1.21 Gigawatts Issue Eight

ISSUE 8

K.FLAY KITTY RATKING PICTUREPLANE INFINITY SHRED

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EDITOR S LETTER welcome to

the most difficult issue we’ve ever made.

After every issue I always feel insanely burnt out, but the transition from the last one to this one really took a toll on me. As a result, you’re holding this a month later than we had originally intended.

"Wouldn’t it be cool to do a hip hop/electronic issue?" I said to myself. "It can’t be THAT different," I reassured myself. I was SO wrong. Making this issue was like rebuilding the magazine from square one. Everything from the interviews to the photo shoots was crazier this time around. When two members of Ratking showed up for their photo shoot I asked them where their third member was.

"I dunno, I guess we lost him along the way," they laughed. Sometimes shit just gets weird and you have to go with it, for example, the Slop Wop + Sir Kn8 article.

Along with the theme of the issue came a desire to change up our look slightly.

We’re dealing with an aspect of music that is usually cleaner and sleeker than our typical garage rock tendencies. We’re definitely not looking to go along with that new minimalist type theme that’s

been popping up in the past few years, we’ll leave that boring shit to publications like Bullett and The L Magazine.

Helping us achieve this new balance of bright and colorful while not getting too sloppy is our new illustrator, Elizabeth Farrell, who has full on taken our illustrated titles to the next level.

It should be noted that I’m not attempting to have Gigawatts position itself as a groundbreaking voice regarding electronic and hip hop with this issue or even in the future. This issue is simply a compilation of articles on some of the musicians in that scene that we have been enjoying. I’m sure there are people who will flip through these pages while shaking their heads at our "lack of knowledge" because we’re not up on whatever artist is hot in the scene right now. To those people I would like to say, fuck off, get over yourself, put this down and go back to your computer screen. If you’re sitting there reading this and thinking "Is he talking about me?" YES. To everyone that’s still reading this, Hey, what’s up? Welcome to Gigawatts Issue 8. We heart you.

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TEAM ISSUE 8

EDITOR IN CHIEF

ASSOCIATE EDITOR/ILLUSTRATOR FASHION EDITOR PHOTOGRAPHY/LAYOUT DESIGN WRITERS

DANNY KRUG

ELIZABETH FARRELL AMBER SIMIRIGLIA DANNY KRUG GABRIELA JUNE TULLY CLAYMORE ELLIE FALLON DYLAN WHITE PRESTON OSSMAN

CONTACT gigawattsmag@gmail.com facebook.com/gigawattsmag instagram @gigwattsmag 2

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contents ART PETER SCHMIDT

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comics by

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Matt Panuska

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Travis Egedy

MUSIC 10

Pictureplane

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Slop wop + Sir Kn8

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slava

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ratking

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kitty

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infinity shred

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k.flay

FASHION 26

Mixed Metal

women ’ s fashion

EXTRAS 32

Stuff we’re listening to

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COMICS

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Peter Schmidt

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MATT PANUSKA matt panuska

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Originally from West Texas but now located in New York, Matt Panuska creates work based on mythology and parables. Panuska often creates his own mytholigies allowing him to take ideas and concepts he is wrestling with and realize them in his distinctly colorful style.

The colorful surreal nature of his work makes it, initially, seem very bright and welcoming, but upon spending even the shortest time with the pieces, it’s clear that they aren’t full of the bright happy themes that the color pallette alludes to. Panuska’s work manages to be both intriguing and creepy, creating a push and pull that won’t let the viewer remove their eyes even though the images themselves are made up of nightmare images of dead dogs, creepy babies and the like. Much of his work takes place in a fictional part of America called Barb Aria. Panuska describes Barb Aria, " It is a sparse desert world filled with creatures and characters that ether scare or delight me." check out more artwork at mattpanuska.com

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Travis Egedy

Despite what they make think, it’s a general rule that most musicians can’t make good visual art and most visual artists can’t make good music. Travis Egedy is an exception to this rule. For Egedy there is really no line between Pictureplane, the musician, and Travis, the artist. They don’t operate in separate realms or capacities. "I would say that I have an overarching aesthetic."

Egedy is an artist that utilizes many different mediums ranging from photoshop collages to electronic music.

Egedy began making music as a teenager when he learned that he could rap. Using a demo of a recording program, he recorded short 30-second raps on his computer. Eventually he added a keyboard and fleshed them out into 30-second songs, and of course that eventually led to buying a program to make full length songs.

the name. I was in a really experimental phase, distancing myself from hip hop. I wanted to make just more experimental music that wasn’t rap so I wanted to call it something different and that was Pictureplane."

tertwined, the things that I’m talking about, trying to say and get across. But the way that I make them is very different. I think the music, Pictureplane, is much more emotional. It comes from my spirit really. The artwork is much more intellectual and While all the work, musical and cerebral, I’m thinking about it a "A lot of people don’t think of hip visual, made by Egedy can be lot more whereas the music is hop as electronic music, but it lumped into the Pictureplane much more intuitive." is." While in college studying art, aesthetic, he notes that the Egedy began making the mu- thought processes for the difsic that became Pictureplane. ferent mediums is quite sepa"Around 2004/2005 I can up with rate. "Conceptually, they’re in-

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Recently, Egedy’s work was seen on a collection of clothes for Mishka (including the hat featured on the next page) as well as on the cover of a recent Showpaper. "I’ve been a fan of showpaper for years and I really respect them. It was a life goal of mine to do a showpaper." The piece used for Showpaper was part of a larger gallery show that opened at Fitness Gallery in Brooklyn and was also shown in a gallery in Slovakia. " I was using all of this weird stock imagery that I had been buying from stock image websites. A lot of broken technology and subcultural models.

Stock photos are so interesting because they’re completely removed. They’re meant as a representation of something. It’s this fakeness, this facade."

act for a very long time, Egedy only just moved out to Brooklyn in 2012. Before that he was in Denver, CO running a venue and DIY space called Rhinoceropolis. As Pictureplane continued to grow, Egedy found himself coming to Brooklyn more and more.

Eventually it started to feel like home and Egedy, like so many other musicians and artists, officially made the move.

lieves that DIY spaces are needed all over in order to give people of all ages a place to go and express themselves, be experimental and be free. "Having shows outside of the bar context really allows culture to flourish. DIY culture is something that needs to be passed down or taught. They need that."

More of Egedy’s artwork can be seen on his website, travisegedy.

Egedy is a huge supporter of com, and his music can be heard DIY spaces and their continued online as well. Expect new mateexistence. "The DIY communi- rial soon from Pictureplane. ty across North America is very much linked together. There’s really only a few people in each city that are tapped into that world. words and photography by danny krug Everyone knows each other, and there is the same aesthetic. A warehouse like Rhinoceropolis and a place like Market Hotel Even though it feels like Picture- have so much in common, it’s plane has been a local Brooklyn basically the same thing." He beISSU E 8

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Slop Wop and Sir Kn8 are about tasty beats, fresh funk, wonky sounds, smells, cactus trees, pitch bends, pre-socratic philosophy, space aesthetically and cosmically, phase-shifting faces, stomach-ache bass, flipping forks, goofy walks, tight transitions, mix tapes, good food, good people, good things, and SHOW and SMELL Recordings. Most of their gear is old (from early 80’s to late 90’s), and they are always surprised and stoked when it turns on.

Both Slop Wop and Sir Kn8 the Knight of the New have been active solo projects for about 4 years, mostly in the form of recordings. They met through other members of SHOW and SMELL, became each other’s fans and friends, and began playing together live. Slop Wop enriched the Knight’s use of electronics, the Knight enriched Slop Wop’s use of poetics. Soon they both had

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cacti pricked into their arms in the form of matching tattoos.

They write songs which are both surreal and relatable. Besides giving instructions on how to bake bread, or riding horses, the group shares an obsession with Plinko money. In their own words, plinko money is an infinitely regenerating form of currency that is both earned and spent in the expression of positive vibrations and living lovely with others. When you’re all out of the green money, you can still be rich in the plinko. The word was adopted from the game show The Price is Right.

As far as snacks go, the duo love to eat Sour Patch Kids while playing to keep our blood sugar super high. They also like to make bread, eat pickles and other veggie snacks made by Sir kN8’s fair lady Alicia Papanek. If you ask them nicely, they might be in a mood to share some of these tasty treats.

As far as future plans go, their next step is to make more songs, play more shows, grow SHOW and SMELL Recordings. "Also, we’re really excited about the release of Sir Kn8’s ‘Makin’ Bread’ video that we shot with a some dudes in a collective called Renaissance Boy." Look out for these guys as they rise in the scene like the bread they make, and don’t miss an opportunity to see them live in a venue or bakery near you. words by preston ossman photography by danny krug

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words by gariela june tully claymore photography by danny krug

The Russian-born producer Slava Balasanov grew up alongside the insular and stubbornly old school Chicago house scene. It is hard for any young artist to find his own place within a globally recognized and revered scene, but Slava managed to carve out his own experimental niche within the strict definition of house that overshadowed his coming of age. Slava’s move to New York in 2009 helped liberate his music from the strict confines of the Chicago scene.

Using grad school as an excuse to get out of his hometown, Slava moved to Brooklyn and started playing at random parties and loft shows, while studying interactive media at NYU. Upon arrival in New York, Slava was initially categorized under the still newborn witch house scene after playing a few parties with rising stars of what was then an underground community. But Slava refuses to be categorized under any micro-genres—his work explores new electronic trends while adhering to the strict standards of his home-city. He recently com14

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pleted a still-untitled EP that ropes new trends of British grime into his already distinctive dancehall house formula.

Slava’s debut album Raw Solutions was released earlier this year through Daniel Lopatin’s (aka Oneohtrixpointnever) label Software—the home of break-out indie-electronic acts like Autre Ne Veut as well as some of Lopatin’s collaborative efforts. Slava’s performs and records using a single sampler—the Korg Electribe—which makes the inexplicably gorgeous layers of Top40 vocal a capellas and jarring synth impulses all the more impressive. While listening to Raw Solutions, it’s almost unfathomable to imagine

Slava triggering all of these sounds on his own, without a popular mediator like Ableton getting in his way. The just-barely recognizable vocal samples found throughout Raw Solutions help situate the album in familiar territory. Slava’s breakout single "Girl Like Me" tips its hat to Ciara with a brazen crystalline vocal sample from her 2009 song "Like A Surgeon." The song quickly evolves into an equally mellow and stormy dance track riding on keyboard arrangements that sound like dimming floodlights. There are obvious nods to Chicago’s footwork house scene working hard on Raw Solutions. Although the record is an unmistakable ode to the dancefloor, Slava structures tracks like "Wit U" to transition listeners from whiplash drumbeats into dithering, ambient spaces.

That being said, Slava was not wholeheartedly in agreement with the way that Raw Solutions was received. While his 2012 EP Soft Control is certainly aligned with his current production aesthetic, Slava considers the EP to be more of a pop record, not necessarily suited for club play. "It was all either really good reviews or really bad reviews," he said. "I kind of expected that.

I’m glad it was sort of polarized." Although most of the reception of Raw Solutions was positive, Slava wants his work to remain fragmented, with certain phases of musical exploration designated to particular albums. Slava took a risk with Raw Solutions, and created a record entirely was born of his live set—he sought to create a collection of tracks that could be played, start to finish, in a sweaty dancehall. "It doesn’t have that refined, headphone butter," he said.

Slava’s partially rendered image lends him room to explore new genres and rediscover some of his old sounds. He somewhat bashfully admits that he does not focus much on other producer’s careers, instead choosing to concentrate more on how he can improve his own music. Slava’s greatest influence at the moment is himself—lately, he has been digging into old samples and songs searching for ideas or themes that he can explore further. When he first started out as a producer, Slava appropriated styles in order to create a new aesthetic.

Now, he looks back on his own development in order to create an all-encompassing identity.

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"Rat kings are phenomena said during an NYC park jam. "Hak and lo LaGuardia, 99th mayor of New to arise when a number of rats become intertwined at their tails, which become stuck together with blood, dirt, ice, excrement, or simply knotted," reads the definition on Wikipedia. "Everything is tangled together," frontman Wiki said in an interview with NME. "Back in the day a rat king was a sign of plague. It’s a fucked-up creature whose parts are dependent on each other – like us. It’s living. It’s taking over."

Wik have known each other their whole lives," Sporting Life explains. "We all saw eye to eye on a lot of ideas about music and from there we started formulating concepts and came up with the name Ratking during the recording of the original Wiki-1993. Hak came through on ‘646’ and from there it was all systems go."

Their first EP, Wiki93, debuted last November on Hot Charity/ XL Recordings. It’s a clash of Ratking came together a few hip-hop with a punk mentality summers back when Wiki and that brings Beastie Boys to mind. producer Sporting Life met KFC, Carmelo Anthony, and Fiorel-

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York City, top their list of influences. Admiration is apparent when Wiki paraphrases LaGuardia on the intro to the track Pretty Picture, "See, children, what does it all mean? It means that dirty money never brings any luck. Nah, it only brings misery, despair, and disgrace." The tracks are infused with a sort of rawness that can only come from a bunch of native New Yorkers. "Ratking manages to mix youthful hardcore energy with pure NY beats and rhymes in post hip-hop crew," their label praises.

"Sometimes the beats come first," Sporting Life says of the process. "But then sometimes Wik or Hak will have stuff written and fit it over a beat I’m writing at the time." In an age where rap has transitioned from primarily a group genre to a very often a solitary thing, they speak of the advantages of keeping it a group. "You have two other people to bounce ideas off of. And when someone isn’t there, you can blame them to take the heat off of yourself. Creatively it’s cool because I could have a song title and then the words that Hak and Wik write will alter the song’s meaning. Or [I’ll have] a track that I’m not really into, and their rhymes breathe new life into it" As for branching out to do solo projects, they joke "Yeah, sure.

Like TV show spinoffs." Writers and bloggers have been heavily comparing them to Odd Future— they were named #71 on New York Magazine’s 2012 "Reasons to Love New York," titled as Because We’ve Got an Answer to Odd Future— looking for some parallel to draw, but the similarities are nil, according

to them. "It’s an easy tag line, but there aren’t really any similarities. We met Earl [Sweatshirt], he’s chill."

Although still relatively freshly formed, they’ve already toured with GZA and Death Grips, among others. Most recently, they toured with Trash Talk, the LA-based hardcore punk band. "Trash Talk really held us down and we got to see how a good band operates on stage, with their business, and as chill dudes" The mysterious line between punk and hip-hop continues to blur as they describe how receptive the crowds were to both bands. "The audience varies from city to city, but it seems the smaller the city the more violent the pit."

York functions," they explain.

"Things are born, they live and die, and the cycle repeats. Nothing personal. So it goes." Wiki, a huge fan of Vonnegut, talked about structuring the new album after Breakfast of Champions in an interview with Fact Magazine, "the plan being that we would be, as Vonnegut said were his intentions for the book, clearing our heads of the trash in there".

Until So It Goes drops, keep an eye out for Ratking marketing in the form of XL Recordings postal stickers plastered strategically all over the boroughs.

words by ellie fallon photography by danny krug

Expect to see Ratking’s debut LP, So It Goes, which Sporting Life claims is "straight heat" out in early 2014. "All of our styles have developed more," he compares it to Wiki93. "Our live set is tighter.

My six-pack has more definition."

The album title is a reference to Kurt Vonnegut’s famous Slaughterhouse Five. "It’s just how New

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hat started as a joke for Kitty Beckwith has in the past two years become her full-time job. During the winter of 2012, the now 21-year-old Daytona Beach native gathered with a few friends and formed what came to be known as Jokers in Trousers- an all-female comedy rap troupe. "I had never once considered becoming a successful rapper...Me and four or five of my friends spent like six months only hanging out together in my condo and would listen to hip-hop all the time. Eventually, when I got my Macbook for Christmas, we started messing around with garage band and that’s how it came to be." The experiment proved engaging enough for Beckwith to pursue further. Under the name Kitty Pryde, the redheaded Floridian transformed herself into one of the most potent Internet memes of the year with the quirky yearnings of "Okay Cupid." The "homemade mumblecore hit," it was described by Rolling Stone, landed among the magazine’s "50 Best Songs" of the year. Kitty Pryde’s lyrical prowess and flirty je ne sais quois shone brightly enough to catch not only the attention of a voracious blogosphere, but also that of notable hip-hop oddball Riff Raff. "[He] sent me a message on Twitter a few days after the "Okay Cupid" explosion online. He asked if I wanted to do a track, and I said sure and sent him a beat thinking nothing would ever come of it. A week later he was in my city with a film crew calling me to come through." Kitty Pryde met with Houston rapper to record the track "Orion’s Belt." Beckwith, now known simply as Kitty, has been on a sharp rise ever since.

picky" when in the process of choosing her beats.

She continues: "I’m not as interested in making beats as I am in choosing the sounds. There are a couple of beats on my new album [that] I kind of created by proxy. I don’t know how to use any of that software, my brain is NOT musical. I write words."

The name change was a matter of courtesy. "I changed my name because people who like X-Men were annoyed that photos of me were clogging up their Google searches, it seemed like common courtesy." It could also be safely assumed that the change was inspired by the Walt Disney Company’s ownership of the X-Men franchise. This savvy gesture is worthy of consideration because, despite having playfully wandered into her life as a rising young rapper, Kitty still maintains firm control over her career. Her vision is clear, and she has been rightly praised for possessing and exercising a level of self-awareness rarely found in people her age. It has been reported that Beckwith has declined several major label and commercial offers in the interest of maintaining this level of control over her brand, and describes herself as "INSANELY

In 2012, Kitty relocated from Florida to New York.

There is no doubt that the enlightening powers of recognition were challenged by some unsavory experiences. Of the move, she says, "I definitely had to grow up a little and face my fear of cold weather / mature relationships / homeless people begging me for money / impolite drivers, so I’m sure my writing shifted focus a bit. There is much more for me to worry about now other than boys texting me back, so I’m sure that shows in my writing."

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Kitty has been described as a "Tumblr-wave" icon.

The designation may at first seem belittling and reductive, but there is no question that the 20-yearold is a shining product of her connected generation. Despite her relative youth, Kitty is a veteran of the anonymous content field, and, luckily for her, has found a way to convert the often-hateful words into a sort of smirk-inducing fuel. In an interview with Spin magazine, Kitty remembered how the very early days of her young career were propelled by the panic, outrage and e-violence. Today, the rage and bile has been eclipsed by what seems to be an astonishing revelation for her: that this work can perhaps serve as a means to righteous and meaningful ends. "At first, I had never really considered being a musician as a plausible career path, so I was just sort of doing it to continue to rile more people up. Now I have actual fans (somehow) and they are so cool and supportive that I kinda just feel like they’re all my friends." She continues, "Sometimes people send me emails about how listening to my music helped them recover from an eating disorder or a terrible breakup, and that makes me feel like I have the power to make people’s lives better."

Kitty’s first full-length album is due out this winter. words by dylan white photography by danny krug

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In high school, Damon Hardjowirogo and George Stroud could kind of play bass and kind of play drums, so, obviously, they formed a band. Where did the 8-bit stuff come in? "We started going to a lot of Anamanaguchi shows and this venue The Tank was throwing these monthly Pulsewave shows which was just 8-bit music." They picked up the software to help make 8-bit melodic tracks to add to the bass and drums they already had.

Fast forward to 2011 and Nathan Ritholz joined the band initially just by playing guitar on a few tracks. "After that came out we played a couple shows, eventually I just learned all the songs that we were going to play for any show and then worked on the next record. At some point, I officially became a member of the band," said Nathan.

dating, that’s what we have and when it’s done, we put it out," Damon explains.

Where Anamanaguchi leans towards being the pop-punk chiptune band, Infinity Shred takes the slot of the post-rock 8-bit band, think Explosions in the Sky meets your Super Nintendo, The trio’s newest full-length, and first under the name Infinity Shred, is a sweeping seven track album that can feel like some sort of amazing journey.

"Kodiak," the first track on the album, starts off slow, easing you into the auditory landscape that the band is about to lay out in front of you. Even though the amount of tracks is low for a normal LP, the recording feels complete when listened to beginning to end which was the intention of the band. "Most bands put out a 10-12 track album, and they’ve written 20 songs for it but end up cutting a bunch. Whenever we write an album, those are the songs we’ve been working on since our last release and only those ones. There’s no consoli-

Using technology from the past to create music is an increasing trend in the modern music scene.

Bands often create sounds that are throwbacks to popular genres from decades ago. Infinity Shred, while they use older technology isn’t aiming to make music from the past. "The biggest challenge is making something that people won’t just write off because we’re using a lot of 80s synthesizers.

That’s not what it’s about to us. We’re just using technology from that era to make music that hasn’t existed yet."

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Just like most electronic music played with actual instruments, the live show takes on a different life than the recordings. Nathan plays live guitar, George’s live drums add a feeling that doesn’t often come across when purely electronics are used and Damon adds synth parts that aren’t in the recordings. "Somehow it gets more aggressive live, I guess we just turn everything up," says Damon.

"My guitar stuff is pretty similar to the record, there’s a lot of guitar parts that I wouldn’t be able to play myself because I’d need two of me or three of me. It just ends up being more open live," adds Nathan.

It’s not as hard now for an intstrumental band now as it used to be, no longer are fans asking Infinity Shred and similar bands when they’ll be getting a singer. "It’s not that we’re against it at all. We’re looking forward to working with singers and rappers in the future, but I think a lot of the

way that electronic music has gotten popular has allows for the instrumental side of it to be the focus," says Nathan. Damon continues, "As funny as it might sound, the culture boom of EDM as a phenomenon might have opened up the flood gates for people to be more accepting of an electronic post-rock band."

In the coming year, Infinity Shred plans to play a lot of show even though they don’t really know where yet. They’re also going to begin work on their next two releases in the form of an informal, mixtape type of release as well as a more traditional album. The mixtape will feature various rappers and singers and mark the first time that Infinity Shred will work with a vocalist of any sort. The band is excited to see where they can take their music with the addition of vocals, but adds that they "aren’t dependent on having a vocalist, but it’s another instrument that’s fun to work with."

The mixtape aims to show where Infinity Shred is coming from as music lovers in relation to, but also outside of their typical realm of sound. Hip Hop and R&B plays a big role in the influence of Infinity Shred. "If you pay close attention to the drum stuff on our recent record it’s pretty obvious,

but a lot of people wouldn’t notice that. This [mixtape] will be a little more obvious." As much as it’s obvious for people to liken Infinity Shred to some sort of M83 meets Explosions in the Sky sound, they want to show people that they are equally influenced by The-Dream and Drake.

Infinity Shred is exploring new musical territory while staying rooted in influences and sounds that are familiar to music listeners. On the surface, the music might not sound like it’s for the masses, but upon closer listen, it becomes clear that the type of music Infinity Shred is making can be consumed by both the average music listener and the Pitchfork Best New Music snob.

With a genre that has very few boundaries it will be interesting to see where Infinity Shred takes their sound and what other bands and subgenres their music influences along the way.

words and photography by danny krug

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"At a warehouse deep in Bushwick you rendezvoused with so and so, who’s avant-garde and parties hard and someone I should know." A lyric from K.Flay’s track "Starf***er" pretty perfectly explains the outsider’s experience in the neighborhood we live in. The Brooklyn by way of San Francisco rapper is full of observations like this. She has a problem with something, she makes a song about it. In a way, that’s how her hip hop career began.

For Kristine Flaherty, her career as a musician began in college when she was casually talking shit on the state of mainstream hip hop. The shit talking led to a challenge from a friend to create her own songs. Flaherty proceeded to write a really bad song, but it sparked something in her. "I had never done that before. There was something about it that was really interesting to me. I was a really serious student, so this was like something that had no precedent and no rules for me. It was a freeing experience." Kristine continued to write songs and perform on campus. When she grauated a few people in the Bay Area hip hop scene took her under their wing and helped her continue to grow. After a few years of playing shows and touring a bit things started to get more serious with her music career and K.Flay decided to relocate.

"It sort of just seemed like the energy was shifting east for a little bit," she says about her move from The Bay area to New York. "I also wanted to have some new inspiration for music. It seemed like an interesting way to play around with the music." Of course now, as any heavily touring musician, K. Flay exists in a sort of limbo when not on the road.

According to her Tumblr, she’s currently hanging out in LA even though all of her stuff is still here in New York.

Most recently K.Flay was on a nationwide tour with dance-pop duo, Icona Pop. "I play with a DJ and a drummer now, but for years I played alone and it’s hard to shit on someone who’s up there by themselves. I think the sincerity, even if the music wasn’t there yet, led some people to respond well to it." K.Flay’s live show has always been an important part of her music. Where most

rappers might just shout over tracks, K.Flay takes the opportunity to try and create something more unique and visually appealing. "I’ve got live drums, I drum, I’ve got a sampler that I use and a DJ too.

There’s a lot of ways for us to interact as a band."

As far as her personal performance, K.Flay won’t just be walking back and forth on a stage waving one hand in the air, "The show for me is super physical. I’m thrashing around, headbanging, getting into the crowd, jumping in, however it’s going to manifest that night. I’m treating it more like a rock show than a rap show has been my mentality."

With the exception of her most recent EP, K.Flay likes to give music away for free on the internet.

Seeing as our society hates paying for things and loves wasting time on the internet, that sounds like a pretty good plan. "I’m a fan of giving music away for free. I’d rather someone get the music, interact with it and then come to a show. I’d rather get the money from shows than the music itself." Like every modern musician should, K.Flay realizes that recordings aren’t worth anything to the masses. Yeah, the occasional artist can still go platinum, but if you aren’t a Kayne or JT, you’re main method of making a living as a musician is through your live shows.

K.Flay also benefits from the increasing trend of genre blending that is happening in hip hop and electronic music currently. At times her songs will sound like straight hip hop, at others they’ll be layered with electric guitars and often she will infuse the tracks with the glitchy, grinding, bassy electronic music that has become so pervasive in both the music world and pop culture as a whole.

K.Flay’s music is constantly evolving and exploring new ground. "I think I’m still finding a balance.

I like a lot of different types of music. There’s so much cross-genre type of stuff out there right now, which is cool."

Her most recent, over the course of five tracks, explores traditional rock sounds on "So What" followed by simple piano and drums on "The Cops" and the more club banger style electro on the

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track "Hail Mary," which features a guest spot from everyone’s favorite old rapper, Danny Brown, who is also known for crossing genres with guest spots from artists like Purity Ring and Charli XCX on his newest record. K.Flay explains the choice to invite Danny Brown to guest on the track, " I’ve always loved his style.

I tend to have a pretty controlled delivery and he does not, in a great way. So I had written that track and didn’t like my second verse and thought it needed an extreme dynamic change. I think it was a nice contrast." The contrast that K.Flay was attempting is blatantly clear and extremely successful on the track.

Her vocals come in smooth, breathy and elongated. Danny Brown comes in on the second verse like a line of good cocaine, infusing the track with a quick burst of madness and energy that dies out as quickly as is began returning you back to the catchy smooth hooks that K.Flay creates.

One of the obvious talking points with K.Flay isn’t necessarily the most PC topic, at least not in 2013. Regardless of it not being "cool to talk about," for the most part, it doesn’t stop anyone from thinking about it. K.Flay is a white, female hip hop artist. Until recently, that wasn’t something that culture readily accepted. History’s most well known white rappers include the likes of Vanilla Ice and Marky Mark, and while we have massively famous and well respected white rappers like Eminem in the pop culture canon now, there aren’t a ton of caucasian females rapping on a successful scale. For every K.Flay out there with something to say, we have a Kreayshawn that the internet looks at, laughs at and writes off. "I’ve always tried to represent my perspective genuinely. I think I was drawn to rap because I’m very talkative, I like puzzles, word games, things like that. Essentially within that writing genre, there’s so many opportunities for that. I’ve always tried to speak for nobody but myself." K.Flay isn’t rapping for a certain demographic, she isn’t catering to you, your little sister, your mom or even the barista at your trendy neighborhood

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café. K.Flay writes for K.Flay, if you like it, that’s cool.

Her music is diverse, catchy, visually descriptive and intellectual. Her vocal delivery in addition to the dulcet words she chooses are as important to the song structure as the beats.

The words aren’t simply used to convey a certain idea or concept. The syllables are broken up and used in specific ways that give them a value beyond that of just meaning, essentially turning the voice into another instrument.

While this is a common thing to do in many genres of music, it typically isn’t something that is used in hip hop. She talks about problems that normal people have every single day.

Therein lies the success of the tracks. Between the complete auditory appeal of the tracks and the realistic, relatable meaning, which is too often lost in hip hop now (looking at you Jay Z, you fucking hack), K.Flay cements the appeal of her place in the hip hop world as a voice that demands to be heard.

In a recent post on her blog, K.Flay mentions that she recently separated from her record label. What that means for the release of new music is anyone’s guess, but it’s usually easier to put out content without an office full of suits telling you what is or isn’t cool. " I haven’t felt this invigorated in a while & it’s kind of like falling in love, but not with a person — with everything," she writes in the post. Most likely it won’t be long before we hear a new mixtape, EP or even an LP from K.Flay.

words and photography by danny krug

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mixed metal styling by amber simiriglia photography by danny krug makeup by mariko hirano model kelsey vogelzang

Shirt: Worthington Vintage Dress: Evil Twin Necklace: Sequin 26

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Top: Coincidence & Chance Skirt: Silence + Noise Bracelet: Topshop

Jacket: StĂŠnay Vintage Top: Staring at Stars Skirt: One & Only Brooch: Chanel

Jacket: H&M Dress: Kimchi Blue Brooch: Alice Moore

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Top: Kimchi Blue Skirt: Cheap Monday Bracelet: COS

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Stuff we’re listening to and think you’ll

Charli XCX - Superlove

Danny Brown - Old

Infinity Shred - Sanctuary

Ratking - 100

Blood Orange - Cupid Deluxe

Honduras - Morality Cuts

Slonk Donkerson - RE-RUNS

Haybaby - Superpresent

Death Grips - Government Plates

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it’s time to dust off your dad’s old walkman

lastplacetapes.com

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FA S H I O N

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C U LT U R E

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