There’s a unique music scene in Springfield that is popular among younger members of the community.
The D.I.Y. (“do it yourself”) scene is part of the young underground scene where groups transform simple areas of living (such as basements, living rooms, etc.) into music venues. The D.I.Y. scene has been emerging more lately in the Midwest part of the United States.
While D.I.Y has been used to describe the underground music scene for years, it’s considered a safe place for women, people of color and the LGBTQ community. Springfield has D.I.Y. venues originating around hardcore, punk, indie and soul.
Soul is a gospel-influenced music style that evolved out of rhythm and blues. The soul sound encompasses many different vocal styles. The instrumentalists imitated these vocal sounds and would make their instruments “talk” to the audience.
A soul group in Springfield called, ourfriends, is trying to reach people in a more diverse way through their style of music.
The group hosts sessions at vocalist Samuel Wise’s house, but soul sessions are expanding out to other venues and areas. The group has been booked at J.O.B. and a D.I.Y. music venue Central Station in Springfield.
The group is composed of vocalists Apollo Harris and Samuel Wise, with keyboardist Sarah Miller-Ross, trumpeter Robert Fairless, bassist Connor Trybus, saxophonist Nolan Vilcek and Payton Anderson on drums, although instrumentalists and vocalists might switch out here and there.
Although the soul sessions are completely open to all, they’re really tied into the Missouri State University musical theater and acting department. The MSU Jazz Studies program and the music program in general got involved early on with these soul sessions.
Ourfriends has a “lookbook” for its shows. Those are depictions of styles, outfits and accessories to wear and bring to the events. They’re posted on the groups’ social media sites.
Adonis Negron, who was a member of ourfriends until recently, explained that the lookbook personalizes the shows to the audiences’ own fashion and suave.
“Like, how does this affect you? How do the songs affect you? How does the lookbook and what it means to you affect you and your soul personally?”
He said the sessions are all very subjective for each person who’s in the room.
Soul sessions started as a musical theater practice, and eventually CCM (Contemporary Commercial Music) was tossed into the mix. While the group members are all similar souls, their music interests are vastly different. The sessions allow individuals to get together and share their souls with one another.
The sets in the soul sessions originate from members’ own personal lives.
Apollo Harris said, in rehearsal, each group member contributes their part, and that ultimately leads to the final production.
“I personally perceive art as like a portrait and every piece is a painting. And so in rehearsal," they said, "it feels like we’re getting our palette together and seeing what kind of textures we want to add, what dimensions, what shapes, what lines. And then, the soul group goes out there to perform, and that is like a whole new painting.”
The objective of these sessions is community-based. The idea is to inspire other communities with this particular style of soul, according to Robert Fairless.
"Springfield is a big college town, and with Missouri State, Drury and Evangel, there's a lot of young people in the Springfield community that don't really have a venue for live music," he said, "because, you know, a lot of them have different music tastes. I think having this sort of collective that ourfriendsmedia is doing, is incredible for the young people in the arts in Springfield."
A goal is to expand the musical offerings in the Midwest. The sessions can also provide an escape for the soul at a time when people need to find an escape.
Samuel Wise hopes the soul sessions by ourfriends provide another place for young people in this college town to enjoy live music.
There are crew, photographers, and lighting involved in these soul sessions. One of the group’s photographers is Arden Dixon. Charles Sargent shot for the group, and Isaac Protiva has done lighting for the group.
To have a network of young artists that love music is important for the group. They want to get more young people involved in live art. And they hope their soul sessions will inspire people in other communities to try something similar.