NKD Mag - Issue #54 (December 2015)

DEC. actors:

14 KARAN BRAR from manhattan to summer camp

28 MADISON DAVENPORT hollywood’s newest it-girl

musicians: 04 RAELYNN on her roller coaster of a year

08 STATE CHAMPS burritos, donuts and fans, oh my!

20 MAYDAY PARADE 10 years of damn good songs

32 MACHINEHEART the pop-indie dream team

38 SUGAR & THE HI-LOWS because two is better than one

40 CAM untamed and in control of her life

50 AS IT IS taking no breaks and a lot of names

web stars: 16 LAUREN GIRALDO a day at streamcon with the vine queen

52 TARYN SOUTHERN from the small screen to youtube

publisher: CATHERINE POWELL

editors: CATHERINE POWELL NICOLA PRING

writers: SHELBY CHARGIN DUSTIN HEVERON BRITTANY LAMBAU KC ORCUTT CATHERINE POWELL VANESSA SALLES RILEY STENEHJEM TANYA TRANER

photography: CATHERINE POWELL

design: CATHERINE POWELL

RAELYNN Words & Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

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I seem to always catch RaeLynn at life-changing moments. When we first met a little over a year ago, our photo shoot was put on pause so she could answer a call from the Grand Ole Opry, inviting her to perform for the first time. When we reconnected this past October, the engagement ring on her finger was less than 24 hours old. In all fairness, the past 18 months have been one giant life-changing moment for RaeLynn. Ever since she released “God Made Girls” in June of 2014, RaeLynn’s career has been on a steady climb between CMA nominations, a Top 20 single and three arena tours. But now even with a wedding to plan, RaeLynn is already projecting a busy start to 2016 – starting with a full-length album.

The Empire Hotel is uncharacteristically quiet as RaeLynn and I find a couch on the second floor lobby. The minimal indoor lighting is casting orange shadows around the hotel – much like the autumn sunset outside. But based on RaeLynn’s bright pink lips and unwavering smile, you’d think it was the first day of summer outside. I can’t blame her though – she has a lot to be smiling about.

“God Made Girls” became the highest charting debut song of any female country artist in 2014 and set RaeLynn up for a whirlwind of a first year. She kicked off 2015 opening up for Miranda Lambert on tour before joining Rascal Flatts in the summer. She spent the fall on another one of Miranda’s tours before setting sail with Florida Georgia Line on a week-long concert cruise.

While touring clearly dominated RaeLynn’s 2015, she’s hoping next year will be mostly dedicated to new music.

RaeLynn’s debut EP came out in January and fans (and Raelynn) are eager for more songs to be released.

“We’re figuring it out right now. I’ve been writing so much,” she says.

“Picking 12 songs is like pulling teeth because it’s just so hard to figure out what I want to put out. You only jump out of the plane once.”

She’s very consciously aware of the

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fact that an artist only gets one debut album, and this is her only chance to make a first impression.

So she’s being a little picky, and admits it’s maybe her fault the record is taking so long.

At this point in her career, RaeLynn is extremely passionate about making sure each and every song she puts out was at the very least co-written by her. “I don’t want to say that I’ll never cut someone else’s song, because you don’t want to rob yourself of a great song that could be a number one or touch someone else,” she says. She often listens to outside songs, but she really wants her first album to be completely her voice. “Being an artist, every song is a journey I’ve been through, and I’ve been through the same things that every other girl is going through, and I think that it’s really important for artists to be involved in their songwriting,” she says.

On the opposite side of things, RaeLynn isn’t opposed to having other artists cut her songs for their albums. “I’ll never forget when I had a George Strait hold,” she gushes. As of now no other artist has sung one of her songs, and once again she, blames herself. “I don’t want to give any of my songs away yet!” she says. She wants to figure out which songs are going on her own album before she options out the rest.

Since RaeLynn first appeared on the country music scene, Miranda Lambert has been a massive advocate for RaeLynn’s career. In addition to inviting her on tour every chance she gets, Miranda has been a bit of a mentor for her. “It’s a blessing. Miranda is so good at what she does: she’s amazing on stage, she’s amazing to her crew and she’s amazing to her fans,” RaeLynn says. “The fact that she wants to help other girl acts just breaks this whole, ‘we’re going to be catty’ thing.”

In what is now being referred to as “Tomatogate,” earlier this year, a country radio DJ called the women of country music the tomatoes on a salad, insinuating that they aren’t necessary. Since then, there

has been an influx of girl power in the country music world – which RaeLynn obviously loves. “It’s like a cycle. It always comes back around,” she says. “There’s going to be tons of girls on the radio. It’s already happening with Kelsea Ballerini, Cam, Maddie & Tae and Mickey Guyton. The tables are already turning and I can’t wait until it’s 50-50.”

The explosion of female voices this year has not been limited to country music – you can’t open an entertainment blog without seeing something about Taylor Swift and her squad on the front page. Because of this, RaeLynn feels like this is the time to say something really important because a lot of people are paying attention. “Since the last time you saw me I’ve had so much happen in my life,” she says. “It doesn’t matter what you do because we’re all the same. I just want to show that you can fall in love and follow your dream, and you can stay true to who you are and your beliefs and still follow your dream.”

She stresses that just because she’s a country artist and is on the road most of the year, it doesn’t mean she’s not a normal girl. She wants to use this moment in pop culture to strengthen the already intimate relationship she has with her fans.

One fan interaction that stands out to RaeLynn the most was with a grieving mother. She wrote “God Made Girls” about the giddy feelings you get in a new relationship with a guy, but the song took on a new life to this woman – the song helped her through the death of her daughter, and she identified with the line “hold him when he cries.”

“I was just like, ‘Whoa, this song just took on a whole new chapter,’” RaeLynn says. “As songwriters, we interpret a song one way but not everyone interprets it that way.”

“God Made Girls” is not the only song that has been decoded a different way – Miranda Lambert had a different idea about what RaeLynn’s song “Love Triangle” is about. The song is about RaeLynn’s parents’ divorce, but Miranda saw it as a song

about a father saying goodbye to his daughter as she moves away with her new love. “Miranda’s parents aren’t divorced, so of course that’s how she interpreted it because that’s what happened to her,” RaeLynn says.

Since our first meeting last summer, when RaeLynn was invited to play the infamous Opry stage for the first time, she has played it four times. The entire country music community in Nashville has embraced RaeLynn and she couldn’t be more excited about it. “I got to perform [at The Opry] for the troops, and my brother is a Green Beret. I sang ‘God Made Girls’ and ‘America The Beautiful’ and that was just the coolest experience,” she recalls. “To stand in the circle and be there representing my family and my brother. Such an honor.”

While it’s expected she’ll return to the Grand Ole Opry again once her full-length album is out, RaeLynn is just excited to be a part of a community that has her back. She’s been living in Nashville since she was 17 and her songwriting pals there never hesitate to drop everything and write with her whenever she’s in town. A lot of the songs that are expected to be on her album were written with close friends.

“The album is going to be a little different than the EP,” she says.

“Of course I have my fun, spunky, out-of-control, girl empowerment songs, but then I have a couple love songs I wrote about my fiancé Josh.” She admits she has a habit of “writing about her heart on her sleeve.” She feels that her album will be well rounded and she is getting more and more anxious to release it – even though she’s still adding songs to the pot.

While RaeLynn’s immediate goal is to release a great record, her overall goal is to be a positive role model for girls – and she thinks the best way to do that is by being herself. “I’ll never forget when Lorde posted that picture of her putting cream on her zits,” RaeLynn says, laughing. “We’re all the same. We’re all girls.” NKD NKDMAG.COM

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STATE CHAMPS Words by TANYA TRANER Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

State Champs have figured out the recipe for success. It’s a pinch of talent and fun, a dash of luck, a splash of good timing and a whole lot of feeding your fans – literally.

Bassist Ryan Scott Graham the newest member of the band, says their story started like any other. “High school dreams, let’s do a band, have fun and make music.” The band played mostly local shows and he says, “It was humble beginnings, but now we’re just kind of riding the wave I think.”

After releasing their debut fulllength album, The Finer Things, in 2013, things really started to take off.

They were getting bigger and better tour offers, supporting acts like New Found Glory, Bayside, Motion City Soundtrack, We are the In Crowd, All Time Low and 5 Seconds of Summer.

“It kept on gaining traction,” says drummer Evan Ambrosio. “It wasn’t one of those things that kind of died out after a while.”

The guys all agree that the key to their steady climb to success has many ingredients. In an age where a lot of artists find their fan base online before ever even playing their first

show, State Champs say that doing it the old fashioned way – touring – was really important to them. “I think the grassroots way is the only way that has staying power,” Ryan says. “You can have your one big song and people are down with your record for a brief moment in time, and then it just dies out.”

The band agrees this just isn’t what they wanted. They wanted a career.

“It keeps it fun, always being on the road, because you see the growth after a while too,” Evan says. Being able to see the room just a bit more full than the last time they played is a really gratifying gauge of success for the guys. “If you’re not touring and meeting your fans and interacting with people, they forget about you.”

It’s also about being friendly and being personable, Ryan says. “Being a shithead never got anybody very far.” Success isn’t just about the fans, though. The guys note that treating the bands you’re supporting well is extremely important too. You can’t burn a potential bridge and expect to continue doing what you love to do.

Ryan thinks the tide really began to change with Warped Tour 2014. De-

spite playing on a small stage and being an up and coming band, he began to notice their crowds were too big for the stage to handle so they were being bumped up to bigger stages. “I was like, ‘This feels way more real than it did a couple of months ago.” For Evan, We Are The In Crowd was the tour that made this his career. He was able to quit his day job at this point. “So when I came home, instead of rushing to work and getting all the money I could before the next tour, I could take time and see family and not have to worry as much,” he says.

There was a time when the pop punk music scene seemed like it was dying out, but it’s resurfaced recently and the guys agree that it might be more popular than ever. But they don’t feel influenced to write their music because of it. “I think the timing was great. But it’s nothing we planned for,” Ryan says. “This is the music we would make regardless of whether pop punk was popular or not,” With the timely reemergence of pop punk as a relevant genre, the guys can’t ignore another important factor in their success – luck. “Talent,

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drive and motivation can really only get you so far,” Ryan says. “There are so many bands that are undiscovered that are incredible, but a little bit of luck, you have to have it...we’ve had a lot of things fall into place for us that allowed us to be where we are.”

The band was invited to tour with pop band 5 Seconds of Summer earlier this year. Because of their pop punk background, however, some State

Champs fans were surprised to discover that they agreed to a tour with a pop band. Ryan says that the fan reaction to the 5 Seconds of Summer tour have been pretty split. “Our fans are a little bit territorial,” he says. “What they were more afraid about was not the fact that we were going to do this huge tour – they were worried about losing us as like friends or accessible people.”

Evan says some fans were openly angry, which surprised him. “It was kind of interesting to see the split opinions on it because, in all reality, it was six shows. We gained a lot from it, it was an amazing experience, but it didn’t change us. It’s not like we’re too famous to walk the streets.”

The guys also think that some fans have given 5SOS a bad name without ever having listened to their music because of their image of being a “boy band.” But State Champs say this image is completely wrong, and the guys of 5SOS are true and talented musicians. “For everyone who’s saying they’re just a boy band, I would encourage them to go watch them play.”

Evan says.

“I think after the tour happened, people got it,” Ryan says. Once they saw that it was really good for State Champs’ career, they accepted it a little more.

Combining each of these ingredients led to one heck of a successful album release for the guys with Around the World and Back on October 16.

Evan says that while they were more comfortable as musicians and as a band this time around, he felt more pressure than with The Finer Things that this had to be a great record because of all the hype. “It was a longer [writing] process and I think it helped us out quite a bit,” he says.

Ryan, who joined the band after The Finer Things was already released, he felt a bit more pressure. He came into the game playing songs he didn’t write, and now it was time to put himself out there. “When we started thinking about writing a new record, I was happy to be involved, but I felt a lot of stress because I felt like I needed to be a contributing part to the new record, but it was also like, we need

this to be good because there are people anticipating a product from us.”

Despite the pressures, they agree they had a good time writing the record as a group. “We actually rented my childhood home that I grew up in,” Evan says. They had friends come and set up a home studio and locked down for a few weeks to get some demos done. The guys then took the time to really put every song through the

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ringer and they are extremely proud of the songs they’ve written.

The band says they wanted to sound more polished without changing their sound too much. “We just wanted to sound big and clean and friendly,” Ryan says. “We just took a step forward,” Evan adds.

They were also pleased with the production value of the record. “Wow this sounds like a real band,” Ryan says, noting that he has been in bands in the past where songs didn’t receive the production they deserved.

“It was a pain finishing the record in February and March and it not coming out until right now,” Ryan says. “I’m happy it’s out. I think people are really digging it.”

“It doesn’t even feel real that it’s out because we’ve been waiting so long for it,” Evan says. “Every night we’ve been asking, ‘What’s everybody’s favorite song off the record?’ A lot of people have been saying different songs, and it’s cool to hear that it’s not just the same song. People are enjoying the entire thing.”

The guys say they were incredibly humbled and surprised at the feedback they received less than a week after releasing the record, with fans already singing along and going crazy to the new songs on tour.

Something else the fans have been going crazy for: edible merch. State Champs have pioneered what might become the next big thing, and created a custom burrito at a burrito shop in their hometown and donut in Los Angeles to sell with their record. The fans are, literally, eating it up. Along with their sweet or savory treats, they get a free copy of the record to enjoy. The scheme was crafted by the guys’ PR team at their record label, Pure Noise.

Ryan admits that he was skeptical of the idea at first, but that it’s been incredibly successful and really creative.

“I’m actually upset because we can’t have the donut, it’s on the West Coast,” Evan jokes.

There’s no doubt State Champs found the delicate balance in this saturated industry to take their careers to the next level, and fans are already eager to taste what they have to offer next. NKD NKDMAG.COM

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MADISON DAVENPORT Words by KC ORCUTT Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

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Ignoring her teacher’s instructions when it was time to do pirouettes, then 5-year-old Madison Davenport was drawn to looking at herself in the mirror and bursting out in song.

When Madison’s mother enrolled her in ballet classes at an early age, it became clear that her passion for drama would shine through regardless of the setting or audience.

“I was that crazy kid telling people to sit down and shut up and listen to me sing. That was just me,” Madison recalls with a grin.

Madison’s future as an actress was sealed when her mother signed her up for musical theater when she was 5. Even then, Madison knew with conviction that she was meant to play the titular role in Annie. “It’s such a weird thing because when you think of a 5-year-old, you think of little kids playing and bumping into walls. But I wanted to be Annie and Molly even though I was only 5. My mom would say, ‘No, Maddie, you’re too young.’ And I’d protest, like, ‘No I’m not!’ I didn’t get to play Annie, but I did play Molly, and from there it was a domino effect,” she says.

Following Madison’s performance in a traveling rendition of The Wizard Of Oz, a talent agent discovered Madison and suggested she and her mother visit Los Angeles for the first time to try her luck with acting. Things fell into place as Madison’s father found a job in L.A. and the family moved from Texas as Madison landed her first gig.

“It was all too good to turn down,” Maddie says of her move to L.A. “From there, I have continued to have so many doors open and I’ve been so blessed to work with so many different directors, networks, shows and producers. It’s all the reason that’s why I’m here sitting with you.”

The soon-to-be 19 year old has crammed her days full, and she knows how lucky she is to have an idea of what

she wants to spend her life doing at such a young age. She even tried to take a year off from acting, and admits, “I really wanted to be a normal kid, until the day I realized, I liked working more than I liked being in regular high school.”

Madison entered a unique program that allowed her to balance being on and off campus, with the option to take classes like choir and theater, surrounded by her peers. She finished her schooling online last December, and since then has been wholly dedicated to advancing her career.

From the silver screen to the small screen, Madison has had roles in Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, Over The Hedge and Noah and The Possession, and has appeared on episodes of Shameless, CSI: New York, Bones, Criminal Minds and most recently, is a series regular in the television rendition of From Dusk Till Dawn.

Following her first large-scale project, Over The Hedge, the ball really got rolling for the actress, which she jokingly attributes to changing her hair color.

“This is not natural. I’m actually blonde, surprise, surprise,” she says. “I ended up getting ER, because people think that my face looks really sweet, but I’m actually a demon on the inside. I get to play a lot of psychotic people. They’re like, ‘You look so sweet but there’s something really off about you.’ And I’m like, ‘I know. I know. It’s the demon inside my soul! It’s just waiting to get out!’”

Madison’s exuberant eccentricities in her acting and personality would, at times, make her mother gusy, “I swear

she’s normal, I swear she’s not this crazy,” her mom says.

Madison recalls her work ethic being strong for as long as she can remember.

“I remember my mom would read me the scripts and I would have everything memorized. I’d be telling everyone, ‘You have to go down stage left,’ and they’d be like, ‘Maddie, I know.’ 5-year-old me would be like, ’You didn’t know, because you went down stage right.’ That was always in me, that kind of work ethic. It really helps to keep the creative fire going.

Especially on From Dusk Till Dawn being surrounded by people who have the same methodology as I have on set, it felt like home for the first time.”

The actress’ passion for acting is much larger than her 5’3” frame. She knew from age 13, based on her role on Shameless, that she wanted to take on edgier roles.

From the supernatural From Dusk Till Dawn, to a role in the upcoming comedy film Sisters starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, Madison really adapts to the character she is playing at the time. So much so that, on the set of Shameless, her costars thought Madison was just as shy as the character she played. “I don’t think anyone on set knew I could talk,” she says. At a cast party when I opened up a little, I had to explain I was just being [my character] Ethel the whole time. When I put on Ethel’s clothes, I was a different person.”

This commitment to her roles also helped with her confidence. Playing a charter that Juliette Lewis played in the 1996 version of From Dusk Till Dawn

made the young actress wonder if she’d be nervous trying to fill her shoes until she declared, “It’s not nerve-wracking because I’m not going to play Juliette Lewis. I’m here to play Kate and I’m going to bring what I can bring to the character. Robert, my director, isn’t going to let me fail.”

Madison also jokes that what she’s learned as an actress, such as operating a chainsaw, will help her in the dating world. “If somebody really pisses me off, I can just chainsaw them in half, or show them the clip and be like, ‘Yeah I was really angry that day, you don’t want that,’” she says.

Aside from learning how to play a badass on TV, working with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, on the upcoming film Sisters (due out in theaters December 18) taught the actress the importance of being a strong female role model. “Tina and Amy make it look so effortless, but comedy is such a formula. Some things are funny, some things are not. What I love about both of these women is that they try things and they aren’t afraid if it doesn’t get a good reaction, they just try something else. Watching them work was like watching Michelangelo paint - I will never forget that experience.”

Working alongside Amy and Tina gave Madison the advice she’s as happy to pass on as she is to take. “Go out there and be a strong woman and if you don’t find roles that you like, you have to write them for yourself,” she says. “Don’t be afraid to look like a dork, because sometimes that is way more likable than watching someone be perfect, I think.” NKD NKDMAG.COM

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LAUREN GIRALDO Words & Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

For Lauren Giraldo, fame came with a simple app update. When Vine started allowing users to “revine” uploads, Lauren watched her follower count shoot up. Now, the 17-year-old is focusing on other social platforms, like YouTube

and Instagram, and developing her brand. After spending the day with her at StreamCon in New York City, I was able to see firsthand just how influential Lauren is. Between a two-hour meet and greet – where she spent a minimum of 10 minutes

with every fan – and a well-attended panel about being a woman on Vine, it’s easy to see that Lauren is loved.

With millions of followers across all her social platforms, Lauren is doing exactly what she has always wanted to do – entertain.

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Since web stars are a relatively new thing, how do you see this changing the way the world looks at celebrities?

I don’t know much on how the world views celebrities. I don’t view myself as one nor do I really pay attention to what I’m considered. The online space is a very cool place to be though, it allows me to connect with many, many people and make real connections without having a script, network approval or [having to] play a character, which is how it would typically work in traditional media.

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What does it mean to you to be considered an influential teen?

It means I have a connection with many people around my age range. To me it means, when I post something, there’s a reaction. Big or small, there’s a reaction. At first it was pressure to be a “role model” but I eventually grew as a person and realized that’s not what I want for myself. I’m a normal person and I love to share my life with a lot of people.

Being an “influential teen” to me means living my life openly in a way that teens can relate and grow with me.

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What do you have coming up in 2016?

I’m releasing my music in 2016. I’m working on it now and I love the process. I’ve loved singing and performing my whole life. The Internet has all been one happy accident for me but at the end of the day, my passion has always been to simply entertain.

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MAYDAY PARADE Words by SHELBY CHARGIN Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

With a decade of experience under their belt, Mayday Parade are a band that has allowed themselves the time and room to grow into something bigger than themselves as individuals. Catching up with Derek Sanders as he’s on the road of their fall tour, it’s easy to become mesmerized by the passion backing Mayday Parade.

“It’s incredible…” Derek says of the AP Tour. “It’s been so much fun.” The clear excitement in his voice is a reminder that Derek and Mayday are always appreciative of where they are at all times, even in the earliest days. “It goes pretty far back. When I was in middle school I met Brooks [Betts, guitarist], we were about 12 and we started playing music together and playing in bands together. That’s kind of the case for everybody in the band, we all kind of were in different bands together throughout the years and went to middle school and high school together, and just habitually in 2005 we kind of formed our way into this one,” he explains. It was the splitting up of two other bands, taking three members each, that led Mayday Parade on their decade of success. “It was trying to find the right fit, and the right people who could be just as dedicated to this as we were,” Derek says.

Their dedication has now spanned a 10-year climb, with a giant fan base to boot, and premiering a documentary in celebration and reflection of their growth. “It’s pretty crazy to look back on, watching the documentary now,” Derek says. He favors the older footage in the documentary – it’s 22

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a reminder of where they came from. “A lot of that stuff is from eight, nine, ten years ago, and I haven’t seen a lot of it since it was filmed,” he says. To him, it’s a crazy feeling.

To have 10 years of growth documented is a huge accomplishment, and it’s one they aren’t taking for granted. “We’re just super grateful to still be able to be doing this after 10 years,” Derek says. His gratitude comes from a place of understanding about how hard the music industry can be. “It’s rare.

With so many bands things just don’t work out in the long run so whatever it is we’re just super happy to still be around,” Derek says. It’s this humility that makes Mayday’s success conceivable to their fans. They aren’t marking success by numbers, but rather by the connection they are still able to create with the crowds consistently.

“Everything in this band has always been a very slow gradual build,” Derek says when asked about what the band’s newest album Black Lines has in store for them.

“We never got to a point where we just like shot up. So in the 10 years of this band, it’s always been a slow and steady just build.”

It’s not something that the band minds, in fact it’s how they continue to hope to grow.

“We’re lucky that things haven’t started to decline after all this time,” he says. “We’re happy with things going the pace that they’re at. With each album, every touring cycle and everything we’ve done has kept us right on that same track, and we’re happy to be there.”

“Ultimately, I think it just felt like the right time with it being our fifth album and hitting 10 years for the band, it seemed like the right time to try and do something different and try to have a fresh start with something,” Derek continues. The album has a very different vibe than past Mayday Parade records. With a lot more rock and guitar influence, along with a new lyrical maturity, it’s a brave release, and the right move to push the next chapter in the band’s career. “The album before this one, we started to feel like we were just repeating ourselves too much, and that we had been sort of doing the same thing for too long, and wanted to branch out a little bit,” Derek says. The band had a unique punk influence on this album. “The other factor was that we recorded a Punk Goes 90’s cover of ‘Come Down’ by Bush and we just approached that very differently. We tracked that live, and it was just like super raw and had a ton of light and energy that I think we 26

thought would be interesting, and we tried to approach this one kind of the same,” he says.

It’s hard for a band to choose when to change their sound, especially a band that relies on, and respects their fans so highly, however, the Mayday Parade knew it was time to move forward. “It just felt like the right time, you know? It feels good, I’m really, really happy with the way the album turned out, and the reception has been pretty great as well,” Derek says. The reception is important to Derek, and to Mayday. Their fans have been loyal to them over the past decade, and the band never wanted to alienate anyone. However, in the end needing to grow, and maybe a bit of feeling stuck won out. “It’s also tricky because with any of this we don’t want to alienate our fans or people who have been listening to us from the beginning. We didn’t want to make them feel like we’re leaving them behind or doing something completely different,” he adds.

With all the new sounds, and context on the album, they still tried to keep some of their roots in tact. Its songs still boast a much more mature rock vibe, but there’s still some of the somber connect that they’ve worked so well with before sprinkled in. “It was kind of like trying to blend it without just doing a complete 180 and going somewhere totally different, trying to just sort of build upon what we’ve done up until now and then adding a lot more to it,” Derek says.

It’s the building upon what they know, and how they’ve grown that really set this album apart for the band. “I think we could have played it safe, it would have been safer to stick with the course and do what we’ve been doing,” Derek says. “I think that for our sake mostly we needed to switch it up and play music that was more true to what we wanted to be creating.” Over the course of 10 years, a lot changes in people’s lives, and bands – Mayday Parade especially – aren’t in the same place they once were.

Derek knew it was time to channel those new life experiences and maturities. “I think we’re all, gosh I was 19 when I started the band, I’m 29 now, we’ve all grown a lot and matured a lot. Our tastes have grown as well, I think this music is a little bit truer to who we are now,” he says.

Although Black Lines has shown this new sense of Mayday, fear not old friends and fans – the band is starting to think about the anniversary of their debut album, A Lesson In Romantics. “We don’t have

anything planned but we’ve been sort of talking about it,” Derek says. “I think it’s safe to say that we’ll certainly do something…at the very least at least one or two shows, or maybe a whole tour,” he says. It’s not immediately on the band’s mind, with a touring cycle for the new album, and the anniversary being a year and a half away, there’s still time to figure it out. “It’s kind of early to say I guess, but we’re definitely talking about it and definitely thinking about it,” Derek says.

One of the best things about Derek, and Mayday in general is their understanding and appreciation of the dedication to their past albums. They know their first album is a staple for their fans, and they want to give back the support it’s received over the years.

“It would definitely be a missed opportunity to not do anything,” he says.

With each album, Mayday have been presented with a new opportunity to make the best music possible. “When we were making A Lesson In Romantics we weren’t thinking it’s like going to be our 10 year album,” Derek says. They don’t go into the studio wanting to outdo previous albums – they just want their best work out there for their fans and themselves. “I feel like, ultimately, we just want to go in and have fun, make it the best record we can and see what happens,” Derek says. Between a staple album like A Lesson In Romantics and their new musical venture on Black Lines, it’s safe to say their fans agree wholeheartedly with how Mayday is moving forward.

Derek and the band never seem to slow down. “I already have a handful of songs that I’ve written and demoed out since we’ve released Black Lines. It’s funny how it kind of developed into a pattern of, you write and record and then you tour for a year and a half and then you’re writing, recording, touring, and the whole time you’re on the road everyone’s working on their stuff individually,” he says. He wants get everyone’s ideas together by the end of next year. “The wheels are already turning,” he says.

Between celebrating 10 years of music and dedication to their fans, and the bravery to switch up a sound that defined an entire decade of loyal listeners, 2015 was a massive year for Mayday Parade. It’s the humble replies, and the never wavering mindset of making the best music possible that lets the band enjoy where they are right now, and – as Derek puts it – “We just take it as it comes.” NKD

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KARAN BRAR Words by VANESSA SALLES Photos by CATHERINE POWELL If Karan Brar isn’t on your radar, he should be. The first-generation Indian-American actor’s resume features roles on some incredible productions.

From Diary of a Wimpy Kid to the binge-worthy series Jessie and Bunk’d on Disney Channel, Karan’s proven he’s got some serious acting chops.

He fell in love with the craft at a young age and he’s got his dad to thank for that. “I always wanted to compete in sports like my friends did but I wasn’t good whatsoever,” he says, laughing.

“So, one day, my dad came up to me and told me how he used to do theater back in India. He asked if I wanted to try that and I said yes. He took me to an acting workshop and I just kept going back to it. It became a normal routine for me and I loved it.” That routine quickly escalated to a full-blown career. “After acting classes and lots of workshops, I got an agent in Seattle,” he says. “Then I got my audition for Diary of a Wimpy Kid. It was a nine-month process but I eventually booked it and it was really, really exciting.”

Although his first movie role was nearly five years ago, Karan can remember the audition process like it was yesterday. “It was so weird,” he says.

“They had a massive casting call and so anyone could audition. We sent in a tape and didn’t hear anything for nine months. By that time, I had forgotten that I even auditioned.” Luckily, the producers didn’t. Karan booked the role and starred in its sequel two years later.

It wasn’t long after Karan’s first role that he booked the gig of a lifetime: 28

joining the Disney Channel family in its newest sitcom, Jessie. “I was actually about to fly home from L.A. when I heard about the audition for the show,” he says. “Originally, I auditioned for Luke’s role and Cameron [Boyce] and I were kind of competing against each other for it. They kept bringing the two of us back until they said they wanted to keep us both. It’s funny because Cameron and I refused to speak to each other. We’re very competitive, and we were just giving each other dagger eyes the whole time. When they got us in a room together, we both did some improv and they ended up booking us both. They created my character, Ravi, and the show started up.”

Of course, big opportunity came with big nerves. “It was kind of like going into high school,” he recalls. “I was really nervous about being accepted but everyone was welcoming. I felt like I didn’t really know this world but the other Disney kids were nice enough to welcome me into it. They didn’t need to go out of their way to introduce me around but they did and it really helped a lot.”

Ravi Ross, his character on the show, is a fan favorite because he is so relatable. As is the case with a lot of actors, Karan finds himself in the role he plays. “I implement part of me into Ravi,” he says. “But, at the same time, he’s his own entity. I get to play around and bring to him what I would feel comfortable bringing to my own life.

For example, I’m a very curious person.

I like to see how things work and with Ravi, I amplified that a lot more. I

turned it into a constant urge to make everything perfect and be meticulously done.”

After four years on the air, Jessie came to an end earlier this fall – but Ravi didn’t. Karan now stars in Bunk’d, the spin-off of Jessie. “I immediately went into this because the creator is a very good friend,” he says. “If I had to go into a spin-off with anyone, I’m glad that it’s her. I know I can trust her and that she’s always going to take care of me. I was also really nervous though and I don’t think a lot of people knew that.”

It was his enemy turned best friend, Cameron Boyce, who helped calm his nerves. “We were catching up and talking about how we’re all moving on to different parts of our lives,” he says.

Although co-stars Peyton List and Skai Jackson signed on to reprise their roles on Bunk’d, Cameron passed on the show to star on his own series, Gamer’s Guide to Pretty Much Everything. “It was pretty hard on Cameron and he’s my brother, so it was hard on me too,” Karan says. “I got so used to working together five days a week and hanging out on the weekends, but it was something we all came to terms with eventually. At the end of the day, we’re all family and we’re going to see each other regardless. We always go out of our way to see and hang out with each other.” Karan knows the importance of supporting your friends and that’s why he couldn’t be happier for his former on-screen brother. “It sucks that he can’t be on Bunk’d, but he gets to experiment with a new character now,” he

says. “He’s hilarious so he really gets to do a lot with it. I think it suits him.”

Working on Bunk’d meant learning to work with new people and having that same “going to high school” feeling he had before. “I was borderline stalking the new cast members to see who they were,” he says, laughing. “I was nervous at first but I’m so grateful that everyone’s super professional and kind. Going into the show, I didn’t feel like I was going into a new family, I was just expanding the one I already had.” Having come off a previous show, Karan, Peyton and Skai have banded together to help guide their new costars, just as Debby Ryan had done for them at the beginning of Jessie. “Debby did a great job at teaching us important things,” he says. “She taught us the importance of always listening to notes, making sure our lines were memorized and more. Now, we get to provide these tools to these kids and guide them like she did for us. The kids are already so great by themselves and they pick up on everything so well.”

With all these lessons already learned, Karan believes there’s still more to it. “It’s so easy for an actor to become very arrogant and think they don’t need acting classes anymore,” he says. “I think you should always continue learning. I’m a big believer that if you learn how every part of a machine works, the whole thing will work a lot better.” So, he makes a point of learning as much as he can from his current opportunities. “What’s great is that I can always rely on the writers to guide me,” he says. “At the end of the day, Ravi is their character as much as he is mine.

I always look to them to guide me and ask what they’d like to see from me.” As Karan grows and matures, he’s hoping to take his character with him. “We’re semi breaking the rules of a sitcom where the characters stay the same.

We’re letting him grow, find relationships, grow up, and experience life for a little bit. We’ve been experimenting with that and I’m thankful I have people to help me out with it.”

Earlier this year, Karan starred in the Disney Channel Original Movie Invisible Sister, alongside Girl Meets World’s Rowan Blanchard. “It was a whole other experience,” he says. “It 42

was the first time that I was acting and speaking without an accent. I was kind of freaking out about it a few days before shooting. I thought, ‘What if I suck? What if my acting is terrible without an accent?’ I wasn’t very confident about it but with everyone’s support, everything went great. It was a very cool experience and I’m so happy with the way it came out.”

Not only is Karan expanding his own acting boundaries, he’s expanding cultural ones, with the help of Disney Channel. “I think it’s very important because one of the channel’s big things is that they want every child to be able to look up on screen and have someone they can relate to,” he says. “It’s a big step for Disney. Everyone watching can relate to a character, which I think every kid deserves.” His Invisible Sister co-star, Rowan Blanchard, has also been very vocal about the movement, which he appreciates. “I think I’m helping with that movement by being one of the first Indian series regulars and I think it’s so much fun seeing other kids relate, regardless of ethnicity. It’s cool helping every kid feel accepted.”

The truly awesome thing about this cultural movement is that Disney’s actors are not without support. “I’m very lucky to have the writers that we have,” Karan says. “The Disney staff is always pitching ideas on episodes and they’ve always done their best to make sure Ravi’s culture is shown to enlighten audiences. They really put in effort to make it authentic and compliment the culture.”

So, what’s next for Karan? Directing.

Well, in a few years, that is. “I hope to direct when I’m older,” he says. “For the next few years, I plan on shadowing and understanding every little detail about it. I really want to go in and understand every aspect so that I’m fully prepared.” Karan wouldn’t be the only actor-turned-director in the Disney family. His Jessie co-star Debby Ryan, as well as Austin & Ally’s Raini Rodriguez are just a few who have put the director cap on. “It’s something I’m really excited about and it’s something I’ve seen a lot of my friends do,” he says. “It’s an overwhelming experience but a truly enlightening one. I’d love to do it.” NKD NKDMAG.COM

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MACHINEHEART Words by DUSTIN HEVERON Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

Born out of the need to share a story with the world and win back the stage from the concert-going, “phones-up” generation, machineheart are the band equivalent of an earthquake: you feel their vibe in your bones almost before you even realize what’s happening — the lyrical lovechild of Bob Dylan and Joan Jett with a dash of appropriately-emo Tumblr aesthetic thrown in for good measure. They’re not here to make friends — they’re here to make music.

I chatted with machineheart front woman/vocalist Stevie Scott and drummer Harry Allen (speaking on behalf of their remaining members guitarist Carman Kubanda, guitarist Trevor Kelly and bassist Jake Xavier) about what exactly it’s like to be a band with as much mission as music, and how they’re navigating the choppy waters of being a band on the rise without drowning in the pressure to continually create.

Stevie says their initial bond was formed from shared experiences, mutual friends and of course, a love of music. “[We had] some similar taste in music,” Stevie says. “Growing up in the 1990s, you know, Smashing Pumpkins, The Cranberries, and a bunch of similar stuff, so we really vibed with each other.” Stevie recalls, “The four guys had all 32

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been playing in projects and bands since they were teenagers and when we all met we kind of hit it off, started writing music and decided we should probably name it and so, hence machineheart.”

With so much initial focus on the music, naming the band took an unintentional back seat, until Carman accidentally saved the day, as Harry recalls. “Our guitar player Carman kind of said it initially as kind of a kidding, joking thing…and then everyone kind of fell in love with it.” Stevie adds, “No one hated it.” Shakespeare famously downplayed the significance of names by posturing, “What’s in a name?” via Romeo and Juliet, but Shakespeare never had to market a band in 2015, and having a name with the right vibe can be a big part of getting new fans to give new music a shot. “Writing music is way easier than picking a band name,” Stevie says. “The funny thing is we had like all these songs but we’re like, ‘…But what do we call ourselves?’”

Another name that helped machineheart get some attention early on was DJ Vanic, who mixed a version of the machineheart song “Circles,” which really helped the band get noticed by a whole new set of fans. “Our first song was released up on [the music sharing site/app] Hype Machine,” Harry says.

“It caught the attention of some different guys that do remixes, so we sent a handful of those out and one of them that came back was the Vanic one that we loved.” Harry recalls, “It kept topping the charts on Hype Machine and a number of different blogs, and so we kind of just sat back and watched it happen. We didn’t really know or anticipate that whatsoever, so it was really exciting for us to see that it was reacting like that.” Stevie describes the DJ Vanic version of “Circles” as less of a remix and more of a different interpretation of the same song, saying, “It was great to hear Vanic kind of enhance the song, even though we felt it still maintained the original feel of the soul and what we wanted it to feel like, just kind of pumped up. It was great working with him.” Harry adds, “Like Stevie said, it kind of enhanced it but kept a fresh, modern vibe, a great summery feel.”

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Ultimately all parties (fans included) were happy with the collaboration, with Harry observing, “It ended up feeling more like a remake than a remix…a different vision of the song rather than a remix of the song.”

From circles to cycles, machineheart have to adjust to their new touring cycle, as they’re more in demand than ever before in their careers, but they also need to know when to take breaks to prevent burnout or creative stagnation. It’s not an easy balance, but the machineheart crew already has a good perspective on it. “It’s kind of strange because you have these high highs and these low lows

you know, and you definitely get the post tour blues when you get back to L.A,” Stevie says. But Stevie understands the tour blues are part of the compromises she’s willing to make in order to do what she loves, and she wouldn’t trade it. “It’s so fun going to a new city every night,” she says. “Meeting new people and new fans and singing along with the fans…it’s just a very beautiful thing.”

Ever aware of the symbiotic relationship between fans and bands, Stevie is appreciative of the people with whom machineheart are able share their story. “Getting to take what was just that little one-sided mono-

logue of what just was us by ourselves in the studio, and then taking it on the road and doing that…it’s really a dialogue at that point, so it’s so much fun being out, but it is nice coming home,” Stevie says. Harry adds that the band has dedicated time planned to make sure that the well of ideas they’re tapping as a band doesn’t go dry anytime soon. “We’ve actually honed in on some new songs, and because we’ve been working while we’re not touring, we’ll always be ahead of the game and always working on new stuff,” he says.

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machineheart camp, though. After signing a deal with Columbia Records, the industry as a whole began to notice the little band that could. They were featured by Spotify as one of their Emerging Artists — not an easy endorsement to come by, and certainly one of the many indicators that machineheart are catching the ear of the right people.

Success in the music industry can be a fluke, but a career is a process and one that machineheart understand fully. “I totally think of the album kind of like [a child],” Stevie says. “It just takes so long, just creating this album and letting it brew. You start with a couple songs and you’re figuring out who you are, especially with this being our first LP and obviously we just released our first EP and so we’re in that first baby stage and figuring it out. That’s exactly how it feels.”

Stevie adds, “You’re in the studio and just trying to be honest, you know, and find what feels most authentic to you as a band and hope that that resonates with people.

And then when we release [our music] out there [into] the world and you see those little numbers growing and climbing, it’s kind of surreal. And when you’re out playing shows and you see those numbers turn into real live people and fans that are excited, it’s so special. We love it.”

Band consistency can also mean brand consistency in the era of social media, another part of machineheart’s creative outlet that’s firing on all cylinders. “We’re very a atmosphere-driven band in our writing,” Harry says. “We always have to have some sort of atmosphere that creates a vibe where everyone really feels comfortable and can be creative and artistic. And I think that definitely comes across in our social [media] accounts.” Steve adds, “To us it’s really important to have the aesthetic that matches or compliments the music that we’re creating, and it really sets the tone and mood.”

Stevie goes on, “If people haven’t seen us at a show yet they can kind of go on to our Instagram and get a feel for what we’re about.

I’m so inspired by aesthetic, personally, so that’s huge and very important to me.” It’s hard to deny a convergence in the air, where your art doesn’t start and stop at just one medium. “I think nowadays fashion is such a part of music and fashion is, as weird as that is, I think it’s a lifestyle for us,” Stevie says.

“I think we have to appeal to that as well.

Getting to create visuals is just a blast and it helps us to put a larger picture together for the viewer.” NKD

SUGAR& THE HI-LOWS

Words by RILEY STENEHJEM Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

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Trent Dabbs and Amy Stroup were both working in Nashville as solo artists when, about seven years ago, a mutual friend suggested they write together. The pair didn’t plan to make a band, only to co-write songs for their own individual projects, yet shortly after, they formed Sugar and the Hi-Lows.

“It was very Nashville-esque,” Trent says. “It was very simple. It was like, as soon as we started writing, the songs were writing themselves.” The songs they were making didn’t sound like something that either Trent or Amy would record individually. “As soon as we started writing a style that was different than both of our solo projects, it was kind of like, both of us would want to cut the song, and we knew that it didn’t really sound like either one of our solo records,” Trent says.

For Amy, there is one song in particular she remembers as the sort of turning point. “I remember a song off our first record called ‘This Can’t Be the Last Time.’

I remember thinking, ‘I really hope he doesn’t want to cut it,’ because I wanted to cut it. I remember going home and being like, this isn’t really an Amy Stroup song either, though, so we had a conversation shortly after and were like, let’s try to write seven or eight more if we can. And we did — in one day we wrote ‘I’ve Got it Covered’ and ‘Show and Tell’. That kind of shows you how fast the inspiration was coming, which doesn’t usually happen with me. I can write a song in one day if I really, really try but it was just pretty effortless.”

As songwriters, Trent and Amy both knew what it looked like when two artists worked well together, and they immediately saw that in their writing together.

“You can’t fake musical chemistry, and the first publishing deal I had, I know I wrote 128 songs, so it was probably 80 different musical blind dates that I had been on, and you just kind of know what songs resonate with you,” Trent says. “Every single time we would write something it really felt effortless and it would surpass these other songs.” Amy, as a writer who likes writing songs for others, recognized that she actually wanted to sing the songs she and Trent wrote, which was new for her.

Both had been writing for some time when they came together. Amy first started her songwriting through her

childhood band, and then professionally co-wrote music with Nathan Chapman while she was in college. Trent came to Nashville looking for a band after the release of his first solo album. “I’ve always wanted to pursue anything affiliated with music,” he says. “Really being a fan of music and being inspired and wanting to learn and grow has fueled everything for me. So, as soon as I got to Nashville and I met my neighbor who had a family and wrote songs, I was like, ‘This is what he does for a living?’ It really fascinated me, so I was like, if I could have anything to do with these people that I listen to all the time, then I feel like it would just have a ripple effect.” After that realization that he could write songs professionally, his focus turned toward writing.

After Trent and Amy decided to form Sugar and the Hi-Lows, their progress as a band came fairly naturally. “I think it caught on relatively quickly, because of the opportunities that we were getting just with touring. It was like, Mark Broussard, Alan Stone, Ingrid Michelson, just one after the other and just bigger and bigger venues and a broader audience,” Trent says. Amy adds, “It felt like we were rolling a snowball. There wasn’t like, ‘Oh, wake up and you’re famous.’ We would take little opportunities and kind of keep rolling it along.”

Living in Nashville, where there is such a huge community of artists, has allowed the duo to keep finding touring opportunities thanks to the connections and friends they have. “I knew [singer] Kacey [Musgraves] because I was set up on a co-write with her, and now we’re touring with her and we’re sharing a band. We know Ingrid because her manager works with these projects that we’re involved in, so then we toured with Ingrid,” Trent says. “None of those things were kind of sitting back, going, ‘How do we get to that bulls-eye?’ It was just a natural progression, thankfully, because I feel like you can hear that and you can feel that when it’s from a genuine place.”

Friends of Trent and Amy did most of the artistic work on their first album. “It was just, who’s around and who’s excited,” Amy says. “One of our really good friends, she does music videos for Little Big Town and Miranda Lambert and all this, but she was like, ‘Hey, I’ll shoot your video.’ We just kind of fell into it more

than strategizing,” Trent adds, “You know these people that are working as hard as they can and as creatively as they can to thrive, so you get to see behind the scenes before the rest of the world gets to meet those people which is the most fun part about living here.”

Sugar and the Hi-Lows released their second album, High Roller, over the summer. They’ve been writing for it over a span of two years, a much longer time span than the month it took them to write their first album. For the first time, they co-wrote a song with another artist.

The title track, “High Roller,” was written with Barry D. “We both have written with Barry independently, and Trent wrote Ingrid’s ‘Girls Chase Boys’ with Barry and Ingrid. We were comfortable independently. He’s great, he’s just one of those guys that you’ll just start having a conversation with, and then he’s like, ‘Oh, here’s a song,’” Amy says.

The song is reminiscent of “The Twist” and other songs from the ‘50s and ‘60s that call out dance moves to the audience. “To me, it was kind of like a dare to myself, like, can we do this, really?”

Trent says. Amy quips, “We wanted the Macarena of indie.” Working with Barry on this song, in particular, allowed it to blossom fully. “He brought out a sense of shamelessness,” says Trent. “Part of the growth in our band is just seriously thinking about what we gravitate toward and just being shameless about it rather than over-analyzing what works, what doesn’t, what people like, let’s just do what we’re into.”

Because both Trent and Amy work and write for other artists, they see the pitfalls writers and musicians can fall into.

“You can kind of see this fear,” Trent says.

“Like, why’s that person second-guessing everything? They have a good voice, or they have this amazing sense of melody, but then they get inside their own heads.”

It allows for a kind of introspection. “It’s trying to teach yourself not to get in your own head,” he adds.

The duo will finish out their tour with Kacey Musgraves, then open for Kings of Leon as their final show of the year.

In January 2016, they’ll play the Cayamo cruise alongside Kacey and other artists like Lucinda Williams. From there, they hope to get back into writing, and, as Amy says, “Keep rolling the snowball.” NKD NKDMAG.COM

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CAM

Words & Photos by CATHERINE POWELL Make-Up by LORRIE TURK Hair by JOHN GRIMES

Between songs about sippin’ on moonshine and picking up girls in trucks, the little break up ballad that could snuck its way onto country radio this summer. “Burning House” was a risky choice for a summer single – especially for a female newcomer – but it worked, and it opened the door for one of country music’s most exciting new artists.

Welcome to Cam Country.

I meet with Camaron Ochs – known by both her friends and fans as just Cam – at the Sinema bar and lounge in Nashville just as the happy hour crowd is filtering in. It’s impossible not to notice her as her curly blonde hair bounces as she walks in, dressed in her signature yellow, her smile just as bright as her outfit. She’s less than a month away from the release of her debut full-length, Untamed, and she’s anxious for fans to finally hear it. After all, it’s been in the works for years.

Cam’s story started a little earlier than planned. The story her parents tell is that Cam was the size of a glass mustard jar and that her dad put her in his shirt pocket to take her home – which is the same story her grandfather told her mother when she was a little girl. Cam adds onto it, saying her father was singing to her the whole way home and that’s where she got her love for singing.

Come fourth grade Cam joined her 40

school’s choir and continued with it all through high school. When she was 16 she started working on arrangements, eventually gravitating toward acapella groups. But even still, Cam did not see music as a valid career path and went to college to study psychology.

She focused on emotions studies at Davis, Berkley and Stanford, which she cites as the reason most of her songs are emotionally based. She was still dabbling in music on the side of her research but hit a point where it was clear it was going to be one or the other.

One of her psychology professors told her to picture herself at 80 years old and ask herself what she would regret giving up more: music or psychology. “So I started writing,” she says.

She moved to Portland for six months and “retired young,” and just started writing and working on demos every day. Through her boyfriend at the time, she met Tyler Johnson, who has become her longest co-writing partner. She moved down to Los Angeles to start working on demos with him because a girl they knew claimed she knew Faith Hill and was going to show her their songs. “People say that to you when you’re younger and you believe them,” she says, laughing.

Somehow, the demo CD Cam and Tyler made ended up in the hands of country singer Maggie Rose, who ended up cutting one of

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the songs on her debut album. Now that her foot was in the door, Cam believed she could make a career out of being a songwriter. “I was too afraid to say I wanted to be an artist,” she admits. She moved to Nashville and was quickly presented with publishing deals.

None of the contracts she received were very impressive, so Cam decided she wanted to go all in and pursue a career as an artist.

Cam decided she was going to do everything she needed to start her career herself, and then come back and show people what she was capable of. “I did a Kickstarter and raised like, $11,000 and made that shit last like Hanukkah,” she says. “I was broke for about three years.” While she would never like to go back to being broke, she describes that time in her life as “an open canvas” and was able to be as creative and as free as she wanted.

Cam was still consistently writing with Taylor, who was working under famed producer and songwriter Jeff Bhasker at the time, who agreed to take a meeting with Cam. “The day before he had told some famous movie star that her music was shit so I thought, ‘Oh man, this is going to be a horrible meeting,’” Cam says. She couldn’t have been more wrong. Jeff told her that every song was a hit and he wanted to champion the record.

Jeff was able to bring some sound design to Untamed that took Cam’s songs to the next level. In “Burning House” there’s a fire crackle in the background that takes the song from a music vacuum and puts it into real life, as Cam explains. Almost two years ago, 90 percent of what Untamed is today was complete and Cam and her team started bringing it to labels.

Cam flew to New York to take a meeting with Sony – thanks to Jeff’s connections – and the team was so impressed they took her upstairs to chairman Doug Morris’ office to play him the songs. Cam, her manager (who was singing background vocals) and longtime collaboration partner Anders Mouridsen performed “Burning House” acoustic. “We end the song and he goes, ‘That’s the reason I got into music, so someone, someday would walk into my door and sing a song just like that,’” she recalls. Doug wanted to sign Cam on the spot, but she quickly referred him to her lawyer to look at contracts. Before the meeting was over, Doug invited Cam to perform at the Songwriters Hall of Fame where he was being inducted as a hit-maker. He’s been one of Cam’s biggest believers since he got involved.

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Cam kicked off 2015 with a bang. Her debut EP, Welcome to Cam Country, was released in March and within less than a month all four songs on it had close to 5 million streams on Spotify – thanks in part to the help of Spotify itself. There is one representative for Spotify in Nashville, and he called Cam’s team and said he had done a campaign with Sam Hunt that yielded great results. “It was one of the first exciting people that wanted to work with me,” Cam says, “When they playlist songs you get such exposure, and that’s such a cool, built-in platform.”

The mass attention from Spotify listeners was a huge help when it came time for Cam to try and get her songs on traditional country radio. “It’s always an investment gamble for all these people to get onboard,” she says. But get onboard they did. “Burning House” is one of only two songs by a new female act to crack the Country Airplay Top 10 – the other one being Kelsea Ballerini’s “Love Me Like You Mean It,” which went to number one.

It’s been a powerful second half of the year for Women in Country, who were referred to as “the tomatoes of [country radio]’s salad” in May and have since been popping up more frequently on the airwaves. For Cam, the idea that women and men are different is just not a mentality that she was raised on.

“I don’t think about my gender often. I don’t think about the fact that I’m a girl. So it was kind of weird to all of a sudden hear, ‘It’s great you’re succeeding even though you’re a girl,’” Cam says. “I thought I was just trying to write good songs.” She believes that if a girl can sing well, people want to hear it. She also hopes that her success this year will encourage new female country artists to set their goals even higher. “As artists, and sometimes as women, you don’t think about the business side of it as much, and you need to be good and creative and all that stuff, but you also need to be smart and don’t think someone else can handle your business for you,” Cam says.

“Burning House” being certified gold was one of Cam’s career highlights, but as someone who is constantly setting new goals

for herself she never really feels like she’s “arrived.” Because she’s constantly traveling it’s hard for her to sit down and let her accomplishments sink in, but a few weeks ago when she surprised Sam Hunt’s block party crowd in downtown Nashville, she truly felt the love. “Since you’re a surprise guest you think maybe people know who you are, but maybe they don’t,” Cam says. “They sang every single word and put their little phone lighters up.

I don’t know what else in the world unifies 10,000 people for three minutes other than music.” Those are the moments she looks back on and knows it’s worth “being tired all the time.”

Part of Cam’s exhaustion may have come from her wanting and choosing to be involved in every aspect of her record – especially the songwriting. “I’m in no way excited about

met, but in most cases, the amount of involvement Cam wants isn’t an option.

Oddly enough, her near-perfect situation came to life a few years ago when Miley Cyrus cut Cam’s ballad “Maybe You’re Right” on her 2013 album Bangerz. While in Los Angeles, Cam and Tyler were sent to work on a song with Mike Will, who executive produced Miley’s album. He had a track done and asked if Cam could write on top of it. She went into the vocal booth and listened to the track for 20 minutes and tried to get into Miley’s headspace, but Mike encouraged her to just do her.

She began reminiscing on a past relationship and wrote the chorus – just as it sounds on the record – right then and there. While working on verses, Mike said he was going to the club and came back a little while later with Miley, who immediately loved the song.

“She sang everything with the same emotion that I was feeling,” Cam says. “That is the best way to do it, if you’re going to do it.”

It’s clear that Cam’s main priority with her career is to make sure her vision and her stories are portrayed as accurately as possible.

Untamed is almost exactly what it was when Cam first presented it to Sony – she was just able to glitter it up a bit and add things like pedal steel guitars now that she had a budget behind her. Because she is constantly writing, a few newer songs snuck their way onto the record and beat out older ones that she didn’t feel were as strong in comparison. “Cold In California” and “Runaway Train” are two of the newer songs that made the cut.

Even though Cam has been sitting with some of these songs for three years now, she’s not bored of them. “I think I get to fall in love with them in different ways, kind of like how you have a long-term relationship with people,” she says. How they were recorded is just one version of the song, but when performing them live they all take on a new life.

Now that fans are getting to slowly hear these new songs, getting feedback also puts them into a new light. While these songs are perfect according to Cam’s standards, how they sit with an audience isn’t up to her. “Having

“I GET UP AT 5 A.M. MOST MORNINGS, I THINK I’VE HAD FIVE DAYS OFF IN THE PAST TWO MONTHS... TO DO THAT FOR SOMEONE ELSE’S MUSIC? I DON’T THINK SO.” or wanting to be a celebrity,” she says. “What I really want to be is really good at music. I want to be the best I can be.” It was extremely important to her, and for that reason she writes every single song she sings. The idea of singing someone else’s music wasn’t even a thought that crossed her mind while creating Untamed. “I get up at 5 a.m. most mornings, I think I’ve had five days off in the past two months…To do that for someone else’s music? I don’t think so,” she says.

Ironically, now that Cam is establishing herself as her own artist, she’s more open to the idea of writing songs for other people – but she has her conditions. If someone else were to cut one of her songs, she would need to make sure it was done her way and that the person singing the song really understood it.

In a perfect world, her terms would always be

people come up to me and tell me how [the story of a song] is just like them is really cool to me,” she says.

Having these extremely personal encounters with fans is partly why Cam chose to go by just Cam and not her full name. “There’s a familiarity. When I write these songs I’m trying to be extremely vulnerable and tell these stories as real as I can. And it’s what I would tell my friends, and Cam is what my friends call me,” she says. “Most people who come up afterwards, if they get the music, they’ll be like, ‘Oh my God, I think we could be friends!’” The more people that she can connect with, the more successful she feels she is.

This has been the busiest year of Cam’s life so far, and 2016 is shaping up to be just as hectic. She’s kicking the year off opening up for Brad Paisley on the Crushin’ It World Tour, and then will head over to Australia for a festival. She’ll be on tour all of next year and can’t wait to call a tour bus home. She spent most of the second half of the year on airplanes traveling between radio stations playing her song and random one-off shows with whoever wanted her to play. “If you ever meet a first year country artist, just give them a hug. Even if you don’t like their music, they’re just working so hard,” she says.

Cam’s hard work has sure been paying off, and she has been welcomed into the country music community with open arms. During CMA Festival in June, Keith Urban cited Cam as the new artist he was most excited about.

A few weeks ago Reese Witherspoon posted about her and Eric Church had nothing but compliments when asked about her. “It just doesn’t feel real,” she says. “But it’s nice. People who work so hard and know what goes into all of this…The fact that they can appreciate what I’m doing…There’s an extra level of compliment to that.”

Cam’s lifetime career goals list is never-ending, but when asked what she’d like to accomplish by this time next year her answers are clear: she wants Untamed to go at least gold, she wants to be well into writing her second album and she wants to be three-quarters of the way through writing a musical. She’ll also be married by next fall and hopes that she has a great wedding party and honeymoon.

But for right now she’s just focused on releasing Untamed and getting into as many ears as possible, because at the end of the day she’s nothing short of proud of it. “There’s nothing I would change about this album,” Cam says, smiling. NKD NKDMAG.COM

49

AS IT IS Words by BRITTANY LAMBAU Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

As It Is barely has two weeks off between ending their U.S. tour with Mayday Parade and starting their U.K. tour with Lower Than Atlantis, but it’s a schedule they’re used to at this point.

Since their debut album, Never Happy, Ever After was released in April, fastpaced is the only way they know how to operate.

NKD: Give us the brief history of As It Is. Patty Walters: To very concisely summarize our life story, the five of us met while studying in Brighton, England. Most of us didn’t know one 50

another until we came together and formed [the band]. We were all just alike in our passions and determinations and musical tastes. We’ve become the first U.K. band ever to sign to Fearless Records, and we’ve toured on four continents since then, so we’re super pleased about those [things].

NKD: Tell us about the writing and recording process behind the new album.

PW: We spent a very unrelenting four months together writing our debut record Never Happy, Ever After. We wrote it more collaboratively than we

had written previously – no song on the record wasn’t in some way shaped by each of us. We recorded it with James Paul Wisner just over a year ago now, and it was one of the most mentally and physically demanding things we’ve ever done. Prior, the longest we’d spent in an actual studio was five days, and we spent six weeks recording NHEA, so it was a much more grand, challenging and rewarding project.

NKD: How has the reception been?

PW: We were so incredibly anxious before releasing the first couple

songs from the album, but they and the album were received even better than we’d hoped, really. NHEA was so warmly welcomed by our fans, and we’ve heard countless and amazing stories about what it’s meant to and how it’s helped people all over the world.

We can’t ask for more than that.

NKD: How has your writing process changed since you first became a band?

PW: We adamantly write as collaboratively as possible. That didn’t used to be the case, and we credit that as a key factor in our songwriting improving

over these years. Nobody is bound to any one instrument or role when writing, and the five of us have to be fully happy with each song before it’s deemed finished.

favorite tour to date because of the people. We’ve made some very amazing friends with all the bands, crews and generous outsiders that we’ve met because of this tour.

NKD: How did the AP tour go?

PW: The AP Tour has unanimously been our favorite tour to date. Due to a number of factors (mostly monetary), we’ve tackled this tour with no crew or additions to our touring party. We play shows, drive through the days and nights, sell merch, etcetera on our own. It’s proved equal parts exhausting and rewarding. But it’s also been our

NKD: What else is coming up for the band?

PW: We tackle our final tour of the year not long at all from now. We’ll have played close to 200 shows this year, so it’s been an incredible and relentless year for us. We’re planning to spend a large portion of 2016 writing our second album, which we’re all so hugely excited to begin. NKD NKDMAG.COM

51

TARYN SOUTHERN Words by SHELBY CHARGIN Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

Taryn Southern had always had a constant need for adventure. When she was younger, she was very much a tomboy. “I was a total dork,” the singer and YouTube star says, laughing. She studied anthropology at the University of Miami, hoping to work on documentaries. “I was really into studying weird cultures and rituals,” she says. “I was just always really interested in studying other people. I don’t really know how I ended up in the underbelly of Los Angeles pursuing entertainment, and YouTube was a really strange offshoot from that.” After graduating from college at just 20 years old, Taryn stayed in Miami working at a job she hated, and saving up money before sending a tape to Discovery Channel to test for a new show.

Although the show didn’t pan out, the

test led to her signing with an agent in Los Angeles, and a relocation to start something completely different for her life. “I said sure, I’ll come out to L.A. for six months, and I just never left,” she says. Taryn has been working in entertainment ever since. “I feel like one of the older people here, at the convention,” she says, laughing, referring to StreamCon, a digital content creator convention. Back when she started her YouTube career, there wasn’t much money to be made, if any. She was pursuing traditional entertainment and at one point had her own travel show. “I went around the world and met my MySpace friends,” she says. It was this that led her to the online entertainment world. She loved the new take on media. It took a couple of years, a lot of soul searching and a regular working schedule

in TV to make it clear to Taryn that the YouTube community was for her.

“I launched my YouTube channel in 2012, and I told my agents, ‘Don’t bother sending me out on auditions for six months,’ and it came at a perfect time because I really needed a break, and I just never went back,” she says. Taryn’s gradual climb on YouTube is a pretty unique story, as she’s seen the beginnings of how social media and entertainment can work together. “I do other things, but YouTube is my core, as far as career,” she says.

Making herself standout was one of the most difficult parts of kickstarting her YouTube career. “I think the thing that did make it easier for me, to be perfectly honest, because I had made…three videos that had all done well, so I knew a lot of the

YouTubers and I was creating content,” she says. “So when I launched my channel, half the YouTubers were like, ‘Wait you don’t actually have a channel? We’ve known you forever you’ve always been a part of this community.’ So as a result I had these people I could call and could collaborate with.

It just helped get a jump start,” she says. “It’s just getting harder and harder every single year.”

It was in 2011 when Taryn realized YouTube was going to be a big thing. “I think it was when I started seeing that jobs I would normally go after as a TV host were going to people with large followings.

Not necessarily YouTube stars, but people with large followings,” she says. Taryn knew she needed to gain the following that she wasn’t getting by creating content for other companies. She wasn’t building her own content or creating her own fan base, and it was necessary for her to do so to thrive.

“All of these things just started happening in 2010 and 2011 and then I think it was in 2012 when all these YouTubers, I think it was Michelle Fawn, started raising money for their companies.” Taryn was making money before her fan base came along, which was the opposite of what typical YouTubers were doing. However, the money was coming in from a lifestyle she wasn’t happy with.

“I had to spend money first before I made any back,” she says. “To this day I think I’ve spent more money on my content then I’ve made through Google Ads. You don’t make your money that way.

At my size it’s negligible.” Taryn notes that basic vlogging and creating quick, efficient content involves a smaller monetary investment, but requires a big time investment.

“For me, I was making these expensive music videos when I first started…and that costs money. So the money for me always is more from brand deals, speaking engagements, and then working with traditional media companies on projects where they want to implement YouTubers and all that,” she says. It’s a practical business practice that allows her to really have the lifestyle she wanted, while still being able to build a career.

Her need to create her own schedule and lifestyle really helped push her away from the traditional media aspect of the entertainment industry. “I told my agents I can’t audition anymore, it’s just not going to happen. So that automatically rules out a lot

of opportunities, period. That being said, I’ve still done a couple of guest star [spots], justlittle things. And then movie stuff has come up but I had to turn it all down because I can’t leave L.A.,” Taryn says. Her view on working in the traditional industry is one that’s becoming more popular. The demand of certain roles and auditions can be very stressful, and for someone so full of life and light like Taryn, YouTube and the social media community allow her to share herself in the most positive way. “I don’t really miss it. I love having my own schedule, I feel like I’m in control of my life again,” she says.

Between YouTube and everything she does for fun, her life’s work surrounds her creativity and the content she’s looking to create. Between YouTube events, working on other channels as a collaborator and all of the live streaming projects she does, YouTube keeps her busy, and working. “It’s not necessarily my channel,” she says. “It’s everything that goes along with it.”

Taryn loves YouTube because it opens her up to explore things like psychology, and her music. Although her family and friends didn’t always understand the decision to move on from acting into YouTube and social media culture, she knew it was going to be the best thing for her. “Ultimately it’s not about doing things for other people, and I’m doing what makes me happy,” she says.

Her new talk show - which lives on her YouTube channel - is an almost 5-year-old idea. “There’s been various iterations of this idea that I have been working on for literally four to five years,” she says.”As it exists now, Party Fun Times With Taryn is a celebration of all of the crazy fun things on the internet. Instead of having traditional media stars, we have guests who are making waves online. People that are the fascination of the Internet, those are my guests.”

Between being one of the earliest social media influencers, and having left traditional acting for YouTube, Taryn is a fine example of how a YouTube channel can turn into a successful and happy career.

“This community is legitimately a community,” she says of YouTube. “I think just the fact that our businesses grow because of collaborations makes it to where people have to be supportive. The inherent nature of our industry means that we have to be collaborative.” NKD

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