young artist initiative at bardot: a chat with plastic pinks

There's a nice event tonight at Bardot called Young Artist Initiative. "Young" "Artist" and "Initiative" are all words that catch my attention, so I decided to have a little chat with some of the artists that their highlighting in this night celebrating young, ambitious musical talent on a week that isn't in early December (Basel) or late March (WMC) (catch my drift?). They also used the word "nu-disco" in the press release and I have no idea what that means, but I like the sound of it. Maybe I can get to the bottom of that before the event in a few hours.

Events, like the Young Artist Initiative, at places like Bardot, are helping Miami form a musical identity and giving a stage to young talent who deserve to be heard.

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Here's my chat with Plastic Pinks:

Hi there, let's get the basics out of the way. Tell us who you are, what kind of music you make.

We are Plastic Pinks and we make "Rock N Roll", (garage rock/garage pop/surf rock/rad city sticky pop/dirty indie)

What's your connection to Miami?

Miami is where everything started for us, so for us is what pushes us to do more. It's our rad city!

How are you influenced by Miami?

It influenced us in many ways. You can hear the coastal vibe in our music. Our latest EP is mostly inspired by Miami. It's that city energy but with the beach/coast vibe to it. There is time to chill but the city is always going, if you get what i mean.

Can you hear any Miami in your sound?

I guess so, but who really knows. we do have a certain sound that is present in some of our Miami colleagues but at the same time it's our take on what Miami is to us though. We all bring a little of where we are originally from. Our sound is really influenced by our growing up in Puerto Rico (June & Augie), then you have Luigi that is both influenced by growing up here in Miami and his likes , then Nico the same with what he was exposed to here in FL growing up and the music he has listened to, the same with Charlie who has been all around from Puerto Rico to Hawaii and all over, they push us into experimenting and dabbling with other things. We can say it's multicultural but at the end is just our take on Rock N Roll.

Let's be honest. The Miami rock scene is, um, lacking a bit. Why do you think that is? I don't think it's because people here don't like that kind of music. I think there's such an opportunity with someone like your sound to totally kill it here.

We don't agree with this statement. We know that it's not the first thing you think about when you think of Miami but the reality of it is that right now there is a Miami scene that doesn't have to envy anyone else's. That it's still growing, yeah, but that's a good thing. It's not stuck anymore. We have bands that keep popping up from out of nowhere and we have crowds gathering for shows. We (Miami scene) may not be the most popular genre here in South Florida but we sure as hell are making waves. We have people like Cheap Miami, Strutter USA Productions, Idle Hands Booking, Gummdrops and a few others that are throwing events that are truly magnificent. That is without counting Sweat Records and Radioactive Records who also have events and have a thriving business.

Plastic Pinks started not that long ago and doors are opening up for us and we are a Miami band and the same goes for other bands. People are noticing that there is a scene and are starting to pay more attention.

We do admit sometimes it's hard for someone that comes to Miami to find out about what is really happening because of the over saturation of other music genres down here. The radio doesn't play rock n roll and media is really not backing up the city's music unless it's Hip Hop, Reggaeton, Latin or Electronic Music (I refuse to call it EDM haha). Don't get us wrong we enjoy all this genres too but there is over saturation of these in our media. College radio does help us reach more people and little by little we are getting noticed and if the media picks up on it It will blow up faster but if not it will happen when no one is looking, but it will happen.

We think the idea for the Young Artist Initiative is super nice. Do you?

Of course anything that promotes creativity is a good thing. Life needs to be experienced and a lot of people forget that and are too focused on their jobs or school, which is good that they work or study but people need to come out of the social stigma and experience and we feel things like this not only promote social experiencing but they also join talent and expose people to them.

Have any secret spots that you frequent and can share? Late night spot? Regular lunch place? Drinks hang-out? Anything from the most hole-in-the-wall place you've stumbled into to you're go-tos.

Do you? We go everywhere so if you do please share it never hurts to find out about new places. Right now we are going around the Wynwood area to experience the whole thing little by little, but to be honest our main spot for hang out has been Churchill's Pub. We don't get to hang out as much as we used to anymore though you may see us around all the time. It's not because we want to be at home but rather because life gets really busy. We are either working, practicing or playing a show. But when we are not haha get ready for a wild night.

I saw that you guys just went bowling at Bird Bowl. Did you get a frita next door first?

That was a fun night, it only took like 3 months to make it happen hahaha. We didn't get to eat there but we were in good company and having a blast. Some friendly competition with a lot of death glares.

What's next after the Young Artist Initiative?

We are playing Sweatstock on Saturday, where a lot of good bands will be playing. We will be releasing our album on Burger Records and doing a support tour for the album. A few shows may pop up before that but right now we are concentrating on those goals.