Each week on the Local Show, we’ll meet a new person from the Minnesota music community who has some fresh discoveries to share in a feature called “Ask a Cool Person.” These people will come from all corners of the scene, including record store clerks, recording studio engineers and producers, artists, writers, bookers, photographers, and fans.

This week's guest is coming from WITHIN THE BUILDING! Cecilia Johnson has been a college contributor at the Local Current Blog for a couple of years now, and in April she became a permanent member of our staff. We've been super psyched to have another writer helping us to cover the Minnesota music scene, and I was curious to learn more about Cecilia and find out what she's been listening to.

Andrea Swensson: Hey Cecilia! You cover a lot of emerging artists for us here at the Current. How do you discover new music?

Cecilia Johnson: I really like going out to shows. Usually catching the openers of a band I already know I like is a really good way to find new music. They usually have their cute CD set-up right next to the Entry stage or wherever.

Nice! You brought in three songs to play, starting with Corey Palmer. Tell me about this one.

This is a song called "Truly Truly (I'm Sorry)." I got the CD in the mail on one of the first sunny days that I can remember this year, and I popped it in my car and listened to the first track, which is this song, and I think it's just a really good, solid pop song. It's hooky, it makes you want to dance, and it's a lot of fun.

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The next one is Tony the Scribe, who has a new EP out. What do you like about this one?

This one is called "Shadows," it's from the Mixed Blood EP. Fun fact: Tony is half of Killstreak, along with producer ICETEP, and the first time that I heard the Killstreak album, Janus, I was sitting in the parking lot of the Mixed Blood Theater. So when this EP came out I was like, Mixed Blood? That's amazing. And just like the Killstreak album, I've really liked this one. Something special about this song is, well, when I heard this song I wanted to write something. And that doesn't always happen with music; it doesn't happen cross-discipline like that for me all the time. But when I heard this one I was like, ok, poetry. Go. So thank you, Tony, for inspiring me.

That's awesome. What are you going to do with that poem?

I don't know. Probably hide it in my computer. [laughs] We'll see.

And this last one here is a personal favorite of mine: Aby Wolf. You chose the song "Any Shape." What is it about this one?

This one, first of all, just musically I really like it. But more than anything, it's the lyrics. On one hand, it's a positive look at doing whatever you have to do for another person in a relationship. But for me I really connected because I had an experience one time with scrapping myself and making myself fit into any shape for the other person. And I didn't realize how unhealthy that was. So this song is a little cathartic to me, just going back and remembering that that happened, I did fit myself in any shape, and I'm going to be careful about how I change myself for another person. So this song is super emotional for me, and I love it.

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