Asheville/Knoxville

Towards the end of March, my team at IBM was given Thu+Fri off and during the beginning of that week I started looking into a strange little festival that I heard of, called Big Ears. It had been a little more than a month before my last travel (Atlanta) and I was itching to go somewhere. I saw that Four Tet was going to be there and I was going through a phase of just listening to his music on repeat.

Like an idiot I scheduled two nights in Knoxville, unknowingly realizing later that I’d spend all day Friday in Asheville. Asheville is that one city in NC that everyone loves, and I had never been to. I went full planning-mode and scheduled a tour of the Moog Music Factory, and a tour of the New Belgium Brewery (I know that doesn’t sound like a lot of planning but for me it is, shiiiit).

So Moog Music is an amazing company that creates beautiful synthesizers. The founder Robert Moog created the first modular synth, and the rest was history. It felt so inspiring to be there and to play all the available synthesizers they have. As a musician, I find the application of LFA filters / envelops / oscillators to be heaven. Anything that really lets me modulate the sound to my liking fills me with so much happiness.

The tour was great, they first gave a brief overview of the history of some of the instruments, like the theremin, and the mini-moog, the moog-55. Later came the tour of the production line, oh yeah I didn’t mention, all of their analog synthesizers are made RIGHT THERE in Asheville. I saw tons of engineers with oscilloscopes, voltage meters, soldering irons left and right. It really took me back to my days as a computer engineering major in college.

After that I went to a restaurant called Cúrate, luckily I was able to walk in a get a seat at the bar. Made a dent in my wallet 😭 but everything was perfect, Iberican pork, lamb skewers, and chorizo. Afterwards I stumbled into a record store nearby and picked up a some music before heading to New Belgium. The tour was awesome and the weather was perfect. I’m not too into breweries and beer, but walking around and seeing the development process and history of a brewery was fascinating.

The next day was the third day of the festival, and holy fuck the festival was a combination of avant-garde jazz, world music, experimental electronic and some techno. Four Tet, Kelly Lee Owens, and Laurel Halo were the main musicians I saw, but I stumbled into a choir performance at the Knoxville Museum of Art, and some country and bluegrass performances at some smaller venues. I didn’t expect Four Tet’s set to slap as hard as it did.

There’s something indescribable about traveling to a new city, exploring the area at your own pace, and taking in what it has to offer. I’m glad I got the opportunity to explore Asheville and Knoxville for the brief time that I was there.

Some images from my trip.

Originally published on willchavez.com on April 9, 2018.