Me, Myself, and I: The Music of S. Peña Young, Contemporary Composer

Recently I had the opportunity to sit in front of a mirror and talk to S. Peña Young, contemporary electronic music composer, musician, and self-described "media artist" whose intriguingly bizarre music works have reached as far as Australia and as local as the i-Pod in your pocket.

I opened up the interview with the usual professional rhetoric, "What the heck are you doing up at 3am?"

Expecting some lofty answer often given to me by the classically trained musician who seems to believe that even a disdainful elitist sniff of an answer is quite sufficient for one as low as an Associated Content writer, I was taken quite aback by the disheveled electronic musician's candid reply:

"There's a dang cricket in my bedroom who won't shut up."

So the interview began.

Electronic composer S. Peña Young, like many other composers of new music, began as a classically trained musician. While Bach and Beethoven played keyboard, Peña Young opted for a more delicate music instrument of choice - the drum set. Practicing on her drum set in her parent's garage day after day such meaningful music masterpieces like music genius Tone Loc's "Wild Thing" or the classic music work, "Wipeout", Peña Young honed her music craft, learning to play basic rock beats while a poster of the New Kids on the Block watched approvingly.

Having abandoned earlier dreams of becoming a sleuth like Nancy Drew or an international spy like her namesake from Charlie's Angels, Peña Young decided to choose a more practical college career path - professional musician. As a teen, the young musician opted to expand her horizons, learning how to play the congas, march snare drum in the drum line, and wield four mallets over a rosewood marimba.

After several twists, turns, and the typical nervous breakdowns that often accompany a musician who spends six hours a day practicing how to perfect a concert triangle roll (which I am told is quite difficult to near impossible), Peña Young decided to compose and create disturbingly macabre experimental videos full time after several years with SYCOM, the avant-garde insane electronic music posse' at the University of South Florida.

(Here I should interject that S. Peña Young told me several questionable stories about chasing a giant evil pink bunny around Tampa with a video camera and dressing up like Igor for a music concert. As these can neither be confirmed or denied, I will leave these unsavory tales for a later work on mad music geniuses who fall off their rocker.)

Since that time, composer S. Peña Young has combined her drum prowess with electronic music in such disturbing works as World Order #4 (2004), written for music ensemble, performance artists waving loaded guns at the audience, and a narrator who nearly got choked to death by the violinist at the premier performance. (Apparently the last page of the music score simple stated "CHAOS!!!!" and the violinist took that to mean attempted murder.) US vs. Them (2005), commissioned by the Kansas State University Percussion Ensemble calls for baby dolls, which may or may not be lit on fire at the conclusion of the piece, while Virelaan (2008), commissioned by the Millikin University Percussion Ensemble, is a Halloween homage to a ghost residing at the Albert Taylor Theater. The composer's debut electronic album, Origins (2008), available through i-Tunes, has been in the Reverbnation Top Fifteen for electronic music in Nashville, and features a science fiction buff's digital music sonic fantasy world with nuclear annihilation inspired electronica like World Order #1 and the twisted music diary Looking Glass.

Asking where she saw herself in the future, the composer simply replied, "In bed..."

With that, our early morning music interview concluded, and I conceded, that I, too, needed to hit the sack, albeit with a cricket chirping away at my ear.