015, Portland-based band, Sophont, played their first show at PICA (the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art) as part of the BACKWORDS Press Inaugural Launch Party. Sophont, which describes itself as a "Post-trip hop/electronic duo,” features music by Mike Sieviec and vocals by Dustin Michael Swinney. Sophont combines darkly-honest melancholic lyrics with a vibey mood in tone. BACKWORDS first encountered Sophont's Dustin Michael Swinney at Portland State Univ

Earmilk contributor Alex Leonard claims that British composer DJ Simon Green’s, aka Bonobo, electronic music has been described as “…sounds without genres and timeless to all demographics.” Here, at BACKWORDS Blog, we treat any occasion as an event worth resting in, and Bonobo’s music represents that ethos in audio. BACKWORDS Blog is a platform that honors the moment of encounter that any one person experiences—with art, literature, music, performance, or place. Often, guest

Falling in love takes a fifth of a second, according to a 2010 study by Syracuse University Professor Stephanie Ortigue. When asked, “Does the heart fall in love, or the brain?” Ortigue responded, “That’s a tricky question always…for instance, activation in some parts of the brain can generate stimulations to the heart, butterflies in the stomach.” Despite science, we still resort to using metaphorical butterflies to explain love. On January 10, 2015, my first live symphonic

The BACKWORDS blog is taking a foray into social and pop culture this week, towing the line between music and feminism. Taylor Swift is undeniably everywhere you turn these days. With the mega-success of her latest album 1989, Swift continues to dominate whatever music market she entertains, whether that is country, pop, or a fusion of the two. In September, Rolling Stone did an in-depth interview with the artist and boldly started with, “She’s left country behind, sworn off

Emcee and music producer Oddisee’s twelve track instrumental album The Beauty in All (2013) is an emblem of his creative process. He tours and performs between 100 to 120, sometimes 180 shows a year, so to make music he’s adjusted his recording studio to a mobile one with a hard drive full of samples, headphones, and a laptop. In an interview on Nah Right, Oddisee shared that his music is influenced by his environment, “I’m always trying to find the beauty in everything I see

As I lay in a mess of empty cold medicine boxes and body-warmed blankets, I turned on my third movie of the day. I couldn’t do much else than watch Netflix. After crying through Toy Story 3 and being stunned by the performances in August: Osage County, I turned on the Princess of Wales biopic starring Naomi Watts. Diana was ok. It wasn’t a great film by any means, but something broke through my Nyquil-tinged haze and left its mark on me. During a scene while Diana and her lov