SubSessions: SLO Arts and Music Collective

Recently I have been feeling inspired by many of my surroundings, but a platform that inspires me unlike anything ever before is SubSessions. SubSessions is an Arts and Music Collective based out of San Luis Obispo. It is a platform for local artists, musicians and creatives to share their passions and talents with others. It is a growing community of like-minded individuals who come together to celebrate life and all of its art forms. It is a group of driven, talented and inspiring people aiming to cultivate connection through music and art.

I became involved with SubSessions in the Fall of 2017 when the Collective asked me to DJ one of their first events. The event was called Bass Attack out at Old Port Inn at the tip of Avila Pier. Bass Attack featured local DJ’s such as Neurotic, Lifegrid, Kridder and myself, Felly Fell, with a beautiful stage and decor built by SubSessions members. I was honored to be invited to perform and share my music with the intimate following they had at the time. Since I was 15 years old, I have been attending music festivals for the love of live music and people, and I was always intrigued by the production of the events. I ended up teaching myself how to DJ starting when I was 17, inspired by the musicians I saw performing at festivals, but there was a part of me that wanted to have a part in creating the events I performed at. When I met the SubSessions crew the night of Bass Attack, I decided this was an opportunity for me to get involved with a group of like-minded individuals throwing events for the love of music, art and community. I knew that this would be a place for me to gain inspiration from a wide array of people and different art forms.

A few months later, in January of 2018, the founders of SubSessions hosted a meeting for any and all creatives in San Luis Obispo who had any interest in creating something with a larger group of like-minded individuals. This meeting was the turning point in the roots of SubSessions, forming the beginnings of its seriousness. Wes Berger, one of the founding members and our Creative Director, announced to a room full of new and familiar faces that we were going to throw a music festival together and call it Life’s A Peach. Mixes emotions filled the room with feelings of excitement, doubt, nervousness, and hope.

After months of planning, logistics, plan A’s, plan B’s, idea creation and dedication, Life’s A Peach came together successfully in a beautiful way. The festival was on a friend’s property up in Atascadero on a beautiful flat farm surrounded by trees and rolling green hills. A crew of about 40 individuals build three stages – The Peach Pit, a live stage with bands, rappers and singers, The Mineshaft, an electronic stage with DJ’s, and Hydrology, a wellness stage with yoga and workshops by day and acoustic music by night. Murals and art installations spotted the property while vendors sold their original creations. Life’s A Peach was a 24 hour long event with camping on the property, and about 400 people came out to enjoy the livelihood! It was the most empowering, heart-warming and inspiring feeling to see so many faces, old and new, trust us to come out to a remote property for an event unheard of before for the love of music, art, people and a good time.

Since the beauty of Life’s A Peach in Spring of 2018, SubSessions has flourished into a successful Arts and Music Collective running the underground music scene on the California Central Coast! We have thrown three more music festivals after Life’s A Peach – Stoke The World 2019 and Nightlife Savings in 2018 and 2019 with our largest crowd being over 1,000 people. Between these bigger festivals, we throw smaller evening events at venues in Downtown San Luis Obispo highlighting local bands, DJ’s and artists and aiming to create a sense of community around it all.

Inspired by everyone involved in and around this crew, I have worked hard to create a local music and art scene with SubSessions because I see a need for it since our community keeps growing. The individuals in this group are some of the most inspiring and uniquely talented people I have ever met. They inspire me to continue on this path I am on currently in life, making me feel confident I am going in the right direction. They inspire me to want to express myself creatively through music and event curating. I am now one of the Directors of SubSessions, working closely with venue owners to book our evening events at local spots as well as pre-planning logistics for our festivals and stage managing on-site. Every event feels like a new beginning as we see the people in our crowds having the time of their lives and more and more people wanting to get involved every day. I plan to stay in SLO after I graduate to continue Directing SubSessions and building it from the ground up. This group holds a special and large part of my heart and keeps me inspired every day.