Mission/Vision/History

Founded in 2001, High Mayhem Emerging Arts is a not-for-profit emerging arts facility, record label and multimedia production collective based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. We challenge the homogenizing effect of pop-culture groupthink by providing opportunities for and fostering collaborations with underrepresented “experimental” artists.

High Mayhem curates performances and organizes workshops year-round with musicians and performance artists who come from near and far. We seek out other brave explorers (and welcome those who have discovered us) to join us in producing innovative and thought-provoking experiences for our communities. Further, we encourage and organize collaborative experiments across disciplines; new forms emerge from mutated traditions and pure invention.

We provide a venue and voice for creative tinkerers who challenge our notions of aesthetics in music and art, especially those who employ cross-media synthesis, improvisational techniques and the unorthodox…the often indescribable.

The group’s members, volunteers and constituents have created a live/work space which allows them to explore their varied interests, commune with one another and experiment with sound, vision, movement…you know, creative adaptive systems.

Beyond merely organizing, promoting and producing cutting-edge programming, High Mayhem collaborates with like-minded individuals and organizations.

Johnny Bell (he/him) is a northern New Mexico-based acoustic instrumental musician exploring the banjo as a progressive instrument desiring to evolve beyond its traditional roots. From within the lineage of American Primitive music Johnny’s current work juxtaposes traditional clawhammer banjo techniques with acoustic drone, ambient field recordings, radio broadcast, tape loops and other found sounds to create recursive sonic textures that are trance-inducing and cathartic.

Hillary Arwen is a singer-songwriter with a rare talent for creating fascinating characters and situations in her songs. Each piece builds a world that she invites you into, and then she surprises you with the depth of that existence.
 
Born into a theatrical family, Hillary appeared on stage from the time she was 5. Her first musical appearance was at age 8 with her musician mother when they performed a song they had written together about an outlaw in space running from the authorities.
 
After she studied music at Sam Houston State University and University of St. Thomas, Hillary toured the United States, playing in Chicago, Memphis, Flagstaff and Alaska. In Houston, she has played many venues, including Dan Electro’s, Instant Karma, Cardi’s, Ovations and Mucky Duck.
 
She has toured Europe twice. The first time, she was the lead of Cactus Jack and the Stoned Masons, formed when she moved to Barcelona after playing the club scene in Amsterdam as a single. The second time, she spent seven months busking on the avenues of cities in Spain, France and Italy, including a stint playing in Pamplona during the running of the bulls and a mini-tour of southern France with a juggler and his three dogs.
 
Hillary was based in the Caribbean before moving to Homer, Alaska, where she plays regularly at various clubs, including Kharacters and Alice’s Champagne Palace
 

classic one man band scenario: drummer plays bass and guitar and owns a 4 track, starts writing songs when he's 15. in 17 years he's recorded to 4 track, 8 track, 16 track and protools; his own engineer and producer, and usually some one else's gear. the songs come from no where, a heart, a lie, a wish, a story, a biography, a biopsy, everywhere. the means of conveyance is rock and roll. and sometimes folky ballads. 

Lady Lazarus is the solo singer-songwriter project of Melissa Ann Sweat, who has earned praise from The New York Times, NPR, Pitchfork, Consequence, SPIN, Magnet Magazine, and many more for her singular and spirited brand of dream folk-pop and minimalist folk. Her 2026 release finds her music maturing into a distinctive, sophisticated Americana sound.

As Lady Lazarus, Melissa has released four albums, Mantic (2011), All My Love In Half Light (2013), Miracles (2015), and her new album, Impossible Journey Of My Soul Tonight (2019), out now. She has self-released all her recordings, produced numerous music videos, and toured across the U.S.

Melissa is also a fine artist and creative writer. She has exhibited regionally, and her writing has been published in PopMatters, Dangerous Minds, Skirt! Magazine, Impose, and more.

Originally from San Jose, California, Melissa has lived throughout the U.S. and is currently putting down roots in Sacramento.

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