HAZZE MAGAZINE | VOL. 13 "ETHEREAL" by HAZZE MEDIA

Vol. 13

Nov 2021

Jeremy Zucker BABYGIRL Humble Braggers

ETHEREAL

Volume 13 November 2021 Ethereal Editorial HAZZE MEDIA www.hazzemedia.com hazzemediainfo@gmail.com

Founder/Editor-in-Chief Ezzah Rafique

Design Director Mohja Filfil

Communications Director Iman Tanzeem

Press Director Orchee Sorker

Website Director Camila Camacho Featured Jeremy Zucker BABYGIRL Humble Braggers Emei Contributors Sophia Richter, Camila Camacho, Ira Bogatyreva, Rubezhyna, Zhang Jindong, Aigul Nurgalieva, Jamie Marcellus, SU KAISHAN, Emmanuel Vaney, Trigonnote, Satta Alessio, David Rodríguez, Alba Rodríguez Romero, Andrey Lukovnikov, Illia Afanasiev, Juan Carlos Canahuiri, Lev Vlásov, Chino Anyadiegwu, Craig Taylor-Broad

HAZZE MEDIA

www.hazzemedia.com

SUBMISSIONS

hazzeamediainfo@gmail.com https://kavyar.com/hazze-magazine www.hazzemedia.com/submissions

A Letter From the Editor The creative submissions incorporated in this issue encompass the theme "ethereal" with interviews from Humble Braggers, Emei, and Babygirl. As we grow our team, we are able to cover concerts that happen throughout the United States, so in this issue Jeremy Zucker's Nashville concert was covered by the talented Orchee Sorker.

Ezzah Rafique Founder/Editor-in-Chief

@hazzemedia

Evanescence

Wardrobe Stylist/Photographer Ira Bogatyreva @yetiphoto.ib Makeup Artist/Hair Stylist Darya Polchenko @makeup_darya_spb Model Ekaterina Kuznetsova @iketimua

English Village Photographer Andrey Lukovnikov Model Elizaveta Model Archi MUAH Natalja Tarasenko Style Milla Green Assistant Ekaterina Lukovnikova

Artisan Photographer Juan Carlos Canahuiri @_canahuiri Retoucher Alena Khvostsik @retouch.hale Stylist Anggela David @anggeladavid Model Alexandra Tang @alexandratng @rdmodelosagencia Makeup Artist Monica Hinojosa @monicahinojosa_makeupstudio Stylist Melissa Granda @_miagrand Producer Jhim Rodriguez @cc.mansioneiffel Makeup Artist Sadac Araujo @makeupsadac

DREAMS & REALITY

Art Director/ MUAH SLAVA KHRÁMOV @slava_khramov_ Photographer & Retoucher LEV VLÁSOV @lev_vlasov_ Wardrobe Stylists GEMMA SOLSONA & CARLA HOYOS @mammamarmalade Model SÍLVIA CUEVAS @silviaa__cm Model SERGI COROMINAS JAEN @sergiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisergi Showroom NN PRESS @nn_press & MARC JUAN COMUNICACIÓN @marcjuancomunicacion

NATURA

Photographer DAVID RODRÍGUEZ @davidofficialclub HMUA NAZARET RODRÍGUEZ @nararet_rcerezo \Model LETICIA GONZALEZ @leticiagonzalezconcepcion Model NAZARET RODRÍGUEZ @nararet_rcerezo Dresses By NAZARET RODRÍGUEZ @nararet_rcerezo “Natura” Collection

ATARAXIA Photographer Alba Rodríguez Romero @cazandosonrisas Model Yana Zhou @yanaz_99

BOXE MY CREATION Photographer Emmanuel Vaney @emmanuelvaney Assistant Photographer Isabelle Joubel @isabellejoubelphotographie Model Caroline Haquet @carolinehaquet Model Sophie Martin @sophie_mrn Model Penelope Medioun @penelopemedioun Model Joana Camacho @juju_camacho30 Model Lucile Das Neves @252i__ MUA Aurelie Leang @dalee_mua MUA Julie Aigret @jaynuraa MUA Elsa Castro Alves @elsaa.makeupartist @campusdesmaquilleurs_officiel Hairstylist Sven Lanthier @svenlanthier Hairstylist Remy Dupont @dhair.paris Brand Nadia Duarte @nad_duarte

ANOTHER Photographer Su Kaishan Photo @_xiao_shan_ Model JIA YING @kjying_

BLUE LAKE Photographer Aigul Nurgalieva @ankainfinity Model Элиза Шерман @liza_sherman Makeup Artist Olesya Egorova @olesya_egorova_makeup Wardrobe Stylist Eliza Sherman @elizasherman.style

INTO MY WILD Photographer Satta Alessio @sattalessio

BEAUTY Photographer Illia Afanasiev @illia.afanasiev Model Stella @stella.jb Model Sheen Yap @shinysheenz Makeup Artist Veronike B. @veronike.makeup

SUM / MER Photographer Rubezhyna @rubezhyna Model Mariia Symonenko @masha.smnk

FLOWER AND THE MAIDEN Photographer & Retoucher Zhang Jindong @zhangjindong52

Photographer Jamie Marcellus @jsmarcellusphoto

OUT OF TIME Makeup Artist/Hair Stylist Sofia Yasnitska @meraki_salon_kyiv Photographer Trigonnote @trigonnote Model Nataliia Stepanchenko @natasha.stepanchenko Wardrobe Credits @rentalovely

EUPHORIC RADIANCE Photographer Chino Anyadiegwu @chino.nicole Model Zion Amutuhaire @kaganzi.on Model Gita Paladugu @gitapaladugu Model Chelsea Nnanyanzi @chels_from_overseas

Sinopa Photographer Craig Taylor-Broad @craigtaylorbroad Model Sinopa Rin @sinoparin

Photographer Camila C. Model Rohail Jafri @rohail.jaf

Jeremy Zucker

With over two million views on TikTok and more than half a million streams on Spotify, EMEI shares her process behind the new viral song “Late to the Party” and gets real about the imposter syndrome and being an Asian-American in the music industry. EMEI is originally from New Jersey, a graduating senior at Yale University, and hopes to move to LA soon after.

Tell me a little about yourself. Who are your musical influences? Did you always want to pursue music? I grew up in New Jersey and my parents were Chinese immigrants. I grew up seeing a lot of Chinese music. When I was nine, I started singing in the Chinese American community in New Jersey and Queens, New York. My parents got my first laptop, and it was hot pink. I would look up lyric videos and just sing Disney songs all day. They were like you should get a vocal coach. When I was 15, I took a gap year from high school to compete on Chinese Idol. I got third place and ended up signing with a television company in China and pursued entertainment there. Then, when I came back, I just started writing. Initially, I was very much planning on going into entertainment in China. The reason why I was so focused on that was because I had a test run when I was 15. My parents also were supportive. Also with COVID, things changed. Anyways, UPSAHL is a huge inspiration. I love all of her stuff. She has the best bass lines ever, and her lyrics are very specific. I love Melanie Martinez, Murad Rodriquez and Salem Ilese. All pop powerful women are big inspirations of my current music. When I first started writing, my biggest inspirations were Sara Bareilles, Ingrid Michaelson, Sasha Sloan, and Phoebe Bridgers.

There were two lines in your song: “Why do I care about people my age?” Why is every seventeen-yearold a star?” A lot of the time in high school and even now, I would look up ages to different artists, actors, and even photographers I look up to and everyone is just so young. In my creative journey, my Type 1 enneagram ‘perfectionist’ personality has allowed me to keep striving for my aspirations but also I’ve dealt with being a self-critic and constantly comparing myself to others. Going off of that...What is your personality type? Do you think the imposter syndrome is real?

When I turned 18, the first thing I did was look up a list of people who got a Grammy by the time they turned 18. I guess the reason why I would do that is to motivate myself but that just punched myself down. The whole thing is being like ‘why am I not there? What am I doing differently?’ I'm definitely the same thing; I'm such a perfectionist. I've always been TypeA. I have a lot of ambitions, goals, and dreams. This feeling of comparison has always been something that I have dealt with. That's kind of what the song came from. It's so cool to see all of you guys like relating to it. I feel this so intensely. Hearing all of these people feel the same. It's really magical. The whole point of why we make music is to reach people and share these experiences. Oh yeah, imposter syndrome is real. I'm a senior at Yale, and everybody in the first week of class is like ‘why am I here?'. Like, I don't know what happened with the admission office? Clearly, there must've been some type of situation. Nobody feels like they deserve to be here. Even right now with “Late to the Party”, having this moment and people paying attention to it. I'm going to sessions with people who I have always looked up to and I'm like ‘why are we here?' That's something I've struggled with. My piece of advice is to remember that everybody has their own road. There's no point in comparing yourself. Have faith in your own path and abilities, and there's no point in feeling imposter syndrome...but I'm a hypocrite haha.

What was the story behind your viral TikTok? What do you think about the TikTok platform? TikTok is such a huge part of the music industry. It's a curse and a blessing. On one hand, Tik Tok feels so tiring because you have to make people pay attention to the ten-second things in your song. It's about little things that pick up people's attention. On the other hand, it's so special for people like me that don't have any connections. I don't know anybody in the music industry and the fact that I can put a random video out and then have millions of people see my work is magical. Tik Tok is like a lottery. If you don't enter it, you're not going to win.

So, for the actual video, I had a plan to have a release party because the song was initially going to be out before my birthday. It was going to be 21, and I was turning 22. So, I was gonna, I wanted to do a release birthday party. My plan was I was going to have this last little hurrah before I graduate, you know? Then, I had to push the song back because of distribution reasons. I pushed it back to two weeks after my birthday. I was like whatever, I'll just do a release party in my backyard. Then, the weather forecast said no. That morning, I met with my friend and she was like oh, I have an empty apartment for senior societies. That morning, I got the keys. I got a band together. We rehearsed for maybe an hour. I got Lucky Charms and drinks. Everybody came, and we just had a good time. I performed shortly, and everybody was having so much fun. I think that's why that TikTok did so well. It was like one of my favorite nights in college. In regards to the actual video, I received the videos. The party was on Saturday and I got all the videos and none of them were "perfect". On Monday, the day I posted the video, I didn't have any TikTok ideas. Then, I was like ‘I guess I have this video’. I didn’t think it would do too well because nobody likes watching live performances. I posted it later than I normally post it. I had no idea. In regards to the cereal, Jade Sadler was my photographer. She did such good work. I love everything that she did for the song. We decided on a color--red. Then, we went to Target the same day and tried to find red things. We then saw Lucky Charms, and just decided to do a photoshoot with it. Then, General Mills dmed me and sent me some cereal. I don't even know how they found it. It's been crazy. They're great. I'm excited to maybe continue like cereal album art.

How do you see yourself moving forward in the industry? What are your goals? I'm focusing on a music video in the immediate future. My next single hopefully is coming out in January. We have so much because Lucas and I worked and worked all summer. I'm hoping to just roll out singles. Then, big goals...I'm graduating in six weeks. I'm planning on moving out to LA. I'm planning on working with as many people as possible and building my team. I want to be playing like stadium tours. I want to be headlining big things and meeting as many people who like to relate to my music as possible. Especially as an Asian-American, I didn't think about doing this in America. I always thought about doing it in China specifically because I never saw someone that looked like me. That is special to me and exciting. As an Asian-American in the music industry, what does diversity mean to you? What are some changes you are wanting to see in the industry? I think that the industry is changing right now. It's really important for people to be able to see themselves in their role models. Growing up, I was obsessed with Selena Gomez and Taylor Swift...but how special would it be if I saw someone who looked like me. The industry is moving in that direction right now. People like Rena Siama are killing it right now.

If there is one message you can tell your fans, what would it be? Thank you. In regards to “Late to the Party”, everybody who's relating to it...we're all in the same boat. No matter how successful you are, no matter how much you're doing in life and how many people are looking up to you, you can still feel like you're not doing enough and you can still feel like you're behind. That's stupid. There's no linear path in life. Enjoy what's happening right now. This is advice that I'm really trying to listen to as well. Don't be in a rush. Do your thing at your own pace and have fun while you're doing it. I love you guys, and I greatly appreciate it.

BABYGIRL Originally from Toronto, meet dreamy pop band BABYGIRL. The band consists of singer-songwriter Kiki Frances and Cameron Breithaupt. With their breathtaking vocals and lo-fi pop melodies, they have caught the attention of many with over one million streams on Spotify. Check out their recent single “Born with a Broken Heart” released late October and this interview from their current tour with Jeremy Zucker.

Where are you guys originally from? How would you describe your genre? Who are your musical influences? Kiki: I honestly, never exactly know what to say when it comes to describing our genre. I call it all sorts of different things. Pop-rock is very easy. It also makes sense to me to call it dream-pop.

Cam: Yeah, I dunno. Is it something with pop and... Kiki: We're a pop hyphen genre. That's probably the best way to put it. The hyphenated part changes, but the pop remains the same because we both grew up loving pop music and songwriting.

Kiki: I'm from just outside of Toronto. We both are actually, and we met in Toronto when we moved there for school. We both lived like 45 minutes outside of the city.

Cam: Yeah, we've been based out of Toronto since we started the band. We love Toronto.

Cam: Both of us from a very young age, like, I'd say we both probably started writing our first songs around like nine years old.

Kiki: Yeah, I was probably like nine or ten years old when I started.

Cam: I got my first acoustic guitar for Christmas...a little like a child-sized guitar when I was nine. From there it was like, this is what I'm doing. Sorry, family. You're going to hear me play bad songs for a while.

I believe you guys will be performing in 10 cities in which Nashville is your second performance. What are you all looking most forward to on this tour? What does it feel like to open for Jeremy Zucker? Cam: I'm looking forward most to Toronto because my friends and family will be there. We're playing at The Danforth Music Hall. It is one of my favorite venues in the city to attend concerts. I've seen a lot of my favorite bands play on that stage. So, to have the opportunity to now perform from that stage and look at them from the other side is super inspiring. Kiki: Like a major goal is to play at a venue like that in Toronto. Most venues we’ve played in Toronto are like really small rock clubs. This is going to be a big step up for us. This whole tour is a big step up for us. Jeremy...his show is awesome. He and his whole team have been so welcoming, great, and all the sweetest people. We're very lucky that live music is back.

Cam: Yeah. Yesterday was our first show in two years and it was also our biggest show ever. It feels crazy to be opening for Jeremy. He's allowed us to access room sizes that we never played in play to a whole bunch of people. Everyone was so welcoming and engaged.

I listened to y’alls new released single “Born with A Broken Heart” and I love it! What was the inspiration for the song? What was your creative process? Kiki: Let's start with the title. I liked the song title. I wanted to write something like that...like in the lineage of more traditional songwriting styles. We just kind of pieced it together over a few months. We kind of chipped away at it. It was a rewarding one for us to write.

\Cam: It was also slower. The process was we had the title, wrote the chorus in one go a few days later, wrote one verse, and then kicked around for six months before we got the rest of them. We started it in the summer and finished it in the dead of winter...around six months. Kiki: We have a bunch of different drafts of some of the lyrics at the end. We just sat down and kept blinking. No, that's not it. Then, we finally landed on something that we love.

What can your fans expect next?

Kiki:We're making new music right now. We're definitely going to put out some new music next year. Cam:We've got an EP coming early next year.

Kiki:Then, we're going to make that debut album that we've been dreaming of for the past few years. It's going to take us a long time--knowing us. We're excited that the shows are back, baby.

"Hi! How have y'all been so far into the year? Tell us about yourself!" Hi! So far so good - very excited to finally be putting out our new album. We (Humble Braggers) are a 4 piece synth pop band from Buffalo, NY. I (Tom Burtless) sing and occasionally play guitar and keys in the band. Bryan Zells plays guitar and bass, Tom Stoklosa plays keys and bass and Matt Chavanne plays drums.

"What inspired y'all to pursue music and come together to form Humble Braggers?" We’ve all been playing music since we were young kids - playing in our school's band or orchestra. Bryan and I have been in bands with each other since we were teenagers. Humble Braggers started as a solo project of mine a few years back and eventually Bryan, Matt and Tom joined in. Our past 2 releases (Cycle and Love & Fear) have been the culmination of the 4 of us. "Y'all are releasing the new LP, 'Love & Fear', on November 11th. As an album that comes from various focal points in life, what's the key theme of the LP for y'all" I think we wanted to have an album that ebbed and flowed between the ideas of Love & Fear. There’s songs about the love you share with significant others and with yourself. There’s also songs about facing your fears, succumbing to your fears and accepting your fears. There also happens to be songs right in between both ideas. Every song on the album has its own story in between those two concepts. "For 'Love & Fear'- what was the creative process like when starting to write the album to putting it together all the way up to the release?" We usually are all constantly working through new ideas for the band. We throw our best ideas up on our mutual Google Drive and dive into the ones we feel drawn to the most. We’ve written our music a few different ways but we’ve gotten into a strong groove on the last two releases. We usually spend a good amount of time in our home studios going through a track and figuring out what it needs, how we want to structure it and what the general vibe is. Lyrically I usually will lay down some scratch vocal ideas that give a general, subconscious, thought to what I think the song should be about. I usually do this to try and get vocal melody ideas but I try to latch onto whatever concepts come out, lyrically, as best I can.

"Between all of the songs on the EP, do you have one that you enjoyed creating more or have a stronger connection to? Why or why not?" I would say we probably have the strongest connection to “Anymore.” We had the most intense conversations and debates about it and it’s direction but we all loved how it ended up and how much we poured into it. I think it's become one of our favorites to play live now because of that. "To someone who hasn't heard y'alls music before, what do you hope they take away from it? What atmosphere are you trying to create with your music?" I think our music has always tried to straddle a line of pop/dance and genuine deeply rooted emotion. I think our goal, for the most part, is to have everyone crying on the dance floor. I think sonically we’re always going to be drawn to dance beats, huge synths and reverb-laden guitars. As long as you can get down with that you’ll get along with us just fine. "Are there any artists or songs that inspired the 'Love & Fear' or was it primarily based on writing sessions / personal experiences?" I think it’s a blend of everything. We all pull from very different artists and genres 80s bands, M83, Foals, Friendly Fires, The Killers, Bon Iver, post-punk, emo, etc - so we think it ends up yielding a very interesting combination of sounds. I think, songwriting-wise, we always lean into whatever the song needs. We’re not afraid to get a little out there if it makes sense for the track.

“Y'all released a string of singles including the songs 'Anymore,' 'I'll Keep Running,' and 'Only' earlier in the year, how was the release of those songs and the feedback from fans?" I think it’s been nice to see fans, new and old, all drawn to different songs. I think that's something I always love whenever we put out a new collection of music. I love seeing that not everyone is drawn to one singular track but everyone has their own preference. However, I think the most universally acclaimed track we’ve released this year, by our fans, has been “Anymore.” Individually we all received more comments and positive feedback about that track than any other we’d released prior. I think sonically we’re always going to be drawn to dance beats, huge synths and reverb-laden guitars. As long as you can get down with that you’ll get along with us just fine.

"Is there a song in specific that y'all are most excited to perform live from 'Love & Fear'?" I think for me personally I can’t wait to perform “Push & Pull” live. I absolutely love how that chorus hits and it’s the first song we actually started writing for the album some 2+ years ago. I think the crowd will really have fun with that track when we play it.

"Lastly, what's one thing you've learned along your journey as an artist?" You should always explore the parts of yourself that want to branch out into unfamiliar territory. I played in emo or altrock bands from my teenage years up and through being a young adult. Starting this band was unlike anything else I had been in beforehand but it’s been the most rewarding by far. The kind of music I used to write still influences this project and is still a part of it but allowing myself to branch out of what I knew has opened up so many more doors creatively.