NKD Mag - Issue #55 (January 2016)

JAN. actors:

04 KYLE HARRIS on glasses, the girl and staying alive

30 PAULINA SINGER a curly haired humanitarian

40 NICO TORTORELLA on starting young and younger

54 COREY FOGELMANIS

22 DAVID COOK

from idol to digital vein

26 CRUISR indie rock’s next big thing

32 COPELAND less breaks, more music

36 LINDSAY ELL country’s fiercest up-and-comer

girl meets world’s voice of reason

50 AGAINST THE CURRENT

musicians:

bringing arena rock to the clubs

14 ANDREW RIPP

double threats:

new record, new team, same dreams

16 LOLO backstage with the coolest girl in music

08 CHRIS CARMACK

nashville’s multitalented gentleman

publisher: CATHERINE POWELL

editors: CATHERINE POWELL NICOLA PRING

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

photography: CATHERINE POWELL

design: CATHERINE POWELL

KYLE HARRIS Words by KC ORCUTT Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

When actor Kyle Harris first saw himself on television, he was sitting on the couch in the middle of the day, unemployed. Throughout his career, Kyle has remained optimistic and puts trust in his career path, something he has been doing from the vey beginning.

The young actor, born and raised in Irvine, Calif., went from being an ambitious soccer player to appearing on The Carrie Diaries and playing a lead role in Freeform’s Stitchers.

“I grew up as a soccer player,” says Kyle. “My whole life, that was the plan. I was going to go play overseas and then I decided to do the school musical for an art credit because I was dating a girl and she was like, ‘You should do the musical.’”

This influential suggestion ended up working in Kyle’s favor. He transitioned from athlete to serious actor, and decided to go to college for musical theater. Kyle’s parents were supportive but confused —he remembers they told the young aspiring actor/ athlete he had to pick his poison, and that, regardless of his choice, it was going to be difficult. Kyle was clearly up for the challenge.

Going from playing soccer at a competitive level to auditioning at the University at Arizona made Kyle feel like his life was an episode of Glee.

“Everyone was like, ‘What are you doing?’ But I got in, and I learned very quickly that I was not great because I hadn’t had the training,” Kyle says, laughing. “So I trained there for four years, graduated in 2008 and moved to New York in January 2009.”

After six months of being a waiter in the city, Kyle landed his first acting job — on Broadway. Appearing in the musical Sondheim On Sondheim led him to his second acting job touring

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with West Side Story. After a year and a half of touring the country, Kyle got hungry for television.

“I was burnt out by musical theater at the time and I wanted to see if I could do television,” Kyle says. His family was delighted when Stitchers brought their son back home to California.

A combination of hard work, good luck and timing brought him onto Stitchers. “I was very lucky, but it was interesting,” Kyle says. “I was doing auditions for Hair and Spring Awakening, all these edgier rock shows and all of a sudden I get this Sondheim show and West Side Story, and it was like, maybe I’m a classic guy after all. Regardless, I was very lucky and very happy to tell my restaurant that I wouldn’t be coming back in to work.”

While touring with West Side Story, performing eight shows a week, traveling on days off and opening in a brand new city each night, Kyle learned that little things can have a large impact on your performance abilities, such as allergies, mold and things that can impact your voice. Although inspired by the work, following the closure of the tour run, Kyle decided he wanted to try his hand at television.

“For me, I always thought I was doing the same thing but in a different medium,” he says, of his transition from stage to screen. “Of course, there are different techniques involved but doing it on set for the first time was on The Carrie Diaries reminded me, ‘Oh okay, you’re still interacting with a human being but there just so happens to be a camera over there.’”

Coming back for a second season of Stitchers, Kyle has less nervous energy than before and a little bit more confidence, much like returning for a sophomore year in high school. His character, Cameron Goodkin, is flatlining, with every character around him going into a panic. While the Cameron’s future is uncertain, Kyle is hoping he pulls through, so that he can take the character on as a different version of himself, as affected by this near death experience and able to elevate his character to the next level.

Kyle is also happy that fans responded well to his relationship on the show, saying, “You’re doing a procedural sci-fi drama, yet at the same time, you’re rooting for these people and their relationships despite everything that’s going on around them in this fantasy world.

So you kind of know, like, no matter what I still have created a human character that they are responding to.”

Social media has played an integral role to the success of the show, and Kyle wasn’t prepared for the overwhelming interaction he has seen since the first season aired.

Freeform did warn him it would be coming, but Kyle was more focused on filming and seeing how the first day went.

“As soon it aired, it blew up,” he says. “It’s awesome because you get to meet or see people, the people that you are doing it all for and it makes those long days worth it. At the end of the day, people do live for it. It’s encouraging and inspiring to put your foot down and just do the work because on the other side of things people are loving what you’re doing. It keeps us going.”

While Kyle hopes that his character pulls through on the show, he also understands that television these days is cut throat, using the example of Game of Thrones chopping characters off.

“It’s almost like what people like to see in a way, so I understand but at the same time, I would like a job,” he says. “I was watching it in my apartment and seeing my character flat line and I was like, ‘What if that’s just it? What if it ends here?’

Luckily we as a show get the chance to tell the story whether it is with Cameron or not. I hope it is. I think the fans would like that too but we’ll see.”

And just like that, he could very well be back on his couch watching himself on TV, unemployed again.

The excitement and optimism Kyle has for his acting career is part of his charm. His passion for acting isn’t going anywhere soon, even if his character on Stitchers might be. NKD NKDMAG.COM

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CHRIS CARMACK Words & Photos by CATHERINE POWELL Location CARTER VINTAGE GUITARS

One listen to his debut EP, Pieces of You, and it’s clear that Chris Carmack doesn’t have much in common with the guy he was typecast to play for the better part of his career. His on-screen persona as the dumb guy who was kind of a dick followed him for 10 years after his starring role as Luke Ward in FOX’s cult drama The O.C. But when he stepped in to play Will Lexington in ABC’s music-infused drama Nashville, he was finally able to break free of the role he’d played a dozen times, and play someone a little closer to home: a kind-hearted, sort of goofy guy with an unwavering love and talent for music and songwriting.

Chris is like a kid in a candy shop when we meet at Carter Vintage Guitars in Nashville. A self-proclaimed guitar nerd, Chris wanders the store, playing everything the store owners will let him touch – which is pretty much everything. He shares guitar stories and facts with the employees, which serves as a subtle reminder that though acting is what brought him to Nashville, he and his cast mates really do know how to play. We walk next door to grab coffee – and inadvertently hold up the line arguing over who will pick up the tab.

Once we settle the matter, (I won) we grab a seat inside and I ask him to start from the beginning. His eyes bulge and he laughs, warning me that he can talk a lot.

Chris was born in Washington D.C. and raised just outside of the city in Derwood, Md. Growing up he had the best of both worlds: access to the city and woods to wander. When he got to high school he joined the theater program and eventually moved on to 8

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study theatre at New York University. “I dropped out after two years because I was unsure of what I was doing there,” he admits. “It felt like I was wasting my time, a little bit.”

The attempt at college wasn’t a fully wasted opportunity, though, as one of Chris’ professors was directing a play in Los Angeles and invited Chris to play the lead. He landed both an agent and a manager from it and opted to stay in California.

Like most actors, Chris didn’t book a role right away, and as a result had a lot of free time. He didn’t know anyone in L.A. and had trouble making friends while he was there. “It took a toll on me, so I spent a lot of time playing guitar,” he says. He spent his last $1,500 on a Gibson Les Paul that he still has today.

After a year and a half of living in California, Chris booked The O.C., which he refers to as “a game changer.”

“The first day it aired, I was taking my laundry to the Laundromat and everyone there was pointing at me,” Chris says. “It was very disconcerting. It was the first time that had ever happened to me, so I took my dirty laundry and I left.”

While filming The O.C., Chris continued to play and write music in his spare time. While jogging down Venice Beach one day he met Scotty – “an old Blues man from Mississippi” – after he heard blues rock coming from a club and had to check it out. “He was just singing the blues like I had never heard them before,” Chris says. Chris watched Scotty’s whole set and approached him afterward to tell him how much he enjoyed and appreciated it. He mentioned he had been trying to learn blues guitar and Scotty offered to teach him.

After six months of phone tag, Chris went over to Scotty’s house and jammed.

The two eventually started a blues band that would perform in Scotty’s backyard. “I learned a lot from him. Not just on guitar – he taught me how to cook, wanted to teach me how to garden…,” Chris recalls.

The escape to blues rock was much needed while Chris was filming The O.C., which as pivotal of a project as it was for his career, was not the most inspiring. “I felt like the character was really an informational tool for other

characters,” he says. “But as a young actor I threw everything I had into it.

There was no stone unturned in the psychology of Luke for me.” He found it hard as a 23-year-old to play a 17-yearold who cared about things Chris couldn’t care less about.

After his time on The O.C., Chris worked on various television shows, movies and mini series and felt like things were going well. He landed an off-Broadway play in New York titled Entertaining Mr. Sloane with Alec Baldwin. Directly after, he booked the Tennessee Williams play Summer and Smoke in the West End in London and thought, “it doesn’t get better than that.”

His time doing theater tallied up to a year away from Los Angeles, but he anticipated his return would go smoothly because he’d been able to work on his craft. However, that was not the case.

Casting directors across the city had completely forgotten about him and in many ways he needed to start fresh – but this time with the ghost of Luke Ward on his back. As much as Chris appreciates the blessing that was The O.C. and his character on it, coming back to L.A. and having that role be the thing people pinned him to resulted in years of typecasting. “I would get cast as [characters like] Luke over and over again, but was working enough that I could keep my head above water and survive as an actor,” he says. It wasn’t until he booked Nashville in 2013 that he was able to escape that.

“I thought, finally I can throw not only all of myself as an actor into a role, but all of myself as a musician into a role,” Chris says of Will Lexington, his character on Nashville. And throw himself in he did. In preparation for his audition, Chris studied Jason Aldean videos in an attempt to bring an overthe-top energy to the character. “I can perform big,” he says. “I had an on-stage routine.” From the first audition, show runner Callie Khouri knew Chris was a performer who could fill a stadium – and that’s exactly what they wanted for Will. “They wanted someone who could be a star,” he says.

During the first few seasons, Will was a larger than life character. He was a country musician on the rise, drinking himself silly and burying the secret NKDMAG.COM

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of his sexuality under a reality show marriage to fellow singer, Layla Grant (Aubrey Peeples). “He’s a much more developed person, now,” Chris says of present day Will. After coming out at the end of season three, Will’s life took a turn and the stadium performances stopped. Leading into the mid-season finale of season four, Will began working with a publisher as a songwriter – a craft Chris is very passionate about himself.

Though Chris has been writing songs since he was a little kid, it wasn’t until recently he felt like there was somewhat of a demand for a Chris Camrack record. While living in L.A. he would play gigs around town, but still felt like he was only doing music for himself.

“I thought about making recordings, but I didn’t want to be another actor making music,” he says. “I did it to stay sane between acting jobs.” However, his role on Nashville has brought him into professional studios across town with some of the best musicians in the country. Recording Will’s songs for the show gave Chris enough confidence to start recording his own songs.

His first recording session for the show brought him to T Bone Burnett’s home studio in Los Angeles. “This was no more than 12 hours after I got the job,” he recalls, laughing. While he’s used to it now, Chris had never been in the position where he had to learn a song overnight. But the experience was great and Chris left the session feeling good. Two days later he was in Nashville recording more songs for the show’s soundtrack.

Given the success of the show and the clear interest in original music from Chris, finding a label to release his songs wouldn’t be all that difficult.

But Chris opted to release his EP, Pieces of You, independently, which he calls a “strange blessing and a curse.” He is able to make the music he wants to make, and put it out on his own timeline – but he has to do it all himself. “It’s really hard to be acting on a series and acting as your own label, at the same time,” he says. “But the creative aspect is very rewarding.”

Pieces of You has been a long time coming for Chris. When he initially booked the role of Will, it was for a

six-episode guest star appearance in season one, with the possibility of it becoming a series regular role in season two. At the end of season one, Chris approached the producers and asked them if his return was a safe bet, because if it was, he wanted to be all in. With a wink, the producers suggested it was looking good, so Chris spent the hiatus getting his house in Los Angeles ready for sale.

When he got the call that he would be returning, he put his house up for sale and officially moved to Nashville.

Coming back after that summer off, Chris knew that if he was going to be taking up residence in Music City, he wanted to really commit to working on his own music. Initially considering pursuing a career in country music, Pieces of You ended up as a blues-infused singer/songwriter EP – partly because he wanted to do justice to the musician he had been trying to be for years, and partly because his producers heard some old songs of his and convinced him to record them professionally. “These are songs that were developed over a long period of time, and are part of my journey as a person, as well as my journey as a musician,” Chris says. While adjustments were made to the five songs that ended up on the EP, they are songs that Chris has been singing for years.

Now that Pieces of You is officially out, Chris is hoping it leads to more performance opportunities this year. He’ll be filming Nashville through April and anticipates that the cast will be heading out on their annual concert tour shortly after. Chris has no idea if he will pick up filming again in July, but is hoping they can get at least one more season. But if the show ended tomorrow, Chris would stay in Nashville for at least a little while.

“What I’ve always said since I’ve been here is, if I can make music a viable arena for me to make a living in, I would love to stick it out and see if I could do it for awhile,” Chris says. While filming, it’s been hard for Chris to develop that side of himself in terms of monetary success, so he would like to take some time to give it 100 percent before he heads back to L.A. “I’m in no hurry to get back to Los Angeles, and I’m in no hurry to get back to what I had been doing for 15 years,” he says. “I think I’ll stick around.” NKD NKDMAG.COM

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ANDREW RIPP

Words by VANESSA SALLES Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

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Get ready for the year of Andrew Ripp. The singer-songwriter, born and raised in Palatine, Ill., has been slowly but surely winning over the hearts of music lovers. Throughout the years, his songs have been featured on hit series such as One Tree Hill, The Vampire Diaries and The Bachelor in Paradise. Since then, Andrew’s tunes have found a happy home in the iTunes libraries of many. Of course, to understand and appreciate such success, it’s important to learn just how it happened.

Music has always been a passion for Andrew. “At the end of high school, I decided I’d like to be a musician,” he says. “I just kind of found my voice and decided to move out to California. At the time, there were a couple of friends of mine already living out there. I moved in with some of my buddies and that’s where I started writing.” From there, it was one opportunity after another.

“In the batch of the first 10 songs I wrote, five of them wound up in the hands of Ryan Cabrera,” he says.

“He cut those five songs and then I ended up writing a couple more with him. I was like, ‘What the heck is going on?’ I was 21 years old and my songwriting was supporting me.

I really thought it was going to be my career because those doors just started swinging open. I think I got really lucky with it.”

Fast forward a few years, and things really started happening for Andrew’s music career. “At the time, I had a lot of songs that people weren’t cutting,” he says. “I really wanted them to be heard so I thought, if people weren’t cutting them, I’d do it myself. So, I decided to make my own record. That was back in 2006, 2007, but it didn’t come out until 2008. I got to work with Dan Lavery, who’s in a band called Tonic, and it was really cool to be able to work him because, back in high school, Tonic was my jam.” The recording process, which had its fair share of roadblocks, led Andrew from L.A. back to Chicago.

“It took awhile to release the record because of our busy schedules,” he says. “Dan got called to play bass

for The Fray and so he was actually gone for a year. When he got back, we finished the record and I decided to move back to Chicago to release it. L.A. just had so much going on and there’s always so much competition. The album was just one of those records where we put it up on iTunes and there it was. No promo, no nothing.”

The debut album, Fifty Miles to Chicago, didn’t need a massive marketing plan to get the attention it deserved. “I got a call from a guy called Dave Barnes, who had heard one of the songs off my record and really loved it,” he says. “He wanted me to open some shows for him and so I did that. Within the first five minutes of conversation, we were just really good friends. It was one of those connections. He told me he’d love to have me out in Nashville with him and maybe make a record together.” Andrew, who’s not one to pass up on life-changing opportunities, decided to make the move.

“That door swung right open and I just ran through it,” he recalls. “My wife and I moved down to Nashville and that’s where I made my next record, She Remains The Same. Dave really helped me to find a fan base.

He introduced me to all the fans he already had. We were embraced very quickly. I felt welcome before I even got there. It’s such a small zone and Dave really knew everyone. When he was like, ‘Hey, you guys need to listen to this dude,’ people did.”

Those were the same people who made his release the No. 1 record on the singer-songwriter chart. “It stayed there for five days,” Andrew says. “I was like, ‘Whoa, is this real?

It was just my wife and I. That was it, that was my team and somehow and we made it work. It was such a great time.”

Today, the great times have just kept on rolling. Andrew’s latest album, available now on iTunes, is his best one yet. “My latest album is self-titled,” he says. “The reason is because, after making three fulllength records, I’ve really found my voice. I’m not making music because I need it to sell or be liked. I just

make music because it’s what I do.

It’d be nice to have a hit song and it’d be great if that happened but I really just try to be as honest as I can be on my records. This last release is very ‘me’ and the reaction has been awesome. It’s been better than any other record, which is a really good thing.”

Creating such an authentic album meant doing some soul searching.

Andrew looked fear, and anything else that held him back, in the eye and well, kicked its ass. “When you’re not tuned into the fact that fear exists, you’re run by it,” he says.

“It’s in everybody and it’s only when you focus on it and fight back, that you can get out of it. You have to recognize it for what it is first. A lot of this record had a lot to do with me learning what fear is and where it comes from. I started gathering wisdom from a lot of people who lived in a way that I wanted to live. It wasn’t that I was in fear all the time, I just wasn’t recognizing that it was a thing. Now that I know, there’s so much peace on the other side.”

That newfound peace is what’s going to make 2016 the year of Andrew Ripp. Along with a brand new headlining tour, Andrew hopes to debut a brand new sound. “I don’t see myself in the singer-songwriter world for my next record,” he says.

“I think I’m going more into the pop world. Of course, there’ll always be that certain element to the way that I write; it’ll just be whatever I’m feeling.” When it comes to tour goals, fellow one-man act, Ed Sheeran, has been a big inspiration. “The goal is to be selling out stadiums,” Andrew says. “Ed’s really blowing the roof off of that right now. I’m excited about the idea of making a huge pop record and really aiming for the stars and swinging with all that I’ve got.

I’ve never done that so I’m looking forward to it. I feel really strongly that I’m supposed to be writing a huge record right now so I’m just excited about the future. This is just scratching the surface and people are really eating it up, which I love.

Man, it feels good when you put your heart on the line and people respond.” NKD NKDMAG.COM

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LOLO

Words by TANYA TRANER Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

Singer LOLO, (Lauren Pritchard) is a traditional southern girl at heart. Born and raised in Jackson, Tenn., she was always singing and writing as a kid. She started doing regional theater at nine years old. “If you looked at us from the outside, you would have thought I had a crazy ass stage mom, and I didn’t,” she says. “I was a little kid going, ‘I want to do this but I don’t know exactly how.’”

Her parents didn’t force her to be in the industry. “It was all of us going on a big journey, and a big adventure together just trying to help me make my dreams come true.” Her parents spent their life savings trying to actualize her love of performing. At 16, she and her mother moved to Los Angeles for two years, which was really hard for her parents as they had to be apart for that time. “I’m very fortunate that

I had parents who never questioned me. They always really believed in me, in my need to do this. They were willing to sacrifice as much as I have been over these years.”

At the time of our interview, LOLO has just said goodbye to her parents after a crazy few days of music. They came to New York to see the musical she wrote, and they got to see her perform at a huge radio show at the Beacon Theater in New York City. They watched a Brooklyn Nets game where she was invited to sing the National Anthem. “For them to see that it was worth it, all of the risk, all of the sacrifices, all of the money, all of the time, all of the tears – it has amounted to something,” she says.

And it certainly has. Before she adopted her stage name, Lauren landed a gig right out of high school at 18 in an off-Broadway

play, Spring Awakening. Originally, it was just a six-month contract, but a few weeks before the end of the run, the cast was told the show was being transferred to Broadway. “The entire experience was surreal, and we were all so young, we didn’t know what to expect,” she says.

Most of the actors were still in high school at the time, but she says they were able to stay kids because they all had each other, and they all genuinely got along.

“We just tried to have as much fun as we could, and I think that helped tremendously in keeping our youth, and not being totally jaded by what was happening to us, or not letting it go straight to our heads.”

She went on to sign a record deal with Universal Island Records, and has since signed with Pete Wentz’s label, DCD2 records alongside artists like Panic! at

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the Disco and Fall Out Boy. She says she feels like the odd ball at the label, because her music is nothing like theirs, but it’s never mattered. “Even though the music doesn’t sound the same, it’s derived from the same motivation of being strong, not being afraid to say who you are, and saying what you need to say,” she says. “I can’t even imagine what a happier home would be as an artist.”

Now, LOLO is involved on the other side of musicals — not as a performer but as a writer. She collaborated with Michael Kimmel, who wrote the script for the musical Songbird, and she wrote the music and lyrics to bring it to life on stage.The two worked for two and a half years, holding readings to drum up interest, finding a producer and finding a theater.

“We are very lucky that the

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stars aligned for us,” she says.

Songbird is based on the old Chekov play, The Seagull, written in 1895. Their adaptation includes 10 cast members who are also the band. “We are not a traditional musical, the songs don’t drive the story, they comment on the emotional value.”

The show ran through December 6th at 59 East 59th Street Theater in Manhattan. The show was quite the success – it was noted as a “Critic’s Pick” in The New York Times, and was extended an extrea week.

Despite all her success in New York City, LOLO recently moved back to her hometown in Tennessee. “I’ve been away from [my family] for so long, and I’m still very close to [them],” she says. She wants to make sure her downtime means family time.

She says the move is also very helpful creatively. “I’m already a

workaholic, I’m already ADHD so what happens when I get into a bigger city and you get into the hustle and bustle of life, it’s the perfect storm for me to work myself to death, and I will.”

Moving back has also given LOLO a new passion: teaching songwriting lessons to kids. She found the gig through her old middle school and high school vocal coach, who had students who were serious about writing and performing. “I have students as young as 10 that started writing, and they just need a little guidance,” she says. “They’re all pretty brilliant. It’s been honestly the most rewarding thing to be able to do that.”

She also notes that she gets to provide a sort of therapy to these kids. Growing up as a creative type, she says she was bullied by kids who just didn’t understand what she was doing. “It’s been

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interesting seeing these kids who are being bullied because they’re a little different, and they’re a little more artsy fartsy, and they want to write about their feelings, and their feelings are actually pretty deep and pretty hurt.”

She remembers what it was like trying to dissect her own feelings about being bullied.

She says she was lucky to have such a strong support system at home to consistently help work against the bullying, and it feels good to be able to pass that on to the kids and to be part of their support system. “They’re profound without even realizing it which is the amazing part about it.” To those who don’t have the support system she was lucky enough to have, LOLO says she has two pieces of advice. Firstly, “Remember that it’s not about you, it’s about the other person.

That’s the larger thing, it always

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comes from insecurity.” And secondly, “Remember that nothing is ever as bad as it seems,” she says. “When you’re so young, everything is very immediate, everything is so dire, everything is very dramatic. This is all you know. You haven’t been on the planet very long so you don’t have anything to juxtapose it.

Being strong and speaking your mind, there’s never ever anything wrong with that. And if someone is making you feel [bad] for being that way, maybe it’s because they don’t know how to use their own voice.”

LOLO’s work has even been immortalized in her hometown at The Carnegie’s Music Museum. Everything from a poster from Spring Awakening, to her tour outfit, to her album with Island Records, to a “Relly” award she won for go-go dancing on the Regis and Kelly Show is on

display beside the likes of Tina Turner, Carl Perkins and other influential musicians and music movers in Tennessee.

This year, LOLO has some exciting things in store. She did a bit of songwriting on the new Panic! at the Disco album, Death of a Bachelor, which comes out this month. She’s also releasing her latest album, Weapon for Saturday, this spring. She will also be working on a Songbird cast album, as well as trying to find the play a permanent home. But most importantly in the coming year, she wants to continue to be true to herself. “I want, when people listen to music that I write, whether it’s something for me, something for someone else, or something from Songbird, to remember that it’s come very honestly from me. Never forget to be who you are, and to say what you need to say.” NKD

DAVID COOK Words by SHELBY CHARGIN Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

Hailing from Blue Springs, Miss., David Cook had a unique rise to his musical success. Having been in bands for 10 years, and pursuing music full time on and off until his big break on American Idol, David had seen many things about both sides of the industry through his rise to being one of the most recognized rock stars of the 2000s. “I certainly don’t regret it for a minute…” he says of Idol. “I played in bands in Tulsa and Kansas City for 10 years…Idol afforded me that opportunity.”

David has seen much success throughout his career, although he doesn’t like to think he’s gotten all of his success yet. “I think working with a particular chip on my shoulder has always kind of helped me because I think that moment of, ‘I’ve made it’ kind of constitutes, ‘OK, I can stop,’ and I don’t believe in stopping. I choose to believe that maybe I haven’t made it yet.”

It’s this outlook that has always kept him searching for the right team to get behind his music. “First and foremost you want people on your team who believe in…your musical style and really what you want… Idol’s certainly a way to get your foot in the door,” David says. Throughout his time after Idol, he’s been on three labels, each for enough time to give him the chance to 22

learn what he wants and likes. “I think where I’m at now, I’ve got a pretty solid team,” he says. “I’ve got people that seem to want what I want, and I get to make music that gets me excited, make music that gets everyone excited…I think for me that’s a successful formula, to have people that believe in you as a creator.”

Right now, this team and new album Digital Vein have helped him reach his fans in a new way. “The opportunity to get the music out there and get on the road and play this record for people…it was [the first show] and the crowd was singing the lyrics, which was unexpected but pretty awesome,” David says.

“The record before that was a record called This Loud Morning, and the process of that record kind of overlapped with a lot of crazy moments in my life. I was out promoting my first major label record and I was on the road for a year with that and my older brother passed away. I didn’t really take any time off.

So for the process of This Loud Morning my brain was like, ‘OK, I have to deal with this.’ It made the process more difficult I think. I put a lot into that and the scope of it was big, and it was kind of shooting the moon a bit. I walked away from that record cycle not really sure about music anymore,” he says.

For someone like David whose

whole life was music, it was a time of confusion and figuring out where he needed to be. “I started writing Digital Vein not really sure if I was going to finish it. I was just giving it a shot to see if there was something there. So I took my time really with the process. I really wanted to make sure each step along the way was truly something I really had my heart in and fortunately as we got more into the process the excitement started to build,” he says.

With all the time it took between his records, David noticed the shift in the industry with social media. Unlike most artists, he wasn’t intimidated by the need to keep up. He looked at it as a new pathway and threshold for music to break through. “I took a different approach to the roll out of this record than I had in the past. We utilized a bunch of music as a pre-order campaign and I spent the summer really trying to build up the excitement for the record and so social media actually was a huge help for us in that. It really galvanized the fan base just to let them know that we’re not done, there is another record,” he says.

Although David’s not opposed to the use of social media, he also understands why it’s a struggle for so many artists. “You know, I do see kind of both sides of the coin a little bit,”

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he says. “I had a conversation with a musician friend of mine recently, and they kind of hit the nail on the head a little bit where they said records just became a marketing tool for tours.

And it’s sadly more and more that is becoming true. Records are still fairly expensive to make and put out properly and the revenue of those records is just becoming smaller and smaller. But I think somebody’s going to come along and come up with a formula that just turns everything on its head. But until that happens, just have to ride it out,” he says.

In the meantime, all of that success and understanding haven’t changed David’s initial ideals for music. “My goals really haven’t changed,” he says.

“My goals have always been to make a living with music. The music industry is not linear by any stretch. You’re kind of along for the ride. You can make a living playing music which is pretty rad. Everything else kind of becomes cake.”

It’s this mindset that allows David to see beyond the traditional genre breaks and how music changes. “I don’t mind musical shift so much, I miss more lyrical shift,” David says. “That’s kind of more what I always try to fight against.

You know, I always think every song should tell a story and those are the best songs anyway. I always try to have songs that tell stories, and you’re not always going to hear that on the Top 40 radio at any moment.”

David has never tried to fit a mold when it comes to music. “I learned pretty early on if you’re pleasing everybody else you’re doing it wrong,” he jokes. “I’ve never really thought or concerned myself with it. Music is subjective anyway, there’s music I don’t like. I think if you like my music it’s like, ‘Come on, come hang out, come to a show buy a record.’ If you don’t like it, that’s fine too. Go support the artists you like. I think having variety, having all different sorts of types of music out there is great,” he adds.

In the midst David’s new achievements and the newest album, his positive attitude doesn’t seem to be changing in 2016. “My motto every year is just kind of ‘onward and upward,” he says. NKD NKDMAG.COM

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CRUISR Words by RILEY STENEHJEM Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

It’s a windy evening along the Hudson River, just a few hours before indie rock band CRUISR take the stage at Terminal 5, on one of the last stops on their opening tour with Misterwives.

The four-piece, hailing from Philadelphia, have all been in numerous bands and projects of all genres, from math rock to screamo. Front man Andy States started playing music when he joined a chorus at age 13. “Eventually I picked up a guitar when I was about 16, really with the interest of learning to play chords and learning to write songs,” he says. “From day one, part of playing guitar was always focused on songwriting, specifically. I didn’t want to do anything but write songs with the guitar.” CRUISR started as his bedroom project. “Back then, it was ‘Cruiser’ with an ‘E,’ and it was kind of a different sound,” he says.

After he released the first EP, he reached out to producer Jeremy Park.

“I basically met this guy through his blog. He produced the first Youth Lagoon record. I kind of sent him my 26

stuff, was asking him questions, and to sort of teach me a little bit, and he offered to produce the record, which was amazing for me, because up until that point no one had really given a shit about my music at all.” From there, CRUISR expanded from a solo project to what it is today.

Jon Van Dine, the band’s drummer, was inspired to play music after his older sister gave him a Nirvana record. “It got me really into the idea of playing drums, and I think I waited until fifth grade, because I was definitely nervous and didn’t want to like, join the school band and mess up live, but my mom got me a snare drum, and then I got a drum set like a year later, and started playing in bands pretty much the whole way until now,” he says. He and Andy met in college, and he joined CRUISR in 2012.

Guitarist Bruno Catrambone grew up in a musical family. “My whole dad’s side of the family were all guitar players and drummers, so I grew up at family parties of them playing Rocky Raccoon in the attic, [with] everyone on a different instrument,” he recalls. “By the time I was old enough to talk and walk around, I used to sneak into my dad’s room and play his guitars until I broke them — I used to break strings and then I wasn’t allowed to do it anymore.” When he was 13, his dad bought him his first guitar. “I didn’t even know you had to press down on the strings, it was a mess, I didn’t play it at all. Then I watched this John Mayer thing, and I taped it on VHS, and I learned his whole album in middle school. I would just play it, for couple hours,” he says. He later got into making his own records and met the rest of the band through his solo projects.

Kyle Cook, the bassist, connected with the rest of the guys when he was working with Jon at an advertising agency. He saved up and bought himself a guitar when he was 16 or 17. “I never really did any kind of formal training, I just kind of taught myself whatever I know now,” he says. “This is actually the first band I’ve ever played bass in,” he says, adding, “I NKDMAG.COM

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played bass in a Get Up Kids cover band on Halloween a few years ago. I don’t know if that counts.”

When the band first formed, the music was much simpler then it is now. “It was a lot of just straightforward strumming guitar that filled up the entire arrangement, and there wasn’t a lot of room for other fun stuff,” Andy says. “I sort of write that [strumming guitar] and then take that out, which leaves a lot of space with a lot of experimentation.

The arrangements have gotten more interesting and more fun to listen to.”

Kyle adds, “I think you can hear that, specifically, in some of the newer songs like ‘Go Forth’ and ‘Throw Shade,’ where there’s just a lot of negative space in the song, and the different instrumentation balances and plays off each other instead of just like strumming guitar throughout the whole song.”

After Andy released the first EP, the band started getting attention from labels, and eventually signed with Vagrant Records. “One thing leads to another, and now we’re on this tour with Misterwives. A lot of that is because of the connections we have with our label, and our manager,” Andy says.

Before the Misterwives tour, CRUISR opened for The 1975.

“Something like these [tours], they’re no brainers,” Andy says. “I’m sure at one point we’ll have the liberty to pick and choose and define where we go with every little move, but at this point, we take anything that’s a good opportunity for us.” The one time they did turn down a tour was more of a matter of prioritizing. “We didn’t think it was worth taking time off from recording, which we never get to do very much. It was aligning the priorities of like, we have to release some new music,” Jon says. “That tour would have been cool, I’m sure, but we got more stuff done.” Andy adds, “We have all these people behind the scenes trying to pull strings and make good things happen for us.

When a good thing does happen and they think it’s great and you’re not into it, it can get a little bit difficult sometimes.”

Touring with Misterwives is a big inspiration for the band. “They’ve honed in their sound and their onstage show,” Andy says. “They have a lot of things they do that make for an amazing live performance. Mandy [Lee], their singer, is just a star. She runs around the stage, moves around a lot, doesn’t miss a beat, and sings perfectly. Seeing that every night, and seeing Waters [also on the tour] as well, a band who are just kind of spot on with their live performance, it’s just been inspiring to watch them do their thing and raise our own bar, and become better musicians throughout the tour.”

With the tour now over, the band finally has time to go into the studio and work on their debut full-length album. “We have a bunch of ideas, half-finished, kind of floating around,” Andy says. “We’re gonna go back and collect up all the ideas, and take an inventory of what we have so far. We’re overdue for an album given that what we have out now is just a bunch of sporadic releases that we’ve done.” Releasing new music is their big goal for this year, and they hope to have an album released around springtime. Their wide range of inspirations include older bands — The Sonics, The Cure and Jesus and Mary Chain — as well as newer psych-rock, such as Tame Impala and Unknown Mortal Orchestra. “I am sort of Tame Impala obsessed, and it’s cool to me because he is self-produced and he mixes everything,” Andy says. “It’s inspiring to see someone putting on all the different hats and doing such a good job. It would be amazing to record with Kevin Parker from Tame Impala, just to have him at your disposal.”

As for other dream collaborations, Andy thinks it would be amazing to tour with Vampire Weekend. “I think that would be a good fit, and we have a poppier sound,” he says. “Foster The People, if you’re listening, that’s my pick,” Bruno adds.

Looking ahead, there are tours coming, though the details haven’t yet been released.” Just look out for new music and a full length,” Andy says. NKD NKDMAG.COM

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PAULINA SINGER Words by STACY MAGALLON Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

Actress Paulina Singer doesn’t like staying in one place for too long.

She was born in Exeter, N.H. but moved six times within her time in the state. In 2009, Paulina moved to New York City. She lived in another six different neighborhoods (Harlem, Washington Heights, Bushwick, East New York, Bed-Stuy and South Slope) before claiming Williamsburg as her home. She spent that first year “fucking around” with her boyfriend who shared similar interests as her at the time – partying, friends and drugs.

“We got drunk, did drugs, and went to parties for a whole year,” she recalls.

A year later, Paulina was accepted into The New School in Greenwich Village. She was majoring in dance while taking psychology classes to pursue a career as a sex therapist. It didn’t take her long to realize it was pointless to pay an obscene amount of money for something she didn’t completely believe in. “It seemed like it was just socially acceptable to go to college after high school,” she says. “What’s socially acceptable about college?” Her mother and manager at the time agreed with 30

her decision so she could begin booking acting gigs with her free time.

Paulina recently landed a role on the second season of Fox’s crime-drama, Gotham. She plays police officer Josey Mac – one of the few females working in the Gotham City Police Department in the show. At the first mention of her role, Paulina says she had to delve deeply into the reasons people choose to be on the police force. “If criminals murdered my family, I would want to take action and be a cop,” she says.

“It really made me think about where police officers come from.”

Unless you looked closely, Paulina’s Gotham uniform made her look like an authentic New York City police officer.

“People would look at me in such an uneasy way that it made me think about police brutality often,” she says.

“For one to be a cop and take their anger out on an innocent person is so strange to me, because you’re supposed to be a protector.”

While working alongside cast members Ben McKenzie, Donal Logue and Robin Lord Taylor, Paulina felt at home. The only real thing she felt was

the cast’s talent that radiated through and through. “Their will to work and their motivation is such good energy to be around,” she says. These big-name actors weren’t just big names in an ensemble cast – to Paulina, they were just people. Since her three-episode appearance, she’s been waiting for her next move. “They haven’t written me out but they also haven’t called me back, so I’m kind of just hanging out in the middle,” Paulina says, laughing.

In addition to acting, Paulina has been working on music for two years but has yet to release anything just yet.

She admits to being very particular about what is associated with her in the media – especially her music. Even with a song and a music video concept in mind, Paulina refuses to put anything out unless it’s clear. “People are going to perceive you differently because everyone has different perspectives but my vision needs to be ready before I put anything out,” she says.

Paulina has also been working on a WE TV series, South of Hell. The supernatural horror drama was ordered with an eight episode pick up and

aired in November of 2015. The thriller is set in South Carolina and focuses on Maria Abascal, a demon hunter, struggling with her internal demons.

She has also worked on Scissr, a web series about four lesbians. “I really like the message of this show,” Paulina says.

“A person is a person regardless of sexual orientation.” Her latest project, Wilde Wedding starring Glenn Close and John Malkovich, will be released in 2017.

Looking into the future, Paulina has way too many long term goals. The list includes but is not limited to: changing the world through music and writing, ending world hunger, animal cruelty, deforestation and the lack of care for the environment. She also hopes to open an art gallery, jewelry salon, a bar you can fall asleep in, an art house on wheels and a huge animal shelter.

When asked about a possible move to Los Angeles, Paulina starts off very hesitantly. It’s the driving she’s opposed to. “I’ll go anywhere for work,” she decides after a few seconds. It makes sense. After all, she doesn’t like staying in one place for too long. NKD NKDMAG.COM

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COPELAND Words by DUSTIN HEVERON | Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

“I had unfinished business.” You could fill an entire book with reasons that post-emo, mod-rocktronica band Copeland should’ve gotten back together after their five-year hiatus, but as Copeland front man/singer/ pianist/guitarist/all-around good guy Aaron Marsh puts it, it all just comes down to unfinished business.

“I had always wanted to do another one, it kind of felt like I had unfinished business with regards to Copleand records,” Aaron says. “The rest of the guys in the band had started another band [States] after Copeland broke up and they were working on their second record, and through that they felt like there was a demand for another Copeland record.”

But desire alone doesn’t always get things done in the music industry.

Luckily for Copeland, fan demand remained fervent even after five years off, and the timing lined up nicely for the band mates. “For us,” Aaron notes, “Timing was a lot of how our lives kind of cleared away from other projects and other career paths to a time to do this. So when they brought it up, I was down, and it was just a matter of finding the right time.”

There’s also the vital matter of re-capturing the same band energy and chemistry that propelled Copeland to their initial heights — five years of rust can be a lot to clean off for even the most talented and professional musicians — but Aaron says for Copeland it was just like riding a bike. “It really didn’t feel much different,” Aaron recall. “I think the comfort level was still there, I feel like we picked up where we left off, creatively.” In fact, Aaron feels that the band’s half-decade break actually helped. “I think [Copeland] got the 32

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benefit of that experience from those other records,” he says.

“Probably the biggest difference was [guitarist] Stephen [Laurenson],” Aaron says. “He wasn’t necessarily a recording member of the band before — he was more of a touring guy — and so we brought him in to help with the record so that was probably the biggest difference was having another cook in the kitchen, and it went really well, we worked really well together. I feel really good about the record we made.” And he’s not the only one. The band’s 2014 release, Ixora, has been received warmly by fans and critics alike, is widely regarded as a true return to form for the band and is unquestionably Copeland’s most complete and highest production offering to date.

“Our goal was to raise enough money to make a record the way we wanted to make it,” Aaron says. “We wanted to hire real string players, and real woodwinds and brass and do a big symphonic, cinematic sound, and we wanted to get the mix engineer that mixed the previous record.” Ixora benefits from Aaron’s laser focus, iconic ambience and clear vision on the sound he wanted to achieve with Copeland’s latest offering — even going so far as to create a deluxe double/twin version of the record that can be enjoyed as a companion album, or (for the truly committed Copeland enthusiast) can be played simultaneously with the main album to create an entirely new listening experience.

Aaron’s talent as a producer (the entirety of Ixora was recorded and produced by him in his own studio, The Vanguard Room, in his home state of Florida) is no fluke, and more casual Copeland fans might be surprised to learn that producing actually predates performing for the Florida front man. “The producing was kind of before any of it,” Aaron says. “In high school I had a studio in my parents’ garage. I had a 4-track and a reel-to-reel 8-track tape machine, so I would record the bands in the high school and do my own stuff too. I was interested in that before I thought I had any potential for my

own music.” Luckily, fans realized that Aaron Marsh the Performer had just as much potential as Aaron Marsh the Producer, and Copeland formed just after Aaron finished high school. Fans have been fueling his performances ever since — a fact that has not escaped the notice of the singer/songwriter, whose ability to appreciate and understand his fan base has kept Copeland relevant long after bands that were their peers in the early 2000s have faded away.

“I know people get an emotional connection to the songs,” Aaron says.

“The songs are very ‘heart on your sleeve’ and kind of have a little bit of tragedy woven into [them].”

Aaron reflects on that connection being similar to what he feels with the songs of some of his favorite bands. “I know people really connect with the songs. I think that’s what I feel when I connect with a band, really like have an emotional connection with the band.” Aaron continues, “You know from a songwriting standpoint that [connection] is really the most potent part. I might like a band for their production qualities or the voice but I think the ones that I really develop a passionate love for, it’s usually songwriters.”

Some of Aaron’s favorite bands might surprise you, and some might be exactly what you’d (happily) expect from a band with a sound like Copeland. “The first [band] that I got super into was Counting Crows in high school,” says. “The songs just ripped my little teenage heart apart.”

A move that Aaron himself would also master later on in life. “I liked R.E.M.,” he adds, “I liked Gin Blossoms. My favorite band of all time is Radiohead. But they can also appeal to my producer brain too, ‘cause I love the way their records sound.

Aside from their songwriting I like their production qualities.”

But someone who wants to remain a high level music producer in addition to writing and touring with their own band doesn’t get the luxury of living in the past, musically, and Aaron is no exception. “People come to me for the organic, big cinematic, orchestral sounds and kind of singer/

songwriter things,” Aaron says. “But I don’t want to just do that, I want be able to do other things too. I like electronic music and I like hip hop, so I try to keep myself broad with what I work on.” Aaron shares some of his thoughts on the modern music model, and changes he’s seen in the industry over the years. “The [music] business is changing, the touring industry has changed in five years.”

Aaron goes on, “Electronic music has really jumped to the forefront.”

“Probably like, eight years ago I remember thinking that like pop music was where all the innovation was happening,” Aaron says.

“And now at the moment it’s kind of electronic music, it’s moving so fast. The sounds are changing; the styles are moving really quickly.” Just like the sound waves Aaron blasts from his amp on a nightly basis, there are inherent ups and downs in the different areas of the music industry. “Rock had a really dry spell, hasn’t progressed too much,” Aaron notes with just the slightest touch of wistfulness in his voice, “But there’s some interesting stuff happening in rock [now]. Especially rock radio is starting to perk up a little bit. twenty one pilots are big, I can’t remember a time when twenty one pilots would’ve been big on rock radio. They’re great.” The cyclical nature of music is almost as reliable as the “verse, chorus, bridge, chorus” model that most songs follow, but it’s that predictable unpredictability that makes the industry and bands we love so much fun to stick with over the years.

“It definitely feels like some areas that haven’t had a lot of growth or progression are starting to pick up a little bit,” Aaron says — and it’s hard to disagree with the longtime production luminary.

Aaron Marsh’s thoughts on music seem to point to one inevitable conclusion: he still has plenty of unfinished business to attend to both as a music creator and a music curator, and luckily for fans of Copeland’s music (and Aaron’s producing), that business looks to remain unfinished for quite some time. NKD NKDMAG.COM

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LINDSAY ELL Words & Photos by CATHERINE POWELL Location ACME FEED & SEED

Spend one hour with Lindsay Ell, and you’ll want to be her best friend. The rising country singer is bold, talented and knows what she wants.

Lindsay’s venture into music began when she started playing piano at 6 years old, and kicked into high gear when she picked up the guitar at age 8. “I thought it was a lot cooler to play Shania Twain songs on the guitar,” she says, laughing. She would go to bluegrass camps with her dad when she was a little girl and learned how to play. When she was 13 she met Randy Bachman, the famed guitarist and songwriter, who taught her how to write a song and work in the studio. From there, she played as often as she could. She bought a 15-passenger van and traveled across the country, playing on stage for three hours a night to build her performance skills.

Five years ago, she moved to Nashville and has been writing songs consistently ever since. She signed a record deal with Stoney Creek Records (an imprint of Broken Bow Records) three years ago, and with the release of her latest single “By The Way,” she feels like a new chapter is beginning.

When she first moved to Nashville she knew only one person and she was trying to build a brand new foundation for herself in a brand new city. For the first 18 months she there, she would travel back home to Calgary to perform and make some money to afford to keep living in Nashville.

She was flying back and forth roughly every two weeks.

Once Lindsay started gaining some attention in town, Broken Bow approached her with a deal.

“They really treat the label like a family,” she says. “Benny Brown [the label’s founder] is like everybody’s grandfather.” She stresses that the various acts on the label help each other out as often as they can, and she feels like that’s special. “I feel like I have a sup-

port system there that would throw themselves on the train track for me,” she says.

Like many country artists, one of Lindsay’s initial attractions to the genre was the appreciation it holds for songwriting. When she signed her deal and began working on her debut record, she knew right away that she wanted to write or co-write every song on her album. She had never experimented with co-writing before moving to Nashville, but immediately became addicted to the experience. “It got to the point where I wouldn’t want to finish a song by myself because I thought, ‘Well, two heads are better than one,’” she says. Since, she’s found a balance between co-writing and writing by herself.

Lindsay will be releasing an EP early this year and feels an extra bit of pride in it because she wrote every song. Lindsay also played an impressive number instruments on the recordings. For the song “By The Way,” she played the acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mandolin and banjo parts. She’s one of the few females in country music – and music in general – playing lead electric guitar both in studio and on stage. “I’m very excited to be a part of this movement,” she says. “I joke that I love shopping for shoes and shopping for guitar pedals.” She finds it incredibly inspiring to hear from young girls at her shows who say she inspired them to pick up the guitar.

Lindsay knew from day one that she wanted her guitar playing to be as important as her songwriting. In a city like Nashville where some of the most incredible musicians can be found in the dingiest of bars, it’s easy for an artist to get placed with a backing band and have to roll with it. But for Lindsay, that wasn’t going to fly. “If I’m not playing guitar on my record, then I’m losing a whole part of me and a whole part of my voice,” she says. For Lindsay, guitar is just NKDMAG.COM

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another way of telling a story. She cites John Mayer, Keith Urban and Jimi Hendrix as guitarists who can really say something through their music.

Following the EP, Lindsay plans on releasing a full-length album sometime toward the end of 2016.

The record has been in the works for years – the oldest song she’s cutting is three years old. “I feel like this record is 16 years in the making,” she says, laughing.

“By The Way” marks the beginning of a new era of Lindsay Ell, and she celebrated its release with a 24-hour concert on Broadway – Nashville’s infamous nightlife street. What started as an idea for a 10-hour show quickly catapulted into a full day of playing and singing. Fans brought Lindsay and her special guests coffee and donuts all day, and collectively they were able to raise several thousand dollars to support the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville. “It was a prime example of, if you put a cause out there, people really want to help,” Lindsay says. Artists like Brooke Eden, The Raging Idiots, Megan & Liz and more came out to help Lindsay with her vocal marathon, which she says helped a great deal.

Lindsay is open to holding the event again, but isn’t ready to declare it an annual event just yet.

Starting later this month, Lindsay will hit the road with Jennifer Nettles and Brandy Clark on the CMT Next Women in Country Tour. “The fact that females, and all these new females, are writing great music and fans are wanting to hear it…It’s just a really cool time, I think,” she says.

Following that four-month tour, Lindsay will be heading back out on tour this summer but is hush about the details. She also suggests fans look out for some special guitar appearances in the near future. As Lindsay says, her success has been 16 years in the making. “I’m so thankful for all the twists and turns,” she says. NKD

NICO TORTORELLA Words & Photos by CATHERINE POWELL Hair & Make-Up by JORDAN BREE LONG

It’s cold and rainy in New York City when I get off the subway in Dumbo, Brooklyn’s booming art neighborhood, and walk to actor Nico Tortorella’s apartment. It’s Nico’s last weekend in this particular apartment as he’ll be relocating to Williamsburg, Brooklyn in a few days. This will mark Nico’s longest extended stay in New York in seven years, but every time he leaves he finds his way back.

Nico grew up in the suburbs of Chicago. His first acting experience was a production of The Wizard of Oz when he was 10, where he played a munchkin. He had been playing hockey pretty competitively up until that point and immediately dropped it to pursue acting. He started taking classes in Chicago and was eventually cast in a production of Over The Tavern, a play about a Polish family with three sons. Over the course of three years he played all three brothers – committing to eight shows a week and always missing school on Wednesdays for matinee performances.

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When he was a senior in high school, Nico hit pause on his acting career and decided he was going to go to art school in Chicago. “I had this whole master plan that I was going to get into sustainable architecture and developments,” he says.

So he transferred to Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. In the back of his head he knew he still wanted to be an actor, but how to get there was the tricky part.

While living in Los Angeles for school he was only eating raw foods, had dreadlocks and was covered in tattoos – not exactly the poster child for a Jesuit business school. He quickly figured out it was not where he belonged, so he dove head first into work. His agent in Chicago put him in touch with an agent in California, he signed with Ford Models and with a little help from his parents, he began to put everything into acting.

It took months for Nico to book his first acting job after he dropped out of school.

The first thing he booked – on Nickelodeon’s Big Time Rush – didn’t actually end up going through. “It was setup like American Idol,” he says of the audition. “They brought 50 guys over to a hotel in Studio City, put us all up, had singing auditions, made cuts.”

He made it through the entire audition process and at one point was the only one officially cast. “Turned out I didn’t get the job, which is a blessing, at this point,” he says. From there, he filmed a pilot for Nickelodeon that didn’t get picked up, and eventually booked a role on ABC Family’s Make It or Break It. While filming Make It or Break It, Nico booked the film Twelve [2010] alongside Chase Crawford and 50

Cent, as well a starring role on The CW’s The Beautiful Life: TBL, which brought him to New York for the first time. Unfortunately, the network quickly canceled the show, and Nico promptly packed his bags and returned to L.A. – only to not book anything for eight months.

“I was this starry-eyed kid, living in New York City, who thought I had everything,” he says. “I was on a show, I had a sick loft in the financial district that I had a year lease on. We were hanging out with all the Gossip Girl kids who were on the show for years and saw how good it could have been.”

Nico booked Scream 4 in 2010,

is. He booked the part, flew to New York (again) and was on set the next morning. “It was a no-brainer. We all clicked really, really, really fast,” he says.

As a fan of Sex In The City (produced by Darren Star), Nico felt he understood the format of Younger very quickly and was able to easily jump right into character. “I understood how important it was to be on a show about women,” he says. After filming the pilot, the network approached Nico with a series regular option. His frequent attempts with MTV were not working out and he was genuinely excited about Younger. So he once again packed his bags and moved to New York. “I knew how good this show could be, so I jumped at the opportunity,” he says.

“As it was airing and we were No. 1 in the comedy section on iTunes and just blowing up, it just felt so right.

And it still does,” Nico says. Having just wrapped up production on season two, Nico is eager for fans to see where the show goes – especially following season one’s cliffhanger. The penultimate episode of the season resulted in Josh finding out that Liza was 40 – not 26 as he was lead to believe.

After a lot of arguing and back and forth, Josh decides to give Liza a chance to explain and try their relationship again. “He has a really hard time with it in the first place,” Nico says. “He had some time to evaluate the whole situation and he’s really in love with Liza. I think he’s able to look past that initial lie and [try]… to figure out if this relationship has feet to stand on.”

Another dynamic that will be explored is the relationship between

“I WAS THIS STARRY-EYED KID, LIVING IN NEW YORK CITY, WHO THOUGHT I HAD EVERYTHING. I WAS ON A SHOW, I HAD A SICK LOFT IN THE FINANCIAL DISTRICT THAT I HAD A YEAR LEASE ON...” and work began to consistently flow again – eventually bringing him back to New York for FOX’s The Following and then again for his current role in TV Land’s critically acclaimed comedy, Younger. Nico was shooting a pilot for MTV when the opportunity to guest star on the first episode of Younger was presented to him. “It was Darren Star, Sutton Foster, Hilary Duff, Debi Mazar and I was like, ‘Absolutely, it’s not even a question,’” he recalls. He auditioned for the part of Josh, a young tattoo artist living in Brooklyn who hits on Liza Miller, (Sutton Foster) thinking she is much younger than she

Liza and her daughter Caitlyn, (Tessa Albertson) who will be returning to New York from a semester in Africa. “The stakes are raised for Liza’s relationship with everyone,” Nico says. The return of Caitlyn will also bring a new struggle into Josh’s life.

“He needs to grow up a bit. He’s not dating some little Brooklyn, hipster chick anymore. He’s dating a woman that has a family and a career,” he says, “If he really wants that he needs to step up to the plate.”

As much as Josh’s story outside of Liza will be developed this season, Nico is very tuned into the fact that this is a show about women, and he respects that. “I think the most important thing I’ve learned [from Darren] is just how important the female character is, and how so many shows set up females in a light that is how they relate to men,” he says. Now that he has spent so much time on a project that is all about giving women their own stories, he easily picks up on shows or movies that do not do the female character justice. He references the Bechdel test, which asks whether a work of fiction features at least two women speaking about something other than a man. While it is not a legal requirement in scripts, it’s for sure a moral requirement, though only about half of all films meet the requirement.

In season two, Josh’s career as a tattoo artist and the fame it is bringing him in New York will be explored much more than it was the first season. “I think we’re setting up that for all the characters,” he says.

Similar to how Sex In The City operated, now that the group dynamic has been established, individual characters will have more room to tell their stories. “That’s the great thing about T.V., you sign on for a project where you don’t really know everything about this character,” he says. “I’m discovering who Josh is, while everyone else is discovering who Josh is.”

The show’s most important character will remain the same: New York. “I think Darren sets up a world where New York City is the 44

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main character of the show,” Nico says. In theory, the show could be shot out in Toronto or Chicago and claim it to be New York, (as many shows are doing now) but Nico doesn’t think that would work well.

“There’s so much of this show that lives in truth,” he says. New Yorkers would easily be able to tell the locations were forged and that “would not fly for Darren,” Nico says.

Most of Nico’s acting work has been in New York, which is rather unusual, but he’s choosing not to question it. In 10 years, he has only had one role film in Los Angeles, but has equally split his time between the two cities for the most part.

While he’s been a resident of New York for over seven years now, this past year he feels like he was able to experience it in a new way since he decided to quit drinking. “It’s a completely different city, for me,” Nico says. “New York is the easiest place to get caught up in the party scene, especially doing what I do.”

Aside from Younger, Josh is working on an eight-episode documentary series he and his brother filmed over the summer, titled Nico Nico Nico, which is about his life.

“It’s 24 hours of my life. It’s like 24 but Nico-fied,” he says, laughing. Nico Nico Nico has become an overall brand for Nico, and his latest endeavor with it is a line of backpacks made out of python. He’s unsure what the future holds for the collection, but for now he’s just excited that his search for “the perfect backpack” has come to an end. He hopes that one day there will be a full Nico Nico Nico line, but he’s also aware that at this point in his career, the most important thing for him is to be in front of the camera.

With no projects set in stone at the moment, Nico plans to use his time to continue challenging himself, whether it’s in front of a camera, a sewing machine or a canvas.

“I think there are a lot of unwritten rules for what it means to be a leading man in Hollywood, and I’m kind of pushing those boundaries a little bit,” Nico says. “I’m fully committed to who I am and what I stand for. NKD NKDMAG.COM

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AGAINST THE CURRENT Words by SHELBY CHARGIN Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

Against the Current have been playing music longer than most.

“I started playing music when I was like, really young,” says drummer Will Ferri. “I met [guitarist] Dan [Gow] in third grade when he moved to my town, and we were in the same class for like the next 10 years basically, and we started a band like in third grade.”

It was a struggle to find people who fit into the band. “People were always in and out, we’d lose a singer, lose a guitar player. It got to a point like four years ago where we were like, ‘We want to keep going.’ Our band before that kind of ended and we were like, ‘We need to start something new,’ and we need an awesome singer. We heard about [singer] Chrissy [Costanza} through a mutual friend of ours, and we kind of just met up one day. It all started from there, pretty

much,” Will says.

It was a pretty normal rise for the band – they credit online exposure for a lot of their success. “It was a pretty classic garage band start.

We did YouTube,” Will says. They were able to build a global fan base before setting out on tour. “We kind of waited until we knew people would come out. We got most of our awkward stuff out at home behind closed doors, and then when we were ready we kind of just went for it,” Will says.

Mike Ferri, the band’s manager, helped them move forward.

He understood their need for time to grow. “It wasn’t really a strategic move on our part,” Chrissy says. “It was that more our manager was also managing a YouTuber [Alex Goot] who did that full time.

We had recorded a single called ‘Thinking’ and we were going to release it, and we didn’t know how were we going to get anyone to hear the song.”

Mike suggested they do a collaboration with Goot to bring traffic to the band’s page. Although they put a lot of heart into it, the reaction they received on YouTube was unexpected. “It kind of just exploded, and we really didn’t expect that to happen because the three of us knew nothing about YouTube culture or had any intentions of becoming immersed in it at all,” Chrissy says.

While YouTube brought them success and exposure, their goal was always to be a live performance band whose main focus is the show. “I forget that we even

started on YouTube sometimes, because we were always just about writing original music,” Will says.

YouTube is still an important part of their career, but it’s secondary to the goal of the experience. “Our YouTube channel is still going to be important, but we’re just bringing it to [record label] Fueled By Ramen now,” he adds.

The band knew they were ready for the next step beyond YouTube and online culture. “I always felt like it was time to take it up another level,” Dan says. “It felt like we could keep doing this YouTube thing for however long we wanted to do it. We wanted to get on the radio and stuff like that, so we felt like it was time to really shop around [to record labels]. It was just a good fit as soon as we went into [Fueled by Ramen].” The band had met with a few different labels before ultimately deciding on FBR because they felt the label believed in Against The Current the most.

“They wanted to grow upon what we’d already built, which is what we wanted,” Chrissy says. “We didn’t want to be changed.”

With Fueled By Ramen behind them, Against the Current upgraded from making a third EP into a recording a full-length album. “We just finished our first full-length for Fueled By,” Will says. “We’re in final stages of mixing and mastering right now, but it will be out sometime mid-next year.”

They’re keeping most of the album details under wraps, but they do emphasize that the goal of the album was decided right when they went into the studio. “I feel like we did kind of sit down with a producer, we talked about for about five minutes,” Will says. “He was like, ‘Here’s what I’m thinking,’ and we were like, ‘Here’s what we’re thinking.’” The group agreed on a direction and went for it. “I had no idea what it was going to be like going in. I really didn’t it,” Will says. “[With] every release, there’s pressure because you want it to be even better than what you did NKDMAG.COM

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before that,” Will adds. “Even if we weren’t signed right now, we’d still feel the same way.” The new label and the idea of a full-length album gave them room to explore other aspects of their music. “It’s definitely different… Gravity [the band’s second EP] was definitely a good leeway from our first EP into what the record’s going to be like. It’s definitely poppier in some sense, and I feel like every song takes you in a new direction. There’s a lot of emotions going on,” Will says.

2015 was a busy year for the band. There were massive international tours, including a show in Japan for 22,000 people. While their fan base back home is strong, it’s doesn’t compare in numbers to overseas. “It’s even bigger everywhere else. Here it’s the smallest.

It’s frustrating,” Dan admits. They want to grow here as much as possible, which is why they make their shows so jam packed with full production, even on the smaller tours.

“We want to make it feel like it’s bigger than it is,” Chrissy says.

“We want to make it a memorable show. Anyone can get up their and play their instruments and have it just be a normal show, and if you’re good musicians it’ll be a good show, but we want them to have an experience.”

The band wants to keep pushing forward and be doing, “everything, everywhere, all the time,” Chrissy says. As far as touring goes, they’ll be joining All Time Low in the United Kingdom in February, but everything else is up in the air.

“As you can tell we have no idea,” Will says, laughing. “Hopefully everything just grows exponentially.

We’re just dying to get on bigger stages. We have so much we want to do.”

Against the Current are proving to be one of the biggest up and coming bands of 2015, with 2016 only looking bigger. For a band with such a young start, it’s no surprise that growth has happened so fast for them, and there’s no telling where they’ll take it next. NKD

Words by BRITTANY LANDAU Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

COREY FOGELMANIS 54

Since the first episode of Disney Channel’s Girl Meets World’s aired in the summer of 2014, it’s been a whirlwind of success. As a spinoff series of the ’ 90s hit, Boy Meets World, the show offers a source of nostalgia for older fans and a guiding hand through life’s challenges for younger fans.

Fans of the original series may remember Stuart Minkus, (Lee Norris) the class nerd who was usually picked on by Shawn Hunter (Rider Strong) and Cory Matthews (Ben Savage). In Girl Meets World, fans of the character can find a little piece of him in his son, Farkle Minkus, played by Corey Fogelmanis, who gets just as excited by the original cast members as the viewers do. “One of my favorite people that we’ve had is Will Friedle [who plays Eric Matthews],” Corey says. “He’s a comedic genius. It’s so great to watch him work.”

Corey looks to Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel, who play Cory and Topanga, for inspiration and advice. “They started out as child actors and they successfully made that transition to adult actors, so it’s nice that we can have them there to reference and for their advice,” he says.

The show is set to start filming its third season in January and fans can expect a lot more depth from the show now the characters will now be in high school. “We get to start covering more mature topics and our characters are growing up and changing,” Corey says.

“It’s cool to play that because that’s happening in our real life as well, so as we grow as actors and as people, our characters are growing with us.”

The start of high school for their characters means more drama, including a deeper development of the love triangle between Riley, (Rowan) Maya (Sabrina Carpenter) and Lucas (Peyton Meyer). “There’s a whole storyline where Riley is not being truthful about how she feels, so I’m trying to get her to be honest and that will clear up a bunch of things,” Corey says. “I’m there just trying to keep the peace between everybody.”

A love triangle on Disney is an odd thing to see, but Girl Meets World, much like the show it stems from, is no stranger to pushing the boundaries. “We did an episode about belief, we did an episode about feminism, so it’s really cool that we can incorporate that, espe-

cially in a children’s television program,” Corey says. In the episode “Girl Meets I Am Farkle,” the possibility of Farkle having Autism or Asperger’s Syndrome comes up. “When we were shooting the episode, we had professionals look over the script just to make sure we were correctly portraying it. We wanted to make sure that we were doing it right,” he explains. “The whole reason we wanted to do the episode was to show that, those with Autism or Asperger’s are just people. So I think it was really cool that we could portray that and shine a light on that and get people to realize that,” he says.

However, while Corey loves being on Girl Meets World, he finds himself more at home with another Disney production. He’s currently in the Pasadena Playhouse production of Peter Pan and Tinker Bell: A Pirate Christmas, alongside GMW co-stars Sabrina Carpenter and August Maturo. “I’m really excited because I get to take the chemistry with Sabrina and August and we get to bring that on stage and play siblings,” he says of the trio playing Wendy, John and Michael Darling. “Originally, when I auditioned, I went for Peter, but they ended up going older. They were like, ‘Well, you can do John.’ I was like, ‘That’s great, I still get the chance to be on stage,’” he says. “I look just like the John from the animated movie, so it’ll be really exciting to play a classic character like that.”

The play, which runs through January 3rd, features an original pantomime script, making it interactive and new for the whole audience and cast. In fact, that’s Corey’s favorite part of taking on the role. “My favorite part of live theater is that every night, it’s a new audience and you can create new memories that will only be experienced with that one audience. There’s going to be different energy and different, basically, everything, so I think that’s my favorite part of live theater,” he says.

You won’t find Corey away from the screen for too long, though, as he’s taking on a new role as Max Doyle in Mostly Ghostly 3: One Night in Doom House. Max is helping his ghost friends Tara and Nicky find their parents, which leads them to a haunted house where havoc ensues. “We just finished our second week of shooting and it’s been

really great so far,” Corey says. “We’ve been playing around with a lot of special effects.

There aren’t many spirits popping up on Girl Meets World, so this was a whole new adventure for him. “We’ve done some green screen and stuff like that,” he says. “It’s a little difficult, but it’s not too hard to get used to. You just don’t know what to expect, so once they put it in post, it’ll be really exciting to see how it all comes together.”

Corey started theater at 6 and has been on TV since he was 16. For some, it would be difficult to find the time for a normal life, but Corey has the balancing act down. His main hobby is photography, a skill he picked up from his mother at a young age. “She always brought her camera around,” he says. “I think that’s how I got introduced to it and I played around with it. The past couple of years, I’ve just gotten really into it and I bought myself a camera. I just try to shoot whenever I can.”

Corey enjoys taking pictures so much that he even has a separate Instagram for his photography. While Instagram has become a platform for photographers, both amateur and professional, to showcase their work, Corey only hopped on the social media bandwagon because of Girl Meets World. “I got an Instagram and Twitter when we filmed the pilot, and before that, I didn’t really feel like I needed to. It was really weird though because the first episode aired a year after we started the show, so that whole year was people catching on and it slowly kind of built up,” he says. “I don’t do a lot of live tweeting during the show, but I do interact with people on Twitter and Instagram. I do photo contests on my photography Instagram and people will send in their submissions and that’s always really fun.”

So what does the future hold for Corey Fogelmanis? “I definitely want to go to college. I’m hoping to go to school somewhere in New York. I want to go to school for theater and photography, as well,” he says. “I want to do it and get it done, but if something comes up, I don’t want to turn that down. I know a lot of colleges are really strict about attendance, but I’m definitely going to college. I just don’t know if it’s going to be right away or in a little while.” NKD

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