$4,95 www.wastedsynesthesia.com
[sin-uh s-thee-zhuh, -zhee-uh, -zee-uh] noun a sensation produced in one modality when a stimulus is applied to another modality, as in hearing color, often brought on by the use of psychedelic drugs.
WASTED SYNESTHESIA This magazine was design by Daniela Cedeno and Adeline Ross. Printed in Savannah, GA in a 200 pound white paper. www.wastedsynesthesia.com Published in 2017 This book was set in Avenir Book with a size of 10 point for the body copy. Avenir is a sans-serif typeface designed by Adrian Frutiger and released in 1988 by Linotype GmbH. The masthead and subheads of the spreads were set in Trade Gothic (Bold, Condensed and Regular) Trade Gothic is a sans-serif typeface designed in 1948 by Jackson Burke .
McBriare Samuel Lanyon "Mac" DeMarco (born Vernor Winfield McBriare Smith IV, April 30, 1990) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer. He is best known for his solo career, during which he has released four studio albums, Rock and Roll Night Club (2012), 2 (2012), Salad Days (2014), and Another One (2015). His style of music has been creatively described as "blue wave", "slacker rock", or self-described by DeMarco as "jizz jazz". Mac DeMarco was born in Duncan, British Columbia and raised in Edmonton, Alberta. During high school he was in several bands, including The Meat Cleavers, The Sound of Love and Outdoor Miners (named after a song by English rock band Wire). His great-grandfather is Vernor Smith, Alberta's former Minister of Railways and Telephones, for whom DeMarco was named. His mother later changed his name to McBriare Samuel Lanyon DeMarco. DeMarco is also of Italian descent. For DeMarco’s generation of Canadian kids growing up in mid-sized cities, their first taste of live music was at local shows in the mid-00s.
Bored 15-year-olds too young for the bars and too broke for ticketed concerts took refuge in community centres and church basements. Looking for diversions in Edmonton that didn’t revolve around the city’s gargantuan mall (the largest in North America), he fell in with a crowd who introduced him to the lo-fi punk sensibilities of Beat Happening and the messy Detroit garage rock of The Gories. “They played their instruments so bad,” he says of the latter. “They were so drunk, but they were the coolest!” After graduating from Strathcona High School in Edmonton in 2008, he moved to Vancouver. Living in the Killarney neighbourhood, he released a self-produced album, Heat Wave, calling himself Makeout Videotape in 2009. The album sold out its 500-unit run. DeMarco worked on "psychedelic" video projects during this time. He was joined by Alex Calder and Jen Clement, signed to Unfamiliar Records, and toured with Vancouver band Japandroids in 2009. In 2011, DeMarco moved from Vancouver to Montreal to begin recording as a solo artist. He later moved to Montreal, where Albertan expats such as Sean Nicholas Savage were already established. “When we’d tour here with my old band, Montreal was always the craziest show,” DeMarco hoots. “Someone would have a threesome at the show or something else fucked up would happen and it was like, ‘This is amazing! This must happen all the time!’” It didn’t, but it gave him the confidence to expand his creative horizons and record his solo debut, the album-length EP Rock and Roll Night Club, released through NYC indie imprint Captured Tracks. On the record, he sings about a hot girl in blue jeans and being a man in a deep Elvis croon. The sleeve depicts him wearing a baseball cap and applying lipstick. Failing to find work as a musician, he participated in medical experiments for money and worked on a road paving crew. In early 2012, he released an EP titled Rock and Roll Night Club. The four-track-recorded album features skits and slowed-down vocals. It impressed his new label Captured Tracks enough
that they agreed to release a full-length album. This release, entitled 2, was received well by critics, garnering a "Best New Music" designation from Pitchfork Media. One of his songs, "Moving Like Mike", was licensed by U.S. retail outlet Target for a commercial. If DeMarco’s first EP and his debut album, 2, were about trying to write the perfect pop song, Salad Days is a reflection on what happens after you succeed at that task. He gave himself a month to write and record Salad Days in the Brooklyn loft he shares with Kiera and ten others. DeMarco says the album is a meditation, and puts on a calm, soothing voice. Alberta's former Minister of Railways and Telephones, for whom DeMarco was named. His mother later changed his name to McBriare Samuel Lanyon DeMarco. DeMarco is also of Italian descent. For DeMarco’s generation of Canadian kids growing up in mid-sized cities, their first taste of live music was at local shows in the mid-00s. Bored 15-year-olds too young for the bars and too broke for ticketed concerts took refuge in community centres and church basements. Looking for diversions in Edmonton that didn’t revolve around the city’s gargantuan mall (the largest in North America), he fell in with a crowd who introduced him to the lo-fi punk sensibilities of Beat Happening and the messy Detroit garage rock of The Gories. “They played their instruments so bad,” he says of the latter. “They were so drunk, but they were the coolest!”
After graduating from Strathcona High School in Edmonton in 2008, he moved to Vancouver. Living in the Killarney neighbourhood, he released a self-produced album, Heat Wave, calling himself Makeout Videotape in 2009. The album sold out its 500-unit run. DeMarco worked on "psychedelic" video projects during this time. He was joined by Alex Calder and Jen Clement, signed to Unfamiliar Records, and toured with Vancouver band Japandroids in 2009. In 2011, DeMarco moved from Vancouver to Montreal to begin recording as a solo artist. He later moved to
Montreal, where Albertan expats such as Sean Nicholas Savage were already established. “When we’d tour here with my old band, Montreal was always the craziest show,” DeMarco hoots. “Someone would have a threesome at the show or something else fucked up would happen and it was like, ‘This is amazing! This must happen all the time!’” It didn’t, but it gave him the confidence to expand his creative horizons and record his solo debut, the album-length EP Rock and Roll Night Club, released through NYC indie imprint Captured Tracks. On the record, he sings about a hot girl in blue jeans and being a man in a deep Elvis croon. The sleeve depicts him wearing a baseball cap and applying lipstick. Failing to find work as a musician, he participated in medical experiments for money and worked on a road paving crew. In early 2012, he released an EP titled Rock and Roll Night Club. The four-track-recorded album features skits and slowed-down vocals. It impressed his new label Captured Tracks enough that they agreed to release a full-length album. This release, entitled 2, was received well by critics, garnering a "Best New Music" designation from Pitchfork Media. One of his songs, "Moving Like Mike", was licensed by U.S. retail outlet Target for a commercial. If DeMarco’s first EP and his debut album, 2, were about trying to write the perfect pop song, Salad Days is a reflection on what happens after you succeed at that task. He gave himself a month to write and record Salad Days in the Brooklyn loft he shares with Kiera and ten others. DeMarco says the album is a meditation, and puts on a calm, soothing voice.
“It’s the ‘me time’, the ‘think about your life’ time.” It’s hard to imagine the crotch-grabbing, chain-smoking, sleep-mask-wearing goofball we meet today coming up with the mature, committed pop lilt of tracks like “Let Her Go” and “Brother”, but the blend of wildness and tenderness is one of the most unique things about his music. It’s young, vibrant and weirdly self-aware, while simultaneously not giving a fuck. He eventually started bands of his own – notably noise-pop outfit Outdoor Miners, with his current guitarist, Peter Sagar – and after moving to Vancouver after high school, he started playing with buddy Alex Calder as Makeout Videotape and recording seriously. But as this is Mac DeMarco we’re talking about, it was only as serious as you can be when your album cover is a doodle of Mickey Mouse hanging out with a smiling blob with a hard-on. On January 21, 2014, DeMarco announced the release of his upcoming second album, Salad Days, along with debuting the lead single "Passing Out Pieces" The record was released on April 1, 2014, and again received the "Best New Music" designation from Pitchfork. It was a shortlisted nominee for the 2014 Polaris Music Prize. Captured Tracks has announced a subscription series called "The Wonderful World of Mac DeMarco 7" Club Vol. 1". Subscribers will receive two 7" records every six to eight weeks containing various recordings by DeMarco. DeMarco made his first talk show appearance (and second TV appearance after The Eric Andre Show) when he performed the song "Let Her Go" on Conan on March 30, 2015. His album Another One was released on August 7, 2015.
IMPALA
KEVIN PARKER
Tame Impala is an Australian psychedelic band created by Kevin Parker in 2007. The group began as a home recording project for Parker, who writes, records, performs, and produces the music. As a touring act, the project consists of Parker on guitar and vocals; Jay Watson contributing on synthesizer, vocals, and guitar; Dominic Simper on guitar and synthesizer; Cam Avery with bass, guitar, and vocals; and Julien Barbagallo with drums and vocals. Previously signed to Modular Recordings, Tame Impala is signed to Interscope Records in the US, and Fiction Records in the UK. After a series of singles and EPs, in 2010, Tame Impala released their debut studio album, Innerspeaker, which was certified gold in Australia and well received by critics. The group's 2012 follow-up, Lonerism, was also acclaimed, reaching platinum status in Australia and receiving a Grammy Award nomination for Best Alternative Music Album. The band's third album, Currents, was released on 17 July 2015. Parker won the APRA Award for Song of the Year 2016 for the Parker's decision to make the music for Tame Impala in the studio by himself is a result of Parker liking "the kind of music that is the result of one person constructing an awesome symphony of sound. You can layer your own voice 700 times for half a second if you want, and I just love that kind of music". However, Parker has to translate his music to a live setting with the band, and the band doesn't play the songs until they have been recorded. "The only jamming that’s done as a band is done a long time after the song is recorded for the sake of the live environment. It’s good for us, because we can take a song that’s been recorded and do what we want to it: slow it down, speed it up, make it 10 seconds or 10 minutes long. It gives us a lot of freedom."album's first track "Let It Happen". The origins of the band can be found in the Perth music scene. Parker played in a number of bands, one being the Dee Dee Dums, a rock duo that consisted of Parker on guitar and Luke Epstein with drums. Tame Impala emerged in 2007 as a Kevin Parker home-recording project in this period and he posted a number of tracks on Myspace. This brought interest from a number of labels and eventually, he
signed a worldwide deal with the independent Modular Recordings in July 2008. To transfer these recordings to a live-stage, Parker enlisted the help of Dominic Simper on bass and Jay Watson on drums and began playing at some local gigs. The band is best known for its associations with 1960s and 1970s psychedelic subculture, with elements of this culture permeating the group's instrumentation, effects, and composition. Coyne's lyrics, in particular, both reference and embody the fascination with the science fiction and space opera genres of fiction that were popular during the golden age of psychedelic subculture. His lyrical style tends to use the imagery and plot conventions of space opera to frame more abstract themes about the unfolding cycles of romantic love, highlighting its vulnerability while delving into its metaphysical implications. Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes space warfare, melodramatic adventure, interplanetary battles, as well as chivalric romance, and often risk-taking. Set mainly or entirely in outer space, it usually involves conflict between opponents possessing advanced abilities, futuristic weapons, and other sophisticated technology. The term has no relation to music, but is instead a play on the terms "soap opera" and "horse opera", the latter of which was coined during the 1930s to indicate clichéd and formulaic Western movies. Space operas emerged in the 1930s and they continue to be produced in literature, film, comics, and video games. Parker's decision to make the music for Tame Impala in the studio by himself is a result of Parker liking "the kind of music that is the result of one person constructing an awesome symphony of sound. You can layer your own voice 700 times for half a second if you want, and I just love that kind of music". However, Parker has to translate his music to a live setting with the band, and the band doesn't play the songs until they have been recorded. "The only jamming that’s done as a band is done a long time after the song is recorded for the sake of the live environment. It’s good for us, because we can take a song that’s been recorded and do what we want to it: slow it down, speed it up, make it 10 seconds or 10 minutes long. It gives us a lot of freedom." Parker's music is heavily influenced by late 1960s and early 1970s psychedelic rock, which is achieved through various production methods. Some favored and often-used effects by Parker include phasing, delay, reverb and fuzz. In addition to a love of melody, Parker also loves "fucked-up explosive cosmic music" in the vein of The Flaming Lips, whom Parker collaborated with on the track "Children of the Moon" in 2012, for the release The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends.