NKD Mag - Issue #38 (August 2014)

FEATURES 6 Pierson Fode talks social media and upcoming projects 10 Young and Hungry star Jonathan Sadowski opens up about the new show 14 Bea Miller talks her upcoming full-length record 18 Upcoming artist Vava Voom shares her story 22 Pretty Little Liars’ Janel Parrish on her character, Mona 28 Sammi Hanratty on her more mature projects 30 ABC Family’s Taylor Spreitler on her love for sitcoms 36 Ashley Rickards talks Awkward and more 48 Nashville’s Chaley Rose shares her success story 52 Girl Meets World’s Sabrina Carpenter on Maya and her debut record 60 The coolest new girl band, Neon Jungle on their goals 62 Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties on this new project 64 Top 40 climbers, Clean Bandit are taking America by storm

EDITORIAL 4 Ask The Artist: The Age of Streaming 12 Live Photos: Warped Tour - Holmdel, NJ 20 June Picks: Top 6 Records From July 34 Live Photos: Warped Tour - Wantagh, NY 47 Upcoming Releases: New Music This August 58 Live Photos: Warped Tour - Hartford, CT

TEAM NKD Editors: Photographer: Jordan Melendrez Catherine Powell Catherine Powell Jenna Ross Writers: Susan Cheng

Tara DeVincenzo Alex Lane Stacy Magallon Shina Patel Catherine Powell

Riley Stenehjem Designer: Katelyn Thompson Catherine Powell Tanya Traner Josephine Tse

ASK THE ARTIST HOW HAS THE RECENT POPULARITY IN MUSIC STREAMING SERVICES SUCH AS SPOTIFY AFFECTED YOU AS AN ARTIST?

VLAD HOLIDAY (BORN CAGES)

G.R.L.

My band loves Spotify. Most artists’ beef with streaming services is that they don’t pay out enough. In today’s day and age, if somebody wants music and they’re broke, they’re gonna download it illegally…and they’re gonna do it fairly simply. Spotify makes the average listener think twice about just going straight to pirating music, because it’s cheap and/or free. Also, our songs come up on Spotify Radio and our tour dates are also promoted through it, so we reach some new ears that wouldn’t normally hear of us.

So all in all, I’d say a band like Born Cages benefits from streaming services.

The recent popularity in music streaming has allowed us to discover artists and music we may not have encountered otherwise, and has enabled us to keep our musical inspiration freely flowing! Because of that we can create better music. In GRL we have a wide range of interests and passions, so the more inspiration the better our creation! The other nice thing is that music fans can connect and share their music interests easily… which helps them stumble into music they might not have listened to before. It allows everyone to expand their musical tastes which can only be a good thing.

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QUINCY MUMFORD

BRIAN CAG (ACTION ITEM)

I think that spotify and other streaming services have a positive affect. Change is going to happen everyday , And the music industry will change everyday. I have learned to just roll with the punches and except what’s coming next . I am currently on a 6 week tour , playing so many place that we have never been to . I have met a couple different groups of people that show up at our shows , and tell us they heard our music on spotify ! For a musician it’s always going to be hard trying to make money. But that’s why I don’t play music for the money , I do it because it’s what I love to do.

Streaming services such as Spotify and Soundcloud have enabled a band like us to engage with fans, new and old, in ways unimaginable before. People don’t want to buy music anymore, because let’s face it, everyone is broke and has a million excuses to spend their money on something else. Streaming services allow people to ease any insecurity about the music first. If they truly like the art, they will eventually buy it.

KEVIN GRIFFIN (BETTER THAN EZRA) In the short term, the popularity of streaming services like Spotify and Beats means lower royalties for me as a songwriter. You make way less for a single play than say for a download from iTunes. That said, all the models for these services show that if a certain number of people (100 million is the amount usually given) subscribe to their premium service that royalties to songwriters will surpass the old physical album royalties. Basically, they’re saying it will be more than the salad days of royalties that we saw in the 90s. Most of the publishers and labels think it’s possible, and are actually optimistic about the future of the record industry.

The reality is streaming is the future. I’m a huge fan of Spotify. It’s all I listen to. I might have downloaded three songs in the past year, while my Spotify playlists have exploded.

MAX SCHNEIDER It’s been great. A beautiful tool in building an audience.

There’s so many different vehicles for music these days. As long as it gets to the fans and they enjoy it that’s all that really matters.

T.MILLS To me, streaming is positive because my music is instantly sharable, and people can listen to it faster, at any given time. From an artist to a fan, that instantaneous reach is invaluable, and let’s me feel more connected to those that support me. I also love the fact that services such as Spotify and Beats are able to allow artists the chance to customize playlists of other songs for their fans, and allow them a peek into what we listen to on a daily basis.

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PIERSON FODÉ Words and Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

Pierson Fode is about to make history, but it took some time to get there.

Pierson grew up on a farm just outside of Seattle, Ore., and raised his own cattle as a teenager. In high school he began producing his own short films and recruiting his friends to help him out. At the time he was a part of a program called Running Start that allowed high school kids to simultaneously take college classes. He earned an associate degree and then began interning with a production company. He got a strong grasp on the behind-the-scenes aspect of film and then moved to Los Angeles at 19. “Once I got [to L.A.] I really started to hone in on what my goals were,” Pierson says.

After moving out to California, he signed with a management company and began modeling and acting. He spent the majority of 2013 working; filming the HBO series Hello Ladies, and four movies including Indigenous and Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List. But this fall Pierson will become half of Disney Channel’s first married couple when his character Brooks marries Debby Ryan’s Jessie Prescott on Jessie. The two young lovebirds will tie the knot at the end of season three, set to air sometime this fall. “It’s a historical moment for Disney, so it’s a historical moment for me,” Pierson says.

The news of America’s nanny getting married resulted in mixed responses

from fans and parents alike, but Pierson says the majority of messages he has received have been positive. While his four-episode stint hasn’t aired yet, the new connection to Disney has already expanded his fan base — especially on social media.

Social media has become a crucial part of the entertainment industry within the past few years, and Pierson is not oblivious to this at all. “We all share fans and followers,” he says, “I’ll work with someone and then their fans are interested in me.” He makes a point to respond to as many of his fans as he can because he would have loved that opportunity as a kid. “It’s a really cool opportunity to not only influence these kids’ lives, but to also just have a connection to them and the rest of the world,” Pierson says.

It’s a strange time for actors and actresses — numbers are beginning to outshine any other factor. “Producers, directors and almost everyone else in the entertainment industry have stopped looking at talent and started looking more at the fan base,” Pierson says.

He’s been in meetings where he’s heard producers say, “Yeah, she’s the more talented one, but this one has 2 million followers.” It comes down to whether or not a team wants a good movie or a lot of people to see the movie.

Pierson feels he ran into some issues regarding casting when he was first starting out because he didn’t have a

following yet. But he also believes there are still some old school directors out there who don’t care about social media.

“If you are talented, you get in no matter what, if you have the look and you’ve done your work,” he says.

Director Kristin Hanggi is one of the directors who put talent above followers when it came to casting Pierson in Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List, which is slated to come out later this year. The film follows Naomi (Victoria Justice) and Ely (Pierson), two teenagers in New York City who are both interested in men. The two best friends create a “No Kiss List” of boys they think they both have a chance with to avoid fighting over them. But plot twist: Naomi is in love with Ely. “It’s really about unrequited love,” Pierson says. “We’ve all been there, we’ve all loved someone who never loved us back.”

They filmed the movie entirely on location in New York, and Pierson fell in love with the city. He believes that the film would not be what it is without the magic of real Manhattan in every scene. “There’s something about filming on location — you get swept up in the environment,” he says. Pierson finds it easier to get into a character when he’s absorbing the environment as opposed to working in a studio or soundstage.

“The environment you choose to set it in is its own character,” he says.

The cast spent a month filming in New York, and Pierson says he’s never NKDMAG.COM

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gotten so close with a group of people so quickly. He felt extremely comfortable around the entire cast and crew, which was crucial to him, as a straight male, to convincingly and appropriately play a gay person. “The message to a lot of kids is to open up the possibilities that they don’t need to hide or be afraid of something that they are,” he says. “As a straight guy, I wanted to be like ‘Hey, I’m not this way, but I love you regardless.’”

It’s very easy for actors to get type cast nowadays, and Pierson is very conscious of that fact. For that reason, he’s been very adamant about taking diverse roles. “I was offered another part very similar to Ely, so I turned it down because I’ve already played that character,” Pierson says. He’s been told multiple times that he has the “boy next door” look and for that reason tries to book some darker roles to counter that.

While acting is his main priority right now, Pierson is anxious to get back behind-the-scenes. He’s been able to help a few friends get their scripts into production, but he doesn’t want to spread himself too thin in terms of his own projects. In the last few months he’s had a bit more down time and has been working on a script with his friend that he hopes to pursue further. Down the line, he plans to dabble in producing and directing. He’s been fortunate enough to work with a lot of great people and has learned a lot about directing from understanding what he, as an actor, likes and dislikes. “Each person I’ve worked with has given me perspective,” he says.

The rest of 2014 and the beginning of 2015 will be career defining for Pierson.

With three movies and his Jessie episodes waiting for official release dates, Pierson isn’t going to be just another fresh face for much longer. He’s currently spending most of his time taking meetings and reading scripts trying to find his next great role. “I want something fun that will really push me as an actor,” Pierson says. “I want something that’s challenging and that scares me. I want to keep going down the route of not taking the easy road. NKD NKDMAG.COM

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10 Words by SUSAN CHENG Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

jonathan sadowski

Life as an actor doesn’t mean fame and fortune from the get-go. While Jonathan Sadowski currently plays the leading man on ABC Family’s Young & Hungry, the 34-year-old actor began his career with the typical post-graduate struggle of job hunting and working part-time jobs. Even after shooting a television show in 2002, he still had to take on side jobs to sustain a living in Los Angeles. One day, however, everything just seemed to fall into place for Jonathan, who managed to book a pilot, secure a role on She’s the Man, and even sell a script — all in one week. It was a time in his life Jonathan still looks back to in disbelief. Since then, the actor has garnered a large fan base and regards both his decision to begin acting and his latest gig as blessings.

Born into a Sicilian family in Bridgeport, a city in Chicago’s South Side, Jonathan grew up in a tight-knit family with deep roots in the area. “I grew up in the building that my grandmother grew up in,” he says. Jonathan attended an all-boys Catholic school, where he was an athlete and a member of the stock market club.

Although Jonathan had expressed interest in acting after seeing a production of The Phantom of the Opera at a local theater, it wasn’t until halfway through college that he decided to pursue a career in performing arts.

After high school, he enrolled in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for finance. Despite the program’s prestige, Jonathan found himself hating his major. “I was miserable — like full-on depression, failing out,” he says. After a conversation with his mother and a longtime mentor longtime mentor and family, he decided to change majors. “He said, ‘You’re an artist whether you’re behind a desk crunching numbers or performing.

What do you wanna do?’” Jonathan says, recalling his mentor’s words. He graduated with a degree in theater and moved to L.A., where he waited tables and bartended to afford a living.

“I did every odd job you could think of,” the actor says of his time after college.

“There was actually a point when I was on a TV show and still had to bartend to make ends meet. So on Sundays, my manager and agent would come to my bar, and we’d watch the show that I was on.” Eventually, his manager made Jonathan vow that he would quit his bartending gig.

“My manager came in and said ‘You have 30 more days. You’re quitting,’” he says. “No joke. On day 31, I booked a pilot.” As fate would have it, over the course of one week Jonathan also locked down the role of Paul Antonio on She’s the Man alongside Amanda Bynes and sold a script he wrote.

“I was afraid that if I walked out the door, I would get hit by a bus or something,” he says with a laugh. It was a surreal experience that he still has a hard time grasping today. “Even when your dreams start coming to fruition, it’s still hard to come to terms with that, you know?” he says. “I almost broke down in tears. It’s amazing when you set out to do something, and it actually starts coming to fruition.”

While the pilot and script didn’t lead to anything major, his part on She’s the Man did help shape his career initially and eventually lead to his role on larger projects like ABC Family’s recently premiered Young & Hungry, a sitcom produced by Ashley Tisdale.

The show centers on Gabi Diamond, a food blogger played by Emily Osment.

She later becomes the personal chef and love interest of Jonathan’s character, Josh Kaminski, a 29-year-old tech entrepreneur and millionaire. In the pilot, Josh plans to propose to his girlfriend and hires Gabi to cook a romantic dinner. To Josh’s bewilderment, however, his girlfriend actually breaks up with him over the phone. A couple glasses of champagne later, Josh and Gabi end up drunkenly sleeping together.

“It’s a fun love drama,” Jonathan says.

“There is really something for everybody.

I’ve had friends my age come to see the show. I’ve had my parents come to see the show. Every generation will find something to laugh at in the show.”

As a matter of fact, there is a whole lot of laughter from the show’s live audience.

“From the minute you get introduced, the audience is going nuts for [us]. They want to be there, they want to see what you’re going to do, they want be entertained, and when you do something funny, they laugh.”

While Jonathan receives instant gratification and great joy from seeing the audience in an uproar, the most touching part of having live feedback is the crowd’s attention and overwhelming support. “I’m even more affected by the fact that like

when you’re doing something traumatic in the sitcom, you could hear a fucking pin drop in the audience,” Jonathan says.

“There’s nothing like it. It’s like having 300 people at your back, just in it with you. It’s the greatest feeling ever.” While Jonathan has received much support from his family and the public, there are still critics.

“I’m from this small neighborhood in the south side of Chicago, and you have these people who are like ‘You’ve changed.

Did you forget where you come from?’”

Much of the disapproving sentiments stems from few people from his hometown tend not to leave the neighborhood.

“I’m not high and mighty, [but] I’m proud of what I’m doing, and I’m trying to do something good.” That’s not to say his accomplishments haven’t been recognized and praised by those from his hometown.

In a way, Jonathan also feels as if he’s giving back to his birthplace as well.

“Most people in Bridgeport, Chicago, don’t leave the neighborhood. Everybody’s there. When I go back home, I see the same people on the same stoop every night,” he explains. “You kind of feel like you’re doing something for them as well … It’s kind of a rough area. I didn’t come from a suburb. It’s gritty; my friends were getting murdered growing up.” It’s not a place Jonathan ever anticipated staying in as an adult.

“I love where I’m from … I just knew I wasn’t meant to stay there. It’s always going to be there,” he says. “Something in me said I had to go and try other ventures.”

Although Jonathan loved the script for Young & Hungry from the first read, he did contemplate his options before making the decision to “put all his eggs in one basket” and join the sitcom’s cast. “[I decided on] ABC Family … they really stand behind their cast, and they push every one of their shows to the fullest, so I said ‘Fuck it. Let’s do it,’” he explains. “I did the show, it got picked up, and the network couldn’t be happier. The cast and crew couldn’t be happier … It’s a blessing. It’s not work. How many people can say ‘Every Friday, I get to go to work and make people laugh?’”

So far, the show has been a huge hit.

Even before Young & Hungry premiered, the show’s Facebook fan page garnered 250,000 likes — a favor Jonathan intends to reciprocate with more laughter, or in his own words, “a herniated disc from laughing so hard.” NKD NKDMAG.COM

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WARPED TOUR (HOLMDEL, NJ)

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bea miller 14

Words by RILEY STENEHJEM Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

Since the day singer and actress Bea Miller was born, her mom claims that she was screaming, “Get me out of this baby’s body!” It seems that her mother’s words have held true, as Bea continues to push harder at her work and break into the music world, all at the young age of 15. She has acted in several movies, placed ninth on the US singing competition X-Factor and been signed by two record labels already. This year, she released her first EP, Young Blood, and is currently finishing up her debut album set to release later this year.

Bea grew up in Brooklyn with her mothers and two adopted sisters from Vietnam. Later, their family moved to New Jersey, where they lived until they made the move to Los Angeles less than a year ago. As a child, Bea was interested in the performing arts — at the age of 8, she started acting in movies and commercials. Shortly thereafter, she decided to try her hand at singing. “I thought, ‘I don’t like this as much as I would like singing, because I think singing is more expressive,’” Bea explains of making the change. “In acting, you’re pretending to be someone else essentially, and I just didn’t think that was the right thing for me, because I want to be who I am.”

Her first gig singing was at the US Open at age 9, and at the time she thought “this is probably it ... this is probably the last big hurrah, even though it was the first big hurrah.”

A few years later, right before Bea turned 13, a friend of her mother’s suggested that she audition for the US X-Factor competition. “I thought I’d maybe get to the second round, and then they’d send me home,” Bea says.

“Then I would move on and it would be like my life’s grand adventure.” Bea’s journey on the show was much more successful than she had imagined.

After placing ninth overall, she was immediately signed by Syco Music and Hollywood Records, thus beginning her professional career as a recording artist. After leaving X-Factor, Bea went home, packed up all her stuff and moved out to California.

Bea’s inspiration for her career stems from her young childhood.

“My moms used to make me tapes to play in our car when we would go on road trips, and they’d mix songs like the ABC’s and all these little kid songs with The Beatles and Red Hot Chili Peppers,” Bea says. Later, around 10 or 11 years old, she and her mom were in the car, listening to her mom’s iPod, and Bea realized that she knew all of the words to these songs that she had never heard before. “I said, ‘Mom, why do I know all these songs? How do I know the words to them if I don’t listen to them?’ and she told me, ‘I used to play all these tapes for you in the car when you were younger.’” After that, Bea began to listen to the older music her parents used to play for her, and these bands became some of her first inspirations for her own music.

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bands help to form Bea’s current, edgy sound. Although she “leans toward pop,” she also tries to bring in elements from bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana and AC/DC, to name a few, as well as newer bands like The Pretty Reckless and Paramore. “I love the sound of rock music,” she explains. “I wanted to bring in real instruments, because most pop music is just track. Now when I perform, I use a lot of band.”

Another important component of her music is relaying a relatable, meaningful message. “I only want to release songs that mean something to me, because I know if they mean something to me they’re bound to mean something to someone else,” she says. In the world of pop music, where most songs are all bubblegum, upbeat and happy, Bea wants to communicate that life does have ups and downs and you’re not alone in those struggles. “No one ever wants to talk about the downsides,” Bea remarks, “But you can’t only talk about the good things in life, because it’s just fake.” In addition to relating common life struggles through music, she also makes the point that the kids of her generation will someday be leaders and hold power. She says, “We will be the ones who are the president, and are in the government and have all these huge jobs, and you can’t let anyone boss you around or tell you what you can and can’t do, because someday you will succeed.”

Between Young Blood and her yetto-be-titled debut full-length, which will be coming out in late 2014 or early 2015, Bea says that she co-wrote about half of the songs, and worked closely with producers and professional writers for the other half. When choosing songs to record, Bea explains that a track “has to have good bones” and then gets built up from there. It’s also crucial that she can connect with the lyrics, because, as she remarks, “If I can’t relate to the lyrics, why would I sing a song like that?”

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For her album, she worked with a different set of writers and producers for every single song to test the waters, per se, and find a team she enjoyed working with. “I wanted to find out who I get along with, so when I make another record I know who I want to go back to,” Bea says. “A lot of the people that I worked with were incredible, but there were some that you have a personal connection with, and in between working you can sit around and have a good conversation. Sometimes that inspires songs, because I’ll say something and they’ll be like, ‘You know, that’s great, we’re going to put that in the song.’”

Having worked with so many professional songwriters, Bea has been able to improve her own songwriting. “When you sit down to write, you can’t stress,” she says. “I used to think that it had to be perfect as I was writing it down, but you go back and edit and edit and edit.”

While it will be a while before Bea’s debut record is out, she has no problem dropping hints on what fans can expect from it. The most important thing she thinks is the wide variation in sound from song to song. “One song will have a strong beat and no instruments, another will have more of a pop sound, another will have more of a rock sound and one is slower and more of a ballad.” This unique aspect of each individual track is her favorite thing about the album. She explains, “Musically, they’re all very different, but lyrically, they all tie together into one album.”

One of Bea’s main goals is to come across as a role model to her fans.

“I want to show people that I went through some bad things, got out of them and now I’m pursuing my dreams and I’m going to speak freely.

I’m not afraid to talk about how I feel about things. I think that’s very important to show to teenage girls, who are told ‘don’t say that, don’t do that.’ I think it’s important to say that you can be outspoken, you can be free.

If someone judges you, oh well! Just do whatever you feel will make you happy,” she says.

Ahead on Bea’s agenda is a tour, sometime later this year or early next year. All of the details haven’t been

worked out, but she hopes to open for another artist or band. In addition, she has returned to acting, and will be working on a film this fall.

Bea has proved that her age is not a boundary when it comes to establish-

ing careers in both the music and film industries — in some ways, it is actually a benefit.

Since she and most of her fans are the same age, connecting with them comes naturally. “Being a teenage

girl makes it really easy for me to say, ‘This is worth writing a song about,’” Bea says. From the age of 8 she’s been working towards success in the performing arts, and at just 15 she is already finding it. NKD NKDMAG.COM

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vava voom

Words by JOSEPHINE TSE Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

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Back in April 2014, Vava Voom’s “Supersonic” hit the music world and made its way to various playlists and popular websites alike. Featuring Sean Kingston and a super catchy beat, it may be surprising to learn that this is the first single she’s dropped in the States. Vava Voom’s budding talent and understanding of music has already made Billboard deem her “an up-and-coming artist to look out for.”

For Vava Voom, who was born in Zurich, music has been a part of her life since she was four. She and her three brothers all played violin, and the boys eventually moved on to join one of Switzerland’s famous all-boys choir groups.

She joined another choir and sang opera until she was 13, and she describes opera as a “great experience” because it was where she took singing lessons and learned how to be a performer. Vava Voom also played the piano, participated in a gospel choir and played in a “loud” rock band.

It wasn’t until she went on a televised singing competition in Switzerland that she landed a record deal and met her manager in 2010. After that popularity boost, she started to travel to the United States to write songs, do photo shoots and create her image and sound. And that’s how Vava Voom was crafted and born.

“I picked ‘Vava Voom’ because the words fit my life and projects. I believe in positivity and good vibes. I am a person that’s trying to be positive in all situations. There’s so many things that can just put you down … I think it’s always possible to see something good in situations. Two people in the same scenario can see it as positive or negative and I think if you come from a positive

approach, it turns the situation around,” she says about the importance of a good mentality. “Music cheers you up, and I just felt like this name fits the whole thing.”

Vava Voom explains that she recorded “Supersonic,” and she and her manager found a space that needed a feature. “We were looking for artists that would fit the song, and my manager and I came up with Sean Kingston,” she says. Thanks to the amazing powers of social media, Sean Kingston received the message and that’s how they got together. “He replied to our email in about three days,” she says, laughing. “I guess that means he really liked the song.”

They shot the music video for “Supersonic” in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

“Sean was really cool to work with,” she recalls. “He’s a nice person to talk to, and I still think it’s crazy to meet the people you see on TV.” She is working on her debut album, which is expected to be released sometime this year, and the album is going to have a mix of her Swiss style and American pop music influence. “The transition from creating music in Switzerland to delving into America’s pop genre was a learning process throughout the years,” she says. “I did get into pop music in Switzerland, but it’s really different compared to America, mostly in terms of people I’ve worked with. But I really like artists like Katy Perry, Pink and Rihanna, so I think it would be good for me to grow into the scene.”

Vava Voom’s writing process can only be described as “unplanned.” “It’s all about what mood you’re in and who you’re working with,” she says. “Sometimes we start with a guitar and sing to it, sometimes someone already has a

track and you write to it. But sometimes a topic is already there and you create around it.” However, she’s given us a hint of what to expect on her album. “The new songs have a more mainstream pop sound, but the good vibes are always there,” she explains. “It’s a mix between pop and dance, but there’s going to be slow songs, too.”

With Zürich still listed as her permanent residence, Vava Voom works diligently to promote her material and build her fan base in America. “I haven’t moved out of Zürich because I have shows there now, unlike America. It’s more of a traveling back and forth situation right now, but I’ll consider moving in the near future since things are growing for me,” she says. “So right now, it’s really about putting my songs out there, using a lot of social media to interact with fans and getting shows together, too. I haven’t really played in America yet.”

It doesn’t stop here, of course. “I have a couple of shows in Switzerland and my summer is booked. In between, I’m going to go to Los Angeles for writing sessions and put out a new single,” she says before quickly adding, “We’re releasing the Sean Kingston single in Europe, too.”

With the support from family and friends, keep an eye out for Vava Voom as she works at building a fan base, rising up as a successful artist, inspiring people with music and going on tour.

Growing up with brothers has influenced Vava Voom to go wherever the music is playing. “I would say I’m loud, and I learned to use my elbows,” she says.

“There’s great competition out there, and I have to fight for it because everyone wants to sing. They taught me to never give up and stand up all the time.” NKD NKDMAG.COM

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JULY RELEASES 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER - 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER RATING: 8/10 FOR FANS OF: ONE DIRECTION, MKTO

YES! - JASON MRAZ RATING: 7/10 FOR FANS OF: ONEREPUBLIC, GAVIN DEGRAW

STRANGE DESIRE - BLEACHERS RATING: 9/10 FOR FANS OF: GROUPLOVE, TWENTY ONE PILOTS

LOWBORN - ANBERLIN RATING: 7/10 FOR FANS OF: THERE FOR TOMORROW, YOU ME AT SIX

GREAT MISSION: LIFE - ACTION ITEM RATING: 9/10 FOR FANS OF: RIXTON, WALK THE MOON

1000 FORMS OF FEAR - SIA RATING: 8/10 FOR FANS OF: SAM SMITH, BEYONCE

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JANEL PARRISH Words by TARA DEVINCENZO Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

The letter “A” hasn’t gotten this much publicity since Sesame Street made it come alive. ABC Family has now made an entire culture out of finding out which little liar is hiding behind the moniker. Off-screen, the mystery of A remains, but Mona lives on after the credits roll every Sunday in a very different way than she does in Rosewood.

It all started in a small town in Hawaii. Since she was five years old, Janel Parrish knew that she wanted to perform. The years that followed were packed with auditions and mostly stage acting. After auditioning, and getting casted for, a role in a nationwide tour of Les Misérables, she made her niche in the acting community and started building her talent and resume. “I grew up on stage, which is actually my first love,” she says.

She toured for a year doing musical theater before returning to Hawaii.

There, she continued to do musical theater until she was 12 years old and kept pushing for the next step by flyNKDMAG.COM

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ing back and forth to Los Angeles for other auditions.

Janel’s parents noticed her enthusiasm and drive for performing at a young age. They promised that if she still demonstrated this interest by the the time she reached high school, they would move her to L.A. It did, and to L.A. they went.

“When I say that I’m lucky it’s because I always knew that this is what I want to do,” she says.

In L.A., she continued to attend acting, voice and dancing classes through her parents support. To make time for all of this and auditioning, she had to sacrifice the normalcy of high school for home schooling, which she confesses to have hated, but tolerated since it was the best thing.

She continually booked minor roles for years while living in L.A. until she truly broke out on the big screen when she became Jade in Bratz. This role was the first that came with press tours and set her up for her most notorious role yet.

She went to an audition for a character named Spencer Hastings, the privileged, over-achieving perfectionist in a group of high school girls investigating the disappearance, and presumed death, of their friend Allison. Janel did not get the role, and she was told she was acting “too sassy” for the character.

Though her spunk was the kiss of death for the part of Spencer, it made her stand out as the ideal candidate for the villainous role of Mona Vanderwaal, the fierce, suspected killer and little liar. She auditioned again for the show, and began her still-ongoing reign as Mona.

The show just completed its fifth season, celebrated its 100th episode and has made Mona and her frenemies some of TV’s biggest stars.

“When we were shooting the pilot, we could have never anticipated it would make it this far,” Janel says, “but I think that we all had a collective feeling that we were doing something 24

special.”

Janel’s faith in the show and passion for performing helped her to completely engross herself with Mona.

After reading the pilot script, she read the books on which the show is based and was advised to make a Twitter account to keep up with viewers’s comments.

She quickly learned the ways of Rosewood, Pennsylvania and, shortly after, the Twitterverse. “The first day I had Twitter and an episode aired I saw how crazy our presence is online,” she says. “It’s amazing.” Though she finds the new wave of online interaction fast-paced and dizzying, she’s developed a fondness for it by understanding the gravity it holds for fans.

Every week the show airs, she tunes in to the live tweets her fans are sharing, and answers the questions they send her way. “It’s kind of amazing that in this day and age we’re able to do that, that’s one reason I love Twitter so much,” she says. “That’s why I have such an active social media life, because fans love to see who you are as a person.”

She likes to share her life on Twitter so fans can see her for Janel rather than Mona, but she has customized her newsfeed to give her insight of her favorite celebrities as well. With over 670,000 followers (and counting), Janel has chosen a select few 300 to follow, such as Sam Smith, Sara Bareilles, Justin Timberlake and Ryan Gosling.

“The celebs that I follow, that’s why: I want to see their personalities,” she says. “You can really show people who you are as a person and not just as a character.”

She plays a diabolical, vehicularhomicidal girl on the show, but if her Twitter is truly an indication of who she is in real life, she prefers cuter, fluffier, things. “As far as Mona goes, it seems like they love to hate her, and that’s fine with me.”

She admits over spilled coffee that she’s normally clumsy, and she had to remove the carpet from her house

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to hide the wine- and coffee-stained proof. But the energy she has for acting is a clear result of her passion rather than her caffeine fixes. She has room to be clumsy at home, and even on the set of Pretty Little Liars, but her other roles don’t afford her that luxury.

One of her latest projects takes her back to the stage with L.A.-based For The Record Productions. She has been part of the three-year-old company, which her boyfriend introduced her to, since December. Each of the company’s shows is designed around a given director’s films and soundtrack.

“We bring your favorite movies to life, which I get to say is my true joy, so everybody wins,” Janel says. On weekends when she’s not playing Mona, Janel satisfies her stage craving as one of a cast of nine who partakes in these productions. As part of a rotating cast, she has the opportunity to take the roles when she can, and the liberty to pass on performances when her PLL schedule demands more time.

Of the eight directors done by the company, Janel has used her limited free-time and taken part in two: Baz Luhrman and Quentin Tarantino.

“Energy for me really of just living through a performance for two hours instead of starting and stopping,” she says. “It’s so rewarding to get an immediate response when you’re performing.” In the Tarantino performance, Janel plays three characters: Jackie Brown’s Mel, Death Proof ’s Pam and Kill Bill’s O-ren Ishii.

Between the murderous O-ren Ishii and Mona, Janel seems to have a knack for being a bad girl. “I guess I just have a sass on camera that lends itself to these characters,” she says, “which I’m not mad about.”

Just as she can adapt between stage and set, she can become a more innocent character as well. In a film set for a Halloween-season release, she has found her place as the heroine.

In High School Exorcism, alongside Jennifer Stone, she revives her attempt

at Spencer. “It was actually really fun to play that character and not Mona because I always get the Mona characters,” she says. “I usually get the real sassy, crazy ones. It was a nice little switch.”

Janel prefers to be busy, so she doesn’t mind taking up several roles while still playing Mona, but after five seasons, she considers that to be her most important job. “It’s so much fun.

My writers give me so much to work with. I’m never bored,” she says.

Though her Twitter may be filled with questions from fans dying to know who A is, Janel isn’t lying when she says she doesn’t know. “We’re all fans of the show as well, people who are on it,” she says. “We want to know what’s happening, too. We’re not told until we get the script.”

As the show progresses and the mystery seems to get buried deeper, Janel admits she almost doesn’t even want to find out the answers. “I hope it carries it on as long as possible,” she says. “I know the A mystery is going to be carried on as long as possible because why else would you want to keep watching the show?”

Her guess is as good as any of her fans’ as to what will happen when they finally wrap up the series. If it were up to her, she wouldn’t wrap it up so nicely. “I think it would be really great if in the finale you find out who it is and it all seems well, and then it ends with another mystery,” she says. “I don’t want everything to just end. I think it would be fun if they would throw a bonus shocker at you.”

No one knows what will happen in the end, but there are bigger moments in between that will keep viewers excited. Now that Alie and Mona have had an ugly reunion, and it’s up to the writers as to where the show is headed. “I’ve played so many sides of Mona. I don’t know what they’ll give me next, but I’m sure they’ll give me more which I will happily take on. It’s a fun challenge.” NKD NKDMAG.COM

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Words by STACY MAGALLON Photos by CATHERINE POWELL 28

SAMMI HANRATTY

You might have seen Sammi Hanratty’s face on networks like Disney Channel or Nickelodeon. But recently, she has been trying to make it clear that she is no longer that little girl.

I sit with Sammi in the lobby of the Westin New York at Times Square. She’s dressed in a very summer-chic fashion — denim shorts, a flowing, black tank top and black ankle boots. She’s talking about her recent trip to New York City and how she wishes it were lasting longer.

“This is kind of like a mini vacation,” Sammi says. “I need to find some time to relax.” And she’s not kidding.

Sammi needs a break. She’s been pretty busy — the 18-year-old is taking control of her acting career by expressing her mature side through more mature roles, including a role WGN America’s television series, Salem.

Sammi was born in Phoenix, Ariz. By the age of two, she wanted to start acting. “My mom thought I was crazy and told me no,” she says.

“I kept telling her, ‘But I am gonna act, I’m going to be on stage and TV, I just am.’” By the time Sammi was 6 years old her mother changed her mind. Her mother sent her photo to multiple agencies — agencies that landed her various commercial auditions. Her first serious role came on CBS’ The Unit where she co-starred with her sister Danielle.

Sammi lived back and forth between California and Arizona when her acting career kicked off. She was homeschooled throughout her childhood, though she was more of a “people person” and loved being around kids her age. Around age 8, she moved back to Arizona. Her father had a dental practice located in their home state, but that didn’t stop Sammi from acting. Things had begun to pick up and relocating would have been inconvenient if it weren’t for luck. She worked on a Stephen King’s Desperation, which filmed in Arizona. Shortly after, she

scored minor roles on major networks like Disney’s The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and That’s So Raven as well as Nickelodeon’s Drake & Josh and iCarly.

And Sammi’s career has continued to quickly move forward. Within the past two years of her life, she has pursued roles she considers more fitting for her age. “I’ve been doing more mature shows that have grown up with me,” she says. Sammi had been a recurring character on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, The Unit and Pushing Daisies throughout 2006 and 2008. Even though Sammi was acting on a Disney show, she was also acting in shows that weren’t close to the network’s childlike nature. “I was never bound to any contracts that wouldn’t let me do something I wanted to do,” she says.

But as Sammi has grown older, she’s found herself immersed in drama, which explains her current role on Salem.

The television series starring Janet Montgomery and Shane West is inspired by the Salem witch trials of the 17th century. Sammi portrays Dottie, a young girl obsessed with witchcraft and power in general.

This character is different from her past portrayals, but that’s what she enjoys: channeling a personality other than her own. “I’m kind of a creepy girl,” Sammi says, laughing.

“I most recently just tore off a guy’s arm and killed him.”

When preparing herself for this role, Sammi had to do extensive research. Puritans were proper and spoke and acted in certain ways, depending on whom they were speaking to. “The show is also incredibly accurate when it comes to wardrobe, hair and makeup,” Sammi says. “All of that just makes it easy to tap into my role.” Salem, which films on a set built in the woods of Shreveport, La., helps make the entire series more authentic. Sammi describes the set as beautiful and realistic — the nooses

hanging and the livestock wandering around between takes. “We get really into it over at the Salem set,” she says. The show just finished filming its first season and a second season has already been confirmed.

With various fictional personas under her belt, Sammi can say she’s thankful to have portrayed more than one kind of character. She’s accustomed to playing the character of a little brat, but pushing herself out of her comfort zone is more rewarding than playing it safe. It wasn’t intentional. It just happened to fall into place. “I’m glad it worked out that way rather than having to play the same person over and over,” Sammi says. “My dream role is to play a transgendered girl where I could take on a character different from who I am and do it justice.”

And that’s what Sammi loves about acting overall — becoming a person other than herself.

While balancing multiple roles at once, Sammi’s schedule grew hectic.

She was play recurring characters on three different shows at once, tackling different projects in different places. “I’d have to step back and ask, ‘Wait who am I playing today?’”

Sammi says, laughing. “But I like that kind of stuff because it kept me on my toes.” Sammi has been able to learn from every project she’s ever worked on, though she only noticed this recently. “I’ve been able to take those lessons and use them now,” she says.

Speaking of lessons, Sammi is currently avoiding the lessons she would be learning on a college campus. If acting were to slow down for her, she would consider attending classes at a community college. For the moment, she’s too busy living her dream. Sammi is waiting for other recent filmed projects to be released and more scripts to read for the future. “I just want to be successful in my craft,” she says. “I want to be that character that people can relate to.” NKD NKDMAG.COM

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taylor spreitler Words by TANYA TRANER Photos by CATHERINE POWELL Styled by AUBREY BRIANNE Assisted by STEPHANIE GUTIERREZ Hair by ANNA MARIA ORZANO Make-Up by AMY TAYLOR

Glasses by PETER PILOTTO FOR TARGET Turtleneck by KORA RAE Shorts by MADE FOR PEARL Shoes by KATHRYN AMBERLEIGH Tank by H&M Overalls by BCBGENERATION Sneakers by KEDS

In the entertainment industry, actors are often type cast into certain genres or mediums. Taylor Spreitler isn’t one of those actors. The young starlet, most recently known for her role as Lennox on ABC Family’s Melissa and Joey, has managed to move from commercials to Soap Operas, sitcoms and now film.

And says she’s learned a lot each step of the way.

Born in the early 90s in Mississippi, Taylor started acting at a very young age. She spent her summers in New York City modeling and doing commercials.

“I wanted to be on Broadway, really I wanted to be a Rockette. I still do, but I’m not tall enough,” she says. When NKDMAG.COM

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she was 11, she made the move to Los Angeles with her mother. Originally, the trip was only supposed to be a week long to see if she could get a manager and an agent, and she kind of never left. During the move, she booked her first TV acting gig with Law and Order, which films in NYC. “Going from New York to Mississippi to LA was constantly a culture shock,” Taylor says.

After this first booking, the work stopped for a long time for Taylor — almost to the point where she was ready to give up. “You kind of think that you get your big break, and it’s all just going to happen, and that’s so not how it happens,” she says. “It was hard. There were times when I was like, ‘Mom I’m quitting. I’m going to go to public school, get my education.’” Her family convinced her to stick it out and about three years after her Law and Order gig, she finally booked Days of Our Lives.

“Soap Operas are crazy. It’s like the best and worst experience I’ve ever had in my life,” she says. “I truly believe every actor should just sit in on a Soap set and watch what happens because after you do a Soap, you can pretty much handle anything.” She says it was pretty sink or swim. She was thrown into the mix with a cast of people who had been doing this for a very long time and had their craft down pat. The Soap schedule was very overwhelming - they filmed ten episodes a week. She said they would block everything out in the morning, run through an entire episode in one take while the camera crews moved between sets and then start the next episode immediately.

In time, Taylor says she got used the chaos, and it made the transition to Melissa and Joey extremely easy. “It was like ‘Wait. I’m done with work already?’” she says. “And memorizing lines? I could memorize anything at this point after memorizing 30 pages a day.” She says the biggest difference to get used to with sitcom filming is the live studio audience, and admits she was intimidated by the concept at first, afraid to fall or mess up her lines. She says she quickly got over her fear and it’s actually really great 32

to have the audience. “It’s so much fun to have them there because in between takes it’s like a concert going on. There’s loud music playing, everyone’s up and dancing, and we get to interact with them,” Taylor says.

Settling into sitcom life has been a positive experience for Taylor. “When you work with people five days a week, you become a family. You really have no choice,” she says. She speaks with her writers and producers every day and has become extremely close with all her cast members. The crew has even begun writing Lennox similarly to Taylor’s personality and quirks. “They’ve started to write jokes about my eyebrows because everyone always makes fun of me because I’m always messing with my eyebrows.” (She can do the wave with her eyebrows.) “When I got older and felt more comfortable talking to people and being open with them, I feel like they very much starting writing Lennox after me,” she says. Taylor has learned a lot from her character as well. “She’s so grounded. She did not have an easy life, but she’s still so grounded, but sassy and totally just stands for what she believes in,” she says. “I think if Lennox was real we’d totally be best friends.”

She also became very close with her co-stars Nick Robinson and Sterling Knight. She says she and Sterling were actually close before he joined the cast as her love interest, and she and Nick became so close because they were in school together during taping. “Nick’s totally my annoying younger brother, and I’m totally the overprotective, annoying older sister,” she says.

Working with seasoned actors Melissa Joan Hart and Joey Lawrence has been amazing for Taylor because she grew up watching them. Her character wasn’t written into the pilot, so the show was already picked up by the time she was cast. “I got super lucky. I work with two people who are totally going to be there to help me learn what I have to do,” she says. She describes their relationship as if she has older siblings who are looking out for her; Melissa is looser and Joey

is the overprotective older brother. She says she’s learned a very simple lesson from them — no fear. “Both of them are just so not afraid to look stupid and that’s the main thing I have learned,” she says. “When you do what we do, if you hold back you’re going to end up looking stupid.” She says their families are their first priorities, and it’s helped her keep her family as her first priority as well.

These lessons have helped Taylor transition over to the film industry. She recently wrapped shooting Amityville, co-starring with Bella Thorne. “I’m obsessed with horror films,” she says. Taylor plays the best friend who doesn’t believe in ghosts, and regrets that in the end.

“It’s weird being at a horror site because there’s a lot of blood everywhere,” she jokes. She says the main difference between sitcom filming and motion picture filming is the hours. There are a lot of set ups for scenes, a lot of takes, a lot of special effects. Things take much longer than they do with TV. “I love the creative process of making a movie,” she says.

While Taylor’s original goal was to be on Broadway, she’s more than content to continue doing TV and film. “Once I started doing TV, once I started auditioning for TV more, I loved it,” she says. Scheduling wise she would love to be on a sitcom for the rest of her life. “I would love to have my own sitcom and in my downtime do movies,” she says.

She might like to pursue Broadway again someday, now that she is older. “You have people who are behind a camera all the time and then they go on stage — it’s just such a different experience,” Taylor says.

Taylor’s career doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Melissa and Joey has been picked up for another season so she begins filming in August or September. She also has another movie, Secret Place, coming out at the end of the year, based on the true story of a girl who went through a rehab wilderness program using Equine Therapy. For Taylor, the goal is simple. “I just want to work … as long as I’m on a set, I’m happy,” she says. NKD

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WARPED TOUR (WANTAGH, NY)

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ASHLEY RICKARDS Words by STACY MAGALLON Photos by CATHERINE POWELL Styled by GLAMOUR KILLS Hair & Make-Up by HEIDI SIGLER

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“I usually have to eat Chipotle with a fork,” actress Ashley Rickards explains to me. She’s dissecting the inner pieces of a melting mozzarella and tomato panini, which helps me understand why she’d need a fork to eat a burrito.

It’s a warm, cloudy afternoon. We’re seated in a cafe on the Lower East Side of New York City. Ashley and I laughing about what she is wearing —a loose, white shirt with a cat in an Egyptian king’s headdress. “This reminds me of my cat,” she says. “She’s always like, ‘I don’t care about your problems. Take care of me.’” As Ashley continues to pick at her panini, she begins talking about her early life in Sarasota, Fla. “It was a nice, humid day when I was brought into this world,” she says. “And then everything was better for everyone.”

But her joke-like demeanor isn’t the only interesting thing about her. “I was kind of awkward, too,” she says, casually. Though later I figure out that the star of MTV’s Awkward. is anything but.

As a competitive equestrian in grade school, Ashley found herself surrounded by a small number of classmates, and a smaller number of people in her grade. They were asked to participate in the school’s opera. “I was way too cool to be in it,” she says jokingly. “But after that, I knew right then that I wanted to act in this industry.” The rest was history. At a young age, her mother moved out with her to California for a supposed two-week trip. She’s stayed there a lot longer than expected.

Ashley knew she didn’t belong in Florida. She describes herself as “a little bit off, and a little too zany.” With that said, relocating to the West Coast for her career was one of her better life choices. “When my mom saw me looking down at Los Angeles when we were landing, she knew I was home,” she says.

When Ashley first moved to Los Angeles, she was already a high school graduate at 15. She appeared in a few minor roles because of the working

hour restrictions forced by child labor laws. A few of her guest starring roles were on shows like Zoey 101, CSI: NY, Ugly Betty and American Family.

But her big television debut was on one of the The CW’s most popular shows. Ashley’s first major role was on One Tree Hill, where she starred as Samantha Walker, a runaway foster child, for 19 episodes. The only thing she remembered was auditioning then leaving for North Carolina 36 hours after the audition. “I had to pack for five weeks in a matter of nine hours,” she recalls. Ashley was a rookie on set, but learned much about the process of filming. She learned about the exhaustion after long days of filming as well the variations of shooting a scene.

Today, at 22, she is no longer a rookie.

By the time Ashley moved out to California, she had already graduated high school. She was only 15 years old at the time. “And that’s why I was sentenced to four years of pretending to be in high school,” Ashley laughs.

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The Awkward. star initially refused to read the script. “I rejected the script four times,” Ashley says. “I didn’t want to do television again, I wanted to do movies.” But after giving the script a fair shot, she changed her mind. She was excited about the well-written material. Awkward. was one of MTV’s first steps toward scripted television, though Ashley was hesitant to audition because of the network involved.

“When anyone thought of MTV years ago, they thought of reality television and the channel that doesn’t play music anymore,” she says. “Now they have a ton of series like Awkward. and Teen Wolf.”

The teen comedy premiered in 2011. Awkward. centers on social outcast Jenna Hamilton. After an accident is misconstrued as an attempted suicide, Jenna finds herself struggling with her identity. The MTV hit is accompanied with a witty voiceover as Jenna deals with the shark tank of boys, mean cheerleaders and her close-knit group of friends. Since the premiere in 2011, Awkward. has aired four successful seasons. “I can’t really remember my life without the show,” Ashley says. “I was desperate for employment, which is a horrible feeling.”

As Awkward. has progressed throughout the seasons, Ashley is proud of how far her character has come.

“You’re more likely to find people who relate to Jenna than a model on a billboard,” she says. “She represents the everyday girl.”

Last season, Ashley was fortunate enough to help direct. She’s up for expressing herself through any kind of creative outlet. “I’m just trying to do things that can help people and also help me pay my rent,” she says, laughing. So at 21, she wrote a book.

Get Your Shit Together was written in Ashley’s head for a long time. It just didn’t exist in physical form. And when it did, the book was no different from the developed vision she always had. “It’s a no-bullshit guide to getting your shit together,” she says. “I talk 40

about the things that aren’t fun to talk about.” Ashley prides herself on never sugarcoating her opinions —especially when it comes to improving herself.

She discusses improvement of all kinds including makeup, fashion, careers and even organizational skills. “Makeup isn’t about changing my face into looking like something that it’s not,” she says as an example. “It’s about enhancing what’s already there because what’s already there is exactly what’s meant to be.”

Ashley is more than thrilled to bring these thoughts to the table — thoughts that are essential, considering her audience of young, teenage girls.

She knows that these topics are tough to talk about, but discussion helps others feel less alone. “I’ve tried to get my shit together before,” she says.

“And I always judged how ‘together’ I felt based on how other people acted, dressed and seemed.” That’s not what Get Your Shit Together is about. “You can’t get your shit together if your foundation is not sturdy,” she says.

Ashley sets clear examples of how to achieve certain goals, but doesn’t expect her audience to follow them accordingly. She leaves room for readers to fill in their own blanks. “It’s a book about empowerment,” she says. “I want to help girls navigate through their struggles and do so in a genuine way.”

Get Your Shit Together will be available for purchase next year, but Ashley is voicing her excitement now. “I’m really proud of it,” she says, accidentally smearing a piece of mozzarella on her face.

Ashley falls into the category of young Hollywood actor but prides herself on never being fake about who she is. “At the end of the day, if you’re playing into what other people think, it will never be real,” Ashley says. “Once I stopped trying to please everyone else, I started to feel happier on the inside.” She believes in separating your identity from the opinions of others. If you don’t, accomplishments and principles seem half-assed. When

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Ashley used to censor herself, she didn’t believe it was funny. Or great.

Or doing anything for the good of humanity. She wasn’t hoping to please everyone. Not everyone was going to like her. That was always going to be the case. But if she can be honest in one venue, that’s more than enough for her. “I just don’t want to sell people anything I don’t believe in,” she says.

“This is just real shit.”

For Ashley, there wasn’t any one point where she felt she had ‘made it.’

Once she pursued acting, she couldn’t envision herself working elsewhere.

“I’ve never felt like this was a career,” she says. “This is the only thing I’ll ever do, and I love it.”

In the middle of our conversation, Ashley’s chest begins to ring. “I keep my cell phone in my bra most of the time,” she says, pulling her black iPhone out of her shirt. Ashley is currently filming a movie called The Outskirts with Victoria Justice in Great Neck, N.Y. She doesn’t touch upon the project very much — she’s not allowed to. What she does tell me, however, is the uniqueness of her character.

“When possible, I don’t wear a bra in the movie, so that’s super fun,” Ashley says. As an actor, she doesn’t want to limit herself to a specific kind of role.

She wants to tackle as many characters as possible. “I don’t want to be doing an older version of Jenna Hamilton in 10 years,” she says. “That’s just not challenging to me.”

Awkward.’s fifth season has yet to be confirmed, but inevitably so, Ashley’s time as Jenna must come to an end. After spending years of her life creating a fictional identity, she can’t pin point where she’d like the show’s protagonist to end up. Jenna’s evolution throughout the four seasons is evident. She’s comfortable in her own skin. She’s strong. She keeps moving forward even when she falls down.

“Jenna doesn’t give up. I’d be happy if her future supported her past evolution,” Ashley says. “Or on a horse, riding into the sunset.” NKD 44

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/rose

Words and Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

“I googled you so I would know who I was looking for,” Chaley Rose says as she joins me for coffee in New York City one especially hot afternoon in June. Though she is an Indiana native, Chaley is no stranger to Manhattan — she lived and took acting classes here for a few years. “I came to visit my friend at NYU, and I instantly felt like New Yorkers knew something I didn’t,” Chaley says. She became determined to move to New York and made it happen shortly after high school. Her first job was as a greeter at the Abercrombie & Fitch on Fifth Avenue. “It was actually really fun, and it really helped me with acting because I learned to not be self-conscious,” she says. She worked a variety of odd jobs over her three and a half years of living in the city. And at one point she had 37 cents to her name.

Through a friend, she met an attorney at a production company in Atlanta and took a trip down there to record a demo. The company wanted “an absurd amount of money” from Chaley, which she did not have, and then offered her a free room in the studio if she agreed to work with a young producer. She agreed, and in turn experienced the “worst sexual harassment” in her life.

“At that point I was like ‘I’m done,’” she says. She ended up moving in with her aunt’s husband’s sister in a suburb of Atlanta and saved up her money to return to New York. When she eventually returned she auditioned for an acting coach who took her under his wing. She still didn’t have any money, but he encouraged her to stay in the class anyway. She spent two years in the class and then went to Los Angeles where she snagged a commercial agent and booked her first commercial — a Jack In The Box ad. Following the commercial, Charlie Sheen reached out to Chaley and she had a one-liner role on his show, Anger Management. From there she kept booking commercials and small roles. “I could feel the tides getting ready to turn,” she says.

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one she knew from Indiana. The message said, “My girlfriend’s best friend plays on the show Nashville, and they’re looking for a black girl who sings. I know you’re an actress and a singer so I just thought I’d let you know.” She copy and pasted the email to her agent, who called her on Wednesday letting her know she had an audition on Thursday.

She went in and after singing and reading lines was asked to stay and meet the show’s producer. After reading and singing for the show’s creator, Chaley was told she’d know soon and she immediately called her mom saying if she didn’t get the part, it had to be because of her look because the audition went so well.

On Friday, she got the call from her agent saying she booked the role. She flew to Nashville the next day, checked into the hotel and was told her room was booked for a month. “I freaked out because I had only packed five days worth of clothes.” she laughs. She flew back and forth for months before officially moving to Nashville this past December. She’s currently enjoying a rare amount of off time before season three picks up filming in the beginning of August.

Chaley plays Zoey Dalton, a character she considers very loyal — aside from the whole dating her best friend’s ex thing. This was the first time Chaley was able to develop a character, and she finds a lot of similarities between herself and Zoey. Zoey is an extremely supportive person, and is always happy for her friends’ success. “I think she’s a lot like me in that she’s afraid of the possibilities of if she becomes a singer,” Chaley admits, “My fear when I got to Nashville after all the sacrifice was that I was not going to love it.” Chaley recognizes that Zoey doesn’t really know exactly what she wants to do, but she loves to sing and wants to make money doing it.

Almost every character on Nashville sings and Chaley is no different. Her first performance, however, was unique from her co-stars’ debuts; she sang a 50

cappella. “I think because of all of the auditions I’ve done where I’ve had to sing a cappella I was very prepared for this,” she says, “I think it was a great way for them to introduce me as a singer, and I really appreciate that they introduced me like that.” Throughout the season, Zoey performed in church, with a band and in a casual, acoustic setting. While all very different, Chaley says it has been no struggle to find Zoey’s sound.

Working in Nashville with so many talented and positive people has re-opened Chaley’s eyes to the positives that exist in the music industry.

While her first go around wasn’t very encouraging, her time in Nashville has made her want to pursue a music career again. She has started performing around the city while she is in town filming and has already played the legendary Grand Ole Opry three times. The first two times her co-star and on-screen love interest, Sam Palladio, accompanied her, but the third time she did it alone. “I was so nervous, and I walked up to the mic and I said I was nervous,” she admits, “I dedicated the last song, ‘Carry You Home’ from episode 17, to my mom, who was there, and I knew she was crying. So I started crying. And when I finished singing the audience started standing and I couldn’t believe it. I felt like I was flying.”

Chaley has begun co-writing with songwriters in Nashville for both her own material and songs for Zoey.

“Co-writes are very vulnerable, and I realized I hate being vulnerable but I love getting a song out,” she says. The residents and musicians of the city embrace the stars of Nashville, and Chaley’s co-star Chris Carmack describes it as “having the key to the city.”

The actors have immersed themselves into the culture and all make a point to see as many up-and-coming acts as possible — Chaley cites the Striking Matches and Moon Taxi as some of her personal favorites.

This past year has been the most

successful year Chaley has ever had, and with success comes recognition.

Just today she was recognized twice in New York City, and says it happens even more frequently in Nashville.

“It’s really nice to be appreciated, and people come up to me to say they like what I’m doing,” she says. While being interrupted during a meal isn’t anyone’s

favorite thing, Chaley has learned to be patient with it. She uses her co-star Charles Esten — an industry veteran — as someone to emulate in that sense.

“He’s so gracious with fans, and it really doesn’t take that much,” she says.

The show has earned itself a bit of a cult following, and the music sales numbers are through the roof, but this

year Nashville was on the fence for renewal. “I think in the end it was a money thing, but it eventually worked out,” Chaley says. The show has good numbers and even better DVR numbers, but that doesn’t necessarily sell advertising. Though frustrating, the uncertainty was humbling for Chaley.

After years of struggling and mis-

treatment, her gig on Nashville is an absolute dream come to true. She has learned a lot about herself and the business in the past 12 months, and she’s extremely eager to keep learning. “One thing I try to keep in mind is that it could go away tomorrow,” Chaley says, “So I’m just trying to continue tuning my craft.” NKD NKDMAG.COM

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SABRINA CARPENTER Words and Photos by CATHERINE POWELL Styled by CHRIS HORAN Jeans by DKNY Shirt by RACHEL ZOE Shoes by VINCE CAMUTO

It’s 7:45 a.m., and I am cranky.

There’s an unusual chill in the air for June and the walk from Times Square to 48th Street and Sixth Avenue is basically an obstacle course with the key objective being avoiding lost, European tourists. I’m on four hours of sleep and much to my dismay, there is no coffee available at Fox & Friends’ outdoor concert. I slump, ready to fall asleep standing up when Sabrina Carpenter skips on stage and begins singing. Instantly, my mood shifts as the perky, 15-year-old blonde belts through “The Middle of Starting Over,” a song from her debut EP, Can’t Blame a Girl For Trying. I had heard the song before, but watching her perform it live while commanding the stage like a pro leaves me utterly speechless. The Hollywood Records-signed artist is not just another Disney Channel star with a voice. In fact, during her sixsong set I completely forget the main reason Sabrina is in New York City is to promote her new sitcom, Girl Meets World. She’s just that good.

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Sabrina’s story begins in Pennsylvania, and at age 2 she began singing — not long after she learned to talk. She began dance lessons at 3, followed by singing lessons at 6. At 9 she entered “The Next Miley Cyrus Project” singing contest along with 10,000 other kids and placed third.

Over the year long contest, she made tons of music videos and started to build a fan base on YouTube. The contest helped her find her current vocal coach and forced her to come out of her shell as a performer. About a year after the contest she decided to dip her toes into the acting world and secured a manager who helped her book auditions in New York. She went out for her first pilot season and booked a Disney XD show that didn’t get picked up. The following year, she scored three pilots — one being Girl Meets World. “Thank goodness the other two didn’t get picked up because then I wouldn’t have been able to do Girl Meets World,” Sabrina says.

Just hours after Sabrina’s performance on Fox & Friends, Girl Meets World premiered to an impressive 5.16 million viewers. The family sitcom, a spin-off of the ’90s favorite Boy Meets World, has been highly anticipated even before the pilot was filmed. Over the past year the excitement has continued to build, and Sabrina calls that “a whole lot of luck.”

Boy Meets World went off air 14 years ago and signed off with an emotional finale in which the four main characters — Cory Matthews (Ben Savage), Topanga Lawrence (Danielle Fishel), Shawn Hunter (Rider Strong) and Eric Matthews (Will Friedle) — leave their hometown of Philadelphia for New York City. Girl Meets World follows the life of Cory and Topanga’s daughter, Riley Matthews (Rowan Blanchard) and her best friend Maya Hart (Sabrina) as they take on John Quincy Adams Middle School and New York City. “It’s a show for a new generation,” Sabrina says. “It’s cool because parents can watch it with 54

their kids and feel nostalgic.”

Sabrina’s character is a bit of a troublemaker, but you quickly learn she has quite a few problems at home that influence her behavior. It’s easy to compare Maya to Shawn Hunter, Cory’s troubled, childhood friend, but Sabrina is confident that Maya’s back-story and family life provide a context for her unique character.

“They both have a strong guard up, but I think it’s always different with girls,” she says. “[Boys and girls] react to situations differently.” The first season highlights friendship, and Sabrina believes that Riley and Maya are the best friends either girl could have.

Because Boy Meets World is such an iconic show and has never gone off the air since its cancellation in 2000, the lead-up to Girl Meets World has been filled with skepticism and doubt from fans that don’t want their favorite characters tampered with.

But based on reactions from live tapings and fan interactions, Sabrina feels they’re doing the original series justice. “We’re making this for the kids who didn’t have a show like Boy Meets World,” she says. “There’s really no other show on TV right now that kids and parents can watch together.”

However, old fans should look out for various Boy Meets World Easter eggs throughout Girl Meets World’s first season, such as a banner in the back of Cory’s classroom that reads “Dream. Try. Do Good.” — the last bit of advice Mr. Feeny gave his students on Boy Meets World.

While many of the lessons taught through Boy Meets World are timeless, it is a completely different world now. “Things have changed so much since Boy Meets World went off the air. They didn’t have social media,” Sabrina explains. She feels like in a way that makes it harder for her and her young cast mates because every day they are being flooded with Twitter and Facebook messages from Boy Meets World fans telling them NKDMAG.COM

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not to screw this up. “It adds some pressure,” she says, “Ben and Danielle didn’t even know their show was popular when it was on. They only had the ratings.” And while she is in the spotlight, with the help of Ben and Danielle, Sabrina has learned that not everything in her life needs to be public. “More than anything [Ben and Danielle] have taught us to be humble, and that no matter what happens to not change who we are,” she says. “If they can do a show this popular and still be grounded, we can, too.”

The biggest concern from Boy Meets World fans stems from the fact that Girl Meets World is a Disney Channel show, which puts some limitations on what topics they can tackle. But Sabrina feels that a lot of the tougher storylines stem from Maya. “To my knowledge, there has never been a character on a Disney show with an absentee mom and a dad who has another family, because that’s not a typical, perfect life. But that’s what life is. It’s not perfect,” she shares. “I’m lucky that I get to play that character because I know that sadly, some people will be able to relate to that.” The youngest character on the show is five, and the parents are in their 30s, and Sabrina says there are storylines for those age groups and everything in between.

Though Sabrina is obviously musically talented, Maya will not be busting out into song High School Musical-style. Sabrina is keeping her talents separate. “I wouldn’t want people to compare my songs to Maya’s songs, because Maya is a different character than Sabrina,” she says. In between “The Next Miley Cyrus Project” and Girl Meets World, Sabrina signed her deal with Hollywood Records at the young age of 12. The recording process for her debut record — out this fall — began around the same time Girl Meets World was picked up. A year later the record is almost complete.

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As a teaser, Sabrina released the Can’t Blame a Girl For Trying EP in April, and the response so far has been overwhelming. Disney Channel has her music video for “Can’t Blame a Girl For Trying” on heavy rotation, and Sabrina says prior to Girl Meets World premiering, people were coming up to her in public because of the song. “I’m so glad that girls have found it relatable, because it’s hard to pick a first single,” she says. “And now [with the album] I’ll be able to take more risks.”

A “big bulk” of Sabrina’s upcoming full-length was penned by Sabrina with some help from co-writers.

She draws inspiration from her own experiences as well as things her friends have gone through. “I wrote a song about Rowan, obviously a friendship song,” she says, smiling, “It’s cliché to say love songs, but I wrote some of those. Just things that teenagers can relate to.” In terms of sound, the EP can be compared to Colbie Callait or Sara Bareilles, but Sabrina says the album is like that mixed with Christina Aguilera and Adele. They’re bold influences, and very unlike the typical Disney-endorsed singer. “I didn’t force myself to be different, I’ve just never wanted to make a dance song,” Sabrina says.

“I just want to make music that represents who I am, and I think that is exactly what the EP is.”

After a year or so in the spotlight from Girl Meets World, Sabrina has really been able to show the world exactly who she is. With over 313,000 followers across all her social media platforms, it certainly hasn’t been a quiet 12 months, and ultimately the attention has pushed Sabrina to create music and a character that people can relate to. “I’ve wanted to be on a Disney Channel show since I was a kid, and now I’ve done that. And I’ve wanted to make an album since I was 2, and I’m doing that,” Sabrina says.

“I’m finding myself, and I think that’s really cool.”NKD

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WARPED TOUR (HARTFORD, CT)

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neon jungle

Words by SHINA PATEL Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

The only way to describe the formation of Neon Jungle, the British girl pop group, is random. It was by chance that Amira McCarthy happened to be out shopping in London and was blatantly asked by her now manager if she could sing. After meeting with her future band mates, Shereen Cutkelvin, Jess Plummer and Asami Zdrenka, the four girls stormed through a series of auditions that were being held to create a new girl group and officially formed on Feb. 13, 2013. Their group name stems from their third single “Welcome to the Jungle�

Most people would probably expect an awkward stage when put into a group with people you didn’t know and were told you’d be making music with them.

The interesting thing about Neon Jungle is that there was no awkward phase. They were never afraid to speak their minds with one another and all seemed to be on the same track when it came to the music they wanted to be known for. They all agreed that they skipped the awkward parts and instantly became close. “When we got signed, a couple days after we went out to dinner and told our deepest darkest secrets,” Asami recalls.

Even before their paths crossed, all four members of Neon Jungle were already on their own musical journeys.

Each girl claims to have known since a young age that music was what she wanted to do with her life. It was never just a hobby for anyone. Asami’s love for music stems from her mother and grandfather who used to sing in Japan. She cites the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Foo Fighters as inspiration to make music her career.

Jess is at a loss for words when it comes to describing how she knew. “I was just born with it,” she says. She was always singing in school and on holidays, and for her birthdays she only wanted music-related gifts, whether it was CDs, cassettes or even cassette players.

Shereen can’t remember a moment when she wasn’t singing. Although she claims to be shy, growing up she was always singing in school competitions and such.

Her inspirations include Diana Ross and The Temptations. Amira attended a performing arts school where she involved herself in acting, dancing and singing; she definitely knew she wanted to be in show business. But it was at age 12 that she knew she wanted to focus her energy on singing. Around two months after their initial formation, their dreams came true when they signed with Sony Music Entertainment.

Neon Jungle credit their U.S. debut to ABC’s hit show Dancing With The Stars.

The show used Neon Jungle’s first single “Trouble” as the soundtrack to their Season 17, Week 7 opening dance. Ever since then their music has been blowing up all across the country. “Trouble” was released in the United Kingdom in September of 2013 and in the United States, Billboard reported that it No. 9 on the Dance/Electronic Digital songs. They were soon asked to perform at the 2014 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. Making their U.S. debut on such a huge platform was surreal. They didn’t even have time to process it; they were confirmed to go on the night before and had to immediately start packing. They are very grateful for the opportunity because it has allowed them to expand their audience and gain fans, and they realize that some people work their whole musical careers for a chance to play a gig like that but never reach it. “Definitely a story to tell the grandchildren,” Jess says. The

immediate reception to the song was very positive. In the week following their performance, the band sold 11,000 copies of “Trouble.”

In recent years there has been an influx of all-girl groups, which is good for the industry because there seemed to be a big gap not just for girl groups but female musicians in general. Neon Jungle feel as if they belong to this new generation of female artists not because they fit in but because they stand out. There are many girl groups, such as Little Mix and Fifth Harmony, but Neon Jungle are different. They make a point to stand out and to be unique, and to do so they have to put in the extra effort. “We’re workaholics. We love it,” Shereen says. They don’t even know what to do with the rare days they get off. Neon Jungle stand out among the masses because their music is raw. It’s not clean cut or polished, and it has an edginess that defines who they are as a group. “We’re not being something we’re not. We haven’t got matching outfits and doing dance routines,” Jess says. “We’re literally just being who we are, and that’s it.”

Neon Jungle are scheduled to play a handful of music festivals in Europe and are currently promoting the U.K. release of their first album Welcome to the Jungle, which dropped on July 28. They also will begin working on their first U.S. full-length album. They don’t want it to be the same as their U.K. music; they want it to be different and plan on making it appeal to a different audience.

When making music, they can’t seem to find one source that inspires them. All their tracks are different and incorporate many ideas. “I think we’re trying to make our own sound,” Asami says.

This time last year, hardly anyone knew of a British four-piece electronic pop group by the name of Neon Jungle.

In a short span of time, the band has released a hit single, signed with one of the biggest record labels in the world and performed for one of the most highly anticipated television events in the United States. In this small amount of time, Neon Jungle have accomplished things that have taken others years to do.

They have progressed in great leaps and bounds and will undoubtedly continue to blaze their own path to success with their unique style and personality. NKD NKDMAG.COM

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aaron west Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties, a solo project by The Wonder Years’ singer Dan Campbell, pushed him to new bounds. After five years of intensive touring and growth, this punk-rock band was going to take some time away from the busy scene. Dan took this short rest as a moment of potential selfdiscovery. “[The Wonder Years] were going to go a little slower than we usually go,” Dan says, “and that’s part of what prompted the project that I started recently, which is Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties.”

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Stemming from his success as the lead vocalist of The Wonder Years, Dan took this break as a time to further himself as an artist. “I was writing these songs and no one was supposed to hear them,” Dan says.

“They were so that I could get better at guitar and better at song writing.”

“For the past five years, I’ve played 45 states and 25 countries.

I had a record at number 20 on the billboard charts, and I’ve been on magazine covers. We had a billboard in Times Square, and we played the Best Buy Theater,” Dan says. “I sold

out all the rooms I used to go watch bands I idolized play.” Success of The Wonder Years was simply not enough, and Dan talks about his desire for constant growth. “I’m not the kind of rest-on-your-laurels guy.

I want every record to be better. I want to develop myself as a songwriter, as a musician, as a frontman, as a performance artist. All of that, I want to push every record,” he says.

“I want to get better.”

Before The Wonder Years, Dan had different dreams. “Growing up I knew I would either be a profession-

al football player or a professional wrestler. It was one of the two, and it was very clear to me.” After a medical mishap in the fifth grade, Dan knew those dreams were over for him. “About a year later, I started listening to punk-rock. My friend asked me to play bass in his band, and I told him ‘I don’t have a bass.’

He said he had a bass lying around,” Dan says. “He handed me that, and from that day at 13 onward, I knew that was what I was going to do with my life.”

Dan talks about the difference between The Wonder Years and his experience working as a solo artist, stating, “the idea all along was that it’s a character piece, and it’s about

tions] were not necessarily because [the songs] were about me.” Dan took this realization and ran with it, creating an entire character first, and creating a full story to create the album around. “If you listen to a band and connect with a song, it’s not because you were in a room with me, it’s because you’ve had a similar event happen. So I realized that if I wanted to push myself I could write fiction. I could write songs about someone else, but, as long as it had the same emotional core, people would still say, ‘I felt this way. The same way as this character.’”

In creating the character, Dan adds his foundation of creating Aaron West. “I wanted to know

& the roaring twenties

Words by KATELYN THOMPSON Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

a character. The character’s name is Aaron West and so the band is Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties.”

Dan followed stating, “The Wonder Years has always been very rooted in me, lyrically. It’s my life. It’s my story. It’s very direct,” he says.

“People found a really firm connection with that, which has been a really nice thing for me. Fans who have said ‘I feel that way, my friends and I do that, I’ve had this happen and I know that feeling,’” he explains. “But I started thinking about the fact that [those connec-

everything. I wanted to know where his parents were from and how they met. I wanted to know what kind of God he grew up knowing. I wanted to know what football team breaks his heart. I wanted to know if he smokes, and if he does smoke if he wants to quit. And if he wants to quit, why can’t he quit? Or can he quit? I wanted to know if he drinks and, if he drinks, I want to know why or why not he drinks. I want to know where he went to college I want to know where he met his wife,” Dan says, “I wanted to know

everything.”

When asked how he related to the character, Dan states, “When you are writing a character, there needs to be pieces of you in it as well, things that you are peripherally understanding of. So there are bits of my childhood that I was only peripherally involved in, but that I understood to a degree, become pieces of this character to help build it into a complete person.” He followed stating, “I think that the big parts that myself or anyone can relate to is that it’s in dialogue with the idea of loss and how you cope with loss. That’s really the major theme of the record is that you live your life partnering with people and there are people that you can rely on, your parents or your spouse or the people who rely on you also,” Dan says. “There’s this kind of duel reliance, but the idea that all of them can and will at some point go away. And so while we think we have each other, and this is the title of the record, We Don’t Have Each Other. And so it’s about dealing with the loss of the people you thought were there to mutually support you.”

Dan also explains how he stays in character while live, like for his upcoming performance in Manhattan, later in the evening. “Once I decided that I’m doing it, and that people were going to hear it, it afforded me some opportunities to do things I can’t do with The Wonder Years. Smaller-scale stuff. So, I just went on Twitter and said ‘If you can be in Lower Manhattan at 8 p.m. on Thursday, email this email address.’

And the first 30 people that could be there got the address of the show and the time, and no one else knows where or when it is.”

“I’m also going to playing the sets in character, so, when I play shows, I’m going to be channeling that. A little bit of a stage performance.” Dan says smiling, “It should be fun, tonight’s the first one.” NKD NKDMAG.COM

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clean bandit They juxtapose.

There’s really no other way to explain it. They are just the complete opposite from what you would expect from a classically trained quartet that creates innovative and thoughtful music for a living.

Get to know the lady and gents of Clean Bandit via social media or their hugely popular music videos and you would think they were a bit outrageous, artsy, chic and prone to show a little skin.

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person, Grace Chatto, Neil Amin-Smith and Luke and Jack Patterson are quiet, humble and, seemingly, a little shy.

The four of them came together while at Cambridge University in England.

Grace and Neil had known each other before school, from when they were kids playing in orchestras — she plays the cello and he, the violin.

Once at school, the two began performing in a string quartet that played and toured in the area. It was through this endeavor that they met Jack.

“Then we all decided we wanted to do something together. And [Jack] was kind of inspired by the recordings he had made, to add beats and bass lines to that music,” Grace says. “So that was when we decided to try it out, and we booked a club night and performed that stuff that he was experimenting with.”

That gig was electric. Remembered by the whole band as loads of fun and energetic, the group decided to put on more and play at festivals. Soon there was talk of a music video.

Words by ALEXANDRA LANE Photos by CATHERINE POWELL “The video was filmed in Moscow, during this intense heat wave that made a kind of smog around the whole city.

The vocalist on the song had just come out on holiday to visit Jack, who was working there at the time,” Grace explains. “They wanted to do some gigs together, but all the promoters had left the city because it was this intense smog, so they decided to make this video instead, just as a bit of fun.”

The music video for “Mozart’s House” was published to the band’s YouTube

channel in October 2010, and the band says it was the launchpad of their whole career as professional musicians.

In no time, U.K. radio stations were playing the song, which they had just ripped off of YouTube, on air. The group considers themselves lucky that the DJs took to the song so quickly, but can’t put their finger on the “thing” that made it really take off. Jack jokes that the video may have had something to do with the intrigue, saying “there’s this one scene where Grace is almost naked, she just has a violin across her chest. I think that’s probably the ‘thing.’”

Arguably, though, the “thing” is the music itself. An example of some sort of “fusion” music, Clean Bandit combines classical compositions with electric and deep house elements. Once the beat and melody are created, they invite vocalists to sing over the song for a unique trackby-track listen for their audience.

However, the video did help. The buzz caught the attention of higher-ups at Atlantic Records, who approached the group about signing with the label.

Grace recalls the phone calls as coming from “out of the blue,” and signing with a label hadn’t been something that any of them were considering doing at the time.

But once the option was offered, it was a no-brainer for the U.K. crew, and they signed on the dotted line.

Signing with Atlantic allows them to focus on music without any distractions.

The creative process for the group is pretty different from most bands that are with any major label. They record most of the classical elements in a rudimentary studio that Jack built.

They take a pretty DIY approach to their music; the recording space and the way they construct their sound all has a personal, homemade vibe.

“We have to layer up the strings …

When it sounds like lots of string players, its just Neil over and over again.

And then it’s just all composited,” Jack says. “Some of it is in more kind of acoustic environments like, for ‘A&E,’ we recorded all the strings for that in a church.”

Grace chimes in, “Because we’re an instrumental band, we feature different singers on every song. We tend to finish the instrumental track before we

start thinking about the top line, and the vocals.”

“Often, we know who the singer is going to be before starting on the song,” she says. “But we don’t know the subject matter of the lyrics, and we kind of let that be dictated by the music rather than the other way around.”

It’s a process that all the members of the band really enjoy, because they really don’t know what they are going to end up with at the start of recording.

It is that sort of freedom that lets them look at their second studio album as a chance to work with all their dream artists, a list they are currently compiling. The running list includes Bjork, Thom York, Beyonce, Shakira, Drake, Grimes and Vybz Kartel. Some of these are more attainable than others, either because of running tours or serving jail time, but the band remains hopeful.

Many of their dreams have already come true. Already this year, the group has released their fourth studio single, “Rather Be,” which reached the top U.K. Singles Chart. They also appeared on the BBC show Later … with Jools Holland. Later this year, they will come to the United States for their first headlining tour in the states.

The group had never been to America before they came for a few days earlier this summer. They spent a few days in Los Angeles and traveled to Brooklyn for what they were thought would be “a real stormer of a gig,” Neil says. He says they were hopeful it would fan the flames of interest for the band, and the consensus from the show’s reviews is that it succeeded.

As for everything else, Neil jokingly says he’d like to learn to dance, to which Jack laughs and replies, “Yeah, these guys need to learn to dance.”

In terms of what the future has in store for the group, Grace says, “We’d like to create an incredible live show where it starts with pure classical music, like maybe play a whole sting quartet, and then gradually bring in drums and synths after that and turn it into a dance event. And do that in a big place like the Albert Hall, some kind of unusual venue for dance music.”

Clearly, being classically trained does not mean that they like to do things traditionally. NKD NKDMAG.COM

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