The Purchase Independent

By Madeleine Harrington

Elise Granata is a freshman at Purchase who hails from Trumbule, Connecticut. She is a journalism major interested in switching to arts management and she has a REALLY AWESOME ZINE.

• When did you start this zine?
I started it in March of this year. It was two and a half pages stapled together, so four pages. I don’t know why I did it that way, it was so ugly. It basically started with this coffee shop called Las Vitas in Connecticut. They were opening a new location and I thought it would be a cool thing to do because they were lining up their opening with local bands.

• You said that you’ve wanted to start a zine since eighth grade. What influenced the sparking of this idea?
It was more that I didn’t play an instrument- I had never been musically inclined but had always been involved in that scene. In high school I tried to attend at least one concert per week and I booked shows for a while. I eventually started writing a lot in a more journalistic way and wanted to combine the two passions, really just based off exactly what I wanted it to be. The first issue was really just about my friends and the coffee shop, but I have branched off with later issues. In terms of outside influences, I definitely read AP and online news sources but I was never crazy about them or thought, “this is what I want to do.” It really just came from what I wanted. I vividly remember driving in March, thinking about the period of time between graduation and the internship that I had lined up for the summer and how I needed to do something to fill up that time.

• What is the time span between each distribution?
I originally started doing it monthly, doing issues for March, April and May. However, that ended up being an overwhelming amount of work and money, so now I think I am just going to do seasonal issues.

• How do you distribute it?
There is passive marketing, which is when I just leave it in cafes or markets and then there’s active marketing, which is probably what I’ll do here, which is where I actively hand them out to people. I will also give them to my friends to distribute when they tour out of state or through a friend’s record label, whose residence is in New Orleans. I don’t know if people will read them, but it’s nice to give them the chance to.

• Coming from Connecticut and being interested in the music scene there, how would you say the Purchase music scene differs?
Here there is a lot more variety, but not necessarily quality. There are a lot more opportunities so people are quick to say, “let’s form a band” without any thought. Whereas at home you really had to work hard in order to get what you wanted. It makes it a lot more challenging for the listener to pick out what is a good band and what isn’t. As a writer, I’ve had a ton of people approach me and I can’t include all. You really have to see what you can make shine through the music.

• What is on your iTunes recently played?
In terms of Purchase bands, my favorites are probably We Are Not Bears and Zona Mexicana. I have also been listening to Tiger’s Jaw, a melodic hardcore group, Inkwell Rhythm Makers and Algernon Cadewaller.

• So the recipes are pretty cool…
Yeah, that’s actually a new thing. Most of it is based on things my friends have told me. I have a friend who is in a hardcore band and also a vegan cook, which is where I got the cookie recipe from. I want to make the issues more thematic, so I tried to pick “fall-y” things.

• Reflections on the most recent issue?
Since the past issues have been very review heavy, I wanted to make this one more interview heavy. I felt more invested than previous issues, which of course is a positive change. The articles required more knowledge and basically I really had to care. This issue is also double the size of the last issue which makes it pretty financially pressing. I am probably going to start making it donation based so I can afford to keep doing it.

• Tell me about what the zine will look like in one year from now.
It’s stressful to think it will still be happening. I wouldn’t want to see it so much in its actual form any more- by then I would like to start writing for bigger things, already established review forms, even radio shows. I see this as a platform to help further what I am interested in- to have something as tangible as this really shows how many hours you’ve dedicated and just how hard you’ve worked.

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