The Monthly -- November 28, 2018

December 2018

Nobody’s Heroine

The Gospel of Harry

Novelist Gillian Flynn on breaking female character stereotypes p.5

Actor Harry Lennix brings the Gospel of John to the big screen p.10

Learning to Love

Reel Thoughts

“Instant Family” explores creating a family through adoption p.7

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ disrespects the icon it tries to celebrate p.12

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THE MONTHLY Contents

Nobody’s Heroine

Novelist Gillian Flynn on breaking female character stereotypes

Learning to Love

“Instant Family” explores creating a family through adoption

The Gospel of Harry

Actor Harry Lennix brings the Gospel of John to the big screen

Reel Thoughts

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ disrespects the icon it tries to celebrate

05 07 10 12

Staff of The Monthly Issue 15

Madeleine Fernando Jane Recker Monthly Editors Ruiqi Chen Designer

Wilson Chapman Crystal Wall Charlotte Walsh Janea Wilson Writers

Cover photo: Source: Jesse Metres, Rowe PR Third page photo: Source: Revival the Movie

3

I still remember the first time I entered the Daily Northwestern newsroom. Expecting a sprawling room filled with ringing phones and reporters rushing around, I instead found a narrow, windowless room with a few white tables and a computer or two. I’ll admit, I was a little disappointed. So many of my friends on The Daily had talked about their memorable nights in the newsroom (both good and bad) and I had never imagined them in a place that resembled an underground bunker more than a proper newsroom. How on earth was a daily paper published here?

What I didn’t know then was this: what The Daily Northwestern lacks in natural light and elbow room, it more than makes up for in the commitment of its reporters. The ability to put out a paper five days a week doesn’t come from expansive technology or fancy workspaces, it comes from hardworking individuals who do their best to maintain positive attitudes in stressful situations, who support their colleagues and who foster a genuine love and passion for journalism.

Behind every story in the paper there is a writer. There are sports writers who sit through triple overtimes and then have to rush to attempt to file a working story before midnight, city writers who cover “Parks and Rec”-esque city council meetings into the early hours of the morning, opinion writers who spend all night crafting hot takes to be left to the mercy of the Northwestern student body.

All of these writers are spending hours conducting interviews, filing copy and editing in the newsroom on top of their own school work. Many a night in the newsroom has been spent shifting between editing a reporter’s story and trying to salvage a trainwreck of a paper for class the next day.

Through it all, though, these staffers still manage to have fun and foster a sense of community. Horror stories about nightmare sources and wild quotes are traded like currency, editors have fun gently roasting each other (like a certain unnamed editor who insisted on using chopsticks to eat flaming hot Cheetos) and, this winter, the sports desk was always the first to switch the TV over from the basketball game to the Bachelor to offer sarcastic vitriol about the useless Arie.

While I’ve loved all facets of The Daily, I’ve found my home in The Monthly. I began as an assistant editor last fall quarter, and have served as an editor ever since. If The Daily Northwestern is informal, The Monthly is informal plus. Lacking space in the newsroom, the Monthly is edited on couches outside the newsroom, often surrounded by swathes of food from the Norris convenience store. While we technically have a month to plan each issue, much of what you see comes together the week before and is edited and designed over the course of nine hours in a single night.

No, it’s not the most glamorous or efficient process, but it produces a product that I’m damn proud of. Though we may be student journalists, we strive to create a professional product with compelling feature writing highlighting Northwestern and Chicago’s best and brightest. It’s been an honor to serve as editor of this publication, and, while I’m sad to leave it behind, I know I leave it in the capable hands of other Daily staffers equally as committed to the last-minute scramble as my predecessor, Stavros Agorakis, and I. So as you page through this issue of The Monthly, pause for a moment and reflect on the work done to create what is in your hands. Appreciate the always impeccable design of Ruiqi Chen, and the stellar writing of Madeleine Fernando, Crystal Wall, Charlotte Walsh, Wilson Chapman and Janae Wilson. With them, each Monthly becomes its own microcosm of prose and storytelling. Without them, it’s just pieces of paper.

4

NOBODY’S HEROINE NOVELIST GILLIAN FLYNN ON BREAKING FEMALE CHARACTER STEREOTYPES IN HER BOOKS, SHOWS AND FILMS

– BY CHARLOTTE WALSH

Photo: Source: Jesse Metres, Rowe PR

G

illian Flynn (MSJ ’97) is an internationally acclaimed novelist, but she says she wouldn’t be anywhere without her training as a journalist.

The “Gone Girl” author said her education at Medill and her career as a journalist has taught her one of the most important principles of writing — that is, sitting down and actually doing it.

“It teaches you that the muse is not going to come down and tap you on the shoulder and say, ‘Here I am, and here’s the brilliant idea!’”

Flynn said. “It teaches you that writing, really, is not just an art but it’s a craft, and it’s also just sitting down and writing even when you don’t feel like it and even when you don’t want to.”

Flynn is the author of three bestselling novels — “Sharp Objects,” “Gone Girl” and “Dark Places” — all of which have been adapted for film or television. She is the executive producer and co-writer of the HBO miniseries “Sharp Objects,” as well as the screenwriter for the 2014 film “Gone Girl.” Most recently, Flynn co-wrote the screenplay for the heist film “Widows,” which came out in November, and is the screenwriter and showrunner for the upcoming Amazon series “Utopia.”

But before all that, Flynn was a fresh Medill graduate working as a television critic for Entertainment Weekly. For 10 years, Flynn said she “watched movies and read books and watched TV,” and learned to think critically about why certain works were impactful and others were not.

As a television critic, Flynn said she was also able to learn firsthand from the work of screenwriters she admired. Those artists, she said, were the ones who took risks, even if it meant making something flawed.

“I’d much rather see something that’s imperfect and unique and could only come from that person’s brain than something that’s formulaic,” Flynn said.

Much like her writing role models, Flynn said she likes to explore flawed characters — the “dark side of humanity,” as she said — in her novels. Many of these protagonists are women, something Flynn described as a deliberate choice.

Men, Flynn said, are able to grow up and see a wide variety of male characters, from good to bad and everything in between. For her, it is important to see women in all their different states, and explore the humanity within that.

“What do you know, women are human?” she said, laughing. “That’s still the big headline today. There are good women and bad women and flawed women. And that’s more interesting anyway.”

Because of the dark nature of female protagonists in her novels, some of F lynn’s works have been

labeled as misogynistic.

On F lynn’s part, she said she feels honored people can have a conversation and a back-and- forth about her books, but she pushes back against the idea that her novels are misogynistic simply because they feature women who are not heroes.

“It’s misogynistic to say, ‘You’re misogynistic just because you write a nasty woman or a woman who does bad things,’” she said. “It’s just a woman who does bad things, and I think feminism is so much stronger than anyone who makes that accusation...it’s just incredibly important that you show all different kinds of women.”

Flynn has been able to bring her nuanced female protagonists to a broader audience by translating her books into film and television.

Most recently, she was involved in the production of turning her debut novel, “Sharp Objects,” into an HBO miniseries starring Amy Adams. Flynn said she moved her entire family from their Chicago home to Los Angeles for a summer while Flynn co-wrote three episodes, attended pitch meetings and “took the book apart.”

Getting to watch a book she published in 2006 be made into a series 12 years later was an “interesting” experience, Flynn said. While the series has received wide critical acclaim, the book wasn’t initially received as well by potential publishers.

“A lot of publishers said, ‘No one wants to see women who aren’t heroes,’” Flynn said. “What do you know, turns out a lot of

people do.”

Many viewers and readers alike, Flynn said, have resonated with the protagonist Camille’s struggle with mental health and will to survive. The dark and deeply troubled Camille was starkly different from the woman who played her, the “sweet, brilliant” Amy Adams, and Flynn joked that production went on so long because everyone was waiting for Adams to step into Camille’s shoes.

With the production of “Sharp Objects” behind her, Flynn has moved onto her next projects. Her Amazon television series, “Utopia,” will begin filming in Chicago next year, she said. She is also in the middle of writing her fourth novel, a dark thriller she said was inspired by her reaction to the election of Donald Trump.

Though she’s looking forward to the future, Flynn keeps her past at NU close to her heart, saying Medill is where she “fell in love with writing.” It was a good friend from NU who introduced Flynn to her husband, and Flynn is in the process of becoming an officiant to marry another friend from Medill, she said.

“Medill’s where I found my voice,” she said.

“It’s a good place.” ◊

7

– by Crystal Wall

T

here’s an iconic Norman Rockwell picture of Thanksgiving. Looking down a long white table, the matriarch and patriarch of the family set down a massive turkey, surrounded by the grinning faces of a stereotypical American family.

It’s a nice painting, but it’s far from the reality found at many tables around the country. The classic nuclear family is far from the given it was in Rockwell’s time. “Instant Family,” starring Mark Wahlberg, explores how the idea of what makes a family has changed, and emphasizes that, at the end of the day, love is more important than blood in bringing people together.

This film follows the young couple Pete and Ellie — portrayed by Wahlberg and Rose Byrne —who decide to adopt after feeling they missed their chance to have children of their own. After browsing through an adoption fair, Pete and Ellie find themselves in uncharted territory after going from being a couple to parents to a teenager and two young children.

The story is a familiar one for writer, director and producer of “Instant Family,” Sean Anders. Similarly to Pete and Ellie, Anders and his wife adopted three biological siblings from the foster care system several years ago after feeling like they missed out on having their own children.

“I said as a joke to my wife, ‘Why don’t we just adopt a five year old and then it’ll be like I got started five years ago,’” Anders said in production notes. “My wife said, ‘You know I would really consider that.’ And I said, ‘I was really just kidding.’ Yet, somehow a conversation sprang up out of that.”

Wahlberg — who previously worked with Anders on “Daddy’s Home” and its sequel — believes Anders’ personal connection to the content will enhance and develop the film’s emotional core.

“I think it gives it an emotional anchor, and just an honesty and authenticity that makes it profoundly emotional and personal,” Wahlberg said in production notes. “It’s something everyone can identify with.”

Anders said he never envisioned turning his life into a film — mainly because he said he didn’t have that interesting of a life before the adoption. But Anders’ writing partner John Morris suggested the idea for the movie after watching Anders’ family change and develop over the years.

Morris saw screen potential for Anders’ Photo: Source: Paramount Pictures

story because he didn’t know much about the adoption process, and neither did Anders before he went through it. Anders was originally apprehensive about making a comedy about the foster care system, but Morris pointed out that many of Anders’ experiences with the emotionally trying process were light-hearted and funny.

The movie’s tone stays true to the realities of the foster care system: for every difficult day and heartbreaking moment, there are also surprising moments of joy and hilarity in figuring out the new normal. Anders said he had to carefully toe the line between audience stereotypes of the foster system and reality. He said many movies are either sugar-coated or trauma-focused, and Anders wanted to tell a more complete story by not shying away from the difficult moments, but also allowing the audience to laugh and feel the joy of creating a family.

The entire creative team was determined to make the movie as authentic as possible.

Anders met with adoptive parents, children who went through the foster care system and social workers to hear perspectives and stories beyond his own.

Anders described the process of creating an accurate representation of foster care families onscreen as daunting because every adoption story is different. While the film is inspired by his personal experiences, he weaved in stories and insight from others who shared their own experiences with the system. Navigating through these different perspectives was often difficult to juggle, Anders said.

“One of the hardest parts was trying to narrow (the different experiences) down to one cohesive story because everybody’s story was almost movie-worthy by itself.” Anders said. “I wanted to touch on a lot of different areas that are the more common areas people deal with in this.”

One specific area Anders touched on was the difficulties that come with adopting a young adult. Anders said he wanted to include a teenager in the film, because he felt they are the most misunderstood group in the foster care system.

To understand this experience, he sat down with the adoptive parents of teenage girls and the young women themselves. Through these meetings he met Maraide Green, who later became a consultant for the movie and served as inspiration for the movie’s 15-year-old

Lizzy.

Green reminded Anders of the character they had in mind, because she was smart, poised and open to talking about her experiences. Anders began sending her drafts of the script and she would send back feedback.

Once the movie was set to begin production, Anders called Green and told her they wanted to bring her on set to Atlanta, Georgia.

“I had no idea any of this would ever happen,” Green said. “I thought I would just

end up giving him notes and then maybe see it one day, but Sean brought me along for the whole process and it’s been really rewarding.”

Green said the film is important to her because it depicts some of the toughest times in her childhood. She said the movie can act as a resource for those in similar situations.

Anders knew “Instant Family” had come together how he envisioned during its first audience screening. The seats were filled with social workers, adoptive parents and people who were once in the foster care system.

Anders said he could tell viewers came in skeptical, but began to warm up to the film over its course.

In the end, the film received a standing ovation.

“It was one of the best moments of, I was going to say my career, but really one of the best moments of my life, because it went from being so terrifying to so gratifying,” Anders said. “A lot of families have thanked us for the authenticity of the movie, because they feel they’ve had such a hard time explaining to people they know how this works, and now they feel like they have this movie that demonstrates it for them.” ◊

9

THE GOSPEL OF HARRY Actor Harry Lennix brings the Gospel of John to the big screen in ‘Revival! The Experience’

— by Madeleine Fernando

10

Photos: Source: TriCoast Worldwide

I

n 2013, Harry Lennix (Communication ’86) decided to end his acting career.

During his time in the performing industry, Lennix had fostered a vibrant theater career and landed roles in major films like “The Matrix Reloaded” and “Titus” among others.

But after 30 years, Lennix was done with auditioning for people half his age who had just graduated from film school, sick of driving through Los Angeles during rush hour to yet another casting call and fed up with constant rejection.

Lennix called his manager to let her know he was planning to retire.

The next day, Lennix got a call. A new show called “Blacklist” was casting right away and the audition was just down the street. At the urging of his manager, Lennix auditioned and, like that, was cast in the now-hit show as Harold Cooper, assistant director of the FBI Counterterrorism Division.

“I don’t believe that that was a coincidence, and I don’t believe that that’s random,” Lennix said. “I think that’s God. I made a decision, and God made a different decision.”

A deeply religious individual, Lennix is releasing a work this December that he calls “a love letter to God.” “Revival! The Experience” is a musical retelling of the Gospel according to John, featuring a predominantly-black cast including Grammy-nominated artist Mali Music as Jesus, Destiny Child’s Michelle Williams as Mary Magdalene, Rufus’ Chaka Khan as Herodias and Lennix as Pontius Pilate.

Lennix described the film as “‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ meets ‘The Wiz,’” and said the work has been his passion project throughout his time on “The Blacklist.”

"Every dime I’ve made has gone for the completion of this movie and its distribution,” Lennix said. “It (would) be no overstatement to say that without ‘The Blacklist,’ ‘Revival’ definitely wouldn’t have happened.”

Lennix said he traces his strong religious roots back to his early childhood. Naturally drawn to exploring his faith, Lennix became an altar boy and seriously contemplated eventually entering the priesthood — he even went to seminary school when he was 13. Lennix said he looks back on those years learning about church doctrine as the “most meaningful years of school” in his life, as they instilled in him formative church teachings he carries with him today.

When he came to Northwestern, Lennix

studied theater but still pursued his love of theology, even devoting time to learning about other religions like Buddhism, Islam and Judaism.

Lennix said he never saw a schism between his love of theater and theology, citing “The Greatest Story Ever Told” and “The Ten Commandments” as two films that delve deeply into theology and are pieces of exemplary filmmaking.

“These are religious themed movies — what we call faith based — but done at the highest level of artistic aesthetic achievement,” Lennix explained.

After graduating from NU, Lennix started his career in Chicago theater before starting to

pursue more film and television opportunities in Los Angeles. Lennix made his Broadway debut starring in August Wilson’s final play, “Radio Golf ” in 2007, where Kaplan Institute Professor in Residence Peter Erickson saw Lennix perform for the first time.

Roughly a month later, Erickson and Lennix found themselves at the same Shakespeare symposium in Memphis, Tennessee, where they began the first of many intellectual conversations that would forge a lasting friendship.

Erickson remarked on Lennix’s scholarly approach to acting which adds depth to his performances.

“That’s what gives him the interesting perspective he has, because he thinks these things through very deeply,” Erickson said.

“It’s never superficial, and I saw that from the beginning. For example, if he has a role in a play, he investigates very carefully and very deeply as

he thinks about ‘How am I going to perform this?’ or ‘What is my role here?’ and it has an impact overall on the play.”

Lennix heavily drew upon his stage work when developing “Revival! The Experience,” as the movie began as a play. In 2012, Lennix wrote a narrative play to fit the cultural point of view of people in his church for the community to perform for Easter.

“The Gospel of John” was a huge hit, and Lennix saw the potential to bring the play to film, telling stories from John’s Gospel using black spiritual music.

“I don’t believe there’s any music on the planet that is more inspiring, moving, eloquent, gripping and stirring than black spiritual music, and I think it’s been waiting to be put to dramatic form,” Lennix said.

African American studies and history Prof. Sherwin Bryant, who got to know Lennix through the Omega Psi Phi fraternity, said he’s excited to watch the film. Bryant said he grew up in a black church, but never saw biblical figures or Jesus depicted as black.

Bryant praised Lennix’s dedication to truthful black cinematic representation. Rather than just “putting black faces on old stories,” Lennix treated this work with care and expected the highest quality, he said. “(Revival!) fits perfectly into the kinds of commitments that (Lennix) has, both in terms of the kinds of images that he sees as being important of black people but also the need to redress certain historical omissions,” Bryant said. “I think a movie like this is important to all communities and to all people."

As for his future, Lennix said he has “thousands of ideas” but not “millions of dollars.”

He hopes “Revival!” serves as “a key that unlocks a door of possibility” so he can put his other ideas into action, and more stories showcasing black culture can be told.

“I want it to show that there’s another way,” Lennix said. “I want people to take away that they can dare to dream and they can dare to consider themselves worthy of divine consideration — that they are as important to God as any other groups of people, and they deserve some reflection of that in culture.” ◊

REEL By marginalizing the queerness of Freddie Mercury,

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ disrespects the icon it tries to celebrate — by Wilson Chapman

A

fter an hour of watching rock icon Freddie Mercury moon over his girlfriend and resist the advances of his manager, there finally came a scene where Mercury — played by Rami Malek — has his meet cute with future boyfriend Jim Hutton (Aaron McCusker). As the two had a short and sweet conversation about sexuality and identity, I began to perk up, hoping the film would finally portray him owning himself and exploring his sexuality.

But, no. After that brief, lovely encounter, Hutton disappears until the final scene, and the film goes on to not just resist Mercury’s queerness, but to actively disrespect it.

“Bohemian Rhapsody” – directed by Bryan Singer with Dexter Fletcher finishing production after Singer was fired for poor behavior on set – seems determined to take Mercury’s fascinating life story and turn it into the most generic, formulaic biopic possible.

The film plays fast and loose with Queen’s history, often in ways detrimental to their real story. The completely fictional temporary breakup of the band in the third act comes across as trite and clichéd. And Mercury’s infamous HIV diagnosis in 1987 is delivered to him in 1985, just days before Queen’s legendary performance at the “Live Aid” concert. While this change had the potential to up the stakes and add drama to

the concert, it instead framed the diagnosis as a punishment for Mercury engaging in the “evils” of gay subculture.

The way the film depicts Mercury’s queerness is by far its worst sin. The movie’s disdain for accuracy and overall lack of energy lend to merely a boring and uninspired movie, but its poor handle on portraying Mercury’s sexual identity makes the film damaging. Utilizing every antiquated stereotype about gay men and gay subculture in the book, the end result is a film that inadvertently implies that Freddie Mercury was corrupted by his own sexual orientation.

“Bohemian Rhapsody”’s complete disinterest in adequately exploring Mercury’s queer identity is reflected in the character who it positions as the love of his life: Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton), his ex-girlfriend.

The film plays lip-service to the impact other key figures had on Mercury’s life (such as his parents and his band’s manager), but they ultimately come across as background characters. The other members of Queen, in particular, get so little focus that I could barely put names to faces.

Having Mercury’s most prominent relationship be with a heterosexual woman is a move that many other mainstream films have made to make queer themes more palatable for a straight audience (“The

Imitation Game” and “Love, Simon” among them). Admittedly, Austin was a prominent part of Mercury’s life, and the two had a very significant friendship after their romantic relationship. But the focus she gets means the queer men in Mercury’s life, specifically Hutton, are marginalized as afterthoughts, and makes “Bohemian Rhapsody” seem like the grand story of how Mercury’s love for a straight woman saved him from the evils of the gay lifestyle.

Mercury is portrayed as being obsessed with Austin, to the point of being possessive and totally reliant. Every poor decision Mercury makes is stemmed by his grief and rage over his inability to be with Austin, creating an impression that Mercury’s sexual orientation is a tragic obstacle preventing him from being with the woman that he loves, rather than a natural and beautiful part of who he is.

Mercury and Austin’s relationship also ties into the film’s vaguely infantilizing treatment of Mercury’s sexuality. Too often, Mercury isn’t portrayed as a mature, confident queer man, but rather a little boy who has no control over or confidence in his orientation.

When he was seduced by his sleazy manager, Paul Prenter (Allen Leech), Malek overexaggerates Mercury’s sexual confusion and insecurity, to the point where he comes across as a naïve teenager. This would be

forgivable if it was the beginning of an arc where Mercury becomes confident in his queerness, but that never comes to fruition.

Mercury’s eventual happy relationship with Hutton is underdeveloped and robbed of necessary screen time, and the film lacks any pivotal moment that depicts Mercury growing up and owning his identity.

The film also plays up the predatory vibes with Prenter, who is positioned as the villain of the movie; he practically twirls his moustache whenever he’s on screen.

Regardless of whether there’s any truth to his toxic presence in Mercury’s life, it’s hard not to feel his portrayal makes the statement that gay culture leads to misery.

Prenter is behind practically every crisis in Mercury’s life, isolating him from his bandmates and leading to the end of his and Austin’s relationship. Prenter is the one who introduces Mercury to the gay subculture, which is depicted as seedy and borderline evil. A montage of the two going to a gay club is shot in such a way to suggest that this excursion is Mercury’s low point, a tragic mistake that will ruin his life. In real life, it was in one of these “hedonistic” gay clubs where Mercury met Hutton, the love of his life, another detail conveniently changed to fit the film’s agenda.

It’s infuriatingly easy to imagine a version of Bohemian Rhapsody that doesn’t treat such a core part of its main character’s identity with total contempt. Malek and McCusker have good chemistry in the limited scenes they do share, enough that you can picture McCusker’s role being expanded into something more significant.

The depiction of gay subculture as a negative influence on Mercury would be easy to fix with a few rewrites. And by not changing when Mercury received his HIV diagnosis, the film could have avoided its reprehensible treatment of the disease as a punishment for his actions. It’s all the more baffling when you consider that Bryan Singer is an openly gay man.

Somewhere buried in Bohemian Rhapsody is the potential for a film that shows one of rock music’s few queer icons discovering and embracing his identity, and does justice to a legend. Instead, we’re left with an insulting and nasty movie, one that disrespects the icon it should be celebrating. ◊ Photo: Source: Nick Delaney/Twentieth Century Fox

13

Q&A

Debbie-Marie Brown

Most people would be happy just to have two full albums under their belt by the time they turned 21; that wasn’t good enough for Medill junior Debbie-Marie Brown. We sat down with her to hear more about her new EP, “Not Too Fast,” which drops early winter quarter on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.

— by Janea Wilson The Daily: This is the third project you’ve recorded since you got to NU. How has your sound evolved and what makes this EP different?

Brown: I feel like each EP is just me learning how to use music better. The first album is all acoustic guitar. The second album is full band and electric guitar, with some acoustic here and there. For this EP, it’s full acoustic band. I have a lot of different harmonies and voices throughout.

I would consider it my most mature project — probably the cleanest sound I’ve been able to get out. The tracks are pretty slow and have sort of a “sit back and watch the traffic pass by in the car” vibe.The name is really supposed to embody that.

The Daily: Where did your inspiration for this EP come from?

Brown: I say my inspiration always comes from the same places, which is me just working through whatever I’m working through at the time. (For this EP), it was about me allowing myself to be patient with myself. That same energy of the EP is the energy I’ve adapted into

my life: patience, maturity and accepting things you can’t change.

The Daily: When did you start playing music?

Brown: I came from a school district back home that really emphasized the arts and musical education. My parents were really good at encouraging and supporting my interests. I started playing guitar in sixth grade, and then played jazz guitar in jazz band in high school. I grew up an orchestra kid, but marching band was a lot cooler at my high school. So, when junior year came around, I was friends with all these band kids and I was like, “I want to join marching band.” I taught myself clarinet that summer, marched my senior year, and then joined NU’s marching band when I got here. I love music.

The Daily: You’ve grown up as a musician; how do you think that background shapes your songwriting?

Brown: I grew up around a bunch of

instruments from worshipping in church, so that’s made me familiar with what kind of sound I want coming from a keyboard or a bass. In my album “Armageddon,” those drums parts were written by me, Gibran (Wirjawan), and Eric Van Camp all together. I told them the intent. I also wrote all the guitar parts. For my new EP, even though I’m not the one who’s playing on the bass, I wrote the bass parts. I told my drummer the kind of sound I wanted and he knew where to hit to get that sound. I’m definitely like a director in the sounds that come out.

The Daily: How do you balance school and music?

Brown: It’s less of a “How do you make time for it?” and more of a “The only reason I survive at this school is because I have this.” Everything that I do successfully, in terms of expressing myself or expressing an idea is because I have music and it helps me to understand myself. The more compassion I have more myself, the more I can have for other people. ◊ Photo: Alex Schwartz/Daily Senior Staffer

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THE MADNESS OF KING GEORGE III SAT. DEC 8 at 2PM Josephine Louis Theater 20 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston

By Alan Bennett Starring Mark Gatiss and Adrian Scarborough Directed by Adam Penford Part of the STAGE ON SCREEN series Box Office: (847) 491-7282 WIRTZ.NORTHWESTERN.EDU

National Theatre Live

National Theatre Live

JAN 13

FEB 1 - 10

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA

KING LEAR

THE CHERRY ORCHARD GUYS AND DOLLS

JAN 12

WIRTZ.NORTHWESTERN.EDU

Mainstage Play A new version by Stephen Karam

FEB 15 - MAR 3 Mainstage Musical