EMMIE
SPRING 2020
ALSO FEATURING INTERLAY + BAD BAD HATS
DORIAN ELECTRA
TEAM EDITORS-IN-CHIEF ART DIRECTOR ALBUMS EDITOR CONCERTS EDITOR FEATURES EDITOR PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR WRITERS
ART
PHOTOGRAPHERS
PLAYLISTS special thank you
ON THE COVER
ashley evers / geordon wollner bashir aden izzi bavis francisco velazquez jasper nelson daniel klugman bailey griffin izzi bavis zoe bockhorst nina bosnjak wynne collins kayla chung morgan dooley sam eklund bailey griffin ella harrison daniel klugman henry michaels jasper nelson tim schauf hayley snell francisco velazquez riley younger bashir aden tim schauf hayley snell geordon wollner ashley evers anna elizabeth klein daniel klugman hayley snell geordon wollner EMMIE staff august
414 state street madison wi 53703
dorian electra by ana ramos contreras
LETTER FROM THE EDITORS
It’s hard to know what to do at this moment — what do we say, how should we spend our day(s)? Do we “make the most of this time,” or alternatively, do we “waste it” — how do we know what to do? Is there really comfort in hearing everyone say “no one knows what’s going on right now?” We won’t go back to the way it was, we can’t help that. Now is the time to reset, make some adjustments and move forward. That’s the only place we can go, forward in time, not backwards. The past isn’t what we wanted, the present is unexpected and the future remains uncertain — but didn’t we already know that? Is this all really that different from where we were before? Yes and no. Yes, because that’s how the past, the present and the future work. No, because as the world sits still, we become aware of this pattern and the power we have to shape what happens next.. To use the moment we have right now to make something worthwhile come out of this.To look forward to the day(s) ahead and open our minds to the things we couldn’t before. It’s a new time for everyone. The past is behind us, our brains are a little fuzzy, but still, we push on. Take the steadfast determination — with a grunt — of Interlay, the kind-hearts of Bad Bad Hats, or the I-will-make-this-world-whatever-thefuck-I-want-to-make-it mentality of Dorian Electra. Take all of it. Take the words of our staff, as they give us guides to understanding how that guitar does that zip-zang-sound thing, as they remind us how much we love our vinyl, as they show us that it just takes one person to change the conversation and how there’s always another chance. The Fuzz Issue brings together all of our worlds, compiled during a time before the COVID-19 pandemic and finished across screens, quarantined to our respective homes, miles apart. As we remain separated physically, creativity continues to connect us as we embrace the new normal. Life as we know it has changed. When we read this again, a few years from now, we don’t know what or where we’ll be. But at least we will have this active, glowing, vibrating time capsule of the shit we had to go through just to support the people we love and the industry we are a part of — the shit is worth it, for them (and you, reading this now). Remember: Take things one day at a time. Breathe. Nothing lasts forever, and that’s okay. Take care.
ASHLEY EVERS + GEORDON WOLLNER EDITORS-IN-CHIEF
WELCOME TO THE FUZZ ISSUE
CONTENTS 6 FOR THE RECORD / ALBUM REVIEWS 10
WHAT THE FUZZ?
12
THE RENAISSANCE (and brief history) OF VINYL
14 THE MAN BEHIND THE MASK / MF DOOM 16 18
FUR COAT: A PLAYLIST BAD BAD HATS
22 30
DORIAN ELECTRA INTERLAY
34 WE’VE GOT A FUZZBOX + WE’RE GONNA USE IT 36 HEAVY PEDAL: your guide to the world of reverb, delay, distortion, fuzz + overdrive 38
DON’T CALL THE FUZZ: A PLAYLIST
40 COVID-19 RUINED CHANGED THE MUSIC INDUSTRY 42
concert gallery
for the record for the record for the record for the record for the record for the record for the record for the record for the record for the record SPRING
2020
ALBUM
REVIEWS
KING KRULE _______________
WRITTEN BY SAM EK
LUND
man alive!
score: 8.5
In the years since the release of his crit King Krule, enjoye ically acc ed release The OO opments, Marshall d the birth of his first child andlaim Z, Archy Marshall, moved out of London released Man Alive! more popularly kno . Following these see on Feb. 21, 2020 with wn as mingly positive dev True Panther Sou In December of 201 nds - his most dism el9, Marshall debuted al project to date. video included sho fou r trac in a video upl oad The songs premie ts of Marshall performing solo ks ed to YouTube title gui red tar d in ver “He the sion video s of depression, lonelin songs in front of field y, World.” The grainy ess and fleeting introduced the general themes ofthe and electric towers lamenting the wor the rgy. The tracks strik m - dark, drearys trac ld his daughter is ene e one as nihilist albu ks that explored. born into. lullabies, finding Mar shall as a new fath Man Alive! opens with er a vengeance - star first section of the ting with tracks like album’s sound. One “Cellular” and “Co beat deeply layered of my personal favo me t Fac with e,” two rites on the album, heavy bass, disgusti broke a promise to “Stoned Again,” feasongs that drive the ng guitar tones and himself. tures an aggressive the screams of a man who knows that he Throughout the res once again soundscapes that t of the album, Marshall puts his plane,” a song ded demand attention and reveal the emotions on full display in his cre icat ir atio intr ed n icac of occasionally stre to his daughter, fea moments on the albu tures vocal sampleies on each subsequent listen. “Air ssful m despite its darker s from Nilüfer Yanya por instrumental. and serves as onet Antenatal AirThe highlight of the of the brighter albu m comes at the end transitioning bea , beginning with the swa ful sonic piece feautifully into the somber “Energy Fle , much happie ets. The track buiying ng enormous bass in an increasingly turi lds from a desolat r sounding “Underclass,” and hits, airy synths,”ligh distressed tone “Su guitar section into ch a funny life!”, beg t saxophone runs, and Krule’se sign a beautiging the question: ature growl. He rep In all, Man Alive! is is it really? eats grimy, angry kid groa powerful piece of music that dem has the potential to wing into a man bogged down withands patience, thought and atte improve. ntion. It paints a pict his past, but glisten ure of s with the occasional hope that life trulya
ALL ALBUMS ARE REVIEWED ON A SCALE FROM ONE TO TEN, WITH TEN BEING THE HIGHEST POSSIBLE SCORE 6 / EMMIE
_______________ the slow rush
TAME IMPALA DOOLEY
WRITTEN BY MORGAN
GRIMES ______________
WRITTEN BY RI
LEY YOUNGER
score: 9.2
ic for his solo project, Tame Impala, returns to the psychedel Australian musician and producer Kevin Parker, best known albums Rush. Following the overwhelm ing success of previous Parker rock scene after a five-year album hiatus with The Slow fans. of eyes the in short fall to projects future such as Currents and Lonerism, it would seem easy for Parker’s setting itself apart from his past repertoire with an electronic, keeps things fresh and enters a new era with this record, not reach a dance club of the past. While The Slow Rush mayhis house music-feel , reminiscen t of hazy memories from abilities and genius of Parker, while also highlightin g the highs of Currents, it maintains the unmatched musicality . to defy genres and produce seamlessly theme: the passage of time. Whether that’s time passing The album’s title and most of its tracks deal with a central or time he plans to spend with his wife Sophie, Parker is too quickly or too slowly, time lost with his departed father, lends itself to plenty of existential and thought-pr ovoking lyrics certainly hung up on the concept of time. This theme we see in previous records. than so more arguably Rush, Slow The of throughou t the entirety project’s more experimen tal, house-insp ired tracks, Parker Beginning the album with “One More Year,” one oftothe expresses be Currents’ desperate twin. Lyrically, the track also makes it very clear that The Slow Rush is not going to come to terms with the idea of settling into a routine. Two is Parker’s new direction in its unique reflection of struggling “Breathe Deeper” and “Is It True.” “Breathe Deeper” its be to have would opinion, my in album, the on tracks of standout intergalact ic synths. The song slowly builds over the course True” a bright and upbeat disco track full of 90’s keys andcraft It “Is unwieldy. feeling it without song a five-plus minute track six-minute run time, showing Parker knows show to a disco ball. Musically, this is arguably the most fun, upbeat same is a glossy, club-ready track made for moving underperky synths, while the lyrics question his ability to love the listenon the record, with strong basslines and plenty of the heightens only which vulnerabili ty through the album person forever. It’s lines like these that exude Parker’s new sounds, Parker holds onto the dreamy vocal distortions er’s experience . While The Slow Rush experimen ts with the album on-brand yet not repetitive. and repetitive bass lines that Tame Impala is known for, keeping has put out (whether that be for Tame Impala or for he music the of all and I am endlessly impressed by Kevin Parker and Kanye West) and The Slow Rush is no exception toI his collaborati ons with Travis Scott, Kali Uchis, Mark Ronson time and space — which is exactly the sound through nce transcende 57-minute a is Rush Slow my satisfactio n. The hoped to find in this record.
__ miss anthro
pocene
score: 6
After stepping Anthropocen out of the spotlight for five years, on Feb. Candian singee. The deluxe version of the 21, 2020, Grime s fin is the next sta r-songwriter is critically acc album includes 15 tracks released her fift ge , remixes andally laim for ed for he Gr h studio album ime topics like clim features by i_o , Miss ate change. s: the tracks on her new albr past two albums Oblivion , HANA and 潘P an um build on he r ethereal tondeArt Angels by Pitchfork. Th AN. The The title of the is album while also spe alb um includ aking on import biggest imp ant on the clim es the word “Anthrop en climate chanact e” — Ea ’s cu ge and the sonate and environment. Thoc rrent geologic is album acts rth the energy yo gs reflect the fee al ag as e u in fee a ling wh co mm tary on ho ich hu ns ha s and rception rhythm in songs l when listening to the ve the s we have duen the current agma m. Celestial pe like “Darkseid” ring this timewpe e is defined by and cosmic en makes the list riod. Her songs ergy comes ou ener feel attach I appreciate the are t of all he ed r to mu the sic ; the constant he about music. depreciation. So work Grimes put into thi artbeat s album and the ngs like “You’ll Grimes is uniqu references she miss me when e in the co I’m not around” way she produ nsciously make an atmospheric an ce s d “Before the s her own music about the earth and conceptua fever” . Sh l album in a sea an human of male produeceis a female musician who embody Grimes’ ethered While I apprecia al tones. is more than cap rs and songwrite te Grimes’ raw Grimes’ work— ab rs. le tal of creating en t an d social comm I think she has and the transitio entary through definitely relea ns Mis sed be s twe be An en position. For exa gs are confusin tter music on her previo thropocene, the album mple, the cybson g and she is not my us album Forever,” where er rap and ele her soft and hig ctronic beats inexpresses a lot of differes.ntThe album’s tracks are unfavorite of h-pitched voice balan d moods in her ov is prominent.“Darkseid” are harshly contr erall music coce The album is no ast ed mby the next tra to. The songs, t something I would list ck, “Delete to on the daily the vocal proceupon initial listening, doen not flow togeth and is a project that takes ssing and confl er and trying to sev ict of the sound decode the lyr eral listens to truly get acc design. ics is sometime ustomed s impossible du e to
Sotomayor
__________________ orígenes
WRITTEN BY IZZI BAVIS
score: 8
on Feb. 14, 2020 with Wonderwheel Recordings. At first I was Orígenes landed on my desk a week before its releasedown and I never understood what to listen for in electronic hesitant — I usually preferred music that was stripped were captivated and I quickly fell in love with each music. After giving Sotomayor’s record a few more spins, my ears track. Sotomayor beautifully. The siblings hail from Mexico Created by Raul and Paulina Sotomayor, Orígenes represents track “Nunca es tarde,” jumps right in. It highlights City, Mexico and each song has clear Latin influences. Theisopening electronic based and is more focused on Paulina Paulina’s vocal abilities and Raul’s mixing skills. The song less recordar.” para / tarde belting the hook “nunca es on the second track, “Lo que tu quieres de mi.” Here the Sotomayor made it clear that they are an electronic duo a bumping bass line. I think it was a bold decision to place focus shifted from acoustic instruments to quick kickstoand both tracks are similar but draw on two very differ“Nunca es tarde” and “Lo que tu quieres de mi” next each other, d. backgroun and sound ’s ent parts of Sotomayor the fourth track, “Sin control.” It is slower but punches After the third or fourth listen I found the true gem of the album: the vocals and the mix). I would go as far to say that “Sin the same as “Despierta” (another strong song that balances instrumental parts to get you to dance. simple control” is almost a pop song. It uses repetitive lyrics and between Paulina’s vocals and Raul’s producrelationship the is musicians other What differentiates Sotomayor from Orígenes seems like a dance, Raul and Paulina lead each tion and how they use their Latin roots to create music.allow to perform solo but always coming back to each other the to parts some at pausing album, the other throughout other.
PLEASE NOTE: ALL VIEWS EXPRESSED HERE ARE THE AUTHOR’S OWN SPRING 2020 / 7
_____________ watch this liquid pour itself
OKAY KAYA
WRITTEN BY ASHLEY EVERS
Jeff Parker
score: 7.8
Itself connection through social media, Watch This Liquid Pour In an era of online self-deprecation and growing intimateand melancholia. Kaya Wilkins’, operating as Okay Kaya, sophofoments these motifs through hyper-sexualized sarcasm under drinking be to wishing one the moonlight and ends with more album begins with listeners yearning to dance alone als to TORRES’s inimitable spacey-pop rhythms, Wilkins shatters in a graveyard. From Mitski’s daring profound confession pristine strangeness and displaced commentary. stereotypes and grabs the listener’s attention with the album’s overall loop and overlap, sending the listener into an statements echoing Opener “Baby Little Tween,” builds chaos as Wilkin’s hymns woven throughout the work. “Insert Generic Name” outro featuring church organs dramaticizing the haunting mix, illustrating the lingering bitterness in a the to demeanor d ill-mannere Wilkin’s and introduces floating jazzy lines relationship. driving disco beat and breathy spoken word piece. These A stark contrast is presented in “Asexual Wellbeing” with it’s feelings towards Jon Bon Jovi’s successful line of rosé wine. elements allude to an indelible comparison of Wilkin’s hopeful and embrace the fluidity of gender and sexuality. Creeping diversity celebrate Me” Hallelu Ya “Hallelu in Dizzying acoustics in the latter half of the work. “Stonethrow” introduced tones earthier overstimulation is built until relief is found through how society tells us we should feel. builds an enchanting balance between how we feel internally and the are enough to leave a stark impression on listeners, but lust The record’s atypical subject matter and jumbled structure end. Wilkins’ calming, angelic vocals narrate the foiled and cinematic visuals lose their suspense and thrill towards the and expel both desire diary online an keep to desire ing overwhelm The life. and mundane loneliness of everyday satisfaction offer a different perspective than her 2018 record, Both. shrewd self-observations. From tweetable lyrics to feverish Wilkins gives a profoundly intimate monologue dictating these lens of constant disappointment. As a young woman stuck accounts of discomfort, Wilkins formulates poetry through the a forbidding task. The world as Wilkins sees it goes remains others with s connection out between generations, seeking far beyond what we carry in our back pockets.
______________ a suit for max brown
WRITTEN BY DANIEL KLUGMAN
score: 9.5
it is clear jazz. Released on Jan. 24, 2020 with International Anthem, s are Jeff Parker’s A Suite For Max Brown is science fiction Throughout the record, Parker argues that jazz musician Parker lives in a deterministic world as a seasoned guitarist. or undesirable. This desirable as rhythm and harmony of features machines and are programmed to recognize certain claims that once musicians recognize such programming as what it programming can limit jazz musicians, however Parker in creating an expansive sonic landscape. is, a limit to their creativity, then they can move forward vocals on the tes with his daughter Ruby. Ruby provides the only to go / Build a On the opening track “Build a Nest,” Parker collabora e moves, like they’ve some place “Everyon sings, She cool. and ous monoton robot, ntial elements album like a beautiful al vocals contrast with the lyrics that harken quintesse nest and watch the world, go by slow.” The mechanic stop building “a nest,” and watching the world “go by slow.” If they of the human experience. Parker pleads musicians to innovate their sound. can can move outside of their comfort zone, then they that come uses the same bass loop to craft entirely different tracks On tracks such as “Fusion Swirl” and “Go Away,” Parkerilluminate Parker’s emphasis of the subtle formulaic nature of life — at opposite ends of the album. Their similarity in parts all. it g underlyin seemingly different from moment to moment, fate form jazz, of all the musical elements of the album. There is free of ways to On closing track “Max Brown,” Parker presents a fusion and glitchy off-kilter drums. Ultimately, there are a myriad ethereal synth breaks, straight-ahead trumpet solosthe reality that we are in a new age of music creation. create jazz music and confining yourself is denying
Stormzy _____________
heavy is the head
WRITTEN BY HAYLEY SNELL
Across the pond, the UK had its eyes on rapper Stormzy well before he his sophomore album Heavy Is The Head. His debut album, Gang Signs & Prer, topped the UK Albums Chartdropped as the first grime album to ever reach number one — an added pressure for the artist to deliver another project just as strong. Heavy Is The Head, released Dec. 13, 2019 with Atlantic Records, seemed move towards a pop sound, yet Stormzy finds moments to incorporate heavy grime flows that are reminiscent of tomusic he started his career with. The album is an opportunity for Stormzy to acknowledge the fame he has amassed.the (The title itself alludes to the weight that comes with responsibility and fame.) The third track “Crown” acts as a confessional the rapper, who expresses the pressure of stardom and being labeled a “voice of the young black youth.” In contrast,for “Wiley Flow” glamorizes and praises the lavish life of a rapper.
8 / EMMIE
score: 7
Most features on the album helped set the tone. Artists H.E.R. and Aitch the album, matching Stormzy in vocal aesthetics and energy. Not all features worked well and one in particularenhanced felt unnecessary. Ed Sheeran, who jumped in during “Own It,” felt out of place. The feature felt like an attempt to pull pop music fans, rather than a genuinely wellmatched collaboration. The song would have been one of my favorites had Sheeran not been on the track. The strongest points in the album are the songs that lean into pop and ballad territory. They aerate the album and keep it from feeling weighed down by harsh beats and fast flows. Songs “Don’t to Breathe” and “Crown” add a soft, tender element to the album, allowing Stormzy to show off his vocal rangeForget and emotions. The album is a balancing act between pop and grime, flashy and humble. Stormzy is finding a middle ground, and while certain songs slipped, there were more than a few moments where the album found equilibrium.
__ cirlces
ler Mac Mil
____ _ _ _ _ _ __
score: 8.5
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Kesha _____________ high road
WRITTEN BY FRANCISCO VELAZQUEZ
score: 7
Along a narrow highway, Kesha finds herself in headlights. On High Road, Kesha gives us With an emotionally gripping ode to old-sch a glimpse of her new journey. ool “Ke$ha,” we meet her again, like she’s never left. The California-born pop star has lived under the spotligh t since she was 18 — topping the charts and simultaneously battling with recognition in the music industry Dr. Luke — her former producer and former. In recent years, Kesha’s career has faced harsh turmoil. Her lawsuit against head of Kemosabe Records, the label she is Kesha’s career in a faulty spot. Though currently signed to — places her legal battle remains unclear , her return to collaboration with RCA Records, Kesha introduc ed us to High Road on Jan. 31, 2020. music is deliberately precise. In On the high seas, Kesha and Big Freedia In “Raising Hell,” the party of two share the with life and its mistakes. This track notesmeet. good mess of being at war how time here is precious, and that raising hell is temporary, and we are too. “High Road” reels in sirens. Loudly, Kesha redefine s her peace. On this track, Kesha explores what taking the would mean. For some, it may be the best option. high road For others, and for Kesha, it is senseless and the wrong thing to do. difficult. And perhaps, At the peak of pop culture, Kesha has garnere d a world full of glitter and rainbows. It is no Kesha found her beat. Stringing us along, surprise that this time around, Kesha brings her sunshine on “Shadow,” fire tempo we’re used to. Under construction, a slow-down distinct from the rapid her side. “BFF” is ironically reminiscent — that Kesha reminds listeners that her world is always warm with support on we can’t do it all alone. Similarl y candle that is unafraid of being thrown into to “Summer,” Kesha is an already melting the fire. Kesha shares High Road on a whim, free of criticism s. She hits the open road, full of redemption. Only this time, Kesha filled with the spirit to be fearless under her is conditions.
___ marigold
_________ _ e
PinegroZOvE BOCKHORST
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WRITTEN BY
score:6.8
SPRING 2020 / 9
WHAT THE FUZZ? EMMIE STAFF D E F I N E FUZZ
Fuzz is created when several individual entities are blended together to form a single cohesive (or chaotic) being or aura. It is felt through touch, sound and sight, sometimes simultaneously. Fuzz is my favorite blanket and the lint on my least favorite sweater. It’s the amalgamation of thousands of tiny fibers to form the tangible feeling of softness and warmth. At the same time, it’s the cloud of ambient sound that fills my bedroom at night when my white noise machine is on. I also hear fuzz in the grainy static of my dad’s old James Taylor record as it spins around the turntable of my record player. These forms of tactile and audible fuzz — the soft, soothing kinds that gently meet the skin and ears — feel warm and comforting. Visual fuzz, however, feels disconcerting and uncomfortable. Blurred vision replaces clarity and focus with an indistinguishable cloud of color. This particular blend of entities feels unnatural and wrong to the eyes and brain. Similarly, the blending of various thoughts within your head forms a mental fuzz that can feel overwhelming and unpleasant. Fuzz is not rigid and does not exist within the lines. Instead, fuzz blurs lines. Fuzz is both within and without. Fuzz exists in a plethora of forms and representations, often unique to the individual. It cannot be bound to one particular feeling, sound, sight or texture. Fuzz is fuzz is fuzz. WRITTEN BY BAILEY GRIFFIN
10 / EMMIE
The vocals in every Whitney song are fuzz. Wes Montgomery’s The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery is fuzz. New Justin Bieber is not fuzz, but any track from My World 2.0 is fuzz. Jorge Ben’s album, Samba Esquema Novo, is fuzz. Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know” is fuzz. Anything released by Noname is fuzz. Kanye West and Drake are not fuzz. Fuzz is when you intertwine a moment with art and as a result reality is blurred. My fuzz is not the same as your fuzz. Maybe your fuzz isn’t music, maybe your fuzz is sitting on the Terrace and watching the sun sink into Lake Mendota. Maybe your fuzz is a painting or a piece of ceramic. Fuzz is a state of mind — it can’t be forced and it is almost impossible to take away once in place. WRITTEN BY IZZI BAVIS
Fuzz isn’t a material object. Fuzz is a feeling. While it’s hard to describe, and its definition varies from person to person, I can only try to put it into words. Fuzz is light, fluffy and all-consuming. It washes over your entire state of being and you feel as though you’re being lifted up with it. Fuzz makes you appreciate life just a little bit more, whether you feel it on a simple walk to class, an adventure with friends, or alone in your room late at night, it makes everything seem more colorful and real. Fuzz is also home. Music and art that evokes fuzz will make you feel more like yourself. It perfectly resonates with something deep inside of you that can’t be put into words. Not everything you like will have fuzz. Fuzz is a deeper, richer and more fulfilling feeling than just enjoying something. Everyone’s fuzz is different, and when you find something with fuzz, it’ll leave an impact you can’t shake off. It can’t be imitated by anything else. WRITTEN BY NINA BOSNJAK
Fuzz is driving in July with the windows all the way down. Fuzz is sipping slurpees, singing at the top of your lungs with your best friends. The air oozes with cherry and blue raspberry. Our cheeks rosy, tongues stained swirls of red and blue and foreheads wet with sweat. Fuzz is cutting bangs and bleaching hair at 2 a.m. while blasting Phoebe Bridgers. It’s dying your hair pink when something is off-track and the only way to compensate is to change. It’s a recollection of warm, misty feelings that are short-lived, yet meaningful. Tyler the Creator’s “PEACH FUZZ” embodies exactly that: the momentary bliss of summertime. “PEACH FUZZ” is rapped over a funky Mndsgn-produced track and is heavily nostalgic — his lyrics reminiscing over summer flings. It’s an ode to playful, short-lived exploration of feelings, emotions and self discovery. The hazy, buzzing sounds from this track recapture those summer nights we might not fully remember, but the fuzzy afterglow that always remains. WRITTEN BY KAYLA CHUNG
Fuzz is despicable, yet loving. It is agitating, yet soothing. Fuzz, fundamentally, is a contradiction. It cradles us in its tender embrace from the inside of our favorite sweaters, yet also irritates the skin of a romantic partner from the face that provides pleasure. Its sound irritates the ears of the unsuspecting while it simultaneously carries its followers to the brink of their senses. It represents the same chaotic balance that drives our global society. The duality of fuzz as tender caretaker and nuisance perhaps gives us some insight into ourselves. At least, that’s the opinion of this liberal arts major. Who knows! Maybe the fuzz inside my brain has prohibited me from seeing clearly about its true nature. Maybe, just maybe, fuzz is nothing. It’s just the lint in my pocket. It’s the moldy fruit on the counter that is swiftly disposed of without a second thought. If I get fuzzy will I get disposed of? Maybe we should fear fuzz. A horseman of the apocalypse that rides in to demand we rid ourselves of all hope. A fungus that will consume humanity. Maybe this fungus has infected the brain of the fuzz that label themselves the protecting servants of our communities while carrying out injustice at all levels. Fuzz is all around is. Nothing, everything, somewhere in-between? Maybe the answer lies in these pages. WRITTEN BY TIM SCHAUF
Fuzz is the feeling you get without knowing why. It’s the indescribable quality that roots and grows inside you, and when it goes it leaves little pieces behind. Fuzz sticks. Fuzz is a soft explosion. It’s big, but how much substance is there really? You’ll notice it when it’s gone, but you won’t exactly be able to remember what it was. Little pieces of the memory cling to different parts of you. Maybe they shine in the sun. Maybe they float away. When you look at them, they’re never as big as they were with your eyes closed. Sure, you can grab it, but can you really? Is it yours to touch? Try to pick it all out. Reach as deep as you can inside your heart and wrench out, pluck, blow away every last piece of fuzz, every memory you have of her and all the fuzz she carries, the last time you saw your mother’s eyes. As you turned to leave, you thought you saw something in them, but you couldn’t quite tell. Fuzz. Just a bit. WRITTEN BY ZOE BOCKHORST
SPRING 2020 / 11
THE RENAISSANCE OF VINYL (AND BRIEF HISTORY)
At a time when digital music streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music dominate, vinyl records and record players have managed to emerge from their near-death in the ’90s and mid-2000s to reclaim a space in the commercial music industry. The history of vinyl began in 1887, when Emile Berliner patented the gramophone, which had the ability to interpret grooves on a spinning flat disc with the help of a direct drive system and a cone-shaped needle. This invention led to the need and desire for vinyl records, thus becoming the blueprint for modern record players. Shortly after in 1895, the first record player was mass produced. Vinyl records and record players would enjoy a stable share of the commercial music industry in the following decades, but it wasn’t until the ’60s and ’70s that they reached peak popularity. During this time, Dual released the first turntables to provide stereo playback and Electrohome released their classic wooden stereo consoles (that are still commonly seen today).
WRITTEN BY BAILEY GRIFFIN
With the public introduction of CDs in 1983, the prominence of vinyl as the preferred means of enjoying music was dwarfed — although, hip-hop DJs continued to experiment with turntables and vinyl throughout the ’80s and ’90s. Now, after years of being primarily sustained by devoted sonic enthusiasts and nostalgic music-lovers, the vinyl record industry has reclaimed a stake in American pop culture. Between 2007 and 2017, national vinyl sales broke stagnancy and climbed to a record high in 2017 for yearly vinyl albums sales recorded since 1991. Vinyl records can now be purchased not only in independently owned record stores such as B-Side Records, Strictly Discs and MadCity Music in our very own Madison, Wisconsin, but also at large big-box retailers. Some newfound vinyl collectors are even getting their records from online record-of-the-month club, Vinyl Me, Please. The resurgence of vinyl in the past decade is particularly compelling because the experience of listening to a vinyl record departs so significantly from the culture of instant gratification that we’ve become accustomed to. When using Spotify or Apple Music, a listener can easily press shuffle on a playlist they’ve created or search for exactly what song they’d like to hear and have it playing through their earbuds in a matter of seconds. Listening off vinyl, however, requires a bit more effort and attention. There’s an almost ritualistic nature to the act of pulling a vinyl from its cardboard jacket, then from the inner paper sleeve, and finally delicately placing it on the turntable of a record player. Special care must be given to the precise adjustment of the record player’s tonearm until the needle sits comfortably within the outer groove marking the first song on the record. Once the first side has been listened to all the way through, the record must be flipped in order to listen to the remainder of the album. Needless to say, all this time and effort put into listening to vinyl is in direct contradiction with the instant gratification received from the tap of a finger on a smartphone.
Listening to vinyl requires a commitment of not only time and effort, but also to an alternative music-listening experience. Records and record players take up a considerable amount of space and cannot simply be paired with Airpods and slipped into a coat pocket during a morning commute. Because these items are not portable, enjoying music off vinyl is an experience tied to the home. While this could be viewed as a limitation, it contributes to the uniquely romantic and intimate experience of listening to a vinyl record. Listening to vinyl is preceded by the quiet moment at home of choosing which album will be the soundtrack to the next hour of your life. In this moment, holding a record creates a unique physical connection to the music by assigning a visual and tangible feeling to an album. The choice of a single album and the process of putting that album on the turntable demands a certain responsibility and interaction from the listener. It’s this dedication to the home, to one artist and to one album that allows the listener to experience a connection with music and its creators that is distinct from modern mediums. The tangible experience of putting a record on is enough to draw many to vinyl, but for some music-lovers, the appeal is all about sound quality. For nostalgic audiophiles, vinyl offers that warm analog sound of the past that CDs and digital files simply cannot replicate. Because vinyl records are analog recordings, they are able to pick up every part of the original sound wave, meaning nothing is lost in the process. In contrast, CDs are digital recordings, which are only capable of approximating the original sound wave, meaning that some sounds may be lost or distorted. Similarly, the audio compression component of MP3s results in the loss of details and a sound quality less than that of vinyl. For these reasons, many believe the resurgence of vinyl may be partially driven by a hunger for high fidelity sound. Although vinyl provides the most accurate and rich sound out of all music-listening mediums, its delicate nature means that any dust or minor damage to a record could cause a grainy static to be heard alongside the music. For many, this static fuzz serves as another contributing factor to the novelty of vinyl.
Even before actually listening to a record, many music-lovers’ relationship with vinyl begins in an independently owned record store. Just as the ritual of putting a record on a turntable contributes to the novel experience of vinyl, so does shopping in a record store. Seemingly endless stacks of records pushed up against walls covered in various posters and stickers invite customers into an environment and culture unattainable anywhere else. Sifting through rows of records adorned with the faces of ’80s pop stars and enticing cover art with the hope of discovering a hidden gem is just another aspect of the vinyl experience that makes it a charming departure from the convenience of digital downloads. The role of record stores in the resurgence of vinyl has been largely supported by Record Store Day, the conception of which coincided with the stagnancy-breaking spike of vinyl sales in 2007. On the third Saturday of every April, music fans and record stores around the world celebrate the culture surrounding vinyl. Promotional products are prepared, limited-edition releases are made available and festivities are held — all to preserve, celebrate and promote the experience of music through vinyl. Since its inauguration in 2008, vinyl sales at independent record stores have increased by about 186% on all Record Store Days. In 2019, Record Store Day marked the third-largest sale week for vinyl albums since 1991 and Nielsen Music estimates that it was the biggest week ever for vinyl sales at independent record stores. While it can’t be definitively determined whether the conception of Record Store Day was the primary catalyst for the renaissance of vinyl, it has certainly made a significant contribution to the revival of appreciation for vinyl in the past decade. For those who were around during the ’60s and ’70s, the resurgence of vinyl offers the opportunity to revisit the sounds of their youth and for younger generations, it allows for the alternate experience of music as palpable, collectible art. The process of obtaining and listening to vinyl sets it apart from modern modes of music enjoyment, as it asks the listener to slow down and temporarily step out of the chaotic culture of convenience. Although vinyl will most likely never rise above streaming services to once again become the primary means of enjoying music, its revival is a meaningful representation of a lasting desire for an intimate experience with music.
EH
IND
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N A B M
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ent perspectives — put yourself in this guy’s shoes for a second and this guy ain’t so different from you.”
14 / EMMIE
A mask conceals and reveals. Only a narrow set of brown eyes can be seen behind a jagged metal plate, on top of which balances a New York Knicks hat fitted with supreme dexterity. The mask is a permanent fixture of Daniel Dumile, as much a part of him as his omnivorous ear and deep resonant baritone. With it on he is amorphous, able to inhabit multiple personas and identities with ease. The Long Island rapper, producer and innovator, best known as MF DOOM, turned the physical and thematic hip hop stereotype on its head over his career. The blinged-out, muscular desperado somehow felt less cool than the comic book fanatic, whose vintage Patrick Ewing jersey could barely fit over his protruding belly. DOOM became the writer, director and actor of an unorthodox saga of intertwining yet independent characters who feel just as real as the creator himself.
“If Hip Hop is all about bragging and boasting, then I’m going to make the illest character who can brag about all kinds of shit.”
— MF DOOM WIRE MAGAZINE (2005)
“I like to show differ-
TH
WRITTEN BY HENRY MICHAELS
Operation Doomsday
1991 was a prolific year in hip hop. A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory and Ice Cube’s Death Certificate established the signature sound of both East and West coasts, providing a fertile ground for the next crop of rhyme-slaying pioneers. Artists wielded rhymes as a defense against growing racial tensions that would reach a breaking point with the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles the Who Me? following year. Emerging out of ESSENTIAL this tradition was KMD — three T R A C K S Peachfuzz students of the craft who blend“Someone once said ed Q-Tip crate digging with the health is wealth, so check B E S T self I gots a perfect check- whimsical spirit of De La Soul. for a hiccup, roll B A R S up, ‘cept Under the moniker Zev Love X, with no stick-up” - Peachfuzz DOOM was joined by his brother DJ Subroc, and longtime friend Onyx the Birthstone Kid. While Mr. Hood exudes an adolescent playfulness on songs like “Peachfuzz” — which pairs a Sesame Street like drum loop and dense bars about stresses of growing up — the work is grounded in a satirical commentary on what it is like to be Black and young in America. On tracks like “Who Me?” we get the first glimpse of DOOM’s masterful ability to mix humor and obscure cultural references to make a larger point about society’s ills.
Take________________ Me To Your Leader 2003
____________ 2004
Take Me To Your Leader is the start of DOOM’s Godzilla-like tear of the hip hop landscape. On this project, DOOM inhabits the three-headed King Ghidorah, a monster who appears in the Godzilla films. DOOM’s lyrical prowess takes a backseat to his production, letting his crew members from Monsta Island Czars shine behind the mic. Jazz and sci-fi are seamlessly melded together on tracks like “Next Levels” and “Fazars,” as if you blasted Q-Tip into an alien universe with a box set of Freddie Hubbard records and a sampler. While you can feel DOOM’s comfortability within the jazz aesthetic, the record is by no means safe. DOOM pushes the boundaries on what VCR narration of dubbed Japanese sci-fi flicks can do in the hands of a gifted producer like himself.
ESSENTIAL T R A C K S
B B
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S R
T S
Fazers Next Levels “Who needs a heater? Catch ‚em with bare hands / These same hands that make razors out beer cans / His own biggest fan / And got a fan base as big as Japan“ - Fazars
Mm.. Food
On the official follow up to Operation Doomsday, DOOM continues his monstrous two-year rap tirade by simply being himself. Jazzy boom-bap beats are paired with boundless food-centered analogies for a full course meal of equally hilarious and mind-boggling hip hop. DOOM returns as the master chef behind the boards where he feels most comfortable. While MM… Food does not have the consistency of Madvilliany, or the shock factor of Operation Doomsday, DOOM’s ability to interweave a food motif with crisp production is admirable. On tracks like “Potholderz,” DOOM’s puts his ESSENTIAL lyrical dexterity on full display where a fish fry T R A C K S and smoke session become indistinguishable over an intoxicating Dr. Dre inspired bassline. MM... Food sees DOOM in his wheelhouse, B E S T while still taking risks. DOOM rattles off dizzy- B A R S ing couplets over a lunchroom style beatbox on “Hoe Cakes,” and lets collaborator Mr. Fantastik come through with one of the most unlikely, catchiest choruses of any DOOM track to date on “Rapp Snitch Knishes.”
____________1999
Following the death of his brother DJ Subroc, and a label dispute that shelved KMD’s follow up to Mr. Hood, DOOM retreated from music with anger toward the industry and the world heavy in his heart. His return to rap came clouded with the same mystique and intrigue as the supervillain he would morph into his own — Fantastic Four nemesis Victor Von Doom. The comic book villain — who experienced a similar tragic loss and period of soul searching — resonated with DOOM as his mask became a permanent fixture. Operation: Doomsday chronicles the supervillain’s rise. DOOM’s gruff, subterranean baritone meets shimmering sax and woodwind melodies that make the listener rethink what constitutes good and evil. While the album is undeniably lighthearted — enlisting samples reminiscent of elevator music on tracks like “Doomsday” and “Rhymes like Dimes” — chaotic, murky production and dense couplets on “Tick, Tick…” and “Hey” maintain a constant feeling of duality for DOOM and the character he inhabits.
ESSENTIAL T R A C K S
“Rhymes Like Dimes” Gas Drawls
B B
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“Only in America could you find a way to make a healthy buck/ And still keep your attitude on selfdestruct.” - Rhymes like Dimes
Vaudeville Villain ____________2003
Mr. Hood
Just three months after the release of Take Me To Your Leader, DOOM returned with the sinister, stripped-down Vaudeville Villain. Under the moniker Viktor Vaughn, DOOM sounds like he spent his time recording in the depths of the Gotham City underworld, while chain-smoking cigars with Tony Soprano. Compared to past records, Vaudeville Villain is more structured and narrative-heavy despite the lack of DOOM’s signature gelastic energy. “Lickupon” introduces the nefarious — Viktor Vaughn whose affection for chaos is less that of a supervillain, but a washed-up mobster whose superpower is beer chugging and devouring an all-you-can-eat buffet. While the bars are as strong as always, DOOM feels less comfortable Lickupon ESSENTIAL over the entirely guest-produced T R A C K S Mr. Clean beat selection. Airy, transparent drum fills and fluttering synths can make “Sounded like a half-dead B E S T from Scurvy band rock / DOOM’s delivery sound acapella, A programmed, computer B A R S bio-grafted Herbie Han- which let his masterful wordsmithing cock” - Lickupon take center stage.
Madvillainy ____________ 2004
Deep Fried Frenz Potholderz “MCs is crabs in a barrel, pass the Old Bay” - Potholderz
The magnum opus of underground hip hop, Madvillainy brings together two legends at their prime for a supernatural creation reminiscent of Marvel meeting DC. Otis Jackson Jr. (aka Madlib) and DOOM blend the entire Black musical diaspora into a seamless whole that exudes a sheer love for everything music can and is able to do. The record flows like a deranged superhero comic where DOOM and Madlib cruise through downtown Los Angeles in a Cadillac Coupe Deville watching the city crumble as they pass around bottles of Old English. Tracks like “Figaro” sound like Madlib punched a Lonnie Smith sample with brass knuckles until it was Rhinestone ESSENTIAL limping in a drunken circle to DOOM’s dizzying Cowboy T R A C K S flow. The duo’s alter alias pop in for cameos like Figaro on an episode of the 1972 “New Scooby-Doo B E S T “Known as the grimy, Movies.” DOOM brings back Viktor Vaughn for slimy— try me B A R S limey, the manic self diss trick “Fancy Clown,” while Blimey! Simply smashing in a fashion that‘s timely Madlib shifts into the high pitched flow of QuaMadvillain dashing in a beat-rhyme crime spree“ simoto on “America’s Most Blunted” for a battle - Rhinestone Cowboy with DOOM on who can drop the most weed references. Madlib’s beat selection is meticulous, and DOOM’s bars feel like an infinite triple word score.
16 / EMMIE
ÂA PLAYLIST
SPRING 2020 / 17
photographed by hayley snell written by morgan dooley 18 / EMMIE
As I sat cross-legged on a cool hardwood floor across from Bad Bad Hats one mild March afternoon, I couldn’t have felt more comfortable. As a whole, the group exudes such a charming, friendly energy — fitting of their Midwest origin — that could make anyone feel at home.
Bad Bad Hats is a three-piece indie rock band from Minnesota: consisting of vocalist Kerry Alexander, guitarist Chris Hoge, and drummer Connor Davison. Since getting their start in 2013, the band has released two full-length studio albums, two EP’s and performed with the likes of Third Eye Blind, Trampled by Turtles, Margaret Glaspy, Hippocampus, The Front Bottoms and even Death Cab for Cutie.
Alexander endearingly describes Bad Bad Hats as a “do-gooder’s rock band.” The group’s moniker refers to a particularly mischievous character from one of Alexander’s favorite childhood television series. Alexander cites that when she would get into trouble as a child, her parents would ask: “Are you being a bad hat?” This was a question that she — being the sweet, do-gooder she was — hated receiving. Fast-forward to her college years, when she teamed up with Hoge to start what would later become Bad Bad Hats, the phrase suddenly resurfaced itself when deciding on a band name.
“It was kind of funny to me to think of myself in a rock band; so I thought that name kind of fit nicely with a do-gooder’s rock band,” Alexander joked. CONTINUE
SPRING 2020 / 19
Together, Bad Bad Hats has toured across the country,
that’ll change,” Alexander remarks with a smile. Al-
recorded music, and in general, spent plenty of time in
though years have passed since she started writing for
each other’s company. Even still, they aren’t quite sick
Bad Bad Hats, Alexander continues to strive for that
of each other just yet. In fact, all three members cite
youthful lightness in her lyrics. As Hoge puts it, “All
off-time together on tour as their favorite memories as
the songs still sound like your songs...the core
a band. Whether it be hot-tubbing in New England,
of them is still there, it’s just they’re wearing
pool time in Phoenix or beach days in Santa Cruz, the
different clothes.”
members of Bad Bad Hats always find a way to make tour feel like a vacation.
As for what’s next for Bad Bad Hats, the group hints toward a new project they’ve been working on for some
While the trio continues to look optimistically in the
time now: they have most of an album recorded, and
future, they also take time to reflect and be proud of
although there is no set release date in the books quite
where they’ve gotten thus far.
yet, fans can rest assured that there is more to come.
Seven years ago, the group came out with their 2013
Whether it’s through seeing them perform live or
debut EP It Hurts, and they’ve certainly come a long
streaming their songs through your speakers, Bad Bad
way since then. It’s been a slow transformation, like
Hats aims to evoke joy in all of their listeners. They
how you don’t realize you’re growing older until you
are dedicated to creating distinct emotion in their mu-
reminisce on photos and see how young you used to
sic; the kind of music that someone would want to put
be, but it’s been a transformation nonetheless. Musi-
on a mix CD and give to their crush. Alexander ex-
cally, it’s easy to see the band’s evolution, from young,
plains that this is the type of music she has always been
sunshiney, folk-inspired tracks like “Secrets Are No
drawn to since she was a child — now she hopes to be
Fun” off It Hurts to more mature and highly-produced
a source of that emotionally- attached music for others.
tracks like “Nothing Gets Me High” off of their most recent 2018 album, Psychic Reader. Although lyrically,
“Just being like: ‘there’s no other way for me to say
Alexander, who does most of Bad Bad Hats’ songwrit-
this besides putting these songs together for you.’ I like
ing, says she’s remained pretty consistent throughout
to be included in people’s stories like that,” Alexander
time. “I’m still writing love songs and I don’t think
gushed.
20 / EMMIE
SPRING 2020 / 21
FLAMBOYANT GENIUS:
22 / EMMIE
DORIAN ELECTRA PHOTOGRAPHED BY ANA RAMOS CONTRERAS
WRIT TEN BY JASPER NELSON + GEORDON WOLLNER
“MY NAME IS DORIAN ELECTRA AND I’M A POP MUSICIAN AND ONE THING PEOPLE MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT ME IS THAT MY HIGH SCHOOL PROM WAS STEAMPUNK THEMED.”
A flash of green catches our eyes and we silence. We look up from the back of the room, a long conference table stretched in front of us like a shield, as Dorian Electra strides through the door, donning an immaculate black leather ensemble of assless chaps, a leather trench coat and step-on-your-face platforms. Pushing aside a piece of neon green hair off their freckled flushed cheek and smirking so that one side of their freshly drawn mustache ticks upward, we were cast under Dorian’s spell — it was at this precise moment that we understood why our interview had been unexpectedly delayed two hours, leaving us less than 30 minutes for a photoshoot before their set. Our attention was demanded and held fast. Our eyes were unable to stray from the radiating power before us, for fear of missing out on something we’d never witness again in our lifetime — or maybe, we’d be punished for looking away? We consider it: Because, really, punishment from Dorian wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing. They comment on the serious lack of quality Instagram Story face filters on our phones; a few days and three newly saved face filters later, we’re on the phone to finish what we started. Dorian Electra, who has been producing music since 2009, is in the vanguard of a pop music revolution. In the 2010s, pop singers and electronic producers began blurring the lines of what can be considered pop music, with artists such as Grimes, SOPHIE and FKA twigs combining aspects of dancehall, industrial house, heavy metal and simplistic midi-pop to create chaotic tapestries of sound. Their adventurous and often frantic approaches to pop music embodied the hectic digital world so many of us grew to inhabit with the simultaneous rise of social media. Through unrelenting streams of information being thrown at us everyday via our respective Instagram and Facebook feeds, experimental pop stars have brought this overwhelming sentiment into their deconstruction, and ultimate restructuring, of the genre. There’s no denying that Dorian Electra carries this torch in 2020. “I like experimental pop ‘cause it makes you be like, ‘Oh, well, what does that sound like?’ Then the idea is that it sounds different every time, but it’s grounded in a pop sensibility of something super catchy and accessible,” they share. Dorian’s approach to the undefined genre of experimental pop has produced eclectic and lawless sonic landscapes where medieval melodies and heavy metal guitars are pitted against midi-harpsichords and Gregorian monk chants, all combined under sing-along-ready choruses and rave-worthy beats. No two songs on Dorian’s discography sound the same, an intentional move made, as they are “always experimenting and trying to push forward into something new.” This spirit of boundless creativity and unrelenting experimentation is captured in Dorian’s unconventional perspective on the songwriting process. While many musicians begin with a guitar riff or hip-hop beat, Dorian can find inspiration in the vision of a single outfit or cut scene for their next video. “I usually start with a song concept in mind, like an idea for a song title or just some vibe that I want it to be about,” they share, “or even sometimes like ‘Oh, I want to wear this thing’ or, ‘Oh, it’d be cool to do a music video like this.’ Sometimes it starts like that and then sometimes the concepts come from the music.” Dorian allows the inspiration to find them wherever and whenever possible — it’s as simple and as complicated as that. This same passion is exuded across every aspect of their being, their music constantly stretching the boundaries of what a modern pop song can sound like and what it can contain. “The most punk thing you can do is to take something that [gets] made fun of and [is] uncool and then be like, ‘Actually, it’s really fucking lit!” and then convince other people that it’s cool and they start thinking it’s cool,” Dorian comments — we can hear when the smirk appears across their face. CONTINUE
24 / EMMIE
polaroid by geordon wollner
SPRING 2020 / 25
“I WANT TO GIVE PEOPLE SOMETHING THAT IS BOTH FULFILLING TO ME ON A PERSONAL LEVEL, AS WELL AS MEANINGFUL AND VALUABLE TO THEM.”
The careful intentionality that exists within Dorian’s work and life philosophy, of taking the uncool and twisting it, morphing it, of queering it, guides us into a realm where anything is possible — one you wouldn’t dare to ignore nor challenge. Their forging of identity and music, alongside a slew of historical references and one hell of an ascent into pop stardom at just 27 years-old, has made them a leading figure among their contemporaries. Constantly dismantling and rebuilding themselves, along with the world around them, Dorian thrives off the power and it shows. “I’m kind of a control freak,” Dorian confesses, “I want to give people something that is both fulfilling to me on a personal level, as well as meaningful and valuable to them.” Their work ethic, musical philosophy and motivation has given them the power to make their own rules in an industry known for its ruthlessness and exploitation of artists. Dorian is a fully independent artist, managing every aspect of their career. From dictating studio schedules to overseeing financial accounts and scheduling an entire tour, Dorian has their hands in every bucket. “I think I’ve grown so much from having had all that overwhelming freedom and having to come up with plans myself,” they reflect. Dorian isn’t afraid of the challenges of being independent in an industry dominated by huge record labels and publicity teams. While they look at industry record labels with an open mind, they stand by their belief that the benefits of staying independent far outweigh the positives of joining a large label. “I think some labels can be amazing and flexible to create amazing relationships that work out really well. I think it can also be the exact opposite. I feel like record labels, now that they’re seeing more successful independent artists, are having to get more flexible and more adaptable,” they acknowledge, as this fundamental shift in the relationship between musicians and labels has also been pushed by an increased number of artists exposing label abuse over their creative work. The industry must adapt to include artists who want full creative agency, like Dorian, as those are the ones who often produce the most compelling and innovative work. They are relentless and authentic in their pursuit for self-fulfillment, and this is what attracts people to Dorian. Even though there are no huge publicity teams pushing their records, the art is so confident and original that it demands attention. Setting the scene at the beginning of their carrer were a series of sex education videos directed by Dorian for Refinery29, highlighting their talent for spawning outlandish spectacles and spitting cheeky lines with a grin. They drew on their love for academia and history to dive into the topics of the past — see: “The History of Vibrators” and “2000 Years of Drag” — in the most camp way possible, suitable for an audience of today while never losing the integrity and meaning of the subjects. This boundless imagination and inspiration is revealed time and time again, culminating in the music and visuals from their first full-length album, Flamboyant. The neon Tumblr, emo-kid dreamland that is the “Guyliner” video takes us on a journey across lands, from a steamy locker room to a ste-
ampunk laboratory to a city scene with Dorian crushing cars in their platforms to a moto-race awards ceremony. Playing off of clichéd heteronormative roles, we see Dorian applying makeup while dressed in full football pads in a graffitited locker room, juxtaposing two of society’s images of adolescent masculinity — big football tough-guy — and femininity — applying eyeliner in front of a carefully decorated locker — intentionally fusing the two together. At the end of the day, it’s okay for a “man” to care about their looks and use traditionally “feminine products” like eyeliner, while crooning “I’m a guy / Don’t be surprised / If I take my time to glamorize” as they sit at a vanity, displaying their various makeup brushes and accessories, complete with a light-rimmed mirror. Powerfully and unapologetically stating “This is the real me, baby and this ain’t no disguise,” Dorian flaunts their most authentic self, using their scratch-your-eyes-out nails to turn every fixed notion of gender on its head. The merging of history, identity, sex, religion, and every other facet of culture, occurs systematically in the alchemist melting pot of Dorian’s mind. “Adam & Steve” presents us with Christian iconography, intense choral music and thunderous production, establishing a heavy somber ambiance of which Dorian uses to navigate historically anti-queer interpretations of biblical stories. “For ‘Adam & Steve,’ I thought that idea would make a really interesting song title. And then I was like, ‘Oh, it’d be really cool to do some religious choral music with an organ vibe, but then also have it be really dark and intense,’ kind of like biblical fan fiction,” Dorian shares of the tracks conception. The product is an epic affirmation of queerness and sexuality within the Christian faith draped over a cataclysmic beat of heavy metal baroque guitar and industrial beat drops. Visuals for the track push the message even further, flashing through Biblical scenes of nativity recreated to include the queer voice and depict scenes of anti-queer violence, as a burning image of Dorian in the role of Adam and a tattooed and sweating Steve is put on display in a museum, where often the ertoics of art marry those of religion. The heart of the track holds a dueling message of immense pain. Dorian is trying to convince themself that God truly does love them, a difficult affirmation in a Christian faith that has historically oppressed queerness and any deviation off from the socailly accepted heteronormative standard. In the bridge, the beat collapses and Dorian softly chants “They want to destroy me / Say I’m an abomination but I’m God’s creation.” This struggle is visually represented by plague doctors performing some sort of conversion-therapy-meets-exorcism over Dorian, dressed in white, bound by rope and distressed on a bed of green silk. It’s a striking scene of pain and the combination of the video and track working together display the message clearly. Dorian takes these scenes of pain and anguish — the pain of not being loved by who you revere, the anguish of being shunned for who you are, who you were made to be — and revisits them to such a brazen degree that it has created a break in the system. A break that, without Dorian, would never exist and one this world so desperately needs, allowing more voices to be heard and more people to be seen. It is difficult to find artists, of any genre, and of experimental pop in particular, willing to join their music to a higher purpose (outside of saying “fuck you and your musical conventions”). Dorian’s enthusiasm to center a message and a story into their art, to represent a culture all too often oppressed and turned away, is another addition to the long list of qualities that set Dorian apart. CONTINUE SPRING 2020 / 27
Dorian Electra is anything but a static artist. In a genre still being defined, Dorian constantly pushes the boundaries of what can lyrically and musically fall within the pop-yet-experimental sphere. On the heels of the release of Flamboyant, Dorian is already looking towards their next record. “I feel like a lot of stuff on my first album is very celebratory and empowering. And that is really how I was feeling and I still am feeling so much of that every day. But I’m interested in exploring a little bit of the darker side of it, because I feel like now that people understand where I’m coming from, they can interpret it in the context that I’m seeing it in,” Dorian shares. Although Dorian has obvious reasons to be excited and celebratory given the success of the past few years, an exploration of the darker side of their identity and personality would be a compelling shift in dynamics for both them as an individual artist and the experimental pop genre at large. The vein of experimental pop is fast and exultant — a change of pace would bring a compelling counter to the perceived norm of a genre often generalized as a concoction of loud, disorientingly absurd synthesized satire. For Dorian, the exploration of darker subjects has already begun to take shape in specific points on Flamboyant with two of the biggest hits off the record, “Career Boy” and “Adam & Steve,” purposefully incorporating themes and imagery of BDSM culture into both the music and accompanying videos. They aim to normalize a side of sexual expression, commonly deemed inappropriate and violent by mainstream culture, especially by mainstream pop. By exploiting the dialogue against these images, Dorian knocks it aside, shattering the barriers of modern pop music and moving the discourse in their favor. The fate of pop rests in the glass-covered hands of Dorian Electra, and you’re going to hear them no matter what. They are a shape-shifter. Moving through the world with such fluidity that you often have to get into a full sprint, just to keep up — and even then, you’re still on their heels. Dorian has become an artist filled with passion, pushing the boundaries of cultural commentary and allowing vulnerability in music to seep into vulnerability of self, allowing unabashed celebration and expression to reign supreme.
“I CHOSE TO IDENTIFY AS GENDER FLUID BECAUSE IT IMPLIES A CHILLNESS ABOUT GENDER.” “People use [non-binary] for me a lot, and I don’t mind that at all because a lot of people identify with that. I think that I fall into that category, but when I first heard the term non-binary, I actually didn’t think that it resonated with me, because for some reason I was thinking non-binary meant like neither one,” Dorian speaks of their journey with their identity. Rather than confine themselves to one or neither of the masculine and feminine ethos, Dorian allows themselves to simply just be, living as they are. “My gender identity, like my core self, doesn’t have a gender to me. But I interact with people in the world where I dress and have relationships in different perceivable ways. Sometimes I feel feminine, sometimes I feel masculine and sometimes I feel like an alien — as if those two facets of my identity are kind of like moods or flavors or something,” they said. “My identity has evolved because of the music, the videos and just being an artist. Doing those things has allowed me to express myself, but I also don’t necessarily believe in the idea of a real essential self. I believe that it’s always contextual and who you are is how you relate to your surroundings and that is what becomes who you are,” Dorain shares. The constant redefinition of identity and queerness requires struggle for control between oneself and the world — a never ending battle for power. Does it get exhausting, being Dorian Electra? Fighting constantly for more than just the right to use harpsichords and autotune in every track on a pop album? Regardless of the stamina required to actually be Dorian, they keep running, and along with a close musical community, have carved a space for queer people to occupy in modern pop. The queer community is constantly defining and redefining what it means to be queer. It’s a constant feeling of duality, as if we are floating in an in-between space of society where in one world we are the same as those around us and in the other we are different from everyone else. Building spaces for ourselves when and where there are none is a seemingly never-ending action that Dorian, among others, takes by the horns and pushes onward. Gender roles are reversed and then immediately shattered — much like the various, breakable objects that find themselves colliding with Dorian’s forehead. Dorian creates for us spaces we didn’t have before. They occupy whichever room they enter, in whichever way they see fit, no matter who is present and looking with curious eyes. Dorian is many things: a control freak, a deviant, a musical genius. The role they play in building and breaking the world is a role of great importance, speaking with a community, or any individual, that has been put on the outside, cast aside. At even their most archetypal level, we need Dorian Electra.
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SPRING 2020 / 29
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INTE RL
AY
photographed by daniel klugman written by riley younger
SPRING 2020 / 31
Interlay, a local Madison band, could be categorized as your standard punk grunge band. However, after sitting down with the four members on a sunny afternoon at Fair Trade Coffee House, I’ve learned that their style is purposely fuzzier than basic punk. Interlay is composed of four Midwest-natives: with Indigo Smith-Oles on the guitar, Alex Kaiser on the drums, Alexandria Ortgiesen on lead vocals and guitar, and the newest member of the group, Nathan Hahn on bass. The foundations of this band were formed in Kaiser and Smith-Oles’ 6th-grade history class. “The good ole days,” the pair recounted in unison. Years later, Kaiser and Smith-Oles met Ortgiesen at a local house show where they both performed with separate bands in 2018. The trio started “jamming together” and out of that jamming, Interlay was born. 6 months ago, Hahn joined the group and Interlay is now complete. All the members of Interlay reflected on the Madison music community and the innate influence this scene has had on the evolution of their music. Sonically, the Madison scene has pushed them towards a more punk and grunge sound when playing live. After a moment of silence, Hahn commented on how the “Madison music community is one of the best scenes [they] could be exposed to.” Local indie rock bands Disq and Slow Pulp were cited as sources of inspiration and encouragement for Interlay, they praised both for their endless support as they continue to develop their sound. This supportive culture has allowed Interlay to grow into their style and understand different styles from other local bands. Interlay originally performed under the name Wash at local house shows, but within the last year, they rebranded the band. Wash was well known in the Madison community, frequently performing shows in their earlier days. Later, after discovering that they were sharing the same moniker with a rapper, which created some confusion when being booked for shows, Wash was forced to change their name. Interlay decided to take this opportunity as a positive one, allowing it to open up a new chapter for their music to mature and for the group to further develop. Headlining their Instagram bio sits a claim to — shoegaze grunge — a phrase that, after asking them to define what that means, Smith-Oles quickly confessed, “I don’t think any of us actually know.” The group laughed in agreement and chuckles came to a murmur. Ortgiesen was quick to note that the description actually arose from a Madison community member who came up to the band at the Willy Street Fair, an annual summertime neighborhood block party that celebrates local music,
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arts, and the Madison community. “Someone said that they were like a shoe grunge band,” Ortgiesen recalled. This phrase stuck with the lead singer and she noted that Interlay does take influence from elements of shoegaze and grunge. As Ortgiesen says that now, the best way to describe them is post-punk, the other three members grunt as a sign of agreement. Currently, they only have three original songs produced on Spotify, with their most popular being “Ritual” then “Alien” and “All Animal.” These songs represent the beginning of Interlay’s journey. The swift beat and strong drums of “Alien” and the haunting and heavy composition of “Ritual” go hand-in-hand with what Interlay describes as their original style. While reflecting on how their sound was formed in the beginning, the group said they started out as more grunge and garage rock. They were not super serious and just messing around when they first started making music. Smith-Oles spoke up and said that over the years, they have found their groove by making music that “purposely ignores” music theory and that is actively “subverting expectations” on the composition of sounds. This notion that Interlay does not fit into a specific box is fitting for this group, their music and their young personalities go hand in hand, they are focused and committed to their craft. They take influence from the surrounding Madison music scene to create a fresh post-punk sound. Interlay would argue that their music and stylistic choices “transcend scenes, [they are] not a straight punk or indie band.” Their approach to their music is complicated and fuzzy. The shoegaze atmosphere that they have curated comes from ethereal and dreamy music, while grunge guides it to create their post-punk sound. Up next for this band is their new EP which they have just recently started recording as of Spring 2020. Interlay is reinventing and changing up their sound with new music that blurs the lines of punk and sublime. The group discloses that their new work will be slower, spacier and fuzzier. They want to create an internal space for their listeners to simply feel. They want to evoke heart-heavy and deep emotions from the listener. Interlay is working towards creating music that is unnerving and disquieting — the new tracks are meant for you to feel like you are in a horror movie. The members of Interlay all agreed that their music can be approached from many angles showcasing different elements, in conjunction with how one approaches their music, to create an intentionally dark yet freeing space for their sound — and their listeners — to evolve.
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NME’S C86 INFLUENCE ON BRITISH INDIE MUSIC
X O B Z Z U F A T O T I G E E V ’ S E U W A N N O G E R ’ E W D N A
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In 1986, British music magazine — and arguably the pillar of indie and alternative culture — NME released its eagerly anticipated compilation cassette tape C86. At a time when “indie” simply meant any music released independently, this 22-song compilation became pivotal for the development of independent music into the genre we experience today. Many of these bands drew inspiration from acts like The Velvet Underground, The Byrds (where the term “jangle” was taken from) and Buzzcocks. Coined by some as the birth of indie, C86 helped shape and define a new sub-genre of jangly DIY British indie-pop with an impact can still be heard today.
C86 operated with an open-door policy where anyone could get involved, whether it be through a band or by making fanzines. Sarah Records, one of the main independent record labels of the C86 movement, grew out of the fanzine scene, with its founders Matt Haynes and Clare Wadd creating numerous influential fanzines, such as Are You Scared To Get Happy?. By merging the DIY sensibilities and creative passion of both movements, they showed how you didn’t have to be instrumentally skilled to be part of something bigger — all you needed was excitement and a love for music. We’ve Got A Fuzzbox And We’re Gonna Use It, a band featured on the tape, sums up this core attitude of DIY universal involvement. We’ve Got A Fuzzbox And We’re Gonna Use It, Talulah Gosh, The Shop Assistants, and a number of other bands, were almost entirely female, embodying the universal appeal and accessibility of the C86 movement in the gender demographic. This was groundbreaking, as even though these women were following in the footsteps of their punk predecessors like The Slits and Siouxsie and the Banshees, women playing instruments in bands was a still relatively new concept to the male-dominated indie and rock scenes of the ’80s. It was also important because it encouraged young girls to get involved in the music scene in whatever way they wanted and with far less pressure.
The pressure-free approach to image cemented C86’s cult status, showing that music should be fundamentally about art and enjoyment rather than the external pressures of trying too hard to be cool or sexy or even particularly talented. The Pastels, whose track “Breaking Lines” featured on the C86 tape, epitomises this especially. Opening on a classic jangle riff, the casual unambitious melody, combined with wonky overlapping harmonies defines the charmingly awkward sound of The Pastels and the beautiful amateurism of the wider C86 scene. Their drummer Katrina Mitchell couldn’t even play the drums when she joined the band, instead just learning as she went along, much like many others involved in the movement, adding to the slight discordance in The Pastels innocent raw sound.
However, not all bands featured on C86 followed the general shambling ‘cutie’ style, and McCarthy, named after infamous anti-communist US Senator Joe McCarthy, are an example of this. They were fiercely political and staunchly Marxist — taking an openly satirical tone in their name and with later album tracks such as “And Tomorrow The Stock Exchange Will Be The Human Race.” “Celestial City” pairs anti-Thatcherist, anti-capitalist lyrics with a jangly yet punchy rhythm and strong use of cymbals to create a distinct and decidedly C86 indie-pop sound.
So often brushed over as ‘twee’ pop, C86 deserves to be acknowledged for its truly punk attitude, focusing on an androgynous DIY style that preached authenticity and non-conformity. These bands openly rejected the hypersexuality of the ’80s that used sex as its selling point and women as marketable decorative objects. Trading in the tough guy leather and safety pins for old cardigans and anoraks, the C86 movement opposed the traditional rock mentality of masculine posturing and the overly macho image. With the prevalent child-like imagery that dominated the bands, and names like The Pastels, Talulah Gosh and 14 Iced Bears, these bands snubbed the hyper-sexuality of ’80s music and purposefully created the geeky, innocent image that matched their outfits that looked chosen by their mothers. In writing songs called “Big Jim (There’s No Pubs In Heaven)” and naming bands Half Man Half Biscuit, they were deliberately mocking the overly-serious nature of the rock and post-punk scene and the hyper-masculine leather-clad men who dominated it. The image presentation of these C86 bands was particularly punk, not in style, but in attitude, as these fashion choices openly rejected the hypersexualised culture of the time, adopting one that was more gender-neutral and fluid. Bands like Talulah Gosh or The Primitives, comprised of female members, dressed in decidedly androgynous and desexualised ways to further dissent the objectification of women. C86 is often characterised by these gender-neutral styles and the infamous and deliberately unisex charity shop anoraks, stripy t-shirts and bowl cuts. The C86 scene was ahead of its time in this regard and the ’80s mainstream music press was not ready for it. They insulted the men as ‘limp-wristed’ and ‘twee’ and the women as ‘tomboyish,’ exposing the homophobia that dominated rock music journalism and still remains today. These insults showed just how uncomfortable the music press was with these expressions, particularly with the men, unable to process a post-punk movement that was overtly non-macho, non-sexualised, technically unsophisticated and embracing of universality.
C86 remained relatively niche and obscure as a sub-genre for years, until the emergence of Belle and Sebastian in 1996, who adopted many of its key elements. They sang of school romance and gardening, pairing ‘cutie’ poetic lyrics with shambling ’60s inspired ‘twee’ pop hooks and frontman Stuart Murdoch’s adopting of the stripy top as uniform. With the rise of Britpop, a music scene dominated by ‘macho swagger and rock posturing,’ and bands like Oasis and Blur competing to see who was the manliest and most rock n’ roll, C86’s influence was needed most. C86-inspired bands like Belle and Sebastian emerged in opposition to these new hyper-masculinised and hyper-sexualised music scenes, further demonstrating the necessity of C86 and its legacy. By creating a decidedly punk movement, it not only created a new sub-genre of indie music but launched a movement that created a safe space for creativity and universality without mainstream rock pressures and gender biases.
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SPRING 2020 / 35
HEAVY PEDAL:
your guide to the world of reverb, delay, distortion, fuzz + overdrive WRITTEN BY JASPER NELSON
DELAY
You stand at the top of a canyon and shout. Your voice tears through the air, ricocheting through the high canyon walls, gradually lessening in volume until the echoes disappear. While this natural phenomenon is known as an echo, it has been artificially recreated by musicians to create one of the essential production effects: delay. A delay effect is a hardware or software unit (depending on the application) that records an input signal, stores that signal in an audio storage medium and plays it back at a set time with established volumes. When using delay units, a musician can adjust the number of signal repeats, called feedback, the interval of time the sound takes to repeat itself, known as delay time, and the level, the volume of the repeats. There are three distinct types of delays in music engineering — tape, analog and digital — and they each embody specific sounds and technologies of their time. The first controlled delay effects were achieved in the 1940s using tape loops on reel-to-reel tape recording systems. Audio engineers would physically shorten or lengthen the loop of tape in order to create various delayed echoes of their audio signal. One famous example is the Echoplex, which over sixty-one years past its creation in 1959, remains one of the foremost tape delays available. However, since the tape used in these effect units warps and decays over time, modern guitar pedals and rack units don’t usually use literal tapes to create the tape delay sound (with the exception of the T Rex Replicator pedal). Instead, they utilize hardware replicas to recreate that sound in the form of a small foot pedal that can be activated by pressing down on the on/off footswitch. Some of the most popular tape delay pedals include the Strymon El Capistan Dtape Delay, the Wampler Faux Tape Echo V2, and the Catalinbread Belle Epoch EP3. The next type of delay is analog delay, which utilizes the revered bucket brigade chip (BBD) to process and play back the input signals. First utilized in 1981 with the Boss DM-2 pedal, the BBD chip sends the analog signal through a series of capacitors that gradually diminish and then re-play the signal. You can think of it like a line of people passing buckets of water from one person to another. Think of how much water is lost in the hand-off process and that is essentially how analog delay works. Analog delays tend to sound darker as the repeats continue, which creates a warm and deep sounding delay effect. This allows for the main signal to shine even when playing over the dark delay repeats. Some of the most revered analog stompboxes are the MXR M169 Carbon Copy, Boss DM-2W, and Fairfield Circuitry Meet Maud. Finally, the last type of delay is digital delay. In the late 1970s, the first digital delay effects were created by audio engineers. They were more easily programmable than tape delays, and with the cheap availability of electronic parts, they quickly took over the market. The first digital delay effects were only sold in the form of expensive studio rack-mounted units, as the parts required for digital memory became cheaper and smaller, digital delay effects pedals became available in 1984 with the Boss DD-2. These pedals offer exact reproductions of the original signal sounds, which makes them stand out from analog and tape delays which gradually degrade the input signal. Some of the more popular models include the Boss DD-7, TC Electronic Flashback, Electro-harmonix Canyon, and Boss DD-20 Giga Delay. 36 / EMMIE
REVERB
Reverb is the sound of a space. The combination of the dimensions, shape and materials affect how a noise will reverberate through a location and give that area its own sonic signature. Every space, whether it be a sprawling cathedral or a cramped closet, has its own distinct signature. When you hear your footsteps echo through the towering stone walls of that cathedral, you can hear its massive size. In contrast, the sound of a clap in a packed closet will be sharp and tight between the close walls. The reverb qualities of the closet, that dry immediate reflection of sound, is what most studios aim to create. Recording engineers often prefer to have an original track be as dry as possible, meaning little natural reverb, so that they can have full control over the manipulation of that signal when it comes time to mix it. Studios create “isolation” booths and rooms by lining the walls with specially engineered acoustic panels, adding layers of carpets, filling in doorway gaps and basically doing anything else that replaces a hard reflective surface with soft textures. Once a dry recording is obtained, then the process of mixing begins. Often one of the most essential production tools used is the very effect that all the foam, carpeting and furniture worked so hard to eliminate: reverb. While all spaces have natural levels of reverb, musicians and engineers have developed methods to replicate different styles of reverb, from a baseball stadium to a tiled bathroom, without actually being in those spaces. As a result, mechanical, digital and analog reverbs have become universally utilized effects in music. The effect gives sounds their flavor, as it makes it sound natural and “live,” in a sense. If a band has recorded all their instruments individually in isolated rooms, the engineer can make that sound more cohesive and unified by adding the same overarching reverb to all instruments on the song. However, the ability to harness and control reverb is not confined to a recording studio. Guitarists have taken specific advantage of digital reverb pedals which allow them to customize all the specific qualities of the reverb in order to produce the desired ambiance. Like delay units, the first digital reverbs were in the form of expensive studio racks. EMT created the first one, the 250, in 1976, while the studio staple, the Lexicon 224, came to the market in 1978. As technology progressed, smaller pedals were produced in 1987 with the Boss RV-2. There are now hundreds, if not thousands, of reverb pedals on the market that offer all varieties of reverb sounds. Some of the most popular are the Strymon Big Sky, Electro-Harmonix Oceans 11, Boss RV-500, and the MXR M-300.
DISTORTION, FUZZ, OVERDRIVE
Finally, the Holy Trinity of all guitar effects: Distortion, Fuzz and Overdrive. Although amateurs tend to conflate these three effects together, each of them is beautifully unique and must be feared and respected as such. If used tastefully, they can coax out the juiciest tones hidden deep within your $150 Guitar Center Stratocaster. Now follow me, for I will lead you down the path to guitar salvation. In order to explain how an electric guitar can be distorted in different ways, a basic understanding of guitar amplification and signal processing is necessary. When an electric guitar is plucked, the weak audio signal is picked up by the pickups under the strings and then sent through a cable to an amplifier that boosts the signal and expresses it through a loudspeaker that is either built within or separate from the amplifier cabinet. Guitar amplifiers can utilize two different types of amplification: vacuum tube or solid-state. Vacuum tubes were the standard until the 1970s, when cheaper, lighter and more reliable solid-state products came onto the market. Tube guitars work by taking the signal from the guitar’s electromagnetic pickups and running it through a series of hot vacuum tubes that lift the incoming voltage signal, clean it, boost it and then send it through the circuit and speaker at different levels for different volumes and tones. On the other hand, solid-state amps use transistors and diodes to boost the signal rather than vacuum tubes. As a result, they use much less power to function. Additionally, this use of transformers and diodes, rather than fragile and expensive tubes, allows solid-state amps to be much cheaper to make and thus cheaper to buy. However, the tradeoff comes in tone. Despite their fragility and price, almost all professional guitarists still use tube amplifiers. This is due to the special effects that tubes can have on a guitar signal. Tube amplifiers tend to sound warmer and are more responsive when compared to solid-state amplifiers, and their best quality is their ability to go into overdrive when turned up. When the gain (the strength of the signal) from the guitar is turned up, the tubes become overwhelmed by the strong signal and begin to naturally clip, meaning they slightly distort and “break-up” the signal. Clipping from overdrive can produce beautiful harmonic overtones that add rich tonal layers to a guitar sound. Since this clipping can be controlled by managing the input gain produced by the guitar, it’s highly versatile. A tube amplifier can naturally go from clean and smooth to sharp and distorted by simply turning up the gain knob on the guitar. This overdriven sound of tube amps has been widely used by guitarists, from blues players looking to add a little bite to garage rockers reaching for those essential overtones. The sound has also become modeled in pedals for those unwilling to deal with the intricacies of finding the perfect tube distortion levels. One of the most famous of these is the Ibanez Tube Screamer, a pedal that’s synonymous with the overdrive sound. The pedal was first issued in the late seventies and it was immediately picked up by famed guitarists such as Stevie Ray Vaughn, Carlos Santana, and The Edge. The pedal provides the classic mid-level boost that driven tubes provide and is a staple on many guitarists’ boards. For guitarists looking to melt some faces and blow out their basement windows with wicked Metallica solos, look no further than the distortion pedal. While overdrive provides limited harmonic overtones and maintains the original responsiveness of the amplifier, a distortion
pedal will run your tubes to their limit. This produces a hard clipping signal that brings out a series of both harmonic and enharmonic tones in the notes. They add grit, dirt and modulation to create what many consider to be the classic distortion sound. While overdrive will respond differently as the gain is turned up on the guitar, distortion will sound the same at almost any volume due to the heavy boost and saturation applied to the signal. The title of “Most Famous Distortion Pedal” is the topic of fierce debate in online guitar forums, but the EMMIE staff has settled on one we consider to be the true granddaddy of them all: the Boss DS-1. Used by the likes of Kurt Cobain and Dave Navarro, this fifty dollar stompbox has been producing classic distortion sounds for over thirty years. Tone, level and distortion are the only controls on the pedal and no matter where you set them it maintains its high levels of gain and compression that make almost any guitar player sound like they could burst onto the ’90s grunge scene. Finally, for those daring guitarists looking to go beyond the gritty crunch of overdrive earth-shattering howl of distortion, there is fuzz. Perhaps the most elusive and mysterious of the three, fuzz goes places a distortion pedal would never dare to venture. While both overdrive and distortion clip the input signal at different levels in order to create “natural” sounding sonic distortions, the fuzz pedal takes the signal and clips it so hard that it simply turns into one square wavelength. It compresses the distortion into an almost unrecognizable saturated sound that makes it hard to recognize individual notes when played quickly. The pedal offers a huge amount of power and sustain, allowing for brutal power chords and screeching leads. Many of the most iconic guitarists have used fuzz as their primary effect: Jimi Hendrix, Billy Corgan, Keith Richards, Kevin Shields, and David Gilmore, to name a few. The most iconic fuzz pedal is hands-down the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi (known to most simply as the Big Muff). First produced in the mid-’70s, the pedal became instantly used by almost all guitarists looking for that unique fuzz sound. However, when Electro-Harmonix went out of business in 1982, demand for authentic “vintage Big Muffs” rose while other pedal companies attempted to make replica Big Muffs. Thankfully, the corporation was resurrected in the ’90s and immediately reintroduced a variety of Big Muffs into the market. Different iterations of the pedal, such as the Russian Sovtek Big Muff, Op-Amp Big Muff Pi and the Ram’s Head Big Muff, became integral parts of the ’90s grunge and alternative scene. Electro-Harmonix has continued to reissue the Big Muff and the pedal is still the go-to for anyone seeking that powerful fuzz sound. Whether you’re a prospective guitarist searching for their first pedal, a seasoned veteran looking for further sonic versatility or a music lover craving an understanding of those sounds coming through your headphones, I hope you enjoyed this basic effects guide. The effects described above are only a select few of the ways a sonic signal can be manipulated and there are new methods being tested constantly. Guitarists are always searching for ways to shape their sound and this innovation has kept the instrument relevant in music since the 1920s. There is a unique joy and excitement that comes with the patient process of tinkering with guitars, pedals and amps until that noise you’ve been dreaming of is released, and I hope you can find that for yourself.
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A PLAYLIST ART BY TIM SCHAUF
“Police Truck” __ Dead Kennedys “I Fought the Law” ___________ The Clash “Watching The Detectives”__ Elvis Costello “Cop Killer” _________ John Maus “Killing In The Name” __ Rage Against The Machine “Officer” _________ Deli Girls “Police In Helicopter” _______ John Holt “Man Down” _____ Rihanna “No Police” ___________ Doja Cat “99 Problems” _______ JAY-Z
the COVID-19 Pandemic has ruined changed the music industry A lot has happened in the past few months. Life has seemingly changed all together, normal activities seem absurd. Co-Editor in Chief Ashley Evers and Albums Editor Izzi Bavis have laid out how these changes have affected their work in the music industry.
March 6, 2020. I was sitting in the main studio at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s student radio, WSUM. I was proud of myself and of my coworkers; —we just pulled off the best live in-studio session we’ve had all semester. I was beaming from ear to ear. Things were finally coming together. Live@WSUM was becoming more professional and my job at EMMIE was paying off,as our print issue for the spring was just about to be sent to the printer. And then it all fell apart. I checked my phone at 4:24 P.M. to a text that read “I just heard South By is cancelled,” my stomach dropped. After picking through several media outlets and conferring with my two friends that were also planning to attend South by Southwest in Austin, I was faced with two facts: SXSW was cancelled and everything else in the music industry was about to change. It started slowly. First the University switched classes online for a month, then my flights to Texas were cancelled and before long classes were online until fall. The world I knew was quickly devolving into something else: quarantine. State after state slowly adapted shelter in place, —festivals, concerts, shops and restaurants all closed and cancelled. Even Record Store Day was pushed back two months. Everything that my world revolved around was over. Suddenly every music festival was pushed back to fall or postponed indefinitely, concerts I was hoping to cover weren’t happening anymore. Even the places I used to go to were shutting down, in the moment it truly felt like the end of the world. In a world already dominated by technology, COVID-19 has made us even more dependent. 40 / EMMIE
The in-studio sessions I had been cultivating were gone. I had to think fast, I couldn’t stop working and trying even though it was the easier option. It’s been hard to stay motivated. For a few weeks after school was pushed online it seemed like the whole world was moving in slow motion. It didn’t feel real. The largest shift for those of us in the music industry is figuring out how to use technology to our advantage. I for one am not tech savvy, setting up my remote desktop for my radio job took many hours. When I started transitioning to live streams through Instagram live I was concerned about my ability to help the musicians set it up. I’m certain these concerns are shared with others who are trying to make the switch. I think Bandcamp has taken enormous strides to try and help artists during this time by allowing 100% of the money go back to the artists on select dates. I think live streams are helping publize musicians. Above all I think this time is challenging and there is not necessarily one correct way to handle everything. Though the escalation of the COVID-19 pandemic has been rough, organizations like EMMIE, NPR Music and WSUM have worked tirelessly to try and maintain a sense of normalcy and consistency during these trying times. Hopefully when this is all over I can resume my position in the main studio at WSUM with a copy of EMMIE’s most recent issue in hand.
/ IZZI BAVIS
ART BY HAYLEY SNELL When the first case of COVID-19 was announced in Seattle, I became worried as my first South by Southwest was just a few weeks away. This event seemed untouchable, it was highly anticipated and drew over 400,000 from around the world to Austin each year. I was scared. The world as I knew it was about to come to a screeching halt. The cancellation of SXSW seems like an eternity ago, but this was the day that sent people like me into a dizzying spiral. Each day the news seemed to get worse as cancellations stretched further into the fall. A frightening scene began to brew as artists and their teams were stuck overseas, often unable to catch affordable flights back home as borders shut down hourly. My last show before tours began to disband rapidly was Chelsea Cutler in Milwaukee. I vividly remember getting an alert from the New York Times notifying the public of their decision to postpone both the NBA and MLB seasons. Everyone around me, including my friends and industry workers, were naive to the idea that this would be their last show for the foreseeable future. Waking up every morning since then has felt like a fever dream. Emails about internship cancellations or notifications about artists you idolize or work with battling COVID-19 have made it impossible to get out of bed. Lucien Grange, the CEO of Universal Music Group, was one of the first industry professionals to be hospitalized with COVID-19 symptoms. This hit too close to home as an employee of the company, and this was just the beginning of diagnoses from important musical figures. The longevity of this pandemic is one element many glossed over, and artists, their teams and the venue staff who put on the shows were faced with the reality of living in a world where doing what they love was unsafe. You never realize how much you do something until you are unable to do it at all. A mindless habit — except this is your only source of income, as many artists work side jobs or freelance to support themselves. This is the reality many artists are facing as they scramble to find unique ways to engage their fans and earn funds to fill their fridges. Whether they’re fresh out of college and trying to land their first job or have 10+ years of experience under their belt, all music lovers are feeling the wrath of this virus on their spirit and on their livelihood. The music industry will continue to be hit in unprecedented ways. Every venue, artist, manager and creator will suffer a loss or make a sacrifice during this time. A dream of mine for years, a summer at Capitol Records in Los Angeles, became a dream that must be put on hold. With the current predictions of festivals becoming extinct for the remainder of 2020, production companies and booking agencies remain silent. Even if these festivals return in 2021, their budgets will be extremely limited, as they rely on ticket sales for their revenue. Similarly, smaller, local venues are in survival mode, as new closures are announced each day. Inde-
pendent music venues are unionizing to find ways to keep their staff employed and their businesses afloat. Home is an unknown feeling for those used to being on the road, and being stuck here for the next few months will challenge creators tremendously. Most Industry workers do not receive the conventional benefits of corporate jobs, and many are unable to work from home. My greatest prediction is that smaller, niche companies will lose the traction they’ve worked so hard to scrape together, and bands finding their footing will need a boost when they’re able to safely tour again. I personally have been dedicating my time to learning more about the music industry and participating in virtual events. Instead of being looked back on as a “dead” period in their careers, artists are taking it upon themselves to collaborate and attend Zoom masterclasses or networking events to boost morale. I also appreciate that some of my favorite music journalists, Josh Terry and Jes Skolnik, are turning to humor to divert the fear surrounding the unknown. Artists are also turning to platforms aside from social media to connect with fans. Soccer Mommy hosted a concert on Club Penguin Rewritten and 100 gecs organized “Square Garden,” a music festival on Minecraft, a virtual 3-D video game. This industry, regardless of its reputation of being relentless and exclusive, transforms to the most resilient in times of need. Some of the kindness I’ve seen over the past few weeks is immeasurable, as fans give generous donations to their favorite venues to make sure they’re around to host that bittersweet first-gig back. Music itself has helped dramatically as I find myself revisiting projects I loved in high school or listening to an album in full to pass the time. Artists themselves are eager to get back on the road, and they will ideally be rejuvenated with new music in their pocket to share with sold-out rooms across the globe. This experience will remind fans that their favorite musicians are human, too, and that a collective effort is necessary to circumvent damages. I would be lying if I said I still wasn’t scared, but I am no longer scared for myself. The disappointment is an emotion that won’t seem to dissipate as the live music world will be hit hard with changes in attempts to earn the trust of fans in a post-pandemic society. I changed my life’s course after a week at Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in 2018 and a summer without music festivals seems like the worst case scenario for young people with adventurous souls. I’ve found solace in knowing that creation and kindness do not stop, and that day where we can gather to enjoy what we all love the most will come sooner or later. For now, we wait patiently, and thankfully, we don’t have to wait in silence. / ASHLEY EVERS SPRING 2020 / 41
CONCERT GALLERY
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YOU ARE NOW LEAVING THE FUZZ ISSUE
@ E M M I E M AG A Z I N E EMMIEMUSIC.COM
SPECIAL THANKS TO: WISCONSIN UNION OFFICER PRESIDENT tanvi tilloo Through the publishing of our seven student-run journals and magazines, the Publications Committee of the Wisconsin Union Directorate provides a creative outlet for UW-Madison students interested in creating poetry and prose, reporting on music and fashion, or delving into research in science and public policy. We celebrate creativity on campus by providing `hands-on experience in publishing, editing, writing and artmaking.
PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE DIRECTOR carlo romagnolo PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE ADVISOR jen farley CREATIVE ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR max homstad
THE FUZZ ISSUE.