Five Questions: Skyler Fell

It’s time for another installment of “Five Questions” — Let's Polka's occasional interview series with notable personalities in the accordion world.

Today, we’re talking to Skyler Fell, owner of the Accordion Apocalypse Repair Shop in San Francisco. A professionally trained accordion repairwoman, Skyler offers repairs, parts, lessons, and free advice out of her humble shop in Hunter’s Point. Accordion Apocalypse has become a Bay Area accordion hub, hosting jams and shows by touring bands and wild circuses. She also plays in a couple bands herself: the Hobo Gobbelins and the Accordion Apocalypse Circus Sideshow.

When and why did you start playing the accordion?

I started playing accordion when I was around 20 years old, after walking into Boaz Accordions in Berkeley. Feeling inspired by live circus bands featuring fierce and independent women with a hardcore edge in Europe and the Bay Area, I decided to have a go at the accordion. What has happened since has been a truly magical and eye-opening journey......

Thanks to Chris and Anna of Let's Polka. Check it out online at:
http://www.letspolka.com/2008/05/five-questions-skyler-fell/

Accordion-
The accordion is a musical instrument of the handheld bellows-driven free reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox.
The accordion is played by compressing and expanding the bellows, while pressing buttons or keys to allow air to flow across reeds, thereby producing tones and chords.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accordion

Apocalypse-
(literally: the lifting of the veil), is a term applied to the disclosure to certain privileged persons of something hidden from the majority of humankind.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalypse

SAN FRANCISCO - "Skyler Fell is a 25-year-old entrepreneur with a mission: to ride the crest of a new wave of popularity for the accordion, a classic musical instrument with a growing following in the underground music scene....."
-Kate Williamson, The Examiner

The Accordion Apocalypse Invites YOU to:

Accordion Night! with Circus Finelli
and an all Accordion JAM
2501 Bryant St. x 23rd St. in the Mission
San Francisco, CA 94110
Every 2nd Friday
7:30 - 11pm 2008

May 9th with Special Guests:

Circus Finelli Show at 8pm

Circus Finelli is San Francisco's favorite all-woman clown troupe, bringing hilarious disaster, un-dead accordion antix, ukelele, toys, samba, and puppets to the Accordion Apocalypse Accordion Night!
http://www.circusfinelli.com

Followed by an all Accordion JAM.

Zombie attire encouraged.

-for accordionists, and accordion lovers
-bring your accordion and music to share
-multiple jams for different styles of music, and different levels of musical abilities. Beginners too!

-art gallery with changing shows
-potluck & bring snacks
-info table for zines, songbooks, CD's, fliers, ect.

Come out to play in our local San Francisco accordion mecca!
Zombies get in free....donations gladly accepted;)

http://www.accordionapocalypse.com
http://www.millionfishes.com/

Keep your eye out for Accordion Night in June for our "Friday the 13th Special" with more Accordion Playing Zombies including The Hobo Goblins, and 1ManBanjo!

Questions? Call or email Skyler for more info:
(415) 596-5952
accordionapocalypse@yahoo.com

California's Biggest Accordion Gathering: The Cotati Accordion Festival August 23rd & 24th
For info:
http://www.cotatifest.com

Visit the Accordion Club in your area: http://www.accordionusa.com/club.htm

For Repair Estimates please bring your accordion by the shop. I cannot give repair estimates over the phone or via email - I must see the instrument first. Email Skyler for an appointment at accordionapocalypse@yahoo.com or call (415) 596-5952. I take calls and appointments Thurs-Saturday 12-6pm.

For the Accordion TEACHERS in California List, click on the link above and scroll to the bottom of the page!

Also Check out The Freeskool Songbook Project Online at http://songbook.ning.com/

The Accordion Apocalypse Circus Sideshow:
a spooky and demented mystical romp around the underbelly of the beast. Featuring brazen accordion tunes, stilt walking, sharp juggling tricksters, accordionists on trapeze, puppetry, unicycle, acrobalance, vaudeville antix, and hottt fire juggling! Specific acts upon request.

The Hobo Gobbelins:
emerge from the pulsing art vortex of Oakland, Ca., the green-skinned child of punk rock, avant-garde performance art and hobo soul. Drawing on a dizzying array of influences, the band incorporates traditional sounds of Americana and the Old World with the horrors of modernity. Monsters from folklore and fiction wriggle alongside freight-train spirituals and drinking songs. The result is a disturbing haunted house for the ear, a nightmare carnival that is at turns goofy and murderous.
http://www.myspace.com/hobogobbelins

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