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Local Women Balance Music and Motherhood
By Jessie Goodson music@flagpole.com
celebrate Mother’s Day—which
is Sunday, May 12; don’t forget to
send flowers—we asked a few hard-work
ing local musicians who also happen to be
hard-working local mothers to reflect on
balancing parenthood with music. Their
insightful responses have been edited for
length. Happy Mother’s Day to all Flagpole-
rending moms!
Rachel Evans
Motion Sickness of Time Travel
Flagpole: Tell us a little about you and
your family.
Rachel Evans: I’m 31 and mom to a
4-year-old boy, Oscar. My husband, Grant,
is also a musician, and the two of us collab
orate on music, as well as co-managing a
boutique label. My time spent with my son
is similar to, but obviously greater than,
my time spent recording music, since time
for both is spent mainly at home and in the
evening after work hours. Lucky for me, my
husband stays home with our son full-time,
so they have an extremely strong bond.
Oscar and I have a strong bond, too, just
focused more on nights and weekends. I’ve
got bath and bedtime duties. I love reading
to him, and I get to at night. It’s probably
my favorite thing we do together.
FP: How has your music career affected
Oscar, and vice versa ?
RE: I love the variety of books, music
and films our son has already been exposed
to. My husband and I have a huge cassette
and VHS tape collection, in addition to CDs
and vinyl. It warms my heart that he knows
what the formats are and how to play them.
He asked for his own record player for
Christmas, so we found a small, portable
unit, along with a copy of “Running Up That
Hill” by Kate Bush, which he frequently
asks me to sing to him as he falls asleep.
We hope to continue to nurture a love for
music and art in him that I feel has come
naturally just from being around our gear
and collections.
Our musical output has definitely been
impacted. Going back to work after having
him was difficult, and I expressed that over
the course of many
tracks I recorded over
the first two years
of his life. I certainly
have taken a big step
back from performing
since he was born. Up
until recently, I didn’t
have much desire
to do that. It wasn’t
until earlier this year
that I performed
again live for the
first time since I was
pregnant.
FP: Is Oscar musi
cal? Have you written
music together?
RE: Oscar and
I have recorded a
few things together,
which I have not
shared or released
yet. With my help,
he played one of my
synthesizers on the
most recent Quiet
Evenings release,
Espions. I have a track
with recordings of his
voice I’ve been working with, too. As he gets
older, I hope this continues. He definitely
has a good ear when singing along, and
already makes up the most adorable songs
when he plays his own instruments. A little
song he performed for us recently was so
precious—about a baby turtle!
Vanessa Hay
Pylon Reenactment Society
Flagpole: Tell us about you and your
family.
Vanessa Hay: Women artists and musi
cians are sometimes expected to give up
having a family. I had my family and worked
a full-time job. It was great! Now that I am
retired from my day job as a nurse, and my
girls are grown, I have more time for art
and music. I adore my current band. We are
writing new material using Pylon as our
guiding star.
[My children are] 25 and 32, and I love
them both dearly. They have my back, and
I have theirs. Hana has her own household,
a dog, and is a member of the Classic City
Rollergirls. Victoria commutes to classes at
UNG, and has her own space downstairs.
Both are independent young women, and I
am super proud of them.
FP: How do you think your music career has
affected your children ?
VH: I made a decision when they were
young to not make a big deal about any of
it. It’s all just a part of life. Everyone is good
at something or has a different interest.
That is what makes the world go around.
My girls were both different from birth,
with their own gifts and personalities. I
made sure they had sports, art supplies,
music lessons, enrichment activities and
too many toys around. This is a great town
to expose your kids to both science and art.
FP: How did you balance music, work and
family life?
VH: I was [a registered nurse] for 21
years. I went back to school after Pylon
broke up the first time. It wasn’t a pretty
etc. It’s hard to be perfect at everything. I
gave up on that! A couple of times, I ended
up at work with mismatched socks and my
top or pants on backwards.
FP: Are your kids musical?
VH: They both took string lessons
through the UGA string program in elemen
tary school, and both had guitar lessons
from Vanda Guthrie. I used a song titled
“River” that Hana wrote for the recording
project Supercluster. She also played cello
on our song “Brave Tree.” For Green Thrift
Grocery, who were quite good, she played
bass. Currently, I don’t know what she is up
to musically, but she still paints. Victoria
hasn’t ever been a performer, but the musi
cal experience was good for her brain.
Karica Smith
Seline Haze
Flagpole: Tell us about you and your
family.
Karica Smith: I make hip-hop music to
ultimately motivate, inspire and [encourage
people to] empathize with someone like me.
Everyone gives me Lauryn Hill and Noname
references all the time. I do admire them, as
well. Tend to your garden and follow your
dreams, no matter the circumstance.
sight around the house some days, with two
kids, a full-time job, four cats, a bird and my
mom living with us. I joked we were like the
“Beverly Hillbillies” jalopy, held together
with spit and duct tape, barely making it
down the road. With the support of my
husband, Bob Hay, and friends and family,
we made it through those challenging times
and still made it to swimming lessons, soc
cer, camp, went on inexpensive vacations,
I have a 5-and-a-half-year-old daughter,
Hazel, and an almost 6-month-old son,
Dedric Jr. (DJ). My daughter is a nice, ener
getic young lady. She loves art, playing and
music, as well. My son is a happy child. He
smiles bright. I love my kids very much. I’d
do anything for them.
FP: How do you think your music career has
affected your children ?
10 FLAGPOLE.COM | MAY 8, 2019
