Issue #21 | Spring 2015 ft. The Wombats

Into THe Crowd Magazine | issue #21

the team

founder & head of design winnie surya managing editor & communications tiffany lam promotions & marketing boris boitsov kaivan adjedani senior editors savoula stylianou erin holdbeck editorial team: al downham, brandon newfield, ken nayyar, eman elsaied, daniel pryce, daniel hadfield, karmin yu contributors: chloe hoy, kaleb hart, dan hogan, dan bosco, hayley hasessian, zev citron, toni rose castillo cover photo by matilda finn INTO THE CROWD MAGAZINE is a Toronto and US central online music magazine dedicated to showcasing the world of music, media, and pop culture. We strive to promote and share the beauty of music and help music artists, big or small, reach out to greater audiences, old and new, and all around the world stay connected. www.intothecrowdmagazine.com www.twitter.com/intothecrowdmag www.facebook.com/intothecrowdmagazine www.instagram.com/intothecrowdmag www.issuu.com/intothecrowd www.youtube.com/user/intothecrowdtv

2

contact: info@intothecrowdmagazine.com

what’s inside highasakite 4 the wombats 6 the maine 12 snbrn 16 nicole moudaber 18 holloh 20 seoul 22 coin 26 bright light social hour 30

26

22

30

18

16

3

Into THe Crowd Magazine | issue #21

highasakite Interview by Tiffany Lam

Highasakite is a five-piece indie-pop group from Norway who’s music has been captivating a lot of ears over the last year, especially following their ethereal 2014 album Silent Treatment. The Scandinavian band recently played a glowing show with Of Monsters and Men in Toronto’s iconic Massey Hall during Canadian Music Week where they stole hearts with their impressive lovely-yet-fierce, eccentric-yet-flawless sound. Chatting with Øystein, we got to know a little bit more about the band’s past, present and future exciting moments.

4

Interview: highasakite

How did you all meet and come together as a band? Ingrid and Trond met at the jazz conservatory in Trondheim. I, Øystein, joined on keys on the first album. After playing as a trio for some time, Marte and Kristoffer joined on keyboards and guitar/flugabone.

You’ve extensively toured Norway before, and now are currently supporting Of Monsters and Men on a world tour. How is the crowd response different when performing in North America/East Coast as opposed to Scandinavia/Europe where you guys are more well known? The crowd here are more curious than in Europe, probably because many of them have never heard about us before, and don’t know what to expect. People are very kind, giving us a really good response, so it’s great fun playing here. We also supported London Grammar on their last big US tour, so we are familiar with the US-audience.

I heard one of your songs is going to be used as a TV series theme song – that’s pretty exciting! How does it feel? Do you think it will it find itself on a future album? It’s very cool that its being used. It’s a great TV series so it’s super exciting for us. I’m not sure if the song is going to be used on a future album, we start recording the next album in June. We’ll have to wait and see...

Where are you most excited to tour this year? We just came back from a 3-week Australian tour that was so much fun. Things are going very well for us there, so it’s always a huge pleasure going. Personally I have also been looking forward to this current tour as well!

Where would you love to go on tour someday?

New or again. South America!

Which do you guys prefer: Festivals or concerts?

Concerts!

What has been Highasakite’s proudest moment so far? Maybe winning 2 Norwegian Grammys?

Being listed on Triple J’s “Hottest 100” was also a really proud moment for us.

Coolest show you’ve ever played or most crazy place you guys have been together? We played in a small basement in Paris a few years back... the club didn’t have PA-system, drums or keyboard stands.

We had to sit on the floor, and Trond stood with a small drum pad in front of a tiny speaker. That was very, very weird. The tour in Hong Kong, Taipei and Tokyo in front of a very enthusiastic crowd was pretty special, and so was Australia!

5

Into THe Crowd Magazine | issue #21

6

COVER ARTIST: THE WOMBATS

THE

WOMBATS 7

Into THe Crowd Magazine | issue #21 Interview and photos by Winnie Surya English indie-rock trio The Wombats have recently released their third studio album, Glitterbug. We caught up with with bassist Tord Overland Knudsen and drummer Dan Haggis on the first day of their North American Tour in Toronto. In this interview, they tell us about Glitterbug, mixing new sounds, and awkward moments last time they were here.

This is the first day of your North American tour.

What can we expect on this tour?

Dan: We’re going to play a selection from our first album, second album, and obviously, mostly our new album, Glitterbug, that just came out last week. We’re super excited to play new songs, lots of running around and sweating. It’s going to be a great time.

Tord: Yeah, we just spent a month in mainland Europe and UK. We’ve kind of been doing it for quite some time and started to get comfortable with new songs and stuff.

Dan: When we first started, it was really crap and really sloppy [laughs].

You guys just wrapped the Europe and UK tour a couple days ago, and here we go with another tour kicking off. Feeling tired?

Dan: I mean, bags under the eyes, some powerful make up, and a little tired... but to be honest, we did thirteen days in a row without a day off until we flew here yesterday.

Tord: Our day off was on our flight.

Dan: Our last show in the UK was in Newcastle and we were already tired all day, and all hungover because we had a party in Liverpool at our homecoming show the night before. But we walked on stage and it was one of the best show in the end.

You feed up the crowd and as soon as you go on stage, the adrenaline level and the endorphins kick in, and it doesn’t really matter if we’re tired.

The storyline for “Greek Tragedy” music video is about a crazy fan who turned out to be a psychopath. Have you guys ever had a crazy fan experience?

Dan: Nah [laughs]. Nothing that bad. It wasn’t inspired from a real life event, fortunately. The director, Finn, had the idea and we thought it was great. It had really good climax to it.

8

Tord: It’s just nice to have a video that had a little of a storyline. The story itself had nothing to do with the lyrics. That’s the Greek tragedy line.

Dan: Everyone dies at the end of the Greek tragedy.

Tord: It was really fun and really cool to see all of the special effects with all the killing and stuff too. I had this neck piece that this guy made... he’s done some horror films.

It’s really cool. It’s not like a typical music video, you know with the romantic storyline or just live music shots. It’s really something unexpected.

Dan: Yeah, it’s unusual. It’s almost like a big horror movie and we all like The Walking Dead, True Blood, Dexter... shows like that with all the blood, you know.

Tord: We just love blood [laughs].

Dan: And to see ourselves die.

Tord: But to answer your initial question, we’ve never had any crazy fan experiences.

Dan: We’ve been very lucky.

Have you guys gotten to explore the city of Toronto yet?

Tord: We arrived here late-ish so we dropped our stuff and went out for food.

Dan: We forgot one of our bags on the flight which is really annoying, so we had to wait for a while at the airport and explain what happened, show them what’s not on the list. So we didn’t get to get off until nine o’clock, but we went to some dim sum place.

Really nice.

Tord: We’ve been to Toronto two times before. First time in 2006.

Dan: North by North East (NXNE).

Tord: We played The Cameron House, in the back.

It looked like a small theatre.

Dan: The strongest memory I’ve had of Toronto was arriving here, going to The Cameron House because we knew we were playing there and it was near where we were staying. There were five or six people playing folky-twenties-country music and we just stood there and were like, this is so cool.

Tord: The bartender shouted at you (Dan) for not tipping him.

Dan: I didn’t understand because in England, we don’t tip when we buy a drink so it was different culture.

Tord: That was the last time we didn’t tip.

9

Into THe Crowd Magazine | issue #21

10

COVER ARTIST: THE WOMBATS What are the five must-bring items on tour beside your gear?

Tord: Laptop, toothbrush, and…

Dan: Clean underwear – it’s pretty important. And a hairdryer.

Tord: Or knife [laughs].

Dan: When we’re on tour with a bus, a soccer ball.

We don’t move around too much when we’re on the bus but sometimes it’s just nice when you’re parked in a parking lot... you can get off and have a run around and be like a dog and chase after a ball.

Your third studio album, Glitterbug, has just been released. Can you share with us a bit about the writing and recording process?

Dan: It’s been a gradual process over the last two years. Whenever we started writing for the new album, we always had a tendency to go back to this drum, bass, and guitar – a little bit to a 90’s sound and very quickly we started getting bored with that, so we added lots of synth and got ready to produce it in our studio.

Tord: The intention was to make it simple, but we worked a lot in studio and we liked experimenting with sounds... Sometimes the guitar, bass, and drum doesn’t really sound that exciting.

Dan: So we kept writing and writing and until we were all sitting down and had this masterplan about the sound or what direction we were trying to go in. We kept going and experimenting with different things until we felt like we found a sound that we could base the album around. “Your Body is a Weapon” is a little synth-y like and I feel like that was kind of the template for us, so we kept it going and Matt spent a lot of time in Los Angeles and us back in our studio in Liverpool, making backing tracks. Matt would send us a little riff and we would build a song around it and send things back and forth to each other like that.

Tord: We finished all the songs and ideas all in Liverpool together.

Dan: That was slightly not a new direction because we’ve done it in the past a bit, but it felt like a slightly new template. We mixed things a little bit just to see if it would go a new way, we’ve been writing together for ten years and it’s nice to spice things up and whip some change in the studio and stuff.

Tord: This is the first album that sounds pretty much exactly like what we were intending it to sound.

Is there a specific meaning behind the album’s name?

Tord: Glitterbug – it’s like pretty on the outside and ugly on the inside, like a city – it’s sparkly and glamorous, but when you get to know a place, you get to know all of the dark sides, and that also transfers into relationships or life in general, or life within the city. Most of our songs are based either in LA or London... in the city, you know?

How’d you guys decide you wanted to do a B-side to the album release?

Dan: HMV asked us if we’ve got some B-side that they could use as a way to make you go to HMV to buy a CD, since people buy music online these days.

Tord: We wrote about twenty five songs and it’s only thirteen on the album, so more for the B-side, making it kind of special in a way.

Dan: For us, it’s great because we’ve got these extra songs we want people to hear. We could just put them out but our label might not let us do it, so we just went to the studio and finished off some of the demos we already recorded, got friends to play some trumpet, some cello, etc. It was really fun. We love recording and producing and we’re always happy when people get to hear them.

Tord: I always like that as well with bands I’m into, the fact they release rarities and b-sides. It’s cool.

Dan: It shows a different side of the band, often. It’s a little bit more raw.

Your music has this 80’s-90’s electronic pop sound to it. What are some of your musical influences?

Tord: It’s all mix with the influence. We could listen to something acoustically or folky and then the next day, listen to hardcore and electronic. We love pop music as well.

Dan: We’re all born in the 80’s and we were probably still young, but Michael Jackson and the 80’s sounding things like Genesis, Phil Collins, and Bryan Adams... The kind of stuff you grow around.

Those sounds remind you maybe of a time or a place when you were younger. It gives us comforting and nostalgic feels, and what’s really fun is to twist it around to make it like a modern day, sounding like a pop song with the most interesting lyrics written.

We just like so many different styles of music. We all like The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and we just mix whatever we like, but often we don’t really think about it.

11

Into THe Crowd Magazine | issue #21

12

the maine

Interview by Tiffany Lam Photos by Daniel Hadfield

In celebration of their latest record release, Arizonabased American rockers The Maine embark on 8123’s American Candy Spring Tour – a 36-show leg across North America, with a lone Canadian show in Toronto at The Danforth Music Hall. We sat down with Pat Kirch and Jared Monaco while they were in town and discussed American Candy, past records, band influences and experiences as The Maine thus far.

Hey guys, glad to have you back in Toronto! Your fifth record, American Candy, came out not too long ago and there’s been some broad buzz about the title interpretation. What’s your take on it, what does “American Candy” mean to you?

Jared: I think it’s kind of speaking about the oversaturation and spoon-feeding of unnecessary information into your life.

Pat: All the things like the music and the food, if you’re not paying attention, you just eat and listen to and enjoy without really understanding why.

Jared: Some people take it too literally, and we didn’t mean it to be a political thing either. It was more so that we realized there were a lot of things (even subconsciously) that you do in your day to day life, and that maybe if you weren’t being influenced by all these things life would be different.

I heard that the album was recorded in Joshua Tree, how was the experience recording out there?

Pat: It all actually kind of came about partly because of logistics - the producer we were recording the album with just had a baby and he was going to be out in California.

The idea was that we wanted to get out somewhere secluded so he could go home on weekends, but he actually ended up not living in California so that didn’t actually work out. But yeah, it was the first place we looked and we found this house that was just so cool-

Interview: The Maine

looking that we wanted to go there.

Jared: That’s exactly what it was, we were like, ‘this place looks awesome, let’s just go and see what it’s like’, and it turned out to be really cool. We were isolated from everything, cooking our own meals, doing everything off the grid, and it made it so we could focus on the songs and the album and making it the best album we could zero city distractions Having already toured many, many countries through the years, where are you most excited to return?

Jared: Brazil, for me. You can’t just pick one, but we filmed the DVD in Sao Paulo and it was just a really cool experience. We’ve done stuff in the Philippines too, actually we’ve done stuff all over, so it’s hard to just pick one. There’s a lot of places that will be exciting to go back.

Pat: The thing is, pretty much everywhere we go we have good shows, because it’s basically people that are coming to shows to watch us play in particular, so everywhere is kind of just as awesome and is not going to be bad. To me it really doesn’t make a difference where you’re at.

Is there anywhere you’d love to go back to just on vacation time with the band?

Jared: I’d love to take a huge vacation through Europe, specifically the Mediterranean area. We’ve played in Italy and been in that area before, but my uncle’s been a bunch of times and I need to catch up to him [laughs].

The Maine’s sound has changed quite a bit through years and every album has a different sound to it. Besides growing up, what compelled this constant change of sound?

Pat: I think what we listen to had a big influence, I think the circumstances in which the albums were recorded in - for instance, we recorded Forever Halloween live kind of like how bands recorded it in the 60s-70s. I think maybe a lot of the change probably comes

13

Into THe Crowd Magazine | issue #21 from the fact we don’t ever put ourselves in the same situation again, so we’re bound to make something different. And we’re always listening to new music and trying to grow as a band, so I guess we just write what comes out and it happens to not be the same as the last.

Jared: I think it’s also what we know. When we made the first record, I couldn’t even dial in my own guitar amp to make it sound good, I just didn’t know how to do that yet and was more focused on just how to play guitar. We’ve gotten really into the whole studio side of things over the last years and Pat bought a lot of really crazy studio gear and has just become really awesome at recording and engineering. We’re trying to learn and soak up everything we know as we go, and I think that’s affected the way our sound changed too. I feel like we know our way around the studio a lot better now.

What do you think a next album would be like if you guys were all married?

Jared: I think it would be a fiery divorce record [laughs], cause I don’t know how long that would last.

It would be an angst-y punk album.

How do you think being from and growing up in Arizona may have influenced your music today?

Jared: The scene was really weird when me and Pat were starting out playing music. It was kind of like a hardcore scene before and when we first started. We kind of dabbled in that for a while but it was weird navigating that. I wasn’t there for the inception of this band, I was on the outside when they started The Maine, and it was kind of refreshing and cool to see something new and that wasn’t just screamo sprout up. It was like a breath of fresh air hearing the guys and I knew it was going to be something.

Pat: I think we were coming up when the internet for bands was becoming really big, so I think that helped break down the location barriers, so maybe [being from Arizona] wouldn’t have mattered. We didn’t even go on tour for so long, so the internet was really the reason why were were able to do what we could. I think no matter where we were from, we would’ve had that.

Who are some artists that have inspired you through the years and helped you create the identity of The Maine?

14

Pat: Tom Petty. After our first record, he was kind of a big artist for us and really helped us get to a different place.

Jared: Seeing that documentary they put out was life changing, like ‘wow you can say no to things!’

- that was really liberating for a band. I think that might have been the single most important direction. It saved our band and made us stronger, gave us the ability to feel like we could make our own decisions and feel like we could do what we want without fear.

Do any of you have an all-time favourite The Maine song? You know, one that’s maybe stuck with you over the years or has the most memories attached to it?

Jared: I’m super biased to whatever record’s out at any given time. Right now, the American Candy stuff has been so fun to play live. I’d say maybe the title track or “English Girls” are my favourites.

Pat: I guess I’m going to pick an older one just because we’ve had more time with it or something. I feel like “Don’t Stop Now” is a song that could be on any of our records.

Name one personal thing on your bucket list that you’d love to accomplish in the next year or so.

Pat: I want to purchase 6-8 dogs.

Jared: That’s a lot. But it’s a good amount though; you’ll never be lonely again.

Pat: Bring half of them on tour. Extra entertainment in the bus.

Jared: I’d like to meet Bill Murray, that’d be cool.

Maybe get a photo or go bowling with him.

Last question, if you were to pose in a bathtub photoshoot filled with one type of candy, which would it be? Doesn’t necessarily have to be your favourite kind.

Pat: I’m going to go with Gushers, cause at first it can be soft and then it’ll go more liquidy.

Jared: I would go with just hot melted chocolate.

The nice Ghirardelli kind. A whole bathtub filled with Ghirardelli chocolate and it would just be a mess.

Interview: The Maine

15

Into THe Crowd Magazine | issue #21

snbrn

Interview by Tiffany Lam Summer has finally started to kick in, and if you’re still not feeling it with this bipolar Canadian weather, SNBRN can help you out. This LA-based deep house producer / DJ has been picking up quite a bit of acclaim over the last couple years, notably for his unique remixes and his recent original release, ‘Raindrops’.

On a late April Saturday night in Toronto, classical melodies from the hotel lobby pianist fading in the background and a dimly-lit lounge setting a mood, we sat down for a chat with SNBRN just before his Toronto debut show at the Hoxton. In this interview, Kevin Chapman shares the backstory of his SNBRN identity, exciting collaborations and future releases, and how he kind of loves Bieber. Check it out below!

How did everything start for you – the DJing and producing? I started producing first when I was 16-17 years old, and then slowly got more into the DJ side in my later teens. But then I went to school and really developed production; the DJ stuff just came along with it.

So I guess you’ve known for a pretty long time this was the career path you wanted to take. Yeah it’s been a long run, I’ve had a lot of different aliases and finally found a project that I absolutely love and stick by. It’s been fantastic.

What are the origins of your current project name SNBRN? Well, I do tend to get sunburnt a lot. There’s a little help from an ex-girlfriend and then also from LED who helped with the name and removing the vowels. I was

16

Interview: snbrn starting two aliases at the same time and this was just a side project thing that I picked up and it just took a mind of its own and developed into this whole SoCal brand.

How would you describe your current sound, in less than 5 words? Funk, Deep, Indie, Nu Disco.

It’s very house-driven, but at the same time there’s elements of deep and the mainstream pop. It’s just a giant mutt of genres I guess.

Your music is often referred to as “sunset house”.

Do you vibe with this? Oh, 100%. My manager accidentally came up with it and it just kind of fit. We were like, “how do we describe this, what do we call it?” It’s not deep house, it’s not Nu Disco... It’s 4pm5pm summer sunset on the beach with all your friends kind of music. It’s that song watching the sun set.

Do you find living and growing up in LA influences or played a significant role in creating your sound? Absolutely. I’m a huge west coast hip-hop fan and that has influenced my sound tremendously, I’ve done so many remixes of hip-hop artists. Also just being in LA and close to the music scene, I’ve gotten to see the forefront of more of the underground stuff over the past few years.

How is it like working directly with vocalists? It’s absolutely incredible. There’s a couple different ways it happens. Sometimes I’ll have a whole piece that I’ll need vocals on and sit down with them, or we’ll go in the studio together and start something from scratch. Every project, every time you work with a vocalist, it’s a whole different experience you could say. It’s really special making something from scratch with somebody versus just sending a song out and they send it back. It’s just a good mentality. Music was meant to be made together and when you have all the people in the room that are working on the song, it’s just a different vibe and mentality and energy level that you don’t get alone.

I noticed a lot of your remixes were of various different styles. Do you think you’ll someday collaborate with a hip-hop or rap artist? Pardon my ignorance if you have already... I did, I did – it’s in the works right now. I can’t tell you who it is but it’s going to be really big. Keep an eye out towards the end of the summer!

When making remixes, what’s a signature SNBRN move or sound you often find yourself incorporating?

Piano always. That’s how I always start everything. I tend to not like to listen to the original song, whatever it is, I tend to not use any of the elements and just write something from scratch, so I always start with piano. Piano seems to be in almost every single one of my songs.

What has been your most memorable show? I’m going to have to say last weekend in Brooklyn – it was a warehouse party called Bang On! with 2500 and I had never seen anything like it. I thought I was going in to play a deep and vibey warehouse thing and it was this huge, sold-out thing. Every single person was just so involved, you could see it in their eyes and reactions. I’ve never had anything like it. The energy was incredible. We brought out Prince Fox and did a little b2b with him and Dr. Fresch, and then we brought out our friend Sapphire, as well as a live saxophone player, and just made it a whole special ordeal.

Proudest moment so far? Finishing “Raindrops” was the first full song that I wrote with somebody and had that whole process with. I had always done remixes before that. That was one of my first original pieces of work that involved the singer and the writer and all of that, so it was a huge step for me.

Have there been any surprising or weird rumours about yourself? People think I’m Australian. Another one I got on BBC1, I don’t know if it was a joke or not, but they were saying I was some dude living off an island in Spain where no one knew he was and just came out of nowhere, like in a British accent, ‘some guy living off the coast of Spain making music and sending it to Pete Tong’. There’s been some funny moments like that.

Do you prefer festivals or small shows? That’s a tough one. I’ve only played two festivals right now – I really, really like it. It’s a totally different mentality and a totally different set. The club environment is a little more personal, but I’m gonna have to go with festivals. I can do some cool stuff and spend a lot of time making it special and different.

Favourite track to play in a set at the moment?

Corona - Rhythm of The Night (Blonde Version). The energy, it’s one of my favourite songs and I just end up playing it every set. It just does so well.

Any recent guilty pleasures? In Miami, I fell in love with that song by Jack Ü, “Where Are Ü Now”, with Justin Bieber. That’s my secret [laughs]. I like Justin Bieber.

17

Into THe Crowd Magazine | issue #21

nicole moudaber Interview by Kaivan Adjedani Nicole Moudaber is a Nigerian-born Lebanese music producer and DJ – also known as “The Queen Of Techno”. Dubbed by Carl Cox as “the most underrated DJ” in 2009, she has since become an established thriving force in the techno scene. Throughout these last few years, Nicole Moudaber has made herself a household name in the techno scene through her monster releases, unmatched mixes, and now her very own record label “Mood Records”. In this interview, Nicole Moudaber reveals future collaborations, influences, and future sound going forward. She returns to Toronto on June 12th, 2015 to play Bestival.

Hi Nicole! I saw you’ve been posting a lot of your travel adventures with Skin on social media. Is there a collaboration in the works for you two? Me and Skin? Of course!We already finished 5 songs. It’s an album that’s going to be out mid-July around that time. I have a video done as well for one of the songs.

We filmed it in Berlin, I guess these are the photos you saw on Instagram. It was during that shoot. I’m really excited about this project,the album is going to be called Breed. I’ve been inviting her to play a couple shows with me in the States as well. Working with such an established artist is pretty amazing for me,especially. She’s an amazingsongwriter, she’s worked with all the A-listers in the world. It’s an exciting venture that I did with her. I’m sure you’ve probably heard some of the songs I’ve played on my radio show.

Yeah, I’ve heard the demo Satire on one of your In The Mood episodes. Is there a release date for that? Ah yes, that’s going to be coming out on Mood, my label. Probably after the album... so we’re looking at around September/October, I will release her EP. She’s decided to go under the name of Juvenile for her club productions. Obviously as a singer and artist she’s still called Skin, or “Skunk Anansie.”

18

You’ve got Guti, Marino Canal, and Alex Tepper all billed on your upcoming Her Dub Material EP. Can you tell us a bit about the sound and what to expect? This release is a bit different than what I’m known for production wise. It’s very deep it’s very dubby. And it’s the kind of style that I’m really into, and that I play a lot on certain hours. Either on warm-up sets when I do long sets, or after-hours kind of vibe.

Obviously I’m a huge fan of Guti, Marino Canal, and Alex. I invited them to do their own interpretations of that single. And I think the package is very strong as it is. Marino Canal is a very very talented up and coming Spanish producer that I hooked up with recently. I invited him to play my Mood day party at Miami Music Week at TheRaleigh Hotel pool party, and as well as when we took over Output the following week in New York. He’s definitely one to watch out for because he’s super talented. Guti there’s no need to introduce him; he’s an amazing tech house producer, and I really love his style as well. Alex Tepper is an English based producer as well, and he’s more on the tougher tech house vibe. So the package caters for different kind of floors and different sounds. It’s exciting for me especially, because it’s a bit different than my normal “big room sounding” kind of tracks, if I may say.

Are there any artists you’re hoping to collaborate with that you haven’t yet? I’ve been in touch with Green Velvet – we have plans to do a record together, as well as Chris Liebing – I’m doing a collaboration with him. Also, Carl Cox wants to do a an EP on my label, on his own, so I’m waiting for him to deliver that.

There are exciting names coming through, as well as new kids on the block like Matt Sassari. I just signed an EP with him. Another guy to look out for, his name is Alvaro AM. It’s quite varied. As long as the records hit me and as long as I can play it, then it’s definitely a Mood sound.

Do you play different sets for festivals as opposed to clubs at all, factoring in all the additions that come with a festival stage? We loved your performance last summer here in Toronto at Digital Dreams. I personally don’t. Obviously it’s an added value to the music that’s being played out, but at the end of the day it’s not my call, the theatrical entrance. But it works, so I’m glad about that.

Interview: nicole moudaber

Having been here a couple times, do you find the Toronto scene varies from your more frequent European shows? To be honest, I get asked a lot this question. There’s not much difference to be honest. The reaction of the crowd is exactly the same all over the world, because the music reaches people the same way I presume. It’s a lot of emotion, it’s a lot of groove, it’s a lot of songs and soul and techno all mixed together. So any person who enjoys or is a music lover is going to understand it, and for me the reaction is still the same.

What has been one of your favourite career memories so far? I would say the first time I did a b2b with Carl Cox at Space Ibiza. That was a moment for me, obviously because he’s such a legend, and he came as a surprise. I was about to get on the decks, on his night, on the Tuesday for Revolution Continues in Ibiza. We were back in the office, I was ten minutes from getting on stage and he just said,“well just play for half an hour, I’m going to hop on and we’re going to do a b2b set together.” I said,“Oh My God!”,so that was quite a moment for me. Obviously we did it again afterwards, but that was definitely a highlight.

And last question, we touched base on Her Dub Material, but what else can we expect from Mood Records and Nicole Moudaber this upcoming year? Her Dub Material is coming out in May, I’ve got my Breed album, which is the most important project for me right now, as well as videos – I’ve never done a video and the label hasn’t done a video, so we’re quite excited about this project. As well, I have a massive comeback on Drumcode with 4 tracks to be released later on this year, and an EP coming out on Adam Bayer’s True Soul label. That one is a little bit different. It’s more minimal tech, if I might say. So musically I’m quite varied and inspired this year, so we’ll see what’s going to come out later.

19

Into THe Crowd Magazine | issue #21

Interview by Tiffany Lam Meet local DJ / producer duo, HolloH. Chances are, if you listen to tech house and frequent Embrace shows at the Hoxton or CODA, you may have heard some buzz about them. Based in and out of Toronto, they have supported and opened for a number of highprofile artists over the last few years, most recently Duke Dumont. Having already released a collection of singles via Rare Beef Records, the duo thrives as stand outs in the up-and-coming generation of electronic music producers. In this interview, we chat with Parker Nowlan and Nick Spencer about the start of HolloH, their last EP, and their success thus far.

Do you remember how HolloH started?

NS: Holloh is about 2 years old, but we started making music way before that. I remember one time we were at this huge house party and everyone was listening to gangster rap... There were hundreds of people there and this girl happened to have this really, really huge sound system in her house. We just walked up to the iPod dock and plugged in “Warp 1.9 ft. Steve Aoki” by The Bloody Beetroots – it had just came out that day

20

HolloH

pretty much. I’ll never forget that moment and how the place just went nuts. Then we were like, ‘yo we should be DJs’ [laughs].

What kind of electronic music is HolloH, in terms of subgenres?

PN: We play around with a lot of styles. House, garage and techno are probably our three core styles.

We try to bridge them together, find this merging or contrasting area.

NS: Like that in-between techno and techno-house. I love that. We try to do that in our production, and then in our sets along with more classic stuff.

What has been your most memorable show?

PN: [Opening for] Bassment Jaxx was really cool, to be able to play along with absolute legends like that.

Interview: holloh NS: Yeah, definitely I would say Bassment Jaxx.

Proudest moment so far?

PN: I was really proud with the last EP, it was the self-titled EP released via Rare Beef. There was very good response, albeit limited response but any article we found was very positive. It was the first time we sort of sat back and it felt good because before that, we had just sort of been writing songs in a vacuum and piecing them together – we’d show them five or six songs and they’d choose two or three. This one we came back to them a few months later with a more cohesive mini-album thing of six songs (four fulllength songs and two bookends) and got to put that out. I was really proud of it.

NS: We put a lot of work into that EP in particular. I think for us too, when we first started, we didn’t expect anything... so when the first little thing happened, it was a really proud exciting moment and you’re so happy with that. And then, you get a release. Honestly, anything like that is a proud moment for us, we didn’t really expect any of it.

With so many DJs and producers on the rise in Toronto and around the world, what’s something that sets you guys apart from the rest and makes you unique?

PN: For me, I couldn’t live without... cheap champagne, my cast iron skillet and... Brie cheese, cause I put Brie in everything.

What’s the first show you remember going to?

PN: The first show I went to was April Wine, Mountain and Deep Purple when I was 14 years old. It rocked pretty hard.

Do you guys prefer festivals or smaller shows?

PN: I like the more intimate, smaller shows. I really like shows in unique, non-traditional venues, both for playing and going. The whole slapped together feel, you’re very much in the room with the people and I think that’s a really important connection.

NS: Yeah, same answer.

Camping festivals or day festivals?

NS: Campinggggg!

PN: There is something unique about camping festivals. The feeling on the last day when you’re absolutely haggard...

NS: And you can’t put your tent together, and your rights are lefts.

NS: We’ve been through a few different shifts of what people are into and a few of the different scenes of music that have happened in Toronto, so we’ve seen the city grow a little bit which helps us understand it.

PN: Everything here is kind of “deep house”, so we try not to corner ourselves into one label like that. We try to play around with a bunch of different influences, cause we like a bunch of different stuff too and try to represent them all.

What are 3 things you could never live without?

NS: Well, definitely our laptops, cause without them we’d be screwed!

PN: [laughs] Yeah, that’s true, definitely that.

NS: My sanity... and PlayStation... really sad stuff like that. I got this new app that has every cartoon that’s ever been made and I can stream it. It changed my life.

21

Into THe Crowd Magazine | issue #21

seoul

Interview and photos by Tiffany Lam Seoul is an ambient-pop aggregate from Montreal – ‘blue, breathless, gentle, and absolute’. The mysterious group signed with Last Gang Records just a couple months ago and have been steadily preparing for the release of their debut album, I Become A Shade, on June 9th, 2015.

Earlier in April, we caught up with band members Julian Flavin, Dexter Garcia, and Nigel Ward in Toronto just before their first show of the tour and discussed band origins, sounds, and the upcoming record.

22

Interview: seoul

Can you tell us a bit about how you guys met and formed Seoul?

Nigel: Julian and I have known each other since we were kids, growing up in Kingston. Dex and I went to college together in Boston, and then we kind of reconvened in Montreal.

Dexter: Summer of 2010, I think. We all started playing a little together, and then went back to school for a little bit and then came back in 2013. That’s when we started putting everything back together again.

How would you describe your sound?

Julian: Sometimes we use a really broad term that’s just ‘ambient pop’, which we say probably because a lot of the music involves atmospheric, instrumental kind of music that’s meant to be maybe not as fore-grounded as stuff like pop music. The record involves a lot of that, but also a lot of more explicitly pop-oriented moments, but in a very broad, general sense. It’s dreamy and has moments of gentle groove to it. It’s kind of an eclectic record, in a sense.

Dexter: It’s all unified, but every song is pretty different.

So if you were to compare yourselves to other musicians in order to someone an idea of your music, who would you say?

Julian: Cocteau Twins meets Prince... which is meant to mean that it achieves both an atmospheric, ethereal sound while simultaneously bouncing and grooving and merging the two in a gentle way.

I noticed some songs were released over a year ago, and then some just released via Last Gang on the record. Were they all done a long while ago, or had some been recently done for the album?

Nigel: The album’s been done for a good while now, it’s been a couple years. There was point in time where we stopped writing new songs and decided the album was finished. It just took a while before we were in a position where we felt like we could release it in a successful way to do the album justice, cause we did feel like it was a strong album and what not. We were either not in the same place, hadn’t found a label, hadn’t toured that much.

23

Into THe Crowd Magazine | issue #21 There were just a bunch of steps we found necessary to prepare the release and it took a pretty long time.

Where do you guys pull influences from for your music? It doesn’t necessarily have to be musical influences. For instance, I’m sure Montreal and the atmosphere probably plays a role in your music.

Julian: For sure. For me, I find I usually get inspired by people who are honest and do things really true to themselves, like I get really inspired by interviews with people I admire.

I don’t know. Bands-wise, we definitely listen to a lot of ambient music, which I think enforms the sound a lot. People like Stars of the Lid, Dirty Beaches, etc. We’re constantly listening to everything. We love Fleetwood Mac, Todd Rundgren, The Carpenters...

I saw you guys recently played SXSW in Austin, have you guys been a part of any other festivals?

Julian: Yeah, most of them are on a smaller scale. We’ve played Pop Montreal, The Great Escape in Brighton, we did a little festival in Amsterdam. Festivals are cool, I feel like there’s the festivals where you’re on Facebook and scrolling through and it’s like, ‘Omg Drake is headlining this, this and this’, which is sort of a different level of festival and they’re great. But I think what we’ve been playing are more so grassroots – not necessarily small, but just a different style of festival where it’s usually smaller shows.

It’s still great, you still end up getting a lot out of those. But we haven’t opened for Drake yet, or Nick Jonas [laughs].

I have to ask, what’s the history behind your band name, Seoul? Is there a relevant tie between the band and the city in Korea?

Julian: A lot of people ask us what our link to South Korea is.

We haven’t traveled to South Korea, so it’s not really a name that’s meant to reflect a particular experience there. We did sort of intend it to be connected... It was just this thing that came about when we were trying to think about our band and everything that it evokes. We were making lists of names and that one felt like, as an English word, it felt cool in the sense that a lot of our music locates itself in a kind of urban environment.

That’s where we’re telling a lot of our stories from, so we thought it was nice that the word also evoked a city when you read it (Seoul), but then also when you hear it, it’s also soul as in your spirit or something which we like a lot too because the music sounds intentionally earnest and about the internal life.

It’s also got a bit of loneliness to it because the word can also be heard as sole, the only one. All these ways that it could be heard and interpreted immediately felt really evocative for us.

24

What do you think the next step will be for you guys?

Nigel: We’re about to start a big tour, then go on tour again in the Fall promoting the record.

Following the official record release of I Become A Shade in June, what do you guys think the next step will be for you guys?

Nigel: We’re about to start a big tour, then go on tour again in the Fall promoting the record. It’s only being released in North America right now, so we’re going to be setting up things to release it in the UK and Europe – hopefully we’ll get to go out there and beyond. Once that’s all done, we’ll make another one.

What’s the most exciting thing that’s happened for you guys so far, as a band?

Julian: We had a funny beginning because we released “Stay With Us” as our first single and people really liked it.

It kind of generated a lot of opportunities overwhelmingly fast. The first show we ever played was in Métropolis, one of the biggest venues in Montreal. That was memorable.

It was kind of overwhelming but also a very positive experience. We played in Paris last year [too] which was special; it was a very magical show. We were there for less than 24 hours so it felt kind of dreamy and weird.

Dexter: We’re doing a lot of things for the first time so everything is feeling new, generally things are pretty exciting all around – this is our first record signing, our first record release, our first music video, our first time touring.

Nigel: We got to hear our songs on vinyl for the first time a little while ago. Going overseas was also a highlight, I’d say. Finding a label to release our stuff is pretty exciting.

List 3 things each of you could never live without.

Nigel: Lint rollers... a lint brush and a hair comb.

Dexter: I couldn’t live without my synthesizer, I’m so attached to it. And green tea and Snickers.

Julian: We’ll I’ve been thinking about it...

Dexter: Now he’s going to come up with a really sick answer.

Julian: This is what I think. Everything is going to die and turn to dust, so you have to be prepared to live without anything... But I’d say, my family, my lover, and my Bluetooth headset with accessories.

25

Into THe Crowd Magazine | issue #21

COIN

26

Interview by Tiffany Lam Photos by David O’Donahue Live photos by Daniel Hadfield

Interview: coin COIN is Joe Memmel, Zach Dyke, Ryan Winnen, Chase Lawrence. This fresh indiepop-rock-infused quartet of twenty-somethings just released an epic EP back in February and will be touring all summer long. They’ll be releasing their self-titled debut album in June, and to say we’re excited about this one would be an understatement.

We had a chance to check out COIN open for Passion Pit in Toronto at the Danforth Music Hall earlier last month, where they proved themselves to be natural born performers.

In this interview, Drummer Ryan spills to us about their new album, growing up in Nashville, wild experiences with the band and other unknown insider secrets you’ll most definitely want to know about COIN. I hear it’s everyone’s first time Canada. How do you like it so far? We love Canada! Toronto specifically is very clean, and the people have been so kind and hospitable to us thus far.

Bit of a typical question, but it’s always interesting to know, how did you guys meet? At what point was COIN formed? Two of us met in school at Belmont University – our singer Chase, and our guitarist Joe – met in a music theory class. They sat next to each other and decided to hang out and try writing songs together. When they started, these were mostly sort of folk(y) songs. I had been dating a girl that sat on the other side of them. She overheard them talking about this new project they were starting and sort of volunteered me to play drums for them. Joe called me, and I ended up stuffing my drums into Chase’s little dorm room at the University. It (the music) was no longer folky, and something about our first musical encounter felt liberating and fresh. I think it was what we all needed. The name was initially “Casual Friday” but we soon after changed it to “COIN” and added our bassist Zach (another Belmont student), who had been primarily doing photo/video and shot a music video for us. Put more simply, we have no idea how we landed here, but we’re so grateful we did!

Do you find living and growing up in Nashville has any influence on COIN’s sound and if so, how? Living in Nashville, definitely. All of our friends play music and they’re all really, really good. It’s an encouraging community. The styles are so different and seeing so much live music has definitely influenced us and helped us find our “thing” -- something that hopefully sets us apart. None of us actually grew up in Nashville, so moving there was extremely humbling

for us as 18 year old musicians with essentially no idea what we wanted to do specifically within the industry. Luckily, we found each other and seemingly had a path already drawn up for us.

You recently worked with a top producer, Jay Joyce, for your debut album coming out soon.

How was it like working, writing, recording, etc. with him? It was so wonderful working with Jay. He really pushed us in ways we didn’t even know we needed to be pushed. He made us play our songs so many times through before actually recording them.

Then other times, he’d trick us into tracking something when we just thought we were rehearsing in order to get the natural energy and performance. He was an innovative and unique coach-like figure that we believe every band our age needs to have over their shoulder. Jay helped us unlock our sound, and we didn’t really know it until listening to the record front to back. We’re so excited to share it this Summer.

And you released an EP not too long ago too, will these songs be on that debut album as well? Yes! Now I know the tour just started, but how is like opening for well-known indie-electronica band Passion Pit? It has been a dream playing with Passion Pit. The shows have been massive and so much fun, and the fans dedicated, attentive, and open minded. Michael, his band, the crew and the techs have all been so kind and welcoming to us as well.

That has made the experience that much better.

What has been your most memorable COIN show so far? We played a set once at 2:00am in Brooklyn at a little place called Baby’s All Right for their 1 year “birthday week”. We had just finished playing a show at Bowery Ballroom that night and rushed over to Baby’s after watching our friends and tourmates, KOPECKY finish up playing at Bowery. So, if you’re following me, this was our second show of the night.... When we got to Baby’s All Right, they told us our set was cut in half to 15 minutes, and that we were no longer playing at midnight... We waited around for a while (about an hour and a half) and watched a pretty insane, sort of mellow/druggy set from an artist playing the earlier show... People were half naked in the crowd just sort of bobbing their heads. We felt VERY lost, but then realized there were a ton of really cool and notable New York bands and producers hanging out. It was a circus of sorts. Oh, also, Mac Demarco was there for the early show and jumped out of the birthday cake. Finally, the first show ended and we threw our equipment on stage... I played a house drum set that

27

Into THe Crowd Magazine | issue #21 was literally beat to pieces and was falling apart. We also didn’t get a soundcheck. Our friend Emmett was doing front of house for us and gave us a reluctant “thumbs up(?)” right before we decided to start. We played a 15 minute power set and it was one of the most amazing shows we’d ever played. It was punk rock, and though it probably sounded spastic and crazy, we felt like teenagers again.

That totally sounds like a wild night to remember.

We love KOPECKY and Mac Demarco. Have there been any surprising/strange rumours about you guys yet? Not that we know of! We’re still new to this (touring, specifically), so I’d imagine some strange things will happen at some point.

They’ll come, they always do [laughs]. What would you say has been the band’s proudest moment so far? I think at this point in our career, today, we’d all agree that getting added to Sirius XM Alt Nation was a pretty surreal moment for us. They are such a fantastic tastemaker for the style of music we play, and have been incredibly supportive since adding our single “Run” It may sound cliché to answer by saying “being on the radio,” but it really has been a milestone of ours to reach because we’re such avid listeners.

Who are some artists that have inspired you guys through the years and helped you create the identity of COIN? The Killers, The Strokes, Talking Heads, The Cure, Modern English, Peter Bjorn and John, etc. have all been huge influences of ours. As well as tons of New Wave bands from the 80’s and 90’s, and contemporary synth rock stuff. Our producer Jay showed us so much of that music. We also love pop music. It’s all across the board, really.

Name one thing (each or altogether) on your bucket list that you want to accomplish in the next year or so. It would be really cool to play The Ryman in Nashville at some point. Whether that’s in the next year or not, we can’t say. But we adore Nashville, and that’s sort of a big deal there.

What are you guys most looking forward to in the next couple months? Besides all the touring you’ll be doing opening for various artists, of course.

Getting to release our first record, I think. And then going back to cities we’ve played and getting to play songs from the record live for those people. They have heard a handful of these songs live, but not recorded.

We’ve spent so many hours crafting the songs, testing them out at our shows, changing and rearranging them, demoing them, recording them. It will feel really

28

cool to know that someone can just press play in June and get to hear our whole process (many hours, days, months) come alive in less than 45 minutes.

COIN’s debut self-titled album featuring “Run” is set to release June 9th, 2015.

Interview: coin

29

Into THe Crowd Magazine | issue #21

30

the bright light social hour

Interview and photos by Eman El Saied Austin, Texas based Psychedelic rock band, The Bright Light Social Hour has been critically acclaimed after the release of their debut self-titled album, winning 6 awards at SXSW 2011 Austin Music Awards, Band of the Year, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year. After taking five years to drop their latest album, Space is Still a Space, The Bright Light Social Hour discuss the new record, socio-political issues, the younger generation and the artistic development of their new record. After what seems like the least vague conversations, Jack O’Brien on bass guitar and vocals, Curtis Roush on guitar and vocals, Edward Braillif on synthesizers and guitar, and Joseph Mirasole on drums gave us a peek in to their heads after conceptualizing this brand new record.

How did things start off for you guys?

Jack: Curtis sent out an campus wide email at this university we were at, South Western University. He was looking to make music that was really intriguing to me. We worked a few people, I was studying abroad in Madrid for a while…it was essentially a really slow start. But we found Joe on craigslist!

Curtis: He was 17 years old, in his High School drum line.

Jack: We knew Edward from working together in a

Interview: the bright light social hour music shop with Joe. It was really slow, so they spent some time learning how to DJ together, and they would DJ a lot too.

So your first album sounds nothing like your second album. A lot of blogs have been recognizing that as well. When did you decide to go for a change?

Curtis: Jack and I were in grad school, and we saw that album (self-titled, 2010) as a way to break free from the anxieties and pressures from being in school.

Having a released that record as a band, we’d play a live show as a band once a month. It was kind of like “the big party of the month”... There was this sense of joyous, party rock vibe. Most of the things we wrote really reflected that in our writing and performance.

When we started taking it on tour, we performed that record for a few years and we realized that we aren’t those people every night or anymore. It constantly started to feel less authentic.

Fair enough, so what were you thinking with Space is Still a Space?

Curtis: I guess with the first album there were these “pockets of escape” that we were going for, however this time around we were trying to express the things that we mutually love. We are all really wide students of music. We love rock music, as much as we love hip-hop music, R&B. Just a lot of diverse set of influences. We have fun with teasing things out, putting things together that you normally won’t find together, together. Wanting to say something more meaningful about ourselves and to the folks listening in about things that we think about. Like, politics, the future, and people struggling in their lives. There was set of themes that we were instantly trying to talk about and not just “partying on the weekend”.

Jack: A lot of those perspectives, too have always been there, but were always in the background. We had this attitude: “things are hard, but let’s forget about it and enjoy the moment.” Whereas now, if you embrace the struggle around us it makes living and being a little more meaningful. It makes the joyous moments more joyous as a result, something deeply joyous.

I want to tie that with your blog, “Future South”.

I was reading it and it was almost as if you were trying to tackle the youths issues almost? Can you explain that to me a little better? You were staying with your fans at their houses?

31

Into THe Crowd Magazine | issue #21 Jack: Yeah, a lot of the time actually. Real last resort though, if we couldn’t find a Super8,we were staying with a lot people that we just met and it was cool because we were talking to a lot of people after the show. Usually when a show ends, you don’t really get to have conversations. You might have conversations about our music, or things in the area to do. You never really get a chance to learn about their lives and their circumstances until you go to their home and see their situations. You start asking questions like “hey what to do you do, how did you get here”. Over and over again, we kept finding people with this similar situation who were really hospitable and generous but were also really struggling... Working month to month, trying to make ends meet, working in jobs they don’t like, having passions that they weren’t able to dedicate their time and energy too as a result of being financially strained month to month...

time energy for the things you love? People are really happy to talk about that. I think it makes people feel less alone. They can talk about those things more readily. It’s just not nice to bring that up at a party or superficial situation.

It’s much harder now, in a way, then it was 10-20 years ago!

Jack: It’s almost a catch-22, the amount of artists that we meet that are like, “this is my project ,this is my passion, but I don’t have the luxury of being myself and doing it.” Just recently we’ve been able to quit our day jobs. That’s just been a huge privilege to be at that point in our lives. To be broke, but still do what we need to do to be happy. We live well, we do what we love every single night, we get to travel the country and play our music.

Jack: Yeah, exactly! It’s hard, because sometimes your family can be the worst people to give you guidance because they are so afraid of seeing you fail. They would rather you play it safe. That’s why our families spend so much of their energy making sure their kids go to school, like “hey, if you wanna do your crazy thing, at least have something to fall back on”.

But sometimes your honestly in a better place if you don’t have something to fall back on. You know you have no other choice to keep going until you succeed.

Curtis: We used to talk to professors about that kind of thing, and they’d be like, “take some time, do the band thing, do some crazy shit. I wish I took the time before I got my PHD and became boring as fuck” “no, don’t do that!”

Future South kind of resembles Humans of New York?

Jack: No, that’s exactly it. We just ripped that off [laughs]. We meet so many people with interesting backgrounds, and we are just like, why don’t we take photos of these people and share a little quote that gives peek into their story, and people can just go see for themselves. We just launched it yesterday, and are doing it on tour. It’s the most exciting thing about traveling, meeting and getting to know people. It’s a deep level to get to with people, but I think because we are a band, we have the ability to cut through that, and be like hey, what’s so difficult in your life, what’s keeping you from you from spending more

32

Curtis: Whereas Humans of New York is more anthropological; a creature in their habitat, in vice versa Future South is a little more sociological, people in society. It’s a bit more based on circumstances and social relations and situational content.

Jack: And there’s more of a united context, these people all came out to see our shows. You need to be around people that have same amount of drive, and want to critique your music. Teach you, and help you grow.

Curtis: Its hard to grow that way, working in retail.

How old are all of you?

Jack: We’re between 26-31. Curt and I basically started The Bright Light Social hour 10 years ago in college. Our band then and our band now are two completely separate things. We have this ability to start illuminating aspects of our sound that need to be illuminated. The musical experience is not just a projection, it’s a shared thing; we may play the exact same thing every single night but it’s always a different room, combination of the people, the vibe and all the invisible little things.

And who you’re playing with I’d imagine. You can’t play with just anyone, it has to be artists that flourish your sound.

Curtis: That’s thing I’ve found most interesting about rock music... It’s conservative almost. Rock bands only want to do “rock”. We probably like rock music the least of the genres we listen to all the time. A lot of our energy comes from a lot of outside stuff – that cross pollination of keeping things fresh.

I definitely think there’s no need to stay in a box.

Interview: the bright light social hour

33

Into THe Crowd Magazine | issue #21

34

Interview: the bright light social hour

Genre hopping has so much more value. Can we talk about The Flaming Lips holding your record?

Jack: Our tour manager Katie actually made that happen!

What I can’t stand is when you don’t have Spotify they are just force feeding you advertisements if you don’t have premium.

Katie: I walked in while they were building their setlist, and he was like “Whoa Whoa Whoa, you can’t just walk in here”, but I told them I had a present and they loved it.

Joe: We live in a capitalist world, and those ads help pay smaller artists. Its not like Spotify we pay Spotify to do an ad. We put out a record, and Spotify was like “Hey, wanna make an ad?” and we were like, “Cool!

Lets put weird druggy effects on our voices so its more fun to listen to this stupid ad!”

That’s wonderful! On a side note, what’s your take on Spotify?

Edward: So we spent like 6 hours making two 15 second ads, meticulously recording them.

Edward: I’m fine with Spotify.

Can you explain the visuals of the project?

Spacey, upside down canyons??? Who came up with those ideas.

Jack: Very good!

Curtis: We all have Spotify and listen to it all the time. I wish they paid artists more, and eventually they will. It’s still an emerging technology and I’m sure they’ll figure it out as they continue to develop. But it’s not like we’re going to go back and buy CD’s and big box retail.

Jack: Ultimately, it allows us to connect with more people more easily.You don’t even have to be a consumer to be in touch with your music.

Joe: The bands get something more out of it, instead of piracy. For me, I was downloading albums since I was 10 or 11 years old. We were the first generation to do that, you know? Pirating albums [laughs]. But now bands get way more return. You can gain followers, see when a band is on tour, and it cuts on piracy. I don’t even download albums.

Curtis: Even just to have the recorded product of western civilization at your fingertips is unbelievable.

Edward: Spotify in a way prevents people from buying these artists directly, because when it comes down to it, if you are a consumer listening to this music, and you’re making use of Spotify technology but you’re somewhat against it… your really taking the blame out on Spotify because you’re guilty for not supporting the artists directly. Because you CAN spend the 10 bucks for the record directly and still stream it directly off of Spotify if you wanted. And a record, what is that?

Two cups of coffee from Starbucks?

Joe: What does a banana cost? 10 dollars? 20 dollars? [laughs]

Joe: I found this artist from Argentina “Mariano Peccenelli” on Tumblr. I showed it to the band, really trying to find the visual aesthetic for this record would be. We spend a lot of time discussing the sound and stuff. As far as the visuals go, I have the most fun doing that kind of thing. I would find pictures online and find out what we all liked and disliked collectively. While doing aesthetic research we found Mariano and they loved him immediately.

We contacted him and he didn’t even speak English! Jack had to translate all of our messages.

Which was really fun, because Jack would just be sitting there using a dictionary trying to find all of our weird words to explain. We had this idea where we wanted a visual for every single song to go along with the vinyl, and our album cover. It took a year or so, just going back and forth while we were recording the album. After year of sending things back and forth, sending him our songs, we finally had 10 images and our album cover.

Curtis: Even aesthetically, it really spoke to us I think, because it straddles two worlds. There’s something about his art that is simultaneously retro and gritty and 60s feeling as well as surreal that really struck the balance we were going for with our record.

Be on the lookout for more with The Bright Light Social Hour, as well as their blog Future South.

35