Jess Chambers (left) and Eve Maret
Electronic music has long been shaped by a dazzling array of ideas about what constitutes music and musical instruments. There’s a rich history of people from different cultures and gender identities coming up with new tools and techniques within this extraordinarily fluid medium for artistic expression — one that seems to thrive on evolution. Jess Chambers and Eve Maret are two Nashville musicians who make very different kinds of electronic music: Chambers, who performs as Dream Chambers, works in an ethereal pop style, while Maret’s often funky and danceable music draws on concepts from visual art. But they’re both inspired by the way electronic gear acts as a seemingly unlimited palette for the imagination.
“The cool thing about electronics is you can have a different person jump on the exact same gear that the other person was just using, and they’ll make something completely different,” says Chambers, seated in her West Nashville home studio next to Maret. In a nearby corner are racks of synthesizers and drum machines covered in keys, knobs, buttons and lights that pulse like an electronic heartbeat. “It’s OK to demystify it — nobody is going to lose anything or some secret. It’s not a power play. It’s not OK to hoard knowledge, I don’t think. I think that’s bad karma. There’s room for everybody to express themselves.”
That’s the driving force behind Hyasynth House, a collective that Chambers and Maret started in 2018 with Deli Neblett, who has since left the group. The Hyasynth founders noticed that the majority of people onstage and in the audience when they performed or attended shows in Nashville over the past few years were cisgender men. The case was the same in the peer groups in which people casually exchange knowledge about electronic music, which often leads to taking the next step into creating. That inspired the formation of Hyasynth House, whose purpose is to create a dedicated space for women and nonbinary and transgender people to learn about making electronic music.
Since the summer, HH has hosted a handful of meetups specifically for those groups, where folks can get a guided tour of the kind of gear that established artists use to make their music. Cisgender men are welcome to teach or assist, but aren’t invited to the workshops. The group has also organized shows (which are open to the public) with local and touring women, nonbinary and trans artists topping the bill. As the group grows, some of its biggest challenges emerge from learning how to be active advocates.
“I think so many of us, being electronic musicians, are used to working alone — it’s kind of a learning curve for us to come together and make that work,” Maret says. “We really strive to include people, so that people who might be interested can see, ‘Oh, someone like me is doing that, and I can be part of that.’ We’re always talking about, ‘How can we better diversify?’ and, ‘How can we connect with people that aren’t in our immediate circle?’ ”
That circle has expanded rapidly, shifting the organization’s focus — for now at least — from an intimate, informal group to a larger presence. Later this month, Maret and Chambers will appear under the Hyasynth House name at Big Ears Festival’s All-Night Flight 12-hour drone session in Knoxville. The pair has also been invited by the Belcourt to coordinate a group of four or five musicians to perform original scores to a suite of silent films screening at the historic Nashville theater (on a date, likely in April, to be announced). The two see the support of larger organizations as a manifestation of a hopeful change in the way our society works.
“I feel that there’s a lot of a shift going on right now,” says Chambers. “People, especially cis men, are taking note. They’re being like, ‘OK, let’s support this change.’ … It’s easy for cis men, I think, to not see the problem because it doesn’t affect them, so for them to actually come forward and be supportive of the change, that’s very encouraging.”
*Update: The live-score event at the Belcourt, part of the Science on Screen series, is scheduled for April 10.
