The pandemic has been hard on Vanessa Jean Speckman, Columbus, OH via California-based visual artist. It started for her on a tour bus in the UK, midway through the trek of a lifetime, with punk-royalty Frank Turner’s acoustic revue, cut abruptly short in October, 2020 by news reports of a spreading virus that quickly shut the world down. Vanessa and her partner Micah Schnabel somehow managed to get back to the States and have spent the last 19 months in their apartment, checking in occasionally through live streams and social media “wellness checks,” unselfishly asking how their friends were doing, and letting everyone know that they were hurting too; careers on hold, but not the bills, anxiety rising.
Vanessa Jean Speckman and Micah Schnabel
A student of the art and music of Patti Smith, and in constant proximity to one of this generation’s most eclectic and exciting songwriters, it was only natural for VJS to drift into the audio realm. She’s now taking it to the next level with a band of her own – Call Me Rita – featuring members of Two Cow Garage and Lydia Loveless’ band, and releasing their first song to the world this week – “Are You OK?” The song is noisy and chaotic, textured, and beautiful. It’s a perfectly timed and executed two and a half minutes of driving bass, guitar noises, and slightly buried poetry, so as to not overshadow the music. It would not have been at all out of place onstage at The Second Chance in Ann Arbor in the late ‘70s, but it’s got a modern feel for sure, especially when it kicks into a more traditional punk-rock beat towards the last quarter of the song. Fans of White Lung, Patti Smith, and Dark Carnival will be in heaven.
Call Me Rita - 2021
Vanessa’s name has come up regularly in weekly Pencil Storm staff meetings for a few years now – and we’ve finally got her, stepping bravely into a new world, ready to share her experiences with our readers. Please buy yourself a copy of “Are You OK?” and crank it while you read our next installment of “Five Questions With.” Thanks Vanessa!
Call me Rita - 2021
Vanessa Jean! Hello from Michigan! How's your pandemic been? I mean, I feel like we've kind of seen each other a bit through web-streams and a bit of social media and that sort of thing, but aside of that, it's been a crazy year & a half, eh?
Jeremy! Thank you for reaching out! Writing to you from my second story studio in Columbus, Ohio on our first proper day of autumnal weather. My pandemic has been pretty damn awful and difficult. I was on the tour of my lifetime in the UK - proper tour bus and everything - when the world blew up. It’s pretty much felt like survival mode for the past 19 months. My partner and I both tour full time so that was a huge blow to our little family; mentally, spiritually and financially.
The new CMR song is really great - congrats! Maybe I'm wrong, but I've always associated you with your visual art more so than music. What drove you in that direction and how did you get from conception to where you are - releasing a song?
Thanks so much! I am definitely surrounded by amazing company with the guys in the band. I’ve been surrounded by both visual art and music since I was a kid, but only explored visual art, which has often overlapped in the music world for the past 20 years - from music photography, zine making and art shows in the Bay Area punk scene growing up. Micah and I have been together for 10 years, so I think that it’s only natural that both of our artistic voices have woven their way into one another’s work. Micah started playing guitar for me like Lenny Kaye while I read my poems, which was the confidence boost and noise I needed to start what we’re doing now with Call Me Rita.
The song "Are You OK?" was mixed and mastered by Frank Turner. You've known him for a while, no? How did that friendship come about?
What a wonderful human being he is! We’ve been friends for 14 years or so now. We met in California where I lived at the time making Lubricated Zine and he was on one of his first tours out West and we became friends. They’d crash at our house when they were still in a van and we’ve just always supported each other’s artistic pursuits and overall happiness. He’s asked me to make art for him, been supportive of one another in difficult times, and the last thing we got to do in person was go on tour together with our partners while we were all working under our individual art, which in my world, it doesn't get much more beautiful than that.
Wildcard! What else is going on? How is Columbus? Are you focusing strictly on music or still creating your visual/wearable art as well? What kind of amazing baked goods are coming out of the oven at 3am?
Columbus is great! Without touring, we’ve really gotten to explore and enjoy the city. Lots of metro parks, taco trucks, and driving through unfamiliar neighborhoods. I’ve been having a hard time focusing in general, which I am trying to remind myself to be gentle with. I just started doing pop up art shops and participating in fleas and markets again, so I’ve been getting that side of things dusted off and fired up before the holidays. Writing wise, I am always working on new Call Me Rita and trying to finish up/stop being scared and put out this book of poems and collected writings.
I love a 3am baking adventure. It’s like a meditation for me. Though I am learning a whole new art form to baking since being diagnosed with Celiac. Gluten Free baking is a whole new formulaic science and it requires a new focus I haven’t quite gotten in place, but we’re laughing through the flops and keeping note of the victories. I just miss a really good croissant.
And finally - what's next for Call Me Rita? Are there more songs coming? A full-length? A tour?
Micah and myself are pretty adamant about not returning to this “post pandemic new norm.” We plan to treat song releases a bit like a record release and not sit on songs or art and feel pressured to save them up, make a record, press it up sorta formulaic box and bow pattern. Winter is notoriously difficult for artists and musicians, so I hope we can generate a bit of movement to help us get back into the studio and record another song, release that and we’ll just keep making our work. Our band’s mental health collectively sky rocketed that day in the studio and we all agreed it was the happiest we’d been in awhile. I hope I can continue to generate space for us to create. I hope to do that all with Call Me Rita in 2022.
Stream/Buy “Are You OK?” By Call Me Rita here:
https://callmerita.bandcamp.com/track/are-you-ok
Jeremy Porter lives near Detroit and fronts the rock and roll band Jeremy Porter And The Tucos. Follow them on Facebook to read his road blog about their adventures on the dive-bar circuit.
www.thetucos.com
www.facebook.com/jeremyportermusic
www.rockandrollrestrooms.com
Twitter: @jeremyportermi | Instagram: @onetogive & @jeremyportermusic
