Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi
Yea Big + Kid Static (courtesy of Stefen Robinson)
For a couple of weeks I have been contacting all kinds of websites and blogs to exchange links. One of them was Just-Aesthetics which is run by Stefen Robinson. Through the process of exchanging links we got to know each other. I found out that he, like me, is a musician, a human being aware of life in general and of the people around him. He isn’t afraid to take over responsibilities and wants to be a positive force for his community. Inshallah!
A short story about Stefen
He is in the duo Yea Big + Kid Static. In addition to being the producer for this act he also plays the mandolin, and various other instruments. However, recently he cut back on his personal music activities to pursue his teaching credentials. He is back in school in order to get a job teaching high school sociology and history one day soon.
Over the several years Yea Big + Kid Static has been plugging away recording, touring and trying to make a living. The more he traveled, read, studied, learned, and met amazing people, the more his so-called “anarchist” views and convictions were solidified, and the more he began to understand the existential imperative for him to live his life in a way more constructive for his community.
So now his goals are quite different from what they were when YB+KS was first formed. He wants to go back and teach in the school district in his home town and start a Free School in the community for community members to have a location to continue teaching and learning from one another in the hopes that they can all raise each other’s consciousness and work together to get out of the insanity they have constructed around themselves. He still makes music, and still plans to record with Kid Static, but he doesn’t want music to be his means of income. He wants music to be one way in which he can connect with his community, both locally and globally.
photo by by Eric Lower
More about Yea Big and Kid Static
They started making music together near the end of 2005: “Our first full-length CD, self-titled, was released in 2007 on Chicago’s Jib Door label. From 2007 through 2009 we toured around the US as much as we could, mostly with our friends’ bands, such as Rapider Than Horsepower, The Mae-Shi, and Gentleman Auction House.” Currently the duo lives in two different places, both individuals having moved out of Chicago. Stefen (Yea Big) currently resides in Normal, IL, where he is working on a second bachelors degree in education and sociology, plotting and scheming various community activities with the Just Aesthetics collective , and occasionally working on new music. Moses (Kid Static) now resides in the city of angels, Los Angeles, CA., where he is working hard playing shows, writing and recording new music, and just generally blowing up spots.
