“If Nothing Is Held Sacred, Then Desecration Is Unlimited” - An Interview With Sacred Boundaries
Interview via Kenzie Gay - @kenzwrites
We’ve covered everything from blues to space pop to world music within this magazine and though it is a majorly rock-centered publication, we always jump on the opportunity to highlight smaller artists no matter the genre, which brings us to the feature at hand: Sacred Boundaries, an independent artist that best falls into the genre of ambient music.
The project, which just recently debuted in September, is a moniker for Stephen Sietsema, a 24 year old musician (or, “music maniac” as he self proclaims) from the Zeeland/Grand Rapids, Michigan area. In an effort to uplift some artists local to me, we sat down and discussed the project more in depth.
(left) Stephen Sietsema / Sacred Boundaries (right) Album art for “Falling Stars”, his newest single.
Introduce yourself - give our readers a feel for who you are!
I am a 24 year old music maniac trying to break into the music industry. I split my time being a stagehand, recording/mixing engineer, music artist, poet, burgeoning bassist, and boyfriend to my wonderful girlfriend.
Is there a story/origin behind your moniker, “Sacred Boundaries”?
Yeah, the name came about from a video essay I watched actually. It’s entitled, “The Hidden Story That Defines Our Modern Era” by the YouTube channel, Like Stories of Old. Specifically, the story of an expedition crew that visited a waterfall in Guyana. The waterfall is very tall and difficult to access, therefore no human had seen what lay beyond the many tons of rushing water. This led the location to be abounding in mystery, folklore, and local legends. The crew lowered a member that was an avid rock climber down behind the waterfall with their equipment and a camera. He was able to see behind this wondrous waterfall and record footage of what actually was there. Upon returning to the top, they decided to never release the tape. All they would do by revealing what they had seen, would be to remove the magic and mystery around the location for everyone else.
The world today is increasingly lost for magic and untouched, undesecrated, places. Forests are clear cut, waters are poisoned, and native peoples are displaced in the name of money, discovery, and opportunity. A ‘sacred boundary’ asks the question not, “what could we do?” but, “what should we do?” Upholding sacred boundaries upholds our earth and our wild humanity that is getting harder and harder to feel.
As my instagram bio says, “if nothing is held sacred, then desecration is unlimited - the boundary must be upheld.” I want my music to uplift our sacred universe and celebrate its existence, criticize its desecration and destruction, and uphold a hope for its future.
Outside of music, what are some of your hobbies that may indirectly influence your work?
I love walking a lot. I have a nature trail right by my house that has seen a lot of different sides of me. I also love to just wander when I have time. (There might be some different kind of work related to this coming out soon… stay tuned) You see a whole different side of the world when you simply pick a direction and are able to exist in new spaces without too much time constraint. Doing that can really allow your mind to be free and inspired.
I’ve been reading a lot more this year now too. Fantasy books are a staple for me, but I’m branching into some nonfiction as well (Shoutout to my current read which I’ve been fascinated by, “Rooted” by Lyana Lynn Haupt). I find myself inspired by stories and by discovering new words I may not know the definition of.
I love creative writing a lot as well - mostly poetry. It’s such a great outlet for me for writing about anything. It’s a beautiful double-edged sword too in that I am inspired by other things to write and my writing in turn can inspire my music.
Describe your music in three words.
Meditative, animistic, and thematic.
Who are some of your biggest musical inspirations?
My favorite band Silent Planet has always inspired me as a person and creatively. Silent Spirit here in Grand Rapids has been quite inspiring as well.I’ve gotten to chat with him a few times and that has been super cool. He also makes ambient music and just some really great stuff. The exquisite Joni Mitchell, Porter Robinson, Nina Simone, Sufjan Stevens, Hayley Williams, Adrianne Lenker, Brittany Howard - the list goes on and on.
Describe the creative process behind your new single, “Falling Stars”.
“Falling Stars” started with 3 simple elements: a synth bass on a tape loop, a stretched chord sample I had created, and a guitar solo my good friend Spencer played (shoutout to Inhuman Shimmer). It had been left at that for a while, but I had been exploring my sessions on my computer and stumbled upon it again. I thought there was something there and Spencer encouraged me to go for it, so I transformed it into a full ambient track. I kept the tape and added some further low frequency elements. I simplified the guitar solo and made it into the improvised melody part. The song didn’t have a name until I found a sound on one of my keyboards called falling comets that I used to make the whooshing, sparkly parts in the background. When I got that, the space theme was set and I was able to go for that cosmic feel. My favorite part that’s hidden is the song is a sample from a cd i have called “Symphony of the Planets.” It was made by NASA converting frequencies they received to audible sound to sort of mimic ‘the sound of space’. Obviously, being a vacuum, there is no sound in space, but the idea is really cool and fit the song perfectly.
What do you hope to get out of your career?
What I hope to get out of my career as an artist is self-fulfillment through creativity. If other people connect with it when I share it, that's great! In the end, this process is for me to explore and I’ll go along the ride of that wherever it ends up taking me, big or small.
Who is a dream artist you’d love to collaborate with (living OR dead)?
Got to say Silent Planet here too. I’ve loved them for almost a decade now and have had the privilege to have some great discussions with their lead singer after some shows they played in Grand Rapids. I think I could make some cool atmospheres for a song for them and contribute some lyrics to one of their songs. That would be a life highlight for me if that ever happened.
What qualities do you admire in other musicians, who do you look up to lately?
I think a word that comes to mind for what I admire in other musicians is resonance. When something resonates, it holds a stronger, more whole sound, like a chord on a perfectly tuned guitar. I think what a lot of people admire in truly amazing musicians is their authenticity, honesty, creativity, the way their art makes them feel. I think all of these are summed together when a musician is in resonance within themselves and their creation. When a musician resonates, you can feel it in the way they perform, in how their recordings sound, and how they pursue their musicianship. Many of the artists I listed as inspirations feel resonant to me and I look up to them. I feel like Adrianne Lenker particularly exemplifies the qualities I admire.
If you could create the soundtrack for any movie past or present, which would you choose and why?
I’ll start this off by saying I don’t watch a lot of movies these days. A lot of movies I do like and watch have perfect soundtracks already: Spiderverse, How To Train Your Dragon, Lord of the Rings, Howl’s Moving Castle. Those all have exceptional soundtracks. I guess if I had to pick, I’d say maybe an old Star Trek movie like IV: The Voyage Home. I could lean into 80's retro-future space ambient stuff for that to make something pretty cool.
Where do you hope to see your music career in ten years?
In 10 years I hope to just have more tracks under my belt and continue to hone and explore music. I am also very into recording and mixing, so I hope to have a lot of work in that realm and continue in the live music world too. I want to help elevate the sound of other musicians and let myself flow free into holy creation for sacred boundaries.
