Sketch Tha Cataclysm Opens The Vent

The bass line hits and notes skip across the strings, and soon Sketch tha Cataclysm is spitting his poetry across the growing soundscape: ​“A thousand blighters throwing up a thousand lighters / In hopes a thousand fires sparks another round of ire / The crowd’s desires of mire and I’ll interest / A choir seeking fulfilled diminished inspiring this.”

The opening lines of This Open Vent, released by Sketch (real name: Armando Acevedo) on July 1, build a vision of shows past as live music lies in limbo, but for this New Haven based writer/rapper/musician, it is business as usual — the business of finding the words and ways to get more ears to hear what he has to say.

“The week everything shut down, I had four shows that weekend over the course of two days: one with Moodie Black and Ceschi at The State House, one at a gallery in Bridgeport, and two private parties,” said Acevedo.

Additional shows were booked through April, and a plan to release music that had been formulated before the pandemic-related shutdown was already in motion.

“I had planned on doing what I’ve been doing for the past one-and-a-half months. I had ultimately planned for the next album release to be in October pretty early within the year. I had been on stage two to four times a week in 2020. I was getting into the groove and treating it like no one knows me, like starting from scratch, anywhere I could get on stage before Covid.”

According to Acevedo, that’s the only part of the plan ​“that got messed up. It had been building since January,” he said. ​“I had taken a two-week time period off, I was even off social media too, and then January I began performing at least two times a week and sometimes four, going to open mics regularly” — weekly at The State House and the Acoustic, and monthly at Best Video and New England Brewing Company. ​“I wanted to make sure that before the next full length project, I had the ears I wanted to have on it, bring it really fresh and really hard in front of more people. It brought an energy to my music, new people hearing it and people giving it more attention, a revitalized energy with people even commenting ​‘oh, you’re doing more,’ and noticing.”

Acevedo’s first project of 2020 was released in February, the instrumental ​“Untitled is Hard Enough,” which came out for the first time on streaming services. The song ​“Stroll,” which Acevedo and The Protégé put out, ​“was never out in that context before,” he said.

After Covid-19 restrictions began, Acevedo went on with his plan to ​“start testing the water with new material,” releasing a video for the song ​“What If I Told You Maaaaad Shit,” ​“I used a Kenny Segal beat for a Milo song, and I had this verse that I had forever that was literally five and a half minutes long,” he said. ​“The beat sounded so perfect with it.”

“I had bought a couple of random tools so I could use my cell phone in the process,” Acevedo continued. He proceeded to record, mix and master the song, shoot and edit the video, and then get it to YouTube and social media all in a three-hour time span. ​“I was testing that process,” he said, and added with a laugh, ​“I thought it was awesome…. People liked it, and I got good responses. That kind of helped. I think it led to what happened next with the other song.”

That other song, ​“This Open Vent,” harnesses the energy Acevedo had been generating, with both a verse and beat that has been with him for quite a while. ​“I had an upright bass sample from a piece I chopped up a long time ago,” said Acevedo. ​“I had this verse” — written in reference to his moving back to Minnesota in 2013 — ​“I rhymed over the beat and it sounded like it was supposed to be. I hit up [Bridgeport-based musician] Darian Cunning and asked if he wanted to add drums and he was down. He ended up adding drums, percussion, and guitar.”

At this point Acevedo said he was still using his phone ​“for everything” and ​“testing the process.”

“Darian sent the tracks, I recorded my vocals, and I mixed it on my phone again,” Acevedo said. The track was then sent to Sam Carlson at Sans Serif for mastering and within a week was released to the public, the single cover artwork also made by Acevedo, on his phone.

The song is a minute and thirty two seconds, short in time but not short on Acevedo’s poetic revelations and observations, combined with intricate rhyming patterns that demand repeated listening. Acevedo was quite pleased with the result. ​“I thought it sounded good on loop,” he said. ​“If you leave it one repeat it sounds like the song is still going.”

That song’s subject matter, which Acevedo noted is ​“literally me in Minnesota saying ​‘I got something to offer here too,’” came to repeat itself in another context on his next release, ​“Trying to Find the Words,” a collaboration with musician Trip Jacker as part of a project called 11:11 Invasion put together by the Electronic Music Alliance, a collective of electronic musicians from all over the world.

According to Acevedo, Trip Jacker knew Deto 22 — a CT based musician/producer and friend/frequent collaborator of Acevedo’s — who is part of the alliance and ​“was a fan of our work together…. Trip Jacker hit up Deto and said, ​‘ask Sketch if he wants to be a part of it.’ He sends me this track and he said he wanted it to build,” said Acevedo. ​“Start less intense and build. So I was following what he wanted me to do with it.”

Acevedo said the writing he did for this song ​“follows the theme” of ​“This Open Vent.” ​“In the past I’ve strived to find ways to connect,” he said. ​“I wanted it to feel like I’m trying to find the words as I progressed. What’s the line that will click to get people to pay attention? These two songs hit on this cyclical, ​‘Why bother doing all this? What’s the point?’” that he asked himself. ​“I’ve had these conversations with Deto and others. Like, why am I using acrostics in my rhymes? Nobody is catching this. Sometimes the struggle makes you go, ​‘why bother?’”

The song provides an answer, as Deto himself makes an appearance in the form of a recorded phone message, one that finds him encouraging his friend Sketch. ​“Say what you gotta say,” Deto’s voice said. Was it an actual message or was it recorded for the song?

“We’ve had various conversations that felt like that,” said Acevedo. ​“I told him to do something different and he did that, which was way more fitting than what I had asked him to do.”

The song blows open lyrically after the message, as if it indeed gave Sketch the permission and encouragement to let what was inside of him flow freely and intensely. ​“It’s surprisingly dense” he said with a laugh.

More guest appearances are in the works for the rest of 2020 as well as more music from Sketch himself, including a Deto-produced single and a B‑side that is coming to fruition in the next few weeks as well as that new album.

“Around mid-March I had a discussion with Deto. I wanted to produce my own album and have him record and mix all the beats and vocals. All the beats would be mine, all the production would be mine and he would mix it all. We talked about the process and how intense it would be, but then the pandemic never let up and we never scheduled the recording sessions because we couldn’t meet up.”

Acevedo had decided to release what he called his ​“trauma album” in 2020, ​“before all of this happened. And it gave me pause when the shows shut down but then I got right back in the groove. I knew I wanted to do lighter, one-off stuff leading up to the album because it is pretty intense. I’m following my vague plan for the year.”

Acevedo said the new album will be ​“more straightforward” as opposed to his last album, The Maya Demos, that was ​“super layered with metaphors.”

“This album is more ​‘this is what happened,’” Acevedo continued, noting that it is more personal and indicative of what he needs to get out of his head.

And Acevedo will continue with livestreamed performances, including one scheduled for tomorrow night on Facebook Live. He has done a few so far, the first one happening at the beginning of the shutdown in March. That show he did ​“reluctantly, but I figured it out on the fly,” he said. It was intended ​“to make up for shows I lost that weekend.” He also did one on the anniversary of The Maya Project. Soon after he ended up performing for a benefit for Best Video. ​“I was added on last minute, and still had left stuff set up from the Maya show,” said Acevedo. ​“I got more comfortable and did more high-energy stuff.” He was also added to a recent Fake Four Friday show on July 10.

Acevedo is known as much for his physicality during a performance as his lyrical prowess, often ending up off the stage, in the crowd, and on his knees, or lying on his back on the floor. He has been getting used to how to play with that during a livestream. He is determined to continuously engage and exchange with his audience.

“I’m big about energy,” he said. ​“I make sure I’m able to appropriate it as much as possible. It can be hard to focus in on a small area and you have to keep yourself in the camera eye line. I still wanna go off, the equivalent of going off stage and into the crowd. Trying to bounce around and emote and be in it.” And, as always, strive for the joy in the connection.

“My dad said once, ​‘All your sad music has clapping,’” Acevedo noted with a smile. “‘You’re saying all this sad shit and you have people singing along and clapping to it.’ Yeah, I do that all the time.”

For more information about future livestream shows including tomorrow night’s please see Sketch tha Cataclysm’s Facebook page. ​“This Open Vent” and ​“Trying to Find the Words” are both available for streaming across all services, as well as for purchase on Bandcamp at the links above.