APRIL 2 016
C HARLOTTE AVE & 46TH AVE IN SYLVAN PARK
SATURDAY MAY 21, 2016 9:30am-4:30pm 10am to noon for kids 4-14
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Special thanks to Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp
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CO M E & C E L E B R AT E
S ATURDAY
APRIL 30, 2016 1PM-8PM
R A F F L E : 5 0 % O F P RO C E E D S G O TO S G RC / Y E A H ! + D U N K TA N K + P H OTO BO OT H . . . A N D M O R E !
WITH LIVE PERF ORMANCES BY:
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FREE EVENT ! ALL AG ES WE UNTIL LCOME 8PM
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TABLE OF CONTENTS APRIL 2016
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66
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THE GOODS 15 Beer from Here 18 Cocktail of the Month 20 Master Platers 77 You Oughta Know 78 Animal of the Month
FEATURES
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24 Contributor Spotlight: Casey Fuller 34 Chrome Pony 44 Proper Bagel 56 Spring Fashion Guide: After School 66 Milly Roze
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have coffee, will travel.
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@thedosetruck
dosecoffeeandtea.com/truck
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DEAR NATIVES,
T
hanks for tagging us, y’all! Be sure to check out these Instagrammers, and #nativenashville to share your photos with us.
president, founder:
ANGELIQUE PITTMAN JON PITTMAN associate publisher: KATRINA HARTWIG publisher, founder:
creative director:
MACKENZIE MOORE
managing editor:
CHARLIE HICKERSON DARCIE CLEMEN
art director:
COURTNEY SPENCER
community relations manager:
JOE CLEMONS
community representative:
POLLY RADFORD
editor:
@valentinadesign
@kristenfieldsphotography
film supervisor:
writers: photographers:
@wright.carter
@americanlaurenn
production:
@abbyfrenes
@suspendedgravitycircus
CASEY FULLER MATT LEFF CASEY FULLER SAMANTHA SPECTOR BENJAMIN HURSTON COOPER BREEDEN
JEN McDONALD DANIELLE ATKINS JAMES KING JONATHON KINGSBURY ANDREA BEHRENDS ARTHUR STACHURSKI
GUSTI ESCALANTE
founding team: founder, brand director:
DAVE PITTMAN
founder:
CAYLA MACKEY
MACKENZIE MOORE JOSHUA SIRCHIO TAYLOR RABOIN
to advertise, contact:
for all other inquiries:
SALES@NATIVE.IS HELLO@NATIVE.IS
last month, we didn’t credit brittney head for doing brooke waggoner’s hair and makeup. sorry about that, brittney! we’d also like to extend our thanks to silver point studios for hosting the brooke waggoner, milly roze, and chrome pony shoots.
@threeregionnc
@thenashvilleguide
PROUDLY DELIVERED BY RUSH BICYCLE MESSENGERS
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SARAH SEVEN, CLAIRE PETTIBONE, RUE DE SEINE, SARAH JANKS, HOUGHTON, CHRISTOS, ANNA CAMPBELL, TWIGS & HONEY, TRUVELLE, KATIE MAY, HAYLEY PAIGE
THE DRESS THEORY BRIDAL SHOP (615) 440-3953 - 1201 5TH AVE N #102 -
BY APPOINTMENT ONLY
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COFFEE BREAKFAST LUNCH OPEN DAILY 7AM-4PM
700 FATHERLAND ST. 615.770.7097 SKYBLUECOFFEE.COM E S TA B L I S H E D 2 0 1 0 # NAT I V ENAS HV I L L E
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Golden Eye by Ben Clemons of No. 308 photo by jen mc don a l d
The Martini is a personal cocktail. Everyone has their own specific way they prefer it. For some, it’s vodka drowned in olive juice and shaken. For others, it’s gin stirred with a lemon. Dry. Extra Dry. James Bond mixed these spirits, subbed Kina Lillet for dry vermouth, and called it a Vesper. All Vespers are unique and delicious, but here is my personal favorite. It’s somewhat of a “for the people” riff, combining various styles in an attempt to meet you in the middle. The vodka keeps the gin roped in but still gives way to that botanical goodness gin lovers prefer. A pinch of salt mimics the brininess of an olive and enhances subtle nuances, while the lemon peel (stirred and expressed) brings a touch of brightness and keeps the drink from feeling flat. Don’t forget your vermouth: without it, you’re not having a Martini, you’re having a double shot of booze. You can’t please everyone, but it’s always nice to try your best. Maybe this will become your favorite version too.
THE GOODS 1 1/2 oz Aylesbury Duck Vodka 1 oz Fords Gin 3/4 oz Dolin Dry Vermouth pinch of kosher salt 2 lemon zests
FStir everything but 1 lemon zest together and strain into your favorite coupe or martini glass. Express the remaining lemon zest, rim the glass, and discard if you like. Drop her in if you like. Add an olive if you want. Or don’t. Cheers!
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Photo: Emily Beaver
RESPECT THE UNEXPECTED. VISIT PLOWBOYRECORDS.COM FOR NEW RELEASES
OUR ARTISTS: BLACKFOOT GYPSIES • BOBBY BARE • PAUL BURCH • BUZZ CASON • CHEETAH CHROME • CHUCK MEAD • THE FAUNTLEROYS • THE GHOST WOLVES • JD WILKES & THE DIRTDAUBERS • JIM ED BROWN
MASTER PLATERS
WITH CHRIS FUTRELL OF THE BIRDHOUSE PHO T OS BY DAN IELLE AT K IN S
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THE GOODS 2 tbsp canola oil 1/2 lb Gifford’s bacon, diced 1 medium yellow onion, sliced 1/4 cup fresh garlic, minced 2 tbsp Korean pepper powder 1 tbsp bourbon smoked paprika (can use smoked paprika instead) 1 tbsp sesame oil 1/4 cup soy sauce approx. 5 lbs collard greens, washed, de-stemmed, and torn into medium pieces 2 cups kimchi 1/2 cup rice vinegar (can use rice wine vinegar) 2 tbsp dark brown sugar 1/2 cup chicken stock or broth (can use water) 2 tbsp kosher salt
DIRECTIONS F In a large pot, heat the canola oil and add the bacon. Cook over medium heat until the bacon has rendered, about 10 minutes. F Stir in the onions and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. F Add the garlic, Korean pepper powder, paprika, sesame oil, and soy sauce. Cook for 2 minutes, then add the collard greens, kimchi, rice vinegar, brown sugar, chicken stock, and salt. F Stir well, reduce heat to medium-low, and cover. Cook for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally, until the collards are dark green and soft.
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Photo: Kelsey Freeman
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1200 VILLA PLACE - SUITE 403 - (615) 730-5367 castillejanashville.com @castillejanashville # NAT I V ENAS HV I L L E
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CONTRIBUTOR SPOTLIGHT:
CASEY FULLER
As the film supervisor for NATIVE, I’m always proud to feature my talented peers in Nashville film. It’s an exciting time for Nashville filmmakers, and this year is an especially big year for me personally. I have two films making their premieres at the Nashville Film Festival. I was an actor in The Unbeliever, a short film written and directed by NATIVE contributor Will Morgan Holland and shot by David Ogle. The short takes place in a rural Tennessee landscape where a cult lives off of the land and its leadership treats disobedience with beatings and live burials. The other movie is SOUL, a psychological thriller that I wrote, produced, and starred in. My partner, James King, who helmed the camera and directed SOUL, is one of the top cinematographers in the region. SOUL, based in East Nashville, addresses our city’s complicated issues of gentrification, race, and mental health, told through the perspective of an artist seeking revenge for his girlfriend’s rape and murder. For my Contributor Spotlight, I’m sharing some of James King’s still photography from SOUL, as well as a little bit of personal perspective on being an actor and making an independent film in Nashville.
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the bars every weekend, while only one street over was ON ACTING IN SOUL: crime and danger. I was also angry, and my imagination Being an actor has not been an entirely sexy path. Rejecwent wild thinking about what “could have” happened to tion. That is my world. It is all actors’ worlds. For sensitive my girlfriend and me. I started writing SOUL out of this people, the world of rejection can be a volatile place. Why anger and the realization about my neighborhood being do it? Hear me out. I grew up in a Pentecostal home. I drenched in privilege. But as the initial words began pourdo not run from it. The pulpit is in my heritage. For me, ing out, I knew there was so much more to address. As a the Bible and hellfire and brimstone sermons ignited my “starving artist,” making just as little income as the people imagination rather than faith at times. I still to this day one street over, I started asking myself, Why do I get to live struggle with the book of Revelation and fear. I was a with a safety net and my black peers don’t? (Keep in mind, dreamer. I do not mean I had goals of being a surgeon or even five years ago starving artists could afford to live on the president. My dreams were vivid and often traumatizRussell Street.) My anger moved toward Nashville’s segreing for a young kid. I’d wake in the night swearing I saw gation issues as a whole. SOUL isn’t politically correct. It’s things (I still do). I’d think about the biblical rapture conwhite people against black people. Even the cinematograstantly and what it was going to be like for those people left behind. I was fascinated with this stuff! In a sense, de- phy has a ’70s vibe, and you may wonder if this movie was mons, angels, and hellfire and brimstone messages were made this decade. But I hope that by the end you may be my movies. My brain was unstoppable. I mention this asking some bigger questions also. because this period of my life was when my imagination controlled me. I have now accepted who I am and still find ON PRODUCING SOUL: it challenging to walk with my patterns of thought daily. Producing an independent film is equally as humbling as My closest friends intimidate me. It’s difficult for me to acting. To make this film financially possible, I left Nashadmit that I struggle with social anxiety. With acting, I’m ville for a year to take a “real” job in Arizona that would able to funnel my imagination. If I am given a character enable me to pay for the film out of my own pocket. When to play other than myself, I am my most confident self. I I got back, I met with James King, his (now) wife, Miranda, am obsessed with creating alter egos (you’ll see this a bit and their young son Canyon at the Donut Den. It was then in SOUL). I would rather film a scene naked than speak that we all decided to have a child together, SOUL. The in public. For the film I had to take on the physicality of initial shoot was three and a half weeks long, and we got a man willing to allow himself to go insane. The no sleep our asses handed to us. Almost all of our shoots were at part was a cinch, but pushing myself to a place where the night, but during the day, the core crew was constantly rabbit hole became home was a different issue. My char- running odd jobs: from practicing lines and securing locaacter does not have a lot of dialogue, but when he speaks, tions to painting walls, picking up pizza, or shopping at it is with purpose. His hallucinations and acts of violence Goodwill for wardrobe. Joel Hartz, our co-producer and lead him to a place of total numbness. In fact, there is a unit production manager, wasn’t beneath doing makeup line in the film that states, “It’s this place that feeds you.” when we had those tight money days or being an extra in a couple of scenes. Rob Bennett tackled nearly every angle of crew himself, and Jon Chema lent us his camera ON WRITING SOUL: op skills as well as his camera package night after night. SOUL deals with mental health issues, racial profiling, I remember waking up one night during a rare break in gentrification, violence, drugs, and revenge. I wrote SOUL between shoots. We had about three hours to kill before based off of a personal experience. SOUL’s main characwe had call times at 3 a.m. at 3 Crow Bar. I don’t know ter, Chase, also an artist, deals with letting his imagination how I fell asleep, but I woke up and needed to get outside run away with him, just the way I do. But more specififor some cold air. A crew member bumped into me and cally, I started writing SOUL because about five years ago, asked if I was okay. He made a gut decision and quickly my ex-girlfriend and I were robbed at gunpoint by two took me to the ER. I ended up learning that I had a resting black males in front of my home on Russell Street in East heart rate of 151 bpm (my average is usually around 50) Nashville. Things really escalated. By an act of God, a poand was told I needed two weeks of bed rest. That was lice car drove by right at a time when I didn’t know what impossible seeing that we were due at 3 Crow Bar within would happen next. My initial reaction was quite simply the hour for that night’s shoot. The doc ended up giving an eye-opener to my neighborhood. Here I was, living on me enough Xanax to sedate a bull, and I was on my way. a quiet, beautiful street, biking and walking home from
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I had worked myself up so much spending my savings, producing, acting, and everything else on this film that my body reacted without my mind’s permission . . . again, some real-life allusions to what happens in SOUL. We broke for Christmas and reconvened six months later to edit what we had and see where the actual story was sitting on-screen. It turned out we needed a lot more money to complete the film and more “story” to write in as well. Hell, we had barely shot any scenes with me in them, and I was the main character. With the financial backing of our executive producer (as well as friend and partner), Nate Griffin, we were able to make SOUL into what it is now. The making of SOUL was a commitment like no other I have experienced before. This film aged me and made me physically sick at times. But as Alejandro González Iñárritu, director of The Revenant, said at this year’s Oscars, “Pain is temporary, film lasts forever.”
MEN. WOMEN. HOME. GIFT.
A FEW OTHER STORIES YOU CAN ASK ME ABOUT IN PERSON: FRebuilding my entire apartment (where we originally shot) in the basement of The Crying Wolf F Buying panty hose to put over my dick for a sex scene (we didn’t have the fancy Hollywood things) #penisburglar F Knocking on some random guy’s door to rent his car, off and on, for three years F We were heckled by some bar patrons one night while shooting in the street. James and I finished shooting, went into the bar, bought a bucket of beer for their table, walked up, and asked if they were ready to celebrate their ass whoopings F Nearly getting tazed by the real police as we were shooting a fight scene in Five Points
Music City
F Having my face slammed in dog shit over and over again for our climactic crime scene F Introducing an editing assistant to Fernet-Branca—that night he spoke in tongues and came up with a better name for a phone charger: The Cremder
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25 MUSIC SQUARE EAST
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(615) 750-5943
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THE BROTHERS CHROME
HOW CHROME PONY WENT FROM JAMMING IN BEDROOMS TO TOURING EUROPE WITH CAGE THE ELEPHANT
BY SAMANTHA SPECTOR | PHOTOS BY JONATHON KINGSBURY
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PERSPECTIVE. What is it? How Pony hail from the Midwest—the do you acquire it? And more im- Davis brothers from Indiana, Ese portantly, why am I starting a from Illinois (“Mark Twain Counpiece about Chrome Pony, one of try,” as he calls it)—and all three Nashville’s burgeoning indie rock possess the meat-and-potatoes, aw-shucks attitude associated outfits, talking about it? The word kept rattling around in with the region. “Tyler got into music first,” Kyle, my head as I chatted with the guys the youngest Davis sibling, says. on a warm, gray morning in March. “Growing up in the Midwest, you’re The band consists of brothers Tyinto sports, you know? And then ler and Kyle Davis and bassist Jota he transitioned out of sports and Ese, three exceptional musicians into music and I was like, you in their own right. The symbiosis know, damn. Music’s cool. I want between the Davis brothers (the to play music.” guys were born on the same day, in In other words, typical little 1987 and 1989, respectively) along brother stuff. But this is the only with Jota’s chugging bass riffs cretime that Kyle and Tyler exhibit ates the unique indie-rock sound any form of older/younger sibling so elusive to many three-piece mentality. They are very much units. equals in their vision for their Chrome Pony has existed in band and are well spoken as they name since 2011; Chrome Pony, describe how it’s all gone down. the idea, has been around since Kyle continues: “I remember the Kyle and Tyler, both amiable guys exact day that we were jamming in with shocks of blond and red hair, his room. The exact day. He looked were twelve and fourteen years old. at me and was like, ‘When did this All three members of Chrome
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happen?!’” “We’ve always played music together,” Tyler says. “We’ve pretty much been traveling and playing since I was like fourteen.” Kyle interjects, “We love each other. Maybe that’s unlike a lot of brothers . . .” “It’s not hard to work together,” Tyler says, finishing the thought. “No,” his younger brother says. “I think we work better together.” The ease with which Kyle and Tyler allow each other to speak, without talking over each other, makes it clear how the communication most likely translates to their jam sessions. About two years ago, Jota Ese joined the brothers Davis at a warehouse party and became a member of Chrome Pony. Jota is quiet, soft
spoken, and harder to draw out. He doesn’t give off the vibe that he’s too cool or uninterested. He’s just the kind of dude that prefers to get on and play music rather than talk about himself. The brothers, cognizant of this or not, leap in with enthusiasm when I start asking Jota about himself. For instance, did I know I was in the presence of Nashville Scene’s 2012 Best Experimental Hip-Hop Producer? I did not, I tell them. The write-up heralded Jota’s “deep, twisted take on hip-hop tropes and bizarre but beautiful sense of melody.” Or, you know, as Jota puts it, “I make beats.” The brothers created their first two recordings, Illegal Smiles and Lazy Bones, as a duo, bringing in various other musicians who would play
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for a while and move on (their cur- Nashville about the concept of perrent organist, Ric Alessio, falls into spective. “When it’s just us two,” says Tyler, that category). “Once Jota came along, the whole “I mean, we’ve been playing together thing got heightened,” says Tyler. “It for so long that we needed another was a whole new level and just like, person. We needed someone to shake ‘Oh shit, okay, these songs could be it up and bring us more music and difsomething more than us trying to be ferent music. We needed perspective.” Kyle agrees, “I feel like Tyler and I some party band.’” “Instead of us being just looked at were still writing things that made us like a garage rock band,” Kyle says, feel good about it, but it wasn’t what looking at the floor and then at his I wanted to listen to all the time. You know what I mean? There was this two bandmates. Kyle chooses his words carefully disconnect between what I was playwhen he speaks, especially when the ing and what I was really digging, and conversation shifts toward any com- I’m beginning to feel like that has tomentary where a declaration of genre tally shifted.” The Davis brothers earnestly discould specify their music. And for good reason, because Chrome Pony cuss this idea of continuous reach. is not a garage rock band. They are Of allowing outside perspective— a rock band thick with fuzz, heavy whether from their bandmate or on bluesy bass riffs, and accented producers or fans or the bands on by stoner-rock guitar licks—and it’s the bill with them—to help get the all driven by Kyle’s nearly possessed sound that is in their heads onto the drumming. I caught the guys’ set proverbial tape. To help dictate what at Soulshine Pizza when they were the shows are going to feel like. What Lightning 100’s Band of the Week they’ll play. To whom. They’re smart and watched the room nod in tandem guys that make longevity seem palas Kyle hit the skins so hard, at times pable. The past few months have been I could feel the beat in my throat. I say that in the absolute best way pos- the crazy kind of whirlwind that few sible, by the way (sidenote: during the bands experience; it’s that period of set, my buddy pulled up a picture of time when you’re stoked about what Animal from the Muppets and gave you’re doing and everyone else starts me the thumbs-up sign. I think Kyle to pay attention too. The band’s victory at 2015’s Road to Roo led directly would appreciate that). Tyler, the guitarist and lead vocal- to stage time at Bonnaroo. Then ist, is just as thoughtful as his younger came a relationship with BMI, a slot brother. And that is how I ended up during New York’s CMJ festival, and talking to this young band from East their recent selection as Lightning
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“‘OH SHIT, OKAY, THESE SONGS COULD BE SOMETHING MORE THAN US TRYING TO BE SOME PARTY BAND.’”
100’s Band of the Week. Aside from the music, what sets Chrome Pony apart is that they know they don’t know it all. Instead, Kyle, Tyler, and Jota seem to strive to hear more, know more, create more. Says Tyler: “We listen to a lot of music and try to allow our writing to be shaped from what we’re listening to. We just wrote a song that kind of has a little bit of a country vibe to it.” That’s a little surprising to hear, considering the boys just rocked sold-out crowds across Europe in the coveted opening spot for Cage the Elephant, one of rock’s wildest live shows on the road right now. I then wonder out loud whether the resurgence of Americana (Jason Isbell) and the story of our hometown underdog taking the spotlight (Chris Stapleton) has anything to do with the infusion of a little country in Chrome Pony’s rock cuts. Nope. The guys like what they like, and what’s spinning on the record player or coming through the Bluetooth speakers—currently African Scream Contest (a Jota introduction)—has more of an impact on their writing than pop culture trends. “I like John Prine and Waylon Jennings and like, I would say Sturgill [Simpson] did a nice job in sort of
blending that modern and classic venue once. That level of congenialsound,” says Tyler. “But I don’t think ity deserves a mention. As Jota puts it, [our songs] are a matter of what’s “They were really cool [to us].”). The tour marked a huge moment happening right now.” “Illegal Smiles is actually named af- for Chrome Pony: they are no longer ter that John Prine Song [off Prine’s the hometown boys pulling in huge 1971 self-titled album],” Kyle points crowds of headbanging, head-nodding, air guitaring fans in East Nashout. Tyler nods in acknowledgment and ville. They aren’t just the darlings of continues, “I’ve always tried to be the indie rock scene, gaining nods able to write any kind of song. Like, from big licensing firms like BMI and for example, Modest Mouse is a re- local station Lightning 100. The tour ally great band. They could write any with Cage the Elephant put them in song and do things that you really front of crowds of thousands of Euthink nobody should really attempt ropeans, many of whom had never and still you think, Ah, that’s Modest heard of Chrome Pony. A reviewer for Mouse. They’re still in there. That’s still A Music Blog, Yea? caught the show in Copenhagen: “[I was] quite pleased really cool.” We talk about being tapped to go to hear a set of catchy songs served on tour with Cage the Elephant and with solid live play and watch the the support the more established band fill the stage with charismatic band gave their relatively young energy.” The group shot a ton of video to openers as they snaked their way from sold-out venue to sold-out ven- document the experience, which Jota ue (CTE often pushed their set back then took and edited for the “There as long as they could so that Chrome He Goes” video. In the footage—all Pony only walked out to a half-empty tongue-and-cheek and exactly the
look and feel I want from a young, fun band letting loose on their first major tour—we gain a little perspective from Jota Ese. We see the guys drunkenly navigating the Tube, singing their songs in front of historic fountains, and strumming along to their lyrics in their hotel lobby. Jota directs and edits most of their videos, providing a keen eye for some fairly hilarious social commentary (more on that in a bit). As I write this, I can’t help but think how rare it is to get a glimpse into the direct influence each band member has on both the music and the everything else that goes into really being a band. Tyler is the creator (sorry for the pun), the one that often brings the ideas to the table. Kyle speaks the most about the in-studio process and often references capturing the sound on tape and translating it the way he and the band hear it onstage. “I can hear it in my head,” he says, “we’re working on getting it right for the EPs. There’s a lot to
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CHROME PONY: Follow on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram @ChromePonyJamz native.is
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learn, but we can all hear the difference as we just play more and get more time to make these records. Instead of laying everything down in a week, we’re taking maybe a month or more to get it right.” Jota provides the subtle influence necessary to push the boundaries of the band as a whole, finding new influence in underground hip-hop and world music, adding beats and meaty riffs and capturing imagery as the band winds their way around the world. As I watched the video he produced for “Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah,” I couldn’t help but mentally high-five him for using images of Black Friday fights for social commentary on how inane society can be. “You could have used something like war,” I tell him. He nods and laughs and says, “But that wouldn’t be as funny as watching people fight over a $200 TV at 3 a.m.” Chrome Pony recently put out their third EP, Past Lives. Many of their fans have heard the songs, and the guys are excited about the release—not only because they love this collection of songs, but also because it gives them the chance to capitalize on their current mojo and keep releasing music that captures where they are and have been. “Some of these songs are two years old, and sometimes it feels like damn, I’m not the same person I was then,” says Tyler (all of us respond with an “amen” to that). “This music feels like looking back on another life or something.” In fact, the guys chose the name Past Lives because they feel that musically they have surpassed the moment when those tracks were recorded. Jota is now in the writing sessions, and life has continued into everyone’s later 20s. They have a better understanding of their music and their onstage show. I hate to be cliché, but Chrome Pony is hitting its stride. “The ball’s rolling, and we needed to get Past Lives out and bridge the gap between what is already out and what is coming. This is the update. This is us saying, ‘Here’s how it’s goin’ and get excited for what’s coming.’” “Who knows what we’re going to do,” says Kyle. “No limits.”
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Photo: Giles Clement
vint age + handmade goods
SHOP WITH A SENSE OF HUMOR
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BEYOND THE SHIMMERING AMBIENCE OF PROPER BAGEL,
THERE’S A FAITHFUL FAMILY THAT HAS
BEEN PASSIONATELY PERFECTING THE ART OF TRUE NEW YORK BAGELS FOR NEARLY FORTY YEARS BY BENJAMIN HURSTON PHOTOS BY ANDREA BEHRENDS # NAT I V ENAS HV I L L E
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FIFTEEN MINUTES AFTER ARRIVING, I finally saw some color. Next to me in line, someone said something about being “overwhelmed,” and I swear there was at least one audible gasp as we stepped forward. My small party had arrived at the restaurant earlier and taken our place in line. As we inched forward, we had only seen varying shades of black and white: the stark blackness of the painted brick exterior, the dull beige of the concrete steps, the smooth silver of the steel handrails, the striking white of the doors, floor, tables, and indoor walls. We didn’t realize it, but with each step, our sensitivity to color was growing. As we finally passed through the white doorframe and into the main dining room, our eyes were shocked. In front of us was a huge cooler full of rich pinks, deep purples, reds, yellows, greens, and, yes, more white. The unexpectedly full case of vibrant fish, salads, cream cheeses, and dips was jarring in the most welcome way. And this effect was no accident. “We wanted the colors of the food to speak for themselves,” says Heather Speranza, who owns Proper Bagel along with her parents and husband. “We made everything else a backdrop and kept it very clean.” It’s one of the many incredibly welldesigned details of the new upscale eatery and market located on Belmont Boulevard. Since opening its doors in mid-January, Proper Bagel has been a hit with the Nashville public, most of whom are consistently willing to wait in lines that extend out the door and nearly into the street to get a taste of some authentic New York bagels. The food, the ambience, and the service are all executed to precision. That’s because the family behind the spot has had plenty of practice to get it all right. “People have asked us if this is our first bagel shop, and I think it’s important to know that it would be pretty brave and bold of us to be doing what
we’re doing and not have the background that we do,” Heather says. The Speranza family has been perfecting the art of bagel making for the last thirty-five years. Heather’s parents, Marcy and Carmine Speranza, opened their first bagel shop, Bagels Unlimited, in the late ’70s in Huntington, Long Island, when Heather was just eight months old. Since then, they’ve owned (and sold) another three shops, always operating only one restaurant at a time so that they can maintain complete control of the quality. “We are not and never have been absentee owners,” says Marcy. “We’re here every day working just as hard as our staff to make sure people are happy. We want to give them a little piece of New York, and we’re proud of that.” When I return to Proper Bagel one evening after close to meet up with Heather and Marcy, I see the evidence of that hard work. Though the shop has been closed for more than an hour and everyone else has already gone home, Marcy sits at a back table about to begin a long-awaited meal. While her mother eats, Heather hurries around looking for the slightest smudge to clean on the all-white tables, walls, and floors. “I’m always saying to my staff, ‘It’s really white in here. We’ve got to keep it white,’” she tells me as she gathers her MacBook and water and looks for a place to sit. “She’s really OCD with cleanliness, even more than me,” Marcy chimes in. Heather’s smiling silence at her mother’s comment suggests she’s proud of her obsessive attention to detail. In striking contrast to her white surroundings, she’s impeccably dressed in all black, her dark hair pulled tightly behind her head. She’s wearing thick, black-rimmed cat eye glasses, a black bandana around her neck, and lightning bolt earrings. The space and owner’s superbly crafted colorless palette begins to make more sense as I hear their story.
After graduating from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York in 2000, Heather spent the next fifteen years active in the fashion industry. During that time, she worked for renowned houses like Marc Jacobs, Steven Alan, Daryl K, and Betsey Johnson, where she met her husband, Alex España. The two eventually moved to L.A. so Heather could run a New York–based vintage luxury clothing store called What Goes Around Comes Around as Alex continued his own pursuits in the music industry. While Heather and Alex were on one coast, her parents were on the other. Around the same time that Heather graduated from college, Marcy and Carmine left New York to escape the cold temps and open their fourth bagel shop, Way Beyond Bagels, in Delray Beach, Florida. Though they ran a successful business in the Sunshine State for nearly fourteen years, they knew they wanted to be closer to family. There was only one problem: Heather and Alex refused to move to Florida, and Marcy and Carmine wouldn’t go to L.A. So they set out looking for a place where they could all move together. A few years ago, while Alex was on tour with KISS, he visited Music City and thought it might be a good fit. He threw the idea of Nashville into the ring, and everybody made a trip to check it out. Attracted to the city’s music and culinary creativity, the family decided to make the move. They signed a lease on Belmont Boulevard in August 2014 and began work with architect Patrick Avice du Buisson to ready their new restaurant. Though the buildout was scheduled to only take four to five months, an excess of unexpected construction problems slowed their progress. In the end, they had to work all the way up until the night before they opened earlier this January to get the place ready for business. “There [wasn’t] one thing in here, not even a stick of wood, that we could
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use again,” Marcy says, explaining how they had to reconstruct much of the building in order to safely gut the interior walls and open the space for a dining room. Heather corrects her mom and points to the windows on the side of the building. “Oh yeah, the window and the original ceiling of the front porch were the only things we were able to keep,” she corrects herself. Though their mother-daughter relationship is evident both in their looks and their interactions, Heather and Marcy’s demeanors are quite different. Heather sits close by and leans forward often to talk, while her mother, whom she calls by first name, sits a table over, reclining against the large gray seatback. The New York accent, so apparent in the mother’s voice, is much harder to detect in her daughter’s. Like Heather, Marcy is also dressed in all black, though in much more casual athletic gear, complete with a black cap pulled low over her head. In one of the most surprising differences between the two, Marcy says she loves to cook and has for most of her life, whereas Heather admits that she’s terrible at it. “I’m a lost cause in the kitchen,” she says, embarrassed. Her lack of culinary skills is no cause for alarm because at Proper Bagel, there are already a lot of cooks in the kitchen. The family has employed the help of two expert chefs to expand the variety of the offerings. Savory Chef Joshua Simpson, a native Southerner who was trained in San Francisco, mans the back of the house, snipping microgreens and plating everything from bagel sandwiches to glazed sweet potatoes with impeccable presentation. Then there’s Heidi Kohnhorst, the pastry chef who was born and raised in Nashville but has worked with some of the world’s top chefs in New York for fifteen years. She merges old-school
New York staples like black and white cookies with other classics like brownies and muffins. “We really lucked out with our chefs, because we are super particular about the way things are done, and they have the same mindset,” Heather says. But just because they have some extra help doesn’t mean the family doesn’t stay furiously busy. The day begins early for the men. Alex (who was trained by his father-in-law) and Carmine show up to the shop sometimes as early as 3 a.m. to start baking the day’s fresh supply of bagels. The women get to sleep in a little longer, but unlike their male counterparts, they stay all day. As manager, Heather runs around continually making sure everything is running smoothly. Marcy, on the other hand, spends much of her time in the same spot, skillfully hand slicing all of the fish, which is flown in from one of the oldest smokehouses in Brooklyn. “I know when people read that they’re like, ‘Oh, okay, it’s from Brooklyn, cool,’ but we’re talking old-school Brooklyn” Heather assures me. “We’ve been getting our fish from them for over twenty-five years, and it’s very important for us to have those roots. We’re not just trying to be the cool kids.” So how, exactly, is a “proper bagel” made? The ladies take me to the back to give me a tour. They explain that many bagels these days, especially those served at chains, are rolled into a rack oven, then baked or steamed. True bagels, like theirs, must be boiled. But in order to keep the dough from breaking apart in the boiling water, it has to be rolled the day before and refrigerated overnight. When Carmine and Alex get there each morning, they take the refrigerated dough and boil it for a little less than five minutes. After that,
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PROPER BAGEL: properbagel.com Follow on Facebook or Instagram @ProperBagel native.is
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each bagel is placed on burlap boards and inserted into an oven, where it’s rotated a few times, flipped, and then rotated again, allowing for a good, chewy crunch on both sides. Carmine also makes all of the various salads and delicious-looking cream cheese options they offer. “In all of the other stores, specifically in Florida, we were only able to be so creative with our menu,” Heather explains. “Nashville has such a community of culinary creativity that it’s allowed us to get a little funkier with items like our cream cheeses, for example.” As they began work on the restaurant, they were pleasantly surprised by the support they enjoyed from business owners in town. From Ivy and Josh Elrod at Wilder (where they got their chairs) to Bryce McCloud at Isle of Printing to Andy Mumma at Barista Parlor (with whom they have an exclusive wholesale relationship) to Adam Gatchel at Southern Lights, they say the encouragement they’ve received from people here in town has been more than they’ve experienced at any of their previous locations. “It was such an amazing thing to be involved in a community of creative people who were genuinely into what we were doing and wanted to get behind us 100 percent,” Heather says. “The first day we opened, every single person we had done business with was in here supporting us.” As for what’s next for Proper Bagel, the Speranza family says they plan to train a few more employees so that they can expand their hours to better serve customers. They also hope that as the community continues to become acquainted with the shop, more customers will begin buying their bagels, fish, and salads in bulk and using them as a market, which has always been a driving force behind their business. “We’re just a family,” Heather says. “We don’t have financial investors. This is my parents’ life savings, and we’re just trying to make a living and bring a really high-quality product and experience to the people of Nashville.”
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THE CITY THAT LISTENS MUSICIANS CORNER TURNS THE SPOTLIGHT ON THE FINEST ARTISTS RESIDING AND MAKING MUSIC IN MUSIC CITY
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615-988-0513 - 525 Hagan St. - AmericanHotelLiquidators.com Open 10am-6pm Mon-Sat and 12-5pm Sunday # NAT I V ENAS HV I L L E
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AFTER SCHOOL PHOTOGRAPHER: ARTHUR STACHURSKI | STYLING: ISABEL SK ASSISTED BY ITORO UDOKO | HAIR/MAKEUP: JESSICA ARNHOLT | MODELS: KEEGAN WARRICK, MARY HARDIN, AND BRIANN BOWHALL AT EYE MODEL MGMT, SCOTTY ROCKWELL | PRODUCTION: EMILY WILLIAMSON
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ON SCOTTY: Hat, BLEStD, Shirt, The Outer Circle, Jacket, PM by jonahPM. ON MARY HARDIN: Hoodie, College Kids & Dropouts. ON BRIANN: Hat, PM by jonahPM. ON KEEGAN: Hat and Shirt, Nobody’s Buziness, Jacket, Black by Maria Silver
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ON BRIANN: Hoodie, College Kids & Dropouts, Hat, PM by jonahPM, Shorts, Nobody’s Buziness. ON MARY HARDIN: Hoodie, College Kids & Dropouts. # NAT I V ENAS HV I L L E
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SINGER-SONGWRITER MILLY ROZE TALKS
ABOUT GROWING UP IN NASHVILLE, WEARING MATCHING DESTINY’S CHILD OUTFITS, AND BEING A PART OF THE CITY’S BURGEONING POP SCENE
BY SAMANTHA SPECTOR | PHOTOS BY JONATHON KINGSBURY | H&M BY BRITTNEY HEAD
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TAKE A MINUTE AND ENVISION the personification of the following cliché: Nashville transplant. Singer-songwriter. Tattooed. Art school grad. Unless you’re picturing a fivefoot-two pop pixie with a Nicki Minaj likeness and swagger straight off an early Beyoncé solo disc, I had you fooled. I’d like to introduce you to Milly Roze and by extension, an entire part of the music industry widely overlooked in this part of the country. Like the city itself, Nashville’s pop scene is growing and finding its place alongside country superstars and rock’s underground gods. This is R&B Nashville, hip-hop Nashville. This is a part of the musical spectrum enveloped by popular music—or pop, to most of us. Milly is the perfect ambassador for the outside world looking in. Wisconsin-born with a Korean grandmother, white grandfather, and African-American father, she gives her community a story to root for. She also has the talent and poise needed to turn that support into success. Milly Roze, of course, is the stage persona of Emily Young, the quietly confident John Overton High School graduate raised by a determined single mother, a musician herself. “I never met my father, which had a huge impact on me growing up because my mom had to be Mom and Dad,” Milly tells me over coffee in East Nashville. “She did everything she could to make sure I was involved in all the different
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things and activities. That’s where the music thing came in. Because she loved music and played music and because she knew I loved it so much.” Milly and her mother, Mary, moved to Nashville when she was five years old. There isn’t anything complicated about it: the two moved south to be in Music City. This theme of music as a guiding path is a constant one in the story of twenty-three-year-old Milly and her guitarist mother.
“I remember going to jam sessions with my mom. I would take my coloring book and sit around while they played, totally immersed in [music],” says Milly. “She never did anything professionally or anything like that. She did it for fun. And that was the most inspiring part of it. She would just walk into a bar, take her guitar, and ask the owner or manager if she could get up and play. She didn’t care if she was paid.” Mary seems to have had a high-
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ly positive impact on her daughter in terms of interests, drive, and creative fuel. She did not graduate high school and was a single parent, and yet her daughter never wanted for much. Milly wanted to take music lessons. Her mother found a way. She needed a piano for practice. Her mother found a grand piano and put it in their tiny apartment. Call it moxie, determination, spunk— or “chutzpah,” as I put it to Milly. Mary Young instilled a confidence in her daughter unseen in many young women from humble beginnings. Her daughter’s inherent talent led the two to the W.O. Smith Music School. Now located on 8th Avenue, Milly saw the school grow from a tiny five-room bungalow to the beautiful glass-enclosed building it is today. At their afterschool programs, Milly indulged her interest in vocals through choir lessons and took piano lessons from twelve years old until she graduated at eighteen (students age out after high school graduation). Toward the end of her education at W.O. Smith, Emily Young became Milly Roze. She admits to floundering as she searched for her voice and found her style. She was no longer a member of her a capella girl group KEP Infinity (“we thought we were absolutely it in our sparkly, matching Destiny’s Child, 3LW outfits”), and she was about to transition from high school student, cheerleader, and W.O. Smith music student to an aspiring solo performer and writer. While Milly is simply a nickname derived from her given name, it’s the Roze that defines the performer associated with the moniker. “There’s something about the beauty of a rose,” says Milly. “It’s this beautiful thing, this lovely flow-
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er, but it has thorns on it. It protects itself.” “It has chutzpah?” I ask. We both laugh. Now we’re back to the present as we talk about the future. Milly has her degree in audio production from The Art Institute, which allows her to write, track, and produce her songs without outside help. But that doesn’t alter the real facts and the question I keep coming back to: We do live in Nashville, the place everyone is moving to, the city where every bartender, barista, IT worker, and even my mailman is a musician, a songwriter, someone looking to “make it.” Does it help or hinder to be a jazzyR&B-synthpop singer-songwriter in a culture renowned for country twang and a garage rock scene? “It’s really hard at times because country music is here, of course, and a lot of the big time professionals on Music Row . . .” she trails off, reaching for the words. “I’ve had them tell me that they want me to do other things. You know the producers who only want to do rock or only want to do pop but can make their money in country. “For a while, I thought I’d have to go to L.A. And then this trend started happening and I started meeting the producers and the people that can support the business side and realized that while we may be country music, the folks in L.A. are moving here to get away from the pop scene and get recognized. And to find new talent to work with.” Milly regularly works and writes with local musicians and producers. She mentions local collaborators such as R&B singer Villz and indie label South By Sea. She expresses pride in tracks such as “Beat of the Night” and “Black Dress” (both produced and co-written
“THE MINUTE THAT ANYBODY EVER SAYS THAT THEY GOT IT, YOU JUST KNOW THEY DON’T.”
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MILLY ROZE: millyroze.com Follow on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram @MillyRoze native.is
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by Rio), the latter of which sounds enough like a b-side from Beyoncé’s self-titled album that I had to look twice when taking a listen prior to meeting. We talk more about her life now, her inspiration, her process. When writing a new song on her own, she withdraws from the world, shuts out external stimuli. When she needs to find a new idea, she drives through the country. She thinks about selflessness and lets go. Milly Roze must feel free to create her music. It is that idea, this feeling of freedom in sense of self, that has led her to her newest collaborators, a duo of Belmont-educated producers, Grayson Proctor and Sam English, who call themselves BIYO (pronounced “bio”). She describes their process with a huge grin on her face, head tilted back a bit, a dance in her eyes. “It’s kind of crazy because in a sense I’m starting over,” she says. “For a while I was still trying to figure out who I am as an artist and while I still think there is so much to learn, I don’t think there’s anybody out there doin’ it well that says they know everything. “The minute that anybody ever says that they got it, you just know they don’t. But I finally feel like I understand the direction, and I’m working with people that like the individual I want to be in my music. We might lay down something with more R&B or something more pop, and these guys are always just like, ‘Is that what you want to say? Is that how you feel today? Go for it.’” One day, Milly might collaborate with Timbaland or Tori Kelly or Andre 3000 or Frank Ocean or any of the other musicians she cites as influences. Her personal rock stars. For now, she’ll let her music tell her story: the talented Nashville musician, turning her natural gift into a career, one slick, beat-driven, urban-pop collaboration at a time.
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s h a k t i yo g a n a s h v i l l e . c o m - 6 5 M u s i c S q u a r e E a s t
Photo by: Jeb Wilson / Nashville Photo Group
JUNG YOUTH m jungyouth.co cebook, Follow on Fa Instagram Twitter, and Music th ou gY un @J native.is
YOU OUGHTA KNOW: JUNG YOUTH
If you’ve been keeping up with the bizarre hijinks of actor-turnedperformance artist Shia LaBeouf, you may have seen a meme featuring two pictures of the Transformers star. In one, he’s wearing a suit on the red carpet. In the other, he’s sporting a dad hat, high-waisted pants, and UGGs. The caption reads: “Get u a man who can do both.” Much like the rogue actor, local rapper (and meme lover) Jung Youth is a versatile dude. Since he burst onto the scene in 2012, the native Kentuckian has had features with everyone from Chancellor Warhol to Cherub. He’s also shared bills with Mike Floss and hip-hop legends Mobb Deep, and if that weren’t enough, he’s got a collaboration with EDM producer (and longtime friend) Super Duper dropping this month. If you’re looking for a man who can spit over dark house, synthpop, and classic boom bap beats with equal intensity, look no further than Jung Youth. # NAT I V ENAS HV I L L E
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ANIMAL OF THE MONTH Written by Cooper Breeden*
The
Darter
Back in the ’70s, a drab little brownish fish from East Tennessee made a big splash in our nation’s political economy. You may have heard of the snail darter before, the most famous of the cousins that make up the large darter family. Darters as a whole are diverse and widely distributed across our continent. You can find them in the shallows or depths, the stagnant or the swift, and all water in between. Some, like the snail darter, are of modest coloration. Others, such as the splendid darter or candy darter, are named according to their dazzling technicolor dreamcoats or brightly hued bands that resemble pulled taffy. By many of their tendencies and characteristics, darters are underdogs of the aquatic world. They are slight of stature, rarely measuring more than a few inches long. As you may have guessed, darters get their name from their darty disposition—when spooked, they swiftly scurry to safety. Despite the fact that there are probably hundreds of darters within a mile of wherever you are right now, there’s a good chance you may have never noticed them due to their small size and bashful nature. Darters are predominantly bottom-dwellers that stalk and hunt aquatic insects and other bottom-dwelling creatures. The trait that most warrants the appellation “underdog” is perhaps their conservation status as a family.** Currently, twenty-two species of darters are listed as either endangered or threatened, though only four of those are in Tennessee. Despite their diminutive size and shy temperament, they’ve put up their dukes and sent ripples through the ever-turbulent waters of our nation’s environmental politics. In 1973, just before Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act into law, University of Tennessee biologist David Etnier found the snail darter in the Li Little Tennessee River, which was well on its way to being dammed up. At that time, this was the only known home of the snail darter, and a dam would have meant extinction for the
newly discovered species. The snail darter was deemed endangered under the newly passed Endangered Species Act and a lawsuit was filed against the dam builders, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), for violating the new law by threatening the existence of an endangered species. A US district judge in East Tennessee ruled that the snail darter wasn’t worth saving, but the decision was quickly overturned by the US 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, which o ordered a halt on the construction of the dam. Unfortunately, when all was said and done, politicians politicked and bypassed the Supreme Court decision. TVA built the Tellico dam and the Little Tennessee River was turned into a deep lake. Fortunately, snail darters were discovered in other rivers after the Tellico was completed. They were saved from termination, but their range remains small. Not all darters are restricted to these small ranges. There are more than fifty species in Tennessee alone. Some of them call large portions of the state home while others like the snail only live in a few small areas. The darter can’t seem to escape a bureaucratic fate. After its bout in the Supreme Court that made it a symbol of environmental activism, a handful of other darter fish received some high office appointments. In 2012, research showed that the speckled darter, then considered one species with a wide range across several states, was actually five different species based on their varying characteristics. These five darters took on the names of Obama, Gore, Carter, Clinton, and Roosevelt (Teddy), based on these executives’ environmental protection efforts. Around this time of year, many darters are in the midst of their courtship rituals, which means you’ll likely see them in their brightest colors. Next time you’re out on a walk, take a gander in your neighborhood creek and see if you can’t spot one before it darts out of sight. **Family in a general sense. Technically, darters are in the family Percidae—the same family as some much larger fish: yellow perch, walleye, and sauger. More commonly, they are called the perches.
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# NAT I V ENAS HV I L L E
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your shelter from the storm YOGI: @KELLYBCOWDEN LENS: @WILLVASTINE
NEW STUDENTS: 10 CLASSES FOR $20 82 / / / / / / / / / / / / / / //////
# N AT IVE N ASH VI LLE