We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jonathan Suarez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jonathan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

My most meaningful project to date was our last EP self titled Baby Grendel. Because of time and money constraints it took about 2 years to complete the project after I’d finished writing the majority of the material. During those 2 years I fought to keep myself in the Pacific North West (around my collaborators in the Portland music scene) working seasonal manual labor and farming jobs. I’d fallen on hard times and struggled with food and housing insecurity. It’s not easy to put in hours of work on music after coming home from a grueling day of farming to a tiny roach ridden room you’re renting. This process was exhausting and at times miserable but it gave me the gift of understanding how much the songs meant to me. As far as the content of the project, I hope that I was able to reach a new level of honesty with these tracks, to me that’s the real meaning sauce.

Jonathan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Bio: Jonathan Suarez is a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter living in Portland, OR. He was born in the farming town of Salinas CA. Throughout his tumultuous and lonely childhood he turned to music for comfort and friendship. He started writing songs early on and played whatever he could get his hands on. Roughly 7 years ago, Jonathan started a string of lofi bedroom recording projects and was spurred on by encouraging and kind words from music bloggers and more established musicians.

Upon deciding to emerge from the lofi bedroom and to get serious about recording, he founded the Small Town Sci-Fi project in the winter of 2020 and poured all of his efforts and savings into recording his first EP. Shortly after, he relocated to Portland, OR and recorded his first full album at Jackpot! Drums on the album were played by Joe Mengis, a longtime Portland musician who’d work with Jonathan to grow the project into its next incarnation. They changed their name to Baby Grendel and released a self titled EP in April 2024. Joe got super busy and left the project after this, but the band now consists of 5 members and they’re playing live all over Portland.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

It’d be great if society could edit the rules on who gets to make art. It’s hard to see why anyone who wants to dedicate themselves to creating should be denied the chance or need to sacrifice their wellbeing to do so but here we are. Grants are great but they seem to be a kind of small bandaid applied to a much bigger problem. As far as what individuals can do right now, I can say that I’ve seen a couple art scenes die from lack of care and attention. Be actively invested in your local scene. Get a group together and go to events on weekends and weekdays too, listen to local radio stations, buy music compilations, donate if you can.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I wish more people knew how much their support and attention is worth for humans on these creative journeys. Going to a local show has an immediate impact on the musicians and the venue. Buying music on Bandcamp or telling your friends about a new band you found can make the difference in motivating an artist to keep going. Local / touring artists who are just starting out need your support much more than famous hyper successful acts who couldn’t care less if you come to their show or not. Be a part of something real. Go see a band who is just getting started and is charging $8 per ticket to cover half the cost of promotion materials and travel expenses. It’ll mean a lot to them.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://babygrendel.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/babygrendel

Image Credits

J. Nast