Not content to enliven Seattle’s music scene with two great rock groups—Tres Leches and AIAIA—Alaia D’Alessandro has recently completed a documentary film titled Phonic Seattle. Her aim with this project is to examine how Seattle musicians are adapting to the tumultuous economic changes happening here. Toward that end, D’Alessandro enlisted three musicians—CarLarans, Julie-C, and Reese Tanimura, the last of whom also serves as managing director of Northwest Folklife—to take her on a tour of non-traditional spaces around the city that are bolstering the music scene, in order to observe performances and converse with DIY artists striving to thrive in tough circumstances.
In the course of hitting eight different spots, D’Alessandro threads interviews with music. “It was really hard to leave some places out and really gratifying to know that there’s so much potential in our city for music,” she said in an email. Subjects touched upon in Phonic Seattle include sustainability, collaboration, dealing with venues, and whether local musicians should cater to incoming tech workers at their events.
On Friday, August 16, Northwest Film Forum will premiere Phonic Seattle, with a panel discussion involving many of the people depicted in the film. “One of the most exciting things to me when filming this project was that I would ask if people knew each other and they usually were unaware and super curious about the other spaces,” D’Alessandro said. “I’m excited for all these people to meet and have a discussion about what they learned about each other from watching the film, as well as delve a little deeper into some of the topics we cover on screen.”
