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issue 6 editor-in-chief sam keeler assistant editor jaycee rockhold writers jaycee rockhold emily nelson claire chaney bailey vigliaturo sam keeler photographers sam keeler callie craig kristina dawn cover shot sam keeler
letter from the editor I have to say, I am truly impressed that Jaycee and I were able to get this issue out. But somehow we managed and are happy to have this out in the world. By the end of this month I will have officially graduated college, accepted a new job, said good bye to Portland, and moved to New York City. I am thrilled to see what this next chapter in life brings and even more excited to see how Half&Half can flourish and thrive in New York City. Now I’m off to spend my last couple of days hanging out with my dogs and enjoying the gloomy Seattle weather at my parents house before I make the big move. Grab a coffee, take a seat, and enjoy reading about all of the talented people featured in this issue. Best,
illustratons jae vyskocil design sam keeler
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ta b l e o f c o n t e n t s NINA NESBITT..........................................6 HINDS....................................................12 JAMES BAY............................................18 ARTISTS TO WATCH................................27 KATE NASH........................................... 30 JODI......................................................35 ANDY DELUCA........................................40 MT. JOY................................................. 46 GLACIER VEINS TOUR DIARY...................50 SUMMER FESTIVAL WATCH....................62
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Nina Nesbitt words by emily nelson interview & photos by sam keeler Since her breakout in 2013, Scottish singer-songwriter Nina Nesbitt has graduated from twee acoustic jams to a glittering, soulful R&B-tinged brand of pop. Cutting her teeth writing music for artists like Jessie Ware, Nina’s forthcoming album The Moments I’m Missing is proof of her journey as an artist. With ghostly, towering vocals, piano-heavy melodies, and the heartfelt lyrics that fans have come to expect, Nina Nesbitt is poised to be your next alt-pop favorite from across the pond.
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You’re currently touring with Jake Bugg and have toured with Ed Sheeran as well. How has touring with these different acts helped you grow as an artist? The first few tours I did were with DJs, so I went from playing for ten people in a pub to playing to 12,000 people, which was fantastic. And that kind of took me out of my comfort zone, and made me realize what makes a good show, which isn’t just about playing the show, but having a chat with the audience and learning how to control a crowd, which I think everyone I’ve toured with has been really good at. I think I’ve learned the skills to a good show, hopefully. Was that first show just absolutely terrifying? Yeah. On the Example tour, in particular—he’s a DJ, so the crowd was waiting for a rave, and I’m there with my acoustic guitar, and I was like seventeen, like “Oh my god.” But people actually listened, because they were all a bit confused, like “who is she?” So, yeah, I think once I did that tour, I figured I could get through anything. Have you toured in America a lot before? No, never, I’ve never toured here. I’ve only ever played New York and L.A. at headline shows once. I’m on an indie label that’s got an office in America, and they’ve been really supportive of giving me a chance to come out here so I’m doing a radio tour, and as part of the radio tour I wanted to do a headline tour so we kind of tied it all together. So it’s like a mad promo trip, but it’s been really worthwhile, and I’ve been here for three months. It’s so halfnhalf.co | 8
big! Like, I’m not even covering half of America.
—than the lyrics, which come more naturally?
On that travel note— you’re originally from Scotland, and you recently moved to London. Has that affected your music at all?
Yeah, I’m a good natural storyteller, but musically...I only picked up a guitar at 15, so I’ve had to learn a lot.
I think massively, actually. I grew up in a little village, and Edinburgh doesn’t really have much of a pop music scene, but it’s got buskers everywhere, folk music, and traditional Scottish music. I guess a bit of that influenced me picking up an acoustic guitar, but I grew up with pop music from my mom, so I was never fully settled with being an acoustic artist. So moving to London gave me opportunities to get in the studio with other producer. There are so many more cultures there, so many interesting people, other artists, and they opened my ears to a lot more genres and styles. You mentioned your mom influenced your music—have any other family members influenced you work? My mom just listened to a lot of pop music, a lot of Whitney, Mariah, Brittany, and Christina. So I wouldn’t say my family has influenced my music, I think I started out writing lyrics and poems before I started music. The storytelling comes first before the music, just because I enjoy storytelling and the music is something I’ve had to work harder at—
What are some of the ways you combine making pop music that is also heartfelt? Well, I would say that “Somebody Special,” the single that is out at the moment, is an example. When I went into the session, I was like, I want to write a song for a pop star, and let’s pitch it to Selena Gomez or something. I thought someone like that—I know it’s a bit deluded, but I have to think if it’s for someone else: what melody would suit them, what’s the poppiest melody, how can I make this the best pop song? And then, if you’re doing that, I end up with a song that I actually think is a good pop song, and then I want to keep it. So when I’m writing the poppier ones, I’m usually thinking of another artist, but it’s still a really personal story that I’m writing about, so I can keep it. But personally, I love the more melancholy ballads, that’s definitely something I’d sit and write in my own bedroom. So it’s good to have the two, because it keeps it fun. So your new album is coming out soon—can we expect any of those ballads or is it mostly pop-centered? It depends what you would clashalfnhalf.co | 9
sify as pop. Because “The Best You Had,” which was the single before “Somebody Special,” I would classify that as one of the pop songs on the album. But then, to other people, it’s still a ballad, so I don’t know. Every song is kind of atmospheric and heartfelt—apart from “Somebody Special,” which is more happy and fun—but the rest of the songs are very personal and very heartfelt and lyric-driven. I would say there are six singles on the album and five album tracks, but I think the album tracks are lyrically good and they’re not filler—but they’re not radio singles. Are you excited to play some of those singles live? Yeah, I’m playing them tonight—I’m playing about six tonight. So I’m excited about that. This tour has been great as well because it’s acoustic, and [Jake Bugg] is acoustic as well, so people really listen and are super respectful—touch wood that tonight they will be— and it gives me a chance to showcase the songs how they were written, on piano or guitar without all the production. It’s nice. You just did a collaborative single for Spotify. What was that process like? I know it was the first on they’ve done. Yeah, they’ve been so supportive of the new music, and they’ve led the campaign so far. I got an email from Spotify asking if I wanted to do this project, and I was like, ‘Yeah, of
course!’ So I got put in a room with these two girls, Charlotte Lawrence and Sasha Sloane— Charlotte’s an amazing new artist, and Sasha’s this amazing songwriter, she’s written some of my favorite songs. I was so excited, but I’d never met them before, so I ended up in a room with these two girls that I’d never met and we had to write a song for release within six hours. And I’ll do so many sessions—I’m not a person who will write what I think is a great song every day, like I’ll have to do maybe twenty sessions for one song. So the pressure of getting a song that I loved was quite hard. But we were all really happy with how it came out...yeah, it was quite stressful. Did that experience give you a desire to collaborate with more artists in the future? I prefer writing with writers, I think that’s why I enjoyed working with [Charlotte and Sasha], because they’re both writers, but I think that in a perfect writing session it should be the producer and artist. Because if you’ve got two artists, it changes the dynamic because I’m thinking about how to cater to them as
well. When you’ve got writers, I feel like I can get on with the lyrics myself and the melodies, and then they can help with the production and chords. So, I definitely prefer working with writers, but I think nowadays collaboration with other artists is a big thing. I think it would be fun if I did my bit and they did their bit, but I much prefer to send it to someone. When you’re writing songs, where is your favorite place to be? I would say now, it’s wherever I am, but 70% of my album was written solely alone, in my studio at home, which is called Nightbox Studio, but I moved from that house before I came here, so it’s no longer mine. It’s just a little room I had, with all the neon lights, and it’s just a really nice zen room. It’s a really creative room, but I don’t have it any more, so I don’t know if I’ll go back there. Are you going to stick around in London? Yeah, I just bought my first flat, but it’s tiny, so I probably won’t have a studio in there.
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HINDS
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words by emily nelson & photos by callie craig
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Spanish garage-rockers Hinds have been relentless since bursting onto the scene in 2014. Formed in 2011 by Carlotta Cosials and Ana Perrote, the duo added Ade Martin and Amber Grimbergen, morphing into a hugely successful quartet, headlining world tours and festival sets while collaborating with everyone from Steve Madden to Pixar. Their second album, I Don’t Run, out now on Mom+Pop records, is a departure from the band’s proclivity for metaphor, instead facing their subjects head-on with blunt bravery and honest lyrics. I spoke with guitarist and co-lead vocalist Ana on the phone before the group’s show in Philly, promoting the release of I Don’t Run. You guys are originally from Madrid—how would you contrast the scene there to the American music scene? How have both influenced you? They’re totally, totally, different. The scene [in Madrid]—the thing is, it’s a really tiny scene, really strong, and basically we all know each other. Ade lives with the guy that produced our first record, I live with the guy who just designed the cover of Los Nastys, which is another band that’s from [Madrid]; we’re all really related and we all help each other. What you guys have here in the States is just crazy, like just crazy compared to Spain because you guys really promote music to your kids—like in school they teach you what music is and the history of music, and everything is so much more respectful—you really consider it part of the culture, as a beautiful thing, and in Spain it is not that way as much. But I don’t know, I still like it because I’m from Spain! How did you guys get into music and decide to form a band? It was started just randomly, about six years ago I think, and none of us knew how to play guitar, so when we went on a trip we were like, “Sure, we’ll bring guitars! Yeah, let’s do it” because our boyfriends at the time had a band together, and so we just brought them and we had absolutely nothing to do so we were like, “Should we cover songs? Okay!”. I learned how to play some songs by Bob Dylan, and we automatically started doing games with the tempo and games with the voices, being like “Okay, you’re gonna sing here, and then I’m gonna enter here, and then we’re both gonna do it,” You know? And we totally felt addicted to the feeling of it. We played at the boardwalk and got money from playing on the street, and we payed for gas with that money...so I don’t know, it just started so randomly, without a purpose at all. How did you decide on the name Hinds? I know you were called Deers for a little while. Yeah, we were called Deers before, but we got threatened by a Canadian band who were called “The Dears,” and the law is based on phonetics, not how you write it. Even though they weren’t even active anymore, they sent us an email and were like, ‘If you don’t change your name, we’re gonna sue you,” and we were like, “Oh shit, we don’t have money or time to do that,” and we didn’t have our record yet, so we just changed it. And we chose Hinds because it’s the female term for deer. halfnhalf.co | 14
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Who are some of your biggest influences right now? I would say The Strokes, Bob Dylan, and maybe a mix between early Mac DeMarco and the latest Growlers. I really like what you’ve said in the past about having to negotiate being an all-female band and having to work harder to be taken seriously. What does it mean to you to be an all-female band? If I’m honest, I didn’t know when we started that I was going to end up feeling this way, but now that I know what it is like, it’s 100% important to me because nothing would have been the way it is if we weren’t an all-female band, I think. Like in the first place, when [Carlotta and I] started, we knew we weren’t going to judge each other because we both felt exactly on the same level. We’ve been music fans forever and all our boyfriends had bands and all our friends had bands, but they were always guys. We admired them so much that we didn’t feel that we could [make our own band,] not because they were telling us we couldn’t do it, but because they’d been playing their instruments for like seven years, and we were like, “How are we gonna start now?” Like, it just sounded ridiculous. So I think it was totally vital that we both started at the same level. When you write, getting out all the ideas you have— even the stupid ideas—can lead to the cleverest ideas, and you don’t get to say those bad ideas if there’s someone who you really admire in the room, or at least not at the time because we didn’t have confidence at all. And then when we thought about adding drum and bass, we knew that if we chose guys, it would be the same—like if suddenly some of them said “Yeah, we should do this or that,” then we would automatically say yes to what they wanted, because we admire them so much. And we also realised that from the outside, everyone would think that [the boys] were the ones writing the music and that we were
the ones just smiling in the pictures, and that got us mad because we were the ones who started the band! What about this second album was different for you guys? The lyrics—in the first record we did so many metaphors, and what we meant to say ended being a little bit more hidden, but with this record we were like “Okay, we want to say this, we’re actually going to say this as we would in real life,” and not be ashamed of it. What was your songwriting process like for this album? There’s always two different phases in the writing—one of them is Carlotta and I looking for chords and vocals and melodies that we like, and then there’s another phase with the four of us in the rehearsal room just throwing out all our ideas and seeing if they work together. They don’t always have to be in that order, like we can start with an instrument piece and then try to find a nice melody for it, or the other way around. On a non-music related note, you launched a clothing line with Urban Outfitters and collaborated with Steven Madden—any similar projects on the horizon? Well, we take our merch really seriously, and it’s not really a brand collaboration, but we do design everything in our store. I hope someday it will come out as a brand, actually. But when we’re on the road, there’s really not a lot you can do, and we’re going to be on tour until January or February of next year, so right now we’re totally focused on the record. How would you describe the band in one word? Freedom.
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photos & interview by sam keeler words by jaycee rockhold
Intrinsic and eloquently spoken, Bay has had a lot to talk about recently; he has a new album Electric Light, he’s been touring with his new music, he’s ditched the long locks and wide brimmed hat for a short do and a new look. But besides all of the recent excitement and wardrobe changes, Bay has also thought a lot about newer, intangible aspects, and the way they’ve affected his artistry and personal outlooks on life. Bay references a multitude of influences that helped in switching up his sound; from Bowie, to LCD Soundsystem, to Picasso’s blue period, Bay hasn’t entirely forgotten his old, acoustic ways, combining more modern pop with his roots. When he meets Half & Half backstage before the show, he’s curious, and he weaves thoughtfully between questions from Half & Half and his own answers, reflecting on the time he was away to create Electric Light, his musical transformation, and his viewpoints on the direction of the music industry. How have you been on the hiatus you’ve taken? Great. I saw something in the last couple of days that said “James Bay, back from hiatus” and I thought about “hiatus”. It’s interesting. You can’t go away...In music, in pop music in particular, you kind of can’t disappear for more than five minutes without it seeming like you’ve been gone for a year, and I was gone for a year. I suppose it was a hiatus, but when I hear about my favorite bands going on hiatus they kind of go for five, ten years. I realize we’re in this moment and time now in music where you have to be visible, working, touring, kind of campaigning, all at the same time, when you’re supposed to be writing and creating. You essentially can’t go anywhere without it being called a “hiatus”. I find that fascinating. I’m so much part of this generation that I can’t quite argue with it. I want to say, “what do you mean hiatus?”. I have to live my live for a moment and I have to write music. But I can’t argue, because even I accept that the thing now is to be here on a show, write the new material that is going to excite everybody, you know? Especially with social media. Everybody is expecting new, random singles to be dropping all the time... It’s fascinating. It’s another one of those things. It removes any sort of mystery from the art, and that makes me sad. Was it intentional for you to take time off then? Yeah. I’ll be completely honest, I’m surprised it wasn’t longer. After I finished touring it was December 2016. In the grand scheme of things, five minutes later, hypothetically, it was Christmas. Then it was New Years. Then it was January the 2nd, 2017. And already I was bored of being “off”, so I started writing. I thought to myself, “this could take awhile”. I have no idea. I felt ready to create. I had no idea if it was going to take forever or not, so I got started. By May I had all the songs. I was working through the night a lot of the time, the first five months of 2017. I hit a flow and things just kept pouring out. I got kind of lucky. The second half of 2017 was really finessing the finished record and doing all sorts of different things, including getting my hair cut. That was an intentional move and it was a good hiatus, if we’re going to call it that. halfnhalf.co | 20
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You wrote the entire album between January and May. You didn’t do any writing on the road? No, I didn’t. It’s funny, my mindset has changed now. It’s different already. I struggled in the very beginning, I thought I was terrible at writing. I couldn’t get into that place. It’s hard to write on the bus. Well, for me it is. When you get off the bus and into the hotel room for a night, that’s when it got cliche for me. That’s where I was supposed to write, on the road. It felt too forced. It felt like I was looking at myself in a scene in a movie where I write the next big song in the hotel on tour. I couldn’t get anything there. I had to soak up all this creative energy that was building up over the course of touring. By the time I finished touring, it was all there and ready to come out. So you wrote in London, at home? London, yes. There was a studio about five minutes from my house, a basement studio. It was really unassuming, kind of lofi spot. That was quite intentional as well because I wrote my first record in various spots around London, and I recorded it in Nashville, in a really high end studio. Incredible place. And I had experienced that so much that I didn’t want that the next time. I wanted the environment to feel different. I went to this basement studio and wrote all these songs.
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Your new sound is a little bit different than the other stuff you’ve put out. Did you instrumentally have to figure things out, or what was that whole process like? There’s two different ways to talk about that. One is that yes, you’re right, it’s very different because my introduction to everybody as an artist was on an acoustic EP. My second EP was similar, my third EP was a bit more musical. The album was still very organic, with acoustic guitars and drums, bass, piano, and a bit of electric guitar, but it was a soft approach in comparison to the new music I’ve made. It’s different for the most part, in some places it’s similar, but no one’s heard the full album yet. Things that I did differently...I started a romance with synthesizers, which is quite fun and interesting. And program drums, which isn’t organic. You can sit at a guitar kit and record organically. You can use drum machines and create program drum sounds and I did that. I got some electronic drum sounds and smashed them up alongside the acoustic drums and I included synthesizers. I am very much a guitar player and I always have been, and that’s the root of a lot of my music. Ninety-nine percent is rooted in guitar. I’m not dropping away from that instrument. It’s on all but one of these new songs on the record. I have a fun time at sort of reproaching it and threading it into the music in a different way. halfnhalf.co | 23
Can you talk about some influences for the album? There’s a more obvious gospel influence. There’s a particularly obvious R&B, urban influence on this music, which, I didn’t see myself ever doing, but I’ve threaded it in a Prince, Frank Ocean kind of way. It felt great when it was coming to be. Everything I’ve done is intentional. You make music and things come out of you. It can be a random experience. I chose intentionally to let those influences kind of reign over my classic Bruce Springsteen, Kings of Leon influences. Which are from the past now for me, though I still love those acts. It’s just not as relevant to me and the music I’ve been making recently. There’s also a very alternative influence, like the Bowie stuff and the Blondie stuff and The Strokes stuff, and the LCD Soundsystem influences. This is the kind of stuff people didn’t expect from me, because they didn’t know I liked that kind of music. A lot of them I was getting into, but I wasn’t talking about them. I didn’t equate myself with the music that has influenced this new record, which is why it’s most surprising to people, which I confess, I love. That shakeup of me and my fans is exciting. If it wasn’t there, it would just feel boring. Everything I’ve achieved is because of my fans and it’s because of the music I made on the first record and how much they fell in love with it. It wouldn’t be a healthy relationship if we recycled the same old thing. We have to push each other.
Do you think with this new album you’ll get a new wave of fans? I hope so. I hope to carry on having a life with my fans from before and my current fans, and I hope to bring new people into the fold and into the family. As far as fans go, can they expect any shift in the live performance? We’ve done two shows this far, and it’s fucking brilliant. It didn’t take me too long to realize how exciting it would be to play old songs again because of how the fans react and what that music means to them. I get to excite and surprise people with new music, which again, I think I’m a similar type of performer, I’m trying to refine my performance and take it to a new level. The mixtape that the set it now, that alone is changing me as a performer to a degree. I’m adding extra sounds. Everybody onstage is playing live. There are extra layers and tracks to reinforce or emphasize the experience and the sound. I’m not going to be afraid of that. In replicating music from this record live on the stage, that’s what it’s going to take and it sounds great. I can’t argue with it, it has to be done. I want the best version of this thing, rather than an approximation, just because I used to do it without tracks. I’ve read your thoughts about the inequality in the music industry. You had talked about bringing more women with you.
There aren’t enough women in the touring industry and in the music industry in general. We were all guys on the tour once. When I think back to that, I just think how lame that sounds to me, but it was true. It happens all the time. It does happen all the time, but that’s what we’re trying to change, isn’t it? Our production manager is female, we have three girls onstage...We have a female guitar tech, which I found really important because I know so many amazing female guitar players in my life and it’s really difficult to find a gig sometimes. But what if you’re obsessed with guitars and you’re a girl? What if you realize you don’t necessarily have to play guitar, but you’re so into it you want to repair guitars, or build your own, or be a guitar tech? Where are they? It’s kind of a desperate situation in these touring years, and it’s starting to change more and more. You have to start quite literally getting girls on tour, working on tour, and touring with you. What the hell have we been doing in the past? Keeping it a single gender industry, like what the fuck? That’s great that you’re doing that! Kind of aside from this, I’ve been reading a lot of interviews you’ve done. What is something that you’ve never been asked before that you wish someone would ask you? The thing is that I’m quite happy to talk about anything, really. I’ll tell you something. This isn’t halfnhalf.co | 24
something that I really want to be asked, but this is something that gets brought up; when people want to talk about cutting my hair, or not wearing a hat anymore, a lot of people say “I’m sorry to ask this, but I have to”. And then they ask “why did you get your haircut?”. I just want to know why they’re sorry. I want to know why they feel like they have to ask it. The last person that said that to me said they had to ask it, because everybody does. I think, why do you have to ask it if everybody does? You’re asking the most boring, repeated question. Every time they figure out it’s the most boring answer. I don’t think there’s anything I want to be asked that nobody’s asked me before, because if there is than it’s probably too geeky. Like I change guitar every song, which is excessive, but I have really geeky answers as to why. The vast majority of the people who read this won’t understand it, it gets into different tones and pickups and strings... For any fans reading this, what advice do you have for growth and change as an artist? You just asked me a question that I wish people would ask me more. It’s the most important ingredient for feeling truly like an artist. I was having a great chat with someone the other day, we were talking about my own change, inspired by people like David Bowie and Michael Jackson who were kind of like chameleons and went through different looks. Picasso, his interesting thing, people found him as a debut artist. Then he
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changed what he wanted to do, and at one point, he started doing everything in blue. It was known as Picasso’s blue period. Everything he painted was various shades of blue. People asked him why he changed. At the time, people put his artwork away, but then later on when they brought it out again, it was popular. He had a cubist period where everything was cut into shapes, and people had a problem with that when that started. Years later they came back to it and said it was incredible art. He continued to be legendary. All of that is because he wanted to change. He chose to put himself first as the artist in the equation. While I do this for my fans, I do this for me. I’m an artist. I have these feelings about all sorts of different things and I express them through songs. I’m lucky that they get to hear them and they want to follow me as an artist. If I didn’t get to change and evolve, I wouldn’t get to do any of this. Ask yourself if you want to do this forever. If you do, the most important thing is to grow and to evolve and to change. Similar to Picasso having a blue period, what would you describe your current phase as? Great question. I don’t know if that’s mine to describe. I guess this is a blue period for me because it’s not entirely the same as what I did before. The most important thing that this is a different period for me, as an artist. I don’t know what I’ll do next, but I imagine it’ll change again. I think it has to chance. Or else, what am I doing? I can’t really describe it in one word, other than different, or evolved.
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ARTISTS TO WATCH words by claire chaney & bailey vigliaturo halfnhalf.co | 27
Amber Mark Confidence oozes out of everything that Amber Mark touches. Conexão EP fuses R&B sounds with a South American influence so that Mark can take on the themes of love and connection (the EP title is Portuguese for “connection”) through the story of a relationship. The EP’s title track is light and relaxed. “Love Me Right” exudes maturity — she’s questioning a relationship gone wrong and recognizing what she deserves. She covers Sade’s “Love is Stronger Than Pride,” focusing on merging the old with the new through electronic sounds layered over vocals that do Sade’s song justice. This release is just a glimpse of what Mark can do through her music, telling stories that are both compelling and interesting through a fusion of stunning vocals with instrumental sounds that are both classic and inventive. Her roots are all over the place, from Berlin to Miami to India to New York City and it shows through the music, experienced and rhythmic in all the right ways. With Conexão and 3:33am already in her repertoire, we have no doubt that Amber Mark deserves our undivided attention.
vagabon Lætitia Tamko’s 2017 album Infinite Worlds captured our attention for its subtle beauty. She has a raw quality about her that is captivating Her vocals take the forefront as she gracefully dances through each track.. While some tracks are a whisper, others are a yell — as guitar sounds reminiscent of Modest Mouse serve as a backdrop from every feeling of frustration or elation. “The Embers” captures what Tamko does best: a slow start that builds to an emotional breaking point packed with vulnerable emotion. “Mal à L’aise” is sung solely in French, creating a moment of depth layered over electronic sounds. While tracks like “Cleaning House” stay relatively mellow throughout, “100 Years” is a moment of angst to hold onto. Each track creates a moment within itself worth savoring and Infinite Worlds has us eagerly awaiting what’s on the next for Vagabon.
Hurray for the Riff Raff Alynda Lee Segarra’s Puerto Rican heritage, Bronx upbringing, and time spent in New Orleans culminate in music that is Americana infused with lots of soul. From “Blue Ridge Mountain” to “The New SF Bay Blues,” it’s clear that she’s influenced by the heart and soul of what it means to be American. Hurray for the Riff Raff is redefining what it means to be an artist with this scope. With each track, she explores sounds reminiscent of years ago and combines them with her voice that sounds wise well beyond her years. A modern day “outlaw” of sorts, Segarra is challenging the traditions of male roots singers while simultaneously creating a soundtrack for a new American dream. It’s about growth. It’s about creating change. It’s about feeling something. halfnhalf.co | 28
gus dapperton Gus Dapperton, brainchild of Brendan Rice, has started to make a mark in the New Wave scene. As a young 21-year-old who grew up in Warwick, New York, Rice tends to stand out—bowl cut styled hair, pastel painted nails, and an aesthetic fashion that Vogue calls, “90s normcore meets Balenciaga”. However, Rice is more than appearance. His project features layered synth-pop sounds and mellow and charismatic songs, which turned heads last August when his first project, Yellow and Such, was released. Soon followed by You Think You’re a Comic!, a more whimsical sounding record, Rice is setting a bar of what it means to be yourself and do what you love, without much care of fitting into society’s typical mold.
Blondage
Youth Antics
This talented twosome is from Denmark and their focus is experimental-pop. Esben Andersen and Pernille Smith-Sivertsen have released a number of singles that incorporate electronic vibes, without going overboard. Remixed by Yoke Lore and OTR, their most recent track “Stoned” was a highlight of summer 2017. Lyrics like “Surfing on a wish / I got stoned / Dizzy blowin’ bubbles together / Gotta love it, gotta love it” radiate the cool attitude this duo demonstrates track after track. Even though it’s a pop track about being stoned, it isn’t cheesy in the slightest. We’re ready for more of Blondage’s laid back summer vibes in 2018.
Big things are on the horizon for Youth Antics. Youth Antics has just released debut single, “Renée,” and it’s made for the summer. Retro and sun-drenched sounds pour out of the single and we’re instantly transported back to a moment in the 80s riding down the highway with the windows down.Selected to perform at the 2018 Harvey Milk Festival, Youth Antics undoubtedly are making a name for themselves in the Florida music scene and beyond.
paul cherry Paul Cherewick, better known by his moniker Paul Cherry, thrives in jazz influenced pop and psych melodies. Themes of heartache and modern romance run rampant throughout Flavour, with Cherwick using voicemails, horns, and dreamy synths to reflect on relationships. The album also focuses on seemingly 21st century problems, like addictions to looking at one’s phone or relying too much on technology. Catch Paul Cherry on tour with fellow Chicagoans Post Animal. halfnhalf.co | 29
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kate nash words by emily nelson interview & photos by sam keeler
Since becoming an overnight sensation in the late 2000s for her albums Made of Bricks and My Best Friend is You, British singer-songwriter Kate Nash has faced her share of ups and downs. After ditching her major label and self-releasing her third studio album Girl Talk in 2013, Nash took a five-year hiatus from music, going on to gain acting credits in the film Powder Room and a recurring role on the Netflix series Glow. Now, in 2018, she has released her fourth full-length album, Yesterday Was Forever, funded entirely via Kickstarter. She’s currently on tour in the U.S., and while in Portland, she talked with Half & Half about the journey to Yesterday Was Forever, the benefits of social media promotion, and how learning to wrestle changed her as a performer.
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What can you tell me about your new album? My new album took about four years. It was five years since my last record, so it was a lot of figuring out how to continue as an independent artist, and I ended up doing a kickstarter campaign, which was 155% funded. So, for most of last year [...] I was shooting Glow season 2, and then on weekends we worked on finishing the record, and we delivered it March 30th. And now we’re touring it and doing some shows this summer, and it’s had a lot of love. I’m really happy that people seem to be enjoying it, and I think it was worth the wait. On that note—between acting and singing, have you had to draw lines between talents, or do you see them blending together? They’re totally different, but they definitely inspire one another. I feel like the discipline I’ve learned as an actor, with being on set and the sixteen-hour days and learning to wrestle and having to be there at 4:30am for call time—I think it’s really good for a musician to learn a different type of discipline because the “rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle” of being on tour is not very disciplined. And I think it has inspired me to live a much healthier lifestyle and [to be] more professional. So has being on tour this time felt different without that “rock ‘n’ roll” aspect?
because it just sucks the souls out of people. It’s quite an immature way of carrying on. And it was really important for me to prove that I don’t need that to have great shows... I can totally do it without it. So it’s been a really good discipline to learn—and it’s a lot healthier for my future. You’ve talked a lot about the mental health stigmas within the music industry—do you think it’s connected to the “rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle” mentality? Yeah, definitely. It shouldn’t be idolized anymore, and it’s gone on for too long. I’ve seen record labels drop off bags of coke to bands before, and every fan wants to do a shot or a line with someone who’s famous, just to be able to tell that story. I think that [current bands] idolize bands from the 70s, 80s, 90s—who were doing, like, out of control with drug use. And I’ve seen it kill people and destroy their personalities and their careers. It doesn’t look how it feels, I think—like people feel like it’s creating a persona for them, when actually—we were talking the other day, me and Alicia, my drummer, who’s been touring since she was 15—how it kind of gets into your head that being a dick is a good look, and it’s not. And there’s a difference between someone who’s a dickhead and who’s an addict, they’re both very different issues, and I think they both need to addressed equally, because I think it’s irresponsible to project that image as well, and it’s irresponsible for the industry to support that, because you’re creating health problems and feeding addiction. Obviously, addiction is very complex, but there’s a lot of help out there. I don’t know, just being in the music industry, you see it so much.
It’s funny because there’s parts of being on tour that will always be...that aren’t very glamorous hard work, where [on tour] you’re doing everything quite DIY in comparison to being on set with 243 members of crew. So, I think that sort of edginess of being down and dirty keeps me And that’s kind of an overlooked thing, I think, really grounded and reminds me why I do this that nobody talks about. and why I play music, but I’m not partying or anything. I stopped drinking when I trained for Glow, I think so too, I think it’s idolized. I think it should just to be healthy and to have more of a physical be more like, “this is a real problem, and it’s relationship with myself, with the wrestling—and taking people’s lives and people’s personalities, I just kept on doing that for a while because I felt taking away such talent unnecessarily…” And really good and I don’t want to drink on the road mental health is so linked to that, a lot of artists anymore. There are so many addicts in this indus- have depression and stuff—and I do, I don’t suftry, and I feel like that’s not talked about. It’s so fer addiction and I’m really thankful for that, but encouraged to just like, get fucked every night, I’ve been close to it a lot, and I have OCD and and that’s not sustainable and it’s not inspiring anxiety, and I think that the lifestyle is difficult. halfnhalf.co | 33
Because it’s all the highs, and then the lows of traveling, and being on the road is quite difficult. So I’ve learned that you have to work really hard to create positive environments. And so, that’s like me trying to be as positive as I can and working as a team with my band and making sure the people on the road with me are down-to-earth and hardworking, not just blowing smoke up my ass, but being real. And that way we can all have a great time together and respect each other and put on an amazing show...with all of us on the road, my main goal every day is to put on the best show that I can. Because people are buying a ticket to come and see me, and that’s an honor, really. So I have to take it seriously. What are your top three things you do to stay healthy and positive on the road? I’m vegan, and I eat really healthy. I’m obsessed with getting good food—and I need to eat quite a lot of food because I get quite low energy—so, eating really well and putting in the effort to go and get something decent if it’s not close by. And then, just being able to laugh when things go wrong, because it’s a live show and shit goes wrong all the time, and if you can try and keep it light, I think that’s important. And just appreciating that I could be stuck at home, working at a fast food restaurant like I was when I was a teenager—and I’m just so lucky to be here. I think that no matter how long you do it for, you can always feel grateful to be there. You got your start a little while back on MySpace—how do you think that social media has changed the music industry?
on one hand, on the other hand it’s an unhealthy obsession, and [it] can create insecurities about comparing yourself and just being on your phone too much. So it’s hard to balance it but I think it’s important to recognize that the good comes with the dark side, too. You released your video for “Life in Pink,” which was directed by Liz Nistico (HOLYCHILD). How that process and what was it like coming up with the concept? It was amazing! She and I worked together in Mexico on a music video called “Rotten Teeth,” which is a HOLYCHILD song, that she directed and I sang on, and I loved watching her work, so I thought we should work together on a video. And I had the concept, actually, for “Life in Pink” from so long ago, because I wrote this song a really long time ago, and so I just gave it to Liz and then she developed it, and then we collaborated on visual stuff. And it’s just really nice because I think Liz is so inspiring and such a true artist. She really tries to be her true self, and she’s also a woman, so I don’t have to explain certain things that as a woman you just understand, and it’s so cool to have girls supporting each other in our industries. So it’s been amazing. Any other standout collaborations on your album? I worked with Julia Michaels, which was cool— she’s a new artist, she’s really talented—and Lady Leshurr, I’m really excited about the collaboration I did with her. It’s not out yet, though!
Are there thing you’ve learned acting that have Oh gosh. It’s become really difficult because it’s affected your stage presence or are you still the 24/7 exposure to your entire life, and people same? want to see everything. I find that I’m always torn between it being pure evil and the reason When I’m on stage I’m still trying to be as free as that I’m still able to do music, my saving grace. possible, I’m not trying to come up with a characI love being able to have a direct connection ter or something, but I think acting has definitely with fans, I’ve got street teams and I’m meeting built confidence with my performance because, them after shows and...I don’t know, there’s such like I said, on set I have to achieve my best pera connection. And you get to stay in touch with formance because I don’t know what take they’re really special fans and have special moments with gonna use. I think that I have learned a lot of them. And like I said, doing a Kickstarter, that’s discipline that I have carried through to use all literally what funded my record. So it’s amazing the time, basically. halfnhalf.co | 34
jodi words by jaycee rockhold photos by callie craig
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Jodi, moniker for the musical project of New Jersey to Illinois transplant Nick Levine, is good at exploring the small things. An appreciation and focus on the everyday aspects of life is reflected in their first full length project Karaoke, released through Chicago’s own Sooper Records. There is an assortment of influences—Levine cited Mount Eerie and Bill Callahan as two of the main ones—that can be traced throughout the album, resulting in a laid back indie rock with a nostalgic bite. The album, mastered by Warren Hildebrand (Orchid Tapes and Foxes in Fiction), dabbles in just the right amount of earnestness, consciously playing around with words to evoke a sense of sentiment and a sonic pleasantness. Levine sat down with Half & Half on a sunny day in Wicker Park to talk about their album, the move from Chicago, and the people they’ve met along the way.
You moved here to get your art degree. Where do you go to school? SAIC. Is there any specific art you studied? I was doing sound based stuff in the studio arts department. Pretty separate from the music that I write. It’s a different medium. It’s like sound installation sort of stuff. Oh, that’s so cool! What made you come to Chicago specifically for that? I wanted to get out of the area, honestly. I had lived within two hours of driving distance to home my whole life until coming here. I wanted to be off on my own and feel that out. I applied to a bunch of places and SAIC gave me the most money [laughs].
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When you moved here did you want to pursue different musical projects in a different city? I think in general creatively as a person I sort of wanted to take some time and space. And which city in New Jersey are you from again?
because it’s a city. There’s a cool scene here. It’s not that there wasn’t a cool scene at home, it’s just different. The scene is pretty approachable and accessible I think. It’s taken me a little bit of time but I do feel like I’ve met a lot of people out here that are like minded and who do cool stuff. I found that difficult in New York City. I’m older now, so maybe that’s part of it. Have there been any bands in Chicago that you’ve particularly enjoyed or have played with since you’ve moved here?
I’m from Montclair. Is there a music scene there? Yeah! There’s a lot of music that comes out of Montclair. There were a few DIY venues, I’m not sure what’s happening there now. The Meat Locker is still a place. There was stuff going on for sure, throughout high school and everything.
I was playing in my friend Seth’s band Options sometimes. He plays drums with me sometimes, too. Nnamdi [Ogbonnaya] is a cool one, because he helps runs Sooper, which is the label that put my album out. Through him, and also though Glenn [Curran], was how that happened.
How would you compare the music scene in New Jersey to the music scene in Chicago?
How did you meet them?
It’s hard to say. Chicago has an advantage just
I think that I met them through Seth. Nnamdi was
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someone I’ve been aware of since a while back. How did that conversation with them and forming that relationship end up with Karaoke on the label? They were people that I knew and I had this record I was finishing up and was trying to figure out who I could shop it to. They were interested and they’re cool, I like what they do. It’s a cool local label, their politics are good. I’m happy to be working with them. What are some of the other releases they’ve put out? They put out Nnamdi’s stuff. Drool is his most recent record. It was a split release with Father/Daughter. There’s a band called Mother Evergreen that does stuff with them. Sen Morimoto is putting his record out through them. Did you start writing Karaoke in New Jersey, or did you start writing it here? There were songs that were totally written here and then stuff that was a scrap from several years ago that got updated. Recording and mastering can take so long, like months if not years. Have you found yourself releasing a song and you feel any sense of disconnection because you wrote that so long ago and it’s just coming out? Definitely. That’s does happen. They can have repeating life cycles. An old song can feel dis-
connected and then new stuff happens in your life and suddenly it’s relevant again. That’s a cool feeling. They’re not gone forever when they’re dead. It’s kind of a cool documentary thing, too, to see what state of mind you were in when you were writing that song. Totally. It’s really cool to have a document. That’s a good word for it. I wish I had valued that always, because most of the musical projects I’ve been involved with there’s no evidence of now. It feels like a shame. How would you say your headspace is different playing as Jodi versus a band? I’m accompanying myself rather than other people. It’s total aesthetic and creative control. Weird little ideas, there’s no one there to say no. I am definitely experimenting in the recording process. The flip side of that is there is more of an emotional investment, so I get more nervous for shows than if I’m just playing guitar. It’s a give and a take and it’s rewarding. When you play shows, do you play individually or do you have a backing band? I have a band. I’ve played a few solo shows here but I prefer playing with a band. So who all plays in your band? Seth plays drums. My friend Wilson [Brehmer] plays guitar. He’s from Chicago but we went to college together at Bard Colhalfnhalf.co | 38
lege. I went there for two years before I transferred to SAIC. I also read that Warren Hildebrand [from Orchid Tapes and Foxes in Fiction] mastered the album for you. How was it like being in Chicago and working with people outside of the city you’re living in? Something like that we would probably be working with over email anyways, so it didn’t really make that much of a difference. He [Hildebrand] has mastered a bunch of cool stuff. That’s why I came to him about it. We had played a handful of shows together. We were friendly, so I reached out to him and we took it from there. Did you play all the instruments on the record? Yes, besides pedal steel on one track, which is my Dad. How does it benefit you to be able to control all the instruments, and how does it hinder you? It’s definitely both. It felt like something I kind of needed to get out of my system. It was a chip on my shoulder and I wanted to prove I could do a record totally by myself. I like working alone. It’s much easier to have an idea and try to execute it then try to communicate it to someone else. The downsides are that I’m like, not that good of a drummer or whatever. There’s a lot of happy accidents and things that end up staying that weren’t planned.
Was there any song in particular that was harder to write and get on the album? The harder to record ones didn’t make the cut, honestly [laughs]. “On the Sly” was almost one that didn’t make the cut. I think that was the hardest song and also the oldest one on there. It just sort of wasn’t happening in the recording process. It didn’t have it you know. I don’t remember exactly how it happened, but my friend Sam [Skinner] did some additional mixing on the record and it happened. He breathed the life into it that it needed. And now that’s one of my favorite songs on the record. When I was listening to the record, I heard a lot of lyrics that pertained to more mundane things. Do you find yourself writing a lot about the everyday aspects of life? I do. But I also think that’s when done well, which I don’t know if I’ve totally accomplished that. Talking about small stuff is a really good way of talking about big stuff. There’s a Porches lyrics and it’s “every time I look to god a bug flies in my eye”. It’s the big small thing. I try to not bite off more than I can chew. My problem lyrically for a long time was that I was trying to get at big stuff. Approaching it from a place of humility works. I live in the everyday, that’s all I got. halfnhalf.co | 39
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andy deluca photos by andy deluca & words by jaycee rockhold
Andy DeLuca, music enthusiast, musician, and LA-based photographer, has photographed bands from the likes of Sunflower Bean and Wolf Alice. Besides directing music videos, curating colorful portraits of upcoming artists like Blame Candy, and finding time to practice instruments nearly every day, DeLuca also catches intimate moments as a tour photographer. DeLuca took a break from snapping photos to answer a few questions for Half & Half. What other hobbies do you have besides photography? I still like to consider myself as a musician first and foremost. I’ve been playing drums my entire life and I play guitar almost every day. I write music any chance I can get. Everything I do in life is music-related in some way, shape, or form. How/when was photography first introduced to you? I would always have a camera on me when I played in bands and played shows and went on tour. I never had the slightest intention of being a photographer or having a single thought that it’s something I should be doing. I just loved playing shows and being in a band so much that I felt it’d be dumb not to capture the moments and remember how good it felt to be there. They were shit at first--- but eventually the interest grew and the support from my friends grew and it just kind of took off on its own from there. What was your first camera? The first camera I bought with my own money was a Canon 7D from a friend that I still use to this day (it’s beat to hell now). The first camera I acquired was a Canon Rebel that I ‘borrowed’ from an old job that was laying around inside an old desk. Figured I’d put it to good use, make sure it still works. First film camera was my aunt’s Pentax that I borrowed in high school to take pictures of me and my friends skateboarding. What is most appealing about photography to you? Is music and shows your favorite thing to photograph? Music is my thing, for sure. I stay close to it because it’s what I want to be doing. Carrying a camera and going on tour with a band/artist is kind of my way of filling the void of not being the one making loud noise. And in a way it feels like I’m a band member for a brief moment of time — just adapting to their world and the routine and playing the shows. I have to know their set the way halfnhalf.co | 41
they know it so I can make them look how they oughta look. A cool thing I’m starting to notice is how bands will start to open up more around their 4th-5th show in the tour — they’re warmed up by that point so they start hitting the drums a little harder and start feeling more comfortable on stage and just perform better overall. It’s cool to be able to witness progress like that, a unique point of view neither the band or the fans get to see — it’s a unique point of view that I feel is just for me. How would describe the relationships with the artists you tour with? Close. I feel something extremely special with every artist I create with. Most of my tours have been with up-and-coming artists so there’s something extremely special about being a part of their story in the earlier stages. That special thing that happens to bands before they start to become massive — I get to be a part of that. I know for a fact I work with the most talented and amazing artists in the world and I’m excited for them and I’m excited for everything that’s happening with all of it. It’s so alive. I’m so alive because of them. Touring is a beautiful thing in the sense that you’re just ‘dropped’ into someone else’s life, and for a short period of time it becomes my life too. It’s this universal feeling that I’m doing something much larger than myself and capturing an important time for music. Also having an understanding of playing shows and making music, I like to geek out over gear and instruments and the riffs they’re writing. I love asking questions and learning new drum techniques or guitar riffs from the band. What kind of gear do you usually find yourself carrying with you? Too much. I’m definitely going to have massive back problems unless I loosen the load of my backpack. I like to have at least one film camera, my Canon 7D which I call my dirty/gritty camera, and a cleaner one to make quality videos. The tour I’m on right now is the first time using the Black Magic Pocket Camera for video and it’s fucking insane. The colors you get out of it make me wanna puke. So good. Especially while taking photos on tour, how do you carry over your own distinct style? Oof, I’m not even sure what my style is. The way I create is an input/output-based way of thinking. Input = seeing something or talking to someone that inspires me and just absorbing it; Output = applying it to my own art. Just like how bands take inspiration from other bands they grew up listening to when writing songs. I’ll try and figure out who the band I’m working pulls their inspiration from and tap into that and make it my own way. For example, say halfnhalf.co | 42
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a band has a clear Nirvana influence, I’ll switch to black and white and turn my flash on and tap into those gritty Charles Peterson photos of the 90s. Say a band has a Fleetwood Mac vibe, I’ll soften it up -- you know what I mean? I just try to make the band look how they oughta look. Always still trying to figure it out. What are some other works or photographers that you admire? I love all the photographers that clearly defined a period of time for music. Mick Rock was ‘The 70s’, there’s no doubt about it. He branded the 70s. Charles Peterson branded Seattle in the 90s. Bob Gruen had a very ‘real’ approach to his photos, just capturing the moments as if you were there. Jean-Marie Perier has some of the most beautiful stunning and unique photos of the Beatles. Lynn Goldsmith is just the fucking best at it isn’t she — every artist you can think of. Neal Preston and his larger-than-life shots of Zeppelin and Queen. Danny Clinch. There’s just so many. They all did the damn thing. The biggest inspiration I get though is from my friends. All my friends that also create and that I’m able to spend hours talking about all of it with. It’s important to have those conversations ---helps you find your place in the universe and gain perspective from all of it. So 5 Seconds of Summer is a band that is outside of the typical realm of music that you shoot. How did that come about? How has tour been and how has it been different than others? So I walked into this tour with no expectations. I didn’t know what it was going to be like. I knew they’ve had a very successful career so far, so I obviously had to think “okay why did they choose me? They chose me for a reason.” And I just focused on the fact that they are entering a brand new chapter — they’re developing as musicians and maturing as songwriters. So I’m essentially working with a “new band”. That’s what I’ve done my entire career. I’ve worked with newer bands on the rise during an exciting time in their career. So it doesn’t really feel different. I believe in them and I’m still doing my thing. They’re very involved with the visuals and I love that. I love creating together rather than guessing “hmm I wonder if they’ll like this.” There’s room to experiment and push artistic boundaries. I don’t ever feel like I’ve been ‘hired for a job’ — instead I feel like it’s “hey we need another member of our band, you’ll be playing the camera let’s go.” I will say that watching them play every night is a treat. There is a mind blowing amount of talent on and off the stage. Catchiest songs ever. Those boys can fucking sing, they can perform, they shred, and Ashton RIPSSSS on the drums wtf he’s so damn good. They are a proper band no doubt. Yeah I’m having a lot of fun with this tour. What advice would you have someone starting off with photography? There are no rules. That thing you daydream about while working at the pizzeria? That’s exactly what you should be doing with your life -- go get it.
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Mt. Joy photos & words by sam keeler halfnhalf.co | 47
What started as a two high-school kids hanging out and playing guitar for fun has now evolved into a full-fledged, indie rock band with a folk edge. Philadelphia natives Matt Quinn and Sam Cooper enlisted the help of Michael Byrnes, Caleb Nelson, and Jackie Miclau after garnering attention after releasing a few songs online, which now boast millions of plays on Spotify. With a handful of singles and a full LP under their belt, the band has toured with other well-known indie acts like Whitney and The Shins, all while holding their foothold in the LA scene where the band now calls home. As a band, this is your first time in Portland, right? Yeah! You guys had a radio session earlier? Yes, we did KINK. Oh, awesome. Yesterday we kind of just drove. We’ve been driving the last two days, really. We haven’t really done anything cool. Where was your last show? San Francisco. You guys played SXSW this year? Mhmm. How was that? It was crazy. It was fun though. Was this your first year? No, we played a couple of acoustic things last year. We only played about three or four shows total. Then this year we played like ten shows. It was crazy, but good. Nothing ever is exactly perfect but you fight through it and it’s fun. We just went show to show and played a few everyday. halfnhalf.co | 48
I know two of you started the band and the rest of you joined shortly after. How did that process work? Where did you find each other? Matt and I went to high school together, outside of Philadelphia. We used to play songs together randomly. We kept in touch and we were both in LA, by chance. We started playing again, recording some songs, with Michael our bassist, who we found on craigslist. We put one of the songs on Spotify and it did really well. We quit our jobs and started playing live. Coming from Philly to LA, how was the change? Did that inspire any new music?
think LA was a great place to record and had all the resources to make a good record. Where did the album art come from? Steve Gerard. I went to college with him in New York and he had a journal he would always do these crazy drawings in. We were looking for album art for the first single we put out on Spotify and we just thought of Steve. He had this buffalo drawing I had always liked that he had drawn like ten years before. We used that and kept him as our aesthetic since then. He’s done every art piece that we’ve released.
There are people that make the kind of music that we make in LA for sure, but I think some of the grittier folk rock stuff isn’t as prevalent. Maybe some of that came from growing up in Philadelphia. LA has so many resources to record and produce and obviously we found amazing musicians. LA contributed to the band but I feel like Philly contributed to the writing and the raw sound. You guys just put out your first album in March. How was the process of putting that together and what did the timeframe look like? We recorded it in Pasadena at this producer John Gilbert’s house. We recorded it in a span of about a year. It was great. We would record songs, go play them live, come up with the ideas, write songs...It was a new thing for us. We originally had four songs and then all of a sudden we started playing live shows and there were more songs. So the LA scene was a big part of getting the album together? We had recorded songs that we had written and recorded together and then we put those out really before we played shows. It was received well. After those first four songs came out we did tour a decent amount for a band that had four songs out when we were working on the record. Because we were touring and mostly opening for others bands that sort of elongated the process of recording the record. Once it was recorded, I halfnhalf.co | 49
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Tour Diary: Glacier Veins This spring, Portland based four-piece, Glacier Veins hit the road for tour. From empty motel parking lots to packed venues, Kristina Dawn was there to capture it all. photos by kristina dawn
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Pitchfork 7/20-7/22, IL Lollapalooza 8/2-8/5, IL Upstream Festival 6/1-6/3, WA Volume Fest 6/1-6/2, WA Do Division 6/1-6/3, IL Wicker Park Fest 7/27-7/29, IL Westword Music Showcase 6/23, CO Summer Fest, June + July, WI Bottle Rock Napa Valley 5/25-5/27, CA Sasquatch 5/25-5/27, WA Governors Ball 6/1-6/3, NY Electric Forest 6/21-6/24, MI Bonnaroo 6/7-6/10, TN Firefly 6/14-6/17, DE Soundset 5/27, MN Northside Festival, 6/6-6/10, NY halfnhalf.co | 54
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