• “Genius Machine” music video by my solo project MARSHWEED
I have always operated on my own clock, which I know is slower than some, but I have to put in a word for “process.” Enjoying the process of making stuff is really important, and if I rush, I do not enjoy making things as much. A great amount of work was put into this video by director Susanna Battin, Clay Chaplin (who did the still photo animation), and myself. It also features a few of my favorite musicians: Clay Chaplin, Kristin Haraldsdottir, Max Kutner, Shawn Lockie, Laura Steenberge and Mustafa Walker.
UPCOMING AND PAST LIVE EVENTS
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• Fri Dec 6, 2019 – House Show, Eagle Rock
NEW solo Marshweed songs at private house show. Email for details!
• Week of Nov 4-Nov 8, 2019 – University of Southern California (USC)
I am a guest performer for several theater classes. Actor/artist Caitlyn Conlin and I enact our new curriculum with her movement/acting students with live viola. Focus is on improvisation with sound and movement in real time.
• Oct. 25, Terragram Ballroom
Eric KM Clark (violin), Aniela Perry (cello) and I (viola) play with Mikal Cronin and band to usher in his new album, “Seeker” out on Merge Records. His music is kind of like Squeeze (er, from the 80s?) and Neil Young (from the forever) “squeezed” into one live sound.
• Sat Oct 5, Casa Berenice Podcast House Show
Emily Lacy and Daniel Brummel sing in perfect harmony; Laura Steenberge and I play new arrangements of old folk songs with voice, gamba and viola; Cari Stevens sings original songs. Email for more info. Also see Casa Berenice Recordings for new episodes of our house show podcast.
• Mon Oct 1, California Institute of the Arts in ROD theater, 8pm
Music of Clay Chaplin and friends: Casa Berenice Trio – minimal violas scratches through electronics, stretchy field recordings, noisy oscillators on lo-vol; Chaplin/Feeney/Sumner-electro-acoustic improvisation with rocks, piano strings, knife sharpening; Clay Chaplin solo – severely messed-up samples that would be political if they weren’t so messed up. Free. See video here.
• Sat Aug 15, Human Resources, Chinatown LA
Casa Berenice Trio (Chaplin/Lockie/Shahab) plays as part of an experimental sound night. $10, 10pm
• July 10-12, VU3 Symposium, Park City, UT
Casa Berenice Trio (Chaplin/Lockie/Shahab) perform at this symposium for experimental, electronic and improvised music at the Park City Library. Also participating in a panel on HOUSE SHOWS. Library is located at: 1255 Park Ave, Park City, UT 84060
• Sat. June 15, Dog Star Festival – Tunnel Music II @ Southwest Museum Pedestrian Tunnel – Totally different music for a totally different tunnel! Dog Star Festival presents new music by myself, Laura Steenberge and Carolyn Chen. 2-4pm. Also, you can visit the museum for free, open 10am-4pm. 234 Museum Drive, Mt. Washington, LA • LAWEEKLY Preview of the show here!
• Fri. June 14, Southland Ensemble @ Automata Arts
Southland Ensemble will premiere a performance of a graphic score that I made called “Dryads,” a meditation about tree sprites, as a part of this night of nature-inspired graphic scores and pieces. This should be really exciting in a quiet, placid sort of way. Automata is at 504 Chung King Court, Chinatown LA. LAWEEKLY Preview of the show here!
• Mon. June 10, A night of film, art and seeds!!!!! @ Monk Space
Premiere showing of Marshweed’s music video for the song “Genius Machine“!! Plus Alex Wand’s 50-minute film, “Camino de las Monarcas,”that chronicles his recent bicycle trip following the migratory path of monarch butterflies, from SoCal to Mexico. $15 entry gets you in to see the films plus a spot at the “seed table,” where you can hand-pick a selection of fresh vegetable garden seeds from our gardens, plus milkweed seeds to begin your own monarch feeding nursery. Monk Space is at 44134 W. 2nd Street, K-town LA. Easy street parking. TIX HERE
• Sun. May 19 – UCLA @ Jan Popper Theater, 6pm – I am collaborating with the incredible puppeteer and artist Susan Simpson in an experimental performance for ENCOUNTERING THE UNSEEN : artist actualized lectures on topics in science, technology, and engineering. We have been working with evolutionary biologist Felipe Zapata to create a live performance centered around his multi-year research project on the flower E. Paniculata. Yay E. Paniculata!!!! This event pairs many artists, choreographers, performers, and musicians from both UCLA and the greater Los Angeles area with professors working in STEM fields.
• Thur. May 2 @ Coaxial Arts, 8pm – A Wave Press presents Marshwah Trio, Patrick Shiroishi and Virtual Balboa (PA). Marshwah Trio is a project I have long wanted to put energy into. I will be joined by Emily Elkin on cello and Eric KM Clark on violin, and together we will amplify and play original music for strings and wah pedals. FB info here. Co-Axial is at 1815 S. Main in DTLA. easy street parking
• Casa Berenice Recordings Podcast, first episodes here. We have house shows sometimes, and all our friends are so incredible that we feel we should record them and share their music with the world (with their permission of course). Here is a sample video from one of the recent house shows. Performing are Clay Chaplin, Sepand Shahab, myself.
• Fri/Sat. March 29/30, 8:30pm, @ HIGHWAYS (“‘Best of’ NEW SHOES” series) I’m honored to present both live and recorded music for choreographer Jordan Saenz’ new dance/theater work “Deeper, Still“. Here’s a pic from a recent brainstorming session:
• Sun. February 24, Zebulon – Lisa Papineau with Tyler Bates, Mark Eitzel, Koool G Murder, Heather Lockie, Jam da Silva, Nick Reinhart.
Record release show for new album “Oh Dead On Oh Love” by Lisa Papineau. And here is a beautiful video from the new record.
• Sat. February 23, Alex Theatre
I’m playing with The Wild Honey Orchestra in a performance of the 1968 masterpiece: THE KINKS ARE THE VILLAGE GREEN PRESERVATION SOCIETY. Benefit concert for the AUTISM THINK TANK.
• MESH cd out now! but Clay won’t give me the link so I got nothing on that yet. Soon?
• Sun. August 26, 7:30pm and 9:30pm @ Museum of Jurassic Technology
MUSICAL DEATHS THROUGHOUT THE AGES
Two performances with Laura Steenberge and Mustafa Walker. In addition to a bunch of other cool stuff, we will play at least two versions of the evil Child Ballad #10, also called “Two Sisters.”
note 8/26/18 morningtime: this event is sold out! For stand-by list, email events@mjt.org.
•Tourist video! of Iceland that I made in June. Featuring recent music of our improvisatory group (see MESH, tracks coming soon) in Iceland, over footage that came from me figuring out my new Faux-Pro at a lot of waterfalls.
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•From Alex Ross’ column in The New Yorker 7/2/18:
“Another Dog Star event took place in the Mueller Tunnel, a structure on a fire road in the San Gabriel Mountains, northeast of L.A. Several dozen people hiked a mile from the main road to witness a rendition of Heather Lockie’s conceptual piece “Song to Be Performed in a Tunnel in Your Town,” for seven female vocalists. Attired in white dresses, the singers proceeded in shifting formations from one end of the tunnel to the other, emitting ethereal timbres, playing chiming percussion, and scraping rocks against the walls. One vocalist sang Merle Travis’s “Dark as a Dungeon,” a coal miner’s lament. In the final moments, the performers walked into the light at the far end of the tunnel and disappeared around the bend of a mountain path. This felt like an emanation from the California of the nineteen-twenties, when spiritual seekers settled in towns like Ojai and tried to start anew. The cynic in me found the vision hokey; the dreamer in me would have liked to disappear with them.”
•From Falling James’ column in LA Weekly 7/8/18:
“…(Lockie’s) previous art-rock and chamber-pop songs are generally much more condensed and filled with pop choruses, whereas Song to Be Performed in a Tunnel in Your Town is a more meditative work that builds momentum through a cycling of wordless, gently layered vocals…an omnipresent, murmuring hum, a muted beehive of ethereal vibration. Or perhaps, more like slowed-down, reverential birdsong…”
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•Sun June 3, 3pm @ MUELLER TUNNEL, Angeles Crest Mountains
TUNNEL MUSIC: Site-specific new work for 7 vocalists by Heather Lockie
Score for Part III “Song…Tunnel” (2018)
Several years ago, I wrote a short piece called “Song to be performed in a Tunnel in Your Town”. On June 3 I’m happy to present an expansion of that shorter piece as a part of the yearly Dog Star Orchestra Festival. This performance will be tailored specifically for Mueller Tunnel. The tunnel provides a stark shady contrast to this sunny, quiet mountainous environment. It stands out as an anomalous presence in these mountains, and people walking through the tunnel on their way to the Mt. Lowe trail frequently holler, or hum, or sing. This performance is a distillation of those natural tendencies.
Come early or stay after the performance, to hike this easy/moderate trail up to beautiful Mt. Lowe overlook, from where you can see from San Pedro harbor and the ocean (if the day is clear), to San Bernardino horizon, to the surrounding Angeles Crest Mountains.
MAP to the tunnel • Park at Eaton Saddle Trailhead. The trail is on the right, behind the white gate. • You’ll walk down what looks like a fire road behind the gate for 6 minutes to Mueller Tunnel. Wear sunblock, hat, good walking shoes.
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• Mon April 23, 8pm @ ZEBULON LA • TICKETS
MARSHWEED ENSEMBLE plays at ZEBULON with Cory Hanson of WAND and Nicholas Merz. MARSHWEED will play songs like this one from “Marshweed in the Garden:”
A double-ly awesome show, as I get to play my own songs with my excellent friends in Marshweed Ensemble, as well as play the string arrangements I wrote for Cory’s solo songs.
• Tues March 13, 8pm @ BOOTLEG THEATER
The new MARSHWEED ENSEMBLE plays @ Bootleg Theater with Desert Magic and Max Ox. Our first public show! Marshweed plays at 8:30, then Desert Magic and Max Ox, two amazing groups. Bootleg: 2220 Beverly Blvd, LA CA.
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• Thank you World Wood Day for this video of one of the many versions of the Child ballad “Two Sisters” – with Laura Steenberge on viola da gamba, Heather Lockie on viola. @ Long Beach Convention Center.
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• Thurs March 8, 7-9pm @ THE MAIN
A rare solo set of original songs by Heather Lockie at The Main Theater, Oldtown Newhall in Santa Clarita. Part of a “Second Thursday” series, this evening honors Intn’l Women’s Day. http://thursdaysatnewhall.com/notebynote/. I play at ~8:30.
• Fri Dec 16/Sat Dec 17 @ TERAGRAM
Playing with OCS at Teragram Ballroom, LA (with Ty Segall acoustic, Shannon Lay) Backing up the OCS with our beautiful trio with Eric KM Clark, violin and Emily Elkin, cello.
• Sun Dec 18/Mon Dec 19 @ THE CHAPEL SF
Playing with OCS at The Chapel in SF (with Ty Segall acoustic, Shannon Lay)
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THEE OH SEES
“Memory of a Cut Off Head”
In Spring of 2017 I wrote string trio arrangements for an album by The OCS, called “Memory of a Cut Off Head” (available on Castle Face Records) It’s dark, folky, kind of 60s retro but mostly because of Brigid Dawson’s voice. Read about it in Brooklyn Vegan…
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Available now CORY HANSON SOLO RECORD: I highly recommend this album. It’s the first project I have written and arranged string arrangements outside of my own music, and I’m really into the final sound. Cory Hanson Unborn Capitalist from Limbo, Drag City. Order here.
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MARSHWEED “Marshweed in the Garden,” a collection of eleven original songs, artwork and design by Heather Lockie. Co-produced by myself and Clay Chaplin.
Julia Holter says, “What a rich colorful album, and the text content is so unified around this imagery of growth and seeds and soil and creatures, pain and drudgery of life, beauty of life etc…”
Bobby Martin says, “Reminds me of a series of emotional firsts. There is a clarity within the eye of the vocalist who hasn’t let the evil of the world penetrate her shell. Not a drop of contamination…only buoyancy and brightness, shining so boldly in my ears it makes me look at the dark and the light within myself.”
Digital trax and CDs available HERE.
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• The Royal US went into the studio and recorded a rendition of the Bahamian folk song “All My Trials”…special thanks to Brian Saia, Max Kutner, Steven van Betten!
• I’m happy to be playing some shows these days with Rob Laufer and his incredible band. Check out his some of awesome songs here!
• This beautiful little record that I wrote string trio arrangements for and played on is available for pre-order now thru Drag City Records. Congrats Cory Hanson! Brooklyn Vegan review here.
• Listen to a couple preview tracks from new Marshweed solo record No. 2. are on the bandcamp page (click on “Marshweed” to go there)! This incarnation of Marshweed is me, and whomever I am working with at the moment, in this case musician Clay Chaplin. Also with help from some very talented friends…..
• LA READERS CHORUS performed “Wedding; Funeral” (words Shawn Lockie, music/arr Heather Lockie) at Automata, Nov 2015.
• Earlier this year video artist Jordan Biren asked me to make a series of scores for performance pieces. The two images to the left are different graphics representing the music for his text piece “Letter,” and to the right is music for “Walk.” (see larger images in “Paintings/Scores”)
•New release out now! • Three Thirds welcomes to the world its first release of original folk and pop tunes called “Oh oh oh, oh oh oh oh!”, covering subjects like “origins of bringing water to Los Angeles” (Owens Valley), “our favorite freeway” (The Five), and “that one hijacker who got away” (DB Cooper). Exciting stuff! I wrote two songs on this and am quite happy about the whole cd.
Released Mar 2015. Click on cover art to listen or order.
• New release out now! Three Thirds is this awesome, quite original folk band I play in. This is a compilation of Woody Guthrie songs that we re-arranged to suit our weird polyrhythmic and noisy needs. Click on cover art to listen or order.
KFJC review
• Three Thirds’ latest video to Heather’s song “Ballad of the Bird & Worm.” We got to make pasta! Edited by Katherine Dohan.
• Sept 2015: My new scheduling website for teaching is up! It is https://missheather.acuityscheduling.com/.
Here’s some photos we took after the last Winter Music Gathering (…”winter”). They are actually quite hard working despite what it might look like in the photos :)
