What does it take to make it in the thriving jazz scene in New York or the indie hard rock scene of Seattle? 

Jemsite wants to find out!  In a new series, we've set out to find the best reps across the country to will tell us just what it means to make it in the big city music scene.

We begin with Portland, Oregon and one Angelo De Ieso II, an independent music promoter who has started the collective Pop Tomorrow! and is dedicated to promoting the independent and under the radar musicians of Oregon focusing on Portland. Let's see what he has to say about these Northwest up and comers and their flourishing musical success.

Tell us about yourself and how the musical work you do.

My name is Angelo De Ieso II.  I am an independent music promoter here in Portland, Oregon.  I began working with KPSU radio as the music director and started the collective known as Pop Tomorrow!  We are dedicated to promoting under the radar Oregon music with a primary focus on the Portland area.  That has expanded to include more of the Pac NW and Cascadia. Portland’s burgeoning music scene is so amazing that it is hard to keep up at times.  Great bands often only emerge as fleeting projects and several artists evolve and transgress as a part of this distinctly flourishing community.  I think soon Pop Tomorrow! will encompass more Washington artists as well. 

Tell us about the compilation CD you are currently working on.

I am super jazzed to be working on the second Pop Tomorrow! compilation.  I have been toiling over the whole medium format, but CD might be most suited.  The last disc was amazing thanks to a lot of great people such as Jared Mees, Dylan McConnell, Stuart Valentine, and Michael Fitzgerald just to name a few.  I am expecting the next comp to be more personalized and to feature a mesh of established and up-and-coming artists.  The difficult decision has been whether or not to repeat any of the former artists on this one.  I wish it could be a quintuple disc, but that would be a bit much I suppose.  The next comp is in the preliminary stages and I hope will hold up over time. 

Who are some of your musical influences?

I am not much of a musician, though I did play in a garage band a long while ago and have dabbled in four-track excursions.  My early musical inspiration was the 8-tracks that my mother used to play like Kenny Rogers, Juice Newton, and a lot of other contemporary pop music.  My father’s Summertime Gold tapes were great influences on my current taste as well.  Stuff like the Beach Boys, the Four Tops, and that song about the Purple People Eater really stand out at this moment.  In middle school I was big into the late 80s hip hop like Run DMC, NWA, 2 Live Crew, you name it… During my rebellious teenage years, I would site Metallica, GNR, and a bunch of grunge music as a big influence.  In my early 20s (dating myself a bit), I really was into punk rock ranging from spirit of ’77 oi to Bay Area speed punk.  The gamut is large, and I still love most of this stuff today. However, my primary focus, not just in music, but in other aspects of life, has been on local, community-oriented music.  Portland in particular is a wonderful region to live and love music. 

How can you best sum up the Portland music scene?

I think it is impossible to sum up Portland’s music scene because it is so rich and vast.  However, I guess that might be how I sum it up: rich and vast.   There are so many people moving to Portland from all over the place that the style ranges from back packer hip-hop to screamo to old timey to shoegazer.  I love it all and I am happy there is so much and the attitude is generally cooperative and supportive. 

What kind of artists do you review on your blog?

Well, its hard to define my feelings for music based on the reviews on my blog.  But I’d say the reviews I’ve done are a-typical to what most other publications have done.  I don’t want to be a carbon copy of the Willamette Week or Mercury, though I love those rags, but I really hope that the reviews I write will shine a light on a plethora of styles ranging from gospel contemporary to nutty eclectic grindcore. 

Why do you choose to focus on the local, independent, up and coming progressive artists and not the more mainstream ones?

I think the question here answers itself.  But, ok, I will say that as a promoter and reviewer of music you are responsible for archiving a moment in history.  History is just a perceived connotation of itself and to shed light on something that might otherwise go overlooked is so important to me.  I am less concerned about what the mainstream media thinks as I am what my immediate community feels.  I think that local and independent living is a keystone to human survival on some levels.  The dependency on foreign music is not good for the environment. 

How does guitar factor into the Portland music scene?

The guitar is a popular medium for expression in 20 and 21st Century music on so many levels.  The guitar is both primitive and futuristic in that in the grand scheme of things it is a relatively new technology, but with the implementation of electronic-based music, it can seem as though it is being outsourced by what some perceive as a heartless, talentless, algorithmic future.  

Where are some of the best places to go in Oregon to hear these up and comers?

Always have to give it up for house shows.  These are the cornerstone to community-based music and art.  Getting involved on community list serves and message boards  reveals several shows on any given night that can wow.  It really depends on your tastes and purpose for going out to see live music. 

What are some of the best events? For me, PDX Pop Now! Stands out as a prime event.  Each year this event showcases some amazing talent.  I am also enamoured by the bills that some of the local promoters like Zach’s Books can put together.  Sometime the best even is a live show on KPSU radio or KBOO.

What do you want people to know about the Portland music scene and what it can offer? 

Musicians, like craft beer brewers: Portland is a hard place to stand out in.  It is a wonderful spot to soak in all the great talent and flavor, but when it comes to being Thee Band, it is hard.  Portland’s music scene can offer an oasis of culture between San Francisco and Seattle and a unique enriched environment for young, innovative artists to flourish.  Portland, like any other place, is what you make of it.  I just happen to love it.

What kind of advice would you offer to up and coming artists trying to make it in Oregon—or more specifically Portland?

It is important to get a grasp of what you define “making it” as. Oregon is a unique mesh of sparse rural expanse with a metropolitan area that is an outlier from the rest of the region.  Be true to yourself, have fun, and work hard for what you want.  Same as it is everywhere else in some regards, I suppose, yet distinctly unique.  The great thing about Portland is that you have license to be freakier, weirder, and more of a hipster than you do in most other places in the world.  Everyone is striving for new goals everyday.  It is at the heart of what keeps us going, living, and creating.  Portland, or anywhere.