After living in the Lower 48 for a decade, musician Seth Boyer is finally back home.
The singer-songwriter lived in Seattle for nine years and Los Angeles for one while touring the U.S. with Juneau artist Marian Call, and is excited for a slower change of pace.
“It’s not like there are not incredible musicians and incredible scenes that exist in [Seattle and Los Angeles], but there is something really special about the Anchorage music scene, the fact that it does not have a lot of the resources, it does not have a lot of the venues that a larger city or a more established city or — a city with an arts council — might have at their disposal,” Boyer said.
Boyer has played music their whole life; from a variety of different instruments to being part of the Alaska Chamber Singers back in the early 2010s before moving out of state.
“I started doing my own singer-songwriter thing years ago in 2011 or so when I was still in Anchorage, doing dive bars on Tuesday nights for four wonderful attentive patrons who were definitely in their best state of mind,” Boyer joked.
After relocating to Los Angeles, Boyer says that there became a point where they decided to pivot, diving headfirst into production and composing. That’s when Boyer, along with some friends, began the production planning phase for a Dungeons and Dragons podcast, called “Skulltenders.” Boyer describes the podcast as a “highly produced radio play,” and has been extremely well-received by DnD fans.
“It has been an amazing challenge to write original music for every episode,” Boyer said. “It has been really, really fun.”
Boyer says that the transition of being a singer-songwriter over the last five-plus years has been an interesting journey. They will play a show with a two to three hour set, so they pull out a lot of their old songs and revisit forgotten lyrics.
“I was a sad little twenty-something,” Boyer said. “You are almost doing a little spiritual tourism of a different life.”
Boyer recently played SadFest sound and dance festival in downtown Anchorage, and Vaniversary, a music lineup at Van’s Dive Bar featuring 28 musicians to signify 28 years in business.
Boyer’s music can be streamed on Spotify and Bandcamp.
Sam Davenport is a writer residing in Anchorage. She's a leo and a plant-person, and loves spending quality time with her dog, Aspen. She is a Real Housewives fan and has been called a Bravo historian.
