But we're wandering off topic here. Starting over . . .
It's been circulating around the Boundary County Worldwide Community. One word-of-mouth by one word-of-mouth at a time. One Facebook post, one Twitter tweet at a time.
We decided it's time to bust this thing wide open, so here it is:
Have you seen the new music video Bonners Ferry, performed by the group Runaway Symphony, featuring Boundary County resident Daniel Botkin?
That's the question going around. The video, currently counting 2,500 people who have seen it, is on YouTube.
(Click anywhere on this blue box below to watch the performance of the song Bonners Ferry):
The full, complete story is right here.
And that story starts with Daniel Botkin, whose family moved to Boundary County from Oregon when he was age seven. He and his siblings were raised on a farm in the Porthill area.
"I spent much of my childhood outside, either working on the farm or exploring the woods we lived by," said Mr. Botkin. "For the most part, life was pretty isolated; my family was removed from the sounds and busyness of civilization, and we didn’t watch TV or listen to much radio, so we were sheltered from the influence of pop culture—which I’m really thankful for."
The children in his family were schooled at home, although Daniel and his brother participated in the sports programs at the middle school and at Bonners Ferry High School. Daniel played on the football team and the track team. "Sports were kind of the counterpoint to my homeschooling, and taught me things like social skills, teamwork, and how to face adversity."
Daniel is essentially self-taught as a musician. "I never had a formal lesson, I never practiced a scale, but there were instruments in various parts of the house, and I really just experimented with the way they worked," he said. "I played notes, and combinations of notes, and eventually chords like I was learning words. I think I actually understand the mechanics of music better than if I had taken lessons."
At age 17, Daniel moved to Moscow, Idaho, to attend the University of Idaho. There he studied graphic design, an interest he has had over the years. It was around this time that he first started composing music, and first met the members of his future band, Runaway Symphony.
"Runaway Symphony started in 2010 as a project between brothers Chris Lowe and Jason Oliveira (both from Moscow), and myself," said Daniel. "The three of us had played together in other settings, and we were good buddies with similar taste and a lot of passion and enthusiasm, so we decided to team up and see if we could create something beautiful."
AJ Stevens, from western Washington, was in the Palouse area at the time, and began spending a lot of time with the band, running sound and helping with mixing some of the songs. He eventually joined Runaway Symphony as bass player. Later Jarin Bressler, from Coeur d'Alene, joined to play keyboards.
"My main role in the band is lyricist," said Mr. Botkin. "I write the words to our songs, and usually start writing the music, but most of our songs come together as a collaboration, and that’s an important part of what we do. We want our music to be something that brings people together and creates community and common ground, and I think that mentality has to be there in the songwriting."
The story on Runaway Symphony: Mr. Botkin describes the band as indie rock/folk. As lyricist, he hopes to put together music that tells a story, and does so with conviction. "One of the things that really concerns me about my generation is the total lack of content," he said. "It’s frightening, really, the stuff that’s on the radio these days. There’s a song that simply repeats the command to 'wiggle' in the refrain. And there's a dance anthem that’s in a language no one understands."
"Most of today’s music is either about selfishness or, more often than not, nothing at all. It really upset me for a while, like ‘why is this popular?’ But I realized recently that this stuff isn’t just unique to my generation, it has been going on for a while, and will probably continue indefinitely; and even though that’s a little bit sad, it means there is a huge demand for stories. It means that artists and writers who have deep conviction can offer something that those without cannot: a narrative."
Runaway Symphony has played gigs ranging from a trailer park in Oklahoma (on Halloween, no less), to the Doe Bay Fest in Olga, Washington, performing with Eric Hutchinson at the University of Idaho’s Palousafest, and playing Washington State University’s Springfest, which featured Snoop Dog.
One of their craziest gigs occurrred once when they were scheduled to play at the Garland Theater in Spokane in the middle of winter. They had to leave Moscow late due to a church event that same evening. They weren't on the road long, headed to Spokane, when their van broke down. Fortunately, there was another vehicle traveling with them. Grabbing their most essential band gear, they piled into the other vehicle, and eventually arrived at the Garland.
That is when they discovered their performance was following a burlesque dancing act. At midnight, when their turn to perform finally came, they discovered something else: apparently most of the audience must have come just to see the burlesque show. "By the time we played our set, everyone but the sound guy and a few stragglers had gone home. The sound system was terrible, and to top it all off, we had to drive back to Moscow that night."
Daniel Botkin composed the song Bonners Ferry. It was written last year, in the weeks before the band was scheduled to perform in concert in Bonners Ferry at the Pearl Theater. "I was trying to think about ways to connect with the folks, ways to express my love and appreciation for my old home, so I started working on a song about Bonners Ferry."
It wasn't until the band was actually traveling from Moscow to Bonners Ferry for their performance that Mr. Botkin told his fellow band members about the song he had written, a song about a small town, with what he thought seemed to be a fairly narrow focus and narrow audience. "It’s kind of a personal song, so I was a little bashful and reluctant to show it to the band, but we started talking about our set during the drive up, and we discussed the possibility of playing it as an encore."
After his band mates had heard the song for the first time, literally while on the road, driving in their van up to their Bonners Ferry performance, they put together its final assembly of parts and harmonies. "I sang it to the guys as we drove north on 95, and they came up with some really tasteful harmonies."
"At the end of our set that night, we walked off stage, sang the chorus once through to make sure we all had our parts, and went for it. It was a really beautiful moment, one of those rare occasions that you just can’t rehearse, where everything lines up in a magical epiphany, where the music does exactly what it’s supposed to, and art, for an instant, shows us something about our own story."
What kind of a reception has the song Bonners Ferry had? According to Mr. Botkin, "We got a lot of really positive feedback after we performed the song that first night, but I wasn’t sure if we would ever do it again. It’s just such a specific song, and is so tied to a specific place, that I wondered if anyone outside Boundary County would care for it. Oddly enough, the decision to perform it for one of our Ballard Session videos [which is where the YouTube video of the song came from] was kind of last minute as well, but it ended up coming together really nicely, and once the video was up, we started getting positive feedback from all kinds of places."
And now you know the story of the Runaway Symphony song, Bonners Ferry. If you have heard the song, and if you know Boundary County, you may well agree that the song, in its quiet way, does much to capture a feeling about the place we call home, and captures something about the mystical reason why folks--the Boundary County Worldwide Community--never really wants to let go fully of its ties to our home.
Runaway Symphony continues to play in venues around the Northwest and around the country. They anticipate scheduling a future appearance at the Pearl Theater in Bonners Ferry, although the specific details of a local performance are still being put together.
Runaway Symphony official website: http://www.runawaysymphony.com/
To watch the YouTube video of the song Bonners Ferry, go to this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsocAFwA1DQ