If you’ve come here to read this then I think we can all agree that Umphrey’s McGee is one of the best, if not the best rock bands in the music industry right now. These six grown men have been touring almost all year round for twenty-two years of their lives. They were all geared up for another banging year of rock and roll until COVID hit and caused them to take a step back. Suddenly, their well-known tour life was taken away from them. They were forced to approach making music for their fan base in a completely different way. They were forced to dial all the way back to their original skill sets and to get reminded of why they do this. Right now, we are lucky enough to witness a whole new era of Umphrey’s McGee. We are getting in touch with their personalities more and more every day. I can’t think of a better time than to hone in on what exactly it is that makes Umphrey’s tick. Fortunately for myself, I am not the only one who feels this way. Sara Jachimiak from Dropped Among This Crowd Podcast and I have joined forces to bring you our umphreak baby that is “Conduit Magazine.”
“Conduit Magazine” is an electronic magazine centering around the progressive and improvisational rock and roll band, Umphrey’s McGee. We are putting this together to not only fill you in on what you missed in either the Umphrey’s world, the podcast or the blog throughout the month but to also bring us all together in a time when we could use some support. We want to highlight things in the Umphrey’s world but we would also like to highlight the community and all the amazing umphreaks that come together to make this band whole.
Sara had me on the show for an interview on Wednesday sept 9th to talk about the blog and our new “baby” that we have been pregnant for way too long with. I also got to talk to Sara about her life with Umphrey’s being her favorite band. Sara Jachimiak is such an amazing person. She is a mom of 3, a homeschool teacher, a podcast host and an entrepreneur. On top of that, she is constantly building other people up, being a go getter and always thirsty for more adventure. That being so, it was easy for us to bounce ideas off each other. And that does tend to happen often! Throughout one of our ”Voxer” messages (a place where we can easily discuss the ideas that come to our minds at any given point of the day), we both realized that we were the conduits of the story of Umphrey’s McGee. When I heard Sara say that she felt like a conduit my brain nearly exploded because that too is what I thought of myself as. What a perfect name for this adventure in front of us. And if we needed any more confirmation that we should be doing this together we could count on our boys to give it to us. When the band opened their recent live stream, Wrapped in the Round, with the song “Conduit,” Sara and I couldn’t stand our excitement any longer. The boys had spoken, and we were (much) obliged to hear their message!
Sara and I crossed paths through the graces of social media because we both had a dedicated hobby about Umphrey’s. We coincidentally started our Umphrey’s based projects only one day apart from each other. She began DATCP on May 1st, 2018 and I began Mulche Obliged Blog on May 2nd, 2018. She originally reached out to me about two years ago and from there we formed a friendship based off the like mind-ness of our love of Umphrey’s and how we view life. Sara and mine’s relationship bloomed pretty much through the usage of our phones. I have only ever met her in person once quickly after a show. I don’t even think we talked for a full minute. But that doesn’t make our relationship any less special, in fact I feel like it makes it more special. There’s no need to hide who you really are when you can type out exactly how you feel about a situation. Very quickly, we started to talk almost every day because we came to find how much we have in common (like the fact that we are both BARC’s- Bad Ass Rocker Chicks). A business relationship quickly morphed into a personal relationship. I’ve come to not only know Sara but to know her family as well. In fact, her nine-year-old daughter, Marley, is one of my BFF’s and I very much look forward to our weekly keyboard sessions. We even have the occasional “girl’s night,” with the addition of Brendan (her five-year-old son) of course. We do nails, eat junk food and watch movies through FaceTime. It’s safe to say that Sara is one of my closest friends.
Late last year she reached out to me and asked if I wanted help with the show. She didn’t need to go into further detail because I was immediately on board. Right away we started discussing all the ideas swirling around in our heads. We were trying to figure out what to do together. Through time and a lot of talk about Umphrey’s, she came to me with the idea of a newsletter. This was humorous to me because this had been an idea in my head as well! Once we started talking further about the project, we realized that there was something bigger lying under the surface. After all, two girls who talk about this band as much as we do couldn’t use just one page of a newsletter to fill you all in on what is on our minds! Plus, we had too many good ideas. So, then the idea of a magazine manifested, implanted itself in our creative brains and we got to work.
“Conduit Magazine” will be available on the last Friday of this month. Keep your eyes peeled this coming Friday (9/18/20) for more information on how you can sign up to receive an issue! In the meantime, you can listen to our conversation on Dropped Among This Crowd Podcast. We talk about our first Umphrey’s shows, our favorite things about the band and the community, the creation of our projects and much, much more!
Mark your calendars and help us celebrate the birth of our umphreak baby coming to you on 9/25/20!
Listen to the podcast here or watch on Instagram TV @droppedamongthiscrowdpodcast
This blog was edited and helped written by Ryan Whitacre
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