Jen Carey
Here’s my story: my folks moved to Atlanta in the summer of ‘88 so I had little reason to return to Darien. I graduated from Bryn Mawr College in ‘92 with a degree in Fine Arts. After 3 years of meandering around the country, working blah jobs, trying to figure out what to do with a Fine Arts degree, I moved to NYC (West Village, then East) in ‘95 and went to Pratt Institute to get a Masters in Graphic Design.
Then, in ‘97, I dusted off my old tuba to record on a musician friend’s album. (You may remember me lugging that big horn around DHS.) This was the start of my illustrious 9-year underground tuba career, which included playing part-time with gypsy-punk originators Gogol Bordello, and the gritty-but-glamorous Vanity Set. Over the years I have done a bunch of recordings, a few radio shows, a tour to London, and many random performances with random bands. It was all for fun, not so much for profit. But fortunately I always had my day job as a graphic designer to pay the bills.
In ‘98 while I was playing with Gogol Bordello, I met my husband, Sasha Kazachkov; he was the accordion player at the time. We were married in ‘03 and our beautiful son James Dmitriy Aleksandrovich Kazachkov (aka Dima) was born in August of ‘06. I pretty much stopped playing music in the Spring of ‘06 (tuba and pregnancy are a tough combo).
We now live in Brooklyn and I work as a designer at Hot House Brand Group in NYC. When I’m not at work making logos, I’m building cities out of Duplo blocks, or chasing Dima around the playground.
I really haven’t kept in touch with anyone other than J. Harrell & I had a brief get-together with Sunyoung Lee & Thea Gray around ‘96, but it’s so interesting to see what everyone has been up to. Here are some pictures of my family…
Enjoy the Reunion!
