TLG Magazine Issue 4

UNDERGROUND CULTURE MAGAZINE FOR WOMEN

TABATHA MCGURR FREE / NO. 4 / SPRING 2012

Editor’s Letter I spent a weekend in London at the beginning of February for some magazine work and I had planned not only to distribute copies of our third issue but also to meet Rinse FM dj, Monki for a catch-up interview.

As I arrived in London on the Friday night, I was greeted by baltic temperatures, a very busy and complicated underground system and a group of rowdy students from New York shouting out to all the sexy people on the train.

Cover Girl: Tabatha McGurr Photographed by Stanley Debas Publisher & Editorial Director: Alice Muir Layout Designer: Stacey Wilson CONTRIBUTORS Brandon Vare Cat Stevens Clare Kagimu Corrine McConnachie Deas Mcmorrow Gareth Roberts Imogen de Cordova Lucy Molloy Nicola Mackintosh Ysa Perez SPECIAL THANKS Clair Stirling Deadly Rhythm Glasgow Deas McMorrow Diane Edwards Gareth Roberts Imogen de Cordova Jennifer Fergie James Lang Lucy Monkman Ruth Wither Steve Craven Tabatha McGurr

As the weekend progressed the weather became colder, it began to snow and piece-by-piece my plans for the weekend began to disintegrate. Not only did I realise how much planning and preparation goes into just a fifteen minute journey through London, the size and sheer scale of the place felt impersonal. The irony is that I had spent my entire train journey to London planning how I was eventually going to move to the big city and bring TLG with me. Reality hit me hard in the face that weekend. All I could think about was my love and passion for Glasgow, which I feel that TLG is very much a part of.

Not only is the transport system half as complicated in Glasgow but we also have, in my opinion, one of the most thriving, friendly and forward-thinking underground arts scenes in the UK, if not the world.

London made me think about all that Glasgow has to offer – from the Recoat Gallery who nurture and promote credible street art from around the world to our innovative new club nights such as Tribute and Deadly Rhythm, Glasgow caters for every arts scene you could possibly imagine.

It’s like Mary Anne Hobbs recently told us, we need to “stop looking to what we don’t have and start looking at what we really do have.”

So what if we have a smaller fashion scene and our clubbing license ends at 3am - that’s what our notorious Glasgow afterparty culture is for!

It’s time we stopped looking to London to nurture our talent and started to appreciate Glasgow for the creative hub that it really is.

Alice Muir, Editorial Director

KEEP IN TOUCH! www.tlgmagazine.com Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/tlgmagazine Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/tlgmagazine

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CONTENTS

Conquering Animal Sound

page 6

Diane Edwards

page 8

Natasha Kmeto

page 10

Girls Make Techno

page 12

Married to the Mob

page 14

Andrea Parker

page 18

Monki

page 22

Suzi Analogue

page 24

Maya Wild

page 26

Mamiko Motto

page 28

Cool Girls Shoot Film

page 30

Moxie/Deadly Rhythm

page 32

Pinkerton Model School

page 34

CONTRIBUTORS

Brandon Vare / JOURNALIST

Brandon is currently part of Data Rhythm, a Label/Club night based in Glasgow and Dundee but they also open their Arms to Art and that sorta deal.

He Produces music and occasionally DJs. Brandon, the mysterious man that he is was too shy to supply us with an image so we thought we would introduce you to the Data Rhythm Logo instead. This issue is his first contribution to TLG. That’s enough about him, Stay Frosty!

Deas McMorrow / JOURNALIST

Born in 1993, Déas is yet to achieve anything impressive and has spent the past summer working in a pizza place.

She spent her time serving chips to spotty teenage Skrillex fans and over weight families. Her hobbies include sleeping and pretending to be a vegetarian. In this issue she interviews Tabatha McGurr, blogger of streetwear giant ‘Married to the Mob’ and daughter of graff legend, Futura 2000.

Gareth Roberts / JOURNALIST

Co-host of Subcity Radio’s, space dwelling, cosmic exploration of sounds past and present, Earthly Matter’s Gareth interviews Portland’s Natasha Kmeto, whose recent LP, “The Ache” has just been released on Dropping Gems. As well as discovering new music, Gareth has just began a new monthly, beats, hip-hop night called Likwit Fusion alongside Glasgow dj and producer, Jinty. He’s also fascinated with Marvel Comics the Silver Surfer, and the typeface Futura.

Imogen De Cordova / JOURNALIST

An embittered, failed singer songwriter by the age of 11, Imogen saw the parasitic world of music journalism as a way to use subliminal messages in articles to promote the work of her old band. The band was called Unlimited Freedom and consisted mostly of eight year olds.

Unfortunately she forgot to add the subliminal messages and now just writes flattering prose about those who deserve a bit (or a lot) of shine.

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onquering Animal Sound area Glasgow-based, musical duo known as Annette Kampman and James Scott who create what can only be described as sparkling ambience, deep bass and beautiful vocals.

How long have you been creating music? Who would you sight as your influences, both when you started out and now?

I know that you recently toured Europe, were there any cities that particularly appealed to you?

I’ve been singing and bashing around with music since I was small. I studied pop music at university for four years; which helped me to gain more confidence with composing my own music and working with technology in the studio. I have always been influenced by a broad range of electronic music, hip-hop, freakier stuff too; Daphne Oram, Erykah Badu, Ellen Allien, Ursula Rucker, Tekitha, Kate Bush…

Back when I was about 15, I used to sing over my friend’s tracks (whom were kid producers) and I think those experiences, recording beats from the kitchen, getting to grips with the recording process, all for fun you know? Gave me the drive to think seriously about making electronic music. I think it’s sad that teenage girls now are really preoccupied with other things, you don’t really find groups of girls making their own beats and rapping over them? Or playing guitars in their garage like you do with boys? I think it’s quite a significant social problem, I think girls are told what they’re supposed to be doing and it’s not that, and as such always seem to be one step behind their male counterparts in terms of feeling confident about expressing their music.

Berlin has always been a favoured holiday destination of mine; the music, the culture, the city, it’s so energetic. I’m also a massive fan of Belgium; Brussels, Ghent, Bruges and Antwerp are all fantastic cities. I think Belgium has had a bad rep for not being particularly diverse or ‘interesting’ a place in recent years, but I’ve found the complete opposite. We’ve played there quite a few times and I would really rate them as some of my most pleasant gig experiences, Botanique in Brussels is just amazing!

As a fellow Glaswegian, do you have any tips for things to do or see in the city? Particularly restaurants or club nights.

Tracer Trails events: experimental music concerts in Edinburgh and Glasgow organised by Emily Roff are always superb. I seem to attend a lot of bizarre improvisatory gigs at the moment; I like going to watch stuff that I might not necessarily take seriously.

Being a musician sometimes means that you can end up over-emphasising the importance of music and yourself, it’s good to go and watch someone shout into a microphone at a bucket to remind you of the ridiculousness of performance based art.

The Old Hairdressers (opposite Stereo) have been putting on some fairly weird stuff in the past few weeks, and is a great space for drinking too. Highlife at the Sub Club with Brian D’Souza for dancing…

Most of the industry works out of London and I can understand why people feel the pressure to move there but I have never felt a draw to that city, infact the opposite. There are plenty of other European cities, which I feel a much greater pull towards that may offer similar opportunities, Berlin, Lisbon, Amsterdam?

Also, I think these days, making it work is not dependent on your location, you can always travel for meetings or to play out?

Musicians are used to sharing stuff over the Internet so it doesn’t really seem to matter that much anymore. I grew up in the woods singing along to my tape recorder, I wouldn’t know how to function in a city like London!

How do you spend your time when you aren’t writing and recording music?

I help run electronic music workshops with young people in the Govanhill area of Glasgow. I work with a beat-boxer producer and we get kids involved in all kinds of weird ways of making their own sounds and songs. I also work as a Support Worker a day or two a week, working with adults with mental health problems, which is a really rewarding way to spend some time. I miss my clients when I don’t see them, they’re all very interesting people.

A lot of female performers today seem pressured to conform to society’s views of beauty, often seeming primarily concerned with this, rather than their music. Is this something you feel you can relate to?

I think that one dimensional pop music passes me by most of the time: I don’t have a TV, I don’t listen to prime-time Radio 1, I don’t really come into contact with it. I think that stuff is really cynical,it’s just like drink adverts. That way of selling music is going to exist as long as there is something to exploit and make money from (and people fall into the trap). I think there are quite a few female pop artists whom genuinely seem to be making pop music because it’s what they want to do, wearing meat… (and the image stuff is just an extension of the picture) and I’m okay with that. I will admit I’m a pretty big Robyn fan.

Many British musicians and artists seem to gravitate towards London when they become successful. Do you feel that living in Glasgow has in any way benefited or deprived Conquering Animal Sound of artistic opportunity?

Scotland is a small country and as such there aren’t many labels or industry people living up here. The successful labels up here have certainly had to work harder to make that the case than if they’d lived in London I reckon. Although having said that there isn’t so much competition up here so it’s really a toss up…

What are your views on the articles published last week, regarding the government’s desire for British cinema to become more ‘mainstream’?

I think that promoting independent cinema is no doubt a really positive thing; but having said that in order to do that you need to make your films appeal to a broader audience, strays pretty far from the point. I really feel that artists of any kind, musicians, film directors, must make what is in them; explore what they feel, be it sell-able or not.

What’s your karaoke song?

Unfortunately, being a singer makes karaoke just something I’m not willing to participate in. It just doesn’t work. What a killjoy. Can you do karaoke on a xylophone!? I’d do that. Jamie on the other hand…

If you could collaborate with any one individual to produce a track (dead or alive) who would it be?

Hm, difficult. I think I would have to say… either Karin Drejer Anderson, or Margaret Dygas?

Finally, do you have any additional comments you’d like to make? I know Nicki Minaj often advises her fans to “stay in school” round about now…

Girls, make techno!

Conquering Animal Sound

07

Diane Edwards is a visual artist from Glasgow who takes shapes and images that she finds interesting and converts them from old VHS tapes in to 3D visuals. She looks to use more obscure shapes and images in her work rather than bits of old film and tries to stay away from the stereotypical fitness videos which appear to be generic within the visual arts scene.

The young artist studied drawing and painting at the Edinburgh College of Art before venturing into visual art and she was always incorporating bright, vibrant colours in to her work. Diane records her VHS on to special software on the computer and then increases the saturation on the visuals to incorporate her love of vibrant colours into her work.

Diane started doing club visuals after Kidrobotik approached her one night to tell her that he was going to be playing at a club night in town and she had offered to do some visuals for the night. “This year I would like to take the time however to experiment more with video mapping and

different ways of projecting on to various environments.” Video mapping is where visual artists are able to build 3D shapes digitally and project them onto a 3D surface and now there is software called ‘Mad Mapper’ which allows artists to work with various shapes and visuals. All you really need to be a 3D visual artist is a VHS player, a dongle and some video software such as Videoglide which will convert VHS to digital.

There appears to be a small scene for 3-D visuals in Glasgow, and club nights such as Likwit Fusion ran by one of our contributors, Gareth Roberts, have seen the potential in club visuals and are representing that side of the arts regularly.

Diane works from her communal studio in the SWG3 Warehouse which has a network of painters and sculptors.

“I think there is definitely a movement of people who are interested in the visual arts and what’s really interesting about the Likwit Fusion Night is the fact that they are stressing the importance of music and art in their club nights and showing how the two can be represented equally.”

Watch out for the increasing representation of 3D visuals at regular club nights in and around town because this is definitely a growing movement for this particular scene. www.swg3.tv/?p=6050 09

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atasha Kmeto is an electro hip-hop, singer-producer based in Portland, OR. With a rich musical background in jazz, r&b, electronic and hip-hop. She likes to describe her music as “futuristic soul.”

Kmeto was born and raised in California, playing and touring with bands of all genres since the age of 15. She completed the Keyboard Performance program at Musician’s Institute in Hollywood and soon thereafter relocated to Portland in 2007. The move helped rekindle Natasha’s creativity and passion for music which got lost in the bustle and industry of LA. Here, Kmeto was able to explore and take inspiration from her biggest influences, ranging from the cutting edge sounds of Flying Lotus to the classic soul hits of Carole King.

It must be humbling, knowing that someone as inspirational as Mary Anne Hobbs has praised the record, it must be quite a surreal, but at the same time an exciting experience for you?

From listening to The Ache there is a an emphasis placed on the fragility of relationships, and also a sense of being free and independent. Can it be painful confronting these issues or does dealing with them through music make it easier to

It was truly amazing to get that shout out from Mary Anne Hobbs.

I’ve been a long time follower of hers. It was definitely a high-light moment. I really hope I can meet her in person someday and talk music with her.

deal with?

You’ve been playing in bands since the age of 15. What instruments have you learned along the way? Is there a particular instrument that you would consider to be you’re all time favorite to use?

I’ve always mainly focused on vocals and keyboards.

I’ve dabbled with other instruments but definitely favour singing and playing keyboards.

The next question may seem like a default one, but from being involved in music from such a young age and from listening to how diverse your records are - as they encompass elements of hip-hop, glitch, experimental, R’n’B and jazz - you must have discovered an eclectic range of musicians that got you into music.

Who are your biggest influences?

Always such a tough question! I was lucky enough to be raised in a very musical household where I was exposed to a wide variety of music which I think made me a very open-minded listener from an early age. I would have to say that the genres that influence me the most are probably r&b, jazz, hip-hop and electronic. Getting into specific artists that influence me is always tricky because there are so many. I find that the uniting element in all the music I listen to is that I love music that’s honest and that is trying to push the form forward and into new territory.

How do you approach creating a piece of music? Is there a particular process that you like to adhere to, or is the experience quite spontaneous?

I’d have to say that it’s different every time. Mostly I when I sit down to write I’m aiming to capture an emotion that I’m feeling or to tell a story that I’m drawn to. The amazing and sometimes overwhelming aspect of being an electronic artist is that there are endless sounds to explore and paint these emotions with.

It’s always a lot of fun though.

Are there any musicians, artists, designers or even authors that are capturing you’re attention at the moment?

At the moment, I’m listening to a lot of Machinedrum. Also my fellow Portland producer Danny Corn has been making some killer tunes and mixes. The Tune-Yards new album is also almost a once a day listen.

Are there any words of advice for women and anyone in general who plan on getting involved in the field music that could help benefit their journey?

Yes! Stick to it, be yourself, don’t imitate or bow to fads and most of all be honest.

Great question! I would have to say that the catharsis I experience through composing and performing my art allows me to experience and process these things more deeply, which in the end, makes it much easier to deal with. Sometimes I feel like I put myself in more difficult situations for the sake of having a more potent story to live and therefore express through my music.

You relocated to Portland from LA in 2007 where there seems to be a thriving community of musicians all doing their own thing week in, week out for the love of music. In what way has moving to Portland helped to encourage your creativity?

At the time that I left LA I had just finished music school and just wanted to have a fresh start somewhere. I had grooved in a certain relationship with my music in LA that was tied heavily into music as a trade rather than an art form, which was totally my own perception and was no fault of the city itself. LA is home to some of my all time favorite artists and I love to visit LA. It’s a great city. But at the time I left I just wanted an escape to figure out my future as an artist. Portland provided very fertile soil for me to plant myself in and I’m so grateful for it. It’s one of the best places I’ve been, hands down. It encouraged my creativity by being such an artist friendly place to live. And the people I’ve met here are amazing. I have such an awesome support network. The electronic music scene and community here is very much on the rise. Look out for us ;) You’re signed to the wonderful Dropping Gems record label which is based in Portland, and home to the likes of Citymouth, Timeboy, and Ghost Feet. How did you first meet Dropping Gems founder Aaaron and the rest of the crew?

Dropping Gems is an amazing crew/label and I’m so proud to be a part of the family now. I met Aaron and the crew actually through an electronic music producer community meet-up that I started with some fellow producers about a year and a half ago.

The meetings were set up for producers to play tracks, get feedback and share production tricks. As soon as I heard the music that the Gems crew were bringing I knew I wanted to be associated with them. I then contributed a track to the first Gems Drops compilation and our friendship grew from there. I’m really proud to be working with them. They put out really great music and are doing a lot for getting recognition for what’s happening in the Pacific Northwest of the US. Finally what are your plans for the future?

To make more music and art! Also to tour more and see more of the world. Plenty of exciting things in the works. I’m hoping to release something new again soon.

Interview by Gareth Roberts

11

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roducing music can be a minefield of taboo’s, credibility is something which embeds itself within any purist form of music.

Worrying about being the ‘It’ thing within whichever scene, you may end up finding yourself gravitated towards is something best left at the door. Not everything to something inspiring to you is a bad thing, but the hordes of rip off artist’s spamming virtually

every corner of internet’s main media outlet’s is a good enough reason why (although the Internet is not everything.) Music in general is a great outlet for those wanting to dig a bit deeper in themselves, you never can tell what is going to be there. Although the music world (especially those underground realms) seem to be quite a phallic place, some of the greatest pioneers of early electronic experiments were female (E.g. Daphne Oram, founder of the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop.) Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though, The first step to making music is deciding the method and the means. You could quite easily go down the route of convention, playing in bands and trying to make a stir down that route, this is certainly the classic formula that can outweigh the pro points. Finding like-minded people who want to create music as a group (if this is the route you choose,) can be something nearly impossible in most cases.

Electronic music and Modern Production technology enables you to become a one-woman band (or man for that matter.) The beauty is that you don’t need thousands of pounds for expensive recording equipment to have something to send to your peers.One Laptop and a Microphone could enable you to be a production guru. Despite all the attempts of legal companies preventing this from happening, the internet is still a host of ‘free’ music production software, which can be had at your own risk for nothing. The point being that there is that capability to find something that works for you, everyone is different at the end of the day!

When you find what’s right you can buy that package, eventually you could decide to invest in hardwareand get real deep.

Some of the greatest producers started in a bedroom with nothing, now it’s your turn.

By Brandon Vare

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Photography: Makeup: Styling: Model:

Ysa Perez Ashleigh B. Ciucci Married to the Mob Oakland Rapper Gita

15

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arried to the Mob

is a womens’ streetwear label which was founded back in 2005 by Leah McSweeney.

Leah wanted to create a brand for women which matched the standards of the many male streetwear brands such as Original Fake and Alife, which were already on the market. As she came up with designs for her tshirts, she also rounded up a posse of young women who she felt should be a part of the MOB brand.

This included the young writer, Tabatha McGurr, who began writing for the MOB blog six years ago. In her weekly column, she gives complex readers insight into what today’s young women really think about love, sex, and relationships and TLG Magazine contributor, Deas McMorrow, caught up with her to talk about fashion, weed and porn.

married

to the

MOB

In such a vast and male dominated market how did Leah find the confidence to pursue MTTM and establish it as a street brand, at any point did she feel doubts about the project?

Well I’d say that Leah is just a naturally confident and secure woman in general, so when she gets an idea in her head to do something, the moment of doubt is over really fast. A lot of people spend so much time second guessing themselves that the end result is too contrived, whereas I feel like Leah simply came up with the concept and decided “I’m gonna make this work” before ever even considering it as an impossibility. Plus at the time, she was really one of the only females out there doing it for ladies in the industry, and just that alone earned her tons of respect from her male peers.

You’ve been running the MTTM blog since you were 14, 15?

To be motivated and capable at such a young age is both insane and impressive. Who would you site as your influences in terms of literature?

I believe it was 15 to be exact. 6 years...crazy! My influences are all over the place, especially back then. I remember being absolutely obsessed with Gavin McInnes’ original dos & donts right when VICE came out, because he had this subtle, nonchalant way of shitting on people that I totally loved.

But then again I was also wildly infatuated with Nabokov’s prose and Anthony Burgess use of English. Lately my favorite is Haruki Murakami, I want to read every one of his books!

Who do the company look towards as their muses? Which females do you feel embody the reality of MOB living?

Well the range of possible MOB muses is endless. It can basically be any girl that we’d wanna personally hang out with! If you’re on your grind, doing creative shit, have good style, and love yourself, then we wanna get down with you! As much as it can be world-famous icons like Lil Kim or Daphne Guinness, it can also just as easily be the homegirls from around the way.

On the topic of MTTM women, Faye Reagan modeled the Summer 2010 campaign. A large percent of women view pornography as offensive, considering the industry misogynistic – even those who aren’t entirely insulted by porn criticize the business for setting unrealistic standards for women. How did it come about that you decided on Faye?

Well for starters, we’re all into porn over at MOB, so naturally we’ve got our favorite girls within the industry. I know there’s a lot of negativity associated with adult movies, but it’s 2011 - the majority of starlets making films these days are strong, independent females that are well in charge of their careers & lives, and making good money in the process. The point is, it’s their choice and I respect the hustle. We found out about Faye when a friend had sent Leah a picture of her saying “this kinda of looks like you” because of the fair skin & freckles, and we immediately all fell for her naturally sultry look. She’s got the porn star appeal, but without all the shiny plastic fake shit I hate.

WWW.MTTMNYC.COM

Your family have roots in France but you were raised in Brooklyn - which country do you feel has a more sexist approach to women? The USA’s often criticized for being conservative – a bit less liberal than their French counterparts, yet the trial of DSK exposed the immunity with which high-powered men in France get away with the sexual abuse of women.

What are your thoughts on the issue?

Wow, good question! It’s kind of tough to answer since I didn’t actually grown up full-time in France, so the sexist issues there aren’t as apparent as they are here, but I’d say they’re both equal offenders in different ways. I mean it’s not like Americans in power haven’t showed their immunity in the face of scandals here too. I just feel like in America there’s way more pressure on females to fit into a mold that will please stereotypical men, whereas in France natural beauty is more encouraged. At the end of the day though, no matter where you go, bigot men will have their asshole opinions about us - luckily it seems that the world is finally starting to turn in our favor. Like we’ve always said, Men Are The New Women! The stereotype for stoners is pretty much established as being lazy, college drop outs.

Your level of productivity and the company’s résumé as a whole contradicts this. Was your family ever concerned by the choices you were making before MTTM obtained such acclaim?

Haha, I very much take that as a compliment!

For the record I’m extremely lazy when I’m not working.

I come from a pretty crazy family, so in all honesty I think I could have been a way less well-behaved kid. Regardless of all the artistic chaos and early exposure, they certainly raised me right! I had some bad stints in high school, like all adolescents, but I feel like they always knew that I was in control of shit and that I’d never let myself go overboard.

When the job position at MTTM was officially offered to me, they were thrilled and proud that I’d landed something so cool at such a young age, and throughout the whole journey they’ve been extremely supportive. In fact I think I’m personally more bummed about me not going to college than they’ll ever be, but it’s never too late I guess!

Now you’ve done collaborations with the biggest names in street wear, where is there for MOB to go from here?

Well if I told you I’d be ruining any future surprises!

All I can say is that whatever we do will surely not disappoint, just keep a lookout on our site and be sure to check out the latest collection for Holiday, shot at the incredible Black Apartment NYC - http://mttmnyc.com/lightbox/holiday-11/.

This year MTTM will also be adding a smaller sub-line to the brand dubbed Leah McSweeney, focusing on limited-release selections of unique cut & sew made in NYC. It’ll appeal to the general MTTM customer while also offering up a slightly more sophisticated feel, so stay tuned for future updates.

And last but not least - the book project I’m working on with the help of Leah and New York Art Department should be one of my 2012 highlights. It’ll be like a compilation of my life, work, and hobbies, all jammed into one super-visual little book reminiscent of the colorful high-school scrapbooks I so adored creating.

17

ANDREA PARKER

Public recognition of Andrea Parker’s raw talent and technical abilities can be traced all the way back to 1993 with the formation of ‘Inky Blacknuss’. Composed of herself and fellow producers Alex Knight and Ian Tregoning, the electronic trio were awarded titles such as NME’s “Filthy, Dirty, Techno Thing Of The Week”. Although originally signing with the ‘Sabrettes’imprint (notable in that it is owned by Andrew Weatherall), Parker’s later solo outputs under British hip hop label Mo’Wax and collaborations with producer David Morley are what would go on to grant her such wide critical acclaim. Releases under both ‘Sabrettes’, ‘Mo’Wax’ and later ‘K7’ and ‘Sub Rosa’ allowed Parker the confidence to surpass all expectations with the creation of her own experimental label ‘Touchin’ Bass’. Since then she has continued to work with artists who share a similar vision, including long-term production partner David Morley and Detroit dance guru, DJ Assault. She is now a successful DJ, producer and record company proprietor.

When I arrive at La Cheetah Andrea’s outside smoking with Andrew and Chris; the members of Glasgow club duo ‘Jak’. Less than a year old, the night demonstrates another case of La Cheetah’s incredible ability to branch out and promote alternative music within the Glasgow club scene.

As I hastily introduce myself Andrea explains that we aren’t allowed into the downstairs area of the club yet, “There’s a burlesque night on and we can’t get in, my tits must be too small or something!”

Can you remember how you first became exposed to experimental music?

The last person I interviewed actually was Futura’s daughter; she works at Married to the Mob.

I grew up in the countryside and it’s very strange, even to me, how I seemed to discover so much weird music. I used to watch a lot of strange sci-fi films being a child in the 70’s; I found the music so amazing that I started to collect it and wonder how they made the soundscapes. It’s probably through films like ‘THX1138’ and ‘The Andromeda Strain’ because they were all very weird and bleepy for their time.

That’s amazing! I mean, I’m really into graffiti. I don’t paint, but Stash - who’s an amazing graffiti artist, who did my ‘Touchin’ Bass’ logo, I literally turned round in this restaurant and said “I’m starting a record label, I want to call it ‘Touchin’ Bass’, make me a logo!” and he drew it up there and then on a napkin.

How did you become involved in writing and creating music yourself?

I’ve always been really interested in music and I had lots of different jobs to try and get me in there. One of the really prominent things, for me, was I worked as a receptionist in a film place in Soho about 25 years ago. One day I went into the basement and they literally just had hundreds of archives of sound effect records. There were just so many, like KPM, which was a very well known label at the time, people like Delia Derbyshire had stuff on KPM, after about 3 months they were throwing a lot of this stuff into skips… It was around the time when the CD was just being born. I started to research a lot of the people and collect it, like, really anal, collect the catalogue numbers and stuff and yeah, that was a big part of it! And then obviously I worked at Fat Cat Records.

After that I decided to start a programming and sequencing course in Covent Garden. Obviously, I walked in and I was the only girl.

Was it intimidating?

Of course it was quite intimidating! But there’s something about being intimidated that makes you work twice as hard. The teacher used to have a big mixing desk at the front and he’d play everyone’s pieces. When it came to me everyone was like “---“.

I’m sure I read somewhere it took 4 years for you to complete the ‘Kiss my Arp’ album, what’s the process behind your work?

The ‘Kiss my Arp’ album didn’t actually take four years to make, it took four years to come out. It did probably take me about three years… I’m the kind of person where, I’ll get an Arp – I still use a lot of old synthesizers and stuff – and I’ll spend seven hours just making a bass tone, that’s how anal I am. And I also spent a lot of time going round and collecting found sounds, through car washes or whatever. It took a lot of time to collect those. I was also working with David Morley so I was traveling to Bavaria a lot.

You stated Daphne Oram as your OG idol, I was interviewing Anneke Kampman (of Conquering Animal Sound) last week and, likewise, she viewed Oram as one of her primary influences. What is it that appeals to you so much about her music?

Well, I’m a huge fan of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and how all that started, but I feel really passionate about this, she started it and no one really knows that because she is a women.

She was the first British person – not even woman! – to make a synthesizer. I mean you had Bob Moog doing it in America, but she literally built the Oramics machine in her dressing table and it’s such a big part of British culture and heritage. People are becoming more aware of it now but they weren’t twenty-five years ago when I was really into her. I’m sure she probably left as it was all men who got involved, and I imagine she wanted to go a little bit darker and more experimental. If it wasn’t for her we wouldn’t have the electronic music we have today, but it’s only at this stage she’s getting the credit she deserves. I swear to God, it takes for bloody women to die before they get any credit for doing their shit.

Would you rather appeal to a female audience?

It honestly doesn’t bother me, from a younger age I’d go into a studio and the engineers would be like ‘are you the singer?’.

I don’t like being that derogatory about it though because loads of guys have really helped me, but I don’t know, you go to a house club and it’s generally women? Ibiza’s like that isn’t it?

All women in their bikinis, I hate all that! So I can’t really complain about it, as I’m more of a tomboy. I like skateboarding and stuff.

It’s something that I follow and watch a lot for relaxation.

Why do you think the electronic music industry is predominately male?

It’s something very intimidating for women to go into in the first place. I think it’s to do with the technical side of it which is bullshit, because look at graphic designers or women in the 50’s!

Who had all the manuals in the 50’s? It was women with washing machines and stuff. It’s not like we’re not used to dealing with manuals, but there’s something still to this day about it. I feel like it’s the way of the world though! I don’t worry there’s not more female producers, I worry that the whole world’s run by men.

Where are all the female world leaders? It’s just all egos with men in America and here. It goes so much bigger than the electronic scene. I feel like the world’s in the mess that it’s in because men run it, with all their egos.

What do you think about the declining use of vinyl with DJs today? Do you use vinyl yourself?

I only use vinyl, eeew, it kills me. I hate mp3, I hate the digital world. I love a piece of vinyl - the smell, the artwork, the quality.

I hate the whole digital thing, it’s almost made me want to give up DJing it’s that bad. Everyone says to me it’s my age, that I’m not moving with the times – but I do really hate it!

Have you got any exciting plans for 2012?

I’m building my studio! And trying to get more into sound scapes and making sounds. Also, I’m producing a hip hop album.

I stop recording the conversation but Andrea and I continue to chat for an hour or so, during which time she gives me a copy of her latest album, ‘Private Dreams and Public Nightmares’. An impressive interpretation of sounds by Parker’s own idol, Daphne Oram, the album is perhaps our freaky bitch’s darkest yet. She warns me not to listen to it while I’m having my morning coffee, half joking half being totally serious in her agreement when I suggest it might induce a panic attack. Eventually she excusesherself to smoke a cigarette and comes back with a bewildered expression on her face – apparently someone approached her outside and asked if he could, “stick his dick in her”.

Order Andrea Parker’s latest album ‘Private Dreams and Public Nightmares’ on Boomkat.

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I

t was a snowy night in London and I had dragged my good mate Malcolm out of his house in the Baltic weather to Cable Nightclub in the East End. Rinse FM DJ, Lucy ‘Monki’ Monkman was playing and she had kindly arranged to stick our names on the guestlist so that we could interview her after her set. TLG Magazine had in fact caught up with Lucy before via email but I wanted to catch her while I was down in London to find out her perspective of the music scene down there. As we arrived outside Cable, An hour late due to the weather-related transport delays, we bumped into Lucy outside the club who was standing looking out for us. She offered to give us a lift back to Malcolm’s as it was becoming increasingly difficult to travel anywhere as the snow lay heavier.

As we climbed in to the back of the car, we were introduced to Lucy’s boyfriend Kris, a DJ from Liverpool who happened to know the Glasgow music scene really well. I felt comfortable talking about mutual acquaintances in the music scene and it helped me to relax into interview-mode, which eventually took place in Malcolm’s living room, after an hour’s drive across town. Monki appeared to be relaxed and easy to talk to and she explained to me that the London electronic music scene was similar to Glasgow in the sense that everybody knew each other, which surprised me giving the size and scale of London and the volume of different nights popping up all over the town.

Within the underground music scene however she did explain that there were pockets of people from different genres, like the Grime scene for example, who kept themselves to themselves.

At the present moment, house music is the main music scene in London and the real, underground Dubstep scene is still very much alive, but it appears to have reverted back to its small following, led by the likes of DMZ. Monki plays mostly house music on her Rinse FM show on a Thursday but the night we had met her she had been requested to play a 90s jungle set, much of which was before her time!

“Tonight was a weird set.” she explained, “mainly because the crowd I was playing to didn’t listen to what’s current. It was an older crowd and therefore I had to play old stuff that I like but most of it was before my time.” When she was still in high school, Monki had a passion for hip hop and garage while most of her friends were looking to the charts to introduce them to new music and just before she started college, she was introduced to the early Dubstep movement which became a new passion of hers.

“Researching music for me, is now a lot easier than it used to be. I used to have to trail through various blogs and internet mediums to find out what was current in the underground scene but now because I’m physically more involved in that scene, especially with Rinse, a lot of music is passed around the people I know and I also have an email address where people can send me new tunes to be played on my show.”

Katy B has been with Rinse since she was sixteen years old, and at the time when Monki came on board with the radio station, she took on board some of Katy’s PR work. “When I first started working at Rinse through a college work placement when I was eighteen, my jobs were to go and get the lunches or the coffee and then I’d do Kate’s press.

I had originally started my placement with another radio station which had been pirate in the sixties called Jackie FM. Coincidentally the guy who owned that particular station had given Rinse FM their aerial and when I had gone to Jackie the guys there had told me that it obviously wasn’t my thing and had referred me to Rinse instead.” And until recently Lucy worked at Rinse full time but this year she’s taking some time out to work on building her own label. “On my first day of working at Rinse, I sat down in the office, which I wasn’t expecting to be so formal and organised because it was still a pirate radio station back then. When I came in to the office, everyone was sitting at the decks drinking green tea and listening to jazz. I remember Skream walked through the door and sat down and at this point he was only seventeen and wasn’t yet really well know in the scene. However I was such a huge fan and couldn’t believe we were sitting in the same room. He offered me a hob knob and I remember going home to post on Facebook something along the lines of ‘omg today skream offered me a hob knob!”

Since then, Monki has landed her own weekly radio show on Rinse FM and she was Katy B’s tour DJ as of November 2011.

It’s easy to forget that Lucy is only nineteen years old! “When we went on tour with Katy we went on a large tour bus.” Lucy explains. “It felt like in that sense, Rinse had come a long way from where it was six years ago, where the shows were broadcasted from a block of flats in East London.” She now wants to start producing more music so that there is more opportunity for her not only to make money from music but also for promoters to book her for gigs.

She also explains that after being sent music produced by people who listen to her show, who haven’t yet been signed to a label, from a business point of view she feels that if she is being sent the tunes first and she likes them, then why not promote them under her own label!? The one thing that strikes us about Lucy is that she has the perfect balance between having a business-head and a creative mind and I think that will take her far in this industry.

Tune in to Monki’s show on Rinse FM every Wednesday from 14:00 - 15:00.

www.rinse.fm

Text & Photography: Alice Muir

23

peaking from her base in Philadelphia, Suzi Analogue is every part the excitable, gushing music lover you could hope to talk to as she initially reels off Billie Holiday, Missy Elliot and Fat John as influences, finally admitting to being an embarrassingly huge MF Doom fan.

Her encyclopaedic knowledge and appreciation of music is a result of accumulating a lot of sounds from an early age and alongside Sade and Doom she wouldn’t mind collaborating with Portishead’s Jeff Barrow: ‘I found Dummy when I was twelve so

you could only imagine what it was like for a 12 year old girl finding this CD, already liking hip hop and being a female vocalist.’Given her penchant for warped and screwed up beats and pieces you might have a hard time trying to pick out the direct cross section where x and y meet in her music.

‘Growing up in the south in Virginia with just bass music with the gold rims and the bass in the cars and the windows tinted it’s like southern gangsterism, that was my reality. Those were things that I thought were so amazingly unique about growing up in the culture. I try to take elements that might be a No Limit or UGK or a Three Six Mafia tune and I try to revamp it and make it progressive and add elements based on my knowledge of music around the world to try and make it accessible to people; People can hear my story and understand who I am and what my vision is for the world through this stuff. I guess that’s the ideological explanation of my music and sound. You can really expect anything from me.’

Her sound has evolved as a result of her naturally prolific and curious approach as her tracks possess a wealth of references to her past. She was making beats from the age of 14 but her love of performing stretched back further than that, from sitting in her closet singing to stuffed toys to rapping along to Timbaland and Magoo’s Up Jumps the Boogie and recording it on her Talkboy at the age of ten, the results of which can be heard on Analogue Monsta, her split mixtape with LA beatmaker TOKiMONSTA.

‘Music was important it was just shown to me to be important from a very young age. It might not be like that these days because they’re taking the music programmes out of the schools so much in the United States.

But back then it was a big deal and I thought it was the perfect way for me to express myself.’

Her Hydrahead music project embodies what every young producer and musician should hope to produce. Intuitive, independent but part of a movement, the tunes seem to match Suzi in her wonderfully open nature and keenness to stay comparatively elusive. She switches from the disparate, sickly sweet childlike vocals of the sexy Jump Rope to the assertive, glitchier beats and rhymes on NNXTAPE. Listening to her scatting and crooning over her playful raps incorporated with a love of layering and messing about with whatever effects she can get her hands on, suggests that the toddler singing in the closet is still very much a part of her creativity.

‘My sound, people would say, is experimental but to me it’s so concrete. You know in this techno age a lot of music has the soul ripped out of it but at the very core I want everything to have soul.’

Last year she released two track EP NNXT on Dopeness Galore. With tracks The Thing and The Program, the former a bass heavy production featuring the breathy, dynamic vocals synonymous with Suzi’s other releases and stuffed full of the soul that she’s just so keen to maintain in her music.

The Program features Stones Throw’s Dudley Perkins aka Declaime and is produced by the wonderful Georgia Anne Muldrow.

‘(She) is someone that I really admired and was super inspirational to me. I loved the way that she was doing her own thing and I felt that our energies were really akin to each other. With NNXT, It was good to get it out and give people something special, but right now I’m planning for the next release. The music is done and is being mixed.

The concept is called Bizerk and it’s basically a process of my feelings in 2011, and a play on how wild the actual music sounds. There’s one older track there that I recorded with Georgia Anne Muldrow, but Blu has hopped on a verse and breathed some new life into it.’

It makes sense for most artists to exercise this autonomy over their stuff, distributing mixes and blog updates instantaneously. The likes of Jeremiah Jae and the Cxllective, Teebs and My Hollow Drum, the branches of networks and musical family trees spread far and wide. You almost have musical offshoot versions of Power Rangers. These folks aren’t waiting for an advance from any labels before they get going whether they’re joining forces or working independently. Suzi’s own collective Klipmode based in Philadelphia came into being through chance meetings on Myspace. Named after a mishmash of an Ableton view and a play on busta’s Flipmode, Klipmode’s other members include Devonwho, Knxledge and Mnd dsgn. ‘We were

just four people who were in similar living situations and who found solace in each other and in making music that wasn’t necessarily accepted yet.’

Given half the publicity Kreayshawn and the White Girl Mob have received with the novelty of independent female rappers within a scene renowned for its bullshit bravado and male posturing, you get the impression Suzi could do something really quite special with that sort of attention. Less inclined to put down basic bitches and without feeling the need to emulate her male contemporaries, along with TOKiMONSTA and other young female producers she plays around with darker sounds: ‘I would say if there is masculine and feminine music, I would say that my music is

actually more masculine than feminine but it’s all me.’

The web of connections meant she has established relationships with many of Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder artists but she was already acquainted with Ras G before Brainfeeder was even a fully formed entity. It was through Myspace that she hooked up with TOKi who remixed one of her tracks that went on to become Nxt Msg which received interest from the holy conduits of global beat music – Gilles Peterson and Mary Anne Hobbs. ‘Toki was one

of the people we would chat with a lot. People at this time weren’t really touring – we were just all sort of making bedroom beats, it wasn’t really as big as it is now. It has really kind of exploded.’

With a new EP with Toki about to come into fruition, the two are currently working on their first video with creative team and self professed ‘multimedia storytellers’- The Great Nordic Swordfight. The Analogue brand of self-styled entrepreneurship continues into other artistic outlets. She co runs a vintage clothing site and shop in Philly named SWRV and nail art business-Nail Tite, any time spent checking out the lady’s other ventures is proof that she’s got visual goods to boot and continues to work these avenues hard.

‘I really look very closely into the lives of artists who do more than one thing, because I always thought what I was doing was odd. You either have Britney spears or Timbaland, you didn’t really have one person doing different things, so my hero had to come from everywhere to make me make sense.’

Article by Imogen de Cordova

25

is a London-based Illustrator who creates

unique illustrations of celebrities in the music industry. Her models have varied from the likes of Dizzee Rascal, M.I.A and Prince and her clients have ranged from Dazed & Confused, Nylon Magazine, EMI & Adidas to The Rolling Stones. She has a distinctive use of coloured pencils and manages to create intricate detail with them, unlike anything I’ve seen before.Maya recently had a solo exhibition at the Recoat Gallery in Glasgow called Power Power II and has previously had her work exhibited in Paris, New York, Tokyo, San Francisco and London.

As we leave the Recoat Gallery in search of a café or pub in which to conduct the interview, Maya explains that she either takes photographs of the subjects in her drawings herself or uses photos given to her by her clients. She then uses these photos as reference for her drawings.

“I got into doing illustration accidentally” explains Maya. “I studied fine art at university but I always drew when I was a kid that was always my thing.”

When she finished her degree at Art College, Maya started drawing illustrations for magazines but she claims she never really knew anything about the illustration world; it was just something that came to her naturally.

“I had to do a lot of free work for magazines in the beginning to get my name out there. I started working for Magazines like Dazed & Confused, Fader, Spin and Nylon Magazine and this led to getting commissions from companies for me to design T shirts and other products as well.” Maya appears to be quite reserved throughout the interview but this was due to the fact that she had her window piece still to finish for her solo exhibition at the Recoat gallery which was opening the next day. She appeared to be focused and she struck me as the kind of person who could have the patience for creating intricate detail in her work. I wasn’t entirely sure how an illustrator would make money from their work other than being commissioned to draw somebody or something in particular but Maya explains to me that there are in fact many routes to go down with illustration which include t-shirt and product designs, special commissions and advertising artwork.

“I see myself more as a commercial artist because I find it just as exiting to have my drawings on a product like a cup or a badge as on a wall in a frame”.

For her solo exhibition, she designed a Power Power T shirts range, fridge magnets, badges, stickers and postcards that were all available to buy at her exhibition as well as the prints of her drawings.

T shirt design is something that Maya is an expert in as she has been commissioned by many fashion companies in the past. Sometimes companies have even approached her and asked for a ‘Maya Wild Range’ which is different to a general commission

as she has the freedom to design or draw anything she likes and can add her own personality to the illustrations. This is yet another selling point for Maya.

As mentioned before, Maya has had her illustrations shown in many different parts of the world, most interestingly Tokyo, although she’s never actually been there! She has designed a full clothing range for SLY Japan’s equivalent of Topshop which included leggings, makeup bags and dresses.

“I used to work for lots of magazines in Japan and then some of the larger companies spotted my work through those magazines. The Japanese people are always really polite, friendly and easy to work with.

The Japanese also really respect the graphic arts, probably a lot more so than people in Britain, they have very visual thought-processes and so it’s always interesting to work for them.”

The Power Power II exhibition was named after Maya’s love of music, dancing and nightclubs.

“It’s basically a really fun, colourful exhibition.

The main inspiration for the show came from the musicians that I love and think are powerful because they control their own individual sound and style”. The show has travelled from London to San Francisco to Glasgow but new products and illustrations have been added along the way.

“San Francisco was interesting because it was really hippy-orientated. They sell weed in shops there and their attitude in general is very laid back. It definitely isn’t as fashion-forward or as fast-paced as London for example so it was interesting to experience that culture.”

What inspired Maya the most when she started illustrating were magazines such as Cheap Date and Nylon who promoted a lot of DIY projects and were full of illustrations and collages at that time. In the future Maya is looking to turn her website into more of an online shop and build a Maya Wild Brand around her work and she would also like to exhibit all around the UK and further afield.

Photography by Cat Stevens

27

I first encountered Mamiko Motto when she supported Hudson Mohawke on his Butter tour in 2009. Due to what can only be described as a combination of lazy promotion and people just generally sleeping on under-the-radar gigs coming their way. The room was pretty sparse but that didn’t distract from the impact Mamiko’s set had.

Hello, a lady not afraid to play some heavy beats and not too fussed about beat matching to within an inch of her life.

Haaaaallleluja.

This in particular was something that didn’t kill it for me in the slightest but got under the skin of my pedantic friend, who clearly couldn’t adapt his dancing tempo to fit with the shifting tune speeds in time.

It’s encouraging when she mentioned this in conversation three years later.

‘I rely on my instincts, emotions and feelings even if the tracks don’t beat match I don’t really care anymore.

Anyone can beat mix, babies can do that. It takes so much more to be a great DJ than just beat mix two mp3s.

I just try to play a balance between old and new music that I really like. And genres are nothing to me.

They’re like little shelves where you put your material things in. I don’t operate like that.’

Since her initial dancing ambitions were crushed under the straight talk of enthusiasts of eating disorders- ‘unfortunately I was always too chubby and I was told I would never make it to become a number 1 ballet dancer.’- Mamiko has had a dab hand in working in various areas of the music industry. Having worked for Dutch label, Rush Hour’s, sister label Kindred Spirits, she helped with the releases of early tracks by Dorian Concept and The Blessings and the ‘very underated’ Mweslee. But it’s radio which she holds a lot of love for. She was instrumental in the set up of excellent London based station NTS Radio, as a result her nomadic show Hepcat radio has wondered from it’s initial home in Antwerp to these shores.

‘Hepcat radio started in a very broken studio of Radio Central, the community radio show. I didn’t have a regular show for a few years and when I moved to London I started doing ustream sessions every week inviting my friends, all artists who were passing by London and just cooking for them in my flat, drinking hospitality rider leftovers from the tour and just playing beats. Last year I met Femi and joined forces with him to set up NTS. Overall it was a team effort and when you give love, love comes back to you. I think NTS has come quite far within the last 12 months and I hope it continues to grow and deliver soul to everyone world wide.’

Generally NTS shows are renown for celebrating diversity of their listenership and most of the folks presenting are musicians, music writers or just genuine music lovers themselves. You won’t find a patronizing attempt to dish up new release upon new release but expect to wake up to Bo Diddley and Little Dragon alongside a showcase of some of the freshest future cuts, which probably won’t be heard on other channels trailing months behind.

‘Radio was always a big passion of mine, it brings a different side of everyone and you can truly be yourself.

It’s more relaxed & you don’t have to have a pressure of pure “KILL it” with energy like in clubs.’

It’s endearing to hear Mamiko chronicle her musical education, which is an envy inducing tour around Europe and exposure to sounds that you wouldn’t have heard from listening to Capital FM. ‘When I was a child in the soviet / post soviet union era we only had Russian cartoons that are still one of my favorites. They always use classical music as a soundtrack, so I guess it all comes from there. My dad was a jazz music lover and he introduced me to it, being a hardcore Sun Ra fan I was always into really freaky sounds.

I think I still am, even though I did find my commercial side.’

In a typical Hepcat show you’ll find The Knife, Ludacris nestled alongside Autechre and Dr Who Dat. Along with her distaste for beat matching, I appreciate that her sets and shows are filled with a disregard for expiration dates on tracks, thank the sweet lord there’s no annoyingly contrived obsession with exclusivity.

‘I would never, ever play tunes only because someone asked me to or because they are about to be released.

Even now, when I go to see my fellow producers around Europe or America, some of them still hold all my shows in their hard drive even though those shows are so dated now. That’s definitely the biggest compliment ever to me.’

NTS is hosting a mini festival in London on 28th April to celebrate its first birthday.

The lineup includes NTS DJ’s, Guy called Gerald Marcellus Pittman and Veronica Vacicka.

Text: Imogen de Cordova Photography: Julija Svetlova

29

Cool girls shoot film

B

logging is one of the most influential social networks of today. Bloggers in many ways have power beyond the regular journalist. They can post whenever and whatever they please and can influence trends and opinion.

From lifestyle, fashion, photography and travel to the personal, the blogging family has more diversity than the Jackson 5 had harmony. It seems that one of the most influential ways of extending the power yielded by the blogger is to provide readers with advice or tutorials on how to work or wear a certain product or trend. The extensive ‘Cool Girls Shoot Film’ blog does just that, posting results from experiments with different types of film, lenses and cameras for photography enthusiasts. When the two Malaysian creators, Nora (elanorrigby236) and Mel (delusiana) met in high school at the tender age of 15, back when digital cameras were expensive luxury items, they could never have foreseen what artistic creations would blossom out of their friendship.

What was it about film that interested you both?

E: I must admit it was delusiana who got me back into film and photography. I had always been interested in photography.

I started out with the school magazine and I even won a few awards back in high school, but it never developed into anything more than a hobby. I didn’t own a digital camera either as it was something only professionals had. I think the first compact and affordable digital camera came about in the early 2000s.

D: I was shooting film right up until the digital boom. I shot my last roll of film whilst I was studying Medicine in India, which was in the early 2000s and always with a compact camera. Since then I’ve had a couple of digital cameras and with some self-learned knowledge of photoshop, digital photo manipulations became a passion of mine. A couple of years later, I realized that I was bored of playing with my photos digitally. I was still in need of a good camera so I bought myself a Micro 4/3 camera, a white Olympus PEN EP-1 and started scouring photos taken with it on Flickr. Of course, the search inevitably ended up with me finding tons of results with the original analog Olympus PENs and I was intrigued. The effects of cross processing, self developed black and whites and multiple exposures literally blew me away. I was thinking, these photos were taken on film?! No post processing?!

I thought it was insane that such photos could be processed on a camera so I rummaged around my dad’s cupboard and unearthed his old Ricoh KR-10. The rest is history.

Why did you decide to set up a blog?

E: We both got more serious about our film photography and started expanding our camera collection and experimenting with different equipment and film. I guess we simply wanted to share our thoughts and inspire other film photographers. There is never enough room for critique and it is great to learn from other aspiring photographers.

D: We know that there are tons of film photography sites online but most only showcase the resulting photos; never the EXFI data, techniques and most importantly the varying results that a single film can achieve when shot with different types of cameras and lenses.We wanted to have an index of sorts, so it’s easy for us to refer to, but most importantly the blog serves as a troubleshooting tool, as we post the mistakes we make in our experiments.

What are your main influences?

D: I don’t have many influences because I have developed my own style with an inclination to shoot still life and landscapes. I have always been interested in shooting people at live gigs, especially after being dazzled by the photos of American artist and photographer Glen E. Friedman who has done work for various punk bands. Of course there are mastermind landscape photographers like Ansel Adams and Eliot Porter whose work continues to mesmerize me.

E: My biggest influence would be any form of old vintage photos.

Photography was mainly used for keeping records. It was not until the early 1900s that a group of artists began to see photography as another form of creativity. Some of my favourite photographers from that era are George Davison, Baron Adolf de Meyer and Hugo Henneberg. Their shots have a very ethereal painting like quality to them that I sometimes try to replicate in my photography.

You both have rather impressive collections of cameras. How many cameras do you have between the two of you? Which is your favourite and why?

E: Right now I have over 30 film cameras, not including my digital ones. My favourite cameras to shoot on are my Nikon SLRs and my Holga. I enjoy shooting with the Nixon because I have a pretty vast collection of lenses, from vintage Russian ones to Lensbaby optics, which all add a different atmosphere to the images I capture. The SLR also gives me more control with lighting. I have four Holgas now which I always load with different film, making sure I have both black and white and colour for all the different scenes I come across. I’m actually in the middle of making my own lenses for my Holga. That’s the beauty of using a toy camera, there are no limitations to expanding what it can give you.

D: I think I must have accumulated almost 30 cameras by now.

As for my favourite cameras, I would pick my LC-A, Holga and my Canon A-1 SLR for its compactness, vignetting and it’s tolerance to shooting under low light conditions. I go to gigs a lot since I love punk rock music and it’s culture, so I find that the combination of an LC-A + Kodak T-Max 400 + Coloursplash Flash really works. When I want precise control in terms of subject detail, lighting and composition, I will use my Canon A-1.

The Holga is another favourite as it’s extremely light, and mainly for the surreal photos it produces. I’m now experimenting with infrared photography with my Holga and so far I’m loving the results!

Many of your photographs have been taken abroad in places such as Amsterdam and Singapore, how have your experiences travelling influenced your photography?

E: My work takes me abroad a lot, I spend more than half my year away from home so it is true that I gain more access to locations for shooting. It is very hard for me to lug all my cameras around with me, especially the heavy ones. I will always take my Holga and my Nikon SLR. Travelling has taught me to be more adventurous with my photography, to shoot and explore as much as I can.

What are your hopes for the future. Would either of you consider taking up careers in photography?

E: I hope one day to take an extensive trip to Nepal or Tibet and just bask in the culture and people and do what I love, take photos. As for a career in photography? Photography for me is more of an escape from everything else I do in life, and right now, I do not want it to be ‘work’. If an opportunity comes by to do more than what I do now, it will be something I think of then.

D: I am pursuing a career in orthopedic surgery, so I am not looking to make photography my bread and butter. In the future, however, if I got the chance I’d love to travel and photograph the world, away from the mundane living life one frame at a time.

www.coolgirlsshootfilm.tumblr.com

By Corrine McConnachie

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MOXIE // >>

DEADLY RYTHEM

P

opular club night promoters, Deadly Rhythm have been throwing parties in various clubs between London and Glasgow for the last five years and their many special guests have included the likes of Josey Rebelle, Fatima, Cooly G, Ikonika and more recently, Moxie. We love Deadly Rhythm because not only do they promote innovative and forward-thinking electronic music and hiphop but they also are one of the few club nights to regularly represent females in electronic music. Deas McMorrow caught up with Moxie after she played with Kyle Hall at Deadly Rhythm’s latest party in Glasgow, for a quick interview.

Hello Moxie! As a DJ, broadcaster and designer, what’s your daily grind?

Coming into my studio, catching up with emails, searching for music and drinking far too much coffee.

What tunes have you been playing most at the moment, both at home and in the clubs?

At the moment my favourite tune to drop is Dusky - Tyto Alba.

It’s a real soulful track that’s great for getting the dance going and is really good for loosening up the crowd. It also has one of the best breakdowns with a brilliant vocal that you can’t not put your hands in the air to. In terms of being at home i’ve been really getting into the new Grimes album called Visions out on 4AD. I’ve also been playing a few of her tracks on my radio show as well. She’s already got such a buzz around her and I have to say I think it’s fully deserved.

Does a lot of preparation go into your shows?

Most definitely, I put a lot of time into the show and always feel like there is more that I could be discovering! I spend a lot of time going through emails and checking the music people have sent me. I’m at a very lucky position now to have people send me music direct and I’m so grateful for that. I’m always checking blogs and music downloading sites but generally I always leave at least one day to go through mails and search about for new tracks. There is nothing better than finding a track or having something sent to me that I know is going to blow people away!

How do you find playing out on the radio compares to in a club or at a festival?

I see radio as a place to experiment and try tracks out; I also like to let the music breathe so the listeners can hear what’s been made in its entirety. When there’s a crowd you have to think more about the timing of when to drop the next track and keep it moving. I see the two things as very different from one another.

Was it an easy transition to go from DJing in your room or at a workshop to performing in front of the public?

It took me many years to build up the confidence to play in front of people. I think for a while it was more of a hobby and then over the years i started to take it seriously. I would always pop into record shops and keep an eye on what was happening but for a while I didn’t use my decks for ages. I think a part of that was trying to find my style. When I first bought my decks I was really into my Garage and then moved into Hip-Hop and by the time I started to get good at mixing it felt like the UK Hip-Hop scene was dying out and so there wasn’t really anywhere i felt comfortable playing my records out. Then i discovered Dubstep in 2007 and everything changed from that moment on.

I’ve read about your design work but unfortunately never seen any. What’s it like?

In the past I’ve worked on a few projects with Eglo Records including designing the Mizz Beats 10” that featured the tracks Pimpin & Scientific Brainpriest. Then about a year ago i took over designing the Deviation artwork including the flyers. I really like tropical colours and shape and form. It’s something about complete shapes that make me feel whole. I also love anything from the 20s & 30s, especially Futurism and artists such as Charles Demuth. Keith Haring is also a massive influence as I love his freedom. Recently i went to see an exhibition at the Serpentine by the Brazilian artist Lygia Pape and everything I saw couldn’t have been more spot on with what I love, I would definitely recommend checking her out!

When I saw you play in Glasgow you were wearing the Carhartt Record Jacket. Are you into fashion?

What’s your best purchase to date?

I love that jacket and have been wearing it to death this winter.

After I finished my foundation degree at Central Saint Martins I decided to take a year out and do some work experience. Over that year i interned at Eley Kishimoto and then part time through the summer. I also interned with the designer Danielle Scutt and assisted in printing her S/S 2008 collection. In terms of new purchases I would say my fave item to wear at the moment is a Versace shirt that was handed down to me from my dad. Not so much bought but something I love and treasure very much. It’s a pale blue denim shirt with a navy pinstripe with very faint flowers on the top of the stripes.

As it’s so old now that it’s all faded and so the print is very subtle.

I’ve been wearing it to travel in loads recently and is great with a pair of leggings!

You’ve performed at Glastonbury, Stop Making Sense & Outlook. Any advice on festivals we should check out for 2012?

Dimensions festival is going to be a definite highlight for this year!

It’s the sister festival of Outlook and is more House and Techno orientated with acts such as Moodymann, Theo Parrish and Little Dragon playing. I’m really excited about being asked to play this year as everyone on the line up i wanna go and check. I would say if there is one festival to go to this year that would be it!

Pinkerton Model

School

The Pinkerton Model School is run by the Glasgow-based model and entrepreneur, Numba Siluka. It is the only Model Training School of its kind in Scotland and should be the first port of call for anyone thinking of modelling.

Numba originates from a small town in Zambia, Central Africa, where she lived till she was 17 years old. When she moved to Scotland she pursued a career in modelling for local fashion labels and editorials but it wasn’t long until she decided to start her own modelling school to share her knowledge of the business with others.

Pinkerton Model School offers a wide range of classes, workshops and photo-shoots for individuals wanting to learn modelling skills from scratch or improve on existing skills.

You can be taught all of the essential skills required to make it in the highly competitive UK modelling industry. Their standards are very high and their mission is to ensure that people with drive and potential are properly trained to become earning models. At the Pinkerton Modelling School you can learn everything from how to walk the catwalk to being able to strike a pose and work with different photographers.

It really is a fantastic place to be taught the tricks of the trade by skilled professionals in the modelling industry.

MAGAZINE

first anniversary

STEREO BAR Friday 22nd June

with Mamiko Motto (Hepcat Radio)

11pm - 3am