Robin Bacior is a singer-songwriter, originally from Chico, California, whose music is built around her voice and the cello, and whose career has tracked a geographic "migration" from Chico to New York to Portland.[1] Although her byline appears on numerous Submerge features about other artists, she is herself the subject of a single 2015 Submerge profile tied to a Sacramento tour stop.[1] NPR's All Songs Considered has described her voice as "honeyed but vibrant," noting that it "hits gentle, bestowing the listener with comfort and calm."[2]
At a glance
- Singer-songwriter; grew up in Chico, CA (her hometown).[1]
- Studied journalism at Chico State, attended many concerts, focused on music writing, and DJ'd for the campus radio station.[1]
- Lived roughly four years in Brooklyn, NY, building a following, then relocated to Portland, OR.[1]
- Released Water Dreams on Jan. 13, 2015.[1]
- Played Naked Lounge in downtown Sacramento on Jan. 23, 2015 (with Grand Lake Islands).[1]
- Released Light It Moved Me (2018) on Spirit House Records; ten percent of proceeds benefit GRID Alternatives.[3]
- Recipient of a Regional Arts and Culture Council Grant; Independent Music Awards nominee; member of the Recording Academy.[4]
Origins and background
Bacior grew up in a musical family in Chico, California, where both parents played music and their house was often filled with musicians; as a child she took lessons and learned piano, flute, saxophone and more, but considered herself a largely passive participant in music.[1] She stayed local for college, enrolling at Chico State to study journalism, where she attended many concerts, focused heavily on music writing, and worked as a DJ for the campus radio station.[1] She had been writing her own songs but performed only occasionally and found performing a struggle, in part because she was playing to the small-town audience she had grown up with.[1]
Geographic migration and musical development
The profile frames Bacior's musical evolution around three places — Chico, New York and Portland.[1]
New York (Brooklyn). Around the time she moved to Brooklyn, she was invited by Chris Keene, lead singer of the Chico band Surrogate, to sing on that band's record; Keene then offered her studio time in return.[1] In 2010 she flew back to Chico and recorded her first batch of songs in his studio, which became the Aimed for Night EP — material she used as a foundation for booking shows in New York.[1] Over roughly four years in Brooklyn she made herself part of the New York music scene, regularly playing shows, booking tours, and releasing a couple of 7-inches and EPs in addition to her first full-length, Rest Our Wings.[1] In New York she met cellist Dan Bindschedler, whose cello became a defining element of her subsequent releases; he initially laced cello into the seams of the largely-written Rest Our Wings.[1]
Leaving New York. After organizing a tour, she got sick on the first day out, lost her voice within five days and had to go home; bedridden, she realized she was unhappy and decided to leave New York, unsure whether she would keep playing music at all.[1] Before moving, she traveled with her band to an East Coast beach house to record five new songs in live takes.[1]
Portland. After settling in Portland, she released the beach-house recordings as the I Left You, Still in Love EP.[1] She described Portland as one of the most healing places to live and a place where she could work all day yet calm down when she wanted to be done.[1]
Water Dreams (2015)
Around her move to Portland, Bacior began having near-nightly dreams about bodies of water, which she understood as reflecting emotional changes depending on how the water moved.[1] She assembled these into the album Water Dreams, released Jan. 13, 2015 and available for preorder through her website.[1] Unlike her earlier releases — individually written songs bundled together — the ten tracks of Water Dreams were written specifically for the album, deliberately written one after another to move into one another.[1] It was also the first time she wrote songs with Bindschedler's cello at the forefront, leaving space for him to "be a true voice"; the two spent about a year working as a "bi-coastal duo," exchanging rough drafts by email before ironing songs out on a West Coast tour and recording them in Portland.[1] By the time of the profile Bindschedler had also migrated to Portland, reuniting the duo in one place.[1] The water theme runs through the album both sonically (long cello drawls, staccato "droplets") and lyrically (references to pools and oceans).[1]
Light It Moved Me (2018)
Bacior released Light It Moved Me on August 31, 2018 on Spirit House Records, produced by Bacior and Jeff Bond (who also engineered the record).[3] Thematically, the album focuses on finding a balance between interior and exterior selves — what we project and what we feel, and how that blends into what we actually believe — with imagery centered on looking for signs in shades of light.[3] Ten percent of all proceeds from the album benefit GRID Alternatives, a nonprofit that brings solar power to low-income communities.[3]
Discography
Bandcamp archives confirm the following release chronology:[5]
- Aimed for Night (EP, October 2010) — recorded at Chris Keene's Chico studio.[1][5]
- Man Before Me (7", March 2011).[5]
- Rest Our Wings (LP, November 2011) — first full-length album.[1][5]
- Shapes and Seasons (7", February 2013).[5]
- I Left You, Still in Love (EP, February 2013) — live beach-house recordings, released after moving to Portland.[1][5]
- Water Dreams (LP, January 13, 2015).[1][5]
- Light It Moved Me (LP, August 31, 2018) — on Spirit House Records.[3]
Writing and editorial career
Alongside her music, Bacior holds an MFA in creative nonfiction and has taught courses in journalism and academic and creative writing.[6] Her editorial work has included roles at Spotify for Artists and Sofar Sounds, as well as a position as culture editor at Portland's Pulitzer Prize-winning alternative weekly Willamette Week.[6] According to her She Is The Music profile, she has also contributed to Spin, Under the Radar, and the Portland Mercury; created "New Eyes," a photography column for Berlin-based Majestic Journal; and served as a senior staff writer for Consequence of Sound.[7]
Recognition and touring
Bacior has toured throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan.[4] She is the recipient of a Regional Arts and Culture Council Grant, a nominee for the Independent Music Awards, and a member of the Recording Academy.[4]
Local status
Bacior's hometown is Chico, California, which lies in Northern California but outside the Greater Sacramento region; she was based in Portland, Oregon (and previously Brooklyn) at the time of coverage, and passed through Sacramento on tour.[1] She is therefore best described as a regional / touring artist relative to the Sacramento scene rather than a Sacramento-origin local. Her Sacramento connection in the corpus is a single show at Naked Lounge (1111 H Street, downtown Sacramento) on Jan. 23, 2015, ten days after the Water Dreams release, with Grand Lake Islands also performing; the date was part of a tour running through the Pacific Northwest down to Southern California and Arizona.[1]
Note on Submerge bylines
Robin Bacior appears in the tag lists of many Submerge articles (e.g., features on Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, The Memorials, Marnie Stern, Y La Bamba, Quinn Hedges, Kisses, Mia Dyson, Dead Winter Carpenters, Heartsounds, Baskery, Wild Ones and Andrew Castro). In those pieces she is the article's writer (byline), not the subject. This page is based only on the single Submerge feature in which Bacior herself is the subject.[1]