We were lucky to catch up with Cypher Eihwaz recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Cypher thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?
I grew up in the Erie area, surrounded by much of the same influence that I pursue today. Things like activism, art, music, event planning, and general outside-the-box living are all things I was quite literally born into and raised on.
My mother was a professional vocalist who performed on National Television in her childhood, and in my pre-teen years, our homes basement was used as a practice spot for a local band called Defiled, later renamed to Casting Shadows. I came to idolize those folks a lot, my mom would tell me not to distract them with fangirling down there, so during practice I remember going into her room and laying down on the floor with my ear against the vent that was above the basement. I wanted to be a musician so badly.
One of the members of that band gifted me a fender guitar and an amp signed by the band for my 13th birthday, and my pursuit in music officially began.
I came to find I had more talent in singing than in playing an instrument after trying guitar, drums, ukulele and various other things, but being self conscious had always been a huge hindrance for me.
I sang in public for the first time on my 23rd birthday at a local coffee shop with support from friends, including support from some of the original members of Casting Shadows. The exhilaration I found in that performance was a high I continued to chase to this day. In 2019, I met one of my current band members, John Bramlett, at our job in Edinboro. As soon as I found out he could play guitar, I practically begged him to help me start an official musical project. He, myself, and another vocalist went to every bonfire known to man just to be somewhere we could play our music at. Friends would join in with bongos and tambourines until someone inevitably called the cops with noise complaints. That happened quite a lot!
Shortly after, our friend Rayna Tabarez was gifted a cajón, a box-shaped percussion instrument, and we immediately asked her to join our musical endeavor. We called ourselves LUCiD, and a lot of our music was very psych-rock and punk coded with very politically driven messages. We were actually once kicked out of a Bike Rally we were performing at after playing our song ACAB. We played a lot of really bad shows in backyards and alley-ways until we got to know more of the Erie scene, met a couple folks like MadClock, Dread Metal, and Gimp Guy Underground who took us under their wing and pushed us into all the right places, forever grateful to them all for believing in us. We renamed our band Odd Atrocity once we finally found our sound, which has become sort of a post-grunge thing.
Odd Atrocity became such a massive part of our lives, and things continually fell into our laps as we went. We met Brian Gloskey of BFE Studios, who became such a good friend and staple of the bands that we now call him “The OddFather”. He recorded and produced 2 of our albums and has believed in us more than anyone ever had. When our second album finished, he encouraged us to throw an album release show, which he sponsored, helped coordinate, and ran sound for.
The “GroundScore” Odd Atrocity album release show featured our current set at the time, plus a set as our old moniker LUCiD, vendors, other local bands, and because of the sponsorship, we were able to make the show a free community event and focus on making it unique and fun outside the scope of a normal local concert.
This is what really sparked our endeavors with OddCity Entertainment. At this time, we had no name for our collective, but all our friends had pulled together to make every detail different from the norm, and as exhausting as it was to put on a full production, we all realized how passionate it felt and how rewarding it was. We as a group were always together getting into something, whether that be general trouble, activism and protests, musical gatherings, crafting days, going out to local events and shows, people recognized us as a united force, and started referring to us as “the odd squad”.
As we continued to throw small shows in a secret invite-only location we called “The Odd Spot”, we adapted a Halloween show we called The All Hallows House Show. Eventually, that show in particular started to get so large we could no longer accommodate or control it in such a small environment, that’s when we turned to Erie venue Basement Transmissions and began our endeavor with Erie’s favorite Halloween Show – Basement of Terror – our first annual collective event.
Shortly after that solidified, We promptly threw a passion project, a 3 day mixed genre music festival for Domestic Violence – The Violet Gathering.
Other ideas on themed shows and things we could use this newfound platform to advocate for began to grow, and in January of 2024 we officially named our collective OddCity Entertainment, turned it into an LLC, and rolled out 6 large-scale immersive annual events. In a years time, we have gained so many more hands, friends, volunteers, fans, business relationships, we have learned so much on our own and from others about all the difficult parts of running immersive events. Our annual Rainbow Fest is a day long indoor festival that features all Queer based bands, artists, businesses and performers, our first year with this event in 2024, one full day raised a thousand dollars for local LGBTQIA+ nonprofit Compton’s Table.
This year we implement a new kind of show that I’ve called “Noob Night” to directly assist the music scene itself, this event features our areas newest bands, many of which have expressed to me that they have no contacts and no idea where to start here, much like my experience starting a band years ago. So, we worked to coordinate the areas relevant promoters and booking agents to attend to view this showcase of rapid sets from over 10 brand new performance projects, and have a meet and greet with all the newbies after the show. All performers receive a booklet we created of every contact we could find in the area for promoters, advertising agencies, podcast hosts, merch creators, music teachers, and even some short pieces of advice directly from folks in our music scene. It is essentially a beginners guide and phone book to the underground scene, so that musicians no longer have to get boo’d out of a bike rally where they don’t belong, or perform next to a dumpster in an alley for “exposure”, like we once did.
That’s what it’s all really about in my perspective, doing better for others when you’ve learned yourself the hard way, making things new, interesting, and exciting for people. A lot of folks here believe the music scene is dying out, but I must disagree. Local shows as we knew them will always need to continually change and adapt to every new generation, and that’s just what we are doing. Statistics, demographics, attention to detail and taking note of what could be better, what people are enjoying or what they’re turning away from and getting bored with, is all so essential to keeping people captivated, inspired, and wanting to be more involved.
I’m so grateful for what I am a part of, what I’ve created, and the support and love I’ve always had in my life. When person after person believes so much in you, you find yourself working harder every time and never wanting to stop learning and growing.
Cypher, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Cypher (Cy) Eihwaz (she/they), and I am a young entrepreneur in the Erie, PA area. I front multiple music projects, Odd Atrocity (post/psychedelic grunge), Isle of Dread (alternative/doom metal), and Pixel Musket (singer-songwriter collective). I am the founder and event manager of local immersive event planning collective OddCity Entertainment, LLC. I am a graphic designer and video marketing specialist under the moniker Cypher’s Obscure Designs. I founded Harm Reduction advocacy “Atrocity Prevention” that provides free Narcan, substance testing kits, recovery resources, safe-use resources, and overdose training in Erie. I am a casual spotlight journalist that covers local events as well as music album reviews. I am a traditional stick-n-poke artist, and I’m a parent of two super rad boys, and a spouse to my high school sweetheart of over 12 years.
In my free time, I write music and poetry, design ridiculous things, occasionally rehabilitate wild animals when the opportunity arises. I love a good get together with friends, especially the wholesome ones at our favorite creek spot which is where I spend a good part of the summer. I love to primitive camp, attend shows, cookouts, bonfires, and my favorite activity of all is whatever latest shenanigans my kids and husband get me into for the day, I love having us all together doing whatever new and fun thing we can find.
I think something that sets me apart both in business and in personal life is my ability to adapt and change, there are few matters that I remain stubborn about, but for the vast majority, being able to continually grow based on observations and information is something I’ve found to be the key to all sorts of relationships. I used to be told as a teen that I was indecisive and changed my opinions and interests too much, but that’s one thing I was adamant on not viewing as a problem. I’ve found it to be a useful tool to never stay stagnant or stuck doing the same things. I have a short attention span like many people in this world, and one thing I can never settle for, is boring!
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
In 2023, we found out a local festival was being run by a very bad man who did some dangerous things to several local women. As the activists we are, we protested that event in our own way, in a matter of a very short 3 months to plan, we secured an outdoor venue on the date of that festival and began spreading the word to all of the performers and vendors he had of what he had done, and when they dropped his event, we invited them to participate in ours one by one until there was no one left. We named our festival The Violet Gathering, as the purple ribbon is used for DV survivors. The event was centered entirely around domestic violence awareness and raised $2,000 for the Crime Victim Center of Erie. This event was a huge risk, not only because of social backlash, pushback, and extreme time constraints, but also because we had barely anything established as event planners, we had little social media following, no money, and not nearly enough hands on deck for a full-blown festival.
However, to our astonishment, word spread quickly and the weekend was a massive success. There were a lot of hiccups that we learned from for next time, but overall the experience was more than just some festival for so many of us. We were able to offer a lot of other forms of entertainment than music that could benefit the community of survivors and advocates we had supporting us. We had workshops like “Rage Painting”, self-defense demos, support group sessions, trauma-releasing yoga, a “safety sanctuary” for folks who needed a quiet moment, and offered a kids corner for parents to go enjoy some music on their own.
The festival we protested has since been shut down completely, and we continue to advocate for DV survivors through events, and by speaking out about predators and dangerous people in and around our local scene regardless of backlash, because it’s the right thing to do, a lot of us musicians say that we are in this for the love of music and the scene and to have fun, and I think that it’s a huge disservice to yourself and others to work with people who have harmed others in such atrocious ways.
Because of how outspoken we have been, we have had countless people feel safe coming forward to us, knowing that even though we can’t provide legal justice, social justice can sometimes feel just as sweet, and people can be ensured that once we know, they can feel safe coming to our shows and events without seeing those people who hurt them there. To me, hearing that someone who once loved supporting local events is afraid because of one person is devastating, and I will continue to work toward a safe place for all of the people who struggle with this to come and enjoy themselves once again.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
The simple answer… caring. Caring about the performers, the fans, the staff, the little details, the way your events and shows are represented. Taking the time to make everyone participating feel important because they are. As a promoter who is also a performer, I have had experiences playing shows that felt like we were cattle being hearded on and off the stage. Times where I’ve over-heated at summer festivals and couldn’t even get a water during a performance, some shows where I never met any of the organizers or staff, sometimes feeling like these shows were only being thrown out of obligation for money and posterity. This is something we at OddCity keep in mind no matter how big or small the show is, letting everyone know they belong there, they are an integral part of the experience, letting everyone know who we are and how we can help them, where they can find free food, drinks, med supplies and water if they need it. Thanking them, and just taking our time on every aspect of planning an event. Transforming a venue space into something new for every show. I take a lot of pride in hearing the feedback from everyone, observing what did and didn’t work, what choices were popular and not, and getting to work on planning the next one even better with new information. When you put passion into a show, people can tell, and they will continue to come back with more and more people. Even if you have 10 people at a show, you give them an unforgettable experience and they will talk about it and next time, you may have 30, then 100, then 300 people.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.oddcityentertainment.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oddcity_entertainment
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oddcityentertainment
- Youtube: https://YouTube.com/@oddcityentertainment
- Other: TikTok: @oddcityentertainment
Bluesky: @oddcity.bsky.social
Image Credits
Marley Hokaj, Uriah Eihwaz, Jenessa Anderson