In a post COVID-19 world, there has been a turn towards hyper-individualism and isolationism that exacerbates divides between people and is destroying Boston’s sense of community. But the Boston DIY music scene is a bright spot in an otherwise isolated city. Omnichord rock band Ohio State Fair recently collaborated with 27 other local bands to create a special community-focused project. Allston X Allston, the resulting benefit album, was dedicated to Warm Up Boston, a program that supports and provides material needs for Boston’s unhoused community. The 27-track project, which features each artist covering a song by another Allston-affiliated band, is a testament to the Boston DIY music scene, as well as the organizational abilities of Ohio State Fair. Sound of Boston recently spoke with lead singer Natasha Kafi of Ohio State Fair about the creation of Allston X Allston and the importance of Boston’s community, both in the music scene and beyond.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Lucy Humphrey (LH): So, you dropped this album, Allston X Allston, where everybody is covering everybody else’s music, which is a very fun concept. How did this project originate?
Natasha Kafi (NK): For me, I would not be doing music if I hadn’t been going to shows in Allston for so long and been around other Boston musicians. Through that community connection, I started wanting to make music, and I’ve just been very inspired by other bands in Boston DIY. I think that was a big piece of it: just my own relationship to being inspired by other people’s music. This is an opportunity for everyone to do something that’s really fun because I think a lot of us are inspired by each other. Making that very tangible and straight up doing each other’s songs was something that seemed very fun. I was talking to some of my friends about it – like some of the bands on the tape – and they seemed interested, so I just was like, “okay, I’m going to throw this out on the Ohio State Fair Instagram story.” I was not expecting it to get to 27 bands. It was crazy.
LH: How did you figure out who was going to cover who?
NK: So that was part of the fun, figuring out all of the logistics of it because I was not anticipating this many people signing up. This entire project was powered by Google Sheets and Google Forms. I had everyone upload the songs that they wanted to be covered and made a big pool for people to listen to each other’s stuff. And then I was like, “Okay, on this day, I’m going to open this Google Form, and everyone’s going to sign up.” It felt like the cornucopia scene in The Hunger Games because I opened the Google Sheet, and 20 people were waiting on the document. I think everyone was pretty happy with what they got, which I think is the result of having a lot of really good bands to choose from. It was really cool to see how invested people were and how much thought and work people put in. I felt really grateful for that, and it added to the caliber of the project. People really went above and beyond.
LH: Was there something you most enjoyed about doing this?
NK: I think the thing that I enjoyed the most about it, which is where the soul of the project lies, is the community aspect of it. I’m not originally from Boston, but I’ve stuck around for so long because of how strong the sense of community is here. Every single aspect of this project just felt totally community oriented, from people covering each other’s songs, and the artwork was also made by the bands. It was mastered by my roommate’s little brother, which was so sweet and awesome of him.
The project is also reinvesting in the Boston community. We knew it was going to be a benefit tape from the genesis, but for a while, all the bands were kind of thinking about what organization we wanted the proceeds to go to. We were in this big Instagram group chat and just spitballing ideas, and then someone mentioned Warm Up Boston, and everyone was kind of immediately, like, “Absolutely. Yes.” Warm Up Boston is such an incredible organization that is on the ground, grassroots, neighbor-helping-neighbor. Everyone was so excited to do this project to benefit Warm Up, and so many people so quickly were investing money into the project, which is then reinvesting in the community. It feels really special to be able to even contribute a little bit to an organization that is doing something that is so essential. Warm Up Boston is showing up for our community in ways that the systems that are supposed to show up for people aren’t, especially in Boston, which is such an inequitable and segregated community that historically is not the kindest to unhoused people. So it’s just a big, big plug for Warm Up. They’re just the coolest.
Check out Allston X Allston on Bandcamp here, and see the album’s artist and song pairings below.
| Track | Cover Artist | Original Artist |
| Abby | Sweet Petunia | Lady Beetle |
| Sewn Up Dress | Lady Beetle | Foxy Grandpa |
| Some Point in October | Foxy Grandpa | Kinship |
| Cat | Kinship | Wulfer |
| Why Would I Lie | Wulfer | St. Clementine |
| Nothing But Time (if you want it) | St. Clementine | Winkler |
| Big Bug | Winkler | The Croaks |
| Tin Foil | The Croaks | Salty Greyhound |
| About It | Salty Greyhound | Raavi |
| Gutter Brain | Raavi | Alexander |
| Desire Path | Alexander | Ohio State Fair |
| Owlz | Ohio State Fair | Dino Gala |
| Shoebox Bird | Dino Gala | Cilantro |
| (I Will Be Your) Perfect Dancer | Cilantro | Lex Walton |
| I Think We Should Try to Have Kids | Lex Walton | Makeout Palace |
| Alien | Makeout Palace | Sunbear |
| Garden | Sunbear | Misuser |
| Wilting | Misuser | Sweet Petunia |
| Joe Modern | warmachine | Paper Lady |
| Surface Tension | Paper Lady | Clifford |
| necromancy | Clifford | warmachine |
| Hypoxia | Gollylagging | Tiberius |
| Dry Rot | Tiberius | Gollylagging |
| Chosen One | Silvie’s Okay | Hereboy |
| Butterfly a Moth | Hereboy | Silvie’s Okay |
| My Body | Tongue Love | Jules |
| Without Witness | Jules | Nurse Joy |