If you stand outside the Milestone and look east down Tuckaseegee Road, you can see the Bank of America Corporate Center at 871 feet, with 436 LEDs typically illuminating the night sky. In the last few years, Charlotte has become even more synonymous with “banking,” as the city has poured thousands of dollars into cementing itself as a financial hub. This has been great news for developers and leasing managers looking to attract residents with deep pockets, but it is alienating the longtime residents of the city, many of whom are being pushed from their neighborhoods.
The Milestone’s reputation precedes the latest round of gentrification, and it’s where I met Candy Durant (aka Tenderlash) when she performed in March. Just hours after she participated in that day’s No Kings protest. Sitting at the tables behind the historic local venue, she sparked reflections on the direction of the city and the scene as a whole. The thumping of the speakers gave way to conversation about the arts’ ability to effect change.
I think it’s awesome that you went to the No Kings protest today.
Candy: I feel like it’s the only thing I can do right now. Like, you know, you vote, and you hope that works.
Goth’s roots in Punk have allowed it to have the capacity to be political, but it’s not always thought of as an explicitly political genre. When you perform, is it always with intent that you speak about current events?
Candy: You know, it’s weird, I don’t intend to make it so political, but that’s what comes out. I’m like, there it is again! (Laughs) I’m working on a song now, and I’m like, all right, this started about introversion, but it’s now becoming about anti-ICE, you know? Like, I’m like, okay!
You had a song about your nightmares. You waking up, being frozen, and you’re stuck. You’re so vulnerable on stage. What’s that like for you as an artist, putting that out there?
Candy: I think all creative people are just full of self-doubt, so I just accept it. I welcome that self-doubt, and I say, I’m okay with that. If not everybody likes me, that’s okay. Once you’re okay with that, and you just keep going, then people are like, “Okay, I like it!”
Or maybe they don’t, but you get through it, and then you’re like, “I’m glad I did that,” because the alternative would have been sitting at home and being sad that I didn’t do it.
In your set, you performed a song about social media, and so your relationship with how you kind of exist in the digital space. How has that been for you as an artist having to navigate that?
Candy: It’s been a struggle lately because of everything going on. Right now, it doesn’t feel good to me, to self promote. It feels very strange. I toggle in between wanting to get people to go out and vote, get people to go out and protest, but also come to my show, and it just seems so trivial right now.(laughs) So I have a hard time going on social media, because there’s just so much vapid, self-promotion stuff – and people have to do that. They have to make a living, they have to promote their bands or their projects or whatever. But right now, I can’t take as much in. So I’ve been just, putting it aside, and on the weekends, I’ll indulge a little bit more, but during the work week, I just kind of focus on work.
I think I’ll come back to more of an Internet presence, but, I’ve probably posted on Instagram, maybe, like, three times this year. I just can’t… it feels very weird to me.
Image credit: A.L. Taylor Photography
You’ve made comments before on how important it is for people to show up to live music venues. What is it like as a performer, seeing people come to your shows?
Candy: I get a little thrill when more than 10 people show up, you know? But, it doesn’t really matter. I always look for the familiar faces in the audience, and I don’t really get nervous anymore. Well, If my gear starts messing up, then I get nervous. [laughs] Otherwise, I’m okay with a big crowd, or a small crowd.
I do know that in these spaces – I don’t know if you’ve seen the Milestone documentary – These spaces need us to show up and buy drinks. These bands, if nothing else, need the support to just pay for their gear and recover from any T-shirts that they had printed or whatever. It’s really important, because without that culture, we’d just be a Bank City. We’d be all working drones.
On that topic, around community, is it true that you’re the reason Charlotte Dark Scene Facebook group exists?
Candy: Yeah, I think it started as Charlotte Goth and Dark Wave or something – It had a different name, but then I changed it, and I added a bunch of other admins, ’cause I realized it was just too big for one person. It just kind of took on a life of its own. Now somebody else runs the website, and, you know, I help with a picnic. Are you going this year…?
I am, I went last year.
Candy: I handled the beverages, and I booked the space. [laughs] I think it’s such a good community. Very welcoming. All ages, like, you know, I’m an older person, but I have friends that are in their early 20s, So I like that about it. Everybody’s just so accepting and welcoming, and there’s no cliquishness.
Pivoting a bit – were you a DJ in a past life – DJ Candy, with Strange Waves radio?
Candy: Yes! So I actually got my start in, the virtual space of Second life. It paid in micro amounts, and I found it fun, so I started to DJ on there and learned the equipment. Then from there one day, I talked to DJ Spider and asked, “can I come in early and see how you’re set up?” And that led to me covering for her one time.
So you’ve been a creative in all these different ways.
Candy: Well, this is going to blow your mind. I was sort of the president of the Christopher Walken Fan Club, for about seven years. He didn’t really want a fan club, but we had a website, and we had a message board. We invited him to an event with a bunch of people that came over from Japan to see him in a play. He came to the event, and then he would call my house –
Christopher Walken called your house?
Candy: Yes. And he would call my house, he called me on Mother’s Day one time. It was really cool because he wanted to stay in touch with his fans, so he wrote these, like, handwritten letters, and I still have them!
You’re good at building connections with other people, is what it sounds like.
Candy: My husband says when I get into something, I go all the way. I think that’s what it is. So who knows what my next thing will be? The Charlotte Park scene page is kind of the reason that I ended up being in this scene, and now I’m, like, doing these interviews and stuff.
The scene is able to sustain itself because of the work that you have done.
Candy: It’s funny, because I just wanted to start this page to help bands that were trying to come to Charlotte, to find a place to play. Then after that, it just took a life of its own. Now it’s just running with all the people in the scene like Xaq who takes photos, runs the website. It’s so cool.
The many contradictions of the city create pockets of defiance. It gives way for artists using their work and their voices to mobilize the scene. The Milestone continues to sit defiantly in Enderly park along the business axis of Uptown. The neighborhood itself began as a quiet farming community and developed into the heart of the underground we love today. Its development has survived many city ordered changes, and it continues to resist the tendrils of gentrification. The people in the scene are mirrors of their surroundings, resisting in their own ways.
As the evening wound down, Charlotte’s goths discussed events on the horizon. An apt reminder that through effort these spaces can only thrive with consistent presence. Just like the bats many lovingly mascot, they make their way by sound.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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