Interview: Sanctum Magazine “Another Voice on the Scene”

Interview: Sanctum Magazine

By: Rob Smittix

RRX: I know you’ve got a few people on the line, if you just introduce yourselves and what you do for the magazine.

CF: Cool. I’m Chris Frawley. I am the editor in chief for the magazine. I’ve written all the main articles for it so far. I also edit submissions for the written pieces and put the final product together using InDesign… the layout and everything.

RRX: Nice, that part’s always fun, as I know.

CF: Yeah, I can definitely spend a long time just trying to get the littlest details right. Until eventually, I just have to say, no one will possibly notice this, accept that it’s going to be imperfect, but that’s okay.

RRX: Perfection is a little too much sometimes, if it’s too perfect, it becomes less interesting.

CF: Yeah and then it’s only going to be perfect to you at most, you never know what other people are going to get out of it. I think that’s pretty common in art and in media, right? How many times has a band made a song and it was just a draft or something that they did and then it becomes their most popular hit? Right?

RRX: Absolutely, or if you write songs like I do, record them, and years later I’m like… oh man, I should have never said that.

CF: Yeah. That’s the worst when you’re sitting up at night and you’re thinking about… why did I say that? Why did I say that stupid thing? But ultimately you make yourself move on sometimes.

RRX: There you go. Who else do we have in the line today?

PM: Hi, I’m Peter MacAloney. I do photography, usually for a few of the feature articles and then I also offer design support for Chris.

CF: Peter has also done photography for some ads that we’ve put in there.

RRX: Oh, cool. Yeah, they look good.

CF: Thanks. He also wrote two pieces in the first two issues. The two show reports that we did.

RRX: I’m holding issue number three from November 2024 in my hands right now. So are you putting this out monthly or quarterly? What’s the scoop?

CF: Well, we’re kind of figuring out a regular release schedule right now. It was a bit hard to maintain a steady schedule last year when I first started doing this with everyone. I wanted to do every other month so as not to rush it. That kind of proved difficult after the second issue for a bunch of reasons, some of which were external, some of which were internal. We were all kind of scrambling a little bit during the summer and fall of last year. A few different things delayed it because of that. Also, like I said earlier, doing it has to be a perfect thing which definitely delayed it. But we got to interview Prince Daddy and the Hyena, which I was super excited for, I think we all were, because they’re a really big band, and they are local, so it was a big opportunity. So I was like… this has to be perfect. I think it did come out really well but I also believe that in delaying it so much, and obsessing a little bit too much over it, the landing itself was a little bit uneasy but I’m still really happy with the way it came out.

RRX: Oh, it’s great. Well, first of all, Prince Daddy and The Hyena is a fantastic group. Obviously, we’re kind of doing the same sort of thing with our businesses. This is a really high quality magazine that you’ve got here. It’s got a very nice layout, very high quality… It’s impressive.

CF: Thank you. Yeah, I did definitely want to go for a quality over quantity approach. Not that either is wrong necessarily. It’s just a different product at the end of the day. It’s just a really solid kind of booklet, that would stand the test of time. You could hang on to and maybe even have a collection of them, something that you could keep on your shelf or your coffee table.
Zeke (Motzer) put it pretty well in that sense. Zeke also is on the line, I didn’t get a chance to introduce her. She does art and helps with some of the submissions but also helps with getting some of the ads and whatnot.

RRX: Oh, hello, Zeke go ahead, I’m sorry.

ZM: You’re good… hello!

CF: Yeah, Zeke is also our partner in doing the booking for some of the shows that we have and she’s very good at making connections with bands and people in the scene. So definitely an invaluable member of the team, I would say.

RRX: Absolutely, now from doing this ourselves here, when you put this out, I thought to myself, what is it that makes you want to take on an undertaking like this? Because it’s a lot of work.

CF: It really is. I did not realize how much work it would be until I really started doing it. There’s so many things that you know you would never think of.
People shouldn’t think about it. I’ll think on my end, the creator end to put in all the little details and bits of work and then people can just enjoy it on their end.
I’ve been writing for music and media for a while now. I went to school for writing at New Paltz, which is where Peter and I met and where we first started throwing shows in the original Sanctum House.

PN: Good times.

CF: Good times, and we got really into it. And then I wanted to start writing on some of the different bands and artists in the area for the school newspaper. I started doing that but then COVID hit, so we had to shut that down.
After that, I was doing freelance writing and some different projects that I had was writing for artists and doing reviews, doing press releases for songs that came out and doing biographies.
But I really wanted to have my own project or something that I could collaborate with other people on that would give me a chance to scratch that itch of wanting to write, edit and interview people. I wanted to help give a platform to artists that we find interesting or that we feel deserve to have their own platform.

RRX: And you’re definitely providing that. You’re giving them a nice product here.
You’ve got your heart and soul into it. You’re into the music scene. You’re into that vibe. And you started it out in the coolest little town in all of New York State, New Paltz, which I always ask people that went to school down there, did you take the time to go to Mohonk? A lot of people, surprisingly, said no. And I’m like… you’re nuts.

PM: I did. I went.

RRX: Yeah, you’ve got to. That’s the coolest spot. You know? I’ve been going there for years.

CF: Yeah, it is. It’s beautiful down there. We still visit from time to time, there’s so many great artists and different scenes and opportunities for people down there to express themselves. When we were there, the scene was really huge. It was a good entry point for us to kind of get our foot in the door and we just kind of started doing it and fell in love with it in terms of… throwing shows, creating content and talking about it. And then we met up with Zeke about a year and a year ago and she’s has been doing shows up here for a while and we all started doing shows together. Peter and I brought the media angle to it because we really enjoy doing that part. We’ve been doing the magazine, we’ve also been doing shorter form video and written interviews online. The magazine is good and it’s a nice platform but it’s also kind of irregular in terms of how often it comes out. So we wanted a way to get more content out there in a quicker way that didn’t take so much time and effort.

RRX: Sure, absolutely. So you’re doing some music bookings and that sort of thing as well?

CF: Yeah.

ZM: I’ve been booking shows in the Albany area for almost three years now and held over 300 shows at venues all across the Capital Region. My biggest goal is to just keep the community alive. People coming out for music, keep providing space for people to express their art. I think that the magazine really plays a nice role in complementing what we do with the music events.

RRX: That’s a win when you can do your own advertising.

ZK: Yeah, exactly,

RRX: I wouldn’t know, or anything.

(All Laugh)

CF: In terms of getting ads in the magazine, or in terms of the connection between the two of them?

RRX: I mean… if we’re putting on an event, we’re like, cool, we don’t have to buy advertising. We got it already, you know? So that sort of thing,

CF: Yeah, I think for you guys, it might be a little bit more seamless in that department. We definitely do a lot more shows than issues of the magazine.

RRX: Well, we’re glad to have people that are still putting on shows. We talked about the magazine being an undertaking but so are shows because you’re not only putting up money, and you’ve got to pay people out. You’ve got to pay the venues, bands, sound, lighting, etc. Everyone wants to get paid and you have to make sure that people come out, so that the money’s not coming out of your own pocket. I’ve done it a few times and I’m like… I don’t know why I do this.

CF: Oh, it’s so much, It can be. It’s great when it goes well. Zeke can tell you, she’s insane. She does so many shows.

ZM: Yeah, I book more shows than I care to admit but I was saying just the other night, at the end of the day… I don’t mind paying money out of my pocket to support local art. Somebody has to be willing to take those risks, (and I’ve gotten good enough at it, where I feel confident take those risks.

RRX: Yeah, it looks like it’s actually working for you. I want to make sure (because you’ve got my email now), to let me know about every single solitary show you guys got coming up. Send me the info on it and we’ll see if we can get some coverage for it.

CF: That’d be amazing. Awesome.

RRX: I think it’s cool that we’re chatting it up. I think that a couple of outlets like ourselves that are both involved in the same music scene could only be beneficial for one another.

ZM: Absolutely.

CF: We’re definitely trying to be in it for the community. When I first started doing this… I knew I wasn’t reinventing the wheel in terms of “a zine” or a local publication because there’s a bunch of really nice ones in the area that are all doing a great job. I just wanted to throw my hat into that ring and put my own spin on it and my own style. It was a project that I really wanted to do, that I felt was in me. I always loved writing and editing and actually putting it into a publication was definitely a step up and a lot more work. I had to learn how to use Adobe InDesign, which in itself, is an undertaking.

RRX: Yeah, it is. Was there anything that any of you wanted to say to our readers?

CF: I just wanted to say thank you for interviewing us. This was definitely very cool and I appreciate the opportunity to speak about this. I appreciate anyone who’s supported us, anyone who’s bought the mag or who’s put an ad in it and anyone who’s submitted something. We’ve gotten a lot of really great submissions on this most recent issue that we put out, issue four, with “Film and Gender” as the main article. We had some amazing submissions for that one. So it is a humbling thing when a lot of people come out and help support you in your dream. I am very appreciative of Zeke and Peter too, for being the main supporters in this because I came to them with this idea and they’ve had my back the whole time.

RRX: Well, that’s not easy to come by. So you’ve got to thank your lucky stars on that one.

CF: Certainly.

ZM: I want to really get people out there… go to shows, buy merch from the touring band and support local art!

RRX: 100% Well, cool. What’s the main way to find you online?

CF: You could follow us on Instagram. That’s like our main platform, although we’ll see, because the algorithm has been insane lately. But if you want to send submissions to us, you can email them to us at Sanctumpresents@gmail.com

RRX: Awesome.

CF: We’re interested in submissions and advertisers and we do pay people for submissions. We can’t afford to pay them a lot but we still pay them something. We’re trying to get a grant right now, which would definitely let us pay people a little bit more, I would love to do that.

RRX: Absolutely well. I hope that all works out for you and I appreciate your time.

CF: Yeah, man, thank you. We appreciate it.