DECORATED YOUTH ISSUE 14
Houndmouth, Fraser A. Gorman, Swim Deep, Lauren Baker, Matt Sav, Trace, Nic Hessler, Whitney, Christopher Hainey, Kaity Davie, Reptar, Surfer Blood, Reuben Hollebon Decorated Youth Magazine | 1
2 | Decorated Youth Magazine
DECORATED YOUTH Quality over Quantity
Decorated Youth Magazine | 3
PURCHASE A COPY www.decoratedyouth.com
STAY IN TOUCH Email: heather@decoratedyouth.com Facebook: facebook.com/decoratedyouth Twitter & Instagram: @decoratedyouth
EDITOR & PUBLISHER Heather Hawke
Š 2012 – 2016 Decorated Youth Magazine All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means without prior written consent from the editor, except in instances of review, as permitted by copyright law. For permission, please write to the editor at heather@decoratedyouth.com.
Cover photograph by Kelsey Mitchell.
4Issue | Decorated YouthHawke. Magazine design by Heather
Issue 14’s contributors: Paige Wilson
Pamela Ayala
Betsy Newman
Kelsey Mitchell
Andrew Gomez
photographer
photographer
Mickey Cerball
Tim Toda
Cina Ngynen
photographer
photographer
photographer
photographer
photographer
photographer
Roxy Moure
photographer
Cameron Norsworthy
photographer and writer
Additional thanks to: WIISSA
Kaity Davie
Members of Magic Man
Members of Reptar
Erica Lauren
Sony Music
Joyful Noise Recordings
Members of Whitney
The League International
Fraser A. Gorman
Pitch Perfect PR
Listen Harder
Look Out Kid
Matt Sav
MSO PR
Reuben Hollebon
Houndmouth
Sub Pop
Press Here Publicity
Rough Trade Records
The Creed Company
Lauren Baker
c3 Presents
Stunt Company
Members of Surfer Blood
Trace
Members of ON AN ON
Christopher Hainey
Ryanne Berube
Christian Stavros
Nic Hessler
Austin of Swim Deep
Sacks Company
Tell All Your Friends PR
Brace Yourself PR
Universal Music
This Fiction
Decorated Youth Magazine | 5
COVER WIISSA 142
LIVE + BTS PHOTOS Savoir Adore - 10
Good Charlotte - 28
BLEACHED - 44
Magic Man - 14
Father John Misty - 30
Lucius - 46
Charly Bliss - 20
Miami Horror - 32
The 1975 - 48
From Indian Lakes - 22
LANY - 38
Day Wave - 50
Tokyo Police Club - 24
Peter, Bjorn and John - 40
Sweetlife Festival - 52
Waterparks - 26
ON AN ON - 42
INTERVIEWS 56 - Reptar
78 - Surfer Blood
112 - Matt Sav
58 - Fraser A Gorman
82 - Christopher Hainey
122 - Houndmouth
64 - Reuben Hollebon
94 - Nic Hessler
130 - Trace
70 - Lauren Baker
100 - Kaity Davie
136 - Swim Deep
108 - Whitney
6 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 7
8 | Decorated Youth Magazine
LETTER & PHOTO FROM THE EDITOR I admire words and people who have a way with them it’s why I’m much more into the lyrics of songs than the actual music. However, as much of a fan of them, sometimes I think “what good do they do?” There is a limited amount of ways you can say the same thing. Alone, words can be mundane, but put together in the right sequence they can make the most ordinary of words sound as if they were the greatest gift from the gods. I’m not trying to make this more than it is, I’m someone who is constantly fumbling on words so I only want to make sure I express myself correctly. During trying times, like the ones we currently have in the U.S., I always want to speak out but am so afraid to say something that may come across differently than I intended it to - which will inevitably be online for years to come. I also feel like I want to 100% know the truth about the details about any breaking news events before speaking out / coming to any conclusions. What I do know is that everyone, everywhere is facing some sort of difficulties, some, since they’re culturally, are in obviously way direr need than others. Because of this we all need to put our hearts into spreading love and positively into the community rather than being violent, cynical and isolated from others. I know during times like these, talking about or doing “non-essential” things like music / photography / art to some may sound like we’re ignoring the problem, but to us creatives these things help us live, they help us thrive. These 14 creatives we’ve interviewed for this issue have inspired us to focus on the good in life, and hopefully we can pass that on. -
Heather Hawke
In loving memory of Thomas Fekete of Surfer Blood who passed away in May from cancer at the age of 27.
Decorated Youth Magazine | 9
10 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 11
12 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 13
14 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 15
16 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 17
18 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 19
20 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 21
22 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 23
24 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 25
26 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 27
28 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 29
30 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 31
32 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 33
34 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 35
36 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 37
38 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 39
40 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 41
42 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 43
44 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 45
46 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 47
48 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 49
50 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 51
Featuring: Halsey, PARTYNEXTDOOR, Shamir, The 1975, Vince Staples, and Wolf Alice
52 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 53
54 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 55
R A T P E R 56 | Decorated Youth Magazine
As keyboardist William Kennedy and drummer Andrew McFarland tackle non-Reptarian musical projects, vocalist/guitarist Graham Ulicny and bassist Ryan Engelberger remain to keep things running. But gaps needed to be filled. “We booked a tour,” Ulicny wondered, “now who’s actually gonna do it?” Enter: Breathers. Ulicny proposed the fellow Georgia-natives, promising a “weird, incestuous national tour” in which the three guys of Breathers would open for Reptar as well as play for/in Reptar. “This time felt more like a leap of faith,” Ulicny notes, but all parties agree the assimilation has felt natural. Engelberger, all for a “collaborative spirit to making music,” notes it’s all “way more fun when there is a little bit of spontaneous energy.” With three new members, Reptar’s music has morphed. “We’re all songwriters [and] producers,” mentions Breathers lyricist/keyboardist Lee Gunselman, “there are things I’m gonna hone in on that [previous keyboardist William Kennedy] may not have.” He looks to emphasize the “synth-y, electronic vibes” present in Reptar’s recordings so that they really “cut through” when played live. Gunselman relishes the economy of bringing “two bands on tour for the price of one,” as the aforementioned “incest” has afforded Breathers their first west coast exposure. “There was really never another option [other than Breathers],” affirms Ulicny. “For a month and a half tour, you need to know them, be friends with them, love them, or it sucks.” But no member of Reptar is monogamous. Engelberger plays with Semicircle, a folky side-project with Reptar’s former drummer. Ulicny’s self-produces ambient project Thick Paint.
“It broke me free,” Engelberger says of playing in another group. For him, these projects promote focus on the band at hand, so “rather than try to validate my entire musical existence, all I’m trying to do right now is see what I can think of that will make this song better.” That mode of perfection, of seeking every contribution to every as a way to show off, “to play the funkiest slap bass part” imaginable, is, in his eyes, “the stupidest way to think about music.” Getting together with other bands has rendered Engelberger “a lot more honest with Reptar in the studio.” Ulicny nods to this, noting that having multiple projects allow “anonymity” and more space to exercise creatively. This new Reptar is, according to Gunselman, noticeably “louder” than before. Watching their show post-interview in Atlanta, I still got my groove going as the back-for-break Athens crowd swayed more so from toomany-tall-boys rather than a natural need to vibe. Lurid Glow (2015), their second LP, echoes with oddities nested in electropop. Chalk it up to experience, to the venue, to the addition of new members, but Ulicny’s trademark wail was less desperate and more earnest this time: less performative, more introspective. Despite the 5-piece band and its uppedvolume, the show felt stripped. There was no Kennedy in costume, no psychedelic projections, just a group of simply-dressed dudes playing Decorated Youth | 57 Reptar jams with Magazine a newfound, grittier edge.
Fraser A. Gorman
58 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 59
Fraser A Gorman first met his now Milk Records label boss, Courtney Barnett, nearly 7 years ago after moving to Melbourne as an 18-year-old when he tried to pick her up at a bar. The two have now become good friends and although they are both being singer-songwriters, and have a certain lyrical wit and ability to convey their lives, hopes and fears openly, Courtney’s music focuses on self-aware grunge paranoia and, Fraser is honing in on being a classic-rock romantic. After having Courtney appear in his “Shiny Gun” video, Fraser reciprocated the gesture by playing a part in her “Avant Gardener” promo. With Fraser having written his debut album over a long period of time, most times sitting on his bed in a shared house in Melbourne, he attributes the two solo (opening and closing) acoustic tracks to the fact that the house he was living in was really cold and the roof was caving in which, he says, is as close as you can get to listening to him playing at the end of his bed. Since ‘Slow Gum’ was recorded with a few different band lineups the recording process took a while. Mentioning that even though it was a long time coming he learned a lot about a lot of positive things making it.
GROWING UP
My childhood was nice. I grew up in a town on the south coast of Victoria called Torquay. It was kinda a quiet, semi-nice but also semi-bogan surfing town. I liked living there though.Whilst everyone in the town was busy surfing and playing football and stuff. I was usually just hanging out being a weirdo playing computer games and reading books about World War 2. It was not an overly creative town, not from my view anyway. People played music but it wasn't integral to my childhood or the town for that matter. It wasn't everywhere but it wasn’t out of reach either.
60 | Decorated Youth Magazine
I got into bands a lot more when I went to High School in Geelong. I met a few other kids there who played music and kinda fell into it then. Moved straight to Melbourne as soon as I finished school.
WHERE HE GREW UP AND HOW IT IMPACTED HIS CREATIVITY
Where I grew up never really impacted my creativity. I got into music in my teenage years, and got more into writing when I left school. I don't really think about Torquay too much anymore because none of my family live there now. These days I live in Melbourne. It's a great place to live if you want to make music. There is always gigs to go to and the music scene here is thriving. I love living here and making music in Melbourne.
FORMAL / NOT FORMAL MUSICAL EDUCATION I didn't have a musical education. The music curriculum at my school was pretty shit and I only did it in year 10. I loved it and had heaps of fun playing little practice gigs in front of my class mates. But I didn't understand reading music so I'm pretty sure I failed that class. Only class at school I ever failed. Kinda funny to think back on that now.
THE FIRST TIME HE FELT INSPIRED BY MUSIC I don't really remember a 'light bulb' moment or anything like that, but I can remember being about 12-13 years old and buying the Bob Dylan Live At Royal Albert Hall 1965 CD for my birthday from Basement Discs in Melbourne. I remember listening to that and being so excited by the sound of that recording, how wild and primitive the band sounded. It's a very intense recording. I thought that was pretty cool. Still do I guess, I'm actually listening to a live Dylan record right now in my room.
GETTING INTO THE MUSIC SCENE
AHA MOMENT
To be honest I never really thought about it. I don't think the thought 'I want to be involved in the music industry' has ever entered my head, ever. I just got into playing in bands when I was in early high school and never looked back. I sometimes don't even think of myself as a full-time musician. I would like to be, but I still have to work a job on the side and most of my friends, even the ones in very successful Australian bands still all have day jobs or side projects that they have to make extra money.
It's hard to say....... I have many moments where I walk off stage after a really fun show and I get the rush of excitement and exhilaration. It's an addictive feeling. I can remember being about 10 or 11 at primary school and I rapped the entire 'Rapper's Delight' by Sugarhill Gang to my entire school and all of their parents. There was about 1000 or more people in the auditorium clapping along, it was really fun. I wasn't nervous either, I just enjoyed it.
So I guess I just play music because I love it. I don't do it to be involved in any Industry. It's just a joy that I have in life and I will continue doing it until I don't want to do it anymore. I might start sailing or something like that when I’m older.
ART – EXPOSE, PROTECT OR HEAL I'm sure it does all of them in one way or another. But to me. Writing songs is kind of just a way that I deal with the day to day issues or feelings that come with life. Relationships, thoughts, stress and just general feelings that pass through my brain. Some people smoke heaps of cigarettes or play rugby or whatever to deal with their shit. I just write songs and play music. It's sort of like a vice for me.
THE START OF WRITING MUSIC It's just a thing that I got into. I always loved singing and performing in one way or another. Being in the limelight was always a comfortable place for me. I like telling jokes and stories to my friends. Dancing. Acting. Whatever... So writing songs and playing gigs sort of posed itself as a natural element that I could fit into. I always say that if I ever got sick of playing music, or it just stopped happening. I could probably slip into musical theatre or some other performing art and still be a happy guy. Rock n roll is the most fun though I reckon.
I remember feeling that rush for the first time. I still get it now even though I’m not singing 80's Hip Hop songs, although that would be cool.
GETTING INSPIRED WHILE OUT AND ABOUT – VOICE MEMOS & NOTES It's nice when you are writing and things just spill out. Sometimes writing for me comes very easy, and other times it's more of a battle. I guess it often depends on whether or not I feel I have something to say or not. If I don't feel like I have anything good to say, a song probably won't come out, or if it does it will probably be something shitty and not make much sense and I'll just ditch it. I once wrote a song quite a few years back now called 'Hold You' when my band was way more kitsch, country than it is now. I sort of wrote it in my head and recorded it on my phone, just singing a ‘Capella. It was a nice kinda 50's rocknoll song but we don't play it anymore because my band doesn't sound like that these days. I like the recording though. I'd like to put it out again on a random 7" one day maybe, just for fun.
Decorated Youth Magazine | 61
LYRICS –WHERE, TIMPERIOD & PHYSICALLY, THEY WERE THOUGHT UP
It's hard to say exactly what my writing process is.... I guess that's because it keeps changing. Sometimes I'll write a song around a little guitar noodle or riff, and then other times I'll write it around a particular lyric or a verse I came up with. In regard to my record Slow Gum, I wrote most of the songs sitting on the end of my bed on in an awful share house in Carlton. It was pretty dank in there and the roof leaked and we drank a lot. It was a bit of a party house. I guess lots of people go through that kinda stuff in their 20's. So I guess most of those songs were just about my life then, being a bit of a loser and going out to parties and things like that. It was a good time but I’m glad it's over now.
LYRICS – INTENTIONALLY SITTING DOWN TO WRITE VS HAVING IDEAS IN YOUR HEAD AND THEN THEY COMES SPILLING OUT
Yeah sometimes I sit down with the intention to write. But I usually prefer it when it's unintentional, like when I'm just hanging around in my room playing guitar doing nothing. Usually when I force myself down and think "I’m going to write now", it usually doesn't work. Like I said, if I don't feel like I have something to say, I probably won't come up with something good. That said, songs don't write themselves. So you gotta get down and do it at some point. I'd say a bit of both is needed. You have to be active in writing if you want to make albums and such, but don't go with the flow if the flow ain't going.
WRITING, SOMETHING HE ENJOYS? Yeah I love writing. It's challenging and it's very rewarding. It's also something I am eternally trying to get better at. I'm very fascinated by lyrics in particular. I love listening to songwriters like Bill Callahan and Bonnie "Prince" Billy where their lyrics are basically everything. The words stand on top of the music, not the other way round. It's very powerful and I feel like it's more difficult to write very powerful and clever lyrics than create very emotive music. But maybe that's not true.... I'm not a very good instrumentalist so maybe I just don't get it.
FAVORITE PART OF THE ALBUM CREATION PROCESS Recording it was really fun. Recording was always a form of creating music that I disliked when I was younger. I think I feared the whole process a little bit. Didn't like listening to myself sing, play guitar, shrouded with selfdoubt, etc. You get to listen to your weaknesses being played back to you when you are recording. But the more experienced I got the more I began to enjoy it. I probably found myself being a bit more comfortable singing and playing guitar and that sort of thing.
62 | Decorated Youth Magazine
ARTWORK – CONTRIBUTE IDEAS OR REMAIN HANDS OFF There was a bit of revision. But that's just the way things are a lot of the time. I always wanted my record cover to be a photograph. I remember reading the Paul Kelly autobiography and him saying how at some stage in his career his label suggested that he 'not have his face on the cover' (PK said it was because he was getting too old and ugly or something, but I reckon he's a handsome devil). So with that in mind, I figure that after a few years of touring I’ll probably look like a buckled old shoe in 5 years and look 20 years older than I am. So for now…I'll use my youthful face to the best of its ability because it won't be so youthful soon… It'll be fucked.
ARTWORK – AESTHETICALLY COOL PACKAGE VS COVERSATION BETWEEN LYRICS AND ART I just like classic stuff. I wanted my record to look like a classic record. I love all the 60's Dylan record covers. Obviously they are all amazing albums also, but I dig the artwork. Bob was the same as PK though, the older he got the less he used his face on his covers. I reckon albums in general, especially LP's should have amazing artwork and cool packaging. After all, these days’ people can just download or stream the bloody thing, so artists be respectful for the actual paying customers of the physical product and put out a nice looking record for them to take home and add to their collection.
MENTORS Yes. I grew up being quite close to one of my parent’s friends, Ross Lipson. He ran quite a successful soul band called 'Sweethearts' (Originally from Geelong but toured globally). His influence and guidance for my music, and a number of my friend’s music careers was very helpful and forever appreciated. He taught me very early on how to deal with a number of situations in the music industry and I still remember and utilize his words of advice to this day. Unfortunately, Ross passed away a bit over a year ago and is missed by all those who knew him. I miss him a great deal.
Decorated Youth Magazine | 63
64 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 65
GETTING INTO THE MUSIC SCENE There’s no great epiphany here, I found myself helping others to make records before I could play myself. Before long, I was working on either side of the microphone, trying to get better at both. It got to the point where making my own record preceded breakfast so I pushed on.
WHERE HE GREW UP AND HOW IT IMPACTED HIS CREATIVITY
I grew up in Norfolk, England, which even now feels disparate to the rest of the island; the people are great and their sense of time and priorities differ. There’s all this beautiful land, though it’s largely owned by strangers; the cliffs are falling down and the fields are getting shorter. There’s has to be some osmosis in music from that which surrounds us.
LYRICS – INTENTIONALLY SITTING DOWN TO WRITE VS HAVING IDEAS IN YOUR HEAD AND THEN THEY COMES SPILLING OUT I’ve given it a go and it’s not for me. Most of my songs come out from well-formed initial ideas that appear and I’ll record or note them. These have a tendency to appear in clusters, turning those into finished records requires a bit of direction and an unknown amount of time.
EVOLUTION OF HIS WRITING PROCESS
Every time it’s different, but there’s a sharper understanding of the intent, and how to get to it. Now though I write with mixing in mind. Space, movement, color is more effectively altered in composition than on a mixing board, and that translates live as well.
66 | Decorated Youth Magazine
LYRICS –WHERE, TIMPERIOD & PHYSICALLY, THEY WERE THOUGHT UP
I’ve hundreds of sets of lyrics and every attempt to collate them ends with more. I don’t believe you have to place yourself in the perfect environment or that that suffering helps creativity. I think it’s a myth that’s provides comfort for those that struggle to make art as well as those that do.
LYRICS – REVISIONS
Yes, when achievable I will play every song of mine once a day and adjust, even those released.
NEW TRACKS – PLAYING LIVE VS. IN THE STUDIO We’ve got around half the record where we want it on stage, bringing a lot of it in exactitude. However, a lot has gone in to making the parts more enjoyable and open for us, not some technical nightmare. The main thing we’ve kept in mind is that at the core there’s always a song, everything is else is sugar.
FAVORITE PART OF THE ALBUM CREATION PROCESS That it never stops. I’ve made many songs and these are the ones that resonant right now. The others will sit in the pool for the next records.
WHEN AND HOW THE ALBUM TITLE ‘TERMINAL NOSTALGIA’ CAME ABOUT It’s a bit glib but it’s easy to suffer from nostalgia, we all do, and I feel it pulls us away from life. The actual phrase was carved from a Vonnegut story Breakfast of Champions where Dwayne Hoover begins to lose himself.
ARTWORK – CONTRIBUTE IDEAS OR REMAIN HANDS OFF
I’m very close with the artist. She heard the album through from its beginnings and some of her art occurred alongside of this. She had the intent correct, the rest is taste. Luckily, a lot of the paintings will be included in the release.
ARTWORK – AESTHETICALLY COOL PACKAGE VS COVERSATION BETWEEN LYRICS AND ART Clever gimmick or eye catching masterpiece; they’re irrelevant without context.
A NON-MUSICAL INFLUENCE THAT INFORMS HIS MUSIC People are at the heart of everything, but they have no shape until there’s history, home and movement. Not to lessen it, but music is only a slice of it all.
VISION OF MUSIC SHIFTED Hopefully I’m more patient with it. There comes this option to ignore elements you’re not interested in instead of negatively critique. We’ve all got the tools to make records now, it’s evident in the charts, but quality will and does win out with the records that you remember a decade after they’ve been released.
Decorated Youth Magazine | 67
68 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Augustus There was someone very close to me, for a time we moved away together to a special place. Many years before the painter Augustus John had done the same, turning his back on conventional life. We are now apart but my life remains praising existence before questioning it. Haystacks A true folk tale, a tough and sour moment from the past, I placed tension and sharpness into the music here, it hurts. Braced Caught without motivation, someone close would not, or could not get out of bed, there's a reach in here but it can be fatiguing to assist. Faces Every different person we are form the whole, the one’s that aren’t safe can be addictive, they can burn and throw you. A reflection is built into the subtle guitar lead, which bleeds into the bass and drums. Fields, For Fields An animals existence is made of every input and output, hence a field. And we are from this beautiful island, though it’s far from natural anymore, most of it is cultivated, and my home town was reclaimed from the sea over 1000 years ago. The record was written on a collapsing cliffside, and recorded in whole on the second take. The harmonium and echo were added and I left the studio within the hour. Before The Flood The used to be an idea that the world was eternal, adapting but never really changing, the song discusses this. This is first chance I had to make one of my own records largely on an MPC, give the classic soft thump to the bass and drums. A Hand Another quiet yell out for the earth. The drummer and I played together twice through to form the somewhat chaotic rhythms and the bass just had to dance to this.
The Burr In Norfolk the drop shadow of the moon that lights the sky is known as the burr, staring at the burr is an age old cure for melancholy, I think it’s because almost everything that has ever existed has shared this image. On & On Created out of one pretty guitar arpeggio this track sprawled open, There’s cello, piano, rhodes, and an old hohner guitarist. The rising synth is from Russia and the dials are untranslated so only the ear can adjust it, the drums are both live and from the MPC. We’re Gonna Miss Us (When We’re Gone) Inspired by dementia, and the terrifying idea we may become aware we are going to forget ourselves soon. The track is designed to swing in a dirge creating a bordering on uncomfortable timing whilst maintain momentum, with Tom Basely guesting on trombone. Come Back Early A love song, choosing someone else before you, it happened once. Common Table We will all meet again in some format, I don’t know the face of god, but the only god I could love would not send anyone to a hell, or a lack of existence. It’s the universe that’s divine.
Decorated Youth Magazine | 69
LAUREN BAKER 70 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 71
BECOMING INVOLVED IN DESIGN / ART DIRECTION
I’m very much a product of the internet. I grew up wanting to be a veterinarian, but then in high school Myspace came around and I discovered I loved customizing my profile and creating crazy graphics in Photoshop for myself and my friends or anyone who would let me. I graduated with a B.S. in Graphic Design in 2012 and have been working ‘professionally’ in the field since 2011.
GROWING UP - HOW WHERE SHE GREW UP / WHERE SHE LIVES HAS IMPACTED HER CREATIVITY
My parents were in the Air Force when I was a kid, so we moved around often. Neither of them are artists, but they always encouraged my brother and I to create, play outside, use our imaginations, and just be ourselves in general. From age 10-22 I lived in a small, conservative, southern town in Virginia, in which there wasn’t a whole lot going on (as you can imagine). I think that sort of forced us to entertain ourselves, and be innovative with our activities and interests.
GETTING INTO DESIGN – BECOMING A PART OF THE MUSIC INDUSTRY
I wasn’t gifted with any musical talent genes (they all went to my brother). I have, however, always loved music and have been involved with the industry since I was a teenager– in high school I made graphics and flyers for a booking agency I ran with my friends. It seemed natural to continue working in something that I’m passionate about but not necessarily talented at.
PRIOR SCHOOLING / WORK EXPERIENCE
I did a lot of experimenting and design work on my own in high school, a lot of trial and error. I applied to an art school for college, but didn’t get in, so ended up going to a liberal arts college. Having a B.S. in graphic design looks good on paper, but really it’s all about experience and figuring things out on your own. Programs and techniques can be taught, but curating your own style and taste takes time and a lot of mistakes. I also interned at a few companies before receiving my degree.
72 | Decorated Youth Magazine
GETTING INVOLVED WITH SHE SHREDS MAGAZINE
I moved to Portland when I was 22 and was doing design work from home, mostly website projects. I had been in town for about a year when a friend told me they had a creative director position available, and suggested I should apply. I was excited to be involved with something that married music, feminism, and design, so I jumped at the chance. I interviewed and gave them some options for a new layout, and I guess they liked me enough to keep me on. I’ve been with them since Issue #3.
DUTIES OF SOMEONE WHO DOES CREATIVE / ART DIRECTION
I can’t speak for the title on a whole, especially since the She Shreds team is so small and we all wear a lot of hats. Within She Shreds, I do the entire layout for the magazine (I’ve had help here and there, but often do 90% of the heavy duty work), I designed the website, take pictures at events, and generally am the filter for our aesthetic as a brand. I also gather and connect with illustrators, photographers, designers, and video crews to collaborate and create art for us.
ROUTINE WHEN THINKING UP ART DIRECTION FOR EACH ISSUE / SPREAD OF SHE SHREDS
I look at our last issue to see what worked, didn’t work, or could be done differently. Then I spend a LOT of time scouring the depths of the web for layout inspiration. I think what separates us from a lot of music/guitar magazines is that we don’t approach our visuals like other magazines in our field– we’re modeled more after the art and fashion aesthetic.
WORKING WITH SHE SHREDS AND GETTING TO SUPPORT ALL THE AMAZINGLY TALENTED WOMEN GUITARISTS AND BASSISTS It’s hard to put into words…it’s kind of a dream. I often find myself looking around and wondering, “how’d I get so damn lucky/is this real life??” Sometimes it feels so absolutely natural and commonplace to be surrounded by so many confident and talented women, I forget it’s not the norm. It’s inspiring all the time. It’s also humbling to see the very tangible effect it has on our audience. Our fan base is pretty evenly split gender-wise, and they are extremely passionate about our message.
Decorated Youth Magazine | 73
74 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 75
GRAPHIC DESIGNERS HAVING A LEVEL OF BEING A PERFECTIONIST - FINDING IT HARD TO SPOT WORKING ON A SPECIFIC SPREAD
I’m definitely a perfectionist. Most of the time I could work on a single layout for DAYS if someone would let me. Often, the mere fact that we have deadlines is the only thing that stops me from doing so. Sometimes you get lucky and it just feels right and you can step away from it more easily. I’m getting better at making quicker decisions and saying, “this is done now,” but it for sure takes an unnatural conscious effort.
FAVORITE THING ABOUT DESIGNING/ ART DIRECTION
Having complete control over the aesthetic of something from start to finish is an incredible feeling and responsibility. Also I love having the excuse of looking at other design and artwork for hours on the internet for ‘research’ at the beginning of projects. With creative direction, I’ve really loved being able to collaborate with other artists I respect and to nurture their style and vision while getting a product our company needs.
VISION OF DESIGN EVOLVING
Absolutely, this changes every day. My understanding of ‘best practices’ evolves the more I read and learn and with the more I’m exposed to. You look at things you made years ago and think, “If only I knew then what I knew now.” I also understand now how many outlets design/creative direction can touch and be a part of.
76 | Decorated Youth Magazine
BIGGEST MISCONCEPTION ABOUT WORKING IN CREATIVE / ART DIRECTION I think maybe just the sheer amount of hours one has to put in. It’s a lot of work, and it can be tiring to ALWAYS be in a creative mindset. Netflix helps.
BIGGEST HURDLE THROUGHOUT THE CREATIVE PROCESS
- Knowing when to say “this is done” - Knowing how to quiet your pride when what the client wants and thinks is best is different from your own personal opinion (or factual expertise) on how things should go - Finding coffee shops with the best seating/electrical outlet/wifi combinations
ADVICE FOR ASPIRING DESIGNERS
Ira Glass (of this American Life) says it best: “What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me . . . is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take a while. It’s normal to take a while. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
Decorated Youth Magazine | 77
SURFER BLOOD 78 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 79
80 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Since 2009, the band’s been steadily moving from coast to coast. Pitts and I caught up in Atlanta on the first night of their month-long tour. For a kid who once held a “what-else-is-out-there mentality,” the world had split itself open. For all the good, Surfer Blood’s had its rough patches. Fekete was diagnosed with cancer a second time and bassist Kevin Williams went to pursue a solo project in Austin. The band was also dropped from major label Warner Bros., though this wasn’t the blow one might think it would be. Pythons (2013), recorded with Warner Bros., was “an honest detour,” Pitts admits. “I should have known what I was getting into.” Gliding on the success of premier album Astro Coast (2010), Pitts felt capable of taking on the major label-scene. However, as their relationship developed, the label’s approach to music felt like a “different world.” Songwriting wasn’t the organic process Pitts experienced with Surfer Blood’s first album—a process that was “so natural,” primarily because Pitts “didn’t think anyone would hear it.” From a bucket-list perspective, Surfer Blood will never have to wonder what it would have been like to record with a major label—to strive for a clean, meticulously engineered record. They now know they’re “capable of a record that sounds that slick,” but, Pitts insists, “[I] wouldn’t want to do that again.”
This calculated approach to recording clashes with Pitts’ personal approach to music. His favorites include “stuff that honestly sounds pretty bad— Dinosaur Jr., the Microphones, early Pavement.” He leans towards bands who don’t shy from noise, who record in low-fi, and carry an honest grit to them. Nothing squeaky about them—nothing “slick.” Not to say Surfer Blood is gritty or grungy—on their 2015 record (1000 Palms) especially, Pitts’ voice is too clear to grovel, a tenor that chimes against midtempo rhythm guitar. More mellow than Death Cab, less silly than Vampire Weekend, in a better mood than Nada Surf, and less romantic than Jack’s Mannequin. As I watched their live show, their two newest members, fellow West Balm Beach Floridians and high school classmates Lindsey Mills and Mike McCleary, fit right in, plucking surf-rock licks against understated vocals. After performing at couple festival engagements over the spring, the band is set to keep moving. Pitts can’t wait to head west,” to look up at night and not only see stars, but gas and stuff.” Perhaps all the turmoil and change have humbled him just as the stars have. “Oh wow,” he remembers, “we are actually floating through outer space.” On May 31st, Thom Fekete passed away. Surfer Blood posted the following statement on Facebook: "I love you Thom. Thank you for convincing me to leave Florida to play shows, and for playing music with me for six amazing years. I’ve never met anyone like you and I know I never will again. I don’t know where or who I would be without you, and I’ll miss you every day."
Decorated Youth Magazine | 81
Christopher Hainey 82 | Decorated Youth Magazine
After a while of make movies as a kid, Chris realized that the photography aspect of Cinematography was what he loved so much about it. He ended up taking a few photography courses in school and transitioned into photography from the world of film/video very naturally. He now splits his time both playing music and doing photography, both of which he finds very gratifying. He’s been recording and touring (all over the US, UK, and Europe) with his three-piece indie rock group Maps & Atlases for nearly a decade. He got into mobile photography almost by accident. In the first few days of having an iPhone he downloaded every free photo app he could find and Instagram happened to be one of them. Since he had never heard of Instagram he didn’t realize that it was a social media platform. It was only after using the app for a few weeks (to take and edit pictures) that he began to see positive comments on the photos he was posting that he realized people could see his posts. Mobile photography was an exciting extension of the other photography he was doing and with it being so easy to upload, share and interact with other photographers made the experience that much more enjoyable.
Decorated Youth Magazine | 83
84 | Decorated Youth Magazine
GROWING UP I enjoyed my childhood very much, I spent a lot of time outdoors and played all the sports. I learned a lot about art from my mom, she had even spent time as an art teacher at my grade school when I was younger. As soon as I could play an instrument and operate a video camera writing music and making movies with my friends was how I wanted to spend all of my free time. Creativity was definitely a large part of my childhood.
WHERE HE GREW UP IN KANSAS CITY / WHERE HE LIVES IN CHICAGO IMPACTS HIS CREATIVITY I guess it's hard to pinpoint exactly what sort of impact it's had. Though I definitely believe that being in here in Chicago and being surrounded by and meeting so many talented creative people is inspiring and has pushed me to sort of seek my own sort of creative voice.
FORMAL / NOT FORMAL MUSICAL EDUCATION In grade school I learned how to play drums in a Texas drumline, spending many hours practicing the very basics of rudiment-based rhythm before even being allowed to play anything other than a snare drum. I probably did this for a few years before I ever sat down at a drum set, but once I did, I spent years learning every type of style from Jazz to Latin to African before I was allowed to treat rock music as though it was something worth studying. All I really wanted to do was to play in a band but I spent nearly seven years learning as much as I could about my instrument before I ever got around to joining one. It’s probably the most backwards way anybody could go about starting a band, but in the end I believe it’s led to me becoming a more unique and capable musician.
THE FIRST TIME HE FELT INSPIRED BY MUSIC Growing up in small town Texas, there was absolutely nothing on the radio aside from country music, but I remember coming across an old Clash cassette and it actually changed me in that first hour a listened to it. I had never heard anything like it, it had an energy that was much more on par with that level that you experience as a child and honestly I haven't listened to much country music beyond that point.
Decorated Youth Magazine | 85
PATH TO BECOMING A PHOTOGRAPHER / MUSICIAN They both sort of fell into my life right around the same time, but I believe I started learning how to play drums and guitar a few years before I picked up a camera. I spent a great deal of time doing both as a kid, ultimately I chose to pursue studying film in school, more specifically concentrating on the cinematography aspect of it. While in college I met my bandmates and we've been making music together since, and that transition from film to photography stemmed mostly from just bringing my camera and taking a lot of pictures on the road.
SUBJECT MATTER – FAVORITE TO CAPTURE In the beginning I never really took pictures of people, I mostly started out shooting still life or landscapes. I just didn't feel comfortable pointing a camera at someone, it's sort of an invasive thing really. Over time though I realized it's that human element that I found so compelling looking at other photographs so I worked at making it a more natural thing for me. My girlfriend Leslie has played a big part in this, which is why I would say she's been my favorite person to shoot and easily my most photographed subject. I also really love to capture that intersection and interaction of an interesting person(s) with an interesting environment.
CAPTIVATED AUDIENCE- FEELING PRESSURE & STAYING INSPIRED I'm really excited that people take interest in the work I make, but I wouldn't say that the fact that there's an audience now has an effect on the photos I'm taking. I've tried to not limit myself in the work I share in order to fit some sort of expectation, and try really just to create the images that I want to create whether I think others will be into it or not.
86 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 87
88 | Decorated Youth Magazine
VISON OF PHOTOGRAPHY EVOLVED Of course, it's always changing and will hopefully continue to! Every stride in technology opens doors to new interesting visual mediums to explore and incorporate into photography, so it's never really boring.
FAVORITE STORY BEHIND A SPECIFIC PHOTO Actually this photograph [of the shattering mirrors] I really love, and there's not too much of a story behind it. I was actually testing the rig I had put together to do the album cover for GOW and needed something loud that I could use to continually test the sound trigger with. I ended up buying a pack of mirrors and throwing this horseshoe through it in a dark room where the strobes would fire the instant the mirror shattered into pieces. But I've always loved this idea of taking two superstitions and pitting them against each other, do they sort of cancel each other out?
INSPIRATION WHEN THINKING UP IDEAS FOR SHOOTS - BOLD, CLEAN, VIVID COLORS
Actually listening to music plays a big part in coming up with concepts for me, I could probably go through images and be able to tell you what the "soundtrack" of a lot of them are.
Decorated Youth Magazine | 89
COLORFUL / VIVID PHOTOS – INTENTION FROM THE START?
I guess I wouldn't say it's intentional, I've always loved to photograph things that catch my eye and a lot of times it just ends up being the bold color of something. That's especially true for all things vintage, I've always had a real soft spot for anything older than I am.
OUTSIDE OF PHOTOGRAPHY HE TENDS TO STICK TO THE GREYSCALE – WHAT DRAWS HIM TO COLORS I try to maintain a colorful personality and overall I would say I'm generally a very positive person, but yeah I'm not particularly fond of surrounding myself with it or donning colorful clothing. Probably just an extension of me just not wanting to draw attention to myself, but I also think the lack of color can make the intentional use of it much more impactful in some ways.
SCOUTING FOR LOCATIONS I guess I'm usually inspired by certain locations I've previously come across rather than seeking out something specific I have in mind. Sometimes I'll randomly come across a place and just make a mental note or take a quick photo on my phone for reference to remind myself to come back to shoot it, and I'll usually make note of the direction it's facing so I have an idea of when the ideal time of day to revisit it will be. I'll usually end up coming back to locations with an intentional wardrobe adjustment to complement the space.
90 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 91
92 | Decorated Youth Magazine
CREATIVE PROCESS BEHIND HIS “FIREWORKS” PHOTO This particular photo was a spontaneous one, this is outside of a year-round fireworks stand en route back to Chicago from my parent's home town. I've passed by quite literally hundreds of times and it had always been a place I'd wanted to stop and shoot, and one time it was so foggy you could barely even see the building off of the highway so we pulled over for about an hour and took a bunch of shots. Leslie was being lit in the front here by a squad car that had stopped to see what we were doing and put his spotlight on us (it was a small town so anything out of the ordinary receives unneeded attention) We just kept shooting until he got out of his car and came up to us. SHOOTING GOOD OLD WAR’S NEWEST ALBUM COVER [BLOWN UP ORANGE] I had seen photos like this done before, typically bullets shot through fruit, but it had really just been done to document a moment that happens too fast for the human eye to see. I really wanted to try this sort of high speed photography but do it in a more artful way, and I liked the idea of keeping to the exploding fruit genre but having the contents of the fruit be something sort of unexpected. It took a quite a bit of time to complete, a friend and I built a cannon from scratch and synced a release valve to a sound trigger, camera, and laptop. Before the shoot I could only find about 5 ceramic oranges so we had to make sure that the velocity, aim, and timing of everything was on every time and it took a few days to get that pinned down. I guess from concept to completion it took about three weeks. NEWEST THING HE’S LEARNED ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY I've had some recent experiences that involved setting up seamless paper backdrops outdoors that ended up equal parts disastrous and hilarious. I've learned to avoid attempting to do this. MENTORS I would say I've had a lot of inspiration and learned a great deal from those around me but getting to this point in my photography career has been sort of the polar opposite of studying music for me, it's been mostly learning by doing instead of being taught.
Decorated Youth Magazine | 93
Nic Hess -ler
94 | Decorated Youth Magazine
In 2005, at the age of 14, Nic who at the time went under the moniker Catwalk, was armed with an 8-track recorder and a garage, and was set out to make the next great guitar-oriented Californian band. Proceeding the release of two 7” singles on the defunct Yay! Imprint Nic, as Catwalk, was soon signed to the Captured Tracks label at the age of 18. Once signed to Captured Tracks, he released two Captured Tracks 7″ (in 2010 and 2011), which lead up to a Catwalk LP and tour later in 2011. As interest in his music grew, he started the process of garnering support in his hometown of Orange County, CA to get together a line up to tour the LP. Around this time Nic was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disorder, Guillain–Barré Syndrome, that at times can be mistaken for Multiple Sclerosis. This ailment prevented him from playing guitar and left him partially paralyzed for a majority of this period. Nic Hessler re-emerged, moniker less, in 2015 healthy and reinvigorated with a full-fledged sound and a debut LP, Soft Connections, that was years in the making. This LP is anchored by the cherished Catwalk track “(Please) Don’t Break Me,” and makes for a bittersweet farewell to that rough patch of his life.
Decorated Youth Magazine | 95
GROWING UP My childhood was strange, as it is for most people I think. I don’t really remember ever feeling comfortable in my skin and I was pretty conscious of that early on. I was pretty fortunate to have been able to seek refuge in music at a young age and discovered early on it was a path that made sense to me.
WHERE HE GREW UP AND HOW IT IMPACTED HIS CREATIVITY Well, coming from a family of musicians there was always music around. My grandpa had a good-sized collection of country records, my mom loved a lot of 60’s bubblegum stuff…Connie Francis, the Cowsills, stuff like that. So naturally I’m sure I picked up a lot of that along the way. It wasn’t until after I got into punk rock though that I thought to start experimenting with my own stuff and write songs.
FORMAL / NOT FORMAL MUSICAL EDUCATION
My dad was a bass player so naturally I wanted to be like him. I picked that up when I was 7 or so after watching him play along to Paul McCartney and stuff. My granddad played lap-steel & guitar, my uncles were Beatles/Stones fanatics and tinkered around a lot with tape recorders, recording funny covers, etc. Eventually I picked up guitar and my brother did the same. He’s more of a shredder than I am, into hard rock and metal mostly.
THE FIRST TIME HE FELT INSPIRED BY MUSIC I’m unsure of the chronological order of when and where, but I have early memories of certain songs resonating with me. I loved horror movies when I was a kid and I remember hearing Iggy Pop’s “Why Was I Born” in Freddy’s Dead and thinking it sounded so dirty and heavy. We always had records around the house. I remember loving “InA-Gadda-Da-Vita” of all things. Oh and I loved “The Birds and the Bees”!
ART – EXPOSE, PROTECT OR HEAL Sure, it can be cathartic. I’m going through a lot of changes and I guess it sorta helps me keep balanced.
96 | Decorated Youth Magazine
GETTING INTO THE MUSIC SCENE I guess I sorta knew when it became time to get a job and be able to make money…then you realize there isn’t much else you feel as passionate about, or anything you’ve put as much time into. Right now, it’s the one thing I know that I do have a skill at so I’m just following where it takes me, while at the same time not having grand expectations because I know pursuing a career in music, you need a great deal of luck it seems. It’s a long road ahead but I’m happy where I’m at. It’s nice to have people around who believe in you. Like, support from Captured Tracks has kept me moving forward.
THE START OF WRITING MUSIC At first, you’re not really analyzing the reasons why you do it…well, I didn’t anyways. All I knew was that is felt good and wasn’t very hard. It’s different now. It’s more of a conscious effort to push my songwriting abilities and I’m never really there, but that’s what keeps my curiosity intact.
AHA MOMENT In retrospect yes, but not really in the moment. There was a period where I realized I was writing decent songs and it was fulfilling in a way it never was previously. It wasn’t just experimenting in my garage, recording nonsense just to hear the playback, making noise essentially just to see how mangled it could sound. I was actually writing lyrics and melodies that evoked something emotionally in me rather than…sort of self-indulgent doodling. It wasn’t just on the surface anymore and I was actually learning something about myself through the process.
GETTING INSPIRED WHILE OUT AND ABOUT – VOICE MEMOS & NOTES It’s funny, I have a terrible memory for basically everything else but music. I can usually remember words and sounds in my head because of how I associate them with other things. For instance, I can reimagine them in the form of shapes or even base them on other songs and think “oh yeah, this sorta reminds me of the vibe of this song or that song…” But I usually just mumble something vague in my phone and work it out later when I can be alone somewhere.
LYRICS – INTENTIONALLY SITTING DOWN TO WRITE VS HAVING IDEAS IN YOUR HEAD AND THEN THEY COMES SPILLING OUT Depends on the song, it’s different every time. The music is basically the only thing I can sit down and piece all together on the spot. Structure comes pretty naturally to me, it’s the words that take time because I don’t like to force it. I can’t just say “okay, here I am with my favorite pen, I’m gonna write a song”. I have to be living my life and leave my mind open to let things freely pass in and out. I can tell when it’s forced and I think other people can too.
WRITING, SOMETHING HE ENJOYS? I enjoy it when I know I’m on the right path and have a good sense of what I’m writing about. As much as I love and rely on the sort of stream-of-conscious approach, it’s important to be writing about something concrete.
EVOLUTION OF HIS WRITING PROCESS
I’m learning to not overanalyze the process or be too aware of how I go about it because it could really change at any point in time. I want to be open to that because I don’t really wanna write the same kind of song forever and it’s different every time I try so it’s best to not have expectations.
Decorated Youth Magazine | 97
NEW TRACKS – PLAYING LIVE VS. IN THE STUDIO We aren’t playing out too much right now as I’m working on the next LP, demoing a good chunk of songs…then we’re gonna tour a lot. Honestly, I’m just trying to sing better. Learning to breath properly and have good support.
FAVORITE PART OF THE ALBUM CREATION PROCESS I just love recording. For “Soft Connections” working with Drew Fischer was a lot of fun, his studio is very comfortable and he’s just great to work with. I’m use to just doing everything at home by myself so it was a nice change of atmosphere.
ARTWORK – CONTRIBUTE IDEAS OR REMAIN HANDS OFF We needed something quick since all other avenues fell through. Originally we were trying to work out using this series of paintings but couldn’t get the permission, so there I am!
ARTWORK – AESTHETICALLY COOL PACKAGE VS COVERSATION BETWEEN LYRICS AND ART I love packaging! Always have for other records but when it came to my own, I didn’t give it too much thought and was just too focused on it sounding good. It’s more important now.
PRESS PHOTOS I know people care about image, but I really don’t to be honest. So many bands look “cool” but don’t have the songs…then what?
MENTORS I’ve tried -I have an older friend who has been sort of a distant mentor, unknowingly.
WHO / WHAT CHANGED THE MUSIC INDUSTRY?
There’s seems to be a great deal of freedom for people to carve their own worlds and pave their own way to success, whatever that means to them. Other than that, I’m trying to make sense of it all myself.
98 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 99
100 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 101
102 | Decorated Youth Magazine
HER CHILDHOOD
I grew up in the suburbs of Long Island, about 50 miles from the city. From a super young age, music was a very important part of my life. My dad played guitar when he was younger, and carried a love for all things music - all types of rock, classical composers, doo wop, you name it. My mom didn’t really have that same background, but what she loved, she really loved, and those artists always stuck out for me. (Lucky for me, it meant that I recently inherited the mother of all vinyl record collections when my parents moved out of my childhood home!) As a result, I would take anything presented to me and make it about music, choreographing my own dances to the William Tell Overture and surprising my friends’ parents when I started singing along to “American Pie” at full volume with the radio. Whenever I was supposed to be practicing piano, I would spend that time trying to write my own songs instead of working on my scales. That turned into trying to create my own radio shows with a 4 track tape recorder, making up fake pop groups in the basement, and writing poetry that I always longed to be song lyrics. I was pretty spread out as a kid, playing softball and competing as an Irish step dancer alongside studying music (and ya know, trying to be a kid), but it was the music that always stuck out. I took voice lessons and learned the classic arias, picked up guitar and made my poor teacher transpose too many Fall Out Boy songs, and joined as many choirs as I could. Music theory and musical theatre took up most of my high school years, and I almost majored in performance or education, but switched to radio/audio production / music business right before graduating high school.
EVENT THAT LAID THE FOUNDATION FOR HER PASSION OF MUSIC - BEING A PART OF THE MUSIC COMMUNITY
The foundation of my passion for music was laid solid pretty early on, but the specifics of the genres I really grew to love came a little later. Growing up on Long Island was a gift, really, and I grew up on the edge of one of the best eras. The first real show I ever went to (that wasn’t a local ska show in the back of a mini-golf spot) was Simple Plan opening up for The Starting Line and Brand New at this now defunct spot called Sports Plus. This was December 2002, and I think it really kinda clicked for me that night - it solidified Brand New as one of my top bands for life, even if at the time I had been attending the show because I was real into Simple Plan! Going to shows on the island and in the city for the rest of high school, I always took the time to look at the people working behind the scenes, wanting to know what they did and how they got to be a part of something that gave me such a rush.
PRIOR SCHOOLING / WORK EXPERIENCE
I got really lucky in the schooling aspect of the music industry. My high school had a radio station, WSHR, and I stumbled into being a DJ when I was 15 or so one of my best friends was hosting a Broadway themed show and her co-host had bailed, so I filled in and then never left. We had a two-hour block on Friday nights that became one of the highest rated shows in the area, which was crazy! That motivated me to initially major in radio / audio production in college, which then evolved into me majoring in music business. Throughout college, I stayed super involved in radio and ended up becoming the music director at WCVF / WDVL at SUNY Fredonia. The relationships that I built there, with independent promoters and music directors at other schools across the country, was a huge gateway for me. I’m not one for forced networking, but if anything can get you in touch with the music industry at a collegiate level, radio is it.
Decorated Youth Magazine | 103
I think one of the biggest things, though, is that I interned my BUTT off. As soon as that possibility was available to me I made it happen, even though I knew it meant crazy commutes on the Long Island Railroad of almost 4 hours a day for an unpaid gig. I remember applying to so many different openings in so many facets of the industry, just hoping someone would take a chance on me. I got to work with some amazing people and get a crash course in everything from basic office etiquette to pitching artists to the evolution of digital marketing at Doghouse Records, Atlantic Records, and Photo Finish Records. It’s beyond cool to me that I now get to work alongside some of the same people who taught me the behind the scenes of label life and all the things that come with it!
CHALLENGES STARTING OUT IN THE INDUSTRY & OVERCOMING THEM
I’d love to say that being a woman in the music industry wasn’t a challenge, but sometimes? It really is. Especially being a young woman - early on, I learned that some people weren’t going to take me seriously because of it, and nothing made me more frustrated. I don’t think there’s any “overcoming” that on your own - you can’t be responsible for the way someone thinks, but you can sure as hell change their mind when you show them how hard you work, how passionate you are, and how you can use your brain and love for music to take things to the next level. There are too many badass ladies out there, busting their butts off, who were hit with the same challenges, and nothing pleases me more than being able to celebrate their successes with them.
WHO / WHAT CHANGED THE MUSIC INDUSTRY
There are SO MANY things and people that have created shifts in the industry, which I will forever think is cool - in an industry where we celebrate and work for the creative results in the foreground, there are so many moves made behind the scenes every day to change something.
104 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Some of my biggest influences in the industry are also some of the people who have made the most awesome shifts in it, people like Julie Greenwald at Atlantic Records, Fred Feldman at Triple Crown, Lyor Cohen, LA Reid, Ahmet Ertegun - these were the people that I followed growing up, who I wanted to be, who I wanted to work alongside. These days you see smaller impactful changes happening more often, instead of big things only once in a while, and they’re coming from people who truly want to be in this industry for the music. It’s been amazing to watch labels of all shapes and sizes grow, and to see my own insanely passionate friends make an impact with an artist they love in a world we love, and to see so many unsigned artists make a splash when being on a major label used to be the only currency. It’s easy to look at the music industry and just see the weird struggles now, how the digital age slowed everything down and changed how things were run. But something like that really shook that world up, and it gave everyone a challenge, and seeing how people can rise to the top from it makes me excited to keep growing here.
WORKING FOR THE SYNDICATE ON TACO BELL’S MUSIC INITIATIVE FEED THE BEAT SUPPORTING EMERGING ARTISTS
Being a part of something that’s able to make a significant contribution to an artist is incredible, honestly. On a personal note, I’m getting a chance to find my next favorite artist all the time, but it’s even cooler to hear a track that a musician in the program is about to drop and know “wow, holy shit - this is it for them, this is what will change the game.” Feed The Beat features artists in every stage of their careers so it’s awesome to see someone that the program has supported from the very beginning, like Lewis Del Mar or Phoebe Ryan, reach new peaks all the time.
EDITORIAL CONTENT FOR FEED THE BEAT DECIDING WHO TO FEATURE
For feedthebeat.com, we do Artist Features that highlight an assortment the newest 100 musicians to join the program, keeping those interviews short and sweet. I tend to reach out to artists that are on the road or who are about to go out on tour, but sometimes those features come along when they’re launching a new track or are in the process of recording. There’s also a handful of other interviews and features we do, like Alumni Wisdoms, which feature any number of the hundreds of alumni in Feed The Beat talking about where they’ve been and what they’ve been doing. The editorial side of Feed The Beat is relatively new compared to the program itself, so it’s been pretty cool to grow it from the ground up.
BIGGEST HURDLE THROUGHOUT THE CREATIVE PROCESS & OVERCOMING IT
I think it’s so easy to come up with big and amazing ideas, only to have them stunted because of things like budget, logistics, or timing. You can roll out a plan with the best of intentions but if it isn’t the right time, it may never happen - and that’s such a bummer! Overcoming it is tough for a minute, but in this industry, that’s about all the time you have to be down about something like that. There’s always a next move, another step, another idea at your fingertips, and whether it’s modifying the idea you already had to make it work with the tools on hand or coming up with something completely different, you’ve got to bring your A game at all times and be one step ahead.
STAYING AWARE OF EMERGING ARTISTS
Saying “the internet” is my biggest tool in finding new music in 2016 just sounds cheesy, but man is it true. Sometimes it’s as simple it’s one artist tweeting about another artist, catching someone’s online radio show, checking out a manager or promoter’s Spotify playlist, or a Facebook post from a friend at a label who is excited about a new artist they’re working with. The community I’m a part of, in real life and on the internet, is so good about talking about what they love and it truly makes finding new music exciting. Plus, it brings people closer together!
FEED THE BEAT’S PAST & PRESENT ROSTER – ARTISTS THAT HOLD A SPECIAL PLACE IN HER HEART
Modern Baseball is a band that is so important to me. I’ve found that one of the reasons that working on Feed The Beat is so great because it puts me directly in touch with the people behind the music, and I feel that especially with MoBo. We’re honestly lucky to have Modern Baseball creating music in our lifetime, I stand by that one thousand percent. Halsey is another one I hold close to my heart - with Feed The Beat we got to do some really cool stuff with her just before Badlands dropped and “New Americana” started hitting; she recorded this awesome cover of “Mad World” that was used in a Taco Bell commercial that’s one of my favorite things we’ve set up since I’ve been working on this program. Besides being a great supportive program for artists, Feed The Beat is basically designed to help you find your next favorite band, and it’s provided a number of times for me in that sense. There a handful of artists that I’ve felt such serious camaraderie with, whom I’ve loved both as people and for the music they make, and I know there will be more… relationships like that are the real beauty of what Feed The Beat is!
Decorated Youth Magazine | 105
MOMENT SHE REALIZED THIS IS THE PERFECT JOB FOR HER
I honestly have that moment all the time. Whether it’s a big thing, like launching a new round of accepted artists into Feed The Beat, or getting the perfect playlist together with one of our partners, or accomplishing a great event, I constantly am feeling like I’m in a great place. It’s nice to have moments like that internally, but it’s just as cool when my peers and my friends recognize it as well - it makes me feel like I’m truly making my own way, and doing a good job with it.
FAVORITE SOCIAL MEDIA SITE – WHICH ONE IS MOST VITAL FOR MUSICIANS I’m always going to be in love with Twitter, because I’ve been on it so long - I think it’s such a great channel for musicians, too, because it really gives that level of connectivity that you don’t necessarily have with just a simple homepage, or with Facebook. Instagram too, because I love being able to feel like I’m included in something by seeing it, even if I’m nowhere near.
MENTORS
I got really lucky when I started working at The Syndicate, because I’ve gotten to be supervised by two absolutely awesome people who have really taken the time to help me grow and succeed in this job - Rev. Moose, who now runs his own company Marauder, re-joined The Syn just as I was hired back in 2011, and was incredibly influential when it came to putting myself together in a new post-collegiate world.
106 | Decorated Youth Magazine
One of The Syn’s co-partners, Jon Landman, would be the other. I work so closely with him on the Feed The Beat project, and he’s been a great motivator and teacher over the last few years, continuing to challenge me as a growing professional and also as a person who wants to grow to new levels every day. I can only hope that one day I get the chance to guide someone along the start of their career like these two folks did for me!
MOVING FROM NEW YORK TO LOS ANGELES
After college, I spent five or so years living in Astoria, Queens, and really immersing myself in everything New York (as I had my whole life, really). I had spent so much time identifying myself as an "east coast music kid", which mattered so much to me in so many ways. But after a while I felt settled and stagnant, so at the top of 2016 I moved out to Los Angeles to see what kind of challenges awaited me here, and to see what the LA music community was like. In New York, I had found my people at the early emo nights, at Angels and Kings and Idle Hands, at 285 Kent and Shea Stadium and the Bowery and all the places in between - I found a family there. The idea of having a family of like-minded people is so crucial to me, and to music, I think; because it's a support system that you choose, not one that was provided to you. I’ll always have New York and what that city gave me, but I'm kinda stoked to see what the west coast family I find is like - it's kind of a terrifying process, but all good things are.
Decorated Youth Magazine | 107
108 | Decorated Youth Magazine
WHITNEY Decorated Youth Magazine | 109
Ehrlich and Kakacek previously played together in the Smith Westerns, but Whitney is a departure from that. “Once we decided what we were doing,” Kakacek asserts, “we were fully committed to it.” Written in their Chicago apartment in the winter of 2016, Whitney’s first album, Light Upon the Lake, was an immersive, all-consuming process. “We basically lived the songs entirely while we were writing them,” Ehrlich adds. The way they relay it, it sounds like the two took an artists’ retreat, focusing on the craft only, and little else. It got to the point where the “songs [were] taking over our lives completely, almost to the point of crazyobsessiveness,” Ehrlich remembers. “But it feels good to be out,” he admits; “to be flexing another muscle.” That other muscle would their touring muscle. The entirety of Whitney [which includes Malcolm Brown (keys), Print Chouteau (rhythm guitar), Josiah Marshall (bass), and Will Miller (trumpet)], “wants to be doing this,” says Kakacek. “When we went on tours at 19 or 20, we thought ‘we’re gonna do this forever!’” But now, “at 24, 25, 26, it feels more do-or-die.” Perhaps therein lies the source of this aforementioned “crazyobsessiveness,” --the need to establish a project that they hope is, in their words, “something lasting.” On Valentine’s Day of this year, the guys of Whitney “gave up our apartments, quit our jobs, and left for the road.” This move was a long time coming; “we were super antsy to go,” recalls Ehrlick, “we grew up on the road. Two years off without touring felt crazy. . .it felt crazy being still.”
110 | Decorated Youth Magazine
So if the soul of the project reveals itself in writing, and the reason for all the music-making exists while touring, can the writing and touring merge into something even more meaningful? Kind of. Ehrlick concedes: “We can, ‘start’ ideas while we’re touring-in voice memos on my phone and stuff. . .” “But there’s not much space to collaborate,” adds Kakacek. Even though their songwriting methods exist best in concentrated spurts, finding space from all of it was also key. Kakacek continues: “We’d work on something together and one of us would have to go to dinner or go to work, so the other would work [on the song] individually. Being left alone and getting a moment to breathe and further develop the idea helped the refinement process.” Besides, the “songs were written in such a strange, collaborator’s mindset,” Ehrlick iterates, that this would be a difficult environment for them to be able to mimic on the road. The band’s first single, “No Woman,” was chosen as such because it felt like the “Perfect way to introduce people to the other things they’re gonna feel throughout the record,” says Kakacek. The ease to the track, its steady, light falsetto vocals despite the lonesome lyrics, and the horns and strings are certainly many of the themes that reverb throughout Light Upon the Lake. The intense devotion to the making of this album is deeply felt. Every track, from “Dave’s Song” to “Polly” makes me want to get dumped and drive through some winding mountains at dusk with my windows down. It’s perfect, solemn summer music: melodies that charm when listened to passively, but sting if given your full attention.
Decorated Youth Magazine | 111
MATT SAV 112 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 113
114 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Matt has played in various bands since high school, even having a short stint playing drums for POND as he was hanging out a lot at Troy Terrace where a range of musicians and other people lived from time to time. It was during this time that he bought a cheap digital camera off of his brothers friend and started shooting all the time. His goal was to emulate Ryan McGinley, Larry Clark and Nan Goldin when photographing his friends embracing their youth. When he was at University studying graphic design, he did an exchange program where he studied in London for a semester. By happenstance, Tame Impala played their first show outside of Australia there, at an industry gig, and Matt went in hopes of running into his friends. Nick Allbrook and Jay Watson saw him standing outside and, being so happy with seeing a familiar face, ran and jumped on him and led him into the show. With his camera in tow, Matt watched as his friends from back home blew the audience away. After the show Kevin Parker asked Matt to sit in the van for a minute, assuming it was to hang out post show, the members then asked him if he wanted to join them on the road and come to Scotland with them. Right then and there, Matt said yes and ditched University for a week or so, sleeping on their motel room floors, with one set of clothes, and shooting video footage and photo stills of that whole tour. When Matt returned home to Australia, Kevin asked him to take some press photos of the band and to do some behind the scenes photos of him recording ‘Innerspeaker.’ Later, Matt went on a few more tours with Tame Impala to Japan and the US shooting both video and photo. To this day he continues to work with those members, and their various musical endeavors, along with other musicians and other companies in the industry.
Decorated Youth Magazine | 115
GROWING UP
I had a very comfortable and fortunate childhood. My 0-12 years were pretty great. Living close to friends, eating ice cream and skateboarding in the suburbs. I didn’t enjoy highschool much because the structure is not set up in a way that helps me learn, but I am thankful in hindsight that I was afforded the possibility to go to a high school that encouraged extra curricula learning in the arts. Thats where I started to play in a band and to do art & design. My mum took me to musicals and theatre from a very early age, and I cherish those memories too. Only now am I seeing the influences on my work. I also became a very angry teenager and painted graffiti for a few solid years before getting caught... I think that part of my childhood was pretty amazing really and started me off in this direction. Breaking into abandoned buildings and painting with a couple of friends always felt so good. I was really sad to stop. It was pure freedom. It is hard to explain, but it is why I understand completely why graffitti exists, at least why I did it. Control over your own life. When you are a teenager you feel so fucking suffocated by all the systems put in place around you, and it is a way to claim back some control. Like, ‘I am going to fucking do this, and not one person on this earth is going to stop me’. Kind of attitude. I think teenagers need to be able to feel that kind of freedom from time to time.
WHERE HE GREW UP / WHERE HE LIVES IMPACTING CREATIVITY
I come from a very very lucky part of the world economically speaking. This has afforded me the ability to earn enough money to live, by doing work that I love. I suppose I might not be doing what I do if I grew up somewhere else. There is also a very supportive music and arts community in Perth, albeit a small one.
It is way too bright though, maybe that’s why all my pictures are usually quite bright and colourful. Because the light here is pretty much white all the time. Always battling that light has had a pretty big impact on my work I would say. I usually shoot studio shots as if we are in a bright outdoor space. I guess just because it is light that I am comfortable working with.
PATH TO BECOMING A PHOTOGRAPHER
I was in university, studying graphic design. I took one unit in photography for a few months, and found that it was something I immediately felt I could do. The immediacy of photography gives one that illusion I think. I remember developing and printing my first roll of film at university and I had taken a portrait of my close friend Jilly on it. She looked so beautiful, I stared at that picture for ages. The light, the colour, it was all so comforting to me. I don’t think I ever realized I wanted to work in the industry consciously though, I just came across something that I naively believed I could do, and so I did it, and ended up being asked to do it more. That is how I seem to have ended up doing lots of different things. A kind of willingness to ignore my own lack of skill or knowledge in an area and to pursue it anyway.
WHAT CAME FIRST, PASSION FOR MUSIC OR FOR PHOTOGRAPHY Definitely music. Music is a life force for most humans I think. We would not live without it, and because of this, we all automatically love it in one way, shape or form before we are conscious beings. 季 季 季 季 季
116 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 117
118 | Decorated Youth Magazine
ART – EXPOSE, PROTECT OR HEAL I think art should do all of these things at different times.
AHA MOMENT
Two days ago when my partner of 3.5years told me she wanted to be alone. I realized ‘aha’ you don't always get to be the heartbreaker you know? That even if you believe you are going to be with someone for your whole life, you probably won't be. The first time someone I have wanted to spend the rest of my life with has walked away. That makes you think you know? Also around 7 years ago, the moment I cupped my hands over my newborn son’s un-opened eyes and peered in close to his face, he opened his eyes and he saw me and the world for the first time. I went AHA then too. (Insert giant grin, and a small tear).
VISON OF PHOTOGRAPHY EVOLVED
Yes, I used to think I was going to find some kind of ‘style’ and become recognized for it. But now I don’t know. That feels incredibly shallow. I just feel like it’s all a big clusterfuck with the internet the way it is now. You can hardly breath in photography now. I don’t think it can say what I thought it could. I think moving pictures can. I’m becoming much more interested in moving picture now. I want to make films. Push all my passions together into one
FAVORITE STORY BEHIND A SPECIFIC PHOTO
Oh man, my whole life is behind a photograph, and every new picture I take is a tiny marker of the time that came before it, and often immediately after. I’m sorry, I just can’t answer that. If you pick a photo I can tell you a story about it.
PHOTOS TAKEN SPONTANEOUSLY OR HAVE A VISION Both. I can't just do one thing. If I could I would be world famous by now.
MAKING THE MOST OF A MOMENT, WHEN IT COMES TO PHOTOGRAPY
I try not to shoot if the moment is all wrong. I'm not into pushing people to do something they aren't into. I kind of hate photography because of that. I’d rather be someone’s friend to be honest. I put down my camera heaps and just listen, and chat. Sometimes that’s way more interesting. If you really care about your subject, you will take better pictures of them/it.
MORE OR LESS DIFFICULT TO PHOTOGRAPH BAND’S HE REGULARLY WORKS WITH, GIVEN THE COLSE RELATIONSHIP
Less. I love seeing all those lovely geniuses. What a silly and great excuse for a beer with friends!
thing.
Decorated Youth Magazine | 119
BIGGEST HURDLE & OVERCOMING IT
I shot maybe 8 or 9 different set ups in one day recently for an art festival here in Perth for their promotional material. That was a massive day, with no consistent lighting due to restrictions in the gallery spaces, and because they were for promo they needed to be relatively slick. I just powered through and got what I could from each space and dealt with it in post after. But I wouldn’t try and do that again. It was too much. I did the old ‘ignore that I can’t do something and do it anyway’ trick, and this time it maybe half worked.
MAKING PORTRAIT SHOTS LOOK NATURAL
I usually hold off on shooting until they relax a bit, spending quite a bit of time not shooting at all if I can and then a small amount of time actually clicking away. For every not awkward looking shot there is 10 awkward looking shots that you don’t see.
NEWEST THING HE’S LEARNED ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY
That I love so many different mediums of photography. I love mixing them together, camera phone, 35mm, dslr, screen shots from video etc. Then trying to find an aesthetic within all of those mediums and tying them all together. That’s something that I’m learning about and trying to achieve at the moment. Learning that ideally, someone can’t tell what type of camera you made a picture with. Also that you should never take
MENTORS
No. I wish I did. The closest I have come, is my printer Tony. He knows everything about photography, and he has a way of being that is something to admire. I should have spent more time in his presence before he moved away. Something I will always regret.
MOMENT HE REALIZED THIS IS HIS PERFECT JOB
I don’t believe any job is perfect for anyone. We make things perfect for ourselves along the way. If I don’t eat breakfast, I hate this job. I don’t really think I am a photographer. Only on some days. But lots of the time, I am many many other things. Unless, I mean, maybe fitting shoes for someone with a foot fetish would be their perfect job, but even then, they probably have days where they say ‘you know what, this is fucked. I don’t even feel like touching a beautiful foot today, I just want to stay in bed and scroll through the endless social shit storm, and hopefully wake up tomorrow feeling like my job is perfect again’.
PERFECT STORM OF PHOTOGRAPHY SCENARIOS (one artist/band, one venue/ studio/ location, gear, one city)
pictures of people that you are in love with... Just
You know a friend of mine did a sleep test recently where people monitored her sleep patterns for a week or so. And you know what? Everytime she was in deep sleep, dreaming, her body moved into the same position, this beautiful, euphoric, position. I
take pictures of frogs and ants and sand and your
cried when she told me that.
own face. Lots and lots of your own face.
120 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 121
122 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 123
Prior to Houndmouth Katie and Matt had been an acoustic duo for around three years, both having grown up in a small town and having known each other throughout high school. Before and during that acoustic group, Matt and Zak had been in a blues cover band together. Houndmouth came about as Shane moved home from NYC and the members made the to switch to playing music with a heavy backbeat and in half time. Later, after the band gained momentum and got signed, they didn’t focus on the backbeat as much, just on making more and better music. All the members then went over to Shane’s grandparents’ house, which became their practice space they dubbed as ‘The Green House,” with their own songs. Whichever individual wrote the song would sing it in practice and that’s also how it naturally happened when playing shows. Although they wrote the songs separately, the songs were cohesive as a group. One of their friends, who’s now their manger, was watching one of their practice’s when he said that they need to think about doing something more serious with the music. They all knew that they didn’t want to play a lot of local shows starting out, as not to get pigeonholed and typecast when playing the same clubs, so they recorded their song 'Penitentiary' and put it online. The next day they woke up realizing a few blogs had written about it. They played ten shows the next two months and then headed down to SXSW in March of 2012.
124 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Their booking agent, who lives in Austin, told them to not come down to SXSW as they didn’t have any good shows set up and only one show at the Molotov. With their music catching on they knew they had to take the chance so they took whatever money they had and made the trip down. After the aforementioned show at the Molotov they heard that the founder of Rough Trade Records, Geoff Travis, was there since their booking agent tipped him off to come. Although the members didn’t meet Geoff that night, they did meet the following night after their booking agent booked them a show at the South by San Jose outside the Hotel San Jose, which Geoff left Bruce Springsteen’s keynote speech early for. They eventually signed to Rough Trade Records and released a 4-song EP on August 27, 2012 that they recorded themselves at ‘The Green House” where they set up all of Shane’s old recording gear from when he worked as a sound engineer. Since the practice space led to people getting interested in their music, they knew they had to play tribute to it so they used portraits of Shane’s great-great grandparents that were hanging up on the wall as the album artwork. Their debut LP ‘From the Hills Below the City’ followed in June 2013. The album featured a dozen tracks that spoke of stories of their middle-American roots. Their second album ‘Little Neon Limelight’ was released in March of 2015 (engineered by Vance Powell and produced by Dave Cobb) and was recorded in a week and a half.
Decorated Youth Magazine | 125
126 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Interview with Matt Myers
GROWING UP Of course creativity was part of my childhood. I figure it’s a part of childhood in general. As for me, I was an only child. Socially inept. Under developed. I wasn't "smart", or at least the people that decided who was smart didn't think I was. I just couldn't figure out how to do things by the book. It didn't click for me and my parents and teachers were concerned. They had me take strange tests around the 3rd grade. I once looked at a picture of a piano and was asked what was wrong with it. I said nothing and the gentleman said, "Oh, yes there is" as he proceeded to point to one of the white keys. It was black. And just for the record he pulled me from recess, so I wasn't in the right state of mind. That said I still don't think many people would have seen it either. In the 4th grade they used to give out tickets for getting good grades that could be used as currency to buy cool shit. Cool shit. Looking back it wasn't very cool (fancy pencils, erasers, Hershey kisses). Anyways, I couldn't make the grades to earn those tickets so I would make things for the kids that could earn them and they would give them to me. Kind of like a black market. Nick Briscoe commissioned me to make him a flip book of two people fucking. In middle school my parents got me a guitar. I wanted one because I thought they looked phallic and sexy, and I liked the idea of being by myself and working on something secretive. At my own pace. The way I wanted to learn. Since then I've spent more time playing instruments and writing than anything else in my life. I love it. its emotional, its unbounded imagination, it can be vulgar, sweet, sexual, transsexual, twisted, it can be problem solving, math, fast, painfully slow, colorful, queer, cheap, deep, or shallow, WHATEVER! I felt kind of outcast and alone until I found music as an outlet. And then I found people that did the same shit! It's great. I meet weirdos all over the place. Turns out, weirdos are not a minority anymore. At least not in my world. It's almost like the world I tried so hard to cheat and fit into while I was growing up changed to accommodate me.
Decorated Youth Magazine | 127
HAVING A CERTAIN SET OF RULES THEY FELT NEEDED TO BE MAINTED WHEN CREATING THEIR SECOND ALBUM The first record, in terms of sales (which is how record executives measure success), was a failure. I didn't care how it did. I read a couple reviews here and there, but it was really just the starting point of being where I wanted to be in my life. I learned how to write and play, but now I was learning out how to perform and travel and take care of myself and be around a bunch of people all the time. So, it was more of a growth going into the second album. We approached it in a new way, or maybe it was the same way, regardless we didn't think about it because we were well equipped and we knew it. Too much second guessing can take a toll on my confidence. I believe that confidence is especially key when writing and performing music (hell, even the shoe gazers were fuckin' cocky in their own way). When the second record was finished and submitted we got a call from the man behind the curtain. They, and I still don't know who they be, wanted us to go back into the studio and write another song because they didn't think we had a single. We didn't submit anything further.
FAVORITE PART OF THE ALBUM CREATION PROCESS Dave Cobb has the worst ideas, and I don't know if you've ever been around someone with bad ideas before but they are viral and contagious. More contagious than yawning. I liked being around Dave. That was my favorite part of making the record. He's smart. He's smart in layers. He reads moods, has the ability to shift vibes, motivates, teaches, and chills. Any asshole can produce a record. It just happens that he is inside the head of what it means to produce. And it’s something that came completely natural to him. It’s some Zen stuff. And his bad ideas are absolutely genius.
BAND VISUALS – ALBUM ARTWORK AND PRESS PHOTOS I hate band photos. We have a say in visuals, but have never been in charge of visuals. Sure, I'll give a critique of a video as it's being made, or speak my preference for edits, but as for the original idea - I can roll with just about anything. I’ve always stressed the importance of 'chilling', of rolling with the punches - I think that part of me translates into the visual aspects, shows, and beyond. So many things are meticulously curated today and I like to contribute a looseness when I can. I don't know how to be in charge of visuals. Maybe I’ll figure out this year.
128 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 129
E C A R
T
130 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Growing up, being a signer never crossed Trace’s mind. Her mom has been a successful singer in Vietnam for 50 years, so becoming a singer herself felt too normal and expected--too everyday. She did however find a spark in words and began the process of writing. Once she was older music started to find a way into her life. Some stated influences of hers have been Lykke Li, James Blake, and Lou Reed. She released her first song “Heavy Shoulders” at the beginning of 2015 and began this year releasing the sensational track “Honey” in March, followed by her newest track “Low” in April.
Decorated Youth Magazine | 131
132 | Decorated Youth Magazine
GROWING UP
I grew up in Southern California. My mom raised me and I’m the only child so we were really close. Creativity was definitely a part of growing up but I didn’t realize it until recently. My mom’s career as a singer had a silent influence over me. I remember she traveled a lot for work. And I would go to her rehearsals, see her in the creative process. I hung out with the other kids whose parents were also Vietnamese pop singers. Pretty unique (but rad). My childhood felt normal. I thought that was how every kid spent their Wednesday nights. So yes, long answer, creativity was a part of my childhood. I just didn’t realize how special it was until I began the process of creativity in music myself.
FORMAL / NOT FORMAL MUSICAL EDUCATION I didn’t have any formal music education. Growing up, the closest I got to it was being around my mom and seeing her go over her vocal exercises or pull outfits for her shows (very formal music education). So that and being self-taught. I’m extremely into asking questions and trial and error.
THE FIRST TIME SHE FELT INSPIRED BY MUSIC
When I got my first CD at age ten. Someone gave me Jagged Little Pill for my birthday. It was on repeat. I was like, “what is this sound/voice!?” I never heard anything like it.
THE START OF WRITING MUSIC
The first song I ever wrote (and didn't share with anyone until forever later) was in 2008. I think it was about the Civil War or something. Something about missing your family and being away from the ones you love and fighting for your home. OMG. I should definitely resurrect it.
GETTING INVOLVED IN THE MUSIC SCENE
I moved to LA from San Diego to pursue a job as an Editor at a magazine. Over time, I realized I wanted something that felt more “me.” It was a series of events, but it wasn’t until a good friend simply said, “you should do your own music”. After I laughed out loud and took a sip of potentially my third IPA, I was like, “OK, let’s do it.” That was the quiet turning point. Deep down I wanted to share what I’ve been writing over the years so I knew I had material; I just didn’t realize it would go outside my bedroom/head. But the first real and official time I declared myself as a musician was when I finally decided I could share something that was mine, use my actual voice and have people receive it and like it. I sang an original song to a crowd of friends I invited over (it was a semi-debut of me telling them I’m launching a Kickstarter for an EP) and the response made me melt. It was really affirming to know that people resonated with my writing and people resonated with me singing at them. It was surreal but felt very normal and only natural to push this truth forward. That was somewhere around 18 months ago.
Decorated Youth Magazine | 133
LYRICS –WHERE, TIME PERIOD & PHYSICALLY, THEY WERE THOUGHT UP
They come from everywhere. My head, in my sleep, when I’m on a walk, or making eggs for breakfast. It usually comes in the middle of conversations or when there is no space on my iPhone's Voice Memos or when no pen is in sight. Most of my lyrics come on time though.
LYRICS – INTENTIONALLY SITTING DOWN TO WRITE VS HAVING IDEAS IN YOUR HEAD AND THEN THEY COMES SPILLING OUT
I’m a deadlines gal and I’d like to say I feel inspired everyday but sometimes the most inspiration comes from being on a timeline—I like pressure. Then again, some of the best songs come when you’re not chasing it. I don’t know, it’s different every time. Sometimes you just have to sit and wait, sometimes it comes to you. I prefer the latter. And sometimes I can write a song in a day/week and others months and months. So fickle, but it’s never boring and always worth the tension because at the end of the day it’s authentic.
SONG BACKSTORIES
Nothing specific, but I would just have to say it’s an interesting thing writing songs from a place of pretty much knowing who I am already. My identity isn’t in limbo, it’s just everything else that I am unsure of. Which is helpful because that gives me material to write and sing about.
134 | Decorated Youth Magazine
FAVORITE PART OF THE ALBUM CREATION PROCESS
I sleep better, and it’s so rad to see what the process unearths in me that I don’t expect. It’s revealing, creating.
HOW SHE WANTS TO BE REPRESENTED THROUGHOUT HER VISUALS – MUSIC VIDEOS, PRES PHOTOS, ALBUM ARTWORK
I want to be viewed as someone who is certain, authentic and memorable. Like what I’m doing feels like it’s all on purpose. Cohesion is key too.
WHO / WHAT CHANGED THE MUSIC INDUSTRY
That’s a great question. And there are so many different answers that could apply. I’m going to have to go with Kendrick Lamar. I just think he’s done a wonderful job at evolving naturally and magnifying the brilliance that is story. I also think he has reintroduced the jazz genre a bit. Kind of reminding us the magic of such a rooted genre. There are also a million other ways he’s changed the industry but I think To Pimp A Butterfly was spectacular and pivotal.
MENTORS
I think I had about seventy-three coffee dates with everyone I knew or knew of who was in the industry when I decided to chase music. I don’t have one goto person but have been fortunate enough to have a good community of talented folks around me that I’ve discreetly stalked and have gained wisdom from.
Decorated Youth Magazine | 135
The group signed to Chess Club in 2012 and soon after released their debut single, "King City." Several more singles followed and both the press and listener momentum began to catch on. Their debut LP, Where the Heaven Are We, was released on August 2, 2013 and they returned with their sophomore LP, Mothers, that was released on October 2, 2015. This sophomore album was the group's first album since adding keyboardist James Balmont as a full-time member. James Balmont admitted that he wanted more to do with the band than simply being a live member, that’s why across tours he’d find himself presenting new ideas between soundchecks. After joining the band became official, James and Austin started to bounce ideas back and forth and formed a songwriting partnership in which they would try to outdo each other with eccentric ideas. The members say that Mothers has steered them away from their “hazy” pop label since this album has a “more psychedelic, gospel, and acid house-influenced sound” than their debut. For example, their song ‘To My Brother,’ they say, comes from pure obsession with Motown hits, a 303 machine they dusted off in the church studios, and a heroic break beat. Their debut on the other hand, was such a captured moment of their youth - a naive diary entry of them being stoned teenagers and looking out of the world. To the members, it was never a conscious effort to try and not sound like themselves or any other group for the matter. They say they never really subscribed to that type of thinking.
136 | Decorated Youth Magazine
M I W S P E E D
Decorated Youth Magazine | 137
Interview with Austin Williams
GROWING UP
My childhood was pretty normal, me, my 2 years’ older brother, and my mum, we went to my dad’s on the weekends and ate variety pack cereal out the box and watched post-midnight TV after our dad passed out on the sofa. It was a one room flat and me and brother had sleeping bags on a futon my dad made us, he was very handy, could make anything. We lived in a house that was falling apart so making do and mending was part of it all, I think that formed the foundations to my creativity, you could make something out of nothing and if something breaks, fix it, don't waste money on new shit. If the flush on your toilet breaks, fill a bucket up with water and chuck it down. Sometimes those quick fixes just work so well they stay and then the problem never gets solved, that’s often the demon on your shoulder in that situation. None of my family were musical, not one of them, so my interest in instruments when my dad dragged us to car boot sales every week was exciting for them, my dad was a hippy and my mum loved all the poppier stuff, loved Lionel Richie and The Eagles. So my penchant for music was encouraged highly, I think it's to do with them not ever fully chasing their dreams as kids so they wanted to make sure I did that, for them. Shout for my mother.
138 | Decorated Youth Magazine
WHERE HE GREW UP AND HOW IT IMPACTED HIS CREATIVITY Where me and Zach live in London now is a place called Seven Sisters, there’s a complex of warehouses, old factory’s and it's mostly young people who are constantly creating. It feels like a stronghold that you can escape back to, a safe house, we can do whatever we want, it's a very social place to live. Our house has always switched between our friends, when I moved in I was living with Theo (Wolf Alice) then the Splashh boys lived there with me for a bit, now Drones Club and a guy from Keep Up live there with us, we're all really tight friends so it's pretty much the dream place, it’s what I imagined when I was a kid when I was thinking about what it would be like to live on your own. So fun. There’s always something being created or some music being made at the gaff, always someone around to help you out etc.
FORMAL / NOT FORMAL MUSICAL EDUCATION My school didn't have the greatest of resources, we kind of just had one music block with a few guitars and those DJ! keyboards, a piano and some rain sticks you know. But what I had that was better than any instrument was a teacher that saw my passion, recognized my talent and pushed me to use it. I feel like that might be rare, she would turn her cheek if I skipped class to go play on the piano, or if I played up and was showing off, she recognized that if I was encouraged and praised to do it more and more and more then I would do something with my talent, not just forget about it, waste it, or put it on the back burner. I'd like to thank her for that.
THE START OF WRITING MUSIC I've only ever had to do it for myself. It's something I discovered when I started playing the piano, my first instrument was a guitar and I think teaching myself to play it made me a songwriter, it made me curious about melody and why it sounds good sometimes. When I started playing those keyboards in school I went home and I must've sounded truly passionate about it because I rushed to tell my dad how I’d felt so good playing this keyboard and it was something I was genuinely good and excited about. He went and got me a piano the next day, (you can get them for free everywhere if you have a van to pick it up). That piano was one of the biggest and possibly most important milestones for my early songwriting foundations. So when I have children and they express themselves in anything like I did with those keyboards, I’ll make sure they get their 'piano'.
AHA MOMENT It hasn't really happened, nothing too drastic has changed, we've managed to keep a certain humble and down to earth presence about the band and still shook hands with all that fame. I think the highest feeling is when you write a great song. Writing a great song, I imagine, is like child birth, or taking smack, the highest most unique part is in the creation, and the hit, it'll never be the same for that one particular song, the magic will be left in that moment, so it goes!
LYRICS –WHERE, TIMPERIOD & PHYSICALLY, THEY WERE THOUGHT UP
The lyrics from Mothers mostly came from notes on my phone, tons of ideas stitched together. There’s some real stories on there too, my favorite lyrics are those from 'Green Conduit', this is a story my dad’s told me a few times, about his first sighting of an 'elemental', something from a different world, he believes they choose you, if you're close to the world and morally strong you can see such things, they let you know there’s a different world out there than ours.
Anyway I find it so beautiful because he wouldn't lie to me about it so I can only believe in it, and also I know he's never taken acid so his story's fairly water tight.
LYRICS – INTENTIONALLY SITTING DOWN TO WRITE VS HAVING IDEAS IN YOUR HEAD AND THEN THEY COMES SPILLING OUT
Yeah, I think you have to make time for it, you can't force a song out but in a way you kind of can, you can make time for it. My take on it is that the longer I’m sat on a piano, the more chance I’m there when a song comes to me, there's been times where I’ve said no to going for a pint or whatever because I should stay and try and write, and some of my favorite melodies have come out of those times.
FAVORITE PART OF THE ALBUM CREATION PROCESS My favorite part is being with the rest of the band all just getting buzzin about a song we're making, most of the songwriting process is me on my own so it can get quite lonely, you know you just want to turn around and say fuck you heard that!!! It’s a loneliness I enjoy sometimes but it's so great when we take a song into the studio and everyone just gets on it and gets mad.
WHEN AND HOW THE ALBUM TITLE ‘MOTHERS’ CAME ABOUT It was simple, we thought of to my brother, to my mother, brothers, mother, mothers. It stuck and really made sense for a lot of the themes in the album, the creation side of it was a leap of creation for us, we did a lot more on this record and we're way more brave and ambitious, for any fans that recognize that thank you.
Decorated Youth Magazine | 139
ARTWORK – CONTRIBUTE IDEAS OR REMAIN HANDS OFF Lucas Donaud, he's great, he just did his thing and sent us ideas then we said whether we liked them and if not what could be changed. At first we didn't want our faces on it, because we're on a major label they just want you're faces on it, and they want those faces to be pretty, and that made us uncomfortable, but we took a bit of a u turn and wanted our faces on this album cover because we we're so proud of it and it felt quite brave. Guess it was quite Swim Deep of us to put our faces on it!
ARTWORK – AESTHETICALLY COOL PACKAGE VS COVERSATION BETWEEN LYRICS AND ART Literally if it looks good to us then we'll use it, if it doesn't suit us then we won’t. In these times, the perception of our band is important because we're so often lumped in with other bands etc. Our first record had just one guitar lead song and we we're called a guitar band and put in that ground, our songs and sound, especially on Mothers is so far detached from bands that we're put against.
PRESS PHOTOS
Just quite honestly, so when there’s a stylist at a shoot we try and bat them off because 90% of the time we've turned up to the shoot in clothes we want to wear and like to wear, not some stranger’s idea of what we want to wear.
140 | Decorated Youth Magazine
It's painful to see bands turn up to a shoot and just wear whatever’s handed them, it's so bait. We've done it before too and just one look at the photos make me promise myself I won’t be such a pushover.
MENTORS Good question, yes! One of my most important mentors is my manager Mike, I still haven't worked out if he's more of a brother than a dad or vice versa, but anyway, since day one he's been sending me records, buying me books, saying shit that I write down and nick as lyrics. It's great to have that in a manager, and it seems like it's a rare thing to have. I love his family, I have dinner with them, you know, it's a proper relationship. My other mentor along the way, mainly in the last 3 years is one of my dearest friend’s Ellie, she introduced me to so many records and kept my mind free and curious, and she taught and inspired me through my slow migration to London. She’s a very important person to me. And then there's everyday mentors, another friend who I could tell anything to, who would listen to my depression, and let me get outside my own head for a while. It's a great question, who are your mentors, I’m very lucky and grateful for mine, I hope I’d make a helpful mentor.
Decorated Youth Magazine | 141
142 | Decorated Youth Magazine
They then started to incorporate other people in their photos, also thinking about styling and locations. It was around this same time that they also got into video work, with video being the only medium they occasionally use digital for. Their taste in music, mostly stuff from the ‘60s and ‘70s, plays a huge part in their 1970s aesthetic, but they also look to old advertisements they find online. They say that even though there are dating, working together isn’t a problem since their personalities are so compatible. The fact that they each have separate roles and that they’re aren’t interested in the exact same aspects of photography when working also helps, with Wilson working on more of the technical side of things (he studied photography at SVA his first year of college) and Vanessa doing the directing.
Vanessa did ballet her whole life and was on a dance team throughout high school. Although dancing is still a big part of her life, now it’s more when she’s with her friends at gigs they DJ at in the city. Wilson grew up in a family of race car drivers, and with both of his brothers having raced at pretty competitive levels their family had the opportunity to travel all over to attend the races. After racing for a bit himself, Wilson decided it wasn’t a sensible career path and transitioned to the film/photo world. Their love of photography drew them together, with Wilson getting Vanessa a film camera for her sixteenth birthday. They soon became even more immersed with the art form and format and eventually started a Flickr account. With shooting film, they soon paid more attention to what they were shooting, as film forces you to take your time and think.
They became WIISSA, literally and figuratively, almost right off the bat. The name came about as they wanted to have nicknames for each other “WII” for Wilson (his brothers already called him Wils) and “SSA” for Vanessa. With the name WIISSA in mind they dreamed of collaborating on a film/photo company of the moniker. They soon became obsessed with the name and since Wilson did graphic design for fun, he made a logo of the name. The duo’s newest personal project, that was released in March, is a short film titled Midnight Ramblers that explores the word and concept of “groupie.” The movie follows nine groupies around NYC for a week and explores the term and why it has such a bad rep. They got their inspiration for the movie by how much groupies have played a pivotal role in shaping the industry; Pamela Des Barres founded the groupie band, the GTOs, which was produced by Frank Zappa. The Rolling Stones wrote “Ruby Tuesday” about a groupie Keith Richards once knew, and David Bowie hired Cherry Vanilla, selfproclaimed groupie, as his super publicist.
Decorated Youth Magazine | 143
Interview with Vanessa Hollander & Wilson Philippe done on April 15, 2016
Heather: How did the installation [for the premiere of Midnight Ramblers] go last night? Vanessa: It was really good. I was nervous during the day, but when it happened it was so much better than I could have even imagined. It was perfect. Wasn't it? Wilson: Yeah. It was a good response. People came. We got introduced. People were chill. Vanessa: It was fun. Yeah, it was fun. Heather: That's so awesome. I want to go back to the beginning. What was your childhood like? Was creativity a part of your childhood? Vanessa: That's exciting. Both of us, I think our childhoods have really affected us a lot today, just because we have a lot of connections in many different areas of the world, or just a lot of different hometowns. Wilson: We have connections with a lot places. I'm French, but grew up in Miami.
Vanessa: I was born in Minnesota, but my dad's Brazilian. Then I grew up between Minnesota and Miami. I think the fact that we are from those places, all of them have a very strong impact on us today. We still visit all those places today. They all have their own little different culture in a way. I think that's really cool. Creativity wise, I just always made videos with my friends. I never really realized that that must have been really influential for me wanting to do photos and videos today, but when I was younger I always made just fun videos with my friend on my dad's VHS camera. And in middle school we would make really stupid Photobooth videos that I would edit. It was always there. I never thought I would do it as a career. Then when Wilson and I met we were still basically kids anyways. I was 14 and Wilson was 15. We just took photos of each other for fun. Then for my 16th birthday Wilson got me a film camera. That's kind of how it started. Wilson: I was home-schooled for a good part of my childhood, so I had a lot of free time. I taught myself how to use Photoshop and just fiddled around with graphic design a lot when I was younger. Vanessa: It was really good. We were looking back at his graphic design from when he was 12, and he did amazing stuff. I can't believe it. Wilson: I don't like it. I don't think it was good. Vanessa: It was skillful. You've got a lot of skills. Wilson: I guess. I think all those things came together in the end. Our eyes were shaped by our experiences, like anyone else, I guess.
144 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Heather: I also heard that, Wilson, your family does race car driving? Wilson: Yeah. Heather: Are they still in that business? Wilson: No, they aren't. My brothers were in big time. My brother used to race an Indy car and that kind of stuff. We all kind of got in big accidents at the same time in a year in different places. My brother broke his leg and tore up his foot. My other brother broke his wrist a bunch of times. I fractured two vertebrae in my back. I just became a little too intense. I was like, this is not a good choice moving forward. Vanessa: Also because of racing, Wilson was able to travel a lot. Wilson: It's like a past life now. Heather: Vanessa, I heard you were on the dance team in high school and did ballet for a long time. Vanessa: I danced almost all of my life until I was 19 and I stopped. I want to start again. I want to take Flamenco. That's new. I've done ballet and just a lot of different types of dance my whole life. That was a very big part of my friend group. All of my friends I had from ballet, so it's funny that a lot of the models that we use are my two best friends, Emilia and Amanda.
I met them actually my first day of ballet when I moved to Miami. I was so nervous. I was crying, and they took me in. All of my friends that I have, and even most people in our photos, were friends I made from dancing or are from my dance team. Dance has been a very big part of my life. Heather: Are you guys going to incorporate dancing any time in any videos or anything? Vanessa: I want to so badly. We need to think of something. Actually we might in Brazil. I don't know if we're going to go to Brazil this summer, but we really want to. If we do, we have this video idea that we really want to incorporate dance in. Heather: I'm excited to hear it. Vanessa: I know. I really want to do it. It's so fun. Heather: What came first, your passion for music or your passion for photography/videos? Wilson: Music. Vanessa: Yeah, I think for both of us it’s music. Wilson: Yeah. I think both of us from a really young age, we just loved music. Our parents played it all the time. My parents played weird Italian music and I guess what was popular then, but not really. I don't know. It was weird French stuff. I liked it. Vanessa listened to No Doubt, because her dad.
Decorated Youth Magazine | 145
146 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 147
148 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Vanessa: Yeah. Huge influence in my life. No, it's really funny. A lot of music that my family played when I grew up was 90s pop reggae type of stuff, I like real reggae now, but it's really funny to think back on that and realize that’s probably why I love reggae so much now. Music, it's definitely been a huge influence on both of us. Wilson: There are childhood videos seen of you, and there was always music playing. Vanessa: True. There was always music. Every night we would just play music and dance in my basement and my dad would record my sisters and I on VHS. I don't know why but it was a nightly thing! Heather: I know you two grew up off of an island. What was it like? I'm coming from a small town too. It's hard to get into photography and the creative side in a small town. Did you guys feel the need to break out to start anything? Wilson: I think what's different about where we live, it's an island but it's right 5 minutes from Miami. It's a bridge drive away. It was still like a big city, but Miami is really weird, and the photography scene wasn't our style really. It was a little hard. We would always look at inspiration photos for our work and it was never people working in Miami. Miami is amazing though. It has a lot to offer for people who shoot in our style, but no one really knows about it. Vanessa: No one really did our style of photography there, but they should.
Wilson: Only tacky fashion photography, or DJ Khaled, or something. Vanessa: I love DJ Khaled. Wilson: I like him too, but that's very Miami. Vanessa: Yeah, that's Miami‌ but DJ Khaled, we're a big fan! Wilson: That's how we came to New York too. Vanessa: There's more people like us here. That's the thing. Growing up in Miami, no one ever comes down there for concerts. It's way too far down in Florida. We love music so much and we always want to go to shows. So any concert was like a huge event for us when we would finally get to go to a show in Miami. I remember we saw Phoenix, and that was like a huge moment in our lives. We jumped on stage with them. We were freaking out. When we moved to New York it was like a whole different world for us, because we found so many people who are just like us, and loved music as much as we did, and went to concerts all the time. We had a heyday. Heather: What was the decision process to move to New York? Was it school? Vanessa: Yeah. For school. Right when I finished high school, I moved to New York. I went to Barnard for 2 years and now I transferred to NYU. I transferred a year ago or something. Wilson was home schooled. He's a year older than me, so he waited one more year for me to finish high school and then we both moved. Then he went to SVA in New York.
Decorated Youth Magazine | 149
150 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 151
Heather: That's really cool. I read online that the day David Bowie passed away, was the day you guys had that [David Bowie] shoot planned out. What was that like? Vanessa: That was so crazy. When we started planning that shoot we didn't even know it was his birthday around that time and I didn't really even know that he was releasing that album at that time. Those are all ready to two coincidences. We were like, "Oh my God. That's crazy. It's his birthday. Now he's releasing an album. So cool." Then the day of the shoot I woke up and the model, Amanda, my friend in the shoot, she texted me she was like, "Oh, he just passed away. I guess this will be our tribute to him.� That just blew me away. I couldn't believe it. We actually didn't end up doing the shoot that day. We did it the day afterwards. Wilson: Yeah. It was raining that day. Vanessa: That's actually perfect. The sky cried for him. It was crazy. I couldn't believe it. I don't know why, but I was talking to my friend yesterday, and I wasn't very sad. I thought I would be, but he lived such a great life, and he made so many amazing songs and music and albums, and he influenced on people. It was a great life. It's horrible that it's over but I wasn't sad. I was more just like, "Oh, let's celebrate him." Wilson: I was pretty sad. Vanessa: You were? I was really sad about Lou Reed when he died. We had this conversation last night. I don't know why. I was sad, but I was like, "You know what? He did a great job."
152 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Wilson: I think it's so lucky that we lived in the same time as him. Vanessa: Yeah. That was a big thing. I felt lucky that we were able to live when he was living. Heather: Midnight Ramblers. Who came up with that idea and how long did it take from idea to reality? Vanessa: It's been an idea we've been talking about for a long time. I've been obsessed with groupies for a while, even in high school, just because everyone called me a groupie. I was very band obsessed. I wasn't a groupie, but whatever. I was like, "What does this mean? What?" I started looking into it more and I read some groupie memoirs. I guess it was three years ago when we met with Chloe Chippendale [of Stoned Immaculate Clothing], we started talking about it. We were like, "We've got to do this project and make it as if it's a documentary. Maybe it could be a documentary. Maybe it's fake." We didn't really know yet. Then last year, kind of around this time last year we were like "Okay, we've got to do it." We just started planning. You came up with most of the idea though from that inspiration. Wilson: I came up with the idea in terms of the structure of it and then the documentary weirdness. Vanessa: Yeah, documentary / non-documentary / a little bit of real life in it, but not really. We made it our own genre. Wilson: It was an experiment. We learned a lot from it. I think our next projects are going to benefit a lot from our experiences doing this one.
Vanessa: Then we filmed it at the beginning of June last year. Editing, we kind of slacked off in the summer didn't really do it. Then when it came around to September, October we basically had the whole edit done but it was just music rights were so difficult. Just trying to get in touch with these musicians and convince them to let us use their music for free or basically for free, that was very difficult. We finally got the soundtrack that we're so happy with. That's why it finally came out now. It took forever, but we're so happy.
Vanessa: And money.
Heather: It looks great. I loved it.
Heather: The thing that's so interesting to me about you guys' work is even though you guys both grew up on the East Coast your works still feel West Coast / Californian. When did you notice your draw to that feeling?
Vanessa: Thank you so much. Wilson: Thank you. Heather: Since there's so much that goes into photography, now that you have a captive audience, do you feel pressure to keep creating and releasing content to sustain the interaction with people? Wilson: I think the pressure comes from ourselves. We make stuff for ourselves. We love all the people watching, because it's a bigger good motivation, but it's usually just like I'm bored and I want to do something new. Vanessa: Yeah. Everyone's so nice anyways. I never felt pressure from anyone else. Everyone is just so sweet and so supportive of everything we're doing. For us, my favorite days ever are days that we're shooting. It's so much fun to do. I always want to do it. What holds us back really is that we're still in school. Wilson: And things cost a lot of money.
Wilson: Especially now that we're getting more ambitious. Things cost more money. Vanessa: Money and time. I want to do more. We're trying to find solutions to that by graduating soon. We like doing commercial stuff, but they're never as ambitious as we want them to be creatively. I guess if we can get brands tied in, maybe it's not specifically for them, but to help pay off the project.
Vanessa: Even though we live in New York, we barely ever shoot here. I guess Miami looks a lot like LA too. Also the way we shot in Miami was inspired by people on Flickr or Tumblr who were from LA. We were like, "Whoa, this is so cool. I want to make photos like that." It was kind of us maybe subconsciously taking a bit of them. We haven't been to LA in a while but we've shot quite a bit there. We probably should live somewhere on the west coast, like LA, because that's probably the best for us work wise, but it's hard for us because all our family is on the East Coast. Wilson's family is in Europe actually. It's too far. We don't really have that many friends there. We stayed there for 6 months, 2 years ago. We were just lonely honestly. We were like, "We need friends." Heather: What was it like when you guys both went to California? Was it everything you expected besides not really knowing too many people? Was the lifestyle and everything what you expected?
Decorated Youth Magazine | 153
154 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 155
Wilson: I think it was pretty different. What we experienced was the LA in the movies. The Hollywood magic really works in the movies. When you get there everything so dry. There's so much time spent in in cars.
Wilson: We might like it in the future, but we don't like it right now.
Vanessa: What do you mean dry? Dry literally like dry land?
Heather: Walk me through what happens when you two do a shoot. Do you each have a specific role in your shoot?
Wilson: Literally dry.
Vanessa: It wasn't what I expected though. It was weird.
Vanessa: Eventually we kind of got roles. They're not totally set.
Vanessa: That was also because we were there in summer towards winter. When we came back in the Spring it was amazing, remember? It was also a drought.
Wilson: They're blurring a little bit now though. I'm getting more involved.
Wilson: The biggest thing that would stop us from moving there I think it's just the amount of time you spend in a car.
Vanessa: You're always involved. How do we usually start? Either one of us will come up with the idea. That's usually ... it could be either of us.
Vanessa: Yeah. I hated it. It's not like fun time being in a car. In Miami you're in a car lot too, but you're actually moving. You're not stopped in traffic the entire time. In Miami that was a huge part of our high school experience, was just having all our friends in the car and driving for no reason and blasting music. LA, you're just in traffic. It's like, "What am I supposed to do now?" It was a little weird. I don't know. It wasn't what I expected.
Wilson: Vanessa's the research master. Vanessa: Yeah. I love researching the things, and I love putting mood boards together, and I love getting reference photos. That's my favorite part. I don't know why. I love doing that and then I love researching people for casting. Wilson, once I start doing that then he starts thinking of all the logistical things, exactly what camera he wants, exactly what film he wants. Wilson: Location.
156 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 157
158 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 159
Vanessa: Location, yeah. He's also very, very specific about texture. He spends hours researching the exact texture that he wants on the photos. When we start shooting it's kind of the same. I'll be more conceptual and he'd be more technical. Usually he'll be the one behind the camera and I'm the one styling or directing or whatever. That's basically it. If I style, Wilson has final say on all the clothes. He's pickier than I am. He's like, "No, I hate that." I'm like, "What?" He'll get final say on that, but also then sometimes he'll just pass me the camera and I'll get different stuff. If we're doing photo and video, usually I do the video, because I have a little bit of a messier touch for Super 8, which we like. I'm not as good with a camera. I should wear glasses, but I don't. My photos are usually out of focus. Heather: When you shoot with your variety of clients, do they come to you and on to shoot with ideas or do you go to them to pitch? Is it a mixture now? Vanessa: It's actually so insane. I can't believe that it's happened this way almost every time. People usually come to us, but we've been so lucky. People are usually like, "Do whatever you want. We trust you." We're like, "What? Seriously, you don't care?" Wilson: We might do something like a mood board. Vanessa: Yeah, we've run it by them. They usually will come to us and they want to pitch an idea. It's really cool. So far almost all of our projects we've had so much creative freedom. It's still collaboration. A lot of people involved with it too. It's a nice collaboration. They trust us and we trust them. It's really nice. Heather: What has been your biggest hurdle when working on a shoot? How have you overcome it?
160 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Vanessa: I won't name any names, but this is actually good. It's good to say. Basically we filmed a music video in a different country, and the people we were filming with, even though they had amazing intentions, were less sensitive than we were to ideas of cultural appropriation. We didn't realize this until we got there to the country that we were filming in. Just kind of trying to balance our opinions and perspectives on that with someone else's, I'm not saying they're wrong and we're right, but it just didn't match up. That was really difficult. Wilson: We don’t really mind having creative differences with a client, but this was like a cultural idea difference. Vanessa: It was kind of going against what we believed. That was really difficult for us. We weren't really even able to overcome it. We just kind of had to go with what they wanted since they were the client. How we overcame it was in the end we just didn't put our name on the project, which is sad. Wilson: No one knows we did it. Vanessa: No one knows we did that project. It is really sad I wish we could have convinced them to consider our perspective. We think the final product could come off as racist. It got no backlash at all, which I'm surprised about, but for us we were just really uncomfortable doing it. We tried to stop it the whole time, but they didn't really let us. It was really weird. Basically that just taught us that we have to really be careful with who we work with, and especially if it's in a different country. The people we worked with, they were American, but they had visited this country a bunch of times. We thought they would be really respectful with the differences. For us, we have to know more about people we work with and make sure we're on the same page before we jump into a project.
Heather: That's so interesting and unfortunate. Vanessa: Yeah. That's the only time it's happened, and it was a huge learning experience for us. I don't think it will happen again. We're very conscious of it now. I think that also pushed us more to do work in different countries but collaborating with people from that country so they have a lot more agency in how they want to represent themselves. Wilson: We'll just film it in our usual style. Vanessa: Yeah, but they'll come up with a story, someone from that country. Just so they can feel like it's true to their culture rather than an American coming in and pushing their ideas of that culture onto them. Heather: For sure. Wilson: We've had other hurdles like cars breaking down and mopeds not arriving, just technical stuff. It's stressful at the time but we usually figure it out. Vanessa: I usually forget about it afterwards. I'm like, "That was such an easy, great shoot." I'm like "Wait, I forgot about all the complications." Heather: That's a good thing though, I suppose. Vanessa: Yeah, definitely.
Wilson: What we try to do, and this is usually awkward for the model, but in the beginning they start posing very posy, and I just don't take the photo for a while. Eventually when they stop posing I'll take the photo. Vanessa: Basically what we also do is, let’s say they're posing and we're looking through the camera, we will just hold the camera up looking through it. We won't take the picture and we won't say anything, until they're like, "Oh, I guess they're not taking the photo." Then they totally relax and then we sneak attack them and take the picture then. Wilson: Or if it's not even that then we'll do an obvious picture where they're looking into the camera and acknowledging the fact that there’s a camera there. Vanessa: I guess it depends on the shoot. Sometimes if there are specific types of poses that we want for the shoot, we will go over that in the beginning, just like the vibe, or the character that they're supposed to be, or something. Wilson: Either they acknowledge the camera entirely or we want it to be more like a film still, like a slice of life type of thing. In-between is a little weird. When they're posing looking away, it's like "What are you doing?"
Heather: As a photographer myself I want to know, what do you find works best when you take portraits of people? Do you direct them or do you let them find their own natural poses?
Decorated Youth Magazine | 161
162 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Heather: Do you guys have a favorite story behind the specific video or photograph that you've taken? Wilson: We've gotten to shoot in some amazing locations. My favorite has been Arizona. In Arizona we went to the Saguaro National Forest. It was like 50-foot-tall cacti. Just being there was so cool, the place itself. Vanessa: It's so surreal. The cacti are so tall, you stand next to them and you feel so tiny. Wilson: There's no sign of mankind really. It's just like desert and cacti. Vanessa: Actually I like also a lot of our photos that we took in France three summers ago of each other. They don't really have any interesting stories, but it's really funny that we came up with little characters for ourselves being in France. We'd hike for hours in the heat. It was so hot. Then we'd finally get to this really pretty spot by the Mediterranean and we'd just take photos of each other. It was so fun. There are some photos that so funny because I was so mad at Wilson. He was like, "We should do an hour hike." It ended up being 4 hours and I just got stitches out of my knee. I was in so much pain. There's some photos where I'm giving him a death stare,�You lied to me!!!� Wilson: I had to lie or she wouldn't have come. I was like, "10 minutes," and then 10 minutes later. "10 minutes." Vanessa: I know. I hated it. Heather: I know that you work with a lot of New York musicians like Sunflower Bean, The Britanys, Public Access TV. What is the music scene like in New York right now? How have you seen it changed since you moved there?
Wilson: I don't know if it's changed. We just became aware of it. Right now it's just a lot of friends of our friends playing all the time. Vanessa: Yeah, It's really fun. It's nice because they're really close friends of ours. They just played such amazing shows. They play with a lot of other cool bands. I don't know. There are a lot of cool smaller bands. To see them grow is so cool. They're growing so fast, all of them. They're all doing so well. The music is all really great too. Jack and Eliza too are based in New York. I guess the music scene has changed. When they all first came to NYC they weren't really in those bands yet. Wilson: It's part of the same thing, but I think new bands came and that's when we got involved. New bands started taking over, I guess. Vanessa: There are also a lot of cool venues that are just really willing to put on shows a lot. I DJ sometimes with my friends. So many venues are just so willing to put on events. It's so cool that we can just get some of our friends' bands together, and my friends and I will come play music. It's nice that we can set up events for ourselves all hang out. Wilson: Yeah. Everyone's apartment is tiny, so it's basically just like, "Let's just go hang out at this bigger place." Vanessa: That's actually the main reason. The event last night [the Midnight Ramblers installation] was my first time hanging out with so many people in such a long time. The space that we did this show, and it's tiny, but it's still bigger than our apartment. We were like, "Yes. We get to hang out with friends."
Decorated Youth Magazine | 163
Heather: Do you guys have a favorite music venue in New York? Vanessa: There's this place called Berlin. It's small but it has such a cool feeling. The lights are really cool. It has a disco ball. They have a lot of really cool shows there. It's close to us, which I like, because I hate taking the subway. I just walk there. Wilson: I think one of my favorites is a full on music venue, like Webster Hall, or something like that. It's right next to our apartment. It's not like a bar really, so it's kind of nice. When it's a bar and a music venue, people are usually really packed. People are kind of annoying. Vanessa: I really like Webster Hall because it's across the street from us, and they have this amazing dressing room right above the stage that has a glass window. I have this image in my head that I always replay when I'm there. We saw Ty Segall there a few years ago. He had some girls, I guess, hanging out in his dressing room watching the show from above. There was this song where they both took their shirts off and we're just dancing around. It was so cute. It was such a cool image because they were floating above the stage. That's actually a pretty cool venue. Heather: I love Webster Hall. It's so amazing. Vanessa: Yeah. It's really cool. Heather: Where have you traveled to? Do you have any more travel plans at the moment? Wilson: We just go back home to our respective families. Vanessa will go to Brazil to see her grandma, and her aunts and uncles. I'll go to France to see my family.
164 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Vanessa: We bring each other. That's how we get to travel so much since we have family kind of spread out. Those are our main spots. Also when we go to France to visit Wilson's family we're able to travel a lot in Europe since it's all so close. We'll just take Wilson's grandma's car and drive two hours to Italy. It's crazy. I think that's how we've been able to travel a lot. There's so many other places we want to go to though. We really want to go to Australia for a few months after we graduate. Hopefully we can do that. Heather: I feel like you guys' image would go really good in Australia. Vanessa: Yeah, it's really weird. Almost all the brands that we work for clothing wise are Australian. I think that would be really fun. There's so many cool brands and bands, and cool people doing cool stuff in Australia. Wilson: We have similar tastes to Australians. Vanessa: Yeah, they have really cool tastes too. It would be fun to check out that side of the world. All the way down under. Heather: I have one last question. Have you guys had any mentors along the way? Vanessa: We actually haven't really. I wish we did, because we have so many questions with everything we do, like "How much should we charge for this?" or "How do we respond in a nice way to this email?" There are so many little questions. I think in a way it is kind of good that we're learning just by doing it. I guess business-wise we've had a lot of mentors. We just have plenty of people supporting us. I used to intern at this record label, an independent record label in New York called Cult Records. Everyone who I worked there with, they're so supportive and are constantly giving us advice on marketing. They're reaching out to people for us to work with. They're so nice and supportive through everything. That's really cool.
Decorated Youth Magazine | 165
stay in touch
166 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Email: heather@decoratedyouth.com Facebook: facebook.com/decoratedyouth Twitter & Instagram: @decoratedyouth
Decorated Youth Magazine | 167
decoratedyouth.com
168 | Decorated Youth Magazine
Decorated Youth Magazine | 169
QUALITY QUANTITY
DECORATED YOUTH
170 | Decorated Youth Magazine
ISSUE 14