Sonja Briney's Amateur Hour
Happy Monday to all! Hoping you’re staying safe and getting your vax appointments booked if you haven’t gotten the jab yet.
This week’s mix is courtesy of the fully vaccinated Sonja Briney, coming to you directly from downtown NYC. While her day jobs at Procell and Mast Books are at some of the coolest, most tasteful establishments in New York, she also happens to be a graphic design and screen printing legend. As you read this, she may or may not be using her talents on a very special project for Post Up, but we can’t give too much away yet. When she’s not slammed at work, Sonja likes to spend her nights watching Lakers and Wizards games, listening to Sahbabii or Neil Young and reminiscing on the recent retirement of her beautiful wood-paneled 1996 Buick station wagon.
Sonja Briney’s Amateur Hour is now streaming on Post Up Radio
Continue reading for our interview with Sonja, some images of her work and a full track list for her mix.
You grew up in Colorado, wook capital of the United States. Was there any music that’s popular with that demographic that you loved growing up?
My dad is a hardcore dead head, cassette collector, whole 9 yards. Because of that, I grew up listening to a lot of Grateful Dead, Pearl Jam and The String Cheese Incident. In early high school I was super into ODESZA. Thank god I missed the Bassnectar boat, but I did love some ODESZA.
ODESZA feels a bit neo-wook.
It is, but it still has that wooky cult following. ODESZA, Flume, their fans still have the same energy that fans of all the jam bands have. There are just pashminas involved now.
Being in the outdoors is a big deal in Colorado, what music does your essential outdoors playlist consist of?
Definitely a wide variety, but any time I’d go off the grid I’d download one album at a time and listen to it for the whole weekend. The one I remember most was listening to channel ORANGE while stuck on a very long drive, having the album on repeat. Other albums that feel like outdoor essentials to me are Harvest by Neil Young, Trick by Alex G and Capacity by Big Thief. I love Adrianne Lenker, her voice is so beautiful.
What’s a project you’ve been wanting to work on that you’re excited about?
I’m really excited about my new studio, and building it out to be able to do more things in there. Printing with different colors, experimenting, trying new things all the time. When I have a new idea I like to try it immediately, and if it works then that’s awesome, but if it doesn’t that’s okay too. When I made my screen printed mirrors I didn’t really know what I wanted the end product to look like, I just wanted to see if I could figure out how to do it. My work is more exploratory than anything else.
You spend a lot of your time at Mast Books, one of the finest purveyors of collectible art books. What are your 3 dream coffee table books?
I feel like I see a perfect book every time I go into work, but if I had to pick I’d start with literally any Barragán book. My two other picks are Girl Pictures by Justine Kurland and anything by the photographer Torbjørn Rødland. I’ve realized that I tend to prefer photography books when I’m actually purchasing.
You also spend a lot of time at Procell, one of the finest purveyors of vintage clothing. What’s a piece you’ve been wanting for years?
There’s this old Miu Miu floral appliqué collection that I love finding pieces from. I’m lucky to have both a bag and matching pair of sandals, but I’m always on the hunt for more. There’s a pointy pair of heels from the collection that I really want to find.
You’re someone who surrounds yourself with a lot of smart, creative people. Any friends’ whose work you want to shout out?
I want to shout out my friend Laine Bolte who does all of the knitwear for Puppets and Puppets, I love the stuff she does. Also, my friend Olivia Vigo just did a big elaborate piece for her thesis project, it’s a beautiful wardrobe that she made out of 50 pounds of raw wool. I also want to shout out everyone who’s graduating or finishing a thesis this semester!
Music to cook to: Larry Heard - Sceneries Not Songs, Volume 1
Music to drive to: Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour
Music to work out to: Eddie Fowlkes - Boiler Room Berlin DJ Set
Music for a cocktail hour: Dwight Sykes - On The Rocks
Music that’s a guilty pleasure: Taylor Swift - Fearless (Taylor’s Version)
Music to Post Up to: MF DOOM - Operation: Doomsday
Sonja Briney’s Amateur Hour Track List:
Pinkpantheress - Time With Me
Yu Su - Melaleuca
Dua Lipa - Break My Heart (Moodymann Remix)
The Cure - The Walk (Everything Mix)
Vera - Take Me To The Bridge
Max B - Live Comfortable
N.E.R.D. - Hypnotize U
Army of Lovers - My Army of Lovers
System Olympia - Let Me Out
OutKast - She Lives In My Lap
Max B - I Gotta Habit
Nicki Minaj - Barbie Goin Bad
Kempachii - Met Her On The Internet
Anna Domino - Take That
Eddie C - Dream Reality
Laurie Miller - Love is a Natural Magical Thing
Drake - Come Thru
Young Nudy & Playboi Carti - Pissy Pamper
You can follow Sonja on Instagram