Destiny & Grit is an audio series exploring the highs & lows and whys & hows and hot & colds and streets & trails of Tacoma, WA. We are chasing our curiosity about this place on foot, on bike, on rail, on boat, and in sound. If you want us to know your Tacoma secrets, shoot us an email at destinyandgrit@gmail.com or call our secret number.

Composer and Pianist Benjamin Chenovik started making original orchestral music with a small group of friends in 2007. They called the music project "Tacoma Urban Orchestra" it was a 7 year project born from the gritty underbelly of Tacoma Washington's burgeoning fusion art scene where the elements of classically trained musicians in their 20's and 30's began to play music together with rock and electronica artists, spoken word performers, world musical instruments, self taught percussionists, DJs, and created choreographed music and dance events. The results were brilliant for those of us who were there and a few people who were a part of our happenings. 

Here a couple of tracks that we explored together recorded in Tristan's studio by Kristof Litke in Hilltop Tacoma. Future works may be released as we rediscover old recordings. 

In 2019 we had a reunion BBQ in the Point Defiance area and jammed to some new tunes, and who knows what may come of this. All of us are still pursuing music professionally, personally and spiritually. The poets are still writing poems  professionally and the dancers are still dancing.

While we may have dispersed into Europe and throughout north and south America we look forward to charing more music with you in the future.

Benjamin is currently working with musicians and vocalists in the Tacoma area creating new music, directing and conducting and releasing new music recordings and a weekly Music VLog on Youtube find his music on Sound Cloud, Bandcamp, Apple Music & Spotify under the name Benjamin Chenovik.

Yo, I'm a songwriter, musician, poet, producer, tastemaker, and a bunch of other stuff. Hit me up if you got that hot ish. If it's tight I might add it to a playlist. Reppin the 253 all day and we ain't stop til T-Town the biggest city on Erf, for real.

Singer-songwriter James Coates sings about what he knows: falling down and getting back up. His latest album One Last Ride was crafted painstakingly over five years.

The result is a deeply-personal look into the life of an artist who believes in the power of truth in music. Autobiographical lyrics are complemented by a sonic tapestry of country, folk, Americana and soul.

The instrumentation is lush, with songs dressed in the likes of reverb-soaked pedal steel, stabbing horn sections, gospel choirs and even a chamber orchestra.

But above it all sits the voice of the storyteller. Producers ditched the autotune relied on by so many artists to instead create an artifact of humanistic beauty: one songwriter and his stories, the way he wants them told.

One Last Ride is available now on all streaming platforms.

The Cloves is following