an interview with katya n burd

If you have ever been to a DIY show in San Francisco, it’s very likely Burd or Katya were behind the planning and hosting of the show. Random Door, an event that they planned together, brought artists from San Francisco together in an amazing DIY space full of live painting, zines, artists, and of course, live music. (article on random door)

Burd and Katya are the people you want to know if you want a head start on getting involved in the music and art scene in San Francisco:

Can you introduce yourselves and what mediums of Art you participate in?

Katya:

My names Katya! I participate in mixed media and visual arts, including: collage, painting, oil pastel, etc. I’m a musician, performance artist, and poet.

Burd:

Hey whats up! I’m Burd and the medium of art I participate in is mostly music. I also do a bit of collage and drawing, pen and ink. Oh and I make sculptures out of children’s toys! Haha

How did you guys discover the San Francisco music and art scene?

Burd:

Um I think when I first moved to San Francisco you know it just started through meeting people with similar interests and I think as you move to a new city, the more you meet people involved in music and art the more you start to uncover the different subcultures and groups of people doing various things. It just happens with time and asking questions, not being afraid to just ask questions and invite yourself to places.

Katya:

When I first moved here I was going to school for creative writing and literature, I think the way I stepped into the SF music scene was as a performance artist and a poet. Then gradually I started meeting more musicians and then eventually started throwing shows. I’d say throwing events immersed me in the art scene here the most.

Burd:

Yeah I think I’d also like to add that like once I started to throw shows myself, too. It opened a lot doors to meeting other people and like finding connections to other places because I think we both have come from a very DIY background, like Katya’s done a lot of Generator shows and shows in like various random spots and I used to have a lot of shows at my house. So I think like, even if you don’t really know what you’re doing at first, but just do it, it just opens up a lot of connections and opens up a lot of collaborations.

Did you/do you feel obligated as artists yourself to throw shows to support the community?

Burd:

I would say yes because I had the means to and I felt like it was necessary to utilize them. So yes I feel like there's an obligation to try to keep DIY alive, to whatever degree it is that you do it, there’s no right or wrong way to do it, but I think that in especially San Francisco, I do feel like there is some sort of an obligation to keep musical community going that’s all inclusive to everyone and that’s not just like if you have ten bucks and your over 21.

Katya:

For me the thing that thrust me into throwing shows was realizing how many artists I knew, at a certain point I was just like “oh my god, I know so many people who are making really dope art or music or poetry and I feel like I would be a good person to bring these people together so that we can all express ourselves!” After the first time I threw a show, just the feedback that I got from people saying they really needed it and how fun it was and how they were gonna come to the next event, I was like, “ Oh okay, this really is an obligation, I need to throw this, it’s obviously making people really happy.

Burd:

I feel like there an obligation in every city for people to be throwing DIY shows, not even just for us, if you can do it, if you want to do it, do it!

Katya:

I agree! Haha

Burd:

You just gotta do it. Pull people together!

Katya:

Part of it is also just kinda winging it and being like I don’t how we’re gonna figure out the exact detail, but let’s just get the ball rolling and we’ll wing it!

Burd:

Yeah! Things fall together if you believe they will and allow the space for them. A lot if it’s about collaboration you know, you can’t do it all by yourself, you have to do it with ur friends, do it with your community that surrounds you.

What is the story behind Random Door? How was it started?

Burd:

Random Door is a collaboration between the two of us to create DIY shows that encompass as many different kinds of art as possible. We came together as two individuals who have been throwing shows for a long time and we decided to bring our knowledge, our forces, and our ideas together to create a larger scale more inclusive, interactive, multimedia, experience, where we can call upon our different social friends groups, the different artists we know to create a DIY underground show that features musicians and so much more. We are constantly thinking of new ideas and exciting new concepts that we can use to expand Random Door and keep incorporating new things into it. I think one of the main important things that we foresee for Random Door is sticking on the points of even though we wanna make it a full on all inclusive experience artistically, we also wanna make it a full on on all inclusive experience for just people which is why we wanna always keep it underground, always keep it DIY, always keep it affordable, always keep it all ages, always have it as a space where everyone is welcome.

So what are your future plans for more shows like Random door or just DIY shows in general?

Katya:

Well one plan we have to do in the near future, maybe not the next show or even the show after that, but… I’m also part of a local label called True Indigo and we feature local experimental electronic musicians, we actually wanna have where we combine True Indigo and Random Door, and have two different sort of stages, where one would be like more experimental and the other one would be more punk. Maybe having food, and having it be a daytime thing.

Burd:

In addition to that, I think if we are able to find a space that could do this, we’d love to have an event with different stages and like Katya said, even if we could just have one room be punk, another a rave, and another a soft acoustic thing. Our idea is to just incorporate as many different ideas as we can. Katya had an idea with like video games. We have a few sort of like sub genre shows of Random Door, like we threw a show called Punk, Poetry, And Pasta, it had punk bands playing, poetry in between sets, and pasta being served. So any kind of theme we can think of that isn’t something you hear about every weekend, something more unique and different. Maybe one day we’ll have the chance to do a festival, but we’ll see what happens. For now were just trying to find creative ways to make exciting shows and keep incorporating more people and artist into it.

So how do you book DIY spaces?

Burd:

The spaces we’ve booked have just been through people we have met who believe in the vision and you know, just the power of asking, the power of being like hey can we do this and you’d be surprised who’s willing to make some crazy shit happen if you just ask.

Do you feel like the more mainstream culture of San Francisco don’t want to support art like this? Like the gentrification and stuff like that is moving away from DIY?

Katya:

I mean, yeah, a lot of the art scene has been pushed out and is continuing to get pushed out, but I think that because a lot of the art scene has been pushed out and a lot of local venues have been shut down, I think it shows how much people want shows like Random Door and they are very thankful for it when it happens. If anything, the gentrification right now is creating more of a need for it and that’s part of why we feel motivated to consistently throw events that bring all different types of artists together, people need a space like that right now.

Burd:

I feel like the more the gentrification tries to push us out, the more will I have to keep trying to fight it by creating more space for this culture to exist in.

What are your thoughts on the Bay Area music/art scene as a whole?

Burd:

I think that the Bay Area historically has been one of the most thriving places for art and music culture so it’s a blessing to be able to exist here and do it now.

Katya:

The Bay Area is one of the most exciting and innovative places I’ve ever been and I think there’s a lot of struggle happening here right now, but regardless I still go out every week and am inspired what my community or people I don’t even know are doing.

Burd's Instagram

Katya's Instagram

Words & photos by Mac