Issue 15 by Edge Magazine

is a free quarterly online magazine

for the young adult who loves everything about the undiscovered pop culture. Issues include eclectic interviews & articles covering music, charity, art & entertainment.

contributors MEGAN GALEMA | MARYAM TUNIO | MICHAEL BROKAW cover photo by

THE BREAK LIGHTS HER CLAY HEART

skate for change

MARYAM TUNIO PHOTOGRAPHY

SOLES 4 SOULS

GRAVITY CALLS

15 Email us if you are interested in contributing and being apart of Edge!

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Its time for the youth to rise up, take responsibility and begin to take care of their communities THEMSELVES, not waiting for someone else to do it.â&#x20AC;? Mike Smith Founder of Skate for Change

When did you realize that you could take your passion for skateboarding and your desire to help others and combine them to create Skate for Change? Honestly, Skate For Change started because once a week, I was filling my backpack with socks and water, and I realized that I could get around a lot faster if I skated instead of walked. Skate For Change was born. How does Skate for Change work? What is the response like from those you have helped so far? Skate For Change is the simplest formula you could ask for. Get a board, load a backpack with socks and water, and just GO. Only rule is don’t stop skating until your bag is empty. The response has been astounding. Not only from those who we are serving - but from the youth we are empowering. We are seeing a youth movement across the nation. Where do you see the future of Skate for Change? We see the future of Skate For Change being in every city across the world. It’s time for the youth to rise up, take responsibility and begin to take care of

their communities THEMSELVES, not waiting for someone else to do it. You are also a motivational speaker. How do you keep such an optimistic and positive mindset? Do you find it challenging to portray that hope and influence to groups of kids who may be stuck in a rut? I was one of those kids. I’m nothing special. I didn’t get good grades or come from a wealthy family. I keep a positive mindset because I know the power and potential of this generation. I get to see kids commit to change everyday, and that keeps me going. If you could only give someone only one sentence of motivation and inspiration, what would it be? I believe in you. What are you up to for the rest of the year? Rest of the year is crazy with touring, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Staying busy and working hard is what I prefer. I’m already stoked for whats coming up next year, we have some huge things in the works!

This bands infectious melodies and vocals will keep you intrigued with every song

Can you guys tell me about how you met and became The Break Lights? Jake: Me, Mike and Raaj went to high school together and Evan was Raaj’s college roommate, so that was how we all met. Mike: Jake and I started writing music junior and senior year of high school and we performed in the plays. We’d sit in the hallway with our guitars and play for people and we just started writing our own stuff. We have always been big fans of indie music and we went to see Ra Ra Riot and Vampire Weekend, after that show we were like we need to start a band. It was such an amazing experience and we wanted to share that with people. How’d you come up with the band name? Mike: I just came up with this title The Break Lights, kind of to describe the whole experience of leaving college, leaving relationships and how everything changes. So, I named the EP that. I had a song on the EP with the same name and we struggled with the name for a long time because we were Coastal Contradiction and we were never big fans of that name, for the longest time we wanted to change it and couldn’t come up with anything. We’d sit after rehearsals with dictionaries and thesauruses. We would spend hours and nothing was coming up. Evan: Someone said let’s be The Blue Lights, and I was like no, no, no we might as well be called The Break Lights.

How was the whole creative process of recording the Ladies EP with Adam Saiewitz? Jake: Adam is great, a little quirky but he’s great. He really knows his stuff as far as recording goes, things way over my head. Mike: Most of the bands that I listen to are because he suggested them to me, as much as I hate to admit it. Working with him we clashed sometimes, but I know he has our best interests at heart. So, how does the whole song writing process really kick off? Jake: It’s different every time, me and Mike write the songs, occasionally we write together, a lot of the time we write apart and kind of shoot ideas back and forth. For me every song starts off different. Mike: I always start with the instrumental, come up with some kind of chord progression or riff. Then I kind of just let it sit and play it until I come up with lyrics. Which artist(s) have influenced you the most? Michael: The Beatles, Wilco and Spoon. Evan: The Strokes, The Kinks and Radiohead. Raaj: Basically whatever they just said. Jake: Fleet Foxes and Grizzly Bear. If you could go on tour, pack your bags tomorrow morning, who would you go on tour with? Wilco, easily. We’d mesh well with them.

If you could create your own music festival line up, let’s say three days, what would be your line-up? Radiohead, Arcade Fire, and Wilco. Let’s pretend time traveling existed and you can sit down with any artist, dead or alive, who would it be and what would you ask them? Jake: John Lennon for sure, his influence on just everything I do is so much. I wish I could have met that man. Evan: Probably Pink Floyd that’d be cool, when they were all together. Mike: Yeah, if I could talk to John Lennon I definitely would. Raaj: I’d pick Bob Marley, just to chill and relax with him. Listen to him play

and just jam. I’d ask what their inspiration was because all of our picks have such a great influence on us and modern music. Mike: Maybe ask them what kept them going once they reached the top, what was their purpose or what they wanted to achieve? Jake: I’d definitely ask about their song writing process because everyone is different. I’d love to hear about how it starts for different people. Evan: That’s what I was going to say, their creative process coming up with what they play. Are there any specific cities you guys want to tour in?

Definitely New York, LA, Austin, Nashville, do a west coast tour and Europe, anywhere in Europe. You get three words. Describe your band. Mellow, indie and rock. What new artists are you guys listening to today? Jake: Raaj just showed me Phosphorescent and I’ve been stuck on them. They’re kind of folk and indie. Raaj: They’re like the instrumental of Genesis and the voice of Bob Dylan. Mike: I’ve been listening to Courtney Barnett, she’s this singer/songwriter from Melbourne. It’s more borderline psychedelic rock.

Where do you guys want to take the band? Jake: I would just love to make enough money to keep doing it. Just play to live. That would be great. Of course it would be awesome to get really big but even if we just continue to play. Mike: Right now we all have day jobs but as Jake said, if we could do this full-time, I don’t know anything else that would make me happier. Evan: I would want to do this as long as I can.

herclayheart Describe Herclayheart in one sentence. How did it start, where did the name come from and what is your purpose? Herclayheart is a Los Angeles based multi-media artistic collaboration between writer Hanne Steen and photographer Carla Richmond Coffing. We both moved to LA at the same time, in early 2010, and were both hungry to create. For a few years we did random artistic projects just for fun, without any thought of an audience. Through creating together, we were exploring this city, exploring what it meant to be women, exploring what it meant to be artists. At a certain point we had all these projects and we just wanted a place to put them, and that is how Herclayheart was born. It was really just a place for us to consolidate our work - we weren’t concerned with who might see it or not see it. The name came about like all of our

work comes about - sort of riffing off each other. We had a bunch of words. and images we were drawn to when it came to describing the core of our work We liked the word “clay” because it’s a malleable substance, and because my grandfather was named Clay and he said something which became one of our mottos: “if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life”. “Heart” is at the core of our work together - we are driven to create things that touch our hearts, rather than be motivated by clever conceptual ideas. Adding “Her” came from the fact that we are interested in the feminine experience - not just women, but redressing the balance of feminine in the world, which has been overlooked and neglected for a long time. And then when we put it all together, we liked that it sounded a little like Herculean Heart, which just sounds badass. Which is what we strive to be.

What are each of your professional backgrounds? Hanne trained as an actress in London and worked in theatre TV and film in England for a decade before moving to Los Angeles. She took a hiatus from acting in 2012 to focus on writing, and has had her fiction published in PANK, Corium and Prick of the Spindle. She is a 2014 PEN Emerging Voices Fellow and is working on a novel titled The Marrow. Carla Richmond Coffing graduated from the New England School of Photography. She is a 2014 PDN 30 New and Emerging Photographers to Watch. She

has had her work exhibited in Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Barcelona. She won APA’s National Photography Competition portrait award and she was recognized as a finalist in Photographer’s Forum: Best of Photography, and has spoke in accolade at Memphis College of Art, The Art Institute of San Diego, and Palm Springs Photo Festival. You combine many different art forms film, music, photography, poetry - into one. How do you create the concepts and ideas behind your work? We never set out to create a concept, our ideas come from simply being

The idea for Lovers Shirts came from wearing my own boyfriends’ t-shirts. I still have my first boyfriend’s shirt from high school. There is something about these pieces of clothing – even old and torn, they feel special, different than any other piece of clothing. We came up with a system of interviewing and photographing our subjects. Confronted with our questions, and their own reflection, deep feelings are often brought to the surface. The project began as a personal curiosity about my own relationship to my ex-boyfriends’ shirts, and has turned into an exploration and expression of love and loss across boundaries of age, gender, and culture. We have learned that we all yearn to love and be loved, we all tend to struggle with intimacy and trust, we all tend to hold on to the past, even if it is in some secret hidden place that we are not ourselves aware of. The capacity to love over and over again, in spite of deep loss and pain, is at the very core of who we are as human beings. -Hanne Steen

“if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life”

friends who are interested in similar things, and who relate to the world through our different creative expressions. Our ideas come from conversations, adventures, heartbreaks, intrigues, struggles, confusions, questions. For example, with our music video For Lyle, we were both feeling suffocated in the city and needed to get out of town, so we decided to go to Joshua Tree for 2 nights and make a project - we had no idea what that project would be. We showed up and let our instincts draw us from one thing to another. We would stop the car and go inside somewhere that seemed interesting or weird or compelling and just ask if we could shoot. We were gathering all this footage without any idea of what it was for. And the second night we were sitting on our motel beds with all this footage, in a kind of panic thinking, “what did we come here for, what is it all about?”, and then we just started cutting it to the music and a story started to emerge. That’s sort of how it is with everything we do. When something resonates within both of us we just trust that and go with it and let it lead us. It hasn’t let us down yet. In terms of the different mediums we use - we just go with what feels right, and we are willing to push ourselves and learn new skills to serve the work. For example, Carla had never shot video until we started working (playing) together, but she has since become incredibly adept at making beautiful moving pictures. I had to learn to record sound to make our Faith documentaries. We taught ourselves final cut pro so we could edit our own work and stay true to our vision. Sometimes a project seems more suited to poetry, sometimes interview, sometimes prose, sometimes creative non-fiction. We just feel it out for each individual piece. And often we don’t get it right the first time. Many times we have gone down a road and realized, after

having put in a lot of time and energy, that it’s not the right road. It can be frustrating but that’s the artistic process, and we have learned that every mistake teaches us something, and to be grateful for those wrong turns. You’ve both lived in many cities throughout the world. Has that shaped you both as the artists you are today? Absolutely. One of things that connects us deeply to each other is our lack of a sense of “home” in the traditional sense. When we moved to LA we were both at a place in our life where we were really looking for that, without knowing what to call it. So underneath a lot of our work is the question of what “home” means in the modern world. And then of course we have a broader perspective because of having lived in so many places - there is a certain universality we both bring to our work, a desire to look beyond the immediate divisive layers of nationality, class, culture, socio-economic background. It’s been amazing to see the breadth of the response to Lovers Shirts, for example - it has been published all over the world and we have received letters from amazingly farflung places. I don’t know if we would have been able to touch such a global nerve if we hadn’t led such global lives. What is the one thing you want people to take away after seeing your work? That we are more the same than we are different. That no matter what we believe, where we’re from, how we were raised, where we live, how much money we have, what we look like - we are all human beings, all tender, all breakable, all flawed, all looking for love and home and peace at the end of it all. I think if we can bring a glimmer of that perspective to peoples’ lives, we are adding something to the world.

Herclayheart is starting a summer fellowship in 2015 to empower a young woman photographer and writer (under 21 years old) who want to collaborate together. We can work with them locally or remotely, via Skype and email, and we will help them bring to fruition an artistic idea that involves writing and photography. Details and information on how to apply will be on our website in the next few months so stay tuned!

By Michael Brokaw

Rx Bandits have been around for close to twenty years and were a notable ska band during the early stages of their career in the 90’s. But, with 2001’s release of Progress the band started to experiment with different musical influences. Flash-forward to 2009’s Mandala and the Bandits were now a fullfledged prog rock band and Gemini, Her Majesty certainly continues to delve deeper into the world of prog-rock.

The album starts off with a pensive intro that makes you feel like you’re floating through space while simultaneously preparing you for the journey through the rest of the album. The first half of the album comes to life in true Rx Bandits form with groove based verses and guitar driven choruses, all the while Matthew Embree is laying down some soulful vocals on top. On tracks like Stargazer and G2G it seems they have effectively balanced their brand of spacey progrock with extensive melodies and dynamic rhythms.

Essential Tracks: “Stargazer”, “Fire To The Ocean”, “G2G”

Instrumentally, the cosmic theme of the album really comes in at the second half of the album with the track Where Will You Be Tomorrow. However, the track grows a bit numbing while it kind of floats around never really finding a true home. This leads into Meow! Meow! Space Tiger that is reminiscent of Rx Bandits’ earlier work with a strong a reggae groove but it with an interesting title like that it doesn’t really live up to it’s name.

Overall, Gemini, Her Majesty is an equally trippy and complex album. The guitar work from both Matthew Embree and Steve Choi creates intricate melodies and harmonies throughout the album, and the drumming from Chris Tsagakis is insanely impressive, as with any other Rx Bandits album. Although the second half of the album is lacking a bit in comparison to the first half, it is still a great album for any Bandits fan and it shows they are still going strong twenty years later.

If we were all on the Oregon Trail together, Benjamin James Caldwell would be the young gentleman still singing softly around the campfire when everyone else has all gone to bed. Somehow he would still be up at the crack of dawn with the rest of us, feeding the oxen and the horses, looking amazing, eating quick breakfast before facing another long day passing the prairie golden hair gleaming in the Rocky Mountain sunshine. Caldwell is from Australia, so I suppose that he probably has not spent much time on the Oregon Trail. He currently lives in Canada and has played with Canadian bands “Broken Down Suitcase” and “Stellar Radio Choir”. He is now up to his neck in his solo endeavor, releasing his self-titled EP early this year.

“Formaldehyde” is a topic that I love to find in music. To me, there is a certain nostalgia to this chemical. It’s pungent and distinct smell is only found in certain places, surrounding certain activities which most often involve death and invoke emotion. This is a nostalgic song. “Formaldehyde, she was gonna be my bride.” There are memories of a beautiful love, a free relationship. Then, there is intense missing of this girl, treasuring of

her memories. I don’t know what happened to her but formaldehyde smells of death. “We were bound by love and that’s all that it could be. Formaldehyde, she made a fool of me.” “Rosie” begins with guitar that sounds like footsteps. Caldwell’s voice is rhythmic, organic. It feels young and timeless, experienced and musty. It’s the voice that you find in the attic and wonder who put it there because it never went out of fashion. “Rosie” is a love song. It’s a pretty love song. Not sad or crazy. This is a song about two people who have been through a lot together. It is a song about a man whose woman has loved and supported him through thick and thin. Caldwell’s voice is joined by the soprano tones of Sam Buckinham on the curves and corners of the choruses. This song is perfect and beautiful. You should all go listen. “It seems life ain’t as fair as they’d have you believe. We’re all treading water, just kickin’ the breeze.” So begins my favorite track of this EP. “Sweet Redemption” is a slower, steadier song with soaring, heartfelt vocals, whiskey barrel tones, and birdlike hope. Hope for redemption, hope for the future. Hope is found in friends, in change, in offering a hand to another human. This is one of the most beautiful and genuine songs I have ever heard. I feel it in my toes and in my soul. If you enjoy earthy male voices, composting, the rocky mountains, Canada, the outback, lawn chairs by the pool, falling in love, nostalgia, beginnings and endings, birds, rhythmic guitar, harmonies with female voices, footsteps, finding treasures, thrift stores, or good beer–you should check out Benjamin James Caldwell. He’s touring western Canada and I am hoping that he hops on down to the Midwestern United States. I would love to see him live. He is an excellent musician with a great voice and a talent for beautiful song-writing.

Who are they? S4S is an not-for-profit dedicated to fighting poverty through the distribution of shoes and clothing.

What is their mission? The organization advances its anti-poverty mission by collecting new and used shoes and clothes from individuals, schools, faith-based institutions, civic organizations and corporate partners, then distributing those shoes and clothes both via direct donations to people in need and by provisioning qualified micro-enterprise programs designed to create jobs in poor and disadvantaged communities. 13

Their success to date? • Total value of donated goods is $239 million • 21 million pairs of shoes and millions of pieces of clothing donated • Distributed throughout 127 countries

Want to get involved? • Go barefoot for one day during S4S’s “BAREFOOT4THEM” Campaign on October 10, 2014 • Host a shoe drive in your community • Organize a race to benefit S4S • Start a S4S club at your school or university

With a myriad of influences ranging from Fall Out Boy to Black Sabbath, Gravity Calls has a unique sound that will keep you wanting more How did Gravity Calls begin? Josh: I met Alphie after I moved up to NY from Texas about a year ago. Everything else fell into place with the rest of the band who had already been together. We played a show after our first month as a band and here we are a year later. How did you decide on the name “Gravity Calls”? Luis: I’m really into science and space so that’s part of it and we had a mass text message going on and I suggested the name Gravity Calls but it never stuck till a few days later when I mentioned it again. I think we also had a show coming up too and we just needed to pick something already so we went with it. Who are your influences? Alphie: Fall Out Boy and Twentyonepilots. Chris: Bayside and Modest Mouse Luis: Foo Fighters and Nirvana Josh: Green Day, Oasis, Black Sabbath. Chris: None of us usually agree on anything except we all like rock! Your first EP “Bound by Physics” came out in June. What’s the response been like? Luis: Surprisingly positive. Alphie: Everybody keeps telling us how good it is and we never really believe it, we’re always second guessing ourselves. Josh: We haven’t had alot of bad feedback which actually makes me nervous. And we’ve listened to the same songs

so many times, that we can’t really listen to it subjectively anymore. You recorded it in a full studio for the first time as a band. What was the creative process like there? Luis: If we don’t all have a concrete idea of where we want a song to go, then it goes nowhere. We all have to go to our individual, creative areas, build our own songs, then come back with what we have. It’s like we make a blueprint and then each add to it. Chris: And sometimes we come up with our best stuff when it’s on the spot. Are there any songs you wish you would have written? Josh: American Idiot by Green Day. I wish I had written that whole record! Luis: I wish I wrote the Paramore song Ain’t It Fun. Chris: ET by Katy Perry. Good track, good track. Luis: The Pretender by Foo Fighters. That whole record was amazing. If you could go back in time and spend time with one of your favorite artists, who would it be? What would you ask them? Alphie: Freddie Mercury. I’d just want to have a conversation with him and maybe ask to collaborate with him. Chris: Nick, the bassist from Bayside. He’s one of my biggest influences. Luis: Dave Grohl! He’s just a brilliant musician. He’s got brilliant songs. I’d love to go through the song process with him and just have a day of recording with him

Josh: John Lennon. I’d love to see the way that they described themselves prior when they were big. What are your favorite venues to play? Luis: The Radiant in Nutley, NJ. Chris: It’s like a Church basement and it’s just really cool. Any cover songs you guys like to jam to? Josh: This is one thing we collectively agree on- that we don’t like playing covers. We played two covers before. We played Blink 182’s All The Small Things and we just kind of went for it because we’ve listened to it so many times but it didn’t turn out so well. Then we played Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit and I ended up forgetting the

words and had to look on someones phone. Luis: We just kept the melody going till he got the lyrics up! Chris: We also covered “Mirrors” by Justin Timberlake. Luis: That one never happened to me. What would your dream lineup of a festival be? Luis: Foo Fighters, Arctic Monkeys, Blink 182, Queens of the Stone Age. Chris: Bayside, Modest Mouse, Muse, Sum 41. Alphie: Fall Out Boy, Twentyonepilots, Daft Punk, Eminem. Josh: Led Zeppelin, Queens of the Stone Age, Boy Dylan. More of the older bands would be cool.

"MY"" NAME IS Maryam. i'm from milwaukee. i love music, photography and traveling. maryam tunio photography

maryam tunio photography

2014

fall playlist Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s that time of year again when Edge provides a killer playlist just for you. Summer is over and the fall is kicking in but no worries! Edge has mashed up their playlist to help cure those summertime blues. By Megan Galema

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

Fixinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Walk the Moon Kangaroo Court Capital Cities Breakers Local Natives Escape The Kongos Two Fingers Jake Bugg That was the Summer Sam Cash and the Romantic Dogs Come a Little Closer Cage the Elephant East Coast Girl Cayucas Electric Clara Nova Joanna The Break Lights Lions in Cages Wolf Gang Perfect Situation Weezer Between Love & Hate The Strokes Ottoman Vampire Weekend Banana Pancakes Jack Johnson

Bradford Loomis and Beth Whitney have been active in the music industry for a while, but you’ve never heard them quite like this. From the first sounds of “My Beloved” music fans will realize this album is an absolute treat. Seasoned songwriters with a story not unlike Joy and John Paul, they found themselves developing a songwriting a performance chemistry that makes music that listeners will absolutely crave. This is an unapologetically incredible album. Please folk music fans, try The Banner Days. “You are my beloved” is the repetitive refrain on an opening track that is equal parts inspiration and power. It has layers of vocals, strings, and percussion. The entire production blends together perfectly, allowing for intimacy and crescendo. It’s the kind of song that doesn’t just “happen.” There’s a real polished quality to what these expert musicians and songwriters are doing here. The ending “Come back to me” reminds us that this is a lover’s lament, not a cheesy love song. That kind of maturity makes these songs better than the sum of their parts. “Come on and dance with me… all along the shores of the great Black Sea.” A call to romance by a male and female duo – with a sort of pop country vibe to it. It’s another great hit with layered natural imagery. Towing the line of cliché and powerful romantic lyrics, the track errs on the side of the latter.

The call feels real and genuine – here is a man who wants to embrace his lover and dance with her. It’s beautiful and believable. The title track “The Banner Days” is probably my favorite on the album. Again featuring a pop country sound, the overall feel is authentic. “I may never have much to my name, but I’ll give you everything.” It’s about poverty and being real salt of the earth people, living to be together and embrace life. It’s inspiring and exciting. The banjo gives a highlight tone that feels like adventure. It’s like saying “we’re in this together!” In fact they write “you, me, and our pockets are empty” about that exact sense of adventure. After all, “our banner days are here.” In other words, these might be the worst of times, but they’re also the best of times. What a wonderful track. A banjo and some gang vocals… tell me that won’t work in 2014! “Song in My Head” is a bit more adventurous. It’s like a song you’d expect to sing if you were out at a bonfire on the beach with a bunch of hippie artsy friends. You

know the type… you’re just all dancing around hand clapping and thinking you look amazing even though your hair is all blown in your face. And you hand clap. And “fall asleep with a song in my head…” It’s cool. “Brother” reminds me of Sara Watkins or Allison Krauss. Beth’s vocals are exquisite here. “The quiet’s got me thinking there’s nowhere to go…” [insert ominous chord] “…brother can you hear me now? Brother where’d you go?” It’s heavy and dark and deep. She’s visiting her deceased brother (although I’m not sure if he’s literally dead or only metaphorically dead). Ultimately the song seems to be about grieving. I can imagine to the right per son, this song would hit extremely hard. It’s phenomenally composed and a true work of art. For what it’s worth, the anthemic bridge in the latter part of the piece is one of my favorite elements of the whole album. The final track “Wanted Man” has grit. Bradford’s vocals on this track show off some hard drinking and hard living in all the right ways. His ability to rise and fall with the action of the song shows the heart of a real singer songwriter. It is a jukeboxjumper that hopefully will pick up some popularity. It’s really well done and powerful. The grit is intoxicating. (See what I did there? Whiskey… intoxicating…? Shakes head. Maybe next time.) In any event, this is a wonderful album. I think the easy comparison is The Civil Wars, but they really don’t sound a lot alike. They have their own brand of male-female harmonies that really aren’t even standard across the album. It’s hard to nail them down to a specific genre or style, but they definitely have that “it” factor that is so rare in the music world. This is an album that deserves mass attention and an artistic team that will only get better as they continue to connect. The Banner Days have just begun this fantastic musical adventure.