FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
Tiare Schiller in her bedroom. Schiller, a k a Baby Microphone, a keyboardist, will be performing during "Avant Pop" at Club Pauahi.
Pretty pop ditties The sun finally broke out on what was looking to be a dark, overcast Sunday afternoon. In the home Tiare Schiller shares with her mom and cats in the crowded Punchbowl area, she talks about her "kid pop" songs, written to brighten up dour faces and hearts.
Baby Microphone goes solo
Gary C.W. Chun
gchun@starbulletin.com
The 20-year-old is not far removed from her childhood days, so she's able to tap into dreams and memories of simpler times. "There's a lot of lyrical symbolism of playgrounds in my songs," she says with confidence. She then sings a bit of a charming ditty she wrote about meeting a friend and playing on a jungle gym and swing set.
With Postmodern, teradactyl, Baby Microphone, Paul and Gwen, the Jerome James Collective and DJ Noey & "Friend" 'Avant Pop'
Where: Club Pauahi, 68 S. Pauahi St.
When: 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. tomorrow
Admission: $5; must be 18 and over
Info: www.ordinarypopband.com
Schiller has been better known in the local underground music scene as half of the now-defunct duo Pocketlites. Tomorrow, as part of the monthly "Avant Pop" gathering downtown, Schiller will be performing her second gig as Baby Microphone. (Her new partner, drummer Aren Souza, will be unable to make the gig, leaving Schiller solo with her voice and keyboard. Rhythms will be programmed.)
Her six-song set is supposed to be poppy and lighthearted in a lo-fi way. "It's more like synth-pop," she said.
Schiller got into music relatively late, starting in the ninth grade. But she became captivated by the business after visiting Philadelphia and Chicago with friends. Her influences include indie labels such as Kindercore and K Records, and a job she had with the Radio Free Music Center store, placing music orders and researching bands.
Schiller says her Baby Microphone guitar-influenced tunes are more complex and "more chord-oriented" than what she calls the "cornier" keyboard music she was creating in Pocketlites.
Souza is a welcome addition. "I've always wanted to play with live drums -- to make it more rock than pop," she said.
Even without drums, though, she feels her music works as "bedroom headphone music."
YOU WOULDN'T know it from looking at Schiller in her girly pink dress and blue hightop sneakers, but her musical background also includes playing in noisecore bands, complete with "screamy vocals and thrashy guitar."
At one time she tried to live in Hollywood with friends. "But after six months, I came to realize that it was not my scene," she said. "I felt musically devoid, and it was only when I was on the airplane ride home that I knew I could create better back in Hawaii.
"Actually, the most music flows when I'm at home in my room. I sometimes write three songs a day," although she admits she also has "a lot of half-finished songs and a lot of beginnings."
After a well-received debut set with Souza at the Popcorn Fest at Bedroq Bar and Grill a couple of weeks ago, she's looking forward to performing solo tomorrow night.
In the meantime she is taking several community college classes in sewing and ballet. "My music definitely reflects my lifestyle."
And she hasn't given up on moving to the mainland -- either San Francisco or the college and capital town of Olympia, Wash. Through connections she's made, she'll be part of a split vinyl 7-inch single project on the indie Kittridge label, based in L.A.
In the six months she's been back from Hollywood, Schiller said that her childlike songs "are a lot like love songs -- puppy love or songs about the early stages of love.
"They're usually sung about somebody, sweet love songs, and how much you appreciate the other person. It's not about fancy love, but the love I'd like to have -- like singing about someone, if I had a someone.
"Me and my mom watch a lot of musicals, and that song from 'The Music Man,' 'Goodnight My Someone,' is perfect in its sentiment.
"So I think my music is more real, because there's no echo pedal and voice distortion added. And there are no big ballads!"
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