Interview with Julia Othmer

Julia: I am Julia Othmer, AKA I am a Forcefield, I am one half of the duo The Forcefields. We are an immersive, live music experience with artist made visual projections. I love the fact that I had the privilege of growing up in the midwest because I think that the general feeling of midwesterners to the world is an openness and a kindness and a practical common sense. Building community and warmth, and I think that’s been such a beneficial thing to be able to travel with throughout the world having at my baseline and core a sense of decent amount of trust and care for the person next to me. I think that’s a very midwest trait, and I think that a fundamental thing to building creativity is being able to really go out into the world and see things for what they are, and be able to have this warm relationship and curious dynamic with it. Because I didn’t grow up anywhere else, I don’t know what that would be like. But I love that warmth. Because we are on tour more and more, I love coming back to the midwest to be able to incubate, quiet down, hibernate and really focus on the work that I’m doing and the work that we are creating. And also we feel like it's been such a privilege (my partner is from Cornwall, England) to be in this part of the world because we’ve been able to work and collaborate with really amazing, world class artists. 

 

Molly: I feel a lot of warmth in the midwest too. That trust for the people around you is real. 

 

Julia: And I think it offers the possibility for collaboration and teamwork, and I think all of art essentially is teamwork on one level or another. So when you have that warmth in your community, of collaboration and curiosity, there’s something fundamentally invigorating and sustainable for the development of one’s arts practice. I get to work with Meredith Lockhart, and that’s awesome. When I lived in Los Angeles you had artists everywhere, but you didn’t necessarily have this general feeling of curious collaboration, excitement, what can we make together! You didn’t have that as close to the surface as you do in other places. 

 

Molly: Yeah, there’s a willingness to work together as artists, in some places there’s that competitive feel. But you don’t get a lot of that here.

 

Julia: And I don’t think that competition is necessarily a bad thing because sometimes that can be exactly what you need to push you forward as an artist. I’ve intentionally created those dynamics with other artists. Like another song writer and I will both write a song this month, well now that I’ve made this promise to her, and I have such respect from them, their skill is actually prompting me to ask more of myself. So I do think there’s an excellent role for competition. There’s probably other words we could use around that same dynamic of being excited in other artist’s work and whether or not that stimulates you or inspires you. To be able to lean into that as a resource is brilliant. 

 

Molly: I love that. You talked a little bit about working with Meredith, could you talk about how you met Meredith and Patty? And how your relationship has turned into what it has today. 

Julia: Meredith and I first met working together in Kansas City at a place called Chameleon Theatre Company, and Meredith was one of the artists of our ensemble, nonprofit group. We were working with young people in our community to create socially-relevant works of art, sort of on the same level as the professional artists. Where professional artists can also be imparting their skills and wisdom so that the young people could be learning to develop not only as artists but as business people and ideators within the arts world. We were teaching both workplace skills and artistic creativity, and that’s how Meredith and I first met.

 

Meredith: We worked with a lot of intercity and adjudicated youth, which was quite the experience. 

 

Julia: It was amazing, and also I got to meet a crew of people from Atchison because of being a part of this theatre company including Len Matthies. It gave me an understanding of Atchison, because these awesome human beings were from Atchison and I hadn’t really explored Atchison or ever been here. And because of the delightful invitation of Meredith and Len I came and did concerts like at the VFW Hall. And the thing that I really love about artists is when artists are in a group relationship with one another we open up each other’s worlds. And so I feel like not only did I get to meet this amazing community (and hopefully will be meeting more) I got to meet Atchison! Now that I’ve had the great opportunity to perform in a variety of markets in several countries, there’s just something I really really love about smaller communities coming together specifically around art and the dedication and the involvement of the community when that happens. So I’m particularly excited to perform here because communities that are smaller are of much more interest to me than necessarily going back and playing New York or LA. I’ll do those things, but I love seeing how art brings community together and community evokes art from its world.

 

Molly: So that was one of the questions I had was how is community part of your practice and what does it mean to participate in community as an artist? 

 

Julia: I think for me community is fundamentally the understanding that every performance we do is not just us performing, it’s the entire group of people who are gathering together; people behind the bar, the doorperson, tech people, the audience, us on stage. We have designed events that happen before the concert so we can engage with the people who have come together for the performance, and also help facilitate people at a performance engaging with each other. So we have a lot of different fun activities that can spark play and connectivity because that’s one of the greatest uses of art is being a bridge between us. In all kinds of ways, whether it’s understanding each other’s stories or learning more about the world or just figuring out ways to play with each other. Especially as adults, art is an incredible way for us to play and get together. 

 

Molly: I believe that art is a strong tool to build community and bridge gaps, I love that. What’s something you’re looking forward to performing at the community showcase? Is there anything specific? 

 

Julia: I’m really excited to meet the audience and meet the artists and arts lovers that will be gathering, and see what kind of magic we all weave together that night. Our performance, we really go on an emotional rollercoaster. 

 

Molly: What are some of the things you’re hoping for the audience to experience? 

 

Julia: I think I love it when people find another part of themself, our aim is is for people to walk away from an experience with the Forcefields feeling better about themselves, feeling seen, being reflected, also being considered and absorbed so that our future stories will involve all the characters who show up at our performances. So every night is different, even if we have our performance really well planned out, every night is different because of the people that are there. Conducting the energy, we are all in that space together for that period of time and we are affecting each other constantly. Can we be affecting each other in the highest form of vibration, where when we leave we’re all walking on air a little bit. I would hope people feel good about themselves. We’re all creating the night. If anything else, let The Forcefields be an excuse for you to explore yourself. Come dressed in costume, we heavily invite you to come dressed as the brilliance that you are, whatever that means for you. We’re gonna invite you to become members of The Forcefields, we’ll invite you to create a persona so you get to create a name and be part of our registry. This is also an opportunity to play with an identity and be a character. Use it as a way to step into something that might be exciting or a little scary.

 

Molly: So let’s say someone has never heard of The Forcefields, how would you describe it? 

 

Julia: We are an immersive live music concert experience with artist-made visual projections. We do not use AI in our work. We’ve been called part theater, part concert, part spectacle, and I think it’s different for every person. It’s an experience. 

 

Molly: You kind of bridge the gap of visual art, auditory art, fashion, what kind of connections do you see between all of those things?

 

Julia: Honesty. Even if it’s the greatest fantasy ever, if it’s honest, it resonates. One of my teachers said with every element you bring into the work you do, is it there to create distance or is it there to invite in. Are the various things that we’re building in this world, are they intended to keep distance or to bring people in? Are there big gates between the performer and the audience, is there a big space between what we are talking about and what we think people might be experiencing? I hope that with what we’re doing that we’re inviting people to come in closer, to themselves, to each other, to us. 

 

Molly: I think a lot of this can be connected to self care, creative care and overall wellness. I’m really interested in bringing those together, wellness and creativity. What are some ways that you find yourself caring for yourself, your creativity and your community? 

 

Julia: I think the less that I adhere to an idea of what it’s supposed to look like, the freer I am to go with the flow of whatever it may be. I’m noticing I have cycles, not only within a day but within a year, like I really like the deep winter. That’s a really good time for me to collect and to read and to build up some of the new images that I wanna have involved in our work or new ideas. Honoring the fact that we’re in cycles, we’re not the same energy all the time every day and if we are I think that’s a really unusual dynamic. I have ups and downs, everyone does, so that would be in relationship to my creative practice. I have this over-riding idea of like, “I must work or I’m not a good artist” sometimes that’s the worst thing you can do. Sometimes the best thing you can do is stop, go take a walk, have a cup of coffee or just leave it for a few weeks. Give yourself that ebb and flow, just like the tides. You have moments of greater intensity, you have moments of greater relaxation, and both are fundamentally useful. The times when I’m not working, I need to daydream. I need to meditate. I need to connect to all these ideas and find out which ones that really resonate. If I don’t have time for that reflection, I’m just trudging in the mud all the time. Also when you're expressing yourself, so many health issues come from when we are expressing ourselves and we aren’t letting that energy flow from our own beings. I think one of the beautiful things about the container The Forcefields offers is a space and place where everyone is welcome. When you cross that line you are now inside the forcefield, you are protected and cared for and safe. I hope that we can be a part of facilitating wellness in the people that come to our events, so that they can also feel rejuvenated and inspired from having experienced some time in the arts world.

 

Molly: I think a lot of times we get stuck in this capitalistic cycle, I have to be producing, I have to be working to be valuable, I think that really impacts the work. I know as an artist, if I am forcing myself to do it, nothing good is coming out of it. So I think this connection of self care and creative care is really the next big thing we see in the art world. 

 

Julia: Some of the things we are doing is post-growth economics, which is removing one’s self from this capitalist mindset. Which generally is every year we need to show growth, we need to show more money, we need to be building, we need more. That’s sort of the capitalist business model. Well, that also can be really exhausting and you can go through resources really quickly. Something we’re doing is we’re choosing to slow down. So for example, normally when you go on tour you would want to have a show every night. Often when you come back from a tour, you’re sick, you’re exhausted, you haven’t eaten well, hopefully your voice and ability to perform has stayed intact through that schedule, but it’s not likely especially for vocalists. So we’re slowing everything down. We go on tour, we might have shows back to back but we want to be able to arrive at the venue, have meetings like this, come into a community and build relationships so we can also come back. We’re interested in being a part of the performance as one aspect of what we could potentially facilitate in a community. There’s so many benefits. We get to have deeper relationships with the people we’re presenting events with, we can have time to breathe deeply and be able to connect with the audiences. Not just in the performance space but before and after. Taking time, being present, that requires care.

 

Molly: I think the slowing down and taking time is really good advice for everyone right now. What does the future look like for The Forcefields? So slowing down is definitely on that.

 

Julia: Slowing down in order to speed up in a way. Slowing down doesn’t mean that we’re doing less work, the work is deeper and with greater consideration. We’re detailed people, we’re making that and working with artists to make that. That’s expensive and it takes time and it takes energy and we are very proud and happy to do that work. Why not take that time and moment with the audiences that are sharing it with you? Also because one of the greatest gifts of being on tour is people like to share their stories with us, and sometimes in an evening there isn’t enough time for that. Imagine if we’re also at the venue the next day and you wanna come back. So you’re sort of slowing down but you’re concentrating and enriching.