NKD Mag - Issue #50 (August 2015) by NKD Mag

AUGUST 2015 4 8 10 14 16 20 26 28 30 40 42 46

mickey guyton alex angelo lauren alaina olivia somerlyn atlas genius megan & liz chase bryant elizabeth mclaughlin cody simpson taylor edwards walk off the earth kiki sukezane

founder

catherine powell

photographer

catherine powell

editors

jordan melendrez catherine powell

designer

catherine powell

writers

shelby chargin tara devincenzo dustin heveron brittany landau stacy magallon jordan melendrez catherine powell nicola pring sam rosenthal riley stenehjem tanya traner

/nkdmg

@nakedmag

MICKEY GUYTON Words by BRITTANY LANDAU Photos by CATHERINE POWELL Hair & Make-Up by TARYNN FELDMAN

At 9-years-old, Mickey Guyton watched from the nosebleed seats as a 10-year-old LeAnn Rimes sang the National Anthem for a Texas Rangers baseball game. “I remember her outfit. She was wearing this denim outfit with the American flag on the back. She actually tweeted me about it, saying she remembered that outfit,” she gushes. That was when Mickey knew that country music was what she wanted to pursue. Before that, you could find Mickey hanging around the local church in Waco, Texas. Between vacation Bible school, Saturday choir rehearsals, Monday night prayer group and Wednesday night bible study, the young Texan hardly ever left the church. With her background of gospel and country, she felt as if Nashville was meant for her. However, she felt something holding her back. “Getting to Nashville at a time where you don’t see that many African Americans in country music, you just don’t really think it’s possible, so I focused on school and I graduated high school,” she says. After high school, Mickey took her parents’ Ford Expedition and drove west to Los Angeles to take a shot at the music industry. For seven years, she studied in L.A., while also recording demos and background singing. “L.A. can chew

you up and spit you out sometimes, so right when I was about to move back home and continue my education there, I met a man named Gary Borman,” she says. Gary is known as the manager for stars such as Faith Hill, Keith Urban and Lady Antebellum. He introduced her to another writer and his business partner, Steve Moir. “I had written these songs that weren’t necessarily the best songs in the world, but I played it for them,” she recalls. “And in the nicest way possible, they said they sucked, but they thought that they could work with me.” In 2011, Mickey was on her way to CMA Music Festival, where she sang an original song, “Safe,” and a cover of Patty Loveless’ “Blame It On Your Heart” for Mike Dunman, now the chair of the Executive Music Group. She had a record deal before she hit the stage and made the move from L.A. to Nashville later that year. Her concerns about being an African American in the heart of Tennessee were swept away instantly. “Everybody in Nashville has embraced me and loved me, and we just all want to see each other succeed no matter what,” she explains. “It’s just cool that we’re all coming together across all genres, that music is just, you can just be who you are.” One fellow country singer that’s

definitely embraced her is her tourmate, Brad Paisley, who is notorious for his pranks. “He’s starting to see that I have a pretty good sense of humor, so I know it’s coming,” she laughs. However, she finds inspiration in how Brad has treated her so far. “When he was starting out, he was an opening act and didn’t necessarily get treated so well, so he said that if he was ever in a position to be headlining a tour, he would treat his opening acts really well, and he sticks to that,” Mickey explains. “Seeing how he is, I want to be that way too because at the end of the day, that’s what’s most important: making people feel good.” It seems as if Mickey already has that quality. In fact, she spends most of her free time replying to fans on her social media accounts. “It makes me feel special that someone actually logged on to their account and actually pushed @MickeyGuyton and messaged me,” she says. “I think that’s just an honor that someone would do that.” Her fans feel just as honored to be talking to her. “I was signing some CDs at the Opry before I sang, and this one girl came up to me. I guess I had been messaging with her and she was like, ‘You need to follow me because we’re friends.’ She was so exNKDMAG.COM

cited to finally meet me,” she remembers. “It was just really cool because I’m with myself every day, and I’m a mess, so when I meet someone that appreciates me, it just touches my heart.” To give back to her fans, Mickey released her self-titled EP so they could get a taste of her favorite songs. “The song ‘Why Baby Why,’ is kind of a prequel to ‘Better Than You Left Me.’ Every line in that song was something I went through in a breakup, and I felt like if I related to it, other people will, too. This song called ‘Somebody Else Will’ is totally something I would tell my friends if somebody wasn’t treating them right. ‘Pretty Little Mustang’ is my jam, and I wrote that about being comfortable in your own skin,” she explains. With her EP out, Mickey is now focusing on creating killer tracks for her first full-length album. “We just want to make sure that we have the best songs possible, and I’m just continually pushing myself to write that,” she explains. “That’s why we’re trying to take our time with it.” So what does the future hold for a rising star like Mickey Guyton? Possibly her own headlining tour. “I would love to have other artists get to where they want in their lives, and this sounds totally cliche, but my mom says you always have to have a purpose within a purpose, like yes, you want to do music and share it, but eventually, this stops and a whole new wave of people come in. I want to be a part of that,” she says. She wants to have a successful career and help other do the same. She has already sang at the Grand Ole Opry and had a song in the top 30 on country radio. With her sweet nature and incredible songwriting, there’s no doubt that Mickey Guyton’s name will be everywhere soon. “It has been a long process,” Mickey says. “It can be hard for women in country music these days, but we’re working hard, and we’re here.” NKD 6

NKDMAG.COM

ALEX ANGELO Alex Angelo doesn’t want to just do. He wants to do more. As a teenage singer/DJ/dancer/radio host from Ohio, some would say that Alex is doing plenty already. But he doesn’t see it that way. And with more talent, experience and drive than some acts twice his age, there’s no reason to think that Alex can’t add as much more to his repertoire as his heart desires. Alex got his start as a per8

former the same way most people do: dancing professionally for an NBA basketball team at age 7. … Wait, what? The Cleveland Cavaliers dance team was hosting a workshop, “and it was also a secret tryout,” Alex recalls. “So I went in, and I’m doing my thing, and I’m literally rolling around on the floor because I’m not good at all.”

Words by DUSTIN HEVERON Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

“I had no clue what I was doing,” he continues, “it was hilarious.” Perhaps not the typical story of how an artist breaks into the entertainment industry, but the Cavaliers’ dance scouts saw something in Alex — probably the same thing thousands of fans see now when they go out to one of his shows. “I’m in there, I’m doing my thing, and the next week we get a call saying, ‘Hey

we want your son to be on the team.’ And [my] dad’s like, ‘Did you get the right kid? This is ridiculous … were you there at the audition?’ But you know, it was cool,” Alex shares. “And ever since then, I just started dancing with them.” Alex acknowledges that it was his break with the Cavaliers that was the catalyst for the next steps of his success. “After that, I was dancing in the middle of the floor for 20,000 Cavs fans, and that’s where the performance side of things started,” he says. “Cleveland — and that’s my hometown — it literally started there in that stadium. If they didn’t pick me, nothing would have happened.” Things did happen for Alex, though, and he attributes much of his musicality to his upbringing. “I was always surrounded by music when I was really young,” Alex recalls. “My parents really exposed me to a lot of different kinds of music and were taking me to concerts when I was really young, so I was always exposed to it. But I never really knew if I was going to have a part in music.” Even Alex needed a little serendipity to find his first more. His foray into the world of DJing was as simple as messing around in the Apple App Store. “I was like just messing around on my dad’s iPad, and I go into the App Store, and I find this DJ-ing app. And I end up loving it,” he explains. “Every day, going to that app and just playing music and DJ-ing.” Alex remembers his first fan was pretty close to home: his dad. “My dad was like, ‘You sound really good doing this, but you should get legit equipment and start doing this for real.’” So he did. With money given to

him for his birthday, Alex found and bought some used equipment on Craigslist. “Me and my dad were so sketched out, but we got the stuff, and it ended up being really good. So then I started messing around with that,” he reminisces. “I’m posting videos online of me DJ-ing weekly. The Cavs picked up on that and were like, ‘We want you to DJ at the games, too,’ So my first DJ-ing event was at the Cavs, too.” Suffice to say some of his first gigs were awesome: “I was like DJ-ing when the players were warming up, like when LeBron was shooting free throws and practicing like that.” As would become a habit with the dancer and DJ, Alex wanted to do more. “I was opening up for Pitbull, and I was doing radio shows like Jingle Ball,” Alex remembers. “I was like 11, DJing up there, dancing up there, and I realized there were a lot of great artists on the bill — Austin Mahone, Flo Rida, so many others — and they were all singing. And I was like you know what, I think this is the next step, even though I’ve made two steps already, let’s make a third step, and I’m going do singing because that’s what’s going get me to be that main guy, not as much of a side-stage DJ, more of a main performer.” Alex’s career ambition was evident even when he was 11 years old. “I wanted to be known as a performer, not as a DJ label — which is a great label — I just wanted to take it farther than that.” And his live shows are known for taking it further. “[My live show] is very hype. It’s different,” Alex explains. “There’s not a lot of people doing what I do, so I like taking

people by surprise — it’s unexpected I think.” “I go out and DJ, then I go out and dance and people don’t see that coming. Then I go out and sing, and people don’t see that coming. It’s unpredictablem,” he adds. “I love the music that I play, it always takes people by surprise.” Alex likes using his unique combination of abilities to his advantage. His three main talents complement one another. For now, at least. “I think I’m in a good place right now,” he says. “It gives me more versatility. I think there’s not a lot of other artists that will be able to do a rock festival in Cincinnati or do a pop show or a tour.” Yet that is exactly what Alex has done and is doing. Jake Miller’s The Dazed and Confused Tour combines talents such as Alex and Jasmine V. But just because he is touring doesn’t mean that he isn’t thinking about what more he could be doing. “I’m really liking this new sound, it’s EDM-driven pop,” he says. “I’ve always wanted to venture into that EDM world because I think it really tests a lot of artists.” With his new work, Alex’s passion and maturity really shine. “It’s a lot more musical, too. There’s a lot more meaning in the lyrics, there’s a lot more melodies. That’s what I’m just pumped about.” For anyone still unconvinced about whether or not Alex’s brand of entertainment is for them, he shares a saying that they have around the Alex Angelo camp: “If you don’t get it, just come to one of the performances and you’ll understand.” In Alex’s world, less isn’t more; more is more. And he has plenty more to come. NKD NKDMAG.COM

LAUREN ALAINA Words by TARA DEVINCENZO Photos by CATHERINE POWELL Hair & Make-Up by TARYNN FELDMAN

Lauren Alaina has gone from Wildflower to “Barefoot and Buckwild,” but not without some major tweaking. The 20-year-old artist, who released her debut album in 2011 after being runner-up in American Idol’s 10th season, is back from vocal cord surgery and ready to hit the stage as a fresh country starlet. Just shy of the drinking age, Lauren has been intoxicated by her songwriting for longer than most. She started writing songs when she was 9 years old, but was also very athletic and competitive growing up. A year and a half younger than her only brother, she says she grew up acting like a boy until she became a cheerleader at age 12. “Then I became a girl,” she laughs. Aside finding her femininity with cheerleading, she learned how to hit like a girl in softball, volleyball and basketball. She balanced her full schedule of school and sports with singing in her spare time. From a small town of 3,500 people, Lauren got her on-stage practice by

performing in talent competitions and festivals, none of which could have truly prepared her for the career she was about to start. In 2011, she auditioned for American Idol by tackling Faith Hill’s verse in “Like We Never Loved At All.” She was interrupted by Randy Jackson telling her she was the best audition of the day, Jennifer Lopez crying, and Steven Tyler promising she’d make 30 million people cry, which all translated to a unanimous “Yes, you’re going to Hollywood.” American Idol became the launch she needed onto the country scene. “American Idol was like boot camp,” she says. “It got us ready for everything.” During the tryout and early stages of the show, what would be expected to be the slower stages were the hardest for Lauren. She found staring and singing into a camera much more difficult than gazing into a crowd. “Looking into a lens, it’s harder to feel like you’re connecting with someone,” she says. NKDMAG.COM

It wasn’t until American Idol hit the road and amassed audiences that she finally felt completely comfortable on stage. At only 15, she was talented, confident, driven and well-known, but she occasionally felt the sting of missing out on high school moments. “It was hard, all my friends were back home, cheering and going to football games. I missed all that stuff,” she admits before adding, “It was bittersweet … I get to do stuff they would kill to do, but I’m giving up all of those things.” She cured herself of homesickness not by taking long stays in Georgia, but by staying busy and working hard. Eventually, her workload became commonplace and home started to make her feel antsy. “At some point, I got used to being on the road, and I was more used to being on the bus than being in my house,” she says. She recorded her album while she was on the road with American Idol. Spread between studios in Chicago, Nashville and Los Angeles, Lauren set herself up to end The Idol Tour and launch right into her promotional tour. She released Wildflower, her debut album, in October 2011. Since then, Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, and Sugarland are a few of the names she casually mentions as being on tour with — all before she turns 21. Not missing out on any of the perks, she was able to go to her prom and walk at graduation. With so much time, hard work and (admittedly) tears, she knew there was still a long road ahead to becoming what she truly wanted. Her first record was a milestone, and an incredible point of pride, but she also admits to it coming together very hastily and when she was young and still developing her talent. Her new album brought more challenges, more work and a great deal more of her identity. “[The new album] I really got to live with and create,” she says. Her first album was a conglomeration of songs that were written by various songwriters. That is what she 12

wanted to change about the new album. “Instead of going to college, I was going to songwriting sessions.” Her new album has 12 songs on it; 11 of them are completely hers, with some help from her best friend and fellow songwriter, Emily Weisband. The exception is a song she truly loves and had to include. “There’s a difference between songwriting and artist songwriting,” she explains. “For my brand and for what I stand for and what I want to say, you have to kind of focus in and make sure it’s a consistent sound.” During the lengthy process of perfecting her next project, she had no choice but to lengthen the task by getting vocal cord surgery. “I didn’t really decide to get the surgery,” she says. “The doctor told me I didn’t have a choice.” Already almost two years since her debut release, the surgery pushed back her production another six months. She was restricted from talking for four weeks and had to be retaught how to talk and sing, but all with a very lucrative payoff. The surgery expanded her vocal range and overall health, and ultimately, provided her with more time for her music. It’s not often that an artist gets that much time to write, and for that she feels fortunate. “I was able to spend enough time on [the music] that I made it exactly what I wanted it to be,” she explains. This album differs tremendously from her first record. She never found herself getting on stage and being nervous until recently, and she realizes that it is a part of her newfound vulnerability. Her album includes some very personal subject matter, including her allusions to her father’s struggle with alcoholism and her own eating disorder. Ultimately, she chose to include these things so that she could express herself and reach out to those who need help expressing themselves. “Music speaks to people in a way nothing else does,” she says. “It’s like coming to the realization that everyone’s got problems and it’s gonna be okay.”

Her realizations and the intimacy she brings to her new album are an outstretched hand to her fans. “There’s a lot that goes into each person’s life,” Lauren says. “And hopefully there’s at least one or two songs for everybody to relate to.” For country music as a whole, she’s not sure there are many artists who have been able to relate to the whole spectrum of fans. With so much emphasis on partying and truck-riding, there has been a lack of girlishness. She cites a handful of artists who are able to provide some positivity to girls, and wants to add herself to that roster. “I really like when females talk about feeling pretty,” she says. Knowing her fans are mainly within the age range of 14-25, her new songs will open up a conversation for them to feel less pressured and more comfortable with themselves as . “I want people to be able to connect to my music.” “Girls were trying to mimic what the guys were doing, and you just can’t do that. It’s not genuine,” she says. When she found her femininity as a preteen, she also fell into the difficulties that went along with it. “From 14 to 18 I was very unhealthy and sick,” she admits. Like Taylor Swift crooning over her guitar and learning heartbreak at 15, Lauren is making sure to show that girls have presence and importance in country music. Fresh out of her teenage years, Lauren feels that she will be able to have this relatability to her fans. “I’m going through it with them rather than reflecting on it,” she says. Even after the two and a half years of working and waiting, Lauren is thankful to American Idol and the enduring fans that it provided her. The first single from her new album is expected to be released at the end of the summer, and she’s ready to hit the road and the stage with her fresh identity. “I think people will get to know me better,” she says. “So I’m excited about that.” NKD

NKDMAG.COM

OLIVIA SOMERLYN

Words by RILEY STENEHJEM Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

Olivia Somerlyn has been a performer at heart her entire life. “When I was much younger, if [my mom] would leave the room and I thought I was alone, I would put on musical numbers, running around the room and singing and everything,” the San Francisco Bay native says. Now 21, Olivia is still running around and putting on musical numbers, only it’s on arena stages in front of huge crowds, as she opens shows for the likes of the Jonas Brothers, Big Time Rush and Meghan Trainor. As a teenager, Olivia began writing songs and teaching herself piano. Seeing her first concert, a Hilary Duff show, was part of what inspired her to take to make music. “I remember thinking, ‘I can’t believe this is a real person, on stage, and this is what she does,” Olivia recalls. “I could do this too.” From there, she started flying to Los Angeles on the weekends, where she met with writers and producers and worked on developing her own sound. It was on all of her weekends in L.A. that she got to know the Jonas family — Joe, Nick, and Kevin of The Jonas Brothers. “It was crazy, it was almost like destiny or something … I didn’t really want to say that I was a musician, because I didn’t want to impose or be annoying or anything,” Olivia recalls. “One day I ran into them at a recording studio, and they were like, ‘What are you doing here?’” After finding out that she was attempting to break into the industry, Kevin Jonas Sr., father and manager of the Jonas Brothers, asked to see a rehearsal and started working with Olivia. He introduced her to different writers and what would become her management agency, CAA. Since then, her career as a musician has taken off. Olivia first toured with

Big Time Rush for the Summer Break tour in 2013, and she’s hardly stopped since. “Being around so many positive, great people, like the Big Time Rush guys and Victoria Justice, they were just so great, and it was really cool to be in that environment,” Olivia says. “Before that, I was just in the studio all the time, so it was cool to have peers that were in the industry with me. It was great to meet so many fans and gain so many new fans.” Just a week later she played a few shows with the Jonas Brothers, including one in her hometown. Since she had been a huge fan of the band herself, playing with them was unreal. “All my friends came,” she remembers. “And we had all been to the [Jonas Brothers] shows together, so it was just crazy to have me opening for them.” Despite nearly nonstop touring — Olivia has not only played with Big Time Rush and the Jonas Brothers, but also with Jessie J, Meghan Trainor and Lindsey Stirling — she has found the time to write, record and release her first single, “Parachute.” The song was produced with and co-written by Nick Jonas, an experience that was like a dream come true for Olivia. “That was a huge goal of mine, to work with him. I was a little nervous, and even though we knew each other I was like, ‘Okay, I’m probably going to be a little bit intimidated,’” Olivia shares. “I had had that concept of Parachute and I really wanted to write it, but I was nervous to share it,” she adds. “He really liked the concept right off the bat, and it just really flowed from there. We released it in a week. It was really crazy turn around.” The song was a huge success. It received heavy radio play, and the remix version made it to the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Dance Club chart. Recording the music video for was a

memorable experience for Olivia as well. It was her first video shoot, so she was learning throughout the entire process. “I did my stunts, which was really scary, but really cool. I sort of proved to myself that I could do that, be tough,” she says. Olivia also had some hands-on design experience for the music video. After plans with the intended stylist fell through, Olivia designed her outfit. “On a Sunday night I was going to the fabric store and trying to pull out all these fabrics and find a seamstress who would work with me really last minute.” With her first hit song under her belt, Olivia plans to release more music soon — when she can find the time. She doesn’t have a label, so all the decisions are up to her, and coordinating tours, recording and releasing music can be difficult. “Luckily I do have a really good team, a management team,” she remarks. Her team of advisers take off some of the pressure of decision making, as they help Olivia to decide when to release new music and make other important choices for her career. Olivia has written or co-written all of the songs that will be released. To her, the connection she has with a song is important, and she hasn’t felt a strong enough vibe with the songs that have been pitched to her. More than that, she’s a songwriter at heart. “I really love the writing process, and I love being able to sing a song on stage and share it and know that it came from me,” she explains. The future is never predictable for Olivia, or for any musician. But new music and more touring are certainly on the horizon. Though Olivia has many goals, both big and small, she sums them up pretty simply: “I’d love to reach more people with my live performances and with my recorded music, so that’s all. Whatever form that takes, that’s fine.” NKD NKDMAG.COM

a t l a s genius Words by SHELBY CHARGIN Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

It doesn’t take a lot to recognize the individuality of the duo of brothers that make up Atlas Genius. Keith and Michael Jeffery formed the band in Adelaide, South Australia in November of 2009. Their debut album, When It Was Now, was put out while they were on a rigorous touring and recording schedule of 18 months. “We flew back to Australia, and it was this whirlwind, everything was just crazy for two years. Everything was new because it was our first album.” Now they are on the brink of their second album, Inanimate Objects, and the special quality that makes them stand out among many other bands shines brighter than ever. “There was this fear of ‘what if we don’t get inspired.’” Keith says. “We did a bunch of writing in Australia, and then we realized we just wanted to do it in an area that was more inspiring because where we live is a coastal town, and it’s beautiful but a lot of our friends who are in bands and musicians all seem to be going to Los Angeles.” So they moved to L.A. and were quickly influenced by the whole nature of the city. “You 16

don’t even know how it’s affecting the music, but there’s definitely a tangible change,” Keith says. The city made them crave more creativity. “It’s kind of beachy town, but it’s kind of a city. So much music has come from there. I think that being in America, doing the album, things like rhythmically we sort of experimented more with, like hip-hop and R&B rhythms with what we were doing, and listening to different stuff and then listening to bands we grew up listening to,” Keith says. The city brought them to a place where they felt musicians had an upper hand in the community. This sense of community also made their personal move to L.A. a much easier transition. “We sort of already had a foot in the door, so from a musical part it wasn’t to daunting.” Michael comments. “Personally, being away from family and friends and stuck in L.A., it can get kind of hard.” While being lonely was a small concern, having a lot of friends who already made the transition to the city kept it from being as difficult. “We’ve got a good group of friends there.” Michael says. “We’re really

NKDMAG.COM

different people at the start of this album as opposed to the first one … Just because of circumstances we were much more naive to the music industry and to the touring life, and once we did the 18 months, there’s so much that we took on … That just changes the way you see the world.” Touring is a big change from the small town of about 10,000 people they grew up in. Everybody knew everybody, and going home can be a bit different in a town like that. “It’s small enough that everyone’s got their nose in everybody’s business. Our really close friends are very supportive and very happy, and there are other people that just talk like it never really happened, and it’s almost like we went away and worked in a mine for a couple of years and came back.” Keith chuckles. “I think some people see it’s just the same Jeffery brothers.” Michael points out. In the midst of all the touring, running around,and being in a different city every night, coming back to record wasn’t the easiest of transitions for these two Australian men. “It was shocking, absolutely shocking.” Keith says about getting off tour. “It was almost like it never happened. You get this post tour depression … and it is a very real thing because you wake up and your time is your own again. Which is also weird because there’s some comfort in having other people tell you which city you’re going to be in and you’re doing this at this time.” “It’s this super structured kind of life, and then it’s just the free falling kind of crazy, sleep in, nowhere to be, no one to check in with.” Michael adds. “Which sounds like the dream when you’re touring … You spend so much time wanting other things. The grass is always greener.” Keith concludes. Between the drop of the single 18

“Molecules” and Inanimate Objects set to be released this month, Keith and Michael haven’t had much time to process it all. “All of that recording process was just kind of raised, and now we’re like back on the bike.” Michael says. Keith is quick to jump in about how different the two aspects of being a musician are. “One chunk of it is you’re meeting hundreds of people every day and doing shows, and then the other part of it is just like any normal job, where you’re in a room in a studio, which is not dissimilar to an office really … you work on songs and create an album,” Keith says. Although it’s always nice to have a cool down, they are excited to be back, to get on the road, and to meet and play music for people again. “It’s like riding a bike.” Keith states. “It’s great to be back, it’s great to be touring,” Michael says, “That constant tired-drunk state you’re in — drunk from being over tired, just want to clarify that … But it’s good it’s exciting to be back.” “It’s good to play music to people again because this is the longest break we’ve ever had from touring.” Keith adds, and with good reason. The response to “Molecules” has been positive, to say the least. “I’m really happy with the reaction so far.” Keith says. “Molecules” is just one small aspect of the album, which quickly turned into a concept piece for them. The songs, flowing into one another easily, were hard to pick and choose after the final 16 were done. “In today’s market it’s the singles market … It’s the way that music is more often than not digested … But I want people to know that this fits in with these other songs, that it makes sense with the entire thing. I’m excited for the people to hear it as a whole,” Keith says. With the current climate of how music is discovered in mind, the idea of being able to get people to listen to a

concept album is a bit more difficult in this singles environment. “I know bands probably want it to go back to that sort of way,” Michael says. “But I’m not sure if sure if it’ll go back to that ever … think of Spotify or the way iTunes is now.” While the singles environment may not be easy to break, the album is still an entire body of art. “I guess as a band you would love it if people would listen to the entire album instead of singles. But that’s the real consideration is that you need to have songs that exist on their own, but we didn’t want to sacrifice it for a few quick 3 minute singles. They fit together. There’s a whole bunch of songs on this album that aren’t singles, but they represent what Atlas Genius is at this point,” Keith says. “We had 16 tracks that we finished on this album, and there’s 11 on the album, so there’s 5 that we left off.” “Each one we left off was somebody in the band or crew’s favorite,” Michael states. “So it wasn’t a case of ‘What are the worst five songs?’ It was which ones flowed more into each other.” “It wasn’t intentionally [a concept album] at the beginning, but looking back … a lot of the topics tended to be about motion, or change, or moving forward. And I was kind of shocked when I look back because when you’re writing a song, you don’t think about the other songs you’re working on. I was like, wow we’ve actually written a whole bunch of songs about moving and change because there was a whole bunch of change when we moved to Los Angeles you know, relationships ended … there’s a whole bunch of things that happened.” Keith remembers. With a full touring agenda, the album release and a new outlook from places all over the world, Atlas Genius are gearing up to have the next 18 months be more memorable and unique than their first touring cycle. NKD

NKDMAG.COM

MEGAN & LIZ Words & Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

I’ve always had a soft spot for the underdog and those who fight for their art. In a world where cookie-cutter musicians are constantly popping out of big machine labels, there’s something really incredible about watching artists who sidestep the system and come out on top. We’ve seen it before in recent years; Macklemore famously soared to the top of the charts with his unique, quirky rap, “Thrift Shop,” and Halsey became an Internet sensation with her first song, “Ghost,”which scored her a heavy rotation on Sirius XM stations before being fought over by every major label in the country. But it’s much more rare to find a successful 20

country artist without a massive team behind them, considering the radio game is much more prominent in that genre. Which is why when Megan & Liz ditched their Max Martinsupported, Los Angeles lifestyle for the suburbs of Nashville to pursue a career in country, I couldn’t help but be inspired by their ambition. I’ve known the girls — Megan and Liz Mace — for almost four years now. We’ve watched each other triumph, fail, break hearts and get our hearts broken. Which is why our recent photo shoot in Nashville turned into a shopping trip, and our recent interview turned into a catch up session. Which is fine, because

NKDMAG.COM

at the end of the day, there’s a lot to talk about in terms of their rebuilding year and what they’re currently working on. Last January, the now-22year-old twins had a finished pop album with producer credits as strong as Katy Perry’s when their label, Creative Sounds, unexpectedly shut down and they lost almost all the songs they had spent years working on. So they packed their bags and moved back to Nashville, where they had spent a few years before their one-year stint in California. “We knew no matter what that, after the label closed, we would be starting over, and it forced us to do a lot of things truly independent for the first time,” Megan says. The first thing they did was release the Simple Life EP last June, and longtime fans embraced it, as did the city of Nashville. But it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Megan personally dealt with a slough of anxiety issues once the dust settled, and still deals with those issues over a year later. “It was a whole new scary monster that decided to show itself after the first scary monster of the label closing happened,” she says. For the most part, though, relocating to Nashville has been a positive experience. “The longer we lived here, we realized that organically, we were starting to really learn the ropes,” Liz says, “This city is such a special place filled with kind, hard-working people who just happened to be the gatekeepers to this massively booming and successful industry that is country music.” In terms of 22

honing their craft as artists and songwriters, they absolutely feel like they’re in the right place. As it turns out, and as terrifying and inconvenient as it was, their label shutting down was a blessing in disguise. There was a point when they were writing for their never-released fulllength that things didn’t feel right anymore. “We were going to these writing sessions and just trying to write something ridiculous so it would get attention,” Liz recalls. “Somewhere along the way we had lost the honesty that we used to create with.” They were constantly trying to one-up themselves with bigger beat drops or weirder concepts. They’re proud of a lot of the songs they wrote in those sessions (my personal favorite is a power-anthem titled “Wife Me Up”), but they couldn’t picture themselves singing the songs live or in music videos. They knew it was time to go back to their roots. To the simple life, so to speak. Since the release of Simple Life, Megan & Liz have released a handful of singles to iTunes and to their SoundCloud page, but a fuller collection of songs is in the works. Most likely coming in the form of an EP, the tracks are promised to be “a hybrid of everything that they’ve seen [from us] before.” “There’s so much pop music that we love, but also so much country music that we love,” Megan says. “We’re also 22 now, and by no means mature, but more so than we have been in the past with our music.” Their most recent single, “That Ghost” is what the girls describe as “the most Megan &

Liz song they’ve written.” Now that they’ve found the sound they’ve been searching for, it’s just about taking the time to write more songs and get the ones they have written to where they want them. They found a producer who understands them, and they’re excited to keep creating. Despite their previous experience with a label, the duo is definitely interested in working with a different label in the future. “Labels are great partners in making dreams work,” Liz says. “We know that it has to be the perfect combination of good people, hard work and the right songs at the right time for that to happen, though.” But having the best professional team in the world wouldn’t matter at all if their diehard fans had abandoned ship when things started to slow down with Megan & Liz. “The fans that we have lost because we don’t do covers every week would probably come back if we had a big hit or if we started doing [covers every week] again, but we have been lucky enough to also make fans that love our original music and us as people,” Megan says. “We really are so thankful to them for sticking by us even through this quiet time,” Liz adds. Those fans that have fallen in love with Megan and Liz’s personalities over the years have been extremely rewarded over the past few months. The girls started vlogging for My Country Nation, posting weekly update videos titled “This Week In The Nation” where they discuss current events, country music and what’s going on with them personally, all while go-

ing on adventures at local spots in Tennessee. “We have always felt like there was a personality aspect to our brand from the beginning, so when the opportunity came along to do this show where we basically get to talk about fun things and do funny things on camera, we were all about it,” Liz says. After more than 18 months in Nashville, Megan & Liz have found their groove and have been accepted by the country music community. They just played their first CMA Festival in June and attended their first CMT Awards and walked the red carpet. “We always feel that the fire is burning hot again after going to shows like that because we see how people who had nothing a year ago can be accepting an award in a relatively short amount of time,” Megan says. “It just proved the magic of Nashville and good music,” Liz says. The support they’ve received in Nashville is, ironically, taking them back to L.A. this month to attend the Teen Choice Awards, where “That Ghost” has been nominated for Choice Country Song against artists such as Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan and Sam Hunt. “We feel like this nomination is us representing all of the unsigned artists who work just as hard as the signed ones, getting thrown a bone,” Liz explains.“In country music especially, the idea of an artist having no publisher even is unheard of.” It may be a small step for unsigned artists in general, but it’s a huge step for Megan & Liz. One of many they hope to take over the next year. NKD 24

NKDMAG.COM

CHASE BRYANT Words by SAM ROSENTHAL Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

How does one transition from living in a town of 800 people to performing for people double, triple or even quadruple that amount? Chase Bryant is simultaneously living that transition and his dream. This 22-year-old, small-town, country boy is blowing up the music charts and making his way into the hearts of country fans all over the world. For those who are wondering — yes, he is just as charming and handsome in person as you would believe him to be. So how exactly did this young man with huge music dreams make onto Tim McGraw’s summer tour? “I grew up in a pretty musical family, my grandfather was a musician named Jimmy Bryant … He had my mom and her two brothers, and they started a band called Ricochet,” Chase explains. “My two uncles had the band Ricochet and had a hit in 1996, ‘Daddy’s Money.’” He says he was surrounded by music, even though his mother was a teacher and his father was a farmer. Affording his love for music wasn’t always easy. “Guitars weren’t the cheapest thing to buy for us, of course, but I started playing guitar,” he recalls. “I got my first guitar when I was two years old and was instantly, for whatever reason, I was instantly hooked and knew that’s what I wanted to do.” Even at the young age of 16, it was clear that Chase was on his way to stardom. He graduated early from high school and moved to Los Angeles, where he received a small record deal. After two years, he decided to move to Nashville. In May, he celebrated his fourth year in Music City. Chase was already writing for Roy and Barbara Orbison. “I’ve been writing over there for four years now, and then about a year ago signed over at Broken Bow.” Signing with Broken Bow Records may have been the best decision he could have made for his career. “Everything since then is in the past, so we had my first top-10

single ‘Take it on Back’ and toured with Brantley Gilbert this year, my first headlining tour the Take it on Back Tour, which was pretty successful for us.” “We went in with the intention of writing something that lives and breathes who I am,” he told AXS in a Q-and-A. “We wanted to write a song that was a bit of a country throwback but still had a modern sound.” Being a true musician at heart, Chase has a passion for songwriting, and he knew he wanted a career in that in addition to performing on his own. “I first started writing songs when I was a lot younger, and then when I moved out here and saw what big of a deal it was, I knew I wanted to write songs that would define the rest of my career and songs that people would be able to live vicariously through and things that people would remember me by.” Chase knew he wanted to be the one writing all of the songs on his debut record. “Thankfully Benny Brown and Broken Bow allowed me to do that. It was kind of one of those things that happened naturally. I kind of moved to town and some people heard a little bit of a buzz, and I got my first publishing deal, and it just went from there.” Most people would assume that writing songs for others while balancing your own career could get difficult, but Chase didn’t think so. “It’s like batting practice, going into a baseball game. It’s like a whole other thing because it’s like you’re hitting for a real pitcher who’s throwing a lot faster. It’s a whole other thing.” Although he says his passions are discrete, he admits that there is one similarity. “The one thing I think it has in common is that songwriting takes all the emotion that you can put into a song because you want people to relate to it and you want it to be real,” he says. “As an artist, you take all your emotion on stage and leave it out there and don’t leave any off the stage.”

If there is one thing Chase makes sure to do during a show, it’s bringing out all his emotions and leaving them on stage. With Chase’s success growing by the day, it’s hard to put into words what the past year has been like for the young virtuoso. “It’s a whirlwind, you’re looking at your calendar going ‘I’m never home.’ The funny thing about it is the moment that you start to put your head down and go, ‘I want to go home,’ you look at it and you go, ‘But my whole life I told myself I wanted to play music, and I wanted to be gone and be on the road,’” he explains. “And those are things you kind of go, you pick your head up and be very thankful for this because not everybody gets this opportunity.” With a crazy year behind him already, Chase has learned a few important lessons along the way. “The moment that you take the pride, you take the name that you have been given, let’s say Chase Bryant for instance, the moment that I go, ‘I’m Chase Bryant’ you lose sight of all the things you’ve ever wanted.” Even though Chase considers success to be an important measure of his career, being a good person is more valuable. “I always wanted to be the guy to spend time fans, spend time with people, talk to me. I was raised well enough to give people the time of day,” he says. “I think that’s my biggest thing, I want people to realize, at the end of the day they may go, ‘Yes, he had great songs, he had great music, but more than anything, he was just a great person.’” For his next album, Chase can pretty concisely summarize what to expect: “A rollercoaster, they can expect me, they can expect who Chase Bryant is.” Chase Bryant is a young, kindhearted, country boy who you will feel like you can be best friends with, even if you’re just listening to his album. NKD NKDMAG.COM

Words & Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

ELIZABETH MCLAUGHLIN

Elizabeth McLaughlin may have gotten her start as the mean girl in the middle school hallways, but the former star of The Clique has a new role as Alicia in Amazon’s Hand of God, which is about as different as it gets. Elizabeth was born in West Virginia, but was primarily raised in a small town in Florida where “everyone knows everyone’s business.” She immediately fell in love with reading in school, which she thinks eventually translated into her love of acting; she was attracted to the escapism of it. “My mom will say I was singing before I was talking, so I was always performing,” she explains. Elizabeth was apart of various professional performance groups in Tampa, Fla., and when she was 12, she met an agent who helped her book some commercial work in the area. About a year later, her agent decided to open a branch of her agency in Los Angeles and take five clients with her. Elizabeth was one of them. From there, Elizabeth began working with a manager out in L.A. who encouraged her to make trips out to California as often as possible. Her older brother, Matt, was already living out there, so she moved in with him and began auditioning. Elizabeth almost immediately booked a guest-starring role on Ugly Betty, and about a month later, she scored the lead role in The Clique. Once filming commenced, it was clear to Elizabeth that Los Angeles was home now, and she was going to put everything into acting. Not too long after this discovery, the rest of Elizabeth’s family moved to California. “Which is probably the reason I’m a rational, sane human being,” she jokes. “They’re going to smack me across the face if I deserve it.” After officially deciding to move West, Elizabeth graduated from high school at 16 and began taking college classes shortly after — all while still acting. Now 21, she is still trying to take one or two classes a semester but isn’t concerned about declaring a major or graduating anytime soon. Right now, she’s more concerned with “learning a

little bit about everything” to become the most well-rounded individual she can be. Plus, her packed acting schedule doesn’t leave all that much time for schoolwork. Her most recent role of Lesli Stone on ABC Family’s Pretty Little Liars resulted in the most social media attention Elizabeth has ever received. She originally auditioned for the roles of Spencer Hastings and Alison DiLaurentis, but ultimately lost the roles to Troian Bellisario and Sasha Pieterse, respectively. But being part of the show even if just for a few episodes was a lot of fun for Elizabeth. “It was so exciting to be on this show that was already established as this really unique, wonderful thing,” she says. While she has no definite plans to return to the series before it wraps up, Elizabeth truly has no idea how important her character actually is in the grand scheme of things. Right now she’s just thankful for the experience — and especially the dedicated fans that came along with it. “Within that first East Coast hour [of my first episode] I went up like, 2,500 Twitter followers,” she recalls. Prior to Pretty Little Liars, Elizabeth had never worked on a project that was so rooted in social media. “I think [Pretty Little Liars] has really made the rest of the industry know how important social media really is,” she explains. She was on an ABC show a few years ago that tried to ingrain itself in a social media campaign, but because of the nature of the show, it didn’t catch on. “That is what needs to be done if you want your show to be successful now,” she opines. As an actress, Elizabeth considers social media to be a doubleedged sword. “I very much ache for the early ’60s Hollywood thing,” she explains. “But the social media aspect is a very important part of my job, and from a business perspective, it makes total sense.” But the idea of being able to connect with her fans so easily and so personally is what makes it all worth it for her. Right now, Elizabeth is gearing up

for the release of her new show Hand of God, which will be available to stream in its entirety on Amazon Prime later this month. The show is about a very strict, but morally corrupt judge who goes missing for three days and is then found naked in a public fountain. He has had a religious awakening and believes God is speaking to him through his son, who is in a coma. The pilot — which is available on Amazon Prime now — explores where the judge found his awakening, which is at a church run by Alicia (Elizabeth) and Paul (Julian Morris). “It’s a very Bonnie-and-Clyde relationship,” she says. “I play this very femme fatale kind of criminal who is really there to serve her boyfriend and partner,” she explains. “The audience, throughout the whole first season, will really wonder as to the intentions of these characters. Are they former criminals who had religious awakenings themselves and are trying to turn their lives around? Or is this all just a con to make money?” Alicia is highly sexualized and untrustworthy, but she’s very loyal to Paul and will do anything to make him happy. “She goes on an absolute journey in the first season, which was so exciting to play,” Elizabeth says. “She starts as kind of this shady, little girl and through an incredible set of circumstances that are presented to her, she has to grow up.” “It was so exciting for me to be a part of a show that I would watch, even if I had nothing to do with it,” Elizabeth says. She’s anxious for the audience to feel what the cast felt with each episode and hopes that viewers will be as big of fans of the show as she and her co-stars are. Promotion for the show will pick up in the middle of August, and until then Elizabeth, is still auditioning and reading scripts, but also taking some time to herself. “After the incredible, creative and intellectual experience working on Hand of God, I’m so looking forward to traveling,” she says. “I’m just taking the time to live my life.” NKD NKDMAG.COM

CODY SIMPSON Words by STACY MAGALLON Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

Above the bustling cross streets of 16th Street and 10th Avenue, The High Line, Manhattan’s elevated linear park, is offering New Yorkers a view of the skyline you simply can’t see from the ground. Tourists, implants and natives alike are navigating their way north and south through the Chelsea neighborhood. It’s just another warm, July afternoon, unless you take note of the supposed nobody gently picking the strings of an acoustic guitar beneath the isolated trees — and doing so incredibly well. Beyond the aerial greenery sits a musician. He keeps his head down, focusing on the chord progression, rather than the eyes and ears of those who’ve gathered around his acoustic serenade. He’s singing quietly to himself, strumming a fresh melody that turns the heads of passersby. Some stick around. Two teen girls approach the corner blockaded by trees and set their attention on the low-key guitarist. Major things to note: He has blond hair. He 32

looks tall. And there’s a faint foreign accent hidden in his tone when he sings. I watch their eyes fixate on him before they immediately whip their heads to face one another. “Is that Cody Simpson?” Yeah, because the world-famous Australian popstargone-indie act would dare to be caught nonchalantly busking on The High Line, leaving his seven million Twitter followers unaware of the free public appearance. But it is. I recall seeing Cody live once in 2012. He performed at the PNC Bank Arts Center alongside Rachel Crowe and Nickelodeon boy band Big Time Rush in Holmdel, N.J. Dressed in bright, turquoise bottoms and a baby blue blazer, I remember 15-year old Cody executing tightly rehearsed choreography one can only dream of pulling off at their senior prom. His routine was perfect — maybe a little too perfect. It was impossible to catch a glimpse of his face as he bounced back and forth across the stage, but it

was evident that he was the most jubilant during the second part of his set with an acoustic guitar in hand.“What does Australia have in their water?” I thought from my seat. After Cody stops to pose with the newly assembled crowd of girls, we stroll into a shaded tunnel carved into a building on 14th Street. Cody, now 18, perches himself above a black storage chest, his legs folded like a pretzel, sans fluorescent pants. He presents himself casually — lightwashed denims, a black T-shirt and a snapback — a polar opposite ensemble from the time I saw him last. When I ask him to tell me his life story, he smirks, but realizes I’m not joking. “Oh you’re serious,” Cody says. “Let me think.” I take note of his footwear the most: a very old, spent pair of grayish blue Vans. Because much like his canvas shoes, the pressure of being a perfectly polished pop act has worn Cody out. Born in Queensland, Australia,

Cody was given his first guitar at age seven. He spent his childhood swimming competitively before making music in the corners of his bedroom. In 2009, he began to record renditions of Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours” and Justin Timberlake’s “Senorita.” His covers were uploaded to MySpace and YouTube where he was discovered by Grammy-nominated record producer Shawn Campbell. He was flown out to America then offered a record deal with Atlantic Records that same day. Shortly after, Cody was catapulted into the sharktank of teen stardom. He was only 13. Cody’s face has been everywhere over the past five years. He released two studio albums, Paradise (2012) and Surfer’s Paradise (2013), toured with the likes of Justin Bieber and Greyson Chance, appeared on Disney Channel’s So Random!, PrankStars, MTV’s Punk’d, and competed on the 18th season of Dancing With the Stars. Recently, he even started modeling for various fashion companies. He’s

a pretty big deal. “Anyone who is offered a major record deal at 13 is going to take it,” Cody says. “But the reality of it is, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I continued to ride that wave.” For almost five full years, Cody was signed to Atlantic Records. Last summer, he announced his departing with the label. Cody’s opinions went unheard. His emails went unanswered. His creative ideas were shut down. “I used to write a song and have it critiqued by label representatives who know nothing about music, but know what sells,” Cody says, toying at a shoelace. “I remember always getting into fights with the A&R team.” Under the control and pressure, Cody lost himself in the process, but now he no longer needs the stress that comes with strings attached. “I’m the kind of guy who wants to do everything myself and create music and art that reflects who I am,” he says. So on July 10th, Cody released his first full-length album independently, appropriately

titled Free. After leaving Atlantic, Cody immediately began finding his footing as a musician. That path began with an electric guitar. Free was written and produced in Malibu, Calif., and took only a month. “I had the music written inside of me for so long and it spilled itself out on paper,” Cody says, letting out a small smile. “I just had to let the dog out of the cage.” No label executives. No A&R team. For the first time in Cody’s life, this process was easy. In taking back what was rightfully his, Cody rediscovered the authentic version himself, not to mention his sound as an indie artist. Free features 14 tracks and collaborations with G. Love (frontman of G. Love & Special Sauce) and Hawaiian singer-songwriter Donavon Frankenreiter. The album was pieced together by Californiabased producer Cisco Adler whose production work includes the likes of hip-hop artists Shwayze and Mike Posner. The seemingly effortless blend NKDMAG.COM

of acoustic rock and mellow reggae flows seamlessly throughout the record, as Cody intentionally constructed. “I’m in a different place now than where I was when I made it,” he says. Cody is bearing his true colors and shedding the corporation-controlled skin that once constricted him. Cody sees Free as a symbol of his breaking independence. It’s an exposed moment of time. “Once it’s out, it’s no longer my property,” he says of his album. The music is out there for people to apply to their own lives now. “While it might be hard to initially take Simpson’s first independent release at face value due to his past as a poppy tweenster, Free is truly overflowing with sincerity, as effortful as it sometimes appears,” says Meggie Morris in a Renowned for Sound album review. “I’m not stressed about being super successful,” Cody says. “It’s about the evolution.” Quite frankly, he’d like to lock himself in his room and do nothing but play guitar. In the past five years, between his personal and musical discoveries, he’s gained a loyal following who has watched him grow, and grown with him. All he wants is to spread his message to those same people and to anyone else who cares to listen. Cody’s dreams are simple. He’s 18, an age and time when everything is constantly changing, and he’s searching for the perfect equilibrium of teenage nonsense and evolving musicianship. “I’m super confident now because I believe in what I’m doing,” Cody says. The future includes scheduled Australia and Asia tour dates in August, followed by dates in the U.S. with Aer this fall. After that, he wants nothing more than to find himself surfing at Venice Beach and potentially starting a band with a few of his buddies. He doesn’t have any expectations. He’s happy, he’s independent and a free man, too. “I’m just riding a brand new wave,” he says, smiling. Surf on, Cody. NKD NKDMAG.COM

Taylor Edwards Words by NICOLA PRING Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

In late July 2010, 17-year-old Taylor Edwards sat in her bedroom in Bentonville, Ark., playing her guitar. One of Taylor’s favorite bands, the country duo Sugarland, had just released the upbeat song “Stuck Like Glue” as the first single off of their album The Incredible Machine, and Taylor knew she had to cover the song on her YouTube channel. She stayed up all night to learn the song and record her version. The next morning, she woke up to a surprise — more than 12,000 video views. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I have like 100 subscribers, what is happening?’” Taylor says with a laugh. Later that afternoon she was in for another surprise — Sugarland tweeted a link to Taylor’s video, and the number of views snowballed, eventually reaching mroe than 330,000. “I really credit them and that video for my YouTube following,” she says. “That’s kind of what kickstarted everything.” Now 22, the Nashville, Tenn.based country-pop singer-songwriter has recorded countless covers, written more than 200 original songs, recently won a major songwriting contest and had a cover featured on the series finale of The CW’s Hart of Dixie. And she doesn’t plan on slowing down anytime soon. Taylor was born in Sacramento, Calif., and raised in Arkansas, where she and her family relocated when she was 6 for her father’s job. Her music is a hybrid of those influence: She loves the “Colbie Caillat beach jam vibe,” though her music is decidedly country, thanks to a childhood spent listening to superstars like Shania Twain and Alan Jackson. Taylor always loved performing as a kid, but she didn’t have serious musical ambitions until she was a teenager. “It’s something I’ve always done … but when I was younger, I didn’t

know [music] was a career,” she says. That changed the summer before Taylor started high school, when her cousin got a guitar. Taylor decided she wanted to learn to play, too. “My parents just thought it was going to be something I would do for a couple of months and get bored of it and never touch it again,” she says. “I loved it so much that I kept at it.” She taught herself to play, relying on YouTube tutorials to learn chords, and soon she started her own channel where she posted videos of herself performing cover songs. “I’d see other young people post their covers on YouTube, so I kind of just thought that was what you did, that was the way you started in music,” she says. “It was kind of a first instinct thing, like, I need to learn a cover and put it on the Internet.” Taylor started writing original music as she learned to play guitar. “I’d always liked writing stories as a kid, so the songwriting kind of just came,” Taylor says. “It was totally a natural thing for me.” Most recently, Taylor took that talent to the Songwriter Showdown, a contest through the Nashville chapter of Grammy U, a community of college students pursuing careers in the recording industry. The artist who submitted the best original song would win a one-on-one session with Grammy-winning singer/ songwriter Brett James, a performance slot at the historic Bluebird Cafe in Nashville and a chance to play a song at the annual Grammy Block Party in Nashville. At first, Taylor didn’t think she’d have much of a shot. “There are so many contests you can do as an artist and songwriter,” she says. “I always see them and [think] ‘There are going to be so many people, what are the chances?’ I always set myself up to be like,

‘This is not going to work out.’” She entered anyway, with “Play Ya,” a song she wrote with a friend via FaceTime over Christmas break last year. After submitting her song, Taylor found out she had made it to the next round. Her song had been chosen out of more than 100 submissions, and she was invited to play in the final top-eight round at Soulshine Pizza Factory in Nashville, for a panel including Brett and other major industry figures. “I was just happy to be there, to be in the top eight and have done it,” Taylor says. “We played two rounds and, after I was done, I went and grabbed pizza I was like, ‘I’m not going to win, but this was cool for me.’ When they announced the winner, I literally had a piece of pizza in my mouth, and they said, ‘Taylor Edwards,’ and I was like, ‘Wait, what?’” Taylor performed her song at the Grammy Block Party in Nashville in May, alongside acts including Hunter Hayes, Meghan Trainor and Lee Ann Womack. “It was awesome experience,” she says. “It’s started to open a lot of doors, and it’s something I’m super thankful for.” Taylor has one year to go before she graduates from Belmont University in Nashville, where she studies songwriting. After school, she hopes to focus on music full-time. Until then, she tries to play shows twice a week when she’s in Nashville, and spends as much time as possible writing and recording demos in the studio. She’s also working on introducing her YouTube fans to her music, and transitioning her channel from covers to original works. “My fans know that I write songs but I don’t think they know the degree,” Taylor says. “I’m in the process of finding my sound and who I am as an artist. It’s been a long time coming that I’ve been trying to find my sound, but I think finally, we’re on to something.” NKD NKDMAG.COM

WALK

K OFF THE EARTH Words by TANYA TRANER Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

Benjamin Franklin once said “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” This is something Walk off the Earth would agree with wholeheartedly. The Canadian five-piece attribute their continued success with just that: preparation. Well, that and YouTube. The band started as a twosome, formed in Ontario by artists going by the names Gianni “Luminati” Nicassio and Ryan Marshall in 2006. The two envisioned the creation of a “super band,” and knew they needed to find members who were the perfect fit. “So we snatched up pretty much all these guys from other bands,” Gianni says. “And [we] said, ‘Let’s start an amazing band and take over the world.’ And that’s what we’re still trying to do.” Their perfect quintet included the addition of current band members Sarah Blackwood, Joel Cassady and Mike Taylor. After many years, the group launched to instant stardom with a YouTube cover of Gotye’s “Somebody that I Used to Know” in 2012, lovingly nicknamed the “Guitar Video” in reference to the entire band playing one guitar at the same time. The originality of the video earned them more than 6 million views in about three days, and they became an overnight sensation. Within four days of posting, they were already getting calls NKDMAG.COM

from major record labels. Prior to this, Gianni says they weren’t actively looking for a label. They were of the mindset that they wanted to do it all themselves, and with so many years of experience already under their belts, it had begun to pay off. Their YouTube channel already had about 30,000 subscribers before the “Guitar Video,” and they were starting to sell records. “We were living in Internet indie land,” Gianni explains. At that smaller level, they didn’t think a record label could really help them. It wasn’t until the video blew up and they started talking with labels that they realized there were a lot of things they probably couldn’t accomplish themselves — funding and radio play, for example. “That must be one of the biggest paradigm shifts between the industry today and the industry 25 years ago,” Joel says. “Back in the day, you hoped for a record deal so the label could make a career for you. But nowadays I think labels are almost just a business partner in a way, because you’re coming to the label with your fan base already there. So it’s more of ‘How can we work together’ versus ‘How can you launch us?’” After signing with Columbia Records, the band knew they needed to be able to translate their Internet fame to the live scene. Gianni attributes their success to not starting with YouTube, they were a real band playing real shows first from 2006 to 2011. YouTube for them was a side thing because it was fun, so when that blew up it was easy for them to transition and get people to enjoy their original and live music because they spent so much time honing that craft. They believe learning not only how to write music, but actually playing shows, gaining a stage presence and creating a portfolio is crucial and completely related to their 44

continued accomplishments today. “Overnight successes take years as they say, right?” Joel says. “So I think that definitely describes how the rise came to be.” “It’s like the circus you know?” Marshall says. “If you don’t experience the grime … then typically I think a lot of those people fall off. They have the one hit and then just disappear.” He says their stage show went from a self-proclaimed “OK” performance to an amazing one when Sarah finally joined the band. “The presence that she has on stage and the way she attacks a crowd, and she has that because she toured the world in her own band for years.” The YouTube video that launched the band to stardom certainly wasn’t their first rodeo either. Gianni says the band had released quite a few other cover videos and original music, so people had something to seek out once they discovered the group. “If we had just had that video, we definitely wouldn’t be sitting here or still doing it,” he says. “I also think the videos are in a nice kind of middle ground to where people can watch them and relate to it in a way so that we can create some of those elements live,” Joel adds. The simplicity and lack of theatrics and special effects in the videos can be easily translated or recreated on stage, which many artists with higher budget videos can’t do. “It’s two different worlds, being on camera and doing something with video,” Sarah explains. “It’s a different production process. There’s something to be said about stage presence and having something that you can offer people live.” It would appear their suspicions about preparation are paying off. The band just released their second album Sing it all Away in June.

“It’s kind of like our little masterpiece right now,” Sarah notes. They are really proud of this release, because like their career, they took the time to perfect it. “We wrote 11 songs for the first album, and that’s how many songs were on it,” Gianni says.” “This one we wrote 35-ish, and really picked the strongest ones. We had more time to write and were in a better place, and we had more time to produce it properly, so it’s definitely the album we’ve always wanted to make, and we feel really strongly about it.” “I think the writing process was pretty similar to what we usually do,” Sarah says. “But the produc-

ing process was a little bit more in depth. There was more time to really do with the songs that we wanted to do.” She adds that the group experimented more. “We got to get more creative with the songs which, with less of a timeline, you can broaden the spectrum of crazy stuff you put into the songs.” As for a favorite song, you’ll have to pick one yourself. “I think every song has its own little story,” Sarah says, adding that they want people to hear them and relate to all of the stories. “Certain songs to me are exciting because they have crazy instrumentation,” Gianni says, noting that many of the songs are catchy

and easy to sing along with, and they are really excited for people to hear it. “They’re all our children, so you can’t really love a [child] more. Maybe you do secretly,” he says while Sarah chuckles. “But you can’t really say it.” While they won’t be playing favorites, at least not openly, Walk off the Earth have no problem telling you what they want from this album. “It’d be nice to have like a smash number-one hit, or rule the world. That’s always the top goal I think,” Sarah laughs. “ “Sometimes artists won’t admit that,” Gianni interjects. “But they’re lying.” “I think we just want to make

better records every time,” Sarah continues. “We want people to take a listen and get something from it and enjoy the music.” Walk off the Earth has a lot going on the rest of the year. Sarah is actually pregnant, so she’s looking forward to welcoming a new life into the world this year. Musically, they’ll be touring Europe in October, and hitting up Australia and South America, as well as shooting more videos. “Our goal is to shoot a music video for every song on this album,” Gianni says. So stayed tuned, literally to their YouTube channel and figuratively because this band has a lot left to accomplish. NKD NKDMAG.COM

KIKI SUKEZANE Words by JORDAN MELENDREZ Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

You probably remember the shocking image of a cheerleader falling off the top of a ferris wheel with a dislocated shoulder, broken limbs and what should have been a frazzled countenance. Instead, she stood up, put her shoulder back into its socket, and walked away calmly. Yes, the characters on NBC’s Heroes were “special.” Many fans complained about the lack of excitement in season two and that the show only went downhill from there. Some were left groveling after the season five finale. But the show that ended in 2010 is being reborn — literally. Heroes Reborn, is set to premiere on NBC in September. The original garnered an immense fan base from the start, and despite the controversy, many remained loyal. This has Kiki Sukezane nervous, but also excited. The Kyoto, Japan, born-and-raised actress first came to the United States when she was in high school. She stayed in a small town in South Dakota as a student for one year, which is where she learned English. “There were only 2,000 people in the town where I went, and half of the population in high school was Native American,” she recalls. She returned to Japan, and when she graduated from high school there, she began working part-time jobs here and there — a bar at night, a hair-extension store during the day. But the real turning point for Kiki arose because of her passion for travel. Her original aspiration was to become an aide worker at a refugee camp, along the lines of the Peace Corp. With this career in mind, Kiki ventured to Tanzania, where she spent a month backpacking around the African country by herself. “But I had nothing I could do at that time there because I had no skills or anything,” she explains. “I had no medical education or something that would help them.” She thought of her idol, Ange-

lina Jolie, who is an actress and a humanitarian. So Kiki decided to pursue acting. “She does the perfect thing I want to do. Be in a film and be famous, and then go to like a poor country and help people,” Kiki says. “Or even get in a film that will affect people’s minds or show people the reality of the world.” When Kiki returned to Japan from her trip to Africa, she enrolled in a two-year acting program in Tokyo. While the entertainment industry is known as being a connection-driven, it’s-all-about-who-you-know business, Kiki says Japan is even more political. Actors and actresses belong to a company, which will book the roles for them rather than using a manager or agent representation. “If you’re a really, really good actress, that doesn’t mean you can be a star in Japan,” Kiki explains. “If there’s a big role in a film, it’s already booked with someone famous, or if a company wants someone to be famous, they put them in,” she adds. So she decided to escape this climate for Los Angeles, where she began auditioning. There were plenty of failures, she admits. But then she landed the sword-wielding, starring role of Miko Otomo for Heroes Reborn. Kiki watched the original Heroes during high school, but only the first season. So after booking this role, she decided to watch all five seasons. “I didn’t remember the story line or anything. I just rewatched everything and it’s amazing.” While she can’t give too much away before the first episode airs, she says the basic plot for Miko is that her father has gone missing, and there is a lot of “fighting and running and chasing.” Kiki was already a martial artist, so the fighting came naturally. But she is one of the only people on set who speaks Japanese, so the directors can never be certain when she makes a mistake while saying a line — a problem that doesn’t typically arise for other actors.

“As an actor, I don’t know what to do,” Kiki says. “Should I tell them stop the scene when we misspeak, or something? Usually directors say cut if we mess something up.” “It’s much easier for me to speak Japanese in a role because that’s my language,” she explains. “For English, I can’t really improvise if I forget my line.” While Kiki had a role in a Japanese TV series, this is her first major show, and she learns something new every day while filming in Toronto. With a different director every two episodes, Kiki says each one shoots differently and has their own image. And she learns from her cast on set every day. Kiki was particularly amazed with how the sets could be transformed: One room is France, another is Russia, and the next is an apartment in Tokyo. “So there’s a studio in Toronto that has so many places in one building,” she says excitedly. “It’s really cool.” The show is larger than what she is used to, but acting in America is as well. Kiki explains that subtle cultural differences, even respect for elders, trickles into the entertainment industry. Japanese actors, she says, have a different manner of expressing themselves; they are more calm, quiet and small compared to Americans’ bigger expressions. But Kiki has her own way of balancing the two. “I don’t act bigger,” she says. “I try to feel bigger to make it natural.” She will be filming in Toronto until the end of September for the show’s allotted 13 episodes. Kiki says Heroes Reborn is more mysterious and action-packed than its predecessor. “The story is great,” she says. “If you didn’t watch the original, you can just watch Reborn. It’s a totally new story.” Kiki is confident that fans of Heroes won’t be disappointed with this renaissance. But like Heroes Reborn, it’s all still a mystery. NKD NKDMAG.COM