Bands playing the 2023 Minnesota State Fair KARE 11 Barn: Aug. 24-27
The bands kicking off the State Fair at the KARE 11 barn include NUNNABOVE, Maria Isa, Mae Simpson and Heatbox.
NUNNABOVE
Favorite State Fair foods:
Candace - elote; Mattie - gluten-free French fries; Bennett - cheese curds; Wisdom - Sweet Martha's Cookies
Favorite State Fair activities:
Candace - "any ride that takes you up and then drops you down"; Mattie & Bennett - animal barns; Wisdom - "I kind of just like the smells"
“We like to do our own thing... but together… in the same space.”
Now in their late teens and early 20s, the four siblings who make up Twin Cities alt-pop band Nunnabove — Candace (vocals, bass); Mattie (keyboard, vocals); Bennett (guitar, vocals); Wisdom (drums, vocals) — have already put a decade’s worth of work on and off stage behind them, and through it all, their family ties seem to have only gotten stronger.
“As tough as it is, it's also just as fun,” said Wisdom. “We're still siblings; we still fight. We have daily disagreements and all that stuff, but as long as we’re able to get through with communication, we have a strong relationship.”
“Family is a large group of people that have needs and wants, and if you address those needs and wants, then you will function,” Candace said.
“Not have dysfunction,” Mattie added.
Perhaps their collective cool was part of the reason the sibs added a last-minute show to their State Fair regimen, earning the attention of an international superstar and an invitation to open for her this month on the grandest stage of all – and Ain’t Nobody gonna say no to that.
“Chaka Khan’s security guard comes up and said that he filmed our set and showed Chaka, and she was like, ‘Oh, my God; I love these kids,” Mattie said about the Paisley Park event in which the artists met.
“We were kind of freaking out.”
You can see Nunnabove first at the KARE 11 Barn Window Concepts Live Music Stage at the State Fair on Thursday, Aug. 24 at 2 p.m.
On Sunday, Aug. 27, catch the band open for Boyz II Men and Chaka Khan at the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand.
For more information about Nunnabove, visit their website.
maria isa
Favorite State Fair food:
Deep-fried olives
Favorite State Fair activity:
Giant Ferris wheel
For singer, songwriter, producer, actress and Minnesota State Rep. María Isa, you can't talk about hip-hop without acknowledging its roots in activism.
"My family comes through that migration of the Nuyoricans into where now I'm a SotaRican — I was born in Minnesota," Isa said. "They migrated here to work with the social justice movements of the Twin Cities and the indigenous people in Minnesota. So, my music was influenced — my lyricism has always been influenced by politics."
The proud Boricua artist draws from traditional Puerto Rican influences, like the folk rhythms of bomba and plena, mixed with lo-fi Afro-Caribbean beats and her own flavor of 90s-inspired American hip-hop and pop. She tells stories of our communities, in both jubilation and injustice — her uniquely SotaRican style, a mechanism meant to unite.
"When you talk about where we are in our community and how your community influences your art, it was time for my art to influence," Isa said. "Music and education and cultural arts is such a foundation to our capacity when we're younger and that is the motivation of what can unify folks — whether they're on this side of the aisle or that side of the aisle — we can all figure out how to dance to the rhythm together."
Isa said that's what she's looking forward to most when she takes the stage at the KARE 11 Barn on Friday, Aug. 25 — getting people up to dance.
"I can't wait to rock some of my latest music with my band, she said. "Get ready to dance! We look forward to heating things up."
And if you can't dance?
"Well, you can't teach rhythm, but we're working on that for some folks that might fall off the beat," she said.
For more information about Rep. Maria Isa, visit her artist website here.
mae simpson
Favorite State Fair food:
Footlong Hotdog
Favorite State Fair activity:
The Sling Shot
While country, soul and rock 'n' roll have always been deeply rooted in the heart of South Carolina-born Mae Simpson, it wasn't until she came to Minneapolis that her southern seeds would finally be sown.
"I think I have a little bit of a twang and I think people can hear it in the music," Simpson said. "I really write from the soul. I want to feel it when I sing and I want other people to really feel it — not just hearing the words, but feeling the words."
The artist who at first leaned into the world of hip-hop, had her world turned upside down when she packed up and planted her feet firmly in Minneapolis over a decade ago.
"When I was 22, I picked up the guitar — I sucked at it very bad. Then I kind of got my footing around it, and was like, 'OK, maybe I have something here,'" Simpson said. "My mom used to listen to Patsy Cline and Tina Turner and that's kind of where I get that sound from... I think."
Now five years into her seven-piece passion project, Mae Simpson and her band are ripe for the picking and ready to take their collective pursuit to the next level. On Sept. 9, the band will release their debut, full-length album, "Chandelier and Bloom," and host a party at Minneapolis' Fine Line to mark the occasion.
To up the ante, a longtime friend and fellow in funk will help the band kick things off.
"We love Nur-D," Simpson said. "This show, I specifically chose the people that I chose because I believe in them, and because they are really good, too, for our community. He's just a great human."
Before their September show with special guests Nur-D and The Get Together at the Fine Line, you can see Mae Simpson at the KARE 11 Barn Window Concepts Live Music Stage at the Minnesota State Fair on Saturday, Aug. 26. Music starts at 2 p.m.
For more information about Mae Simpson, visit the band's website here.
heatbox
Favorite Fair food:
Footlong Corndog
Favorite Fair activity:
The Skyride
"We were all beatboxing in high school, and then everybody else got real jobs — but I never did. So, here I am. Still doing it."
Although it's true Aaron Heaton, a.k.a Heatbox, is still doing it, longtime followers and fans can expect an evolution of sorts on his newest album, "Hilarious & Especially Legendary."
"I wanted to expand beyond just the looping in the beatboxing, and still have some of that in there, but really make it a whole new level of show," Heaton said.
Heaton pushed back on the limitations he faced as a one-man music machine, bringing in a backing band on his fourth, full-length album and incorporating instruments like horns and harps to encourage his experimental epiphany.
"I can't do certain stuff because it's just me with a loop machine, and that's very limiting in a lot of ways," Heaton said. "In one way, it's fun to be limited when you make art, but also, I didn't want to do that anymore. I already did that three times. So this time I said, 'I'm just gonna do whatever my brain conceives of and I'll figure it out later.'"
With his newest creative vision now coming into fruition with "Hilarious & Especially Legendary," you can always count on the man who makes mouth sounds to ride his own wave of originality.
"It all sort of just happened," he said. "I didn't really have a plan ever, I just kind of kept surfing along the way and finding out what was coming up in front of me and using it, making it into the next move."
So whether it's with bands, beats or both, Heaton's alter-ego, Heatbox, will stay the course, and continue to offer his fans a taste of what they keep coming back for.
"Just trying to keep it weird, right?"
Heatbox takes the KARE 11 Barn Window Concepts Live Music Stage at the Minnesota State Fair on Sunday, Aug. 27, at 2 p.m.
For more information about Heatbox, check out his website.
Visit KARE 11's Minnesota State Fair digital hub for more resources and information about this year's Great Minnesota Get-Together.
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