Toy's Noise

toys noise issue 2 (late af) January 4, 2016

INTERVIEWS WITH

EMMA UNTERSEHER ABOUT LEARNING AND COLLABORATION MY PARENTS ABOUT ART SCHOOL AND DYPHELIA GREY ABOUT LOVE AND LIFE

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thanks to

MY PARENTS FOR BIRTHING ME, DOING THIS INTERVIEW, AND ALLOWING ME TO PUBLISH PHOTOS OF THEM FROM COLLEGE EMMA FOR HER PATIENCE AND EMAILING WITH ME LATE INTO THE NIGHT OLA AND BAILEY FOR STAN’S, AND ALL THE OTHER GOOD STUFF. I LOVE U FOREVER.

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table of contents

Emma Unterseher, my daughter Mom N Pop Guitar showcase DyFEELia Grey (get it, we got the feels)

from the editor

sorry this took me forever to put out, but I didn’t come here to make excuses. I’m really excited about this issue. Hoping to throw at least one more at you before the school year ends, but I’m shooting for two. Stick around!!!!

behind the cover

I took this picture on the cover of this issue last May at the Taste pARTy, aka the Taste of Whitney Young/Art fair, when the art teachers were deliberating on the winner of the freehand contest (congrats to Holly on her win!) Anyway, squad goals af. Some of the video I took from that day can be found at youtube.com/channel/UCeWTX0nKorNMq8fPTV125ew (I KNOW) or just find the link on my fb page, facebook.com/ toyznoise.

The other pictures in this zine were all taken by me! Most of the texture pictures are from around my house or from around school, but feel free to submit some of your own to toyssnoise@gmail.com

“I want to do it right.”

This is the Toy’s Noise: I have had your cover of “Marry Me” (St. Vincent) stuck in my head all day.

Emma: Oh, thank you!

TN: It’s really good, I was checking out your soundcloud to prepare for this interview, and I was like, “there’s only two songs!” But then I looked again this morning and I saw you posted another oneE: I was planning to, Nora (Andrews) talked to me and she was like “you should post it,” and then Kamau (Stewart) was like “that was really good,” and I had like, not posted anything in like seven months so it was like, it was time.

TN: You kind of just answered this question while we were walking here, but.... on your cover of “The Suburbs” (Arcade Fire) there’s someone playing piano, is it you?

E: That is me!

TN: So how many instruments can you play?

E: Okay, I can kinda play drumsbut like, I took percussion in like band, concert band in eighth grade, so I do play some drums. Ukulele, minimally, I have a mandolin, and I can play some chords on that, guitar, obviously, I sing- although, is that an instrument?

TN: Yeah, it counts.

E: ...Xylophone? I don’t know, more percussion instruments, that kind of thing.

TN: So what don’t you play, that you wish you played.

E: I honestly, I think- violin. Viola.

That kind of thing. Cello. Anything like that. That’s like the one kind of instrument I haven’t tried yet.

TN: Yet? E: Yet! Yet. There’s always time to pick it up.

TN: Notably missing from your

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story of how Emma and I met and fell in love!!

Soundcloud is your original music which I know you’re making, cuz you played it at coffeehouse... When can we hope to see some of that?

E: I really! Want! To record an EP at some point. Just to get it out there.

TN: Some point in your life or some point in the near future?

E: Summer? Maybe? The problem is that... if its my own stuff I want it to be really good quality. And that’s hard because I don’t have a lot of equipment and that kind of thing so before I, like, put my own stuff out there, I want it to be legit, or like sound how I really want it to sound. Because I don’t want to screw it up, I want to do it right.

TN: Do you have like. An amount of songs ready and waiting to go onto this EP? E: I write all the time! So I have, yeah, I have possible songs that I would put on it.

I just don’t know what caliber they’re at yet, so people would be like “ yeah this is good, actually, put it on there,” or if it’s like, terrible and I’m just making crazy stuff that only I think sounds okay.

TN: Well I liked it. So... are you writing solo or are you writing with those kids I know you’re playing with (Third Rail)?

E: Right... that is kind of a mess. We’re called Third Rail, a little bit, and that band has been in the works for like two years...

I think they started like last year, and kids have just rotated in and out of the lineup, they’ve never had a performance of any kind or anything.

TN: Well, because I would hear about you, and then I’d hear about Jack (Meyer)... and then I’d hear about Nick (Earley) and it was only very recently that I figured out that this was all the same project.

E: I know... I think I’m the only one who does like, other solo stuff, but like- we come together and Nick has this awful basement that’s like- low ceilings, and you gotta duck around in there, it’s so creepy. There’s writing on the wall from his two older brothers who had bands throughout high school so

it’s the ultimate creepy weird band set up. But we jam in there a little bit? So yeah, it’s a really good time, but it feels like we spend most of our time not really working on what we’re “supposed” to. We’ve done that like three times. Mostly to prepare for the art fair... which was gonna be our debut!

TN: UUgh same. I’m still upset.

Anyway.... How did you meet up with Third Rail, how did they pull you into the lineup?

E: Video Production! That’s how I knew Nick, and he found my soundcloud. I didn’t know any of the other guys, I just knew Nick, so our first rehearsal was really weird.

TN: Who else is it?

E: Nat Scholl, who’s like really tiny... he’s so nice, and he plays the keyboard, he’s just- he’s like... I feel like he’s an alien or something.

TN: What are some of your personal music influences?

E: Well, obviously, I think, St. Vincent. I play her music, like, all the time, maybe too much, but she’s really, like... my ultimate goals.

TN: There’s no such thing as too much!

E: I agree! And I think she’s like the main reason I’ve been trying more electric guitar stuff, and what pushed me to take guitar next year, because up until this point I’m self-taught.

TN: !!!!

E: So I think I wanna actually learn some real stuff, because people are going to be like “umm it sounds good but you’re kinda faking it...”

TN: Hey, I couldn’t tell.

E: Fake it till you make it!!

TN: I don’t think it’s fake at all.

E: Oh... Arcade Fire! For sure, in life philosophies and everything... David Bowie, even though that’s more out there, but that’s also because he’s like a life inspiration too... I’d say that’s pretty much- I’m just totally blanking out right now, whenever I have to talk about my favorite bands

Emma, pre-haircut (this is how long I’ve been working on this.)

it’s like “oh, who DO I listen to??” Oh! I’m really listening to that new Kendrick Lamar album, it’s insane. It’s so good. Oh, and the Talking Heads, for sure, David Byrne. All that kind of stuff. I don’t know, I feel like I listen to everything.

TN: So if you had a dream person you got to play a show with...

E: Annie Clark, hands down. Except, David Grohl would be fun. I don’t know how well we’d mesh together but that would just be fun.

TN: What is something you want people to know about you or your music? That you don’t think we covered already.

E: I just wanna make good stuff that I like and I’m proud of. I want it to be a message that I reach out and tell people. And at the same time, kind of like a personal thing too, I write from my life experience and... oh it sounds so cheesy, like my diary in a song, and really that’s less for me, I write about just like stuff that I hear about, different stories and “what if this happened.” But I don’t know, writing is kind of like therapy, like this is going to help me get through what happened here. I guess that all of it is meaningful and I want to make good art. No matter what it is. I want to be proud of what I do. And I am!!

Emma is on soundcloud soundcloud.com/emmaunters

In Which Bob Titchy Is Having More Fun than ANY of us.

I went to the guitar program spring showcase a few weeks back. I love the guitar shows at our school, they are so fun and so cute and just generally a great time. I haven’t been in guitar since freshman year, but I got to the shows whenever I can.

Something I think makes the guitar program one of the better programs at our school is how much fun everyone on stage seems to have- it’s completely contagious.

The kids in the audience waiting to go on are always cheering/ heckling between songs, and when they’re on stage more often than not they’re dancing along.

I think sometimes in choir, for example, the arts program in inpeople feel like they have to be apathetic and cool, but that is not a vibe I have ever felt with guitar.

Definitive, official rank of who had the best time: 5. Me watching Mr. Peek play the tambourine!!!

4. Mission and Thomas, as well as everyone watch them basically perform a synchro routine.

3. Megan during “Good Times, Bad Times” 2. Bob Titchy 1. Charlie Oken’s hair

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“this your time to do it” TN: What was your high school experience was like?

Mark: I moved to Dallas right before freshman year, so I went to a new school without knowing anybody, and it happened to be a very conservative/football centered high school, which was very... not what I was. So it took me a little while to find my place in the school, and find people that were a little bit more like me and people that I hang with. I was finding the art department, finding marching band, and finding the people that weren’t just football players.

TN: When you were in high school did you know you wanted to go to art school for college?

M: I’ve known since I was in kindergarten that I was good at art, and it was a thing that I like to do, I liked to draw and I liked to play music- um, I taught myself music, so it didn’t feel like that was the way- a route to go for school.

So art school seemed like the natural thing.

TN: What about you, Mama? What were you like in high school?

Ann-Marie: My high school experience was very great because I got to go to the best high school in the whole world called Arts Magnet at Booker T. Washington, but now it goes under a different name...

I went there as a sophomore, junior, and senior. And I had very, very high quality art education. And- I definitely knew I wanted to go to an art school.

But I also felt like I didn’t have too many other choices. I felt like- I did look at other college brochures, I looked at

Bennington College, and I thought it looked really amazing. But I didn’t have the kind of academic performance that they were looking for.

TN: How did you find KCAI? M: I think Grandma helped me a lot, look for colleges, of course, it was pre-internet so you got books and you tagged books, and we found a few, and we applied to a few, and I got into two... I can’t remember the name of that school, somewhere in Philidelphia. And KCAI, and so we did get to go to both of them, and Philadelphia was really- very much a city school, where, different tall buildings housed different portions of the school, and it was just- it was very downtown. And then we visited Kansas City and it was so beautiful and contained, and there were only under, uh...

AM: Graduates.

M: Undergraduates, there wasn’t a graduate program, so it was small, and Kansas City felt so good...

TN: Grandma tells me a story about taking you to KCAI and being like- her looking at you and being like, “oh, he should be here.

This is where he should be.”

M: That’s what it felt like, the second we got out of the car, it was like: “Alright. Yes. This.

Looks. Awesome.”

TN: What scared you the most looking at college while you were in high school?

Or thinking about going to college?

M: What scared me was what always scared me for each different thing. It feels like, when

my parents went to, and met at Kansas City Art institute. Here’s their thoughts on art and on art school!

you’re in high school, you know what to do for high school but you have no idea what you’re supposed to do in college, and it feels like each next level will be TOTALLY different and impossible. And it’s only in hindsight that you realize that everybody’s a senior in high school and then a freshman in college, and so you will find your legs there.

TN: Do you have any thoughts on being afraid, Mama?

AM: I think that I arrogantly thought that people weren’t going to be up to the level that they should be. And that was a silly-TN: And you were?

AM: Yeah, I was... (laughs) As I said, it was very arrogant thinking.

M: Well, I remember a sense of, there are two different, very distinct levels freshman year. There were people like you, who had a real depth already. And a sense of self and things like that. I, on the other hand, people who liked to draw and could draw.

AM: Yeah.

M: But didn’t really have a full sense of self-expression.

AM: Yeah. You can still be that way and be filled with wonder, though, and I guess that I think that that was a mistake, to not be filled with wonder.

TN: So you were scared you were going to be the best one in school? (laughs) AM: Yes! Isn’t that, like, something?

M: (Joking) That ended pretty quickly.

Pictures of my parents I stole from Facebook Also stolen from my mom’s photobooks.

This is my dad (left) in the band he formed in college.

I don’t know what my mom (far left) is doing here.

My dad with a piece he and my mom collaborated on. They would not begin dating until after they had graduated

Left to right- my dad’s bandmate John (missing from the above picture), my dad, my mom, their friend Chris, and their friend Man.

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AM: No, it didn’t!

TN: How did you find... community, and friendship at college?

AM: I had a great group of friends, and you did too! It was a very small college. It was very, very easy to find friendships right away. The women that I fell in with were the women who were making great artwork and I just wanted to be around them and not mess with anybody else.

TN: You (M) have said that you would love to go back.

M: I would leave you all in a split second. This hat would be spinning and fall down if someone said I could have ten more years.

TN: What would you want out of your next ten years?

M: The great thing about college, art college especially, is it’s your time to explore. It’s like they’ve said, “ok, this is it: You’re free to run and do whatever you want. This is your time to do it.” You now can completely invest yourself in your passion. And then, to have these, high peers, you know? That’s the thing about going to college, you can do all the same stuff at home, but to be shoulder to shoulder with people who are really good pushes you. You look around and you see people doing good work, it raises the bar. That was maybe one of the best things about college for me, is musically and artistically, and otherwise.

TN: You (AM) disagreed with wanting to go back.

AM: Well I- part of being arrogant is that you miss out on learning new things. And so I did have that experience of being able to develop a body of work and really explore what it means to be an artist in a very

very full and rich way.

[But] I really wish I had learned about... graphic design, I wish that we had been taught business skills, and I wish that we had been taught more life skills.... They should have required to learn how to budget money. We should be required to learn about how money works in life, like compound interest and that kind of thing. I don’t care what you major in, you need to know those things. And also, exploring many different kinds of ways to make money, you know? You don’t have to just go and like sell your paintings.

In my mind, if I had to do it over again, maybe I should have gone to a university where that stuff is required. Instead of an art school.

TN: What do you say to current high school students who are looking at art school?

M: Well, I would think that in art school, a big part of it is your peers, but also the attention of your instructors, and so the thing about it just being an undergraduate school was important. I didn’t go to a school that had a graduate program, but I hear from people that those are the people that get a lot of the attention, you know, there’s a lot of time that goes into them and so I think that’s important for undergraduates to have the ear and the eye of your instructor, I think thats a good thing. And I think that Mama’s point is really really good- to

think about the real world out side of- you know, the more esoteric parts of art.

TN: Think about a plan ahead of just going to school?

M: Well, I just mean don’t be so caught up in it that it’s going to stop you from exploring, you know, the things that you’re supposed to be exploring, but keep an eye on the prize, and know that at the end of these four years you’re going to have to jump into something. We kind of graduated and then were like, “what now?”

AM: I would say that my advice would be to commit- no matter if you go to a university or if you go to art school, commit to getting some skills. Whether it’s graphic design, or welding... those skills can be used to help you in your life. But really make up your mind that you’re going to commit yourself to gaining as many skills as possible. I think... I think my parents were just really glad I got into a college.

They didn’t force me to really think about how I was going to earn a living and I think... I think it’d be helpful to sort things out a little bit more than just “oh, you’re going to college and you will figure it out-” and you WILL figure it out- but it’s better to do a little more planning, I think.

TN: Well um! Thank you for doing the interview!

AM: You are so welcome we love you so much.

M: So much.

Be sure to check out KCAI!

Me: What’s it like making music with your best friends?

B: Magical.

O: The best thing ever.

B: Fan-tas-ma-goric.

Me: I love that word.

B: Um... gay?

O: It’s a dream come true!!

B: It’s the only way to make music.

Me: Tell us about something you wish that the three of us did together. Your hopes and dreams.

O: “This Must Be The Place,” but not the Talking Heads version, Kishi Bashi version, where it’s like, piano and violin and other twinkley instruments.

B: Can we do the song where the- it’s Bean tickling Ola and I? Me: Yeah, I’ll put a little beat behind itO: Yeah, I would sacrifice myself for that.

Me: That would be the best song ever.

We’d invite them into the studio and be like “HEY! We need you in the studio!! To tickle!!” Where do you, personally, want to go with music in the future?

O: That’s my one hesitation about art school, is you can’t really take music classes if you go. Which is why Oberlin would be great but I would feel weird taking music classes and not being in the music conservatory? But I think you can still do that.

Me: Why would you feel weird about it?

O: They’re... kinda very pretentious. I know people that went there and are going there for the music conservatory, and they’re like, great people, but as a group they’re separated very much from the rest of the school.

Me: So much of my reservations about things I think I might like to study in college is like...

I’m like “oh but then I’d have to deal with people who are good at that, and know that they’re good at that...”

B: Yeah! Same.

O: I’m not a big fan of group classes for music and art, so that’s also another thing. When there’s the different levels, and having to deal with people being very opinionated and steering the entire class one way, if I didn’t want to do that. That person is sometimes me though...

Me: What about you, Bailey.

B: For- I mean I want to continue to get better, personally, at playing music, um.. and learn other stuff too. Like, I mean- obviously improving at guitar because I’m very amateur at guitar- well I’m ameature at every single

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These friends also happened to be my bandmates! I interviewed them on the way. instrument that I playO: But that’s a start!

B: But that’s a start! And I want to move on from there. I had a year of piano lessons, and then my piano teacher- taught me about Amélie and gave some sheet music for a few of the songs- the soundtrack of Amélie. I would sit there and write out what each note was, because I can like- I know what the notes are but I have to write it down. So I look really good! But I’m not! I just memorized them.

Me: Tell the audience of Toys Noise about the show we’re going to!

B: Oh my gooddddddd!!! Belle and Sebastian opening for Courtney Barnett!

Me: No. B: No???!

Me and Ola: Courtney Barnett is opening.

B: That’s what I meant!

O: I would say Courtney Barnett is a big inspiration? To us?

B: Yes. Me: Yeeesssssss. Every time I’m listening to music I’ll be like “oh I should play this song with Bailey and Ola!” and it’s anOTHER Courtney Barnett song. We should release a cover album.

B: We can be a tribute band.

Me: Yeaaahh!! I would. I would do that. Both of you have turned me on to really good music, such as Courtney BarnettO: Do we want talk about what what each of one of the other people introduced us to that’s our fave?

Me: Yes. Do it. Honestly, someone you introduced me to, and I really like but never talk about is Jay MayO: Because it’s so emo. That’s why you like it, I know you.

B: I wanna learn the accordion.

O: Do you have an accordion?

B: No. Me: My mom wanted me to learn accordion but this guy I hated was playing accordion so I didn’t want to. Ola’s turn. Who is it.

O: Okay, I know for Bailey I can say... and this is very recent, but- I don’t know why but I never got into Modest Mouse until Bailey. But that’s the one album that that’s on, “Good News for People who like Bad News?”

B: “Bad News for People Who Love Bad News.”

O: And for Georgia it’s- I almost wanna say Regina Spektor, honestly. I remember going to that concert, and really loving it, and it was when the album came out, and it was one of the first vinyls I hadMe: She’s such a cornerstone of my music taste.

these pictures were all taken that day in Milwaukee

“the epitome of everything” Last spring, I took a road trip with my friends to see a concert.

Because she was like my first favorite artist.

B: For Georgia, for me... the biggest three are probably Cherry Glazzerr, Julia Nunes, andO: (gasps) Julia Nunes! Okay, wait, I might change it to Julia Nunes.

B: Oh! Angel Olsen. Which like I knew about, but I never tried her out. And then- Ola, oh my god.

Ola didn’t necessarily introduce me to St. Vincent but she kind of, like, was the push to listen to St. Vincent more. Also Beirut, and Beirut came from me stalking your tumblr.

O: I got into Beirut because I had known about them a little bit about them from a friend of mine I met on tumblr, thanks to you, and then also, Maddy Turner! Was really into Beirut.

B: I remember I was like, stalking Ola’s tumblr and I saw it and thought, let’s try this out! And then, as Ola and I started to become friends she was like “Wait, do you listen to Beirut??” And I was like... “yes....?”

O: Beirut is also a big cornerstone in my music... that was when I was like, “I can listen to things that aren’t American.” Also Angel Olsen for you. I get, like, all my emo music from you.

Me: That’s me, you know. I listen to very sad people with guitars.

That’s like, my genre. Edith Frost, Angel Olsen...

O: But they all have something extra with it, likeMe: Cowboys. Edith Frost is my sad cowgirl.

O: But so is Angel Olsen, because of Johnny Cash.

Me: She’s not a cowgirl, she’s like a.. she’s a... I don’t know how to explain this. You know, still cactuses and tumbleweeds, but not necessarily cattle and horses.

B: Yeah.

O: It’s like desert emo. Walking alone in a desert, with the moon risin’ above you.

Me: Desert emo. I’m gonna... make you a little bracelet that says “desert emo.”

O: You also got me back into play ing music via ukulele. So I have to thank you big time on that.

Me: So ukulele club wasn’t ALL the worst thing that ever happened to me.

O: Wait, where did our name come from?

Me: Yeah, we wanted to have a flower name, and so we were talking about various flowers, and we were “Queen Anne’s Lace” for like 20 minutes, and thenB: Well, we were deciding between Queen Anne’s Lace and Dyphelia Grey.

Me: Yeah. And then we found Dyphelia grey, and the way that I spell it is not the way the flower is spelled, it’s the way that I pronounce it. And I don’t know if I’m pronouncing it right, eitherB: I think of it as like a name. Like a person’s name.

O: Dyphelia sounds like a person’s name.

B: I’m gonna name my kid Dyphelia.

O: Dedication. Get back to us in 20 years, I want to meet this kid.

Me: We call dibs on being joint godmothers of this kid.

O: What’s your happiest moment in

the studio?

Me: It was... the moment when I was, we were all set up, and I was looking at you guys, and I had a Stan’s milkshake in one hand, and I was like, “this is probably the epitome of everything!” And realized this is the kind of thing I want to be doing for a long time, which is playing music and drinking Stan’s milkshakes.

B: I think my happiest moment that was also a sad moment too.

When, like the- the microphones started to squeak, and give feedback, and so then I was like, “I’m sad we can’t do this anymore!” And I meant put our eye on the mic thing! Where we put our eyes on the mic. But Ola took that like “we can’t play together anymore,” because I’m leaving for collegeMe and Ola: (screaming) B: And she was like, “Ohh, don’t say that yet!!” And then you realized what was happening with interpretations and we all just started laughing, and we laughed for like five minutes and then I started crying.

O: I think when we got down the first Courtney Barnett song, after the first time we did it through, we were like, “wow, we actually did this, and this is something attainable.” Oh, also, the first time you guys harmonized that one bit in “Two of Us on the Run,” the end of it?” When I almost cried because it’s so beautifulMe: I feel like when we were learning “History Eraser” it took us like- four days of just doing that to get it, but then after we learned it then every song after that took us like, two practices.

O: Because we understood the process better.

Me: And we understood each other, and our hearts were in sync or whatever, yeah.

O: Thank you for doing this.

Me: Thank you Dyphelia Grey!

Dyphelia Grey is on hiatus until further notice

©all writing and pictures to me unless otherwise noted (the pictures of my parents are very much stolen from people I don’t even know) songs I listened to while making this Wildflower.................................................................. Beach house If You’re Not Here........................................... Hunx and his Punx These Days................................................................... St. Vincent Chinatown......................................................................... Girlpool If I Could Fly........................................................... One Direction The Agency Group......................................................... Alvvways Birthday Song...................................................... Frankie Cosmos Point of Being Right................................. Shannon and the Clams Prettiest Boy.................................................................. Tiger Trap Francis Forever................................................................... Mitski What Makes You Beautiful/Titanic Theme............. One Direction Lazui.......................................................................... Beach House I Love to Love (cover).......................................................... Bjork A Little Bit of Your Heart..................................... Arianna Grande