By Shayla Blatchford Last weekend, High Mayhem Emerging Arts hosted duo CD releases with local artists iNK oN pAPER and soloist Luke Carr. Located just south of Santa Fe’s downtown area, High Mayhem is an arts studio tucked away in an industrial dead end off of Siler Road. The volunteer staff accepted a suggested donation of $10 at the door, which included a digital download of each band’s newly released album. Luke Carr opened the show with his battery charged guitar, which became the first of many instruments to be looped as part of his full band. In between sets, the audience drifted out of the venue and into the fenced-in “front yard” with a bonfire as its centerpiece. As iNK oN pAPER closed the evening, the looping continued with Carlos Santistevan on bass and manipulated drum beats by Milton Villarrubia III. In comparison to Carr’s building layers of looped instruments, which become the foundation of his track to top with vocals, iNK oN pAPER created a technical depth to their process of loops and samples that are only intended to be ripped to shreds in their experimental electronic battle of drum and...

By Clara Hittel/Photos by Christopher Stahelin I am provided with hot tea and guided outside to the shed, amidst small patches of snow still clinging to the high-altitude chill. Within the odd structure that sits apart from Paul Groetzinger’s idyllic mountain home is the studio of Mesa Recordings. Groetzinger apologizes for the mess, while I decide that a variety of instruments scattered around the floor and dangling ominously from shelves overhead is exactly how a recording studio should look. He sits at his desk and I settle in by the space heater. Paul Groetzinger is a member of two well-known Santa Fe bands—D Numbers and Detroit Lightning—as well as a DJ and solo artist known as Feathericci. He is also now one of the founders of Mesa Recordings. I met the astoundingly friendly Groetzinger when I went to see Detroit Lightning play at the Cowgirl last week. It didn’t take me long to realize that this was the same Grateful Dead cover band I had the pleasure of stumbling upon at Totemoff’s—the bar on the slopes of the Santa Fe Ski Basin—a few weeks ago. Beats on the Basin is a regular winter occurrence, it turns out, presented by Hutton Broadcasting and benefiting the Adaptive Ski Program. Groetzinger and fellow Connecticut-born band mate Ben Wright, who have been playing music together since they were 14 years old and are both members of D Numbers and Detroit Lightning, run sound for every Beats on the Basin show. They are very busy men indeed. “I really like having a diverse musical life,” Groetzinger shares. “It makes me feel complete to do a bunch of different things. We’d sunk into the D numbers thing really heavily for many, many years and it’s nice that we’re all at...