Stefen Robinson, a musician who plays in Bloomington-Normal under the moniker Yea Big, has new music out—again.
To Lower the Fever of Feeling is on top of a veritable pile of music released this year, and the first under Robinson's new indie label called Black Flag Bonsai Club.
The five-track EP, released exclusively on CD and Bandcamp, memorializes improvised sessions recorded Aug. 12, 2024, with Robinson on bass clarinet, bassist Jon Byler Dann and percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani.
Robinson puts out music more rapidly than most labels care to keep up with. To Lower the Fever of Feeling will be his eighth release this year.
“I have a back catalog of projects that I want to release that I’m just sitting on because I put out too much stuff already,” he said. “I’m trying to slow down. I’m trying to be more intentional about not making so much music. But it's like the switch for the past several years has been turned on. I don't think I have the power within me to turn it off.”
Black Flag Bonsai Club is in part about leaning into that tendency. And it isn’t about rejecting other labels. Robinson has worked with several, including Personal Archives, which released his LP No Timing earlier this year. That's a concept album with Deerhoof drummer Greg Sunier riffing on Jim O’Rourke’s 1997 Bad Timing. Island House in New York has been another fruitful partnership. He is still a part of Bloomington-based No Below Editions, a collaborative of musicians and artists that releases limited edition physical media with original cover art.
Adding Black Flag Bonsai Club to that mix gives Robinson another avenue, and a little more leeway to work at his own pace.
“But I am also constrained by finances and resources. I don't have a bunch of extra money to be putting out records,” he said. “I can’t afford to press vinyl for myself.”
That’s one reason Black Flag Bonsai Club is releasing its first album on CD. There’s a stash in his basement. Send him a message, and he’ll personally deliver it. And he’s got two more projects in mind for the label, including a release of music that isn’t his—hopefully in 2026.
“I need to see if I can break even on this first one,” he said. “That’s kind of what the model is. Each release will fund the next one.”
The model, the aesthetic and the name are quintessential Yea Big, including the album's jacket art, fashioned in his signature “ransom note” style with cut paper taped onto images.
The name Black Flag Bonsai Club reflects a combination of Robinson’s sociopolitical views and a deep love for bonsai trees, stemming from a bonsai gifted by his longtime partner when they were in high school.
“I am very much critical of the current economic order that runs the planet. Anybody who knows me understands that,” he said.
Thus, Robinson, a pacifist, an anti-capitalist, pro-conservation Buddhist, is aware of the contradictions behind starting a music label to sell his CDs.
“I wanted to do something that I was curating myself that wasn’t so disposable," he said. "That was intentional, physical media. This is art. It’s not disposable. It means something to me and hopefully it will mean something to others as well.”
To Lower the Fever of Feeling is available for pre-order on Bandcamp, with CDs shipping around Dec. 5. The album can be purchased as a streamable download on Bandcamp only.
