Today we’d like to introduce you to The Nextdoors.
Hi The Nextdoors, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
We (Mika Larson and Russell Mark) are husband-and-wife musicians, playing music together since literally the day we met. We both have formal musical training, in addition to lots of experience playing in rock bands both individually and together. We always thought it would be fun to have a band of our own, but life was so busy: between playing with our other musical project, and also work, of course.
Russell is a full-time musician, music producer, audio engineer/mixer, live show production manager, and educator. Mika is a photographer, videographer, and runs her own t-shirt company as well.
Only when COVID hit and we found ourselves unable to play with others did we finally start playing some web shows, and recording some songs, as The Nextdoors. It’s a name we’d had picked out long ago because before we moved to Pasadena we were both living in Silverlake, and both of us were on Nextdoor.com – and the things people posted were so absurd, we thought it would be funny to do a weekly residency at the Silverlake Lounge as The Nextdoors and set the ridiculous posts to music.
Well while our debut album did not strictly follow that format, our little COVID project is now almost 3 years old, and we are in the process of recording new music, while we continue gigging regularly.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
In many ways we have not run up against too many obstacles. Being a self-contained unit, married and living together, with a home recording studio, we haven’t had the personnel challenges of many bands, or incurred the high costs of recording music.
We were also lucky to have a solid base of support from folks that have been friends and fans of our other bands for many years. So while COVID was still causing artists to cancel shows or even tours, we were able to play in friends’ backyards, garages, and houses, not having to worry about booking a club gig only to have it canceled.
Our very first public show was supported by an article in the Pasadena Weekly and to our shock they put us on the cover! Then through a series of fun social media videos Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo and his team ended up engaging with us, and coming out to the show to introduce us and give us a certificate and City pins.
We had a #1 song on a radio station in Wisconsin and it wasn’t anyone we knew – they found us and loved the music. How rare is that for a debut album made at home!
We’ve worked hard to play shows and festivals, often of our own creation, and make them unique and community-oriented. And it’s hard work that has paid off.
That’s been the easy part. What’s challenging is knowing that all of this has not, for us, translated into a lot of record sales, or a lot of streams. It’s gratifying when people do listen to your music, when they reach out and say how much they liked it, but in our social media world most folks who hit “like” on your latest post have never listened to your music, and very likely never will.
I’m sure for every act that hits big there’s a tipping point where sales and streams start coming, but we have really focused on our own community, and strengthening our bonds with local musicians, venues, and fans here in Pasadena and surrounding areas post-pandemic, as opposed to focusing on promoting our recordings.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Our debut record Linda Vista was released in March 2022, and eight-song album with songs that range from Russell having written them in college, right through to the last song on the record which was written 3 days before it was submitted for distribution.
We didn’t really know what to label ourselves – we’re primarily acoustic guitar, cello, and vocals, and the songs vary in feel quite a bit. A radio promoter suggested we are “Americana” so we have happily gone with that labeling ever since. It’s a rich scene in many places including here, so while many musicians eschew labels, they can give you a little home base of fellow artists and fans, which is certainly not a bad thing.
We are proud that 7 our of 8 songs received radio play in the first few months of release. The one that didn’t is no surprise – it’s the one song we actually DID base on a Nextdoor.com post, it’s called “Honest Mechanic Gone Bad” and it’s not exactly radio-friendly fare!
But our song Awaken received quite a bit of radio play, and the video, filmed all around the San Gabriel Valley, has received in excess of 70,000 views.
Our latest releases have been some singles, including a couple of cover songs that we released stripped-back versions of to help raise money for local fire-relief causes.
When it comes to our live shows, we try to make them feel like family affairs – lose, fun, a little unpredictable, with friends joining us on stage and a lot of stories and positivity. We’ve played festivals like The Eclectic and Taste of South Pasadena, Dylanfest (all-day Dylan covers!) and even our own invention, the Pasadena Neighbor Day Festival.
We’ve toured in the midwest, and the east coast, and hope to do more when we release our 2nd album later in 2025.
We’ve also had the great pleasure of performing for some corporate events, and being able to bring value to folks who hire us, and provide live music, which will never be replaced by AI or anything else – it’s very gratifying, and we are certainly open to more of that in the future, and maybe expanding into weddings, receptions, and such.
You can find our website at https://nextdoorsmusic.com where there are articles, videos, links to our music and YouTube, photos, and more.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
The music industry is such a vast and wide-ranging thing… people will say the music industry is dead, but at the same time there’s 100 Sirius XM channels, thousands of radio stations across America, venues filled across the world every night…
We both started our music careers right around the time of Napster – it’s like saying “hey world here we are!” and then having a rug pulled out from under you, like – the way musicians have made money since Edison’s time has just half-evaporated overnight.
If you think about the industry too much it can be overwhelming or depressing, and it’s better to focus that energy on just getting out there, playing shows, meeting people, recording, honing your craft… we don’t desperately need to make a profit as The Nextdoors, we have other sources of income, so that reduces some of the stress of it.
I think it’s fair to say if you’re looking for an expert industry outlook you’ve come to the wrong place haha, we don’t know. But we know people will always be hungry for music in their lives, and that’s enough.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://nextdoorsmusic.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/nextdoorsmusic
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/nextdoorsmusic
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@nextdoorsmusic
- Other: https://thenextdoors.bandcamp.com/
