Fourculture issue 12

ISSUE TWELVE | MAY/JUNE 2014

SOUNDS | VISIONS | WORDS | VOICES

the correspondents e ast of ely walking shapes z ach hurd gentlemen hall skount rick y rebel mathieu bit ton

SOUNDS | VISIONS | WORDS | VOICES

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

The Artist D Managing Editor

Paula Frank creative director

Ann Marie Papanagnostou

The Correspondents

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Andrew Ashley Doug Seymour

6

MARKETING & promotions

Felicia C. Waters Ann Marie Papanagnostou SUBMISSIONS

Serena Butler

East of Ely

12

WEB DEVELOPMENT

Rene Trejo, Jr. EDITORIAL

Christine Blythe Simone Brown Serena Butler Kathy Creighton Paula Frank Marguerite O’Connell Derek O’Neal Mark Sharpley Annie Shove Darya Teesewell Aaron Wallace Felicia C. Waters

Walking Shapes

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COVER IMAGE: JOHNNY HOLLOW Image by: Vincent Marcone aka My Pet Skeleton © 2014 Fourculture Magazine Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

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Adam D

24

Zach Hurd

38

Johnny Hollow

28

Gentlemen Hall

48

Darya Teesewell

58

Skount

62

Mathieu Bitton Ricky Rebel Frank Cotolo

98

76

84

in this issue The artist d The Artist D has been performing online since the mid 1990s; a relic from the cam show age before social networking was a network, advocate for the rights of the underground, author, painter, columnist, raconteur, provocateur and host of The Fabulous D Show, a radio show broadcast weekly for anybody with a brain in their head. Catering to the freaks, geeks and black sheep of society, he makes the extraterrestrials of culture feel right at home on planet Earth.

PAULA FRANK Writer, painter, music lover, dreamer; Paula’s ever-changing Pisces spirit rolls with whatever the tides bring her.

Constantly in pursuit of the beauty of art in all its forms, she pours her love for human connections into everything she does, be it writing fiction, interviewing her favorite musicians and artists, painting an emotion, or sharing time with the people she loves. This small town girl has great big dreams and strives to make them reality. She is thrilled to offer them to you, the readers and fellow dreamers.

After all, what good are dreams with no one to share them? ann marie papanagnostou Ann Marie likes to make things pretty. This award-winning designer loves to lose herself in the creative process and is psyched to work alongside amazing individuals who fuel her artistic fire and tolerate her fierce coffee addiction. She is most content with a beverage in one hand and a mouse in the other.

ADAM D Adam is approximately one half of Photostat Machine.

They are a synthpop duo hailing from York, England. When not working on devastatingly handsome pop tunes with his creative other half, @nik_krudeshaw, you can find him hunkered over a cup of coffee. He likes to smile but isn’t that fond of talking about himself in the third person. “So I’ll stop there,” he added.

SERENA BUTLER Serena “Rena” Butler marches to the beat of a Linn LM-1 Drum Computer. Currently, she remains in a virtual time warp looking to hit that day where replicating a DeLorean time machine becomes reality. Sadly, it has yet to occur; she remains in the current year here to bring you the latest noise making waves in the four pillars of culture. When not working on the magic behind these pages you can find her rummaging the local independent record shops for CDs and vinyl, trying to get past the second level in Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker game for Sega Genesis, or mastering The Force just from watching the Star Wars trilogy.

FRANK COTOLO Known for his comedic acumen, Cotolo has made his living as a writer and a performer all of his life and during the lives of others. He is the author of the novel License To Skill and has co-authored its screenplay version, Molotov Memoirs, a collection of short stories, The Complete and Unabridged History of Japan, an epic novel, and a serious novella, Sweet Shepherd. Cotolo, born in Brooklyn in 1950, has worked in broadcasting, film, theater, music and television.

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kathy creighton Kathy Creighton, a.k.a. Mama Kath, is on a magical mystery tour of current fine, literary, and performance art and wants to bring you along for the ride. How? Besides watching, reading and listening, Kathy sits down with these creators and discusses everything from what inspires them to where their journeys began to how to fix the current A&E industry. She asks the questions you’ve been waiting for someone to ask.

CHARLIE DEMOS

A graduate of Bennington College, Mr. Demos is an award-winning songwriter, singer, music producer, and performance artist in New York City. He is a spiritual warrior, rabble rouser, Marijuana enthusiast, art-house film lover, and proud father to a Yorkshire Terrier.

Marguerite o’connell Writer, attorney, wife, and mother of three boys in a bicultural interfaith family, Marguerite isn’t one to shy away from a challenge or decline an adventure. A semester in London studying art history and Shakespeare sparked her life-long passion for music and all things art and law school sharpened her natural abilities for research and communicating. Hoping to show her boys how it’s done, Marguerite has set out to use the things she’s good at, to communicate about the subjects that fuel her passions. For the reader, that might mean interviews with awesome indie artists one month and reviews of their latest works the next. For Marguerite it means lots of words, art, solitude and coffee. And happiness.

DEREK O’NEAL “You have to hear this song” is a phrase you’ll often hear from Derek. His fierce music obsession began at a young age, an age when playlists were captured on cassette off the radio with TLC and Soul Asylum in heavy rotation. As a writer, Derek has been sharing his stories since he was old enough to hold a pencil, which is a big deal since he really dislikes pencils. Derek now educates the masses with a combination of things he loves most: music and writing. Today, you can find Derek scouring the web for fresh sounds that both inspire and entertain. Sometimes he takes breaks for coffee and sleep.

DOUG SEYMOUR Doug Seymour is a featured photographer with Paste, Pollstar, Billboard and now Fourculture. Over the past several years, his work has graced sixteen magazine covers, dozens of album & DVD covers, tour posters, countless published photos and even a book cover. He has also been the recipient of four Independent Music Awards for his photography. In his spare time, Doug is an avid collector of rare vinyl LP’s (and loves to get them autographed too). mark sharpley English writer Mark Sharpley brings a view from the other side of the Atlantic. A former bass player and drummer, he now concentrates on giving his two cents on all things musical. A huge lifelong fan of The Smiths, anything to do with them will always be a biased affair but don’t worry, he doesn’t come equipped with a Morrissey style quiff... darya teesewell Darya Teesewell has been a lot of things, often simultaneously. She’s spent years working in the velvet prison of the Los Angeles movie biz, but nothing is below her line, because she hates lines. Darya travels freely from gender to gender and had made her living as a cinematographer, a writer, a teacher, a shop girl, a union organizer, and she’s ridden in Angelyne’s pink corvette; oh, does she have a tale to tell.

L

ast night I slept heavily in the musty humidity on this island in springtime. I dreamt deeply and was lucky enough to fall into an epic tale. I’ve always been able to control most dreams. Nightmares have never scared me. Dreams are where I live my life to do the things I won’t get the opportunity to do in the waking hours.

When I was a very small child I dreamt of a faraway place where I traveled the lands exploring everything within it. I returned to this same dreamscape for three months straight to continue life there until it finally faded from memory. From then on dreaming has always been a trip! I have ravaged world after world over and over again.

In last night’s eight-hour sequence I dreamt that I announced to everyone that I was going to get a sex change and become a woman. I immediately began wearing women’s clothing, a perfect blonde wig and “learning” how to walk en femme in the sunlight. The dream faded to a close when I was standing on a subway platform talking to a man who was intrigued by me. Suddenly a look of disgust struck him as he realized I was not a woman, but a man becoming a woman. Perhaps to him I was a man pretending to be a woman.

This letter, I immediately awoke to write down the following: It was all so wonderful until I reallike this ized that some people would never accept me as I was because of everything I had already been.

This letter has nothing to do with becoming a woman from a man. I haven’t the magazine, has desire, the will, nor the energy to do any of it. This letter, like this magazine, has everything everything to do with us being us. You and I are so hung up on people being hung up.

Have you ever been going along strong when suddenly someone stopped you in to do with us your tracks by their misplaced looks of disgust? We’re all walking tall until crucified. being us.

That’s how I used to feel a lot of the time. That’s how I felt in my dream. I was so happy to be a tall butch blonde being silly on a subway platform, loving my life until suddenly this guy who I didn’t even know (and had no consciousness of creating) gave me a damning scowl. There was an immediate shrinking of the ego as I suddenly wanted to crawl back in a box. If a dream can bring it down, then imagine how walking life can.

This is why I adore the art of the underground where we celebrate our differences. In Fourculture Magazine we do not fight over silly little labels and innuendo. It’s not about living on shaky ground for we have a solid foundation. There are no words of shame because words are just words and we need them to describe in all pure intention. Everyone here is obtaining immortality through the circuits and we could not be more proud.

Immortality is that which drives, for without it there would be no life left driven. We’d all throw ourselves to the windshield wipers and art would be just another toss off.

Live your life beyond the stupid little things they tell you matter. Stand up to the scowling man on the platform and tell him to love you for everything you are, not whoever you were.

Love from the circuits,

Follow The Artist D: @theArtistD

let’s get connected

by Mark Sharpley

Hailing from Hackney, London, electronica music duo The Correspondents have been on the festival scene for a few years, even making the Top Ten Acts to Watch at Glastonbury.

Formed in 2007 and with two EPs under their belt, Rogue and Whatever Happened To Soho?, it is the duo's charasmatic and energetic festival appearances that have really caught the public's attention. Now DJ Chucks and Mr. Bruce have released their debut album, Puppet Loosely Strung, and Fourculture decided it would be a great idea to get a penny for their thoughts on that and much more. MC/singer Mr. Bruce answered our questions.

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How did The Correspondents come together? How did you decide on the name?

We accidentally came into being around six years ago. Chucks was making beats in his bedroom and invited me to have a go at singing on top. We cobbled together a demo and sent it out to some people running nights that we liked. One of them was the interactive theatre company Punch Drunk whose after parties were completely unhinged. We ended up becoming their residents and our second gig was alongside Basement Jaxx!

The name was a last minute scramble.

In the 1920s, French cads were hired by English aristocrats to be seen seducing their wives so they could file for divorce.

They were called Correspondents.

The new album, Puppet Loosely Strung, is your debut album release. What do you think people will make of it?

Well, so far so good. We were worried that people would be rather confused as it differs somewhat to our live shows. Half the album is made of slower, deeper and more introspective tracks and the other half is upbeat dance floor friendly genre-blenders.

Hopefully there's something for everyone!

Your previous release was the Whatever Happened To Soho? E.P. Tell me, what has happened to Soho?

Roughly speaking it’s about places that you love changing. Every city has areas that are nighttime playgrounds that can steadily disappear because of regeneration, stricter council regulations, club owners dying or (a big issue in the case of Soho) a new underground rail network burrowing through its underground clubs.

Who are your influences? What goes into the Correspondents sound?

A tricky question for us as we are total magpies: plagiarists. Chucks' background is hip-hop. Mine is drum'n'bass. But now we try and listen to as much new music as possible so by the time we get into the studio we don't really know what our influences are or how they filter into the music we make. I guess producers like Cut Chemist and Danny Breaks particularly in terms of drums.

Mr. Bruce, do you know you sound a bit like Brett Anderson from Suede?

Well, thank you very much! I hadn't realised but I am very happy with the comparison. I listened to a lot of Suede and Pulp in the 90's so it must have rubbed off.

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2010 was a good Glastonbury festival for you. Are you thinking of going back there again? What was the Glastonbury experience like?

Yes, we are heading back to that beautiful and insane city of hedonism this year!

We've had the privilege of playing there for the last six years and we would definitely say it's one of the wonders of the world.

There is something for everyone there and the more you look the more you'll find.

Every year I am amazed by the scale of production. Down in Block 9 there is a tower block with a crashed tube train that appears to have fallen from the sky.

Are there any other festivals or tours you are lining up?

We have 20 in the diary so far and more to come and a lot more in Europe this year, which is good. There’s one incredible festival in Canada called Shambhala which we are very excited about as we are playing on a stage suspended in the trees of a forest.

The Streets were instrumental in bringing simple indie dance music to the forefront. Now that they’ve retired, do you feel bands like yourself can fill that particular gap in the market?

That is a huge gap to fill and it would be arrogant of us to think that we could step in!

But you can tell from listening to The Streets that it is a home low budget grown affair — quite frankly in their case it shouldn't work but somehow it all clicks and just sounds incredible — that's Skinner's genius. We are similar in terms of how we low budget make music. It's me and Chucks in a garden shed with a computer and a mic — nothing else.

It's Chucks' mastery with Logic that makes everything sound full and fat and live.

What’s important to you with the album — high chart positioning or just making sure the fans enjoy it? What do fans of The Correspondence expect anyway?

The most important thing was to make sure that we were happy with it and it represented us as we are and were between 2013 & 14. It's taken us six years to release an album; we could have released four albums with the amount of music we made but we never felt that a single body music worked. Puppet Loosely Strung is the strongest collection of songs that we have made. We obviously hope that our fans enjoy it for the same reasons that we do

but when making the music you can't think Who are you enjoying listening to at the about what other people would like or your moment? Any recommendations? critical compass gets skewed.

We've been listening to Metronomy's latest album in the car a fair bit. I'm in Have you ever listened to a song and love with a Swedish singer called iamamithought, "Hmmm, wouldn't have minded whoami. But Chucks ain't so keen so she's recording that myself…" If so, which one for my headphones! one? Is there anyone you’d like to collaborate with one day?

Is there any new material in the pipeline?

All the time! Recently “Gooey” by Glass there is. Finished a track recently Animals because it's something I can never thatYes, we are happy with and Chucks has imagine myself writing. “Tesselate” by Alt-J been busy make musical doodles any of for the same reason. which could germinate into full songs.

Right now, I can't imagine collaborating with anyone. I wouldn't mind having a And finally, what are the long term ambidance off with Janelle Monae. tions of The Correspondents? Where do Is America ready for The Correspondents? you see yourselves in five or ten years?

Is cracking into their market a priority?

Hopefully still making music, gigging, Oh, we would so love to come to the travelling. Not sure now long my knees will States. Just need to structure a tour and get hold out with the amount of jumping around visas which is harder than it sounds. We hope on stage! A healthy career in music is a that people aren't quite ready for us. Then we tricky one to sustain but so far so good. have the element-of-surprise upper hand!

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ALL ROADS LEAD TO

By Serena Butler

F

or lovers of great music, the industry can sometimes feel like the clues from some vague treasure map. You must find your way around the Top 40 noise, climb over the cacophony of sound overwhelming the internet, and finally you arrive at something worth listening to. For some bands, it is just second nature to be the treasure that is quickly found. When you’ve got something special like the guys of the indie rock/alt pop band out of Sydney, Australia named East of Ely, there’s no compass needed to find great music when a treasure of great sound is right in front of you.

Comprised of Moeaki, Nic, Daniel, Chris, and Michael, East of Ely has been gaining quite the momentum in their less than a year of existence. With three very well received singles across the blogosphere and an impressive first music video, these guys are really on the verge of making some noise globally. Electro pop and indie rock fans alike will fall in love with them before their debut EP even drops. Before they hit the road (in their native Australia) for their debut EP tour, we had a chance to speak with the guys on all things East of Ely. So throw away your compass, and put away your GPS because here at Fourculture, all roads lead to East of Ely.

It’s astounding to see how much momentum you’ve gained since your debut release Easy Friend. How did East of Ely begin?

Mike: East of Ely was built on borrowed vintage gear housed at Cavers Inn, nestled above a café in inner west Sydney and born from a mere appreciation for cool looking musical hardware. We had all played with each other at some point and collectively started sharing our finds over amber ales.

For many artists, the creation of a name can conjure up a lot of meaning. What are the origins of your band name?

Mike: We were actually called Castile for a month during recording but it rhymed with another artist making waves at the time.

Moeaki could write an essay on the meaning of that name but in the end, my love for Mike Wolfe, the graceful art of picking, and pure persistence paid off. Ely in White Pine County, Nevada is a picker’s paradise…or so we are led to believe. We would love to play there given our close association.

Dan: It was one of three names we shortlisted and the only name Chris did not choose…he will have his day.

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After the first few recording sessions, you guys aren’t tired of each other. How would you describe your working relationship with your bandmates so far?

Don’t worry… we won’t tell them!

Dan: Mike has a unique way of winding me up but we are all comfortably critical of each other and provide space and time to figure out the pieces.

Moeaki: No pandering. We do not pander.

Mike: If an idea is below average the guys will jam on it for a bit and then find reasons to adjust their amps or pedal settings.

Its polite and a big ‘F*ck No’ at the same time. It works.

Nic: Patience is key, although Mike seems to be missing this particular chromosome.

is the gear we have managed to find, beg, and borrow. A particular sound usually triggers excitement and we build on that. Drawing from the influences below though, it’s a wonder we are not an R&B outfit.

Nic: I love Prince but we are definitely influenced by modern interpretations of the 80’s like Killers, Passion Pit, chvches, and Panama.

Chris: Michael Jackson influences all Listening to your first three singles, it’s that I do.

Dan: Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis evident you draw a lot of inspiration Moaeki: Teddy Riley from some of the 80’s greatest synth pop icons. Who are your inspirations?

What was the spark that made you say Each one of your songs seems to speak that you wanted to head in such a direc- to everyday people dealing with the ups and downs of everyday life. Where tion with your music?

Mike: It’s not so much our icons as it do you draw inspiration or ideas for

each song? Is there one topic that you wouldn’t touch in song?

Mike: Before I embark on the spiritual flight of emotional affliction, we collectively discuss the mood and direction of a song and may even sketch out ideas. Books are also a great resource as opposed to the internet which always ends in the abyss. The simple fact that lyrics on a released track are perpetual does create a lot of pressure.

For our latest track though, a certain lyric is always sung with the melody. I subscribe to the theory that writing music is an ability to make sense of a universal detuned radio with transient clarity. Once you make sense of a section, it’s all about finding the other pieces. So in that same regard I will

attempt to write around the lyrics that flow now, it invokes a lot of imagery of relationship issues. How did the song Wawith the melodies and see where it leads. terfall come together?

Congratulations on your first video for Mike: The main synth riff throughout the single “Came Without”! In the video the track was a throwaway line Dan played it looks like you’ve created your own ver- as we were packing up our gear. I heard it sion of Frankenstein’s monster. How did from the balcony out back and ran inside to this video come together? record it, as Dan was leaving for Brooklyn Nic: A talented friend of the band, Steve the next morning. By the time he returned from Kaleidaskohp, heard the track and ap- the track was nearly complete with vocal proached us with this conceptual idea and melodies.

The lyrics explore how much we are reinterpretation of the theme in a Space Odwilling to forego of ourselves to be with yssey kind of way. We love it. someone else. Strangely enough, when You recently just dropped your single tracking the vocals at Chris’ home studio “Waterfall” to the masses. Having lis- (the mighty Red Wheel) his sister in law had tened to the song a number of times a huge fight with her boyfriend. We had to ISSUE TWELVE

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to attend CMJ in New York in October.

Once we are state side, we will hit the road.

Speaking of the momentum you guys have within the blogosphere, what advice would you give other up and coming bands to become “attention grabbers” as yourselves?

What did you do to pick up the attention?

Mike: Retrospectively our first release for Easy Friend could have been a little more structured and coordinated. The band simply gathered around 4 laptops and spent an entire Sunday afternoon hitting up blogs, starting with the ones we follow. Gmail eventually suspended our account later that day so we are not sure if all emails were delivered!

We were fortunate to receive some favourable reviews and strangely all of them were from international blogs. On the back of that release we were introduced to Mark at Drill Down Media and clearly see the benefit of PR! Our advice; if you are dedicated to your art, try building a team of believers and start small. Rejection outnumbers acclaim so don’t get caught up in it and keep moving forward.

cancel the session to look for her along the beaches as she had gone missing. Meanwhile I wrote the third verse in the back seat of a Volvo and the next morning the track was complete.

You’re on the verge of releasing your first EP! What can you tell us about the sound and creation of the album? What could not just new fans, but the world expect?

Mike: A couple of tracks have been blogged online which should give an idea of our direction. The sounds are a reflection of our gear and guiding philosophy; If You Want Something You’ve Never Had, You Must Do What You’ve Never Done’. Our sound engineer went out of his way to track instruments contrary to what he has been taught and from this some magic moments were captured.

Dan: A healthy mix of mood, emotion, beats and synth.

For those outside of the recording studio, how do you really get into the “creative mindset” for developing your music? What is the process you go through to write your music?

Mike: We regularly hang out at Cavers Inn (Moaeki’s apt block) with an old upright piano that tests the strength of an idea.

If it doesn’t translate stripped back then we work on it. Once there is a collective agreement we build on it, conscious not to fill all the gaps.

Moeaki: There is a collective drive to keep moving forward and writing. One must dedicate time to summon the muse, even if it gets frustrating at times.

Are there any plans to tour with this new EP? How would you describe to a new fan what an East of Ely show would be like?

Nic: We are touring the EP along the east coast of Australia in capital cities throughout May and have ambitious plans

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I’ve heard that there are some Aussies who disapprove of Vegemite. Now, what is it about this spread that really has gained such notoriety amongst the folks down under? Are you fans?

Mike: The band is split on this one. As a by-product of the brewing process, personally I prefer to settle at beer.

Chris: I love it, even smeared it on steak once. Mike is deluded.

For an indie band, you guys are moving very quickly to superstardom. What do you feel that the future holds for East of Ely? How about for the remainder of 2014?

Mike: We are a fair bit off superstardom…I mean we all still do our own washing!

Our debut EP release is our main focus at the moment with a run of shows but we are already writing tracks for our second EP mooted for release later in the year. As long as we don’t stagnate and build on what we have recorded to date the future will hopefully uproot us to Brooklyn, and from there who knows…

The Fabulous D Show Opinion. Surrealism. Extraterrestrialism.

From the Underground w w w. t h e fa b u l o u s d s h o w. c o m

by der ek o’ne a l

W

alking Shapes are an indie outfit based in Brooklyn, New York, and composed of Nathaniel Hoho on vocals and guitar; Jesse Kotansky on guitar, violin and vocals; Jacob Generalli on keys and vocals; Dan Krysa on bass and vocals; and Christopher Heinz on drums. The unique indie pop rock quintet just dropped their debut album, Taka Come On, on April 8 via No Shame Records. Technically speaking, the album is their sophomore effort after the release of a 13-track mixtape last July – appropriately titled Mixtape Vol. 1 – which was released and distributed freely online to “create a buzz.”

Taka Come On was recorded over four weeks at the No Shame basement recording studio in Soho, New York, with the help of producer Gus Oberg, who has previously worked with The Strokes, Willie Nelson, and Ryan Adams.

The band enlisted director and photographer Adam Wallace to help create visuals for the album, which ultimately became a visual album.

Ten days after the release of Walking Shapes debuted the accompanying visual album, shot entirely with 8mm film and in black and white “because of the nuances it naturally creates.”

Walking Shapes are geometry in motion.

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You guys have been together for a little over a year. Can you tell us how the band formed?

Nathanial: Walking Shapes started out with Jesse and me working on music together. We had previously been in a band together that parted ways and we kept writing. I was walking home one day from the Grand L, which is unusual considering I typically get off at A Graham. Regardless, as I was walking home a long haired dude carrying a drum stick bag was in front of me with whom I struck up conversation. Two days later we were in a band together. Chris introduced us to Dan, and Jake had been friends with Jesse and me for years. We always wanted to have Jake involved, but he was in California testing his fate in plucking nuggets from pot plants for local growers.

That fall he moved back and joined us.

How do Walking Shapes write or conceive a song? Can you describe the band’s creative process?

Nathanial: It really varies from song to song for us. More often than not someone will come to the band with a song or idea and we’ll work it out in the studio or rehearsal.

The band created three music videos for Mixtape Vol. 1, including standout videos “Keep” and “Horse.” Can you tell us about the filming and production of these two incredible music videos?

Jesse: For both “Keep” and “Horse” we worked with Eamon O’Rourke. “Keep” we shot during super storm Sandy which was pretty intense in itself and had to take a few days off while the power was restored.

We worked with our dear friend Ezra Miller on this video and shot it in his apartment.

“Horse” was really fun because of all the great and talented kids that starred in the video. I think it was a lot easier for Eamon to give all of them directions and keep them focused than if he had shot the same video with the 5 of us.

Taka Come On, your debut album, was just released on April 8 through No Shame Records. What was it like in the studio? How was working with producer Gus Oberg?

Christopher: I think we all felt from the first few minutes of working with Gus that it was a good match. We are fairly sarcastic and dry personality wise and he was able to give that right back to us. There was a feeling of comfort and respect right from the start.

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The first single, “Woah Tiger,” featured a music video that is said to be part of a short film that stretches out over the course of your entire album. Unfortunately, the video has been removed from YouTube. How did the video violate YouTube’s Terms of Service? Does the band still plan to release the short film despite this hiccup? If so, are you able to divulge any of the storyline?

Jesse: We still aren’t really sure why the video was removed. We appealed and lost our appeal and just had to move on. It doesn’t change anything in our plans. We put the video back up and we are still releasing the full length video of the album.

Our friend, Adam Wallace, shot the film and really captures the grittiness and beauty of New York City which was a huge influence for us in making this record.

Nathaniel: We have persevered and did release the full stream. It’s up and available online now. If you search ‘Taka Come On Full Album Stream’ you can find it. There wasn’t a goal to set up a storyline but more so capture a feeling as Jesse said.

Adam’s got a big heart so he was a perfect capturer of vibe.

Mixtape Vol. 1 was released in 2013 and can be found for free online. Why did the band choose to release that record for free?

Nathanial: We knew as a new band that one of the biggest obstacles is getting your music heard. We wanted to be sharing our music with everyone who wanted to listen. I wish we could give all of our music away and just share it with the world, but merch at shows and CD sales online really do help keep bands going. Gas travel and eating for 5 people adds up. We’re really appreciative of the people supporting us.

It’s the greatest thing to be able to keep ble Happiness in Columbus and Crescent making music.

Ballroom in Phoenix.

You guys have been on tour promoting the release of Taka Come On. What is it Each of you has very eclectic taste in music. Can you share some of your mulike on the road as a band?

Christopher: We love writing and sical influences?

Jesse: As a group of 5, our influences working in the studio, but I think our live stretch far into many vast musical worlds show is where we really bring this music to life. Traveling, seeing new cities, meet- and genres, from Balkan and middle easting new people, and playing every night is ern music to new wave, pop and all kinds the reason I started playing drums from the of rock, hip hop folk country gospel etc. We start. I love my bandmates and you really really draw a lot from bands across many get to know people being in a van with them musical genres and times. Taka Come for weeks at a time.

On, for me, draws from artists such as Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, Michael Jackson, Bela Do you have a favorite city or venue?

Bartok, Bowie, Paul Simon, Elvis Presley, Jesse: Tough…Besides the obvious Radiohead, Tom Petty, T rex, Kiss, the LA, Austin and SF we really loved Colum- Strokes and this list could really keep gobus, Tulsa and Fayetteville, Arkansas. Dou- ing on. I feel we have really found a sound

days later. Dan came in and laid down some cool grooves and we just kept going with it.

Drummer Will Fegan came in and tracked some live drums and it all gelled really well.

It was a lot of fun working with everyone and You made a cover of Frank Ocean’s song we’ve kept that relationship growing since.

“Lost” with Seasick Mama, including a music video. How did this collaboration Walking Shapes have two releases and successful music videos in such a brief come about?

Nathaniel: Marial (Seasick Mama) amount of time. Can you tell us about came to me one night in our living room. She any obstacles you may have encounwas sitting at my feet like the little kitten she tered along the way? Or has it been is and asked me if I could help her out with smooth sailing?

Nathaniel: Creatively, it’s been smooth working on a cover of “Lost”. We hung out for a while and worked out the song on an sailing. We have a great studio that we work acoustic guitar and went into the studio a few out of and no shortage of inspiration bein not letting ourselves be attached to any genre and instead just trying to make good music that what we would want to listen and be proud to share with our friends.

tween all of us. Of course we encounter problems like any band does, but I feel this group of people is great at facing issues and working through them.

What does the future hold for Walking Shapes?

Nathanial: Touring, touring, touring and more music. We just had our first US tour that was super successful and by the time this is printed we will have played 24 shows in 24 hours in celebration of returning to NYC and releasing our album Taka Come On. We’re excited to get back on the road and are already working on music for the next album.

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by a da m d photograph y by a ndr e w ashle y

Okay. I make almost no apology for this, but before I start I want to say a few things. These may help you keep your morning coffee down as my article gets more and more sickly sweet. First off, I am here on holiday. I know this means one gets a very rose-tinted view of a place. Second, I am here for 10 days so I have had plenty of time for exploring and strolling at my own pace outside of rush hour and away from crowds. Third, I am staying with friends so there’s no “hotel hassle.” Finally, as you may know, I live in London. I know what it’s like to be right there in the push and shove, the ebb and flow of a busy business day and living in a stinking city seeing the best and worst of it nudge and occasionally rub each other up the wrong way. I’ve been to the puppet show and I’ve seen the strings.

M

y friend who I am staying with has come over on a two-year contract. On his very first commute, he crossed a man on the stairs in the station. He was greeted with “Get the fuck outta my way, Bitch.” He’s 5’8” and built like a stick man, but this still seemed a little extreme (as well as very funny to me). So, yeah I know there are flaws.

But goddammit, New York, I love you.

It started innocently enough. Staff in stores offered compliments on clothing.

No, this is not an egotistical thing. It just happened: the inevitable, yet genuine, conversations that come from recognising my accent. Even if I haven’t the energy to ex-

plain to everyone precisely where I’m from, London will do. All of that is very pleasant and I’m sure many people will just shrug and say they have a job to do and that’s part of it. That may be true, but it doesn’t happen everywhere so stop taking it for granted, okay? Good. There is a genuine enthusiasm, even gratitude that you have made your way across the Atlantic and into their stores.

I ventured up to Harlem for the first time on this trip. I wanted to check out Atmos on 125th. I was not disappointed. I came away with a pair of Ewings, which is what I was after. I also had a nice conversation with the staff there about sneakers in general and about how the London offers dif-

fer. This may seem inconsequential, but for someone travelling alone the little interactions make a big difference.

There is a mass politeness. Being nice is often seen as an insult. If you don’t like it, you can fuck off because being nice is important you cold, heartless shit. Never underestimate the value of the “thank you,” or even the follow-up “you’re welcome.” We Brits like to mock and say in our best (worst) American accents, “have a nice day” and “missing you already.” But we can piss off up our own stuck up asses because when I get home I’m going to miss someone wishing me a good day or thanking me for holding a door open. So go ahead, New York, carry on being polite and nice to each other.

You set a lot of trends so it just may catch on. Okay, so not all your trends are welcome. If I see one more pair of tapered Adidas tracksuit bottoms ending in matchstick thin ankles wobbling in over-sized boots, I may not be able to contain myself. That’s not very nice. Ignore me.

Then there was the couple at the Carnegie Deli. They were here from Chicago for one day en route to going to see their son at West Point. We sat at adjacent but adjoining tables and I was drawn into their conversation with smiles and mutual admiration for each other’s oversized piles of food. They asked me about the Royal Family and about the weather. They started telling me about the history of West Point and then almost apologised and said, of course, to us 200 years is ancient. I played the York historical trump card (ancient Roman city with original ISSUE TWELVE

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walls still standing, if you must know) and we had a laugh at the pictures of the celebrities all standing next to a giant plastic pickle.

Maybe you had to be there. I was and I left there in exceedingly high spirits.

I am staying out in Maplewood, New Jersey, some 40 minutes on the train from New York Penn Station. Now, I’m no fan of Penn. It’s a seething, troubled maze of stairs and shops, entrances and exits, people rushing to or from trains, and a real pain to navigate through. Go into the men’s ‘restroom’ (a misnomer of epic proportions) and you’ll be knocked sideways by the pungent stench of the great unwashed. I’m not going to dwell on the social wrongs of allowing homelessness to be both so visible and yet so ignored in a country so rich (and so poor). America is not alone in this respect.

I’m also not making any comment on treating homeless people as an inconvenience or a smell to be avoided. I’m merely saying that here, more than anywhere else, their presence is very noticeable.

Back outside the restrooms, as the platform is announced, I am approached by a young guy who asks me where I got my Ewings. We keep up a conversation until we board the train. It turns out we both get off at Maplewood and strike up another until

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he has to head in a different direction. In London, in a suburban location, the only interaction you would have with a stranger would be to ask the time or maybe have someone ask if they can relieve you of your worldly possessions.

Then came Sunday; an arranged meet between myself, photographer Andrew Ashley, his wife Donna, none other than Fourculture’s very own Ann Marie Papanagnostou, her husband Zach and son Alex. Eight

Follow Photostat Machine:

miles, several coffees, pizza slices, and cupcakes later we departed as firm friends.

We also took the most-shared selfie ever to hit Twitter (final figures not yet in, but we don’t need to let statistics get in the way of a good story).

I could go on. There are many more instances of in-store jokes, conversations, and even hugs. I don’t want to bore you.

I can sense the overwhelming sense of ‘meh’ washing over you. But listen to me, New York. You are more than a giant film set. You are more than a thronging mass of busy bodies all pushing and shoving for attention.

I have to finish my love letter with a little scene I was on the outside looking in on just yesterday. Sitting in a coffee shop in Union Square, an old white guy approached the young black guy who was sitting at a table and asked if he could take the spare seat.

Within seconds, the two of them were sitting chatting like old friends. The young guy had giant headphones on. The old guy asked about music. He knew who Justin Beiber was. He asked whether Jay-Z was still popular and knew that he was married to Beyonce.

He then asked the young guy if he was part of any of their entourages. The guy beamed and said “I wish.” “So what do you do? Are you still in school?”

“I just finished. I want to be a lawyer, something with some security.”

“Good for you.” Then after some quiet reflection they parted company as the old guy left with a “Nice meeting you. Good luck.”

I am sure this is happening all over the city, all the time. If it’s not, it will be soon.

Kindness is trending in New York at least.

Get on it, New York! #Clazzy

“Being nice is often seen as an insult.

If you don’t like it, you can fuck off because being nice is important you cold, heartless shit.”

bY PAUL A FRA NK v i sua ls by V i ncent M a rcone aka M y Pet Sk eleton

Enter into a world of sensation; a world of devils, angels, and all sorts of imaginations where orchestral meets electronic in the most delicious of delights to the senses. Step through the door and experience Johnny Hollow where anything can happen, and most often does.

Comprised of members Janine White, Vincent Marcone, Kitty Thompson and Steve Hiehn, Johnny Hollow creates music with dimension and depth. Pulsing drum beats combine with otherworldly cello, keyboards, guitar, and layers upon layers of sounds. Dark lyrics compliment the sounds and create a cinematic world that teases with its embrace as it invades your soul.

They are the shadow in every corner, the monster under the bed, the unease that resides in each of us.

What began as a project to enhance Vincent’s digital art page, My Pet Skeleton, has now culminated into Johnny Hollow’s third full length CD, A Collection of Creatures.

Released earlier this year, A Collection of Creatures showcases what Johnny Hollow is all about. How did the creatures come to be? We spoke to Janine and Vincent and asked all about it. Join Fourculture as we step into the world of Johnny Hollow.

You’ve recently released your third album, A Collection of Creatures. How has the response to the album been so far? What has been the most delicious surprise in the releasing of the album, the most unexpected?

Janine: The response from our fans has been amazing! They seem to understand this album as a culmination of where we started, what happened in the middle, and where we’re going now.

Vincent: There is a sense that our fans have really been rooting for us with this third album. The reaction to the finished product has been wonderful! Our fans, which we lovingly refer to as ‘patrons’, have supported our artistic endeavours through our crowdsourcing goals. I bring this up, because more than ever, I feel a true responsibility to put out the kind of quality that is expected by our fans. Their opinion means a lot to us and the feedback has been beyond positive. It puts a great big smile on my face.

For the creating of A Collection of Creatures, you turned to Indiegogo for crowdsourcing with the mantra “No middle men…just fans.” Was this an extension of dealing with a widening and changing music industry? What was the greatest lesson learned in creating and releasing an album through crowdsourcing and would you do it again?

Vincent: Yes. The music industry has changed and there is no looking back.

The middlemen are losing their place in the system and so we’ve tried to create a strong umbilical cord directly from Johnny Hollow to the people who support our music. The internet was once a just a marketing tool, but now it can fully facilitate the business of being an artist. This is just the beginning for us.

Janine: As many other artists have done lately, we turned to our fans, and they came through, in spades. We would do it again. The greatest lesson we learned about creating an album through crowdsourcing was that the fans are there, and they will help, if you ask them! Because of this campaign, we’ve developed a deeper relationship with our fan base which has been really rewarding.

How important has the internet and that relationship with the fans and patrons been to spreading your music?

In a world without the interweb, where would Johnny Hollow be?

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the WWW for creating a world of riddles, a care and thought into presenting an enworld of crawling bugs and a forum to con- tire package in this way rather than gonect with the people who listen to our music. ing straight digital?

Janine: So far, pre & post-campaign, Due to costs, so many artists are stick- when both digital & physical versions are ing with digital downloads in getting available, we get more sales for the physitheir albums out to the public. I’m one cal one. People like things they can touch of the weird few who waited for my CD (and smell ;). Our albums are really beaupackage to come before indulging. tifully designed by Vincent and it really is There’s just something about opening worth it for that moment when you get to that package, smelling that smell, and open that packaging and look at what’s inbasking in the artistry that comes in a side. We definitely have a personal affecphysical package that I still love. Why do tion for the hard copy and it seems a good you feel it is important to put so much portion of our fans do too.

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Vincent: Well, honestly I feel it’s important to put all the effort I can muster into the art and design of the physical album because I don’t know how long it will last.

I’m fully aware that I may be designing a package that could one day be tossed into a time capsule. And by ‘one day’, I mean a year from now. Computers are no longer manufactured with CD drives. Having said that, there may be hope for our shiny little silk screen printed disc thingies. Perhaps the CD will always be around, printed as smaller and valuable limited edition runs for the collectors out there. For our next Indi-

“Some of my favourite songs are recollections of regret, or painful times. It’s soothing to hear a song about it, write a song about it, or play a song about it.

To feel the communal human condition, petty or tragic as it can be, makes it beautiful.”

design. When we met, almost a couple of decades ago, we almost instantly knew that our approach to art in general was a match.

Since then we’ve experimented in different mediums and have both expanded our range because of it. Vince has tapped into music and I’ve explored storylines & narrative. So many different mediums have both an audio & visual component that they naturally intertwine.

Vincent: Everything is gooey. By that I mean the ideas, whether they are musical, lyrical or image driven, they all INFECT each other in some manner or another .

Every creative notion affects every creative notion. So yes, it’s all intertwined. I think that’s why we are a success as an art band.

egogo campaign we intend to create a perk that offers a framed version of the signed CD so that people can appreciate the art and design on their wall.

Music, film, art; Johnny Hollow truly does it all. How much do they all influence each other? Do you ever find yourself getting wrapped up in one artistic endeavor over others or do they naturally intertwine all the time?

Janine: Vincent is the visual artist behind our image, and I started out composing purely instrumental music and sound

When one listens to A Collection of Creatures, it’s as though you’ve stepped into the rabbit hole of another world, a very cinematic one. Did you have this in mind when creating the album? How did you go about creating that world?

Vincent: Thank you for saying so!

Mood is everything to us. We strive to create a collection of tracks that has an overall atmospheric pallette, the same way you would approach the soundscape to a movie. We try to emote as much as possible by moving between soft atmospheric textures over to strong rhythms and harmonies. Whether it be toggling between Kitty’s whaling cello to Steve’s nimble guitar work, there is a lot of sonic colour to work from.

Between the four of us, we have a lot of sounds to work with and I think that’s why Johnny Hollow has a tendency to feel like the album has a cinematic vibe. I feel our strange approach to lyric writing also punctuates this point because we are not afraid to deviate from the generic structure of a ‘pop song’. Not to mention, Janine has a

tendency/compulsion to do a lot of weaving with all the bits and pieces to make everything feel bigger.

Janine: I’ve wanted to be a “composer” since a very young age. I started piano lessons at about seven years old and started taking down melodies and chord patterns in my head as soon as I could understand it all. As an adolescent I had posters of Chopin and Brahms on my wall. They were composers, not rock stars, and while I loved rock music too, as a career path, it was the composers I related to and aspired to the most. It was the genius of the music itself (not so much the persona of the frontman - although I did have my idols) that fascinated me. I was obviously not in the popular group at school, haha.

So when I first started experimenting, it was with purely instrumental music and sound design. That naturally led to becoming interested in film soundtracks, which lend so much to the onscreen magic.

Writing music to/with visuals is such a pleasure to me, because I always see a movie in my head, when I’m writing music anyway. It’s a natural fit. It was only after several years of experimentation that I started dabbling in vocals and songwriting as well, so I think the “soundtrack” approach has always stuck because that’s where it all began for me.

The music is very layered and intricate, much like the art and film work that goes along with it. Are you all very detail oriented in life or is it just the attention you pay to the medium you are creating?

How hard is it to keep that up when you are self-producing? Would you have it any other way?

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could pretty much name every note played by every instrument in any song, and I could probably also tell you in detail about the recording & digital production at every stage.

In life maybe not so much. I get teased by friends and family for being a little “spacey”, absent-minded perhaps. I tend to burn myself when I’m cooking and bruise myself while doing menial tasks with half a brain. I’ve just had a baby (she’s almost 3 months now!) and it is a wonder to me that I haven’t damaged her yet. That’s love!

Music & baby get an OCD attention to detail. The rest be damned.

Vincent: The attention to detail within the music and art is admittedly a little crazy. It is exhausting, but it’s natural for all of us. It’s our approach. There really isn’t any other way for us to handle Johnny Hollow. I can tell you though, that I am definitely relaxed about the other aspects of my life. My desk and studio is littered with papers, sketches, natural history items of all sorts. In fact, I’m typing this interview out amongst a tiny audience of dried dung beetles, seashells, crumpled sketches, a broken wacom tablet and several tax forms.

a VERY precarious slope and rarely works out, but in this case it did. Karl Mohr was at the helm with the “Devils’ Night” version that made it to the album. He was very patient and meticulous.

Janine: I love all of the versions we’ve made of this song, but this latest one feels like the full evolution.

“Devil’s Night” is absolutely my favorite song on the album, and one that you recreated from an earlier EP. How had your vision changed for the song from its first release to this one?

Vincent: This song is pretty dear to me. I worked with Timothy Glasgow to experiment with several different approaches to the song which turned into the EP that you are referring to. Tim created some amazing versions and offered up some tremendous stems for us to work with for the final version. Dave Ogilvie, who’s famous for working with NIN, David Bowie, Skinny Puppy, Jakalope, Tool etc etc, offered to give us a hand with the track as well and created a mind blowing club mix out of Tim’s stems which we still haven’t officially released (and yes we are going to!). But as good as it is, it just didn’t fit with the gentle atmosphere of the rest of the album. We needed to emphasize a kind of storytelling approach to the song yet still maintain its stompy vibe. We went back to the drawing board and tried to weave in the best qualities of all the mixes, which is

Will we be seeing a Johnny Hollow tour with the new album? Can we expect to step into that artistic world of yours when attending a live show?

Janine: Unfortunately we have to put You’ve also worked with Peter Murphy off touring the new album for a short while, on your short film, The Lady Paranor- due to the new little member in my family, ma. How did that come about? How but we certainly will be planning for that in amazing was that experience? the not too far future.

Janine: Oh, wow, that was amazing.

After the narration, he did this incredible A Collection of Creatures is now reghost-singer-harmony track that was just leased into the world and the funding amazing to watch. We had a chat at one packages have been sent. What’s next point and discovered that his daughter for Johnny Hollow? was a big fan of Johnny Hollow. Wow. PeJanine: We have some very interter Murphy had heard of Johnny Hollow! I esting next steps planned. Without giving was quite tongue-tied. too much away, and we’re still working out Vincent: When I finished writing the script, the producers of the film, Rodrigo the details, we’ll be moving a little bit away Gudino and Marco Pecota (creators of from traditional musical pathways and divRue Morgue magazine), posed the ques- ing back into the fun and mysterious online tion to me: If we could get anyone to per- world of Johnny Hollow.

Vincent: Our fans can expect anothform the narration, who would be on the er Indiegogo campaign this summer! We top of your list? can’t wait to apply what we have learned Peter Murphy.

To make a long story short, they found and try this again!

You mentioned working with Karl Mohr, another Fourculture favorite, on the project. What can working with other artists bring to your own creations that wouldn’t have been there otherwise?

Janine: Time and effort when we’re tapped out for one thing! Karl turned out to be a perfect fit both in his taste & capabilities. He is very skilled so we were able to totally trust him with the final polish, and during production his perspective helped shape a great album that we’re all very proud of.

Vincent: I loved working with Karl!

We had a good chemistry working with him to begin with and he knew that we were insane about the little details before the mixing started. So that was good! He knew what he was getting into! The poor guy had to contend with time signatures and meticulous notes within google document after google document. But we didn’t scare him off and, quite honestly, he was as insane and meticulous as we were. It was a good match.

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him. They got him. He agreed to do it. I had the wonderful opportunity to direct an idol of mine to perform the poem of The Lady ParaNorma. And yes, Peter turned out to be lovely to work with! Equal parts cunning and whimsy just as you’d expect him to be.

You have a way of touching on darkness and hidden recesses of things usually somewhat frightening without making it completely uncomfortable.

Is this something you even think about when creating? What place does this come from?

Janine: Some of my favourite songs are recollections of regret, or painful times.

It’s soothing to hear a song about it, write a song about it, or play a song about it. To feel the communal human condition, petty or tragic as it can be, makes it beautiful. I know it’s a cliché, but it’s a true one.

Vincent: Yeah, I feel that there is a lot of self reflection in this particular album.

There’s a certain amount of darkness that comes from seeing oneself more clearly.

Though the reflection can be ugly, the act of seeing it for what it is is beautiful.

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Z A C H

H U R D taking music to new places

by D er ek O’ N e a l ph oto g r a ph y by doug se y m o u r

Zach Hurd is a singer/songwriter based in Brooklyn, New York.

Originally from a small city in Maine, Zach graduated from college and then toured in the duo Causeway, performed at colleges, clubs, and music festivals across the country. After moving to New York and establishing himself in the city music scene, he has performed in clubs like The Living Room, The Bitter End, Rockwood Music Hall, and Canal Room.

Most recently, he was nominated for an Independent Music Award in the Pop EP category.

Zach’s upcoming fourth album was successfully backed by popular crowd-funding platform Kickstarter, which allowed him to keep his fans involved in the process, including such incentives as a signed copy of the album up to a personal concert or collaborating on a song. The album is being recorded alongside Richard Levengood, friend and owner of THUMP Studios in Brooklyn, where Zach recorded Changing Landscapes. The album will feature ten songs and is scheduled for a July 15 release.

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You are originally from Bath, Maine and moved to Brooklyn, New York almost seven years ago to pursue a career in music. Since then, you’ve released several records and established yourself as a solo artist in the city, which is not always an easy transition. As an independent artist, can you describe any hardships you have had to overcome during the process?

I think being an independent artist is difficult anywhere right now. There are a lot of us out there and because of that it’s become more and more difficult to get your music heard. It can be tough to balance making enough money to support yourself and your art. Making new albums and playing shows: it all costs money. Then you have New York City rent on top of that and sometimes you can feel spread a little thin.

There also isn’t one set path as to how to become a professional musician or how to get out there and make your music successful. You are kind of going by the seat of your pants sometimes. It can be easy to compare yourself to what other people are doing and then get frustrated when it doesn’t seem to be working for you.

It’s been important to keep in mind why I do it. I love it. It’s been something I’ve loved doing since I was 12 years old. At that time, I was terrible at guitar and singing, but it was so fun to slowly learn how to play the Nirvana songs I heard on the radio or have my dad tell me what the lyrics to “The Weight” by The Band were about. As a kid, all this stuff inspired the hell out of me and made music feel so important. I love when I go to a show, see some artwork, or finish writing a song and get that same feeling as when I was 12.

I think that’s why I keep doing it.

Being from a small city, what was it like relocating to New York City? Other than seeking fame in the music industry, what else attracted you to the city? Why New York?

If I wasn’t a musician, I don’t know that I ever would have moved here. New York City always seemed like a fun place to visit, but not somewhere I wanted to live. Once I left college and decided to get more serious about my music, it felt like where I needed to be. The adjustment was definitely difficult at first. After my first few weeks, I thought I would only be here for a year.

You slowly acclimate and fall in love with the nightlife, music and art, and your friends who become family. I’m still not sure that I’ll be here for the long haul, but it feels right for now.

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“I like when I song surprises you in some way — in its lyrics, instrumentation, song structure or all three.”

You used the popular crowd-funding platform, Kickstarter, to help fund the creation of your upcoming fourth record. The campaign was successfully funded by a whopping 145%! In your experience, what are the pros and cons of using crowd funding? Is this an avenue you’ll pursue again for future projects?

Right now, I have nothing but positive things to say about Kickstarter. It’s allowed me to keep my fans involved with the process and engage with them in a different way. Also, the amount of support I got was a huge boost of confidence. It feels good to know that other people want to see this album get made. Knowing that you have the funds needed to see the project through is a great feeling. In the past, I’ve always had to figure out the funding on my own which made the whole thing a much slower process.

of his work. I’ve always liked seeing what a visual artist comes up with after hearing someone else’s songs.

This record is, in a sense, a concept album that tells a story. Without giving too much away, tell us a little about the story and how this album came to be.

The first song on the album is called “Orphan Son,” which tells the story of a boy and a girl who run away from their small town to the city. At the time, I wasn’t sure where that song/story came from and how exactly it fit in with the other material I’d been writing. This wasn’t an idea I was setting out to work out, but when I looked at my other songs I felt like they told different parts of the story: what these kids were thinking and going through in their new environment.

There are some autobiographical aspects of the album, but it’s pretty loosely based. I tried to make it more about an overall story.

What is your ideal songwriting environment and overall creative process? How does a Zach Hurd song come about?

I definitely need a quiet place where I can be alone and I know no one will hear me fumbling my way through a song. I usually just start playing a chord progression I like and then sing gibberish over it until I sing a phrase that sounds right. From there, I take the phrase and start to work around it to try to create a story. This is what I do most of the time, but the more I write the more I see that each song is different. Sometimes I sit and can write a song in an hour or two and sometimes I’ll spend months and months working on a song and still hit a dead end.

Do you have plans for music videos? Is there a song on this album begging for a visual?

I think most of the album lends itself to having a music video. The first single to be released, “Wasteland City,” would be a fun one to have done. It’s a love story set in a crappy apartment with lots of city visuals throughout. I’d love to do one for a few of the other songs too, but we’ll see what the budget allows once the album is finished.

Right now I’m excited about having the album cover art done. Artist Jon Santoro is going to be doing this one and I’m a big fan 44 www.fourculture.com || ISSUE ISSUETWELVE TWELVE

You’ve chosen THUMP Studios in Brooklyn to record this album. What drew you to this location?

I’ve worked with THUMP Studios in the past. I did my album, Changing Landscapes, with them and ever since we had discussed working together again down the road. Richard Levengood, the owner of THUMP, is a good friend of mine and he’s also great to work with. He’s got great production ideas, a talented engineer, and isn’t easily discouraged when problems pop up in a session. An added bonus is that their new location is right down the street from me so there’s no hellish subway ride to get there.

You have cited Beck and Paul Simon as two of your greatest musical influences.

What specifically about these two artists inspires you and your music?

I feel like both of them are always taking their music to new places. They’ve both made so many great albums that sound like they had fun making them. I like when a song surprises you in some way; in its lyrics, instrumentation, song structure, or all three.

There are a lot of other artists I’ve have been influenced by over the years, but these are two artists that come more recently for me.

The combination of great song writing and thoughtful/interesting production is something that I keep working toward.

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Of all the songs you have written and recorded, which one stands out as a personal favorite?

“Brooklyn Raining” is probably my favorite recorded song right now. I love the production on it, very stripped down and each instrument has it’s own place. No one’s crowding each other. This is due to Robert DiPietro’s producing and playing.

Outside of that, (I don’t know if this counts) the song I was talking about earlier, “Wasteland City,” is my maybe my favorite to date. I really like what we’ve put together in studio for this one. Can’t wait to finally put it out!

When you are not busy at work, writing songs, or recording, how do you spend your free time? Do you have any hobbies or favorite pastimes?

I really like a good documentary, preferably a sports doc, but I’m into any subject

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Other than the upcoming release of your fourth record, what does the future hold for Zach Hurd?

I definitely hope to be doing some shows this summer outside of the New York City area and getting to parts of the country that I haven’t played in the past.

I’d also like to do some more collaborative work in the future. I think it would be fun to do some projects that are totally different from the music I’ve been making. I want to What are you carrying in your pockets feel like I’m making progress as an artist. when you are walking around the city?

What items can you never leave your house without?

My iPhone. Up until a year ago, I used a flip phone. Now my phone is my lifeline.

I have no idea how I survived without it. I also have my wallet (if I haven’t recently lost it), my keys, and headphones. That’s about it. I travel pretty light. really. I also like to cook. I’m not that into following recipes. I’d rather just throw a bunch of stuff together and see what happens.

I also just started skateboarding. I’m not very good, but it’s something I’ve wanted to learn since I was a little kid. I don’t have very big ambitions. I’d just like to get to the point where I can cruise down the street and maybe someone will say to their friend, “that guy looks like he knows what he’s doing...sort of.”

www.zachhurd.com

a special something

GENTLEM

EN HALL

By M a rguer ite O’Connell

T

here is something special about Gentlemen Hall, something that is obvious the first time you hear them play. The Boston-based group is known for upbeat songs, positive-vibes, and for putting on a high-energy show. And with vintage synthesizers, a flute, and glockenspiel in the line-up, the band is also known for their signature sound — a kind of ‘synth-pop meets alt-rock, and a flute’ — that is uniquely Gentlemen Hall.

Still, none of these things accounts for the unshakable sense that this band has something special going on.

In truth, there is an intangible, unquantifiable “something extra” that emanates from Gentlemen Hall, on the stage and off; the “you know it when you see it” kind of chemistry that elevates one band above the rest, even when the rest are equally talented. It’s a creative synergy that can make five talented artists, from completely different backgrounds into so much more than just a five-piece band.

Gentlemen Hall’s mysterious something is firmly rooted in their love of music and

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their genuine friendships with one another. It is also reflected in the collaborative creative process used by the band to insure that every member of Gentlemen Hall is heard in every song. “Collaboration” is a topic that comes up frequently in conversations with this band and always, the word “magic” is used in tandem. Indeed, collaboration is the magic created when their individual creativity and talent blend, then meld, into something more. It is the synergistic spark from which flows the band’s inspiration, for what is special about Gentlemen Hall is that when this band makes music, they make magic.

Gentlemen Hall started 2014 on a roll.

Actually, the band has pretty much been on a roll since forming in 2008. The five members of Gentlemen Hall — Gavin Merlot (lead vocals, guitar), Rory Given (bass guitar), Bradford Alderman (vintage synthesizers), Phil Boucher (drums, percussion, glockenspiel), and Seth Hachen (flute, piccolo) — met when they were all attending Berklee College of Music in Boston. From the beginning the band has collected accolades, including MTV’s Best Breakout Band in 2009,

Boston’s Best Act in 2011, the winner of Billboard’s Battle of the Bands in 2011, the first independent band to ever perform at the Billboard Music Awards, the New England Music Awards Pop/Indie Artist of 2012, and the band was one of three winners of the Grammy/Hyundai Center Stage mentorship program in March 2013. In addition, the band’s single, “Sail into the Sun,” was placed in a widely seen US ad for Target, as well as in an international Samsung ad. Gentlemen Hall signed with Island Records in 2013, and is currently working on a new album that is slated for release later this year.

I sat down with the entire band during SXSW in March, and then more recently with Seth and Phil, to talk about where the band has been and where they hope the future will take it. I really cannot remember ever meeting a more positive, fun and personable group. They are as happy and positive as their song lyrics suggest and finish each other’s sentences in the manner that only good friends can. I had a blast doing this interview and I hope that aspect comes across in the reading of it.

I’m going to start with some background questions to help our readers get to know you a little better. So, did you start down the path of your music career with music lessons as a kid?

Seth: Yeah, both of us grew up taking lessons and playing in everything from symphony to band to jazz band. I started playing in 5th grade. I really just wanted to get out of class and do something besides Math or English.

Phil: Seth and I both have heavy symphonic backgrounds. I played in a lot of orchestras. I didn’t even start touching the drum set or even really thinking about the drum set until half way through high school.

I was just classical percussion before that.

And Seth, did you always play flute and piccolo?

Seth: Flute since 5th grade. Piccolo came later, when I was in symphony. I could play it pretty well, so I ended up purchasing one. Piccolo is a bold instrument to play. It screams above the whole symphony.

I think it is very cool when a band includes a classical instrument, not usually associated with rock and roll or pop music. Yellowcard of course, has violin-

ist Sean Mackin; Yoshiki is a classical pianist who played drums in the 80’s metal band, X Japan; and David Garrett is a classical violinist from Germany who recorded an album of rock classics, and regularly plays sold out shows worldwide. And now there is Gentlemen Hall and the two of you — Seth on flute and Phil on glockenspiel. Did you ever see yourself playing in a rock/pop band when you were starting out?

Seth: [laughs] I just remember in 5th grade, I was dancing and playing the flute – kind of bobbing my head as I played – and the band director repeatedly told me I wasn’t supposed to bob my head, move to the music, and play at the same time because it would affect my tone. I just remember thinking, “That’s kind of ridiculous.”

But then I started taking private lessons and that is how I ended up playing in symphony, orchestra and jazz band. And I think jazz band is when I started to realize I could play flute and also play the music I love, that it is a more versatile instrument than just classical or jazz. It’s really cool to be able to play the flute in Gentlemen Hall. People come up to me after shows and say things like, “I’ve never seen the flute look so cool.” And there Phil and I are up on stage playing flute and glockenspiel during songs and people dig it. You know, it’s all good.

Most kids who play in the school band or orchestra never consider their instruments to be one they could play as part of a band with friends. Do you ever get kids responding when they see instruments that are usually considered “classical instruments” being used to make really cool contemporary music?

Seth: Yeah, and I definitely love doing it for those kids, because it is definitely a difficult instrument to play and so, when I have kids coming up to me to say that they play flute and how cool and inspiring it is to see me doing this, that in turn inspires me to keep going. I never thought anyone would come up to me and say that.

Phil, you said earlier that you didn’t really consider playing in a band outside of symphony until you were in high school.

When did you actually start playing in a rock or pop band?

Phil: My first proper rock-n-roll band was during senior year of high school. I got a drum kit in seventh grade, but I didn’t really start playing it until tenth grade when I fell in love with Led Zeppelin. Yep, I got into Led Zeppelin and it’s been downhill ever since. [laughs] And ever since then, it has been a gradual move away from the classical world, which I still love, but I’ve moved

into playing more modern rock, pop, and electronic music. During senior year of high school, my first band was playing covers of 90’s nerd rock bands like Weezer, Wilco, and Blur. I’ve been in a number of groups since then. Really though, Gentlemen Hall is so awesome because sometimes we get a little funky, sometimes we go straight electronic, and it is always fun because we cover so much ground, sonically.

I know you’ve been asked before and that it is a hard question to answer, but if you had to pick one label for Gentlemen Hall’s music, what genre would it be?

Seth: We don’t know. [laughs] I think they refer to bands that can’t answer the question as genre bending.

Both: [laugh] Well, it just means the label hates us more.

In general, do you think the business side of the industry likes for things to fit neatly into a pre-defined or pre-labeled box?

Seth: It’s kind of a fine line because yeah, I feel like they do. But when you can be genre bending and make music that appeals to a lot of people, then you become a trendsetter. So if your sound is unique or it crosses genres, the label is like, “I hate it. But, I love it.”

I listen to every genre of music, as long as a song is good. I mean, if it is good music, then it doesn’t matter what genre it is, right?

Seth: I think Duke Ellington said something like that when he was playing Swing.

People asked him about his music and he said something like, “There are only two kinds of music: good music and bad music.” And he is one of the best composers of all time.

Everyone in Gentlemen Hall attended Berklee College of Music and met at the school. I’m curious whether you intended to focus on performance when you chose to attend Berklee. Did you always want to perform or did you intend to focus on another area of the industry?

Seth: I think performing was everyone’s dream.

Phil: At Berklee you can study production, music business and management, music education, music therapy – there’s all sorts of things. And though people say, “Oh, you go to Berklee, you’re just playing,” there’s actually a number of paths you can take. But for us, I think for almost everyone in the band, we just wanted to be players.

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ager or whatever, but to better understand the business and be successful as a singer and songwriter. When you are in a band, you have to be a master of all trades. In our band we have composers, performers, as well as people taking care of the business side of things and it all blends together. It’s good to have a lot of different perspectives and people knowledgeable about many different areas of the industry.

Were your parents supportive of your decision to pursue a performing career?

Seth: It was different for each of us.

My parents were supportive. Because I play flute and didn’t want to follow the symphonic path, even though I love it, my Mom spent hours and hours on-line researching schools that had a program in contemporary flute. Berklee is where we ended up.

Phil: I started out going to school in Buffalo, NY. I spent two years at SUNY Buffalo (UB) on the Amherst campus and joined the Jazz ensemble there. I also fell into a couple bands while there, became very good friends with one of the guys I met through playing, and we both decided we wanted to go to Berklee. So when I moved, I basically just followed him out to Boston.

He eventually moved on to New York about 7 or 8 years ago, but I’m still in Boston.

I know that you all met while going to school at Berklee, but how did you actually meet one another: Were any of you roommates or did you have classes together?

Seth: It’s kind of interesting, actually.

Brad, Gavin and I lived on the same floor of the freshmen dorm. You know, you go to Boston, it’s your first day at college, and these are the guys you meet. We were just friends – we studied, partied and just hung out together. It wasn’t until about six years later that the three of us started playing and writing music together. Rory and Gavin are both from Cleveland and already knew each other before going to Berklee. They had played in garage rock and punk bands together during high school. It was around 2005, that Phil and I met and started just jamming and hanging out. We would go to this jazz club called Wally’s. It’s one of the best spots to hear live music in the world, in my opinion.

Phil: Wally’s is Boston’s only surviving jazz club. And Boston used to have a thriving jazz scene back in its heyday. It’s an institution in Boston.

months before the current line up came together. There was a different guy playing the guitar and there was a different drummer. They had written a few songs and had played one show together, and the band was still very nebulous. Then people figured out what they wanted to do and who actually wanted to be in the group. I joined the band after I got a call from Brad asking if I wanted to be the drummer in his band. I was like, “I didn’t even know you were in a band!” because at that point they had only played one show and I didn’t know anything about it. [laughs] But I said sure, I’ll sit in and play with you guys. Seth joined a couple months after that.

Seth: Yeah, these guys were a band that had played like one show. They would rehearse in my basement – because I had a house with like eight musicians and a rehearsal spot in the basement — and they would come over there to rehearse, and I’m using rehearse pretty loosely right now…

When you did start writing music and Because we were all friends, I would playing together, was it all of you playing go down there with my flute and hang out together right from the start? and next thing you know we had worked out Phil: The band was together for a few my playing on three songs with them. And

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we played a house party on July 4 - at my house – what year would that have been?

Phil: 2008. And it was my house, too. [laughs] Seth: [laughs] Yes, it was your house, too. As I said, there were eight of us living in that house. So there were three out of the five of us already living there. We played a party there and it was absolutely crazy.

I remember the guys got together the next day for a little meeting to ask, “Should we let the crazy flute player guy in the band or not?” They thought the idea was just crazy enough and had worked out well enough to say, “Let’s try it out.” So, that’s history.

Were you playing original songs at that point?

Phil: It was always originals.

Seth: We would play some covers, like …

Phil: We did Mother Ship Connection

by George Clinton.

Seth: Oh my god, I forgot about that!

Phil: [laughs] And we did some Beatles – what was that song we used to do?

Seth: “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road”

Phil: [sings] “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road” [laughs] Seth: We did a lot of covers and we did a lot of funky party music.

I’m a little confused on the timeline. Earlier you said that some of you had known each other about six years before you started playing together. Does that mean some of you had already graduated?

Phil: Yeah, a couple of them had. Most of us were graduating and/or dropping out right around that time the band was forming in 2008.

At this point, in 2008, were you all still just playing together for fun and at parties, or had everyone already started getting more serious about playing together?

Phil: Yeah, 2008 was when the group jelled. And just as it is for about every band out there, it is a slow, gradual building process. So we may have been a party band at first, but we had figured out that …

Seth: We like to write songs. Do you remember MySpace? That was where

some of our founding moments as a band took place. We would write a song, work on it, produce it, do everything we knew how to do, and then we would release it on MySpace where it would get a few hundred plays. Eventually though, people started listening and we started getting like three thousand plays. I feel like MySpace allowed us to start understanding the craft of writing and releasing music.

Phil: And then maybe around 2010, we started having some discussions about making a record with a real producer and we ended up making an album and that album had “Sail Into The Sun” on it.

I am really curious about the reason you chose to name the band Gentlemen Hall. I want you to tell me which of these statements, if any, are true: A) It refers to a certain group of troublemakers who lived on the same floor of a college dormitory and were labeled “the gentlemen down the hall” in one of many complaints to the Resident Director about their loud jams and parties; B) It is a reference to the band’s misunderstanding

of a comment made in a diner by Mark Wahlberg; C) It is named after a Prohibition-era speakeasy in Boston; or D) Gentlemen and Hall are just two words that fit well together. I actually found all of these reasons given by various band members in the past to answer the question of how you chose the band’s name.

I’m wondering if any of them are true?

Seth: Those are all true. [laughs] Phil: All of the above. [laughs] There are at least 2 or 3 more reasons behind our choosing that name.

I am not sure if I believe you. [laughs] But moving right along, how difficult is it to create music that is reflective of everyone’s style, interests and influences?

Seth: It’s not that difficult because all of us are always writing together. But it happens in all different ways. Probably the most difficult thing, anytime we write, is to be writing something that we all are feeling. But once we do catch something together, then that’s usually what we pursue. And it’s something we have gotten better and better at doing.

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ago more or less how to accommodate every attention that it has? voice and that’s just something that we don’t Seth: You know, that’s a really hard even really need to think about anymore. question. [laughs] We all just understand the vision of the band.

Phil: It was not obvious from the start. It was definitely the happiest, like just the most So what you are saying is that, not only straightforward, happy, light-hearted song has the band been able to craft a sound that we had recorded up to that point – and that accommodates every member, but maybe still is up to this day. And some of us that sound is created through a collabor- in the band definitely always knew there was ative process in which each of you takes something catchy about it, but I don’t think part? And this process is one the band any of us ever saw massive commercial sucmastered early on? cess or had a feeling like, “that’s the song.”

Seth: I think so. I mean, the process Now there were some people on our team can still be difficult once in a while but I think that right from the start that literally said, “Oh, we are a true band. With all of us being that song would be great in a commercial.” composers and writers, we think about And of course, that’s what happened. each other. It’s not a Gentlemen Hall song if there isn’t a great drum part and flute, What is your reaction when you hear your bass, keys and vocals, as well. We really music being played on the TV or radio? always think about each other and whether Seth: It’s just like this dream come true a song comes across as “Gentlemen Hall.” kind of moment.

And I also think being collaborators is the Phil: It’s a good adrenaline shot when most fun part. It’s definitely better than if it happens. there was just one of us writing all of the Seth: Really. I went into Target when band’s music. I think we all feel that we al- the commercial was still playing all the time, ways come out with something greater, or and I just hung out in the electronics departbetter, than any one individual could pro- ment for about 10 or 15 minutes. The comduce alone. mercial was literally playing about every three minutes on this wall of big screen TV’s. And Well, they do say that the whole is I asked the guy working in that department, always greater than the sum of its parts. “Hey, you hear that song? That’s my band.”

Seth: I don’t know why, but collabora- Then I asked if they were sick of the song. He said, “I want to shoot the TV’s.” [laughs] tion always seems to have that result.

Collaboration is such a magical thing I want to switch topics and ask you about and we are deeply in love with it. the role social media plays in building a I think that the magic you are describing band and how social media changed the was evident during your SXSW show this way bands do things. year. You played one of your new songs, Seth: It’s all pretty amazing. It gives “Holding on Tight,” and I was just mes- you the ability to talk to and stay in touch merized by the way your flute and Brad’s with fans as well as other music producsynthesizer played off one another and ers, songwriters and artists anywhere in the melded together. It was gorgeous. But world. In fact, the collaboration with Pakistani the song also had a great bass line and producer, Talal Qureshi on the song “Rainbeat going on. So I guess that’s what drops” came about through social media. He you were describing when you said that had heard Gentlemen Hall’s music and we the signature of Gentlemen Hall’s sound had been talking back and forth on Twitter for is that it features everybody? some time. We started sending mixes back Seth: It really is. That’s what we want and forth and next thing you know, we are people to know about us is that we are an collaborating over the Internet. For us, it is “all-in” band and that is what you are hear- really important to be on our social media accounts, to let fans know what we are doing, ing. We are really, really proud of that. and just staying in touch with them.

I recently read where an artist described having “a feeling” about a hit song even Is social media changing the music inas he finished writing it. He also said dustry do you think? that playing the song “created a feeling Seth: Yeah, absolutely. If you are acof instant connection w/ the audience.” tive on any of the social media platforms So, when Gentlemen Hall finished writ- you can reach so many more people. RAC ing and recording “Sail Into The Sun” – is one of our favorite DJ’s and he does a your song that was used in Target and lot of remixes, in fact, he did a remix of our a Samsung commercials around the song “Sail Into the Sun.” Using Sound Cloud world – did you have a feeling that it was and his blog he was able to build a fan base somehow special and would receive the of over a million people. He released a lot of 54 www.fourculture.com || ISSUE ISSUETWELVE TWELVE

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great content just by using Sound Cloud and was able to build a brand and move up to the next level. Now he is touring all over, playing major music festivals, and it was all grown straight from social media. That really didn’t happen before social media came along.

When we were first starting out, MySpace was such a new thing. You could post a song on there and a few thousand people might hear it. Before that you had to record the song, make some kind of hard copy, then go out and distribute it – hand it out on the streets, or at shows – to get anyone to hear it. Social media has taken it to a whole new level and a lot of artists in many mediums, not just music, are using it to build fan bases.

I want to know about the recording process the band uses. Gentlemen Hall has a very dynamic live show. How do you capture the energy of a live performance on an album? Is it even a factor you consider when making an album?

Seth: Yes, absolutely. We were actually obsessed with this for a little bit. Some bands will actually play all together in the studio. And that’s one way to capture the dynamics of a live performance. As we are all music writers and producers, we tend to record the instrument parts separately and use those to build the song into its final form.

But just in the last year we went into the studio and recorded as a full band. It was really cool and the energy really does come across. We just love being a band and we are going to try every single way of doing it so we can bring the best listening experience to our fans, live and on our albums.

Phil: Most songs start out as a recording. Something we recorded piece by piece using a computer. Then we take the song into the practice space and figure out how to do it live, rather than the other way around.

Seth: We just want the love and happiness we feel playing music to resonate with the world.

Any idea when the new album might be finished? Is there a tentative release date or even a time frame you want to share?

Seth: Well, it’s more like a season, really. [laughs] We’re kind of looking at some time in the summer for the album to be finished. We are just really focused on the songs and putting together the album. We are going to New York next week to record

and work and to LA soon after that to record and work some more. All of our focus right now is on the next album and fans should know we are working around the clock to get this record out, and we are hopeful it will be by the middle of summer.

Phil: Yeah. We are pushing and working our asses off to get down to a two-month plan, maybe three-month plan. There are a lot of pieces that have to fall into place for us to get there.

That works. Now tell me about the funniest catastrophe to happen during a show?

Seth: There were two separate times that one of us fell off the stage. One time Gavin fell of the stage and more recently, I fell off the stage. You know it’s funny. You’re in the moment, you’re rocking out so hard, you’re feeding off the energy of the fans and the next thing you know, your foot goes off the edge and you take a dive. [laughs] Phil: You are really exploring the So, if we adopt a seasonal timeframe space, that’s what you are doing. [laughs] and the album drops sometime in the summer, do you think you will do a fall No one was hurt though, right? tour to promote it? What can we look Seth: No. When it happened to me we forward to for the end of 2014? were on tour with Basic Vacation at a show Seth: You are going to see us out on in Santa Barbara. I was playing keyboards the road a lot to promote it. We are working and flute and my foot was on the edge of with our label on some very cool ways to the stage, and right when I fell off, or to use promote the next album, but first we have to Phil’s words, right as I was “really explorfinish it. [laughs] We love touring, so we will ing the space” the guys from Basic Vacation definitely be on the road to promote it. were walking by and they caught me. And it Phil: Yeah. We want festival and tour was like this amazing moment of like… dates.

Phil: LUCK! [laughs] Seth: Yeah, luck. [laughs] I just reOkay guys, here’s a fun question: If you member my band all looking over at me had to describe your band as a mixed like, “What just happened?” [laughs] With drink, what drink would it be?

Gavin, his fall was off the front of the stage Phil: Oh, boy. [laughs] It would be a into the fans. So, no one was hurt and all whiskey something, maybe a whiskey sour? our moms say that hopefully that is the last [whispered discussion between Phil and Seth] time any of us fall off the stage. [laughs] Seth: Okay, yeah, a whiskey sour.

Phil: On some stages the drummer is Phil: Or maybe a Mint Julep? That’s a up on a riser and the drummer pushes it to tough question. You’ve stumped us here. I the far back edge of the stage riser as posdrink bourbon straight, so I am not the one sible. So the stool I sit on to play is right on to ask this. the edge of the stage and I can’t even count the number of times one of the legs of the You can pick a shot straight up, if you stool goes over the edge. One minute I’m think that best describes the band. playing along and everything is good and Seth: No, we are definitely some kind the next I am tipping backwards into nothof mixed concoction. We are not straight ing. That’s just one of the occupational hazliquor. Let me think about this. We come ards of being a drummer. It’s very Spinal Tap like. One of these days I will go up in a across a little…hmmm…so, It has to be...

Phil: It has to have a kick, but it also cloud of green smoke like in Spinal Tap and that will be it for me. has to have a nice sweet finish.

Seth:You’re doomed, Phil. [laughs} Seth: Definitely, a kick and then sweet.

Phil: Yeah, yeah I am.

Maybe like a spicy Margarita or something?

Phil: Sure. [laughs] Finally, Fourculture wants to know: So a Margarita, maybe with a little Ta- What are your four favorite things – the basco added? four things you couldn’t (or just don’t Seth: Yeah, Tabasco! It’s still sweet, a want to) live without? little salty on the rim. [laughs] We’re a DiaPhil and Seth: Maple syrup. Sunrises blo Margarita! and Sunsets. Writing Music. Great artists and great music to listen to.

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Founded in July 2011, Specter publishes literature and art from emerging and experienced artists alike. Launched with inclusion in mind, Specter is open to all forms, styles, and genres from all creative individuals, regardless of race, gender, sexual identity, etc.

Specter publishes new, previously-unpublished literature. We accept poetry + ďŹ ction (50-3000 words).

All styles. All forms. All genres.

www.spectermagazine.com

By Da rya teese w ell

I’ve never been in a tranny bar that had a decent ladies room.

They are inevitably hot, crowded and hard to pee in. Divas in San Francisco had a downstairs bathroom with that looked like the interrogation room of a Cambodian forced labor camp; bright lights, no doors for the ancient toilets and a smell that was uncannily like fish sauce.

The dance floor ladies room at the old Queen Mary in Studio City was a single seat affair that always had no less than five girls in it, all of us usually fixing our lipstick or a wandering false eyelash while bitterly complaining about what jerks the men were being. Memorable was the night that one of the gorgeous pole dancers put her hand on the sink, pulled up her G-string and proudly showed us the new vagina she had gotten in Colorado. It was lovely work.

The Queen Mary Show Lounge closed down abruptly in 2004. The property was valuable, the owners were tired, and we were crushed. One of the oldest and argu58 www.fourculture.com || ISSUE ISSUETWELVE TWELVE

ably greatest drag and trans bars ever, gone without ceremony, replaced by a Turkish club that was never open. We suspected money laundering or indulgent relatives.

There was much to-do about where the next club would be, and who would promote it (as there always was) but a new place in North Hollywood decided to promote a trans night on Saturdays after some routine arcane community machinations.

The Lodge was a deceptively large gay bar in North Hollywood, just a few blocks south of the new NoHo arts district. They did things right from the beginning. They poured a good drink, the bartenders were friendly,

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there were enough places to sit, lots of street parking, they had decent DJ’s, a good sound system and the security was firm but not obtrusive. We brought in big money on Saturdays, and they loved us for that alone.

The ladies room, of course, was hot and crowded. I was in there on a warm June night as I was just beginning to get comfortable managing the shop in the old Jim Bridges Salon. Two of the Filipina regulars were in front of the mirror by the sinks, primping, laughing and chatting in Tagalog with two other girls next to me. I was standing with Ella, a haughty and elegant blonde from Alsace who had a voice like Bavarian Cream.

I was in a good mood, and it felt good to be with the girls, even though it was tight and hot in there. I was able to see myself in the mirror and assess my shrinking body. My goal weight was about 210 and I was still twenty-five pounds from there, but I was pretty happy with the progress I had made, eating the same thing for breakfast and lunch every day and counting my Weight Watcher points.

I was just happy to be wearing a size 16 skirt.

Ella and I moved up to the mirror; “I love your necklace, baby” I said to Ella, truthfully.

“Thank you, Darya. You are looking good yourself, these days” “Thanks sweetie. I’m working on my weight; trying to feel better about myself” “Well you shouldn’t feel good yet.” The voice came from an unkempt blonde behind me whose greasy face I could just make out in the mirror. Strangely enough, it dashed me to my core. I could never understand people who were just plain mean.

“I didn’t stutter! You’re fat!” she said, even louder; we were face to face. She muttered something about “stupid fat bitch” at me as I walked out with Ella. I was stunned, and felt tongue-tied and foolish.

Ella grabbed my arm. “Dahhrling, don’t listen to that stupid cow!” She delivered the word “cow” with emphatic Germanic contempt. I felt like the five year-old girl I never got to be.

“Why is she so mean?”

“Because she’s a hateful ugly bitch. This place is full of them. Let me buy you a drink” Ella did better than that; she had a man buy us both drinks. “Don’t you love Darya’s beautiful face?” Ella purred, as she entwined herself in our patron’s arm.

“Yes” he said “I’ve always thought so. I’ve kind of been afraid to talk to her” Now, this guy was short, older and had stringy hair, but he might as well have been Gregory Peck at that moment. I could feel myself smiling, maybe even blushing a little. I took his hand and thanked him.

Ella had masterfully gotten my mind off the Bitch in the bathroom. Pretty soon my other friends had shown up and I got to dance a little with the guy with stringy hair.

I heard the words “the poor thing” in my head, and I knew I was indeed my mother’s daughter, albeit a six-foot-three one with an intact penis.

If I wanted to annihilate her, I would say, “Bless her heart”, next.

After a while, we all ended up outside to cool off and smoke cigarettes. I was still a little stung by the blonde’s words.

“Oh, her? I think I know the one you mean. She got kicked out of Encounters; she’s a bitch” Krissy was tall, tanned, elegant and popular with the guys. I considered her a sweet and honest friend. “She has nothing on you, Darya, you’re fabulous” “Yeah, fuck her” Heather said.

“I’ve lost a lot of weight…” I pouted. “…and you look great, girl.”

“Fuck her” “Yeah, fuck her” It’s good to have sisters.

I was back to work at the shop next week, and I monitored my scale every morning and counted my points. I talked about my meltdown it in an online chat group, and my friends again calmed me down and lifted me up.

Summer began to fade; nights were getting longer and cooler after the expected early October heat wave. I was dressing for a night at the Lodge at the shop. I was about five pounds from my weight loss goal, and looking very hot in a leather mini, fishnet stockings, boots and a matching corset. My lips were Chanel red, my eyes were feline, my nails were painted and the world had better look out for me. I sprayed on some Vera Wang.

Oh, and that Bitch? I couldn’t wait to see her.

I stepped into the bar around ten-fifteen.

I was early, according to Trans time. My bracelets were jangling and ear hoops were swinging as I walked up to the bar. The bartender smiled; “Diet Coke or sparkling water?” He knew me well, and I always tipped him accordingly. As the place filled up, I saw friends I had lost track of, got hit on by men, danced my little ass off, and looked not much the worse for wear. It was a great night.

About half-past midnight, she was standing next to me at the bar. Her. She gave no indication she remembered me. I was twenty pounds lighter and a brunette, now. Her face was jowly, long and hopelessly masculine. She did have lovely blue eyes, but her eye makeup was a drippy, raccoony mess. Her skin was dark and rough from too much sun, and she had misshapen teeth, the poor thing.

I heard the words “the poor thing” in my head, and I knew I was indeed my mother’s daughter, albeit a six-foot-three one with an

intact penis. If I wanted to annihilate her, I would say, “Bless her heart”, next. Mom would have been proud. All I needed was a bucket of Smirnoff over ice in one hand and a Salem raised upward in the other.

She was drinking American beer and a shot of something white. She looked a little buzzed. She glanced over at me, and I could see the words “What are you looking at?!” building up on her face, but instead looked me up and down and apparently thought better of it, then turned and stomped away.

I felt pretty damned great at that point.

“Yes, Bitch, that’s right, I am fucking hot, I look better than you ever will. Sorry about your face” I wish I could have said that, but I thought it.

I went outside for a victory cigarette.

Krissy, Midge, Madison, Heather, crazy Tina and skinny Tina were all outside and we all had a few laughs with the boys who were out there with us. High clouds had rolled in and a breeze kicked up that smelled like rain.

We heard shouting inside. Security Frank was leading The Unkempt Blonde herself out onto the street. She was shouting “I’m fine I’m fine I donnunnerstand..” her heels were sideways on the concrete, as Frank firmly and silently kept her from falling. “I juswannanotherdrink..rilly…I’m fine…” Frank said something to her, firmly and quietly, and walked away. She walked a short distance, hobbling like a shopping cart with two bad wheels, then stopped. She was muttering, opened up her little purse, looked inside, closed it, and then turned North on Lankershim.

There were tiny drops of rain hitting the sidewalk as I looked down to crush out my cigarette. The perfume of wet streets was rising. I could see drops streaking in the mercury vapor security lights of the auto sales lot next to the bar. The unkempt blonde was illuminated by a light, too; on her knees heaving violently on a steel pole that was painted bright yellow. Her tall body looked small as she shook. She’d puked on her wig for sure. The rain was coming down harder and I headed back inside as I caught a last glimpse of her.

The poor thing, bless her heart.

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S KO A PASSION FOR CULTURE

UNT

by K athy Cr ei g hton

Skount Garcia is a thirty-one year old street artist living in Amsterdam. He was born in Jerez de la Frontera in the south of Spain. When he was very young he moved with his family to Almagro, which has an important history.

The conqueror of Chile was born there, and it is the first Templar settlement, which created a large religious infrastructure in the town. The main square was a gift from the kings of Brussels in the sixteenth century and there is a “Corral de Comedias” (theater type) that is unique in the world.

Skount explained that he began traveling away from home when he was about thirteen.

He quickly discovered his wanderlust and passion for other cultures. Now, although keeping a base in the Netherlands, he travels around the world painting and sharing his work with a global audience.

Based on the intricacy and balance of Skount’s work in both painting and sculpture, the question came up as to whether he has had any formal art education. Although he did start taking courses in fine arts as a young adult, he

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left after two years to pursue formal training as a chef, a field he fell in love with. He did continue to self-educate himself in visual arts.

How did he wind up in Amsterdam? After moving to Barcelona where he attended culinary school, he worked as a chef while painting in the streets during his free time. In 2009 he traveled to China to do a commissioned work and when he returned he decided to leave Barcelona and travel. Skount spent eighteen months traveling in Europe before establishing his residence in Amsterdam in 2010.

Before delving further into who he is as an artist, he mentioned that readers may be curious as to the origin of his pseudonym SKOUNT. “Skount was an imaginary name but when I traveled for the first time to the desert of Morocco the people there told me that Skount is the vocal sound of one spirit that flies throughout the dessert. Now I am thinking that maybe I am part of Skount.”

Like most creative people, Skount found his first talent at an early age. “I started to paint when I was really young, around six or seven, just because I watched my mom doing it and then I couldn’t stop. In 1999 I started to paint graffiti influenced by hip-hop culture. I didn’t think about artistic talent. I was painting because I needed to do it. In 2008 I started to focus on painting for different reasons that were around me.”

When it comes to inspiration or emotional or spiritual growth, Skount doesn’t find it only in other arts. “I think inspiration is everywhere; in each moment, emotions, conversations, things that you see every day.

Everything is part of me and I am part of everything so the inspiration floats around us, and each person captures it in different ways. As for solace and emotional/spiritual

growth, I find it in traveling and learning about different cultures, dreaming, meeting and talking with people, discovering new places. I like listening to music, walking around places in the middle of nowhere-and of course painting and creating.”

Did Skount start out as a street artist or did he begin with smaller works and move to entire walls? “When I was really young I did small drawings on paper. Then in 1999, through the influence of the hip-hop culture, I started to paint outdoor typography graffiti. Over time, through self-interest and research in other fields and different art disciplines, I began to develop other kinds of works such as murals, illustration, painting, photography, sculpture and installation. I always like to investigate different techniques and other ways of expression.”

“I can’t say that I’m a street artist. I just feel the necessity to express myself and I do so using all the resources at my disposal. I don’t like to limit creativity or the imagination, so I do different things. I would be bored doing the same thing all the time.

I really love painting murals because it’s a process totally different from creating at the studio. In the studio you create your own

atmosphere to paint; in the street the atmosphere is always changing. Everything that is happening around you is part of the process and the final result of the mural.”

As an American who experiences international street arts through books, TV and the internet, it seems that Europe is far more accepting of this genre, possibly even encouraging it. What is the reality from an experienced European? “I think Europe is not really accepting of street art. It is true that in the last five years there are a lot of new street art festivals and a lot of artists can do big murals. However, outside of those street art festivals, in most of the places, the government forbids painting out in the streets even with permission from the owner of the wall. This is because the law says you’re breaking the aesthetic harmony of the place.”

What is your observation of the American street art scene? “In the US I don’t know because I am not living there or in direct contact with what’s going on there.”

Skount’s work is filled with positive emotions for this writer. His color palette and the compositions are very bright. Is Skount generally a positive person? Does he ever create from a darker place? “I think I am a person in constant change and growth so the situations that I am in effect how I feel and how I assimilate all that is around me.

I am an emotional filter of what I am in essence and the brush is the conductor of my soul, so each artwork is a little piece of me. Depending on the moment of my life my artworks can be dark, positive, abstract, figurative, or lovely.”

For a while Skount had been using masks as a theme in many of his paintings.

However, he has moved on to completely different themes. Unfortunately, he says that people try to label others and so he has been battling to get away from the “masks” label. He did agree to speak a bit about that theme though and its roots.

“In my opinion everybody wears a mask in a metaphorical sense. Maybe I started to paint characters with masks due to the influences of my childhood exposure to the theatrical culture of my hometown. I have seen many theater performances that fascinated me, especially the costuming typical of the “Golden Age” classic style; prints, pompoms, tails, and masks. These attracted me. Also, I was inspired by my trips to Mexico, South America, and China. The truth is that I started drawing these characters in 2004 in Barcelona when I fully left graffiti. It was a time of conflict in myself and I started to feel better at drawing these fictional characters (perhaps they were just an extension of me, my dreams or my deepest desires).

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between the masks and the mental state of human beings. I think we all generally wear a mask every day in a metaphorical sense which makes us adopt a more socially acceptable image. It is a way of acting against society and gradually weaving a fictitious identity that others accept as genuine. In general, very few people are freed from the burden (mask). Sometimes, I even think I would never fully liberate this mask, because at some point it becomes part of oneself.”

“All these investigations, lived situations, travel and cultures blend to create what I do today. After all this process, I wondered why my characters should bring masks?

When you get rid of this fictional mask, what is in you? Are you just empty? Or does color emanate from you? I’m working hard on it lately, investigating identity disorder, what society tries to make you be. So I am working lately without masks, focusing on what is left once we let go of them. Sometimes it can be empty and pure darkness because what we were at home has already disappeared completely. We are dehumanized.”

“Basically, my research work has been about the mental state of human beings and how we relate between people and things around us as we sometimes take off our masks or simply live our whole life behind one.

In the end, it is a fictional work about identity to the society we live in and the universe.”

www.skountworks.com Instagram: @skountworks www.skount-works.blogspot.com www.flickr.com/skount

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Are you listening?

Alternative and indie music from the 80s, 90s & today as well as new & unsigned artists emerging from the underground

SUNDAY NOISY SUNDAY SUNDAY | 4:30 PM EST

THE FABULOUS D SHOW MONDAY | 9 PM EST

FC PRESENTS WEDNESDAY | 8 PM EST

Sunday Noisy Sunday is a one hour musical journey, from noise to neo-classical, from wild rock to warm electronic music. This show is curated by GrĂŠgoire Fray (THOT).

With interesting guests and commentary, The Artist D tries desperately to display the realty of the moment. The Fabulous D Show is for anyone with a brain in their head. New shows every Monday! Previous episodes are revisited each Thursday at 11 PM EST.

Join The Artist D and various Fourculture artists as they unveil their new creations on a selected Wednesday of each month.

“...You can expect more dystopian disco in Japan Soul’s upcoming LP Plastic Utopia...

Well, if everything’s going to hell anyways we might as well go down dancing right?”

— mtvU

Plastic Utopia is the debut album from Japan Soul.

Available on BandCamp, iTunes, Amazon and most digital stores.

JapanSoul.me · Twitter.com/JPNSL · Facebook.com/JPNSL · JapanSoul.BandCamp.com

#BuyMusicLoveArtists

RICKY a phoenix from the ashes

REBEL BY kATH Y cREIG HTO N

The Skype “phone” rings.

The “call” connects and there sits a young man with a head of bright blue hair and matching manicure. Some would be at least a little shocked and concerned about what they are in for. But if they take a breath, let go of their preconceptions and look into those eyes, actually see the gentle smile on those lips, they will quickly understand that this is not someone to be afraid of. That maybe they need to let go of a lot of at least a few of their hang-ups.

In fact Ricky Rebel quickly sets one at ease immediately and welcomes them into his world. The 34 year-old has accomplished everything he has set his mind and heart to at this point in his life. He is a dancer, an actor, a singer, musician, engineer, producer, production designer and fashionista. He has worked with some of the biggest names in entertainment. Ricky is ambitious, determined, motivated, fearless and yet, has this innocence, humility and curiosity about him. Within his spirit is a strong, beautiful inner-child.

Born Ricardo Felix Godinez, Ricky is a California native. As a child involved in competitive gymnastics, one of his first and biggest artistic influences was Madonna.

Ricky remembers watching her performances. He was drawn to the controversial aspects. He says it felt like she was “messing up” on stage but that it was ok. With that realization he went to his parents and announced that he wanted to become a dancer. Ricky notes that competitive gymnastics is just that…competitive. One’s moves and body positions must always be perfect for the judges. It also opened his eyes to the fact that his art (and the other competitors’) was being judged. With dance he could 78 www.fourculture.com | ISSUE TWELVE

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create freely and push envelopes. He is not the product of stage parents but one of his own diligences to become a performer. His family agreed and he began taking dance lessons. Ricky took to the craft easily and it wasn’t long before his instructors were suggesting he start auditioning for paying gigs. That meant traveling to Hollywood.

His grandparents were the main providers of transportation from his home in Upland as both of his parents worked. Ricky shared that his grandfather was one of his biggest supporters, always encouraging him.

The 90’s birthed the era of the “boy band” which Ricky saw as an opportunity to add singing to his repertoire, so he started auditioning. He was under consideration for two or three and chose “Boys Club” which would later become “No Authority”.

Initially he was hired to be one of the background singers but Ricky had other plans.

He already knew how headstrong he was and how much he liked to be the focus of an audience’s attention. He was still a big fan of Madonna and now also Michael Jackson, both very strong front people. In his own words? “That’s cute that you want me to be a backing singer. That’s really cute,” Rebel says with a wink and a nod.

“I usually write better coming from a darker side.”

No Authority came out of the gate with the right combination of muscle behind them to stand out in the quickly growing sea of their category of pop music. After being scouted by Jono Kohan who pitched them to Michael Jackson, they were signed to Michael’s MJJ imprint on Sony. No Authority went into the studio with power producer, Rodney Jerkins, who was only 19 years old at the time but already working with the likes of Mary J Blige, Monica, and Brandy.

Today Jerkins’ resume looks like the who’swho of pop and R&B megastars. Ricky is a very intelligent person so he paid very close attention during the recording of the album and learned everything he could about the process from Jerkins. That enthusiasm to learn along with intellect had him spending a lot of time in the studio singing on many of the multiple tracks that then were layered together to create the final recorded song.

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made other visits to the ranch and Ricky had opportunities to talk with “the King of Pop”. MJ really liked No Authority. They were paired with Aaron Carter, also on MJJ, who had already begun to grow a large fanbase in Germany, for two European tours.

It was at one tour stop in Sweden that it really hit Ricky how big this band was.

After touring the debut album extensively it was time to come home and start putting together their sophomore record.

But, as is common in the music industry, there was “label drama” putting the new album with Cut Father & Joe (Ace of Bass, Kylie Minogue & Peter Andre) in limbo until Rebel’s other hero stepped in. Madonna now had her Maverick label and signed No Authority to it. This all came together just before one of Britney Spears’ tours so No Authority was added to the bill. They had a hit single, “Can I Get Your Number” which was riding at #2 on the “Most Added” chart right behind Janet Jackson. One might think that this teenager from Upland had hit the jackpot and already reached all his goals. They would be wrong.

Still Godinez at that point, Ricky didn’t see himself as part of a group but a solo act. He wanted to write and sing his music, alone in the spotlight. The chance to achieve that didn’t start with balloons and glitter though. It would be the first of many times that Ricky would find success among the ashes, that a negative situation would birth something positive. Like most teenagers, Ricky thought that things would be great forever. He was also experiencing all the normal crap that goes along with moving through those later teen years and seeing his twenties on the horizon. In the middle of that, the shit hit the fan. As No Authority took up residence in the studio in 2000 for their third record, conflict broke out between the producer and the band’s management. It escalated and all efforts to get them to agree or compromise failed. Maverick finally just pulled the plug on the whole thing and dropped the band from the label.

Initially, Ricky reacted by going into a period of depression. However, it didn’t last. The “Rebel” moniker showed its first twinklings and this rebellion took the form of going it alone. Before DIY was popular, Ricky bought his first copy of Pro Tools, taught himself how to play guitar and started writing his own music. He also began learning the “business” end of the music business. He was becoming both an artist and a CEO. He decided to try his hand as a rock musician and created the band Harlow. With Harlow, he discovered how to open his voice along with roughening it up and creating new dynamics with it. Unfortunately he made the decision to add a producer to his team. That turned into

a four-year emotionally abusive business relationship. Thankfully Ricky had enough “rebel” in his core that the abuse made him a stronger person in the end. He chose to make the dance music that was in his soul against the ridicule of the producer. Shortly after releasing a music video for “Get It On”, he caught another brass ring...My Chemical Romance.

MCR ended up casting Ricky in their music video for “Na Na Na”. My Chem’ had cast friends from Mindless Self Indulgence in two roles but then had to switch MSI frontman, Jimmy Urine, to a different character when it turned out that roller skating was not his forte. Rebel was cast as the skating “Show Pony”. This job provided Ricky with a number of incredibly powerful positive experiences. One was spending time with Gerard Way, who is a supremely talented artist along with being a focused and determined creator. Way had always had a very strong hand in most aspects of any MCR project. He came into situations with a complete vision. This was showcased in Welcome to the Black Parade, a complete concept package from the lead-up to the album’s release, to artwork, merch, and the music videos. For Rebel, who had already had DIY experience and desired that kind of control and involvement, Way was the perfect mentor. After the video shoot Gerard

invited Ricky to watch a few of their shows from the wings and then asked him to guest DJ My Chemical Romance’s performance at the House of Blues. It is at this point that the written word cannot convey the emotions Ricky showed when he talked about that night. He performed as Show Pony and the spotlight was all his. Show Pony has his own fans who were out in force that night and letting him know how much they loved him. “I’ve been on CNN, Nickelodeon, Jenny Jones, Donny and Marie. I’ve played huge arena shows opening for Britney. None of that comes close to that night with MCR. It was the most amazing performance for me to date. Now I just seek to recreate that feeling over and over.”

That comment brought the conversation to the next big step in Ricky Rebel’s career, the self-release of his new Blue album which will drop on June 10th. Ricky explained that this record is the result of all the lessons he has learned about good things growing from the bad. He has pulled from over thirty songs he’s written over the past year, many of which are really happy which previously was not something he did very well at writing. Like Ricky said “I usually write better coming from a darker side. It’s not that I’m a real ‘Eeyore’ type of person but I like pulling from those emotions”. He admits that some of the brighter influence came with meeting

and establishing a very positive relationship with his current boyfriend. It’s another case of finding something really good on the other side of something very bad, as his prior relationship had taken a serious emotional toll on Rebel. After the break-up, Ricky did a lot of soul searching, worked to clean up his image and the result was the Raw Artist of the Year Award, a new love and this great album. He followed his pop and dance music muses and says this is a record he wants people to get up and dance to, work out to and feel good to.

Currently Rebel has released The Blue EP and a few singles from this project. He is one of the “artists in residence” at Club Bar Sinister and recently performed a full set for their 5th Annual Alice in Wonderland Tea Party. He said that he stripped things down a bit with fewer dancers and less backing tracks to allow his talent to be showcased. He agrees that audiences tend to get skeptical when there’s too much “schmaltz”. They suspect that it is hiding an artist’s shortcomings and he’s right. Less also gives him the chance to give and absorb more energy too. As with any genuine performing artist, Rebel is very aware of that energy “circuit” that benefits both performer and audience when completed and sustained. He says his X Men superpower is the ability to draw on an audience’s energy and return it to them ten-fold.

The conversation wound down into just that...a chat between friends. Ricky shared things like the fact that as hard as he tries he’s still can’t sew. Instead he is a fan of many clothing designers. He mentioned one in particular he wants to connect with soon to possibly promote some of their creations, Skingraft Designs. Rebel is yet another member of “the tribe” who subscribes to their code of sharing and community and offers support wherever he can. Although he’s only been to Burning Man once he says it has had lasting effects on him.

The Blue EP is available now at all the usual digital outlets. To learn more about Ricky Rebel check out: www.rickyrebelrocks.com

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A conversation with

by ch a r li e dem os

T

his past winter, directly following an agonizing recording session, I was rocketing home through the icy streets of Manhattan in a cab while perusing Fourculture’s Facebook page. I saw a posting for an interview opportunity with photographer and film maker Mathieu Bitton and was instantly intrigued at the prospect.

In addition to producing and art directing and film work, Mr. Bitton is well known for photographing legendary artists such as Lenny Kravitz as well designing album covers and books for a vast myriad of recording artists and musical anthologies. His attention to combining the mediums of musical genre and artistic hue has garnered him several awards, including a Grammy nomination for the Jane’s Addiction boxed set, Cabinet of Curiosities.

During our conversation I had the chance to learn a bit more about the man behind the lens. It was an experience I will not forget.

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You have immersed yourself in music your entire life. It’s clearly a huge passion of yours. Have you ever forayed into music yourself?

Back in high school my friend Anthony Seidman and I started this white funk band.

I was the guitar player and I wasn’t funky at all. My brain was funkier than my hands, I guess. I think we were called the Down Stroke...and we sounded like a stroke, period. I’m much better working with musicians. I did learn "Stairway To Heaven."

What fuels your creativity?

Love and passion. Or, love of my passions. And art, of course. When something moves me, I always get inspired to create something that pushes my own limitations. The Jane’s Addiction Cabinet Of Curiosities is definitely one of those projects I lived in for six months or so. I was proud to get a Grammy nomination for that one.

How does technology effect your artistic process? Do you feel it hinders or helps establish a consistent autonomy among the masses of photographers and art directors?

Technology is my friend and enemy. It gives me tools such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to better my craft. It also gives me an ongoing line of communication with strangers and fans of my work as well as the work of people I work with.

It gives me instant feedback and gratification. But I do wish I could put it all away sometimes. I think a lot of charm is lost with the internet. Lots of great old school businesses have fallen apart. Even the idea of people shopping for groceries online is depressing. We live on our phones.

Look at concerts. I loved being in Japan with Lenny because they don’t allow photography and people actually respect it. I was the only person in the whole arena who was shooting pics. That was surreal in this day and age. I was at an-already-legendary 4-hour Prince show and his bodyguards were kicking out people who filmed and took pics. I don’t mind that. I want to just experience their art. It’s a respect thing. Just be there and enjoy it. You don’t have to prove you were there. Just be there!

You have a diverse cultural background.

How has it shaped or influenced your aesthetic?

I come from Paris, France. My parents come from Cairo, Egypt. I am a melting pot of Paris, New York, L.A. and North Africa.

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When something moves me, I always get inspired to create something that pushes my own limitations.

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You’ve worked with Lenny Kravitz quite a bit. What about Lenny’s artistic process, creations and/or aesthetics speak to you? How has your friendship influenced your artistic portrayal of him?

Lenny is a pure musician. He goes into the studio and everything just comes out. I don’t even think he knows what will happen before going in there. I love that!

He also plays all the instruments which is also exciting to watch. It speaks to me in the way that he is down to earth and his creations reflect that.

Music and love first. I’ve known Lenny and his family over 25 years, but the past five years have really brought us closer in working together. I think the friendship helps a lot because he is comfortable and can be himself. And I am just there to capture what’s really there, not to create something for a glossy magazine. We just do what we do.

You have mentioned that you’d like to direct feature film. Are you a guerrillastyle in the eye of the storm type, or do you favor a pulled back, glossier approach?

I would use the same approach I do with everything else, but I guess I would need a team on this one...nothing glossy unless there needed to be gloss at some point. But it’s definitely guerrilla for me.

You have a love of Blaxploitation films.

What is it about the genre that appeals to you? How does your love of this film genre influence your work?

I’m obsessed with this genre — the loudness of the characters, the fashion, the names of characters, the cars and, of course most importantly, the music.

Some of the greatest, funkiest music ever comes from these films. And some have really crossed over hugely like Isaac Hayes’ “Shaft,” Roy Ayers’ “Coffy," Curtis Mayfield’s "Super Fly” and the “Cooley High” Motown soundtrack. The vivid colors, the motion in the films and the poster art heavily influence my work. (I’ve been collecting the posters for over 20 years.)

I’ve been lucky enough to be designer and producer on such releases as “Funk On Film” (PolyGram) and “The Funk Box” (Universal). I’ve also designed many reissues of Blaxpoitaion soundtracks, each time using my own collection to reproduce the art. These include “Coffy,” “Hell Up In Harlem,” “Willy Dynamite” and “Cooley High."

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Why did you choose to make Los Angeles your main residence?

My mom lives there, so that’s what brought me there. I lived in New York in the 90s but when it came time to have my first child, Miles, I decided I wanted sunshine and beach air in December when he was born. So I moved to LA. What does Mathieu Bitton do on his day off?

I work. On something else then work I have a deadline for. I create something new. I lay down to rest but then get restless and have to do something else. Only once in my life have I really been peaceful and able to rest without thinking of work.

Well I was shooting quite a bit because it was the most sunning place ever. This was in Byron Bay, Australia in the spring of 2012. That day I was able to let go of past problems by just being there.

Is there something you dream of doing that you have not yet accomplished? What do you want to be when you grow up?

I dream of working on a Serge Gainsbourg project. That must happen. He is my ultimate idol as far back as I can remember.

I’d love to direct feature films when I grow up. I have my first one ready to go in my mind. A docudrama feature on the DADA art movement of 1916.

What is ahead for Mathieu Bitton?

Currently I am working on my first Blue Note CD. Miles Davis Take Off: The Complete Blue Note Albums 2CD Set. After doing the latest Earth, Wind & Fire album, I am working on a new album for War which also includes a Greatest Hits CD. And I am about to finish designing a coffee table book on Lenny Kravitz for Rizzoli which spans 25 years of photography.

I have some of my work in there as well.

I love the self-titled debut album by Reverend Tall Tree which I recently shot and designed. On vinyl only, too. They’re an amazing band and great live performers.

I also shot and designed French legend Eddy Mitchell’s latest album Héros which just went platinum in France. I look forward to see what pops up next!

www.mathieubitton.fr ISSUE TWELVE

| www.fourculture.com 97

I’m lucky to be alive and share this tale with you, though sharing this tale with you may become my death warrant. At least if you read it I may share a death warrant with you.

Misery never wanted company as badly as I do now. Beware what you absorb, then, from this tale and if you get the feeling someone sinister is watching you, it may be true. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

98 www.fourculture.com | ISSUE TWELVE

The walls were drenched and dripping in the deep caverns of the archaic bunker beneath the surface of an abandoned building south in Klagenfurt, near the border that separates Austria from Slovenia. My two escorts, the Retenwender twins, were men of potent strength (one had opened a padlock to a cavern door with his teeth) and enormity (one had displaced the top of a door jamb by standing erect).

Togar, the younger twin, took my blindfold off after we had walked at least a thousand steps. Once my eyes became acquainted with the slim lighting, I saw we were headed for a room another hundred steps down the tapering corridor.

Fabian, the older twin, opened a thick wooden door, flooding the corridor with light.

In a quintuple room, sitting behind a mahogany desk obviously crafted during the rule of Charles Theodore (the Bavarian ruler who banned all secret societies from Austria in 1785), sat a man whose bones defined a gangly shape. Dressed entirely in black with his collar standing around his neck, you could see his mustard hair combed in four directions and he had a smile that displayed teeth long and sharp enough to shave his own whiskers. He motioned for me to sit in a heavy wooden chair facing his desk while Togar and Fabian closed the door behind us and sat in two of the small room’s five corners.

“Guten evenink,” the man said in a thick Carpathian accent.

“It’s just past noon,” I said.

“You will forgive me,” the man said, “but I am rarely aware of the time in this part of the mansion. May I offer you a beverage?”

“I don’t drink blood this early in the day,” I said.

The man laughed loudly and long strands of thick, white liquid began to stream from either side of his mouth. He sucked them up loudly and said, “Your reputation for quick wit and sharp tongue arrived here before you.”

“Were they blindfolded for most of the way, too?”

He laughed again and this time the Rettenwender twins also laughed (but their laughter sounded like deep, congestive coughs). I smiled while listening to the quad-

raphonic resonance.

“I am Amadeus Stumpf,” he said after sucking up another wad of laugh phlegm. “I am a residing secretary of the Illuminati.”

“It’s my honor not to meet you, though I would never admit to your existence, no less the honor,” I said.

“Very good,” Amadeus said, laughing this time without expectorated matter. “Your comedic acumen is a major reason you earned entry to this room, or else …” “… you would have hired Sven Klammer,” I said, completing his thought.

It was true, Klammer, arguably the most influential lecturer in Austria, would have gotten the clandestine job I had come to perform but Klammer’s popularity was slipping.

His most recent nine lectures resulted in an epizootic of narcolepsy. The septuagenarian, a favorite son of the region, was failing to appeal to a younger audience. His lectures were only attracting loyal followers, a following that had ripened as well as lessened.

All that was left of Klammer was an ego the size of a carnivorous bipedal dinosaur, so to speak, and his refusal to accept it was time for him to retire.

Amadeus was not about to see the Illuminati fall into the same trap, so he talked the powers-that-be into a new policy of lightheartedness. All agreed a new twinge of marketing could ease the cark of losing the interest of youngsters that may lean toward a career in the world’s most surreptitious organization. Somehow, word had gotten to Amadeus about me, a comedic talent of Italian descent with a bloodline speckled with felonious heritage.

Before I was contacted, however, I was vetted and sure enough, there surfaced relatives that, throughout European history, were documented to be in league with any number of conspiracies designed to control local, national and world affairs, just as in the Illuminati’s goal to create a New World Order. It was a volume of facts I ordinarily edited from my resume.

I accepted the job because it offered a unique opportunity to perform before to a group of people that could only be assembled in the same room under the auspices of scandal. It presented a thrilling theater for my wit. Also, the society offered me large

part one

By Frank Cotolo

bags of money. I did, however, have to sign a document swearing I would never reveal anything that would endanger the existence of the society –or else …

The only other stipulation was that my speech be thoroughly studied for hidden meanings, code words, encrypted messages, etcetera. Nothing suspicious was found, so when all the dots were crossed and all the tees dotted, I signed a contract using my own blood, which is still the Illuminati tradition (these days it is painless because they use a syringe instead of a stiletto).

I was blindfolded and driven back to my hotel by the Retenwender twins. They were staying in an adjoined room as my bodyguards until after my appearance the following night. Immediately after the speech they would drive me to the airport and put me on a plane to America.

I decided to take in some local nightlife the evening before my gig so I had to slip my bodyguards knockout pills (which I always brought with me to gigs in case I had to knock anyone out). The doses used to put out Togar and Fabian would have knocked out a single rhinoceros.

The hotel concierge suggested I visit Pfarrplatz, a popular street for carousing.

I walked there, passing clubs named “furt” this and “stalt” that until strolling into a large, noisy establishment with a six-syllable name. I ordered an Asbach brandy and watched delicious young women dance to the moribund beat of a house-system recording. I had taken only three sips of brandy when I felt the grips of strong hands on my arms. Two beautiful female policewomen escorted me roughly to the street, cuffed me and shoved me into their official Landespolizeikommando car, which drove away quickly.

I was still stunned when one of the officers said, “They’re dead.”

“Who?” I said.

“The Retenwender twins. Poisoned,” she said.

What a lovely face, I thought. Her blonde hair was pushed back beyond her beret and her smooth, white skin was in delicate contrast with her round, pink, puffy lip. She continued to talk but I could not concentrate because her beauty was breathtaking. I

scanned her uniform for a nametag as her wet lips flapped away in broken-English sentences until I saw the name Amelie.

“Both of the men are dead,” Amalie said, breaking my concentration.

“I didn’t kill them,” I said. “But I will admit I didn’t care for either. Poor hygiene, for one. And so lumberous.”

“We believe you did not kill them,” Amalie said, “but now that they are dead it appears you are in grave danger.”

“That’s the worst kind of danger, the grave kind, I mean.”

I knew, of course, I was in danger more

grave than the gravest danger the police may have imagined because the dead twins, who were connected to me, were employees of the Illuminati; and I was handcuffed in a police car, obviously embroiled in a double murder, while having a commitment to work for a notorious organization that few thought existed while others thought was the puppet master of all chicanery in the world.

This didn’t shape up too well on my end, even though Amelie was so fluently affecting my dopamine neuronal activity.

To be continued

http://cotolochronicles.blogspot.com/

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