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Interest expands in Botkin
Bonners
Ferry song |
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September 17, 2014 |
It's been circulating around the Boundary County
Worldwide Community. And yes, believe it, there
actually is a Boundary County Worldwide
Community. Some would call it Boundary County
Nation. That includes those of us who live here,
but also folks all over the United States,
actually all around the world, who once lived
here, perhaps went to school here, owned
property here, passed through here, or who once
called Boundary County home. And through the
silent, raucous web of the internet, through
friends, or via friends of friends, they
continue to stay in touch with Boundary County
life.
But we're wandering off topic here. Starting
over . . .
It's been circulating around the Boundary County
Worldwide Community. One word-of-mouth by one
word-of-mouth at a time. One Facebook post, one
Twitter tweet at a time.
We decided it's time to bust this thing wide
open, so here it is:
Have you seen the new music video Bonners
Ferry, performed by the group Runaway
Symphony, featuring Boundary County resident
Daniel Botkin?
That's the question going around. The video,
currently counting 2,500 people who have seen
it, is on YouTube.
(Click anywhere on this blue box
below to watch the performance of the song
Bonners Ferry):
The full, complete story is right here.
And that story starts with Daniel Botkin, whose
family moved to Boundary County from Oregon when
he was age seven. He and his siblings were
raised on a farm in the Porthill area.
"I spent much of my childhood outside, either
working on the farm or exploring the woods we
lived by," said Mr. Botkin. "For the most part,
life was pretty isolated; my family was removed
from the sounds and busyness of civilization,
and we didn’t watch TV or listen to much radio,
so we were sheltered from the influence of pop
culture—which I’m really thankful for."
The children in his family were schooled at
home, although Daniel and his brother
participated in the sports programs at the
middle school and at Bonners Ferry High School.
Daniel played on the football team and the track
team. "Sports were kind of the counterpoint to
my homeschooling, and taught me things like
social skills, teamwork, and how to face
adversity."
Daniel is essentially self-taught as a musician.
"I never had a formal lesson, I never practiced
a scale, but there were instruments in various
parts of the house, and I really just
experimented with the way they worked," he said.
"I played notes, and combinations of notes, and
eventually chords like I was learning words. I
think I actually understand the mechanics of
music better than if I had taken lessons."
At age 17, Daniel moved to Moscow, Idaho, to
attend the University of Idaho. There he studied
graphic design, an interest he has had over the
years. It was around this time that he first
started composing music, and first met the
members of his future band, Runaway Symphony.
"Runaway Symphony started in 2010 as a project
between brothers Chris Lowe and Jason Oliveira
(both from Moscow), and myself," said Daniel.
"The three of us had played together in other
settings, and we were good buddies with similar
taste and a lot of passion and enthusiasm, so we
decided to team up and see if we could create
something beautiful."
AJ Stevens, from western Washington, was in the
Palouse area at the time, and began spending a
lot of time with the band, running sound and
helping with mixing some of the songs. He
eventually joined Runaway Symphony as bass
player. Later Jarin Bressler, from Coeur
d'Alene, joined to play keyboards.
"My main role in the band is lyricist," said Mr.
Botkin. "I write the words to our songs, and
usually start writing the music, but most of our
songs come together as a collaboration, and
that’s an important part of what we do. We want
our music to be something that brings people
together and creates community and common
ground, and I think that mentality has to be
there in the songwriting."
The story on Runaway Symphony: Mr. Botkin
describes the band as indie rock/folk. As
lyricist, he hopes to put together music that
tells a story, and does so with conviction. "One
of the things that really concerns me about my
generation is the total lack of content," he
said. "It’s frightening, really, the stuff
that’s on the radio these days. There’s a song
that simply repeats the command to 'wiggle' in
the refrain. And there's a dance anthem that’s
in a language no one understands."
"Most of today’s music is either about
selfishness or, more often than not, nothing at
all. It really upset me for a while, like ‘why
is this popular?’ But I realized recently that
this stuff isn’t just unique to my generation,
it has been going on for a while, and will
probably continue indefinitely; and even though
that’s a little bit sad, it means there is a
huge demand for stories. It means that artists
and writers who have deep conviction can offer
something that those without cannot: a
narrative."
Runaway Symphony has played gigs ranging from a
trailer park in Oklahoma (on Halloween, no
less), to the Doe Bay Fest in Olga, Washington,
performing with Eric Hutchinson at the
University of Idaho’s Palousafest, and playing
Washington State University’s Springfest, which
featured Snoop Dog.
One of their craziest gigs occurrred once when
they were scheduled to play at the Garland
Theater in Spokane in the middle of winter. They
had to leave Moscow late due to a church event
that same evening. They weren't on the road
long, headed to Spokane, when their van broke
down. Fortunately, there was another vehicle
traveling with them. Grabbing their most
essential band gear, they piled into the other
vehicle, and eventually arrived at the Garland.
That is when they discovered their performance
was following a burlesque dancing act. At
midnight, when their turn to perform finally
came, they discovered something else: apparently
most of the audience must have come just to see
the burlesque show. "By the time we played our
set, everyone but the sound guy and a few
stragglers had gone home. The sound system was
terrible, and to top it all off, we had to drive
back to Moscow that night."
Daniel Botkin composed the song Bonners
Ferry. It was written last year, in the
weeks before the band was scheduled to perform
in concert in Bonners Ferry at the Pearl
Theater. "I was trying to think about ways to
connect with the folks, ways to express my love
and appreciation for my old home, so I started
working on a song about Bonners Ferry."
It wasn't until the band was actually traveling
from Moscow to Bonners Ferry for their
performance that Mr. Botkin told his fellow band
members about the song he had written, a song
about a small town, with what he thought seemed
to be a fairly narrow focus and narrow audience.
"It’s kind of a personal song, so I was a little
bashful and reluctant to show it to the band,
but we started talking about our set during the
drive up, and we discussed the possibility of
playing it as an encore."
After his band mates had heard the song for the
first time, literally while on the road, driving
in their van up to their Bonners Ferry
performance, they put together its final
assembly of parts and harmonies. "I sang it to
the guys as we drove north on 95, and they came
up with some really tasteful harmonies."
"At the end of our set that night, we walked off
stage, sang the chorus once through to make sure
we all had our parts, and went for it. It was a
really beautiful moment, one of those rare
occasions that you just can’t rehearse, where
everything lines up in a magical epiphany, where
the music does exactly what it’s supposed to,
and art, for an instant, shows us something
about our own story."
What kind of a reception has the song
Bonners Ferry had? According to Mr. Botkin,
"We got a lot of really positive feedback after
we performed the song that first night, but I
wasn’t sure if we would ever do it again. It’s
just such a specific song, and is so tied to a
specific place, that I wondered if anyone
outside Boundary County would care for it. Oddly
enough, the decision to perform it for one of
our Ballard Session videos [which is where the
YouTube video of the song came from] was kind of
last minute as well, but it ended up coming
together really nicely, and once the video was
up, we started getting positive feedback from
all kinds of places."
And now you know the story of the Runaway
Symphony song, Bonners Ferry. If you
have heard the song, and if you know Boundary
County, you may well agree that the song, in its
quiet way, does much to capture a feeling about
the place we call home, and captures something
about the mystical reason why folks--the
Boundary County Worldwide Community--never
really wants to let go fully of its ties to our
home.
Runaway Symphony continues to play in venues
around the Northwest and around the country.
They anticipate scheduling a future appearance
at the Pearl Theater in Bonners Ferry, although
the specific details of a local performance are
still being put together.
Runaway Symphony official website:
http://www.runawaysymphony.com/
To watch the YouTube video of the song
Bonners Ferry, go to this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsocAFwA1DQ
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