Enter the Melting Meadow
What do a suitcase record player, a hunting term, and a grandma’s ghost have in common? For Sasha Reynolds, frontperson of Oakland’s Fieldress, they’re all threads in the tapestry of their band’s evolution—from a solitary songwriting project in 2018 to a five-piece psych-folk collective gearing up to release their new album, It’s A Lot, out on vinyl this June.
In my first Little Door video interview, Sasha invites us into Fieldress’ trippy, woodsy universe, where songs are like standing in the middle of a meadow singing from her journal, vinyl is time travel made physical, and live performances are at the nexus of energetic euphoria.
We talk the band’s Kickstarter rewards (homemade focaccia and lumpia, anyone?), tips for singing through tears, and why Brian Eno isn’t wrong about artists’ job descriptions.
Fieldress’ music feels like lying in a meadow while the trees melt around you—equal parts haunting and playful. And the band’s journey—self-funded, self-taught, and wonderfully communal—is a masterclass in DIY resilience.
Acoustic Song Share: Trading Songs in an Imperfect Portal
I built these interviews around a simple idea: the artist and I each share one original song. Talking about music is good. Playing it for each other gets us closer to the real thing. This practice cuts deeper than conversation. It gets to the core of songwriting in a way that words alone can't.
Sasha is my guinea pig in this experiment, so there’s a moment in our interview when she leans into her camera, guitar in hand, and sings ‘Please Me,’ a pandemic-born anthem about self-worth. Or at least, that’s what should happen.
Instead, the screen lingers on my face—eyes closed, nodding—while her voice floats over a constant swaying image of me listening. A technical glitch. An editing ‘mistake.’ Likewise, when I sing my song, ‘Narcissist’ the screen holds on Sasha’s face listening to me.
When I noticed it during editing, my stomach dropped a little. There is no footage of her strumming and singing while her melodies soar, nor any of me while I play through my chords and sing to her.
The old me would've deleted this footage immediately or asked Sasha to reshoot — perfectionism can't tolerate glitches or embarrassment of this kind! But the me I'm becoming paused. Watched. Laughed. There was something holy in this accident: the raw intimacy of seeing a song received rather than performed.
This wasn’t a failed performance. It was an accidental documentary of what it means to truly receive a song. To be the listener. To let the vulnerability of the exchange matter more than the polish. We both felt the sweetness and intimacy of giving a song to each other, and it’s all there.
So here it is—the ‘wrong’ version. A testament to the tender portals we build when we trade art one-on-one. (And yes, next time I’ll get my Zoom settings correct so we can watch the singer sing!).
Listen to the Singles
Fieldress released two songs from their upcoming It’s a Lot album due out in June.
You Never Know, a super fun boppy tune that I featured on the Portal Playlist 001 with surf licks and soaring melodies. And just released on Friday 4/4, Wake us Up:
We also talked a lot about a song called Redeem Remorse in the interview (one of my personal favorite Fieldress tracks), so take a listen.
Kickstart Fieldress’ First Vinyl Pressing — Art As a Calling
The artist’s job is to keep the world building alive, to imagine the realities we could inhabit and to take us there.
Fieldress’ music—with its warmth, its lyrical honesty, its psychedelic meadow-dreaming—isn’t an escape from the chaos of our crazy world that seems to be coming undone day by day. It’s a reminder of what we’re fighting for: a world where art isn’t a luxury.
This Kickstarter isn’t just about pressing records. It’s about the radical act of collective dreaming. When you back this album, you’re saying: I believe in the invisible labor of artists. I believe in the alchemy of a five-piece band sweating in a practice room, in the energy of studio time, in the holy magic of collective creation.
You’re voting for a world where Sasha’s grandma’s ghost can still visit via a song, where a roller-skating music video might exist, where ‘booty-shaking’ and ‘heart-breaking’ can live in the same chorus.
The revolution needs medics. But it also needs poets. Put your money where the magic is. Plus, this Kickstarter has some of the weirdest/funnest rewards I’ve ever seen.
Get on it!
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