Butler’s music winning rave reviews
Russell Butler is an artist through and through. By day, he is inside the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art helping with exhibitions there; in his spare time he is part of the city’s underground scene, performing his unique brand of techno music.
“The Bay area has this reputation of being this space where people come and feel inspired to try new and different things,” Mr Butler, 29, said.
“A lot of it has to do with just the people around here. I moved out here in 2009 with a couple of friends from college. Them, and the people I’ve met along the way, are very involved in the arts scene.
“Of course, there are big-name artists who inspire me, but there are also lots of people in my immediate community that I gain a great deal of inspiration from.”
He draws on the landscape’s diversity for inspiration. Drive two hours in any direction from San Francisco and you’re in a completely different terrain — thick, dense forest or the winding coastline.
“If you drive four hours you’ll find yourself in the mountains and surrounded by nature,” he said.
“Bermuda is definitely beautiful, but while living there I never really got a sense of how big things really could be.”
His father, Dale Butler, and grandparents, Georgine and Hilton Hill, encouraged him to pursue the arts. He started playing the violin at the age of 4, following in the footsteps of his older brother Jay.
“My dad would take us to our solo lessons and then we had group lessons on the weekends and regular recitals, so that was my formal introduction to the arts,” he said.
“My grandmother was a painter and my grandfather was a photographer for a long time, so their house was covered with art.
“My grandmother was a patron for the Bermuda National Gallery and always took me and my brother there. It was just something that was mixed into our family dynamic.”
He soon discovered there were limited avenues for his art here.
“As soon as I hit my teens it became very clear to me that very few people around me were interested in the same things I was, like techno music,” he said.
“It was inevitable for me to look beyond the Island to find what I really wanted.
“Being here in San Francisco has definitely opened up my mind. I’ve been living in the United States now for almost 13 years, so I’ve developed this really great sense that things can be bigger, but it’s only been in the past couple of years, especially with my music, I’ve been able to dream really big.”
Last April Mr Butler released an album, God Is Change, with help from a British independent label, Opal Tapes.
“They have a very strong cult following,” he said. “If you look up their social media they have tens of thousands of followers on Facebook, Sound Cloud and Twitter.
“They’re known for having very specific taste in music and a different aesthetic visually, so to be a part of it is amazing. I feel like I’ve arrived in this place and it’s one of the best spaces my music can inhabit.”
The album was released digitally as well as on cassette tape. It helped mark a dynamic year; Mr Butler was the opening act for a sold-out concert featuring electronic artist Holly Herndon.
“Since then I’ve had other great shows and my music got some pretty great reviews,” he said.
“National Public Radio selected mine as one of their ten favourite electronic albums of 2015. That was pretty exciting for me because I’d never made a year-end list. That blog post also had tens of thousands of people see it.
“I’m on the list with people who have much longer careers and people who get to perform internationally, so to be the small potato in there was really cool and validating.
“It was the first time I could share something with my family and be like, ‘This is what I do!’, in a place that makes sense for them. I was like, ‘Look, what I do is real’.”
• You can download God Is Change at www.bandcamp.com.
Here are some of Russell Butler’s suggestions for visitors to the San Francisco Bay area:
1. Visit Golden Gate Park. When Mr Butler is looking for a casual afternoon outside, one of his first stops is beautiful Golden Gate Park. It has two incredible museums: de Young fine arts museum and the California Academy of Sciences — Mr Butler’s favourite. The latter has a rainforest and aquarium.
2. Try out its eclectic restaurants. Mr Butler lives in diverse Oakland. You’ll meet people from around the world, such as Vietnam, Laos, China, Cambodia and East and West Africa, and have the opportunity to taste their cuisine. Mr Butler loves Taqueria Cancún, a Mexican restaurant known for its great tacos, and a Burmese restaurant called Yamo. “It doesn’t look like much from the outside,” he said. “You walk in and there’s a kitchen and a counter and about eight seats. But it’s owned by three sisters and has a really quick turnover. The food is really good as well.”
3. Take a stroll around The Mission District. This little area has great shopping and an outdoor area called Dolores Park. The park has tennis and basketball courts, a football field, a children’s playground, and a play area for dogs. “It’s a really nice, vibrant neighbourhood and easy to walk around and has great public transportation links,” he said.
4. Check out the music at Aquarius Records. Mr Butler is a big fan of vinyl records and has found lots of great stores around his neighbourhood. Aquarius is his favourite.
5. Watch a documentary at Oddball Film. This offbeat video shop also hosts evening film screenings. “It’s an independently run film archive that’s in this nondescript looking building, but when you go inside you find tons and tons of shelves stocked full of film reels,” he said. “The person who owns it just travels all over the world and, whether digging through university dumpsters or going to estate sales, collects these films and documentaries. It’s a lot of fun.”
