NKD Mag - Issue #37 (July 2014)

COVER STORY 50 R5: Touring the globe and growing up on the way

MUSI C 6 Action Item start a new chapter with Great Mission 12 10 years in and Augustana are still tugging at heart strings 18 Kate Voegele talks life after One Tree Hill 38 Emerging rock band Sleepwave talk honesty in music 42 Veteran rockers Chiodos on their new record and moving forward 72 Nick Thompson opens up on the future of Hit The Lights 74 Aussie band Hands Like Houses talk crossing over to America

FI LM 24 Drake Bell talks life on Nickelodeon and Ready Steady Go 30 Nashville’s Aubrey Peeples talks Season 3 and her upcoming record 62 Parenthood’s Lyndon Smith shares her life story 64 From XD to DC, Olivia Holt is Disney’s next darling

EDITORIAL 4 Ask The Artist: The Age of Singles 16 Live Photos: BLI Summer Jam 36 Op-Ed: How Girl Meets World Is Paving Its Own Path 37 June Picks: Top 4 Records From June 48 Live Photos: Country Music on The East Coast 60 Upcoming Releases: New Music This July 70 Live Photos: The Vamps + MAX Take NYC

TEAM NKD Editors: Photographer: Jordan Melendrez Catherine Powell Catherine Powell Jenna Ross Designer: Catherine Powell

Writers: Susan Cheng Tara DeVincenzo Alex Lane Stacy Magallon

Ariella Mastroianni Katelyn Thompson Christine O’Dea Tanya Traner Shina Patel Josephine Tse Catherine Powell Riley Stenehjem

ASK THE ARTIST AS AN ARTIST, HOW HAVE YOU BEEN AFFECTED BY THE FOCUS SWITCH FROM FULL ALBUMS TO STANDALONE SINGLES?

LIZ MACE (MEGAN & LIZ)

LILY KERSHAW

For as long as I’ve been listening to music, (my whole 21 years) an album to me has been a story, a journey.. A persons personal collection of memories, heartache, love.

When I decided I wanted to be an artist, it was because I knew that I had stories to tell. As we all grew up and albums became something of an antique to the world, and how the world listens to music, honestly it made me kind of sad, but also excited. Before as an artist, you had 11-13 songs to tell your story. You had the luxury of letting people get to know you, your emotions, your soul slowly.

These days, you have to capture your entire musical career in 3.5 minutes, and hope that someone out there gets you.

It’s a weird phenomenon that singles now determine it all.

But it’s also a challenge. To be an artist and have a single wrap you up in 3:30 minutes, you better be damn sure of who you are and what you want to say. So I say, gotta like the single? Challenge accepted. But if you want to know my soul, what breaks me and what makes me get up in the morning? Buy the album.

I have found that it has positively affected me because the placements I’ve gotten on TV shows have allowed me to release one off singles. And since it is widely accepted right now to release stand alone singles outside of a record, I am free to release singles at liberty with the placements! I still love and believe in the power of a record but I also love the beauty of a song being able to stand and shine alone.

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LOVELY JAMES The switch of focus towards stand alone singles instead of full albums has limited the choices of songs that make sense to sing. On a full album I would be able to sing a variety of style of songs, including ballads which I love to do.

However, now each song really needs to stand the test of entertainment value for radio appeal. I feel like it makes it a little harder to take risks with songs without an album to put them on.

MATT MORGAN (DIVIDED BY FRIDAY)

NOLAN SMITH (PILOT FOR A DAY)

I think this depends a lot on the genre of music you’re writing for. For pop artists its not entirely different because a lot of times you view every song as “this needs to have single potential” but for bands, it changes the game entirely. Singles don’t really allow for many ballads or rather anything longer than 3:00-3:30 minutes so there’s a lot lost in that. You don’t get many songs where the music has a chance to breathe for a while without a vocal over it.

For me personally I’m in the middle of writing an album for our band, and we absolutely view every song as “could this be a single?” but we’re not trashing songs just because they won’t fit. If a song that couldn’t meet “radio standards” means more to us than one that can, we’re going with whatever we’re most passionate about every time. But I think every band handles it differently, we just happen to be a pop band.

I think it really depends on what you’re going for as an artist. Some artists have completely switched to releasing singles rather than albums, though we have not. As always, it’s important to have singles in your albums, but those who really appreciate what you do as an artist want to hear more than just your biggest hits. Keeping a good balance between writing hits and writing what you love is very important to us, and the good thing is we’re usually able to write singles without even knowing they’ll be our biggest hits.

CHRIS WAGNER (THE SIXTIES) As an artist, I’m saddened to think of a possible future in which music fans are flooded by a sea of “Turn Down for What” ‘s, and could potentially never understand what it means to press play on something like “St. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and experience 39 minutes and 42 seconds of musical genius. Just imagine if you were to ask each artist “why?” they created each piece, what their answers would be, and how they would differ.

CARLO (WASI) Just like many other aspects of our lives that are affected by the digital revolution, the process of putting out music has sped up a lot. Instead of monthly print magazines with elaborate background stories we have daily updated online blogs; Instead of albums we have singles. I don’t think it’s inherently good or bad, but I’m personally a fan of big, complex bodies of art. So I’d rather have the development be the other way around.

SPENCER SUTHERLAND As an artist, you want to connect with your fans and give them what they want. I think the switch in focus from full albums to singles has some real appeal. Fans seem to expect newness more often and a singles strategy allows for that. It keeps me constantly connected with fans, which I love!

LUCY SCHOLL Its a really interesting yet exciting thing to be an artist in todays music industry. The focus switch to singles instead of full albums has been a monumental change for existing artists and new artists coming into the industry. I think that releasing a series of singles instead of a full album makes music more accesable to the listener and allows people to connect with the musican more often. When artists release albums, it occurs every couple years. By releasing singles, the artist can release new music often and the listener can fall in love with their music one song at a time.

JONATHAN TERRELL (NOT IN THE FACE) Dwight Yoakam said it best, “Well baby, things change..”

Its all part of the evolution of music. It does sting a bit that if you put out a great record, some people will never dig past the 1st two tracks but I think thats just the way things are. Adaptation is the key is the key to survival.

ANDREW GOLDSTEIN It’s actually a good thing. You don’t have to create an entire album to release a single anymore. For instance, if you write a song a month after you release an album, it’s common to simply release that new song for people to enjoy.

HALSEY It encourages me to work harder to create a body of work that is digestible but also artistic. I don’t think the era of albums is dead. I think people will still love a record if it’s well crafted. I think you need to give your audience more credit and not underestimate their attention spans.

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Words by SHINA PATEL Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

Far too often bands get stuck in what’s comfortable for them. They find something they are semi-talented at and that pleases their fans and they do that over and over again. The same cannot be said for indie-pop band Action Item. The band, which consists of Brian Cag (vocals), Anthony Li (guitar), Dan Brozek (drums), and David Buczkowski (bass), is constantly trying to break the mold not only with their music, but also with themselves. They will never become complacent with “good enough.” They want better.

Although the band officially formed in 2008, things really started to kick

off in 2012. After a few years of playing local shows, Action Item’s debut EP, The Stronger the Love, was released in 2012 and sold around 30,000 copies.

The Stronger the Love and their second EP Resolution [2013], were written, produced and sold all without the help of a record label. While signing is not completely off the table for Action Item, they are not willing up to give up their vision just for the sake of being signed. “It’s really just finding the right fit for the team. It doesn’t make sense to give up your vision and kind of lose some of your own identity,” says Brian.

Any fan of the band could tell you

that Action Item songs mean something. Close to every song they have released is inspirational and very significant. These meaningful sentiments behind songs come from their everyday lives. “I feel like we get inspired by everything in our daily lives. Whether it things we deal in everyday life or even love,” says Brian. But no matter what they write about it, they want it to be something they are passionate about. He says, “It’s hard for me to write about something that feels forced and that I’m not really in the groove with.” He also notes that he prefers to write in the moment and capture NKDMAG.COM

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what he’s feeling in a song rather than force himself to write something that doesn’t apply to his life.

We live in a society that allows people to always be plugged in and connected with the aide of Twitter and Facebook. Twitter especially allows bands to bond with their fans and remain close. But at the same time, social media has its flaws. People abuse Twitter and view it as an always open communication line with their favorite artists and band members, which is not necessarily a good thing. It’s a person’s prerogative to choose when they want to be on Twitter, what information they want to put on social media, and how often they reply to fans. Brian doesn’t think fans should get upset if he doesn’t reply to their tweets because if he tried to please everyone, he would spend hours and hours on Twitter every day. “It’s a privilege that we’re all able to be interconnected via this massive machine,” says Brian. “It’s cool but I just don’t think people should abuse it.”

Action Item’s newest project is called Great Mission. This will be their first full-length album, even though they have been a band for close to six years. The idea behind Great Mission is to show people that everyone in life has their own “great mission.” They realized that everyone has a purpose and that everyone should make use of the precious time they have. The band has broken the album down into three separate EPs, which they plan on releasing periodically over the course of the year. They decided to split the album up so they could consistently release new music to engage their fans instead of just dropping the album and touring for a while and never putting anything else out. They’d rather put out new music every six months.

This was the first time they had made new music since keyboardist Mark Shami’s departure from the band, but Brian notes that things weren’t all that different. He and Anthony had always been the core writers.

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Great Mission was funded by the die-hard, loyal fans that Action Item has gathered over the years. To fund the album, the band launched their first Indiegogo campaign. They launched their campaign on March 31st, 2014 with a goal of $25,000 that was to be reached by May 16th. In that time, the band not only met their goal but exceeded it by over ten thousand dollars making their grand total raised $35,645. To give their fans incentive to donate, besides the promise of new music, the band incorporated various prizes according to the amount a person donated. Some of the prizes included VIP for life, postcards from the road and a coffee date with the band.

With the excess money raised the band will be able to tour more and make the album even better than what they had originally planned. “We were nervous to gain any monetary compensation for it because you never know if it’s going to work or not. But luckily, we have some of the most dedicated fans on the planet and they overshot our goal by a lot,” says Brian.

Not only is Great Mission Action Item’s newest album, but it has also ushered in a new chapter for the band — almost a rebirth. They’re starting a new era of the band with a new sound, new image and basically starting from the ground up. “It’s not like we’re erasing our past, we’re just moving onto something I think even better and it’s really exciting,” says Brian. When they came up with the concept of Great Mission they had to really decide what they wanted to do with the band and where they saw it going. They realized that their collective great mission in life is to make this band work, and to do that they needed to start fresh and take it in a different direction.

This new sound for the band can be traced back to a song they released this past December called “The Start of Something.” They started writing with old friend and now producer, Dylan Scott, and they stumbled upon this indie-pop influenced style and

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thought it was worth exploring. They thought their fans would like that it was something fresh and decided to go for it. When they put it out, not only did their fans react positively, but the song was actually picked up for a couple commercials. Bell Canada, a telephone company, picked it up for its Winter Olympic commercial and just recently renewed it for a couple other commercials. They then realized that this sound would work well for them.

Because this new music is so different from their old stuff, they were nervous about how their fans would react.

They played some shows this past spring to showcase the new music and give fans a chance to let them know what they thought. Brian notes that the reaction was super positive and the fans seemed to love it. “It’s kind of nerve wracking to show a new face and a new vision to people that have been very adamant about what you have done in the past. It was kind of refreshing seeing the old fans respond to the new stuff so positively. It was so gratifying,” says Brian. The purpose of these shows was to introduce fans to where the band wanted to be from now on and it seemed that most of the fans were on board. This summer the band will be heading back out on the road with MKTO on the American Dream Tour. This will give them the chance to play their new music all around the country to a new audience.

The first single off of Great Mission, “We’ll Be Fine,” was released on June 24th and Great Mission: Life, their first EP, will be released on July 1st. They chose “We’ll Be Fine” to be their first single because it represents their new direction well. Not only is the song upbeat and catchy, but it has a very important sentiment behind it.

“Through all the shit that you’re going to have to deal with in your entire lifetime, you’ll always be okay at the end of it. That’s sort of the sentiment behind the band as well. We’ve gone through a lot of bullshit and we’re still fine,” Brian says. NKD 10

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AUGUSTANA Words by CHRISTINE O’DEA Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

On a windy, cloudy-with-achance-of-rain evening in New York City, I meet with Augustana’s Daniel Layus outside of Irving Plaza. Dressed in neutral colors with a backpack, a beanie and combat boots, he truly looks the part of a band member currently living out of a van on tour. In reality, Dan is a passionate musician and writer, a deep thinker and most importantly to him, a father and husband pursuing his dreams and spreading positivity through his music.

In 2006, Augustana’s piano tune, “Boston,” frequented the radio. Now, Dan describes the “very sizeable pop hit” as something that he found difficult to appreciate as a 21-year-old.

“It sounds silly, but you don’t really know how special that is at that age,” he says, laughing at the younger version of himself, “Now I look back and I have that incredible, very fortunate opportunity in my back pocket, and I can see why it was special.”

“Boston” was one of the first songs Dan ever wrote — and he wrote it at just 17 years old. He describes the writing process for that song with 12

the word “innocence,” a state he felt he was in at the time, specifically as a songwriter. For most young musicians, having a big hit early in the career adds pressure to continuously produce the same result — it was the opposite for Dan. “I really ran from ‘Boston’ and that album for a long time. It took me a while to understand how special that was. I kind of took it for granted. In my young mind I thought, ‘That’s just one of our many hits to come,’” Dan says.

It took three years for Augustana to release Can’t Love, Can’t Hurt (2008) after “Boston” became a Billboardcharting song. While it took years before Dan began to embrace that song and its success, and what it had done for his career and for the band as a whole, Augustana focused on what was important — the growth and evolution of their music. “I’m not who I was when I was 18 and signed that first record deal. In a lot of ways, I feel a lot like that kid, with fresh excitement and energy and focus, but at the same time I’ve been through so much more that I have an edge on

that kid. And 10 years from now, that guy will have a lot of edge on me now,” Dan explains with looks of frustration and enthusiasm on his face.

With each song and record Dan writes, he consciously tries to maintain the same innocence he had when writing “Boston.” For Dan, writing music is not about producing pop hits and singles. Rather, he says, “It’s about translating a pure elementary emotion through a four-minute song, and it’s about people connecting to that.”

With their new record, Life Imitating Life (2014), Dan has successfully maintained authenticity while singing songs about love, life and even death. A more obvious love song on the record, “Love In The Air,” is a happy-go-lucky tune that is honest and sincere, while “Ash and Ember” seeks to question a concept similar to that of “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” And the very vocal ballad, “Remember Me,” was written with dedication to his children and wife, simply as a love letter to remember him by.

Almost eight years ago, Dan be-

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came a father and ever since, he has been treading new territory. “As your life changes, your passions change.

The things that scare you and the things that excite you change,” he explains, “With this record, I wasn’t going for the obvious heartbreak songs. It’s about heartbreak in the most loving way because things are so good. How could they be so good that it breaks my heart?”

In Life Imitating Life, Dan attempts to explore the complex, existential idea and question of whether or not he has gone full circle, or has returned to where he started. Writing the record was a three-year process and a challenge in which Dan found a way to share a familiar message in a new way.

A few years ago, Dan started introducing songs onstage, which would eventually be included on Life Imitating Life, including “Need A Little Sunshine” and “Alive.” These songs channel clear optimistic energy to listeners, accurately illustrating Dan’s own life. Being sober for three years and counting has brought a lot of clarity and focus to Dan as a musician, father, husband and all the other roles he plays. “I headed in a positive direction in my life, and I got to focus in on that very clear, present reality; to be the person I want to be,” he explains.

As if right on cue, a family of fans approaches us and asks if Dan is, in fact, “Augustana Dan.” With a humble laugh and verifying nod of the head, Dan puts his hand out and introduces himself. Dan’s calm demeanor and kind soul is hard to miss at this point, especially once he says, “Hi, I’m Daniel” and asks for their names in return.

They exchange handshakes and the daughter points to her mom and says, “She’s going to cry at the show tonight … I brought tissues.”

Much like the music he writes, the fans of Augustana are extremely important to Dan. While he is the only original member left from Augustana, he has kept the name in honor of the 14

fans. “I feel like Augustana fans have put so much into the name. And the voice singing these songs and the thing that was driving these songs were not going to change whether I put my name on it or not. There’s no reason to mess with it then and confuse people,” Dan explains.

After over a decade of releasing music that continues to grow and evolve, Augustana has attracted quite a variety of audience members, which Dan appreciates. “The transition to a live show is my biggest driving force,” he says, “I want to make sure that people feel like they’re getting a real, authentic translation of the way that I was feeling when I wrote the songs, and the way that I’m feeling on stage.

That’s the goal — to make a connection with people.” While it’s hard to bring in new audiences, Augustana has seen an influx of fans of all ages, and there is no particular demographic Dan intends to reach with the music. What matters most is the cycle he has created, in which he continues to find happiness.

With each stage of his life, Dan discovers a new way to reach people, which has come naturally. Becoming a father, for example, humbled him. Just when he thought he could start feeling that other people thought he was “cool,” he would return home to his daughter who saw him only as “Dad” and not “Augustana Dan.” “I hope [becoming a father] has made me a better person. It’s a very grounding and humbling experience,” he says.

This next stage of his life, one in which he thinks there will be another album, can only bring Augustana fans more joy and more music. As long as he feels he is creating music that people can feel a connection with, Dan’s role as “Augustana Dan” is fulfilled.

Making honest music for people is his goal, and he continues to surpass that goal with each stage of life he enters.

“It’s a frustrating cycle but I’m the happiest I can remember being in my life,” he says, smiling. NKD

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BLI SUMMER JAM (JUNE 1 - WANTAGH, NY)

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KATE VOEGELE

Words and Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

“Excuse me, may I take a picture?” a man with a thick, European accent asks Kate Voegele as we linger in Manhattan’s Chelsea Market — a desperate attempt to avoid the heat wave outside. Kate smiles and politely agrees, stepping toward him. “Of your shoes?” the man finishes. Kate laughs and steps back. The man takes the photo, thanks her and walks away. While middle-aged, foreign men may not recognize Kate, teens and 20-somethings across the country do thanks to her multi-season stint on One Tree Hill. But before her time playing Mia Catalano on the hit show, Kate was a singer and songwriter.

And now, more than two years after the series finale, Kate is still a singer and songwriter.

I meet with Kate atop the High Line in the mid-afternoon on Memorial Day. The aboveground park is littered with tourists fighting for a spot in the shade. Luckily, Kate and I find one in the corner and make ourselves comfortable. Kate is in town to test out some new material at Rockwood Music Hall later this evening. She has been living in Nashville for the past year or so, working hard on a follow-up to Gravity Happens (2011). But the NKDMAG.COM

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road to this point has been a long one for Kate.

Kate grew up in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio among people who work hard, love their families and value friendship. She began writing to reflect her environment — a brutally honest take on life from a small-town girl. “Growing up in Ohio really taught me how to appreciate the important things in life from an early age,” Kate says. She refers to her little town as a “bubble.” There wasn’t much there for an entertainer to work with. So in high school she began coming to New York City for writing sessions, and considers that the turning point in her career and life.

Because she lived in such a small town, Kate was the only person pursuing music as a career among her classmates. It was considered “unconventional,” and people were surprised. But her parents were extremely supportive and encouraged her to follow her dreams, and her high school did everything they could to accommodate her lifestyle.

And while some friends stuck by her, others didn’t understand why she wasn’t around all the time. “I wanted to be everything for everybody, and that’s just not something you can do,” she says. Once she decided that music was what she wanted to do and she didn’t have a plan B, people really got behind her.

She began her career right as MySpace began gaining traction, and the social media site became a crucial partner in her success. She began uploading her songs to her music page and soon after received a message from Tom Anderson, the founder of MySpace, saying he was interested in signing her to MySpace Records. At the time she had been showcasing for major labels and none of them seemed to click with her. “None of them knew 20

what they wanted with me, they just wanted to sign a young girl,” Kate recalls, adding that the whole system was very uninspiring to her.

But MySpace was different because they too were young and cared about music in a way Kate hadn’t seen from the big-name record companies.

Nine months after the release of her first record, Don’t Look Away (2007), Kate joined One Tree Hill.

Acting was initially an accident — the opportunity to audition fell into Kate’s lap and the promise of getting to play her songs on television intrigued her. Having no acting experience other than “convincing bartenders [she] was over 21,” she went into the audition with a fearless attitude. The role was originally supposed to last for two episodes, but Kate ended up on the show for four seasons. “It became a really important creative outlet for me, because it’s storytelling and so is songwriting,” Kate says of her time on the show. While Kate recalls that some of Mia’s struggles paralleled her own, such as a label wanting you to sing someone else’s song, most of Mia’s storyline was a simplified version of what actually happens in the music industry. “She ends up with a platinum record, and I still have her fake plaque in my home,” Kate laughs. “I haven’t gone platinum yet, but Mia has.”

While the show has been over for a few years now, Kate notices that many of the fans from One Tree Hill continue to support her musical endeavors. The reason two episodes turned into four seasons was because the audience was relating to Kate’s songs, and that’s still the case regardless of the platform they’re presented on. “Fans come to the show to hear Kate Voegele songs, and not to ask me if Chad Michael Murray was good looking in person,” she says. She states that

the show was a great way for people to discover her, but it was never just about the show when it came to her fan base.

Since the show’s conclusion, Kate has been hard at work on her fourth studio record, which she is hoping to have out sometime this year. She spent a long time on tour, and her head was being filled with voices telling her who to be. Her label wanted her to sound like Lady Gaga or The Black Eyed Peas, because those acts were selling records. “So I had to get the hell out of that,” she says. She took some time to figure out what type of musician she wanted to be and in that process she feels like she has been creating something great.

The album is roughly 85 percent done, and she says that new music will definitely be out sometime this summer, but whether it’s a few singles, an EP or a full album she’s not sure. “This record is probably the most genuinely ‘me’ project I’ve ever produced,” Kate says. “And that leaves me the room and the freedom to decide how I want to share it.”

Currently, Kate is not signed to a label, but she’s not completely turned off to the idea of finding a new one. “I think it was important for me to make the record I wanted to make, and then bring it to the label, as opposed to signing to label and saying ‘Hey, what do I do?’” Kate explains. She wanted to A&R her own record for a change — she wanted to hold all the cards.

Because of that, she believes this new album is extremely vulnerable and honest. “I was always afraid to offend somebody, and I was always nervous that something wasn’t going to come off right,” Kate explains. “But with this record, I just said ‘fuck it.’”

In the process of finding herself and her voice, Kate moved from

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California to Nashville. She had been living in a little beach town south of Venice and felt like she was the only full-time musician in the neighborhood. She didn’t feel like she was surrounding herself with inspirational people. She toyed with the idea of moving to Hollywood and getting into the true L.A. scene, but opted for Nashville because every time she had visited for a writing session she “got so much shit done.” She states that people work extremely hard there, in part because there’s no beach to distract them. The support system was appealing to her as well. “When someone wins in Nashville, it’s a win for all of Nashville,” Kate says.

And while she loves country music and recognizes Nashville as the epicenter of country music, she’s not becoming a country artist. Nashville has changed in the last few years, and rock, pop and even R&B scenes are emerging from within it. The broad spectrum of music coming out of Nashville right now is inspiring to her, and the people living there are eager and enthusiastic. “You walk into a coffee shop and run into six people you know, and you leave with three co-writing sessions,” she says. “It’s such a cool community.”

While a release date is still up in the air, Kate is very ready to get these new songs to her fans. She believes that the new material is the best she’s ever written. She has songs that will make people cry, and she has songs that will make people want to roll down the window and sing along. And some will do both. But until then, she’ll continue teasing fans by throwing her new songs into live performances to garner some responses before she officially releases music again. “I’m full-speed ahead, 2.0, just charging and leading with this music that I’m really proud of,” she says. NKD NKDMAG.COM

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DRAKE BELL Words by KATELYN THOMPSON Photos by CATHERINE POWELL Make-Up by SARAH JOFFE

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California native Drake Bell is no stranger to the entertainment industry. Entering the business at 5 years old, the now 26-year-old artist is adjusting his focus from acting to music.

Mainly known for his role on Nickelodeon’s Drake & Josh, Drake established his career with the network at just twelve years old. Beginning his work on The Amanda Show, the spin off produced by Dan Schneider provided countless opportunities for Drake to grow -- and win over the hearts of families everywhere during its four years of airing. Drake & Josh became an incredible success, raking in multiple Kids Choice Awards both nationally and internationally and still on air in reruns seven years after the finale.

“What’s cool about our show is people hold a special place in their heart for it,” says Drake.

Before acting even came into the picture for Drake, he fell in love with music. “My dad was a huge influence on me –- we wouldn’t listen to anything new,” Drake says. “I grew up on the stuff that made me love rock and roll.” He remembers videos of himself as a child singing every line to every Elvis Presley song that played. “I’d try to impersonate these people or sing like them,” Drake says. “[I’d] do sketches like the Marx Brothers, or act like Charlie Chaplin.” That era of music influenced him as he was growing up. “I had to buy vinyl records, and my first car had to be a classic car,” he states. “My record collection spans the entire musical history.”

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creation of his newly released album, Ready Steady Go (2014).

“I grew up having a real affinity for that style and era of entertainment,” Drake says, “This new record is really a representation of my roots and where I came from.

My last record was really The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Jellyfish, Bad Finger -- real British powerpop influence,” he says. “I just wanted to make the record I wanted to make when I was 14 in my bedroom and I picked up a guitar for the first time.” The evolution is apparent on Ready Steady Go. Drake revisits a song he originally performed on Drake & Josh -- a song every teenage girl can blushingly admit they’ve danced around their bedroom to. “Makes Me Happy” has been revamped to pay tribute to Drake’s roots and his growth as an artist. “My music is always evolving” Drake states, “I hope to introduce to a generation the idea that there’s a lot more out there that music has to offer. It’s important.”

During the creation of this album, Drake had the opportunity to work with one of his idols -- Brian Setzer. “It’s just a trippy moment, that guy is why I play guitar. Everything is because of this dude,” Drake says. “So to have him in the room was just amazing.” While Drake was originally nervous to work with Brian, he quickly became comfortable with the legendary guitarist. “It’s like all of a sudden you’re in the studio with this dude and you’re like, ‘Am I saying the right stuff ?

Should I stop talking now? Oh my gosh, I’m still talking. Does he think I’m dumb?’” Drake recalls. “Talking musically with him and bouncing ideas off of each other … it was really one of those moments where you wake

up and go ‘Did that really happen?” His experience with Brian was knowledgeable, to say the least. Drake would take everything Brian would say to heart. “[Brian] told me a story, he was like ‘When I was 17 I would wake up in the morning and play my guitar. I would go to school, and I would come home and play my guitar. I’d go to bed, wake up, and play my guitar. I would go to school, I would come home, and play my guitar. I wouldn’t go to the movies, I wouldn’t see my friends. I wouldn’t go hang out, I wouldn’t go on a date. Nothing.

My guitar was my world.’” Drake recalls. “It just makes me think I just don’t practice nearly enough.”

While he definitely is practicing more, Drake knows he still has a long way to go and a lot more to learn. Working with Brian opened Drake’s eyes up to new possibilities. When asked what the most important thing he learned during his time in the studio was, he ponders for a few seconds. “Having complete focus on your goal in your art or your craft is crucial,” Drake says. “Hopefully I do for other young people what Brian did for me.”

Drake’s growth and achievement is a prime example of the classic saying, “Practice makes perfect.” Whether it be his takeaways in working with a personal idol, or simply acknowledging his development as a musician, Drake takes all of his experiences as something he can use to grow. His chief advice and takeaway from everything he has mastered as an artist is simply to “practice your instrument and practice your craft.” The success he has experienced has everything to do with his determination as an artist. “I just love to create,” Drake says.

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In addition to music, Drake still holds acting high on his list of priorities. He can be seen in the upcoming Nickelodeon movie, A Fairly Odd Summer, which is the third installment of the liveaction adaptation of the classic cartoon, The Fairly Odd Parents.

Reminiscing on the first two films in the series, Drake mentions his excitement in learning the location of this third installment. “When we were working on the Christmas movie, it was so cold. We had to shoot and do our dialogue, and the creator of the show, Butch Hartman, was on set all the time. He would just go ‘Hey guys, Don’t worry! We’re going to do the next one in Hawaii!

Just pretend you’re in Hawaii,’” Drake recalls, admitting that the cast laughed off the statement as a joke. “And then I get a phone call that they wanted to make another one, and they said ‘Yeah, and you’re going to be going to Hawaii,” Drake says. His experience filming in such a stunning location as Hawaii was nothing but positive. “I got to go out there for a few weeks and hang out at this awesome resort and shoot in the most beautiful places ever.”

Considering he grew up watching The Fairly Odd Parents, being able to portray Timmy Turner was an incredibly satisfying accomplishment for Drake.

After two successful shows, and a trilogy of live action films, his debut album proves that there is no doubt that Drake will continue to be a dynamic act worth following. Fans should anticipate that Ready Steady Go isn’t the last we will be hearing from Drake music wise. He still has a lot of ideas to put into song. “That’s what so cool about music -- it’s just endless,” Drake says. NKD 28

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AUBREY PEEPLES Words by ALEX LANE Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

Any actress hopes that someday they will be part of a project that becomes a reference point for future work, makes the ‘best of ’ lists and defines their generation. One could argue that Aubrey Peeples has already accomplished that.

A native Floridian, Aubrey grew up as a self-proclaimed theater rat, and started doing film work at the age of 11. Today, she is a multitalented, intelligent and motivated young actress — evidenced by her already thorough resume, and the fact that she deferred Harvard to work on her acting career. But she is also modest, saying, “I feel silly bragging about myself.”

But Aubrey has already accomplished much more than most 20-year-olds, and has every right to brag. Her resume includes Rage, opposite Nicholas Cage, cult favorite Sharknado and soon, a movieadaptation of the ‘80s classic, Jem

and the Holograms. Currently, she portrays Layla Grant on the hit ABC drama Nashville.

In addition to her life as an actress, Aubrey is also a powerful and professional musician — a passion that started early on. “I was always jamming around the house. I don’t know why I started to like music, I just do,” says Aubrey. “The first song that I sang running around the house was ‘You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman’ by Aretha Franklin. But then I grew up and really learned how to sing. I was classically trained for a long time.

It just sort of went hand-in-hand with theater.”

The older she gets, and the more cultural hubs that she spends time in, the more she develops her taste and love for music. She has been able to translate her passion for music into her character on Nashville, through her character Layla.

Layla is an up-and-coming singer/

songwriter who is trying to gain popularity in the country music world. “Being Layla is like being on the edge of a cliff, because she’s sort of always at her wits end and you can kind of see that with her attitude that she gives everyone and what not,” Aubrey says. She describes Layla as “a little girl who has been thrown into the adult world.” But above everything, she believes Layla is tough. The most recent season ended with Layla learning her husband Will Lexington (Chris Carmack) is gay. The season closed with Layla in utter shock. Knowing the situation, and her character, Aubrey is hoping that Layla is able to work through her trials and emotions through her music, and Aubrey wants to be the one to lend Layla some voice.

She says that her love of the country genre lies in singers like Johnny Cash and John Denver.

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is a sucker for the sad stuff. “My favorite genre is the blues,” she says. Aubrey has already submitted some songs of her own creation for consideration as Layla-originals, and in this upcoming season she wants to be able to do more of that, as well as work — outside of Nashville — on her own music career.

“Obviously I write on my own a lot, but I’m definitely pushing to work on my own stuff this year, whether that’s writing with people or making a demo or just starting the process. As far as a release date, I don’t know. I just really want to be working on it, and not just for myself anymore,” Aubrey says.

Due out later this summer is Aubrey’s next major movie, Rage.

Aubrey plays Caitlin Maguire, the daughter of Nicholas Cage’s character. In the film, Caitlin is kidnapped and her father rounds up his crew of former criminals to find her. For Aubrey, the experience of working opposite a movie star with such clout and reputation as Nicholas Cage was both humbling and educational. “Working with people that you have respected for so long, and then just having them be so nice and lovely is always a joy,” she says. She feels she learned a lot just by watching him work.

Aubrey was able to translate some of that acting prowess into her most recent project, Jem and The Holograms. “We are so stoked about it. We just wrapped shooting,” she says. “I play Jem, and she basically rises to fame. She becomes Internet famous, and never intends for that to happen. So she has to deal with that all of a sudden. So the film itself is really a comment on fame and how Internet and social media plays into that.” She says the film comments on the good and bad of the recent trend of Internet fame.

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best part of playing Jem was the combination of action stunts and singing. The experience, she says, was very rewarding, and she is looking forward to the 2016 release date.

For any role that she accepts, Aubrey tends to prepare the same way. A little sheepishly, she admits that the way she has managed to break down scenes and characters is by keeping a journal. For each character, she jots down flaws and features that are inherent to the individual. For smaller scenes, she will write out basic emotions and blocking. But, she says, “I don’t want to give myself rules, because otherwise I feel like you just get too rigid and stiff. So I guess I’ll just journal about it.”

Once she gets the gist of a scene down, Aubrey dissects the characters lines and run them out loud with herself. She doesn’t normally run lines with other people because she likes to save the emotion for when she’s actually on set. That sense of surprise lets her keep a little bit of the character to herself before it hits the screen.

That bit of suspense is part of the reason that she initially fell in love with Layla, who Aubrey describes as a fighter. For this upcoming season, which put the staff back in the writer’s room just last month and will begin filming in August, Aubrey says she would like to see a change in her character’s demeanor. “A lot of the characters on the show will be one way, and then have something traumatic happen to them and then there’s a shift in their whole being. I’m hoping that we get to explore that side of Layla and how she copes with the obvious,” she says.

With the popularity of Nashville rising with every season, Aubrey is looking at the possibility of making a physical move from her Los Angeles home to a permanent spot 34

in Nashville, a city that she has grown to love. “Honestly right now, I’d like home to be Nashville. I’m hoping to be there permanently or at least have a place there. I love it so much. It has all the benefits of a big city, but in a small city, where everyone’s focused and just down to earth,” Aubrey explains. The amount of music in the city feels magical to her, and she believes that’s what makes people so nice.

She hasn’t met anyone who hasn’t been a pleasure to be around, and the entire city feels like one big family to her.

But she doesn’t want to plan too far into the future, because she doesn’t really know what is going to happen to her character. For her, though, she thinks that regardless of what happens to Layla, she “would like to continue spending a lot of time in Nashville.” Aside from trying to figure out where she calls home, Aubrey seems pretty content with her life right now.

As far as what her goals are moving forward, she’s not really sure. “Its always interesting for me to answer that because I am so enjoying what I’m doing right now, that I’d just kind of like to see what happens,” she says, “But I love working on a TV show, I would love to continue working on a TV show.”

Other than that, she plans on releasing some of her own music, which she aims to start producing later this year. As for her acting career, she says she would love to get more involved in the creative process of developing characters and plot lines. “I’ve brought my own thing to characters that have already been created, but I’d really love to create something from the ground up,” she says. For now though, she’s enjoying a short break before Nashville starts back up and it eager to continue challenging herself within her career. NKD

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OP-ED | CATHERINE POWELL e

LET’S EMBRACE THE MAGIC THAT IS GIRL MEETS WORLD

Boy Meets World was something special. It infected the teenagers of the ‘90s with life lessons, comedy and extremely high expectations for high school relationships. When the series came to an end in 2000, it was instantly put into syndication and hasn’t been off the air since.

Because of that, Cory Matthews (Ben Savage) and his gang have spent the last 14 years teaching kids about life, death and what it really means to be a best friend — all with the aide of comedy.

But the ‘90s were a different time, and while most of Boy Meets World’s lessons and stories are timeless, the world itself has changed. And that’s where Girl Meets World, Disney Channel’s latest family sitcom, comes in.

There have been mixed reviews of Girl Meets World’s pilot episode, which has been available on the Watch Disney app for quite some time but officially premiered on June 27th. Most of the negativity stems from fans of Boy Meets World who were expecting Cory, Shawn Hunter (Rider Strong) and Topanga Lawrence (Danielle Fishel) to continue causing trouble just like they had been for seven years. As much as Girl Meets World is a continuation of Cory and Topanga’s life after moving to New York in Boy Meets World’s series finale, it is primarily following the life of their daughter, Riley Matthews (Rowan Blanchard), and her group of friends as they navigate middle school in a new, technology-filled world.

The pilot episode was quick to dismiss any expectations of Girl Meets World turning into Boy Who Already Met The World Continuing To Meet The World. While Riley’s relationship with her best friend Maya Hart (Sabrina Carpenter) is extremely similar to Cory and Shawn’s legendary bromance, they are their own people. Also, they’re girls, which means things are bound to turn left where Cory and Shawn turned right.

The episode ends with Cory handing Riley her first New York City MetroCard and saying “I’ve already met the world, now it’s your turn.” He turns around to see the assumed ghost of Mr. Feeny, his former teacher, neighbor and friend, smiling at him from the other side of the station. “Well done, Mr. Matthews,” he says for the thousandth time.

But really, it’s well done Mr. Jacobs. Michael Jacobs, that is — the creator of both Boy Meets World and Girl Meets World. He more than anyone understands the importance of Boy Meets World, as well as the potential Girl Meets World has. While the pilot is a little awkward and kind of cheesy, the second available episode — titled “Girl Meets Marissa, Marissa, Missy” — shines. The cast finds their footing quickly and the ensemble of young teens — Blanchard, Carpenter, Peyton Meyer and Corey Fogelmanis — are delightful. The episode tackles the horrible awkwardness that is middle school crushes in a way that is tasteful, relevant and very hysterical. It is in this episode that the core characters become themselves and shed the nicknames “The New Mr. Feeny” or “The New Cory and Topanga.” There is no “new” anyone, simply because the characters that people have grown to love still exist. This new generation of world-meeters is not ruining the legacy that is Boy Meets World — they are creating their own.

While the transition may be rough for those who cherish Boy Meets World, Cory and Topanga and their adorable love story ease the pain. They are exactly the married couple they were destined to become — quirky, confused and more in love than ever. And though their story takes a backseat to Riley’s, it’s still there.

So to the old fans, I hear you. I am one of you. And I was just as nervous about Girl Meets World as the rest of you. But there’s something special here. The heart that made Boy Meets World what it has become is more than present in Girl Meets World. It may take some time for the cast to completely find their footing, but let’s not forget how extremely awkward Ben, Rider and Danielle were first season. So embrace this new series for what it is: a new series. Girl Meets World is its own show, it just happens to have some familiar faces involved.

The only expectation I have is that it teaches a new generation of kids what Boy Meets World taught me — to dream, try and do good.

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JUNE RELEASES ONE - THE NEVER ENDING RATING: 9/10 FOR FANS OF: RIXTON, CHRISTINA PERRI

SIMPLE LIFE - MEGAN & LIZ RATING: 8/10 FOR FANS OF: CARRIE UNDERWOOD, TAYLOR SWIFT

X - ED SHEERAN RATING: 10/10 FOR FANS OF: PASSENGER, BEN RECTOR

IN THE LONELY HOUR - SAM SMITH RATING: 9/10 FOR FANS OF: JASON MRAZ, JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE

THE ROAD BETWEEN - LUCY HALE RATING: 7/10 FOR FANS OF: JANA KRAMER, HUNTER HAYES

PLATINUM - MIRANDA LAMBERT RATING: 6/10 FOR FANS OF: THE BAND PERRY, ERIC CHURCH

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SLEEPWAVE Why is it important for rock and roll to be honest?

Words by ARIELLA MASTROIANNI Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

spencer chamberlain: I think it’s very rare. There are artists that write music, tour, perform and do it all in an honest fashion, and then there are performers that have nothing to do with the writing process. But it’s like comparing McDonald’s to your local burger shop in St. Petersburg, Florida. It’s like, which one’s better? One makes all the money and a lot more people happy because it’s everywhere and there are a billion people that went into making that be everywhere, and then there’s this one guy that builds burgers because he loves it. It’s totally different. You can’t really compare them. If you’re moved [by the music], you’re moved. If Britney Spears can move an audience, that’s great. But for me and my career, [music] has to start somewhere truthfully and

honestly or I can’t sleep at night because I’m not in the business of making money. I’m in the business of making music. And that’s different than just performing.

As a performer I have the ability to connect to people because I’m so passionate about the things I’ve written. And I’m not bashing anyone, I just think people should just be honest about what they do and how they go about it. For myself and Stephen and Sleepwave and the future, things can get out of hand a little fast. Obviously the goal is to play for as many people as possible, and when you got a great team - which we do - the odds of being way bigger than we are right now our in our favor.

We’ve got a great record. To me, it has to start there. If you always have the music and you always have that way you wrote and the

way you still write, it doesn’t matter if you’re sitting in a mansion or on the side of the road. In my head it’s always the same. It doesn’t matter where you put me.

I’m going to write honest music.

It’s all from within my life and that’s how I’ve always written. The least I can do is write something real. Anything after that is out of your fuckin hands. None of us are perfect. [Stephen and I ] are not, we still fuck up every day. We’re still struggling just as hard as that guy in the front row, I just happen to be holding the microphone.

I know what it’s like to be hurt or alone or struggling. I feel like every person has a demon or a struggle or something that they’re not comfortable with in their life.

I don’t think anyone has it great.

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I write at least vague enough to where you can relate it. And I think that’s the key to Sleepwave to make people not feel alone. stephen bowman: The commercialization of music cheapens it in a sense. When you put yourself out there and do it honestly, it takes a lot out of you. It’s an intense thing to make something from the heart. That’s an endless well for what it’s worth because at least what you’re pulling from is real and you’re not assuming or filling in blanks because their blank. I think the best music that I’ve ever written has been with [Spencer], and my contribution has always been from an understanding of the point of music.

When I understand the music and what we’re trying to communicate I feel like I have a target - something to actually reach for and something that I can let out to rather than just shooting around in the dark hoping that it sounds cool. I’m not the guy that’s gonna go to the coffee shop down the road and pull out my acoustic guitar and wail on about something.

That’s just not how I go about my music. It’s far more private to me in that way. It comes from a very personal place. [When we’re performing] and I see that I’m in some way having a handshake with an audience member and that someone is getting a similar emotional experience from what we’re putting it out, that’s the best part of the whole thing in my mind.

But the whole, “I’m just here to perform because I love to perform” has always been secondary.

The writing and the creation [of music] is number one, at least for me. If you can do something that you can really get behind be proud of, I think that thing has a way of getting itself out there. NKD NKDMAG.COM

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CHIODOS Words by TARA DEVINCENZO Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

Two’s company, three’s a crowd, but the synergy of six is unstoppable. Now on tour with their latest album Devil, Chiodos is back to the original sextet and learning from their past struggles.

Devil is kind of like the original band’s phoenix rising from the ashes. After their second full-length album Bone Palace Ballet, the band announced Craig Owens would no longer be the lead singer or, as fans deemed him, the face of the band. “Everyone is their own entity, and when you put that into a group, it makes it what it is,” says drummer Derrick Frost, who also left the band around the same time Owens did.

“When you lose those elements it’s very apparent.”

After the third full-length album, featuring a new lead singer and drummer, Chiodos had lost its true self and gradually started moving back to the original NKDMAG.COM

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group. “First it was just me and Craig getting together with a guitar seeing if there was still chemistry,” keyboardist Bradley Bell, who goes by Brad, says, “and there was right away.”

After Brad and Craig’s trial run together, they suggested to the rest of the band that they put a cap on their past albums by doing a reunion tour. “At first it was just ending the novel,” says Derrick, who was in college and working another job. “But then I realized it was a lot more fun than going to school and working.”

They got back into writing immediately, and quickly rekindled their passion for the music.

“The benefit of having six people in the band is always having new ideas come together,” Brad says. They spent months away from touring, writing as much as they could so that they would have fresh material to go back into the studio with, rather than how they had done it before.

“The mundaneness of touring sometimes and being in a band can make you feel very robotic.

I kind of lost [my passion] for a while and lost myself, too, which really affected my relationship with the band,” Derrick says.

Coming back together gave them a fresh start with a clear view. The time they spent apart had given them a chance to see their past strengths and, for the second time around, to perfect them. Their previous albums had all come together under a very strict time schedule and as they started melding themselves back together, they had the advantage of time for the first time. “Having that extra time makes your art better,” Derrick says.

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The reunion tour was an important moment for them on many levels. It wasn’t just about them getting back together, but seeing themselves in a new light.

“I had this renewed passion and energy and appreciation for how lucky I was,” Derrick says. “The energy and the vibe and the connection is so much better now.”

One of the biggest differences, aside from coming back together after they had broken up, was how they were writing. Under the pressure of the first two albums, their creative process was interrupted by a constant ticking of a timer in their ear.

They would finish a tour and head straight back into the studio and be expected to produce new material. The reunion show helped them to pace themselves and leave time to write before going into the studio. “Just not having that constant crush on your back and demand … ideas flow a lot more freely,” Derrick says. “In the end, it makes you actually happy with the outcome of the song.”

The new approach to the album was a much-welcomed change, but when the band reflects on the pressures of making their previous albums, they still feel that they were good representations of the time when it was written. “A lot of times under those pressures, with your back against the wall, is when you create some of your better moments and you’re forcing something to come out,” Bradley says.

One of their favorite songs, that they left unnamed, was written well before they went into the studio, but once they got there, it started to become too manipulated. They took

advice and suggestions from their producers and others on the labels, but eventually the song was far too removed from where it began. “I don’t know if it was just that we were so fond of the original version, but it didn’t sound interesting to us anymore,” Brad says. “Everyone trying different elements ripped the song apart.”

This failed attempt at perfecting their song only furthered the creative learning process for them. “Most musicians, with writing and recording, if you don’t set a deadline, you just constantly critique yourself,” Derrick says. “Sometimes your brightest moments are from that pressure.” Their songs on past albums presented their lives at the time and, though they had casualties among their songs that wouldn’t fit on the album, they are not hesitant to give some of that thanks to their producers for all of their successful tracks. With six of them in the band, it was important for them to have another voice of reason when it came to finalizing the songs, and for that they handpicked a producer.

“You’re trusting him to guide your ship,” Brad says. “Especially with six of us. It’s important to have an outside opinion looking in and steering us in a direction we can all agree upon.”

The six agreed when it came to picking David Bottrill. He has a catalogue of bands that includes Muse, Kid Rock and Circa Survive, so Chiodos collectively thought he would benefit to their own cause. “It was important for us to have someone help us create an identity for ourselves,” Brad says.

The band knew what they

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liked, but also wanted to steer clear of having those who liked them seclude them to a specific genre. Coming from various musical backgrounds themselves, they trusted Bottrill the most in making them having a place to stand on several types of stages.

“Every record he’s done is different for some reason,” Derrick says. “And that’s important for us because we like to consider ourselves a very organic, natural rock band.”

As a self-proclaimed rock band looking to stay out of the generic scene, their music is based on a collection of interests. The six have a range of interests that includes top-40 hits, heavy metal and anything just short of dubstep. “The variety of what they listen to is what brings the individualization to the band,” Brad says.

They embrace these varied interests and influences so they can reach fans who have different musical tastes, but also to reach a range of emotion. “It’s all about moods,” Derrick says.

“A lot of bands get stuck and you can identify them too easily,” Brad says. “It’s important for us to keep things interesting.”

Now that they’ve found themselves in a more enriching state, they have been faced with the opposite side of disappointment: getting rid of some of the songs they had worked on. “You have to compromise, just like you do with a lot of things,” Brad says.

Of the 23 songs they entered the studio with, 13 got to live through the album. “Some ideas just we’re as strong as others, but it sucks because sometimes you’re attached to something that didn’t get the attention or life it deserved.”

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At the end of the day it comes down to having a clear vision of what they want their outcome to be. They vote on which songs they think fit best in the grand scheme of the album and cast aside anything that doesn’t properly mesh with the rest.

“You want these songs to have their place together,” Derrick says.

Although they want to have a specific identity, being a noncommercialized band is not what they are after. “For me it’s more so playing to as many people as possible, continue to grow, but also to continue to live off of this,” Derrick says.

Now that seven years have passed since they have all worked together and they have seen both sides of the recordmaking process, they are settled on keeping a steady pace. “With our past records we constantly had a rise that was keeping us so busy that we didn’t have time to do writing,” Brad says. “I think we can control our schedule a little more now in this point in our career than we’d be able to then.”

Reaching as many listeners as possible is the goal, and they don’t think it is unrealistic or modest to admit they want to make it to the top. “For any band to say they don’t want to be the biggest band in the world is the dumbest thing ever,” Derrick says.

The band has kept its fans, amassed new ones and now it looks to continue to intrigue more listeners. “I feel like the hype is building back up to the point it once was,” Brad says.

“I’d like to get it to that point and have our music on as many outlets as possible.” NKD

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THE REWIND TOUR (JUNE 22 - HOLMDEL, NJ)

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THE SUNDOWN HEAVEN TOWN TOUR (JUNE 10 - HARTFORD, CT)

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R5 Words by STACY MAGALLON Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

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When they were younger, R5 used to charge their family a dollar to watch them play in their basement. Tonight, they’re scheduled to play a sold out show at the Best Buy Theater in New York City.

Inside a hot pink-painted dressing room two stories below a long queue of fans, the members of R5 are posing in front of a blinding, white strobe light. Rydel Lynch (keyboard), Riker Lynch (bass), Ross Lynch (rhythm guitar), Rocky Lynch (lead guitar) and Ellington Ratliff (drums) stand beside one another, shifting between smiles and serious faces. R5 have definitely done this before, but what sets them apart is their blatantly natural chemistry.

The first time I met R5 in December of 2012 they were dressed in coordinated, black-and-white, studded ensembles. Today, I can’t make a valid comparison between any two outfits. Rydel is dressed in a short, lacy white dress and combat boots. The men of the band are dressed more casually — simple T-shirts or baseball tees and jeans.

R5 are no longer dressed to match.

This time around, they’re individuals. Because the truth is, R5 are older and they’re done with gimmicks. They’re ready to take steps forward and hope their fans will follow closely behind.

I sit on the dressing room floor with Ross sitting cross-legged beside me. Rydel, Riker, Rocky and Ratliff all manage to squeeze onto a black leather couch. It’s been eight months since I last spoke to R5, just a day after their first Good Morning America appearance.

They made their second one just a few hours prior to our meeting today. When I ask them to recap their adventures from the past few months, Rocky looks at me with a blank expression in his eyes. “Oh crap,” he says. Clearly a lot has happened in those 200-something

days.

The Colorado-born band had simple beginnings. R5 began performing for small crowds at festivals and often sifted through Craigslist advertisements looking for venues and events that needed performers. “We would play absolutely any show we could get,” Riker said to me two years ago. It was crucial for R5 to get their hands on any kind of exposure. Lately, they haven’t needed to look for gigs on Craigslist.

R5 have spent the last eight months traveling the globe in planes, trains and assorted vehicles while on their Louder World Tour.

After a recent six weeks in Europe, and three weeks in Canada, the band is currently wrapping up their final performances in North America before heading back to Europe. R5 showed up to soundcheck a little late this afternoon, but it’s excusable — they were napping after their 3 a.m. wake up call for GMA. “I didn’t even know we were late for soundcheck,” Ratliff mutters quietly to himself before his bandmates chuckle beside him.

Despite their global endeavors I smile at the one thing that hasn’t been tampered with—their lovable quirkiness.

Since their freshman full-length Louder was released in September of last year, the record climbed to No. 2 on the iTunes charts and hit No. 1 in 10 different countries.

Their success doesn’t stop there either. They recently filmed a Ring Pop commercial that will air nationally, and then they will be heading out on yet another tour this fall. But that’s not a big deal.

The five international jet-setters have seen more of the world than most people will see in a lifetime.

While traveling the roads of Jerusalem, Stockholm, Milan and Copenhagen, R5 have grown accustomed to the tour bus lifestyle by

now. “That’s actually how we’re getting to Europe,” Ratliff jokes. “The bus turns into a submarine.” Rocky immediately turns to him and says, “Wait, but how sick would that be?”

R5 love traveling to places they have yet to leave their mark on, but their effervescent international fan base encourages them to keep coming back. On their first European run on the Louder tour, the band found themselves competing with the intensity of their energetic crowds. “This time around, we were kind of like, ‘Whoa.’” Riker says of their worldwide audiences.

“They made us want to set a new level for our performances.” And that’s another important fact about R5: They continually want to raise that bar.

“We had a lot of fun making Louder and had even more fun touring with it,” Ratliff says. R5 agree that Louder was a strong first record and serves as steady foundation for their upcoming creations.

In fact, they’re already planning for their sophomore full-length, which is slated for a fall release. “I don’t think any band should stay the same for their entire career,” Ross says. “There needs to be some sort of evolution otherwise your fans might outgrow you.”

R5’s process to writing music comes naturally. The band’s fun and outgoing personality inspire most of their music. Their favorite musicians help contribute to their sound too. They are, however, growing older, and plan to develop their music accordingly. “Our newer material is a step in a different direction,” Riker says. Most recently R5 have begun experimenting with heavy percussion and sounds — specifically a firework sample that Riker begins to gleam about. With all the positive feedback they received from Louder, it only makes sense for fans to prepare themselves for the band’s NKDMAG.COM

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next big step.

The members of R5 all fall between the ages of 18 and 22, and they agree that this change is coming with maturity. Their new record promises to showcase their evolution, all while staying true to the original tunes that hooked many of their listeners. “Most of our fans are our age, so they’re maturing and growing with us,” Rydel says.

“It’ll be good,” Rocky interjects.

“It’s a new, fresh take on R5.”

R5 have an overall idea of where they’d like to be, including making a shift from their current mainstream, “bubble gum-esque” sound.

A vast majority of their fan base comes from Ross’ success on Disney Channel’s Austin & Ally. His well-known television persona has only empowered the band’s publicity, but ultimately the band’s true talent is what’s keeping fans interested. The typical Disney-endorsed acts are anticipated to be cleaner and appropriate for all ages. R5, on the other hand, are trying to steer away from being too squeaky clean.

“I think the newer stuff is a lot less bubblegum-sounding than Louder,” Rocky says. His older brother, Riker agrees. “If you listen to that album, we say all sorts of innuendos in that,” Riker says. “But what makes it easy listening are the melodies.” With that said, they hope the new EP and follow-up album won’t be a total surprise to their fans. They’re pushing to make this evolution evident in their lyrics and instrumentals, just as it’s evident in their age. “We’re still R5, but a whole year later in our lives,” Riker says. R5 are constantly making a name for themselves, but they wouldn’t categorize themselves under any genre. “If we were to label ourselves, we would just set limitations,” Ross says. “I want to keep all possibilities open and see where we go naturally.”

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claim their true element shines on stage. “We always say that we don’t feel like you can understand R5 until you see us live,” Riker says.

“You just get it after that.” They don’t have the pyrotechnics or background dancers they’ve been yearning for, but they apparently have “their own lights” and “really cool fog.” I would not know. I have yet to see R5 perform live. The dressing room explodes with an abrupt series of “What?” and “Why not?” though the best response comes from Rocky who furrows his eyebrows and asks, “Why do you even like us, then?”

My absence at tonight’s show wasn’t my choice; there was a lack of complimentary tickets. “Ross was inviting everyone over at MTV earlier,” Riker says. Ross lets out a laugh. “That’s what I hate about Los Angeles and New York City,” Ross continues. “You can never have enough tickets, and I just want to invite everyone.” Tonight’s guest list is filled with 200 names. Hearing this puts a smile on my face. They did, after all, start by asking for their family’s money. “That just means we have to start playing bigger venues,” Ratliff interjects. They 58

toss around the thought of one day performing at Radio City Music Hall or Madison Square Garden before Rocky catches my attention.

“Can I ask you a question?” he asks, before leaning in closer to me.

When I agree, he follows up with another inquiry. “Are you a Rangers fan?” He pumps his fist into the air when I tell him no. “So you’re okay with them losing the Stanley Cup?” The Los Angeles residents obviously take their competition seriously — to the point where they considered posting a Vine of Rocky walking through Times Square to promote the L.A. Kings hockey team.

They start laughing when I tell them Ranger fans might’ve started a riot. That playful demeanor is what attracted the listeners currently waiting in line outside. And even with such a loyal fan base, R5 manages to keep cool while basking in the spotlight. “Someone once told us that fame doesn’t change who you are, it brings out the real you,” Ross says. “When people start catering to you, it’s up to you to decide how to react. We are also surrounded by people that wouldn’t put up with it.”

R5’s tour manager walks into

the dressing room. Their meet and greet is starting in 10 minutes. The band, who lost track of time, begins to file out of the room after giving me hugs. But first, Riker calls for his tour manager’s attention. “We’re getting her into the show tonight,” he says, resting his arm on my shoulder. “Can we get her a ticket?”

Luckily, Riker makes it happen.

Later that night, I watch R5 take the dimly lit stage. I stand in a back corner of the theater, in the middle of the madness. Teenage girls are running across the venue, holding a large photo of Ross’ face adorned with Christmas lights, but they stop once they realize what’s about to happen. Their crowd erupts with shrieks and screams as their silhouettes take position on stage.

Like Riker said, you tend to just “get” R5 once you see them live.

Between their easy listening tunes, playful personalities and the fan base that drives their constant craving to raise the bar, I think I do. I can only imagine where they’ll be in another eight months.

I bet they’ll still shoot for pyrotechnics and background dancers, and I’m sure they’ll have them soon enough. NKD

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LYNDON SMITH Words by RILEY STENEHJEM Photos by CATHERINE POWELL Styled by DISTRICT COLLECTION

There are thousands of talented young actors and actresses hoping to break into the film and television industry in Hollywood. Many start out in small productions at local theaters, dreaming of the day they can move out West and make it big.

Few actors can make it big in the 62

Hollywood film industry — considering its highly competitive nature.

Lyndon Smith, an aspiring young actress from Florida, has broken into the business this year with her role in NBC’s cult-phenomenon, Parenthood, in addition to a new TNT drama, a play at the Geffen and two

films premiering later in 2014.

Lyndon was born and raised in Pensacola, Flor. and spent her summers on a family cattle farm in Pocahontas, Ark. After graduating high school, Lyndon attended the University of Florida, where she majored in theatrical performance. She

began a career in theater, working for the state theater of Florida and then touring Greece doing productions of Romeo and Juliet and Antigone. Three years ago, Lyndon made the move to Los Angeles. “I knew I always wanted to move to L.A., ever since I was little. I wanted to come here and do TV and film,” she says.

This past year, she made her way to the small screen portraying Natalie in Parenthood. Lyndon says the opportunity to work on the show was a “really big move,” especially given that she was able to work with some of the actresses she grew up watching on TV, such as Lauren Graham from Gilmore Girls. However, due to the large cast, the actors on the show are often just “ships passing in the night,” as Lyndon described, since they’re rarely all working on the same scene.

Lyndon says that she can definitely relate to Natalie, who was letting loose in college for the first time after years of being a straight-A, straight-and-narrow high school student. “I don’t think it comes from a bad place, I can understand the need to explore yourself,” Lyndon says of her character, but hopes that in the next season Natalie will get her ducks in a row. Lyndon’s introduction to Parenthood came when Drew Braverman (Miles Heizer) went off to college and met Natalie, the freshman girl from down the hall. Despite Natalie and Drew’s complicated relationship, the two admitted their love for each other in the season five finale, and Lyndon hopes that the two could find a sort of balance between their differing personalities in the show’s sixth and final season. “He mellows her out, and she teaches him how to have some fun,” Lyndon says.

Parenthood’s strong, faithful fanbase has gotten the show signed on for its six season. The same fans have been staying with it for years, despite being moved around. “The numbers are consistent week to week. It

doesn’t matter where NBC puts it — what day, what time — it has such a loyal following,” Lyndon explains, “They had this Thursday night slot that was just not doing well, and they said ‘Let’s put our most stable show there,’ and they did, and the timeslot performed better than it ever had.” Some of this consistent fan base is drawn to the “realness” of the show: Parenthood differs from a lot of popular TV, given that it shows the “struggles of the family and the celebrations of it,” not fantasies. The show demonstrates true themes of family life, and thanks to Netflix, the show is readily available to new fans.

“It was always envisioned to be a sixseason show, and [NBC] is going to give it six seasons,” Lyndon says.

Ahead on the agenda for Lyndon is Public Morals, a new 10-episode series written by, directed by and starring Ed Burns, which will be premiering on TNT later this year.

The show is a 1960’s cop drama set in New York City. “With shows like Mad Men and Boardwalk Empire, there’s such an audience for [period pieces],” Lyndon says, “It’s compelling to watch.” In the new series, a group of NYC policemen in the Public Morals Division have to battle with the temptations of taking part in the crimes and illegal activities, which they are supposed to be regulating. The police force is “walking the line between the good guys and the bad guys,” Lyndon explains. Lyndon plays Deirdre in the new series, a “beatnik”, as she describes, whose brother has just gotten out of jail, and begins to participate in an underground gambling ring. On top of this, Deirdre’s brother begins to have a relationship with Ed Burns’ character’s partner. The concept behind the new show was inspired by Burns’ own life, as he grew up in a family of New York City police officers.

A lot of preparation and work went into creating the series. Since it was actually filmed in New York,

editing and CGI work reverted the city to its look circa 1960. As for preparing for the role, Lyndon said that she began by just looking at stock images to get a general feel for the era, and then moved onto more in-depth research of the time period.

The most important thing, she said, was “figuring out the environment [of the period]”.

More recently, Lyndon has also made a move back to the stage, where her career began. A production of Death of the Author opened at the Geffen Playhouse on May 20th, and features an all-star cast of Orson Bean, Austin Butler, and David Clayton Rodgers, in addition to Lyndon.

The play tells the story of a professor who suspects a student of plagiarism, and follows four characters through the rigor, competition and emotion that predominates at the university.

Lyndon said that the production has allowed her to “go back and remind [herself ] where she started.”

Having began on the stage, Lyndon says that “film makes you famous, TV makes you rich, and theater makes you good.” She said that acting in real-time in front of a live audience hones the skills of an actor, since “you’re having to respond to what an audience is giving you every night and then adapt to what they want.”

In addition to Lyndon’s successes on the small-screen this year, she has also been working on a film with John Travolta and Tye Sheridan called The Forger and an independent paranormal movie, The Circle, both coming to theaters later in 2014.

Lyndon’s career has certainly taken off, and her hard work is paying off in her recent and upcoming productions. She is breaking her way into the big leagues of both theater and film, with her successes with Death of the Author at the Geffen and her multiple TV and film productions. NKD NKDMAG.COM

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OLIVIA HOLT Words by SUSAN CHENG Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

Three years ago, Olivia Holt left Mississippi for the glitzy and glamorous land of Los Angeles. Despite having much to brag about, the Disney star stills maintains the humility and down-to-earth demeanor of an ordinary high school girl, like the one she currently plays on Disney Channel’s I Didn’t Do It. Born in Germantown, Tenn., Olivia grew up in Nesbit, Miss. — a small and comfortable town, where everybody knows everybody. The familiarity is precisely why Olivia likes her hometown so much. “You walk into a restaurant, and they’re like ‘Hey, the usual?’” she says of the place she still returns to and calls home. “I can literally sleep in my own bed and see my friends, and I can still go around my house and just be me.” It’s also the place she first developed her love for performing.

A natural entertainer, Olivia has been acting and singing for a few years now. During summers, Olivia and her older sister would go to 64

theater camp. “I fell absolutely in love with being on stage, making people laugh, or making them feel a certain emotion,” Olivia says. “So I got serious about it — as well as singing — and my voice coach is actually who took me out to a convention in California.”

Despite getting out to the West Coast early on in her career, Olivia didn’t book a gig immediately. And although her parents did support her, they wouldn’t allow her to relocate to The Golden State right away. “My parents sat me down, and they were like, ‘Look, we love that you’re doing this, and we’re going to support you in everything that you do, but we are not moving out to California,’” she says.

Thus began a routine of auditioning in L.A. during the summer and going about a normal schedule during the school year.

But when Olivia was 12 years old and about to begin eighth grade, she received a callback for a young martial arts student on a Disney XD show

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called Kickin’ It, for which she shot a pilot. Months later, in the middle of the school year, the pilot got picked up. “I found out we were going to be shooting an entire series of a show, and that was pretty surreal to me,” Olivia says. That’s also when her parents decided it was time to move to L.A. Performing in front of the camera was a different experience for Olivia, who was more accustomed to a live audience and the spotlight of a stage.

“But I love being a part of a TV series now that I have the feel of it and everything,” she says. Since locking down her first TV show, Olivia starred in a Disney Channel original film called Girl vs. Monster. Now she stars in the Disney Channel sitcom, I Didn’t Do It. On the show, Olivia plays Lindy, a nerdy, high school freshman. It’s a unique role for Olivia, who usually portrays more confident, aggressive characters like the butt-kicking martial artist Kim on Kickin’ It or teenage monster hunter Skylar on Girl vs.

Monster.

“She can’t do much,” Olivia says of her current role, “But she does have a brain, which is really great. She’s really intelligent, she adores her friends, and she’s really passionate.” And that’s why Olivia likes the role so much.

“She’s really driven in anything that she believes in, whether that’s getting an ‘A’ on a test or really trying to give advice to a friend,” Olivia says. “She knows what she wants, and she knows who to be around.”

Her character also has a fraternal twin brother, Logan, played by Olivia’s longtime friend Austin North. The two stars met on the set of Kickin’ It when Olivia was 13-years-old.

Austin guest starred on an episode in the first season, and the two have remained close since then. Their reallife friendship made for a convincing on-screen chemistry, and both stars have siblings of their own, which also helped. “I have a younger brother, and he has an older sister. So we both got 66

to talk about our experiences with our siblings, the things that we go through,” she says. “[Having a sibling] definitely helped a lot because you go through your fights, you go through your lives, you get to experience those things with your siblings.”

Every episode of I Didn’t Do It opens with a funny, “What happened?” scenario, and the rest of the story unfolds in flashbacks. The plotlines and script are more mature and comparable to that of an episode of Friends or Seinfeld. “When I read the script I knew it had potential and could be really successful,” she says.

One of the goals the writers and cast have is to bring a ’90s-early-2000s humor to the current generation of Disney Channel watchers. “I think that it’s a really cool road [Disney is] going down because they’re kind of bringing back another generation. It’s kind of like a throwback,” Olivia says.

Although Disney is veering in this direction, Olivia points out one thing that has remained constant in the brand’s productions: “Disney has definitely kept a routine of making each show have a message.” I Didn’t Do It, for instance, maintains this comforting message of friendship. “No matter what they go through, they’re there for each other,” Olivia says of the characters. “No matter what situation they get into, whether it’s a crazy shenanigan or a really relatable situation, they’re going to get through it together.”

Olivia herself has a message she hopes to send her viewers. It’s one that helps her decide which roles she chooses. “I want to choose characters that girls can look up to, that girls are just like,” Olivia explains. It’s her goal to let girls know that they can overcome whatever they’re going through, just as Lindy has. As a newcomer to high school, Lindy is still growing into her own skin. “I think what I want for her is for her to grow in a really natural and fun way. She definitely puts a lot of pressure on herself.

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I hope that she can let the weight off her shoulders and enjoy [being herself ],” Olivia says, “It’s cool to play somebody like that because I’m growing into my skin, too.”

Portraying Lindy has also helped Olivia understand something about herself. “I think the one thing that I’ve learned is that it’s okay to have certain flaws,” she says, praising her character’s self-assurance. “Even though she’s growing into her own skin and still figuring out who she is, she definitely accepts who she is.”

Over the years, Olivia has also grown into her own skin as a singer and songwriter. “What’s interesting for me is that singing was my first love,” she explains. It’s a talent some people may not have known until she recorded music for Girl vs. Monster and some other Disney productions. When she first started writing music, she had intended to go down a pop-country route. “After a while, I realized maybe that’s not what I wanted to do. I wasn’t in love with it,” Olivia says. Since then, she has released songs that sound more like pop infused with a bit of soul. The songs she has recorded are about things she has experienced. “It’s all through my eyes,” she says. She has even started going to songwriting sessions on her own. Whereas the first time she worked with a songwriter, Olivia’s musician father accompanied her.

Now, however, she’s taking control of how the sessions go and how to make a song her own.

“Every session has been so incredible, and everyone that I worked with has just been so on top of it. They really want to make the song great,” she says. The key to that is this ability to understand and empathize with people, one trait that Olivia seems to have picked up both through acting and singing. “It’s all about being aware of what people are saying and being observant of what [people are] feeling about a certain thing and if it’s heavy on their hearts,” she says.NKD NKDMAG.COM

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THE VAMPS (JUNE 15 - NEW YORK, NY)

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NICK THOMPSON HIT THE LIGHTS of

Catch them while you can because this year could very well be Hit the Lights’ last. Frontman Nick Thompson says that it’s equal parts music industry frustration and equal parts growing up and moving on that have led to this possibility, but the band plans to go out with a bang.

Nick and the band kept pretty busy over the course of 2012 after the release of Invicta (2012), but in 2013 they needed a break to recharge. So they did just that — went home and took time off. “It gets really annoying not really making constant money,” Nick says, “And you have to kind of plan around how much money you’re going to make on certain things, and being away from home, it gets hard.”

But it wasn’t just the lack of a constant income that made Hit The Lights feel like they needed a break — they were extremely worn out after their stint on Universal Records. Nick says Hit The Lights felt pressured to change their style by the label.

“Everyone is in your head telling you how to write a song,” he says. They couldn’t even record an album because they were writing all this music, but the label put them on a shelf until they wrote something they approved of. “The music industry is awful. It’s fucking horrible. People full of bullshit, feeding everyone bullshit,” Nick says. He goes so far as to say he regrets his time working with Universal. The label had a lot of money, and the band wanted to be as big as possible, but couldn’t become more successful and remain true to themselves with Universal in their corner. “It’s funny because we would hear about our heroes in bands going through all this shit,” he says. “And we were like ‘we’ll never do that.’ Turns out we went through the exact same shit.”

After parting ways with Universal, the band signed to Razor & Tie records and released their latest album Invicta, to un-

derwhelming reviews and sales. He says he knew the album was going to be weird and not everyone was going to like it. “When your favorite band makes records you want them to sound like your favorite band — you don’t want them to change all the time.” He says the band wasn’t frustrated at the disappointing release, but more stressed. This was their career — their life.

“You have to worry about kids coming to shows. You have to worry about paying the bills of the five people in the band and their entire crew,” he says. “You’re dealing with all of that, and you don’t have enough money coming in, and it just gets stressful, and you have to kind of start freaking out and going ‘ok we need to change stuff.’”

This was the breaking point for Hit The Lights and they realized they needed to take a step back and reassess. “It’s hard to be happy if you’re stressed all the time,” Nick says. “That’s what we ran into as a band — trying to make everyone happy with the song aspect and then going on tour and realizing we can’t survive like this if people aren’t going to like the music you put out.” He wasn’t even sure if he wanted to write music anymore.

During his year at home, Nick worked as a chef and about halfway into the break, he realized this wasn’t for him. “It’s easy to get stir crazy when all there is to do it drink and go to the movies,” he says. He started working on a solo project called Thief Club and recording songs he had written for Hit The Lights that never made it to any albums. These songs died on the Hit The Lights chopping block because of the communal writing style the band has.

“Everyone in the band writes songs, which is cool, but at the same time it can be really fucking annoying because everyone’s got their opinions,” Nick says. He recorded with New Jersey based producer Rob Freeman and released his debut album My

Words by TANYA TRANER Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

Heavy this past January. “A lot of the songs I hadn’t released were like three years old, so it was kind of time to move on,” he says.

“But I still wanted to hear them recorded.

So it was kind of cool to do that.”

After the extended break, Pure Noise records approached Hit The Lights with an opportunity to record a new album, and the guys decided to take it for many reasons. For starters, they trust their label.

“We know our team, and we know exactly who they are,” he says. “We know they have our best interests, and they know our situation too, and they know we’re not looking to be the biggest band anymore.

We’re just trying to write good music.”

They’ve completely distanced themselves from the industry to the point that they no longer have a management team.

Nick says they are currently working on the album, focusing more on the energy.

They will be bringing in new dimensions, going lower with the guitars. “It’s going to be a little [angrier] I think, and a lot more aggressive.” If this is their last album, he wants to go out big and be true to himself, while also expressing exactly how he feels about the music industry. “There’s no pressure because I’m not scared to fail,” he says.

“We’re doing it because we love it, and with me it’s cool because I just don’t give a fuck.

I make what I want to make.”

After the album’s release, slated for fall of this year, Nick says the band will do some real soul searching to determine whether or not they will keep Hit the Lights alive.

Nick personally knows he doesn’t want to keep playing the same small venues over and over again. He’s deciding if he will be happier doing something at home or if this path, where he has the freedom to sing in front of screaming fans every night, is right for him. “Eventually everything comes to an end, so it’s just deciding when that is,” he says. NKD NKDMAG.COM

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HANDS LIKE HOUSES Words by JOSEPHINE TSE Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

With the sounds of keys clinking on a table and the audible ‘plops’ of people taking their seats on a sofa, half of Hands Like Houses — Trenton Woodley (vocals), Matt Cooper (guitar) and Alex Pearson (guitar) — make themselves comfortable in the lobby of Irving Plaza in New York City. The band — which also includes Joel Tyrrell (bass), Jamal Sabet (keyboards) and Matt Parkitney (drums) — will be finishing up their US tour with Chiodos later this evening, but for the next few hours they have some down time — a rarity for Hands Like Houses these days.

Formed in 2008, Matt now calls the beginning of Hands Like Houses “your standard band formation story.” Matt and Joel picked up some instruments and began playing with friends to see what would happen. It finally became clear that they were destined to turn their hobby into a full-time career when the band began playing gigs in America.

Alex says the differences between

the music market in America and Australia come down to the wider range of opportunities for musicians in America thanks to the more “established music culture.” In comparison, the band found Australia’s market to be more limited. The band also did not have an official album out until they landed in America, so that worked in their favor. “There’s just such a market for our genre of music, whereas in Australia, there’s not quite as much,” Alex says. “You can continuously tour and there are so many bands that you have the opportunity to tour with, and the people are really receptive as well.”

However, they still enjoy their foreign identity. “We don’t want to be just ‘another American band,’” Trenton says, laughing. “A lot of other people consider us as an American band. They tell us, ‘Oh, I didn’t even know you guys were from Australia!’

Not that we promote ourselves to be an Australian band — we’re just happy to be from Australia.”

Once Hands Like Houses settled in America, they began building their fan base, image and overall sound. They believe they owe a lot of their popularity to the 2013 Vans Warped Tour. Alex describes the tour as one of the best opportunities for any band. The boys found it to be an affective advertising tool, as the concert-goers who attend Warped are always trying to find new bands to listen to. They were also able to mingle with other bands in their scene and ended up touring with a handful of them this year. About halfway through Warped Tour, the band released their new record, Unimagine. From there, the band says the overall reception to them at Warped Tour really grew. “There are a lot of musical connections,” Trenton says, “But having so many people in and around the festival, Warped Tour is just a good thing for a band to have [on their resume.]”

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credit the success of it to their producer, James Wisner. “I heard horror stories about James where bands walked away. He’s a firm guy who’d say things like ‘look, that sucks’ or ‘that’s not actual music,’” Alex says.

“It’s a brutal thing to hear, but a lot of people should hear that and take the advice as constructive criticism.”

The most useful and important feedback James gave them was to focus on their specific instruments.

He taught them to adjust their performance and writing techniques so that crowds would easily receive their songs. The boys have a lot of praise for James, who brought out great ideas and refined Unimagine.

“The final product was in our heads.

It’s just that we polished it [with James] and gave it breathing room,” says Cooper. While nothing is set in stone yet, the band would love to work with James on their next LP. While Hands Like Houses may have caught on in America rather quickly, it took some time for their homeland of Australia to jump on board. When the band’s debut album Ground Dweller was released in 2012, promotional hiccups made it hard for them to get the word around. “Having time for Unimagine to brew, and for us to be [in America] promoting before we flew back to Australia gave us time to grow,” Matt says. But now the band couldn’t be happier with the reception at home.

“It’s been fantastic. We just had a headlining tour back home!” Trenton exclaims, “The response was crazy.

The crowd was into it, and at times, I didn’t need to sing at all.”

Other than visiting Australia and America, Hands Like Houses will be making their way to the United Kingdom in October with Bury Tomorrow for The Runes Tour. “We’d also love to do South America, Japan … it’s cool how lots of bands are now able to reach more obscure places, like Russia and South Africa. I think it’s nice how there’s that possibility.

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You don’t have to be The Rolling Stones and you can still have the opportunity to see a majority of the world by playing music,” Alex says.

The secret behind the rising international success of Hands Like Houses lies within two words — “intelligent” and “accessible.” In their opinion, having other musicians appreciate their music classifies it as “intelligent,” and having people remembering the lyrics and being able to sing along categorizes a song to be “accessible.” “We’re not a pop ensemble who’ll push everything in your face,” Alex says.

On Ground Dweller, the band sandwiched as many songs as possible onto the record while still trying to keep it accessible. However, on Unimagine, they “stripped back a bit” and tried to get more emotional impact without “the distractions of everything competing for attention at once,” Alex explains. “We’re just trying to write good songs that we’d enjoy listening to. It’s not about reaching as many people as possible, it’s about writing what comes to us,” Matt says.

Alex states that even though he believes Hands Like Houses has moved towards the happy medium of making their songs intelligent and accessible, there is always room for improvement. “We don’t want to change for the sake of change but at the same time, we don’t want to be producing the same stuff over and over. We’re growing and changing humans and our music is just a reflection of that. We’re looking forward to seeing how that plays out,” Trenton says.

Currently, Hands Like Houses is taking a step back and relaxing after consistent touring. They want fans to look forward to more music videos, more songwriting and more touring.

“We want to get on Warped Tour in 2015. So in a sense, this year is just to make next year our big, breakout year,” Trenton says. NKD

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