photo by Marrisa Leitman
Listen to the glowing indie pop of Say Something Nice by Sagittaire (the musical project of singer songwriter, musician Ivan Mairesse and the first single off his newly released album "Lovely Music") with it's sort of 60's / 70's Brit indie sway, dreamy chamber pop affections infused with folk rock (and honky tonk-esque) romantic and lovely melodies and you would not for one second think it was inspired or informed by a horrific event, but it was.
Los Angeles based, Mairesse lived in San Francisco from 2012 to 2019 and "Lovely Music" is in large part, reflections and catharsis fueled from being a survivor of the 2016 Ghost Ship fire in the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland, California where 36 people died. It is one of those veiled remembrances for most of us. A horrific scenario that for many might feel like a story of people on the fringe. The Ghost Ship was an artists' collective of sorts. Struggling artists will find a way to make art often times in unsafe conditions and that was ultimately the situation here. Mairesse walked away from what is still regarded as one of the deadliest building fires in California's history.
Listen to the utter whimsy and beauty of 'Doo Doo Doo', the post punk / meets indie pop rumble of 'Age of 9' or the experimental folk indie of 'Call Me Closer' or the road wanderlust sound of the amazing 'Quiet One' and I feel complex emotions turning slowly like pretty, yet undefinable, wind chimes. You might not get the sense that there would be more dark sounds rising from the ashes of such a real and emotional fire but then I can only imagine that living though such a thing might just make the world feel that much special just like this collection of songs.
-Robb Donker Curtius
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Ship_warehouse_fire
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
Ivan Mairesse is a songwriter living in Los Angeles who makes music under the moniker Sagittaire. He's prolific - while living in San Francisco from 2012-2019, he churned out over 60 songs recorded in various studios. Those songs largely came as a way of processing the immense trauma Ivan experienced as a survivor of the 2016 Ghost Ship fire. In this Billboard piece, he details his experience that night, and how he barely made it out before the building was engulfed in smoke.
The music that comes out of him is light in comparison to the heaviness of his experience - it sounds like Chris Cohen, or Cass McCombs, Beatles-esque levity obscuring a lurking darkness. On "Say Something Nice", Mairesse processes unhealthy friendships and situations he'd found himself in, his brush with death putting everything under a new light.
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