NKD Mag - Issue #58 (April 2016)

APR. musicians: 04 WATERPARKS the madden brothers’ prodigies

12 SWMRS

42 LANY

soundcloud users’ favorite discovery

46 LEISURE CRUISE on making music that excites them

a career that is only driving north

actors:

16 CHRIS LANE

06 BAILEE MADISON

country music’s newest heartthrob

on good witch, once and tumblr

24 MAX

20 CHLOE LUKASIAK

the punk-infused popstar on the rise

dancing her way into movies

30 32 THE CACTUS BLOSSOMS ALFRED ENOCH keeping it country and western

getting away with shakespeare

publisher: CATHERINE POWELL

editors: CATHERINE POWELL NICOLA PRING

writers: MARY BARNES MERISSA BLITZ SHELBY CHARGIN IAN HAYS DUSTIN HEVERON NAUREEN NASHID CATHERINE POWELL VANESSA SALLES RILEY STENEHJEM

photography: CATHERINE POWELL

design: CATHERINE POWELL

Words by MARY BARNES Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

WATERPARKS 4

aged by the Madden Brothers- Joel and Benji of Good Charlotte- these young jokesters have plenty to look forward to as their career takes off.

Despite the hard-work and dedication that goes into making music, Waterparks are always goofing around, making jokes and enjoying their ride to fame.

NKD: How did you meet and how did the band form? How did you choose the name of the band?

AWSTEN KNIGHT: We all met at Bible Camp when we were like 11 and there was a water park across the street we used to sneak across to and eat yogurt at. It was tight. But we’re all fans of cutesy spelling so we made it one word, Waterparks.

NKD: Who are some artists that inspired you along the way?

AK: We’re only inspired by each other. Outside influences are for uninspired people.

NKD: What do you consider to be the band’s big break in the industry? In what ways has that helped you gain the success that you have today?

AK: Probably getting signed and scoring the Madden Brothers as our managers. Well, we wouldn’t be doing this interview without those things - so let’s say that!

In an industry as demanding as the music business, it never hurts to have a sense of humor. That’s exactly what Waterparks front-man, Awsten Knight, has that sets them aside from the rest. Hailing from Houston, Texas, Awsten is backed by Geoff Wigington on guitar and Otto Wood on drums. This next generation pop-punk band is hard at work making a name for themselves. Man-

NKD: How has your music evolved since you first began playing together?

AK: We’ve always wanted to cover a lot of ground stylistically, so it’s gotten a lot more broad. Cluster has hit more genres than we’ve ever explored before and the future stuff is gonna continue to hit even more new points.

NKD: Briefly explain your music making process. Do you write your own songs? What is a typical day in the studio like? Where do you draw your inspiration from?

AK: We write our own songs. 99%

of the time we hit the studio the songs are already finished being written. Days are long and bleak. We steadily lose more and more clothing throughout the day. However, nice sounds come out of the long sessions so it’s all worth it.

NKD: What are your goals as musicians? Where do you see the band going in the next 5 years? 10 years?

AK: I can’t tell you about my bucket list because then if we don’t reach those goals I’ll look like a BIG LOSER IN THIS NICE ARTICLE. I wanna sneak release an album and force it into everyone’s phones like U2 and watch the hate tweets roll in.

NKD: How do you prep for going on the road and performing shows? What is your favorite thing about performing live?

AK: We practice the specific set we’ll be doing for the tour. My favorite thing is finding the one guy who’s not into it and making eye contact with him for the rest of his life.

NKD: As an artist, how would you define success?

AK: Being rich enough to ride a bike into a swimming pool full of Jello.

NKD: What do you enjoy to do outside of music to contribute your musicality? Do you have any hobbies that rejuvenate your creativity?

AK: We like to find love in slippery places.

NKD: What is the best advice you have received that has helped you throughout your career in music?

AK: Work smart, write the jams and don’t be a turd boy.

NKD: Is there anything else you think we should know?

AK: You shouldn’t send money to Nigerian Princes no matter how simple the opportunity seems and we’re about to drop the best album of all time. NKD NKDMAG.COM

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BAILEE MADISON Words by SHELBY CHARGIN Photos by CATHERINE POWELLL

For Bailee Madison, life has been one dream right after another.

The 16-year-old starlet began her acting career by accident by doing commercials with her mom and seeing her mother and sister auditioning. “I remember going to New York and being there when they’d audition and watching them audition, and going to Broadway shows and being so caught up in it all and absorbing it all,” she says. Bailee took particular interest in getting to know the actors after Broadway shows, at auditions, and just taking in as much information as she possibly could. When Bailee was around 5-years-old, she was in the audition room waiting for her sister when the casting director came out and asked her to audition.

“I went in the room, and I got it,” she says. It was her first role amongst the likes of John Trovolta and Jared Leto, already setting herself to a higher standard than most young actresses.

“I went to Los Angeles when I was 7, and from 7 on I’ve been so blessed to be working about 11 months out of the year,” she says. She credits a lot of her success to faith, with the word “blessed” constantly being used to describe her situation. “I never took an acting class, I never did anything like that, it was such a God thing, and I’ve always had the NKDMAG.COM

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mentality that it could end any day, be grateful that it’s happening, and enjoy every moment,” she says.

It’s this faith and self-awareness that keeps Bailee going amongst the crazy busy schedule she has in her life. One of her earliest projects, had Bailee working with Mariska Hegarty on Law and Order: SVU. While Bailee has yet to return to the set she excitedly tells me Mariska still sends her a Christmas card each year.

Currently, Bailee is starring on Hallmark’s Good Witch. The show itself is a great viewing for families that can still really relate to teens.

Bailee loves the idea of having that consistent script that has the ability to not only bring a family together, but to also deal with real issues.

“There’s something for everybody…

It’s like my home away from home,” she says. She plays Grace, an academic focused teen who shares her mother’s (Catherine Bell) enchantress gifts. “I was so drawn to the character, she’s a people pleaser in the best way. She wants to help people and be the best version of herself she can be,” she says. Bailee sees a lot of herself in the character - especially since she always has a textbook in her hands, although it’s a bit more relaxed for Bailee. “I just feel bad for her friends because she’ll say ‘let’s go to the coffee shop, but we have to study.’ And it’s like ‘put it down for a second, you’re in high school, it’s ok, you can take a break and have a Frappuccino, and then go back to your book’,” she laughs.

It’s another thing about Bailee one can’t help but adore: her ability to be herself, and to know that life, in-between all of the work, can be so fun. It’s one of the things she loves about the Hallmark Network. “You know you’re going to be happy at the end,” she explains. It’s this role and the promise of family entertainment that keeps Bailee happy to be doing her job.

But her job isn’t limited to Good Witch. Bailee’s also been cast in the role of Young Snow White on ABC’s hit fantasy fairytale spinoff series Once Upon A Time. It’s the role of a lifetime for her, and one she doesn’t 10

take lightly. It’s easily one of her favorite roles, and having the ability to play the counterpart of Ginnifer Goodwin’s version of Snow on the series is a dream come true. “Ginnifer Goodwin… I’ve admired her for such a long time as an actress, but even more as a person. She has such a beautiful and kind heart. She created a monster of a character in the best way,” she says. It’s the ability of Snow’s charisma, kindness, and thoughtfulness, combined with her ability to kick major butt that has both Ginnifer and Bailee working together to create a relatable character for women. “She’s literally compiled all these beautiful feelings and emotions into one character, and for me it’s the biggest honor and kind of the scariest, nerve-wrecking thing because I just want to do kind of what she’s done,” Bailee says.

Bailee spends time watching Ginnifer’s clips to get an idea of how to emulate the little quirks she puts into the character. While Bailee seems to have natural ability, it’s clear she puts the work and time into each role she plays to make it the best performance she possibly can.

“I always say whenever Once Upon A Time calls I have a special suitcase packed for them, and I will be there in a heartbeat. It’s probably one of the closest projects to my heart,” she says.

Amongst her acting, Bailee also produced and starred in Annabelle Hooper and The Ghost of Nantucket, that took her almost four years to get off the ground. This makes her one of Hollywood’s youngest producers in the business. “They were kind enough to bring me on board.

I was only 15 at the time and it was nice because they respected my ideas and my decisions,” she says. With a shortened amount of time to film – just four weeks – and all of the new responsibilities of being a producer, Bailee proved herself as a new major young player.

In addition to the long list of projects and goals she has, Bailee started a social media campaign called “I Am More Than A Word.”

It details how people can so often

subject one another to being called negative things, sometimes – most often – a single word. It started when Bailee was talking with her mom, co-star, and his little sister about life and comparing high school life to her own. She had been called a prude a couple of weeks before and in the midst of speaking about the incident, she came to a realization. “I was hurt, and I’m still hurting,” she says. So she went to Tumblr and saw a post about stereotypes. “I started to read that, and kind of had this realization that it wasn’t just me that was feeling alone or hurt or defined by that word, it was other people. And even if it was just that one person in her room that night feeling sad, I wanted to reach out and say whatever I could to let her know that she’s not alone,” Bailee says. After that, Bailee opened up her first Tumblr account and made her first blog post talking about what happened, her own thoughts and “challenged them to write words that they’d been called on paper and rip it up on the camera”. “My whole theory was, we are in fact more than a word… we are human beings and we have feelings and hearts,” she says. It was scary for her to post, but as the videos came in, and the response grew, she knew she had done the right thing. “I started getting so overwhelmed so I put it in a video and put it to Rachel Platten’s “Fight Song” which is an amazing song for this generation,” she says. The project is now becoming about allowing people to know it’s okay to know your worth and to walk away from the negative comments in your life.

To leave them behind, and be the best person you can possibly be.

It’s this type of ideal that sets Bailee apart from many other youthful actors and actresses in Hollywood.

Between her love of God, her ability to stay gracious, her need to constantly be doing more, and her want to help others, it’s hard to see why anyone wouldn’t be enchanted with the young Good Witch actress. It’s a career to not only watch out for, but to look forward to seeing thrive for NKD many years to come. NKD

SWMRS Words by RILEY STENEHJEM Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

For a band whose oldest member is 22, SWMRS has been together for a surprisingly long time. Back in 2004, pre-teen Cole Becker and Joey Armstrong decided to start a band after watching the movie School of Rock. Along with Cole’s younger brother, Max, the three played under a number of different names for several years. “I saw that movie and was like, well, I know what I’m going to do now,” explains Cole. It was in high school that the trio started Emily’s Army.

Cole says, “[It] had minor success, and we did a couple tours, but we changed the lineup and added Seb, and that’s kind of when we became SWMRS.” Bassist Sebastian Mueller went to the same high school as Cole and Joey. Cole and Seb met in their junior year algebra class, and he already knew Joey through their school’s jazz band. “We met through jazz band and we played in a little jazz quartet together,” says Seb. “They asked me to come play saxophone with Emily’s Army for awhile. Then some stuff happened 12

and they needed a bass player, and so I learned bass and here we are today.”

Emily’s Army was formed in part as a fundraising effort for cystic fibrosis. “My cousin Emily has cystic fibrosis, and we named Emily’s Army after her to spread awareness about the disease and get support for her,” Cole explains, “but it was also just a cool name.”

Though they’ve changed their name and sound since then, Cole and his family are still doing a lot of fundraising work for the disease.

He says, “My mom just got honored by our local cystic fibrosis foundation chapter. She’s the community member of the year, which is pretty cool.”

They decided to move on from Emily’s Army in order to really spend some time figuring out what they wanted to do as a band.

“We kind of thought Emily’s Army was over,” Cole explains. “We just wanted to get some time to ourselves to really figure out what we wanted to do with music.” Agreeing with his band mate, Seb adds, “And who we were as musicians.” Emily’s Army was, in a way, the first “real” band the four were in, and because of that, they didn’t really feel that they had the ability to explore. “We started playing music, and then we were Emily’s Army, a poppunk band,” says Cole. “We started SWMRS and we kind of just took a bunch of time to really dig deep and figure out what we wanted to do with music and what we wanted to sound like.”

Their sound has taken shape in their first full-length album as SWMRS, Drive North, which was released in February. During the writing process, Cole was really inspired by older hip hop artists, like De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, and Public Enemy. “That really influenced a lot of the song writing, because out of that I bought a drum machine, and would turn it on, and would play keyboards and guitar over it, and that’s how a lot of the songs got written,” he explains.

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was influential, too. Cole says, “It was really inspirational to just be at college for the first time, and be meeting new people, seeing how people explore their own youth and their own coming of age.” Their writing process begins with either Cole or Max, depending on who will be singing the song. “I write all the beginning of all the songs I sing, Max writes the beginning of all the song he sings,” explains Cole, “And then maybe you’ll think of an idea of a song, maybe a concept, or maybe you’ll think of a melody, and then those will be in the back of your mind until one day you get one snippet of it that you can roll with, and then you can sit down and write the rest of the song.”

From there, once they have vocals and guitar, Seb and Joey will be brought in. “They really add a lot to make it a SWMRS song,” Cole remarks.

Drive North was produced by FIDLAR front man Zac Carper. “It was awesome, he’s a sweetheart,” remarks Seb, to which Cole adds, “He’s brilliant, too, he’s so smart.”

Zac brought in a lot of knowledge and ideas that really shaped the final product. “With FIDLAR he’s kind of hindered, because he doesn’t get to do a lot of the weird shit that he knows how to do in the studio. He used to be an engineer, so he knows all these little funny tricks that he likes to play in the studio,” explains Cole. “He doesn’t get to do that with the other guys, and so when he found out that we were really down to just make it weird sounding, he was kind of all in. He would spend like all night tweaking out on songs, and that was really fun.”

With their first SWMRS LP finished, the band wants to continue experimenting and changing their style. Seb remarks, “To be a good band, you always have to be exploring.” Cole adds, “Drive North is one of our children, and then the next album is going to be another child, and it’s going to be completely different, but it’s still going to be something that we’ve worked

on. We’re not lazy musicians. We’re always going to be figuring out new things to do.”

For now, though, they are focusing on their touring schedule. From February to March, SWMRS was on a US tour with surf-punk band The Frights. Though exhausting, their time on the road has been really great. Cole says, “It’s nice to finish, like, playing four or five shows in the middle of nowhere, like we played four or five shows in Florida that were so weird and slow, and then we played Atlanta right after that, and it was crazy, it was so cool.” Seb adds, “We get a lot of the ebb and flow of tour.” As far as wild tour stories go, their three big highlights were seeing an alligator on the freeway, Cole’s near-concussion, and a Revenant-themed photo shoot at a rest stop in Bend, Oregon. “I walked into a speaker and almost concussed myself. I was walking off stage and I wasn’t paying attention. I fell down. It was so bad. I got a scar,” says Cole. As for the Revenant, Seb explains, “We were at a rest stop in Bend, it was snowing and we got buck naked and remade some Revenant photos being naked in the snow.”

Their tour with The Frights ended in late March, and upcoming they have a UK run, some festivals, and hopefully another US tour.

In the midst of all this, the guys are definitely looking forward to having some time off. “We’re so far from home. I’m glad to be [in New York], somewhere that I’ve been before. It’s nice. I know people here, so there’s some semblance of home,” says Cole. Thinking of home is always in the back of your mind when you’ve been travelling cross-country for weeks. Seb explains, “When you’re on the road, the idea of home — I don’t even know how to explain it. It’s just like, the dream.” Sleeping and getting kimchi fried rice are at the top of the list for when they return to Oakland. “Pretty much we miss our mommies and animals,” Seb jokes, and Cole adds, “Our moms, our dogs, and our kimchi fried rice.” NKD NKDMAG.COM

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CHRIS LANE Words by VANESSA SALLES Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

If Chris Lane isn’t on your radar, he should be. The North Carolina native has earned the praises of some of today’s hottest country stars and has truly made a name for himself as a serious artist to watch.

His journey to country stardom is an interesting tale to tell. “Unlike a lot of artists, I didn’t grow up playing music,” Chris says. “I actually grew up playing football and baseball with my identical twin brother and for as long as I can remember, we both wanted to play ball professionally.

That’s ultimately what I thought my career would be after college,” he says. After having to undergo several knee surgeries, things took a turn for Chris. “That really hurt my chances of playing,” he says. “My twin brother actually got drafted to play and ended up turning it down, which is crazy, isn’t it? He ended up joining me with the whole music thing.”

Though some would use their post-surgery downtime to catch up on Netflix’s latest releases, Chris opted for a more musical approach.

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“I started learning how to play guitar,” he says. “After my brother and I graduated college, we moved back home and started helping my dad do landscaping for a living. At that time, I was really digging in on the guitar and started practicing being able to sing at the same time.”

After nailing that skill, Chris went on to form a cover band in his hometown. Three years into that, crowds started getting bigger and bigger for Chris’ gigs. “That’s when I decided to start writing my own music,” he says. “I didn’t have any clue where to begin because I had never written a song before, but throughout a period of time, I ended up writing 12.” Not bad for a firsttime songwriter, right?

After having a buddy record the tracks, those 12 songs flourished into a self-released project. “I continued building up a following in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, and just tried branching out from there,” Chris says. “That’s when Nashville started taking notice and people started flying out to watch me play. That’s how I ended up in Nashville, at Big Loud Records.”

Now, Chris is continuously climbing the country charts. “I just released my debut EP and my single, ‘Fix,’ on country radio,” he says. “I spent 21 weeks out on a radio tour and it just felt great. The song is actually in the top 30 and seeing all my hard work paying off has just been so rewarding.” All that hard work eventually led Chris to break records with his lead single, accumulating the most first week single adds from a debut male artist.

Still, even with such deserved success, Chris admits this is all new territory for him. “I’ve never had music out before where people are listening and singing at the top of their lungs,” he says. “It’s new to me and I’m loving it. I’m excited about everything going on and everything that’s still to come.”

Crafting his own niche sound was a collaborative effort between Chris and his team. “I was about five or six songs deep on the EP and was

basically finished with it when we decided to go in a different direction,” he says. “My producer had heard me sing a high falsetto part, from an Usher song, and he just stared at me and was like ‘What was that?’ He wanted me to explore that sound but we didn’t really have any songs that would allow me to do that. So, a week later, my manager called and said he had a song called ‘Fix’ that he wanted me to listen to.

When I heard it, I loved everything about it. I love songs that make you want to move and dance and that song definitely did that for me.”

Taking on this new direction meant stepping out of his comfort zone, something a lot of artists are nervous to do. “Once I got in the vocal booth, I felt a little intimidated because I had only been joking around before with the falsetto,” he says. “But everyone was so pleased with the way it turned out that we just decided to start from scratch and continue in the direction of ‘Fix.’ I’m not always the most patient person but I’m so glad that I waited or I would’ve never ended up with this song, which I truly love. When I perform it live, I’ve gotten very comfortable with it that I don’t really get nervous to use that side of my voice anymore. The more I do it, the stronger I feel with it.”

He’s not the only one who loves the tune. In fact, the ‘Fix’ music video has racked up almost a million views to date. “I really wanted the vibe of the video to match the sound of the song,” he says. “It was so much fun to make and I feel like we really captured what we were trying to capture. It was my first time working with the director, TK McKamy, and he definitely made it a good time.”

The song, which became one of the most shared tracks on Twitter in the U.S. from an up-and-coming artist, earned Chris some big-time shout outs from celebrity fans like Florida Georgia Line, Lucy Hale, Brett Eldredge and more. “That’s the beautiful thing about country music,” Chris says. “Everybody is always so supportive of everybody. Florida Georgia Line and all the other artists

who have given me a shout out are all people that I look up to and have formed friendships with over these last few years in Nashville. It’s always cool to have your friendships supporting and shouting you out.”

Once Chris’ full EP went live, more country lovers started taking notice; CMT even selected Chris as one of the 16 artists included in their LISTEN UP “16 for 2016” campaign. ”I was so excited when I found about that,” Chris says. “I think I screamed a whole lot and ran around my house. I’m certainly honored by it, for sure. It’s such a boost for me.”

Keeping the momentum alive, Chris joined Dustin Lynch’s Hell of a Night Tour, which ended its run in February. “Tour life was amazing,” he says. “People showed up every night and sang along. I even got a lot of sweet gifts from fans, which I thought was awesome because having those types of connections was also new to me. Of course, another amazing part of the tour was Dustin; he always made sure that we were taken care of every single day. The best part for me, I think, was getting to walk off stage every night and standing on the side to watch him perform. He’s really a great performer and such a great friend.”

After Chris’ tour run wrapped, he joined a very elite group that up-and-coming country stars dream about their entire lives: he made his Grand Ole Opry debut. “I was so excited,” he says. “I was also a nervous wreck, no doubt about it. All the greats have played on that stage and I was just very blessed to have been asked to be apart of that night.”

With 2016 only four months in, some would say that Chris has already achieved a whole lot this year. However, the country crooner has a lot more on his to-do list. “I think my main goal for this year is to get my record out,” he shares. “I’m currently trying to finish that but, for now, I’m just excited to see where “Fix” takes me. I’m hoping to get another single out soon, get on another tour, and just see what happens from there.” NKD NKDMAG.COM

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CHLOE LUKASIAK Words by MERISSA BLITZ Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

The streets of New York City aren’t unaccustomed to celebrity sightings. As Chloe Lukasiak stands outside the Homewood Suites in midtown Manhattan for a photo shoot, a teen girl and her mom pass by. Almost doing a double take, the girl walks over to Chloe and asks if it was her. Chloe nodded shyly and takes a photo with the girl, probably making that girl’s day. Chloe’s humbling demeanor during that encounter with her fan shows that she doesn’t realize just how influential she is.

Chloe, a Churchill, Pennsylvania native, was born on May 25, 2001 and given the name Chloe by her dad after the song “Chloe Dancer”.

She took her very first dance class at the age of 2 with her best friend Paige Hyland at the Abby Lee Dance Company.

“My mom just put me in class because she thought every little girl needed to take a dance class,” Chloe says. “It’s kind of silly.” From then on, Chloe’s life forever revolved around dancing.

Chloe loved to dance from the beginning and it became something that helped her through life.

“Just being able to express yourself without words and just sort of put your emotion into moving, if that makes sense, is just a really good feeling once you kind of let go and stop worrying about stuff and just dance to have fun,” Chloe says.

In 2011, Chloe, Paige, the rest of the Abby Lee Dance Company, and their moms were cast on the most dramatic dance series there is on television – Dance Moms.

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overall; I’m really grateful for it,” Chloe says. “I think it was a great jumping off point for me and kind of an intro into this business.”

The show was originally focused on the dance lives of Chloe, Paige and her sister Brooke, Maddie and Mackenzie Ziegler and Nia Sioux Frazier whom all performed in the Abby Lee Dance Company under their instructor, Abby Lee Miller.

Chloe’s favorite part about the whole show was being able to travel and do what she loves most: dancing with her friends.

“Some parts of [being on the show] were hard, but I think with everything that anyone does in the entertainment world it’s always going to be a little hard, so it was just a really good learning experience,” Chloe explains.

The hardest obstacle that the girls had to overcome, especially for Chloe, was dealing with the criticism from Abby, therefore making the relationships between her and the girls strained. “[My relationship] wasn’t the best with her,” Chloe says. “I think I learned a lot from her, and obviously a lot of where my training comes from is from her because I danced with her for most of my life, but it was a little difficult sometimes because it wasn’t always the easiest with her.”

Chloe wasn’t alone with thinking it was hard to get along with her instructor; her best friend Paige and Brooke ended up leaving the show halfway through Season Four, and Chloe and her mom followed at the end of the same season because of continued indifferences between them and Abby.

That little setback didn’t slow Chloe down. If anything, it made her push harder to follow her dreams.

This past summer, Chloe won the Teen Choice Award for best dancer. She says she wasn’t expecting to win at all, she was just there because she had the amazing opportunity to attend the Teen Choice Awards, but then she ended up winning. “That was probably one 22

of the best nights ever of my life so far,” Chloe says.

This was the first time Chloe had to go up on stage to accept an award and she was incredibly nervous about it. “I was really nervous that I was going to slip and fall,” Chloe remembers. “When we were on the carpet it was really really hot that day and everyone was pretty much melting which was kind of funny because you have all these amazing people there with all this gorgeous make-up on and ick; so I was sweating and I was walking up and I was still kind of sweating because we had just gotten out of the sun and so my feet were slipping in my shoes and I was like, ‘please don’t fall’ please don’t fall’.” Luckily, she didn’t fall; her gracefulness from dancing definitely helped with that.

As much as Chloe loves dancing, she recently started focusing on an acting career. Finding a way to keep dance in her life, Chloe accepted the role of Gwen in the third movie to the Centerstage series, Centerstage: Dance Camp.

“They brought back a lot of the old cast and it follows my character, and I play a dance prodigy at this dance camp,” Chloe explains. “It was amazing.”

Centerstage: Dance Camp, which will come out later this year, is Chloe’s first experience with acting and she loves it.

“It was just cool to see how the whole process went and how different it was from reality,” Chloe says.

The lessons she has learned from being a dancer have carried over into how Chloe approaches acting.

“I used to get really nervous with dance and then after doing it for so long, I sort of learned to not be nervous because it’s just dance, it’s not life or death,” Chloe says, “And then with acting, I used to get really nervous, but only recently have I learned that it’s just doing what I love.”

Watching Chloe go through her journey of becoming a phenomenal dancer and now branching out into acting, it’s hard to remember that

she’s only 14. As a freshman in high school, Chloe is taking her classes online to more easily accommodate her bi-coastal lifestyle.

“I tried to do it for a little bit where I was going to normal school and I was just falling behind and my teachers were kind of getting angry so I was like, ‘ok, I’ll do cyber school, it’s easier’,” Chloe explains.

Though sometimes it’s hard to focus on her school work when she’s doing more exciting things like attending red carpet events or shooting movies, she still makes time for her education – taking time to do her school work on car rides and after she gets home from her glamorous life as a dancer/actress.

It’s early to think about, but Chloe does see herself going to college at some point in the future.

“My dad has always been a big advocate for school, and recently he’s becoming more supportive of my dreams which is amazing, but I will definitely go to college, I guess we just have to find the right time and the right place,” Chloe says.

When she’s not busy dancing or with her new acting career, Chloe still keeps herself busy. While she was on her trip to New York City, she assisted the dance company, Triple Threat Talent Tour, in some classes.

“It’s an organization that takes dancers, actors and singers and they bring in people who are successful and who have worked [in those fields] and they teach workshop classes,” Chloe explains. “It’s a really great organization and I really support it.”

Chloe also has a very popular YouTube channel where she posts videos of herself dancing, DIYs, tutorials and “just anything a normal teenage girl would like to see.”

Chloe has a lot of goals for the future, to keep dancing and to further her acting career being two of them, but she also wants to work on herself as a whole by always growing and improving as a performer and person and just seek out as many opportunities as possible. NKD

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MAX Words by DUSTIN HEVERON Photos by CATHERINE POWELLL

When you type “Max Schneider” into Google the first auto-suggestion Google suggests is “Max Schneider age” followed by “Max Schneider tour” and “Max Schneider 2016.” Whatever algorithm Google uses to generate those suggestions, “Age. Tour. 2016.” are three pretty accurate adjectives to describe where Max is in his career and life. The experience and wisdom that age brings; touring hard to promote his new album Hell’s Kitchen Angel (which comes out April 8th); and his unique fusion of elements like dance and fan connection into his road show feels very “2016 “in the best possible way.

When it comes to legendary musical singer/songwriter acts, the best are the best for a reason, which are just the sort of performers Max takes his inspiration from.

“I’ve always been obsessed with the performance stylings of James Brown and Michael Jackson and Prince and The Rolling Stones,” Max lists, “And just live performances that felt like those performers gave you everything they had that night.”

Max has no problem differentiating himself from the masses though, and describes this era NKDMAG.COM

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of his music as “darker” than his pervious outings. “The transitions [of his new live show] sort of have harder undertones, sort of darker beats,” Max shares, “And so it’s definitely just been evolving since then. I think with the new single “Holla” and stuff, I just really wanted to take a risk.” Risk and the music business don’t always go hand-in-hand, but this isn’t Max’s first rodeo and he has grown into the sort of artist and person that understands the importance of pushing yourself and your art. “It’s been sort of a thing I’ve wanted to do for a while, to take bigger and bigger risks,” Max confesses, “And as I get older, I’m a little less scared to take those risks and a little more excited to just go for it. It’s been a transitional period of just wanting to go all the way with [his musical passions] and not be afraid of how people react to it, and more just be excited about whatever the next step is.”

There are risks that are already paying off, however, and the feedback to “Max 2.0” has been overwhelming positive, both in person and online. “It’s cool to see people are like digging the vibe we’re going for,” Max says, “It’s kind of a strange feeling I’ve never really had, but I’m not as affected by the hate.”

One of the areas that has drawn the most positive feedback for Max is his live show, which Max and his team have poured a significant portion of their talents (and time) into refining to its best possible form. “It’s always the details,” Max says of meticulously producing his live show for tour, “I saw Bruno Mars’ show at the Hollywood Bowl a while back and it was probably one of the best shows I’ve ever seen in my life, and it was all about the details.” Max continues, “What I took away from that show was that all the songs were great and everything felt great, but you know there’s just certain moments in a show that you can tell are so authentic and those are things you remember.” You can 28

sense Max’s excitement and passion as he describes some of his thoughts and processes behind his own live performance, and you can tell instantly that Max is an artist who wants every element of his art to be engaging; to be something that hardcore fans and casual fans alike can appreciate. “You know [Bruno Mars] goes up on this big stand during “Gorilla” and there’s fireworks when he jumps,” Max describes, “Now am I going to get up on a big pillar and have fireworks?

No, I’d never want to take anybody else’s specific move. But just the intention behind doing a big, detailed movement is there, and I’ve always been inspired by those performances.”

Max showcases that inspiration with him every night when he goes out onstage, he’s a whirlwind of catchy vocal hooks, dazzling falsettos, splits, “ninja kicks” and pure musical energy that has to be experienced in person to be fully appreciated. “It’s always about the live shows,” Max declares, “If I wanted someone to understand the music and what the whole vibe is about, I would definitely tell them to come to a show rather than just listen to records.”

“I’ve never been the guy to be behind the guitar and play the show for people,” Max observes, “I respect that guy, and you can captivate a crowd by doing that, but for me it’s always been: if I exert as much energy as possible, then once I’ve given it my all that’s when I get the most reaction back. I get the most connectivity with the crowd.”

Max goes on to describe the sort of synesthesia he has where he can pair the right moves for the right moments during his performances.

“That’s always been something that I’ve sort of felt,” Max says about deciding when and how to include his unique brand of physicality, “The more performances we do, the more I feel that and feel which moments connect most. I feel the most connected with the crowd when I’m giving that energy and movement.”

Max has plenty of content for fans to absorb when he’s not on tour, though. Whether it’s his music video, “Holla” with a cameo from Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz, or “Gibberish”, his celebration collaboration with Hoodie Allen, Max is making fans almost as fast as he’s making friends, and Max isn’t showing any signs of slowing down.

“With the album,” Max shares, “I’ve spent all my energy in making sure that the experience, in the end when you listen to this whole album, is coming from the most authentic place — that you feel the connectivity of every song. I’ve been spending a lot of time making sure everything’s right.”

Max process extends beyond just enjoying creating his music; he also views his involvement with the details as his duty to the fans and the industry. “I think it’s a responsibility, personally [to be involved in the post production process of an album],” Max opines, “But every artist is different. It’s your work.”

“There’s too many people out there who would love to be in a position to release an album of their own,” Max notes, “And I think it’s sort of a responsibility for any band — but especially a solo artist — to do that.” Despite being a solo artist, Max credits his team as much for his success as himself, if not more so. “I always say ‘we’ when I do something [music related],” Max humbly admits, “There’s so many people behind the scenes that are a part of [my career] that it never really feels like it’s just ‘my’ thing — which I love.” But Max likes sharing the music with friends and collaborators alike, so being a solo artist doesn’t mean he’s a loner.

“Ironically enough, I’m an only child,” Max jokingly shares, “And I’ve always done sort of the solo thing. I’ve never really done being in a band or whatever else. But I’m incredibly co-dependent [laughs] and I love having people be a part of whatever I’m doing, and who I am and what I do, so in that way I share it with so many awesome NKD people.” NKD

Words by IAN HAYS Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

THE CACTUS BLOSSOMS On their debut album, You’re Dreaming, brothers Jack Torrey and Page Burkum, a.k.a. The Cactus Blossoms, reignite a lost tradition of pure American music: country and Western. Modern country music takes more influence from rock than its folk roots. There is a pervading sense that big riffs, big trucks, big drinks and big twang is what country is all about. The Cactus Blossoms take a different approach. Their music hearkens back to pre-1960s era country and Western music, popular at a time 30

when even the simplest of melodies and arrangements tugged at the heartstrings and coalesced into something from the soul. These boys have put in hard work, and it’s paid off—they’ve created something new and refreshing.

Jack and Page grew up in near Minneapolis, and they still consider it home. Growing up, there was never an “aha” moment when they realized music was their future—it was just always in their blood. Jack, the youngest of three brothers, took cues from his siblings and listened

to anything and everything. Jack and Page listened to whatever was on the radio, especially ‘90s rock.

“I mean, we listened to melodious music, rock, just anything,” Jack says. “From the Beach Boys to Radiohead, we listened to it.”

When it came time to learning to play and sing, they cut their teeth like most other musicians—on covers. While they absorbed all the music around them like sponges, they found themselves drifting toward artists like Woody Guthrie.

His music was perfect for them to

practice with. The structure and compositions were more barebones than music from artists like The Beatles. The melody lines and guitar parts were repetitive, and the lengthy verses allowed for an exercise in memorization. While this style of music ultimately became their aesthetic, they never blocked out other genres. They still allowed other styles to influence them and play a background role in their sound.

Eventually, the brothers found themselves with recurring gigs at

the Turf Club in St. Paul. The Turf Club was having a slow-down in business, which led to the venue being closed on Mondays. Well, in come Jack and Page. They had been scouring for a place to play every week, a place where they could hone their skills, develop their sound and turn other people on to what they were doing. “We thought, instead of gigging around town at all different bars, what if we could just play at one bar every week?

We could get better. We could have three hours to play our songs or have our friends from out of town join us…just make a night out it,” Jack says.

Jack and Page pitched their idea of establishing a residency to Turf Club’s management, and the venue was all for it. They told the brothers they would open up so they could play on Mondays, and have one bartender on schedule.

And as time went on, word spread. Here were these brothers and their band playing everything from deep cuts by Hank Williams to obscure country and Western songs, to their own original msuic.

It gave them a chance to play in a stress free environment. As Jack puts it, it was a “free-for-all, fun kind of night.” They got to play everything they wanted for friends, family and general patrons. They got to see what worked and what didn’t work, and were able to develop their sound and receive instant feedback— something many up-and-coming musicians would kill for. People would drive in from out of town to hear them play and dance to old country music. Young people would show up to be introduced to the sounds of country music’s roots.

Eventually, The Cactus Blossoms’ luck took them to the next step. At another venue in town, the brothers were put on a bill with JD McPherson—an Oklahoma musician who had a vintage sound of his own, focusing on 1950s rockabilly and rhythm and blues. They met him only briefly at that first gig.

But time and time again, they ran

into JD and his band at different festivals and shows. Then, JD got in touch with them after one of their sets. He asked if The Cactus Blossoms were interested in his help in recording an album, and Jack and Page said yes.

This is where The Cactus Blossoms again set themselves apart from their peers. Most modern studio time is spent recording each track on a song one at a time.

Recording drums, guitar, keys and vocals on separate tracks, allows producers and mixers to play with multiple versions, choose the best of each and glue them together for the finished song. But if you’re playing something rustic, something where you have relied on a band day-in and day-out, recording the album live is the way to go.

Everyone plays at once and is recorded at the same time. And that is the path The Cactus Blossoms chose. “If you’re going to go for a good groove between a bass player, a drummer and a guitar, why not play it together?” Jack says. “I think we play a pretty live style of music and it works well to do [record] it that way.”

For Jack and Page, it is not a statement or philosophical point of view. They see the validity in recording track by track. But for what they were wanting to accomplish, live recording all on the same track was the way to go. Jack writes the lyrics, melody and basic concept of the song. Page comes in, come up with his guitar licks and added compositional notes. The band plays it, then they do as many lives takes as they need to record it. This allows the visceral connections between the band members to bleed through on the songs. They feed off of each other’s energy and that comes through in the music.

You’re Dreaming was released on January 22, 2016 to open arms and open ears. The band has been touring and doesn’t show signs of stopping. The Cactus Blossoms show what once was old can be made new when you’re authentic to yourself and the music you love. NKD NKDMAG.COM

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ALFRED ENOCH Words & Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

Alfred Enoch is very bad at interviews — but I mean this in the best way. Several times during our nearly two-hour conversation, he tried to spin it back to me, which says quite a bit about his character and everything about his lack of concern for celebrity.

In fact, Alfred may be one of the most traditional young actors in Hollywood right now, opting to stay away from social media and always making time for Shakespeare. He’s in acting for the storytelling, and he wants to hear as many stories as he can.

I meet with Alfred a few days prior to the mid-season premiere of How To Get Away With Murder in his hotel room at the Trump International in Columbus Circle. He was hesitant about staying here — for obvious reasons — but he abandoned those concerns once he found out Donald Trump doesn’t actually own this hotel.

He’s dressed simply, but sharply.

Flash doesn’t really suit him.

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came almost as soon as he left the womb. His father, William Russell Enoch, is a successful actor in England and appeared in numerous television shows and films, in addition to his stage work at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre and the debut season at the Globe Theatre. Alfred spent his childhood watching his father’s films and hearing him talk about acting, which made Alfred want to pursue it. His father encouraged him, and the first thing Alfred did was perform a Shakespeare sonnet before his father’s performances at the Globe Theatre — not exactly a casual thing for a 7-year-old.

“That was sort of my first real taste of it, and I really loved it,” he says.

Throughout his childhood, Alfred attended the famed Westminster School in London and acted in school plays to keep his fire lit. When he was 10, the National Youth Music Theatre came to his school to audition kids for Solomon Pavy, a play about child actors in Shakespeare’s time. “At this point I was already so, like, this is what I want to do, this is my identity,” he says. “I didn’t want to try and not get the part.”

He decided to blow off the audition, and then immediately regretted it. He had one of his teachers call the company and ask if he could still audition, and they allowed it. He ended up booking the part and the production took place at the Globe, which brought things full circle for him. “For most 10-year-olds it was probably

just some theater that did Shakespeare, but for me it was such an important thing,” he recalls.

Shortly after the play’s run at The Globe and its tour the following season, the casting directors for the first Harry Potter film were holding open auditions at Westminster. Alfred, once again, blew off the audition — but felt he had a good reason this time.

“I remember thinking, ‘there’s only one black character in Harry Potter, that’s Lee Jordan, and he’s older,’” he says. As an avid reader of the books, Alfred thought

were impressed by his performance. Alfred took that as a good sign and went through with the audition. He booked the part of Dean Thomas. “And then I did that for 10 years,” he says, laughing. “I missed the audition! That should have been in the not-fairytale version of the story..”

Alfred’s experience working on Harry Potter was as magical as the story itself. He was able to be a part of these massive films, based on books he truly loved and learn from incredible actors on set, but did not have to compromise his privacy to do so, unlike some of the lead actors, who experienced paparazzi, stalking and all the other unfun things that come with being in a blockbuster franchise.

He was able to continue going to Westminster, and eventually moved on to The Queen’s College, a constituent college of Oxford University, before the final film wrapped.

“It was kind of like summer holiday,” he says.

“It fell into place really nicely.”

After some stage work and a few guest starring television roles in the three years following the final Harry Potter film in 2011, Alfred booked a series regular role on ABC’s critically acclaimed drama, How To Get Away With Murder in 2013. What initially attracted him to the script was the way the writers used flash forwards to reveal things about characters that audiences are just meeting. The tight structure of the script reminded him of House, one of the few television shows

“THE TIME LAPSE WAS SORT OF A DIFFERENT SPIN ON [HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER], AND I LIKED THE CREATIVITY WITHIN THAT STRUCTURE. IT’S OPERATING IN A CONVENTION, BUT SLIGHTLY SUBVERTED. SO I THOUGHT THAT WAS COOL.” there was most likely no part for him, but also remembered that the race of Dean Thomas, one of Harry’s classmates, was never specified. So he went back on tour and didn’t think of it again, but followed the progress of the film’s casting on the news.

While in Oxford for a tour stop, Alfred got a call from the Harry Potter casting team of asking him if he wanted to audition. “That doesn’t happen anymore,” he says, laughing. It turns out they had seen him in Solomon Pavy and

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Alfred watched and thoroughly enjoyed. “The time lapse was sort of a different spin on it, and I liked the creativity within that structure,” he says. “It’s operating in a convention, but slightly subverted. So I thought that was cool.”

He was also drawn to the fact that from the first episode, the viewer sees these characters in vastly different ways, playing on the idea that anyone is capable of anything, and people act differently in different situations. That idea was explored through Alfred’s character Wes, when he kills someone in an effort to save his girlfriend. It is stressed even more when he and his friends andcolleagues dispose of the body and try to cover their tracks.

How To Get Away With Murder has been celebrated by both fans and critics, not only for its captivating storyline and acting, but for the fact that the main cast is one of the most diverse on television. “That’s one of the elements of the show that I’m proud of. I think it shows a rounded image of American society,” he says.

“There’s a powerful female character at the center of it and that is to be celebrated.” This made Viola Davis’ history-making Emmy win for her starring role of Annalise Keating on the show extra special for her cast. Alfred describes acting along side Viola as “playing football with Peyton Manning”.

“Getting to work with someone who is so impressive, and brings so much to the work that they do, and helps your work in that, is a real gift,” he says. “Working closely with V, you get a good sense of how impressive she really is.”

While Viola may be the only cast member with a trophy, her supporting cast is consistently praised — Alfred included. From the pilot episode, Wes was portrayed as the outcast and the guy to be a bit skeptical about. Come Season Two, the audience watched him break down over the loss of his girlfriend, shoot his profesNKDMAG.COM

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sor and boss, completely isolate himself to the point of psychotic break and begin digging up secrets from his past. For Alfred, getting to play a character with so many layers and secrets has been a challenge — but a fun one.

“It’s strange for me, not having really done much TV, not really knowing the whole story, at the beginning of the story,” he says.

Between Harry Potter and all his stage work, Alfred is used to having all the information there is about a character before he starts a project. With Murder, he’s lucky if he gets a script a day or two before he films a scene. “Not knowing things your character would have known, and sort of finding things out along the way, is sort of tricky,” he says. “It sort of affects the way you go about it.”

The Season Two finale shows Wes confronting his biological father for the first time, just seconds before he is murdered in front of him. The scene sets up the show for yet another murder for someone to get away with, and left fans eager for more — as always. To no surprise, How To Get Away With Murder was picked up for early renewal by ABC and will resume new episodes in the fall. But until production picks up in the summer, Alfred has no commitments in Los Angeles and will be spending the next month getting back in touch with his roots — on stage, in England, performing Shakespeare. He will be taking on the role of Edgar in King Lear at the Royal Exchange in Manchester, and will act alongside Don Warrington, who will play the title role.

For a career that could have ended before it began thanks to two skipped auditions, Alfred’s is flourishing. He’s eager to get back on stage, but equally eager to get back to L.A. and begin work on Season Three. “I want to stretch myself by doing different things and keeping different elements of my work, as part of my present in my career,” he says. NKD

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LANY Words by NAUREEN NASHID Photos by CATHERINE POWELL Made up of three members – Paul Klein, Les Priest, and Jake Goss –LANY was formed in Nashville. Paul had initially met Jake and through him, he also met his roommate, Les. The three of them became fast friends and spent some time together before Paul moved out to LA to pursue a solo music career while Jake and Les worked on some music of their own.

However, it didn’t end up working for either of them, so Paul called up Jake as a last ditch effort to ask him if he and Les would want to make music together. After they agreed, Paul packed up and headed back to Nashville again.

In four days, the three of them recorded two songs, quickly put them up online, and since then things were never quite the same.

“We established a sound that wasn’t done on purpose, but was just us being us,” Paul said in response to the initial reaction they had. “People like to ask us about our influences, and the fact that we can’t even tell you who our major influences are, is why we sound the way that we sound.”

Their first two songs, “Hot Lights” and “Walk Away,” both of which fall under different sub-genres, had garnered several plays and attention.

Their goal from the beginning was to put their music out to as many people as possible. The whole process was organic as they made their music on their computer electronically and put it up online themselves. “We thought, ‘Throw it up on Soundcloud and Google Play. And what about Rhapsody, is Rhapsody still a thing?’”

Paul recalls. Personally, they were all a fan of Souncloud the most. It was a great platform to look for new music and find playlists, as well as related artists based on what you had previously heard. “We could get lost in Soundcloud forever. It’s such a 42

cool platform,” Les says.

It was through these platforms – Soundcloud in particular – that music blogs started writing about them, despite the fact that they had started out with zero followers.

One of the music blogs was Hillydilly, who the the band credit for getting their music properly out there. Within the first week of having released music, they got emails from labels, one of them being Polydor, which they ended up signing to. The guys were overwhelmed at first because their previous musical endeavors hadn’t succeeded, and it was always them reaching out to labels and trying to be noticed. Funnily enough, when they got their first email, they had thought it was spam and hadn’t even heard of some of the labels that wanted to sign them.

It was clear that they were very new to this and needed guidance. Paul reached out to his friend Rupert Lincoln regarding all the emails from the labels. Rupert setup meetings with these labels and ended up becoming their manager whilst helping them get signed. Once that happened, things really started to settle in that this was real and they were going to have to start making more music. “The response from the people who reached out to us was always that our songs are on repeat in their office and can we send them more stuff,” Paul says.

“ILYSB,” “BRB,” and “Made in Hollywood” were then recorded and they decided to put out an EP (Acronyms) to release the first two songs and keep “Made in Hollywood,” a song they were sure to be a hit, in for later. The reaction to this EP, especially “ILYSB,” was instantaneous from the minute they put it out, which was surprising because they hadn’t announced anything prior. It was as though their listeners had their page on Soundcloud continuously

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refreshing to wait for new songs.

As they continued to release more songs, the band waited until there was a definite demand for them to do a live show, which happened in Hollywood in early 2015. All of them had been trained musically and could play instruments, but they needed to figure out how their newfound sound was going to translate. They rented out a rehearsal space and practiced playing for 20 days straight. It was important to them because even though their music was created electronically, they wanted to do it with live instruments, instead.

Since then, they’ve gone on tour with Troye Sivan and Halsey, being given the opportunity to play massive rooms to hundreds of people. They also released another EP in December and are working on a full length record. It’s something that they don’t want to rush since all of them have big plans and dreams, so strategizing is important. Before releasing anything more, they want to garner more attention so that the anticipation for a record is high. They all believe there is still room for a lot more exposure and till then, they aren’t opposed to just releasing singles.

Earlier this month, they released their latest single, “WHERE THE HELL ARE MY FRIENDS.” It was the second song they wrote for the full length record and it has already made waves similar to “ILYSB” online. It definitely shows a different vibe to the band, as well as a little more depth.

Aside from that, LANY have also been on tour with Ellie Goulding in the UK, which has been great exposure. All the shows were held in arenas and they are also playing a headline show of their own while there, which sold out very quickly. It’s their second official headlining show since the one in Hollywood that they did back in February 2015. After that, they’re using all of April to work on the record and hit the road again for a headlining tour in the U.S., where they’re playing in ten cities as well as at festivals.

For the future, they don’t have many goals aside from having a No. 1 record.

They’ve already exceeded several of their goals prior, so things are looking up for this new, up and coming band. They’ve had to add extra dates to their tour and upgrade to bigger rooms all because of the their growing fanbase. Now, the only other goal is to add more production to their live shows, such as with lighting, concepts and designs. NKD NKDMAG.COM

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LEISURE CRUISE Words by NAUREEN NASHID Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

The funny, but rather cool, thing about Leisure Cruise is that it was all sort of an accident that they became a band. In fact, Dave Hodge and Leah Siegel had only started recording in the studio together to have some fun until it became a lot more real.

Dave began playing music when he was 4 years old. He was taught to play an array of different instruments including tuba, violin, piano, and trombone. When he was thirteen, 46

he joined a brass quintet group, and started touring through Europe to proofread education books for a Canadian brass group. Not only that, but his group also played around Austria and England at education conferences.

Despite his classical background, when Dave finished high school, he saw an ad in the back of NOW magazine for a reggae band called One that was looking for a keyboard/horn player. He had thought it sounded

fun, so he and his friend, Matt, who played trumpet, went to the auditions.

Even though the two guys weren’t what the band was looking for sound wise, they still took them on because they were so different. One ended up being signed by Virgin Records and they played hundreds of live shows over the course of five years. While being on the road, Dave met several other bands, one of them being 3000, and played with them, too. Sometime

after, Dave started producing for EMI/ Warner brothers and helped them scout young artists who had potential, but needed help to develop their sound. Then when 9/11 happened, Dave believed that the music scene shifted along with everyone’s moods, so he ventured out into making music for commercials and television, instead.

Leah had a similar background. She started out playing violin when she

was 5 years old and got into classical music. When she turned 12, she took on piano, saxophone and even started singing. She credited the violin for her vocal ability as that really helped her tune her sound. After that she learned the guitar from her mom, which inevitably led her to songwriting. “I was a singer-songwriter since a very young age and it was all I really cared about.

And I just kind of kept doing it and it turned into this -- being able to be a studio singer.” Her songs were very serious as she wanted to make music that elicited emotion in people as well as maintain a courageous and optimistic attitude. For her, it came from a place of emotional intensity because according to her lot of people needed to remind themselves of happiness as well as joy.

Dave bumped into Leah while he was in the process of working on an album that he wanted to make with friends and family. They both knew each other from when they worked on commercials together and decided to start writing again and since then, they never stopped. “It was easy and it was fun. We liked each other’s music, so it kind of meshed really well.”

Their debut self-titled album came together in about nine months. It was easy for them when they worked on the first half of it because they were still testing out how well they worked together. The process included Dave bringing in something from his archives that he had started working on and the two would build up on it until it became a song. That happened with about five songs before they started to question if they were really going to become a band or not. The moment they knew they was when their song “Revelation” came about. “We were like, I guess we’re a band now, so what are we going to do about that?” Dave recalled.

Things slowed down a bit after that and the two of them took it a lot more seriously. They got a record label, publisher, and backup band on board, putting all their work, money, expectations into it. The end result had a great reaction. All the iTunes reviews were good, however, their main challenge was to break through to social

media. The two of them didn’t have a huge marketing team behind them, so getting through to the crowds on the Internet proved to be difficult.

The main goal was to get the masses to hear their music. And according to them, it took baby steps to slowly figure out the secret on how to do that.

Despite that, they still get new fans to this day on an album they released back in 2014, which is nice because it still felt like a new record to them.

As far as the future and new music goes, they want to release something really soon. They’ve had an EP recorded but decided to hold back on it until they felt ready because they realized they weren’t completely satisfied with it. And instead of rushing, they decided to write some more. While they love their eclectic, refreshing sound, they’d also been questioning where they wanted to go from here sound wise since the pressure for a second album is always more than the first one. While they don’t want to dramatically change their main sound, they are looking to explore genres and have a mix of different things.

“It sort of comes down to having fun,” Dave had said, in reference to making music. “If you make it too serious, then it changes the whole thing. And we said, ‘fuck it, let’s just have fun and make what we want and like.’” He continued on to say that it was easy to lose direction as they had at some point, but then they remembered that the main reason they were doing this was to have fun. “If you get tied up in what people want to hear, then it could stray you and you might not be happy as opposed to doing what you think is cool and love,” Dave added. Furthermore, It was easy for loyal fans to start expecting things from their favorite bands when it came time to make another album, but it could go certain ways because you can never predict their reactions.

“You just have to do the best you can and enjoy yourself.”

For the coming year, Leah and David want to continue writing more music as well as tour. They want to work on their live shows and integrate interesting elements into it to make it even better than last time. NKD NKDMAG.COM

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