fashion winter 2013
music new beginnings
life issue 6
sixth issue • welcome
hello.
welcome to the new beginnings issue
sixth issue • welcome
illustration by lydia coventry
this issue is all about embracing and exploring new beginnings
W
Whether it’s a risky new haircut, a stylish new car or a home so far away from the last it takes some time to get used to, we all have to deal with change. For us, this is our second – a rebirth if you like, or a shiny new recipe combining a handful of the classic Pebble style, a slice of new design and an entire heap of new inspiration – we hope that you enjoy. It’s always daunting, no matter how much experience you have had, to try something new or do something that feels slightly out of your comfort zone, but it’s those challenges that often bring the biggest rewards. It takes courage – an honourable attribute – to not only risk but to embrace, to make the new beginning an adventure and well worth your time. We hope that you not only enjoy but relish the changes we have made. We are easy to read, in fact, we’re interactive, we’re full of enchanting images and as ever, heart warming and intriguing content that has been created with you in mind. Welcome to our new beginning. pebble team
sixth issue • contents
sixth issue • contents
VI Fashion (014)
Music
Wren girl
Voices
(038)
(020)
(008)
Pebble meets Bayy, by the bay
A look into the life of legend Coco Chanel
(042)
(024)
Our favourite albums of the issue
Illustrated style: the best of LFW
(044)
(026)
Physical music: the lost art of the mixtape
(046) Live review: Smith Westerns
(048) Meet TRAAMS
Pebble speaks to the woman behind Ever Rêve
(030)
A teacher’s blossoming new career path
Food & Drink (050) Fall favourites
(055)
Ways to wear: your wide brim fedora
Tea & cake: Coffee#1
(032)
(058)
Wash off the past
Let’s talk about toast
nice to meet you
“My resolution for the new year will be to spend more time documenting other unexplored areas.”
Tazz Gault • Fashion Editor
Sally Rose McCormack • Music Editor
“I want to stop making excuses for my unneccesary spends. Please, wish me luck.”
“My resolution this year is to not make any resolutions. Damn it...”
Briana Millet • Food & Drink Editor
Sinead Houlihan • Chief Sub-Editor
Rachel Currie • Design & Production
“I never make resolutions because not eating chocolate or cake is impossible when you’re the food & drink editor!”
“Rather than making yearly resolutions, I try to achieve something small every day, even if it’s just trying out a new recipe.”
“I make new resolutions all the time. Today’s was to not eat cake, and I’ve already failed.”
Julia Denni • Editor
we’d like to thank Rosie Lord Assistant Music Editor • Hollie Brotherton Deputy Fashion Editor • Lauren Anthony Assistant Fashion Editor • Wil Oxford Assistant Fashion Editor • Bridie Wilkins Assistant Fashion Editor • Emma Oriana Grewal Assistant Sub-Editor Bayy • Charlotte Dart • Coffee#1 Bournemouth • Ella Turner • Jamie Gardner • Jeffie Pike Durham • Lydia Coventry • Michelle Urvall-Nyren • Sandra Villeneuve • TRAAMS
the songs that made this issue yuck rebirth lou reed perfect day kimya dawson loose lips arcade fire ready to start lissie pursuit of happiness white stripes we are gonna be friends vampire weekend blake’s got a new face john lennon (just like) starting over keaton henson small hands she & him don’t look back nina simone feeling good layla new year
illustration by lydia coventry
a new arrangement Byrd & Spry’s Ella Turner tells us about how she took a leap of faith to start her own florist after leaving the world of teaching behind
words by ella turner • photography by carla grassy and byrd & spry • interview by rachel currie • illustration by jamie gardner
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feature • new beginnings
“I often hadn’t had a breath of fresh air all day and I started to really crave that. I was feeling like the balance in my life was all wrong”
In my last year at university, my mum sold her house, gave up her job and moved to Italy. She didn’t do it on a whim, but she did decide that she wanted to live differently from how she had been living. I think that’s always been at the back of my mind, because I have a role model who has shown me that it is possible to make a big change in your life. I have always found it useful to evaluate how I’m feeling about my life and have a think about what is and isn’t working for me. Sometimes you then find you only need to make a small change or make time for a nice thing that makes you happy. A while ago I made a list of things I want on a daily, weekly and occasional basis, which has
been really helpful to shape small changes that feel possible to make and to keep me focused on what I want from life. For me, keeping focused on what makes me happy and feel peaceful has led me really naturally to some quite ma jor changes, but without it feeling too scary. I always loved arranging things but I never really had a definite idea of what I wanted to do. That pretty much carried on through university and beyond. I’ve done loads of different jobs and learnt a lot from all of them. It’s not really been until now that I feel my different skills and interests come together. I worked for ten years as a primary teacher
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feature • new beginnings
and assistant headteacher of a big primary school, so to turn my back on that career path took a lot of thought. I found myself with a really demanding job that left me feeling frazzled and kept me indoors. I realised I often hadn’t had a breath of fresh air all day and I started to really crave that. I was feeling like the balance in my life was all wrong - too
I started to blog about arrangements inspired by my walks and the wild flowers growing along the river. I had no thoughts that anyone would read it, it was just a creative outlet. Giving myself that time and headspace was the catalyst and the business has developed really naturally from there. Word of mouth is very important with something like wedding flowers and I am finding that much of my work comes from personal recommendations. This business builds on skills and interests I have always had in curating and arranging, and in Byrd & Spry flowers are the medium. The essential things have been an eye for form, line and colour; I’ve taught myself the technical flower skills along the way.
“giving myself that time and headspace was the catalyst and the business has developed really naturally from there” much work, too much thinking and worrying, so I decided to drop a day and work four days a week. I didn’t have any particular ideas for my day off, but I started to get out along the river where I live in West Sussex.
My work is very much inspired by the floral design and ideas of Constance Spry. She was a pioneer in the use of wild materials, things from the kitchen garden, twigs, hedgerow flowers. She wrote beautifully about how flowers need to be fitting in a space and this really chimes with my philosophy. Flowers and decorative art are just better if they work with the mood of an event and the feel of a venue and if there are some underpinning ideas that are expressed through the arrangement. I really enjoy working with clients to help express what they are trying to achieve - it makes the design process more interesting as well as giving a better end result.
I think that we have a real need to connect with nature and the changing seasons in some way, even if modern urban life disconnects us from all that. Even in cities, we are so affected by the changing light and weather and working with flowers gives me the chance to immerse myself in the current season. I use a lot of branches and foliage in my work and I love that it’s always changing, there’s always something else coming in to season. I’m forever looking around me and noticing the new buds or some fabulous berries appearing. I think it makes for more interesting flower arrangements as well - there’s so much more I still use my teaching, and teaching flower life in seasonal flowers and arrangements full workshops is one of my favourite things, of berries or buds or catkins. but this business is my chance to build
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feature • first person
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feature • new beginnings
something that is completely mine. I have more freedom to shape the business based on my vision and values. I have these two characters in my head - Ms Spry based on Constance Spry, and Ms Byrd who is something like Elizabeth Taylor or Julianne Moore in the movie ‘A Single Man’. Ms Byrd is someone glamourous, exciting, maybe just a little bit dishevelled. So flowers for an event might be a bit Spry (twiggy, wild, natural, sculptural) or a bit Byrd (elegant, glamourous, luxurious). I enjoy how we can use our clothes, hair, flowers, and interiors to express different aspects of our personality. Sometimes the occasion calls for something a bit glam and other times something beautiful and more wild is what’s needed. I love having Byrd and Spry at the back of my mind in the design process, and for everyday life I guess it’s about having some balance: a bit of glamour and a bit of fresh air.
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feature • new beginnings
Byrd & Spry are a florist and event stylist studio based in Shoreham-by-Sea. It is the creative business of Brighton girl Ella Turner, a primary teacher turned florist. Byrd & Spry work on events across the country and deliver bouquets to order across Sussex and Brighton. They run workshops for wedding flowers, hair flowers, wreath making and corsage making for hen parties. Workshops can be based at the studio or in another venue.
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photographer adam jones • clothes and headpieces caroline mulhern • model emma jayne kevan
the
wren girl
an icon’s last years words by wil oxford
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fashion • interview
What lay behind the iconic façade of Coco Chanel? Pebble spoke to Jeffie Pike Durham about her mother’s special relationship with the iconic designer during the final years of her life As arguably the most famous lady of fashion, Coco Chanel has come to define the very essence of style, luxury and glamour. We know the history, we know the designs, but we know very little about the woman herself. Whilst renowned as a formidable fashionista, in recent years Coco Chanel’s personal life has come under the lens – quite literally in the case of blockbuster hits such as ‘Coco Before Chanel’ – however few remain to tell us their experiences of meeting one of fashion’s most famous faces. ‘Coco Chanel: A New Portrait by Marion Pike’ is an exhibition currently being held at the London College of Fashion’s Fashion Space Gallery. The exhibition explores the friendship between the artist Marion Pike and Coco Chanel in the final years of the designer’s life, exhibiting paintings of Coco by Marion, clothes, letters and memorabilia documenting
the fascinating friendship held between these two women. “My mother said when she first met Coco Chanel she thought she was the ugliest woman she’d ever seen,” explains Jeffie. Jeffie is the daughter of Marion Pike, who alongside LCF professor, Amy de la Haye, has spearheaded the exhibition documenting the friendship of her mother and Coco. She explains that at first the friendship between the two seemed unlikely as it was only a chance encounter that lead them to meet in the first place. “She and Coco Chanel had a mutual friend who just insisted that they meet and when my mother was in Paris in the mid 1960s he said just go over to her tomorrow while she does a fitting. So she went and sketched while Coco did her fitting. After about an hour Coco suddenly stopped what she was doing, walked
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fashion • interview
“We don’t know and we can only speculate, but whatever clicked and whatever worked, they became friends”
across the room to my mother, asked to see the sketch paper – she glanced at it, and then she looked my mother in the eye and said, ‘You have the hand of a real artist’. She put the scarf she was wearing around my mother’s neck and said, ‘We’re going to become great friends. Could you come to lunch tomorrow?’”
personality that she just loved. They both loved opera, they loved horseback riding and they were both real perfectionists who had huge respect for people who just worked and worked. We don’t know and we can only speculate, but whatever clicked and whatever worked, they became friends.”
It was from here the relationship blossomed. The pair met in 1967 and remained close friends until Coco’s death in 1971, but what exactly was it that made them such good friends? “There was just this vibe,” Jeffie explains, “like when you meet someone and you just know you’re going to be friends. My mother discovered all these facets of Coco’s
Jeffie also had the pleasure of meeting the legendary fashion icon when, in 1968, Jeffie travelled to Paris after being invited to attend the runway show of Chanel’s latest collection. “I remember getting dressed to meet Chanel for the first time and all I had to wear was this little A-line dress that came above the
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fashion • interview
knee, and my mother said, don’t you know Coco has a horror of the miniskirt? But that evening, even though Coco didn’t speak to me, and I spent the whole evening mortified trying to pull down my dress, she later phoned my mother to tell her she really liked me and that I looked at her with such kind eyes. She had been observing me all evening and I hadn’t even noticed.”
married or had her own family she saw my mother as almost a surrogate daughter, and ended up embracing me a granddaughter.”
Although Jeffie and her mother’s relationship with Coco lasted four years, her most treasured memory of Coco was during one of their first encounters in Jeffie’s first visit to Paris. “There was this one suit from her collection that I loved and I wanted to get as Throughout her life Chanel never married a memory of meeting her and being in Paris and had no children. Her relationships were in that time, but it would have cost me all of varied and often scrutinised – notably her my savings to buy. And one day me, Coco relationships with married men and even and mother were having tea and Coco all of a Nazi officers. But while we know a little sudden clapped her hands and in came these about the men in her life, there is even less ladies with this suit I had just loved. I was told documented about her family. Did this in to go and try it on, and when I came out Coco any way have an impact on the relationship said, ‘Look at that. That is a suit out of my she had with her friends? “With all three of closet, I have the figure of a 28-year-old girl’ – us, there was very much a sense of family,” and she was giving it to me. She fussed and Jeffie says. “It was brief but it was very intense poked with the fit just like any grandmother, and it was something that has stayed with and ended up making it a mini suit for me, and me my whole life. I think because Coco never to this day I still have it hanging up my closet.”
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fashion • london fashion week
illustrated style
house of evolution
pam hogg
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ong oaj
fashion • london fashion week
Fast forward to next summer to keep out the winter blues – welcome to our favourite collections from London Fashion Week SS14 illustrations by sandra villeneuve
house of evolution
ekaterina kukhareva
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to dream. to begin
meet michelle of ever rêve - a woman of true desire and inspiration to us all
words by tazz gault • photography by ever rêve
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fashion • ever rêve
Things come and things go; they go up and down; we travel with them, through new doors and new beginnings we reach an end of some sort, somewhere down the line. They are ephemeral or permanent; discarded at speed or glued to our bones to determine who we become and what life we lead. Michelle, of Swedish, London based fashion brand Ever Rêve, chose the year 2012 to begin her new journey - not necessarily in the way she imagined, taking a new beginning with both hands and piling it full of dreams – the sort that come true. “I’ve had many new beginnings – I guess that’s what life looks like – cycles of closures and new things opening up,” she says, hands busy with fabric scattered delicately by her side. “The most important and significant new beginning to my creative work was two years after I finished university. I was struggling to see how I would be able to work with textiles and clothes; I had gone through
different experimental phases of working with fashion and I had done tons of unpaid work. I went back home to Sweden and had a long conversation with one of my school teachers, when she simply said: ‘Michelle, sometimes you just have to let go of the way you imagined yourself to do things. It might take you to the same goal, but via a completely different way’.” Michelle took her teacher’s words with grace and charm, rustled together with angelic attributes and an oh-so powerful drive. She then began her journey in a way less imagined, embracing a new beginning with new dreams. Ever Rêve: ‘ever’ in English and ‘rêve’, French for ‘dream’. Her journey began at a very young age, her roots watered daily by those closest to her. “My parents have always been creative but in a very modest way,” she says. “It’s not until recently I have realised how much it has
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fashion • ever rêve
fashion • ever rêve
affected me to grow up in a family where things are always created ‘by yourself’. I would see something I wanted in a store as a child and my parents would always tell me to make it myself.” I sense a trickle of humour to her way of speaking, words landing with grace side-by-side, and all expressed with a smile. “My first fashion dream was when I was twelve and I saw a French documentary about wedding dress design on TV. I was so overwhelmed! I still have daydreams but the glamorous and flowery idea of what fashion is has been chipped by reality a few times on
creativity and joy. “The storytelling in clothes is an important part of my creative process. I always start with a character, a young woman with all of her seemingly dissonant features, being strong and weak, permanent and ephemeral. For each collection, we put this character in different scenarios and the clothes depend a lot on what happens to her. Is she going to run? Does she need pockets? Will she meet someone or be alone?” These questions stand racing through my mind, as I flick through her autumnal beauties; thumbing the greens and the greys, the browns and the reds. “I have just chosen to share the vision of this character with my potential customers – they can then choose if it’s important to them or not.”
“I would see something I wanted as a child and my parents would always tell me to make it myself”
Her words are impressive to say the least and are somewhat analytical – despite English not being her mother tongue; the way.” It’s this realistic approach that is so often forgotten in the smoke and mirrors world Michelle’s profound and intellectual manner matches her tasteful and sophisticated skill of that thing we call fashion. Yet despite this, Michelle’s dream for clothes to be her working with clothes. “I think that all professional experiences you collect throughout your life partner was sewed through her veins from eleven-years-old, her destiny and ultimate goal are good for you,” she nods. “All of the small jobs you have, the ones you curse while from an age so difficult to remember. “Before you’re doing them, they bring you something, that, and maybe a few times in between, they develop you and teach you things about I wanted to be a midwife,” she tells me, surprising me but making me smile all at once. life, about people, and most of all about yourself.” It seems to me that if we want to attempt describing her beauty and that Each piece of Michelle’s collection has its of her work, it is that she breathes the own story; a narrative written by Swedish definition of eloquence. author, Hanna Ricksten, a collaboration of
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ways to wear your wide brim fedora h&m £14.99
Seamlessly transition into the cooler months and accessorise with a fedora hat – both perfect as a casual day accessory, or an accompaniment to evening attire photography by lauren anthony
Top Zara £29.99 Sunglasses ASOS £12 Shoes Urban Outfitters £120 Earrings ASOS £6 Rings River Island £3 Necklace Topshop £4.50
Top Topshop £28 Shorts ASOS £32 Shoes H&M £12 Bag Zatchels £75 Earrings J&S Jewellery £22
Hat H&M £14.99 Jumper H&M £14.99 Trousers Mango £29.99 Bag Vintage Necklace Topshop £16.50
wash the past away photography and styling charlotte summers • model jenna macfarlane • assistant rachel cumming
to be by the BAYY
words by nicholas williams • photography by rosie lord
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music • bayy
We meet up with pop quartet BAYY for a day trip to Bournemouth Pier and talk about their love of everything costal
It’s a funny old world the music world. As music travels and evolves, a host of bands all over the UK pray that their town becomes the latest hub of creative and much adored music. Birmingham was blessed to provide us with the likes of Peace, Swim Deep and Jaws to name a few, but now it seems the South Coast, in particular Brighton, has taken the gauntlet of musical prowess as we meet BAYY on a warm sunny day at 60 Million Postcards in Bournemouth. As we gather at our meeting place we’re on the hunt for BAYY, without prior knowledge of who, what or where they are. We begin with awkward stares and warming smiles - and then
we meet Angus, Paeris, Max and Soph.
BAYY are a four-piece pop group based in Brighton. Founded in October of last year, they have gone from strength to strength with an array of features across multiple music platforms. The band have also been featured as a postcard single on the website of the muchworshipped Art Is Hard Records, an independent record label. They encompass a sound of joyous, immersive pop as guitarist and lead singer Angus Taylor explains, “Song writing wise I really love pop music, I can’t help but write poppy songs.” He goes on to mention the eclectic mix of music
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music • bayy
tastes in the band that gives BAYY their diverse and dreamy sound. Influences are drawn from a host of shoegaze, drowned out bands that have found great success in their sound and diversity, and BAYY are a welcome addition to the pack. Available tracks ‘Doctor’, ‘Aquarium’ and ‘Left on Earth’ are all incredibly intricate. The wonderful revelation about BAYY is that they’re not just a band - their complete adoration and devotion to music goes way beyond BAYY itself. Angus and drummer Paeris Giles are part of the highly anticipated band The Magic Gang, Paeris also being the second half of punk duo YRRS, as well as having a solo project worth mentioning. Meanwhile guitarist Sophie is part of Hella Better Dancer, an immersive and beautifully harmonious foursome from London.
“Song writing wise I really love pop music. I can’t help but write poppy songs” The band lure their influences from a host of names from Smokey Robinson to Warpaint, Gringo Star to Black Lips, with particular pride in mentioning a mass of acts stemming from the Atlanta music scene. The secret behind the name is a running joke, the much-loved American coastal bands such as Beach Fossils and Beach House gave the band an idea of jokingly including themselves in it,
hence the bay was born. They then proceeded to drop the prefix and welcome bay, yet to avoid being Googled and finding bodies of water an extra ‘y’ was added. Back when we first met in July of last year, the band were clearly excited to be playing at both Angus and Paeris’ hometown. As bassist Max Lewis explained, “This is actually our first proper show in Bournemouth.” However, since then the band have played countless shows in Brighton and London as well as shows in Newport and beyond. Sunday 29 September saw BAYY return for their second show in Bournemouth’s own Halo, an event that hosted a showcase of emerging talent. Sharing the stage with Birdskulls, The Red Cords and The Black Tambourines it was a welcome delight to have BAYY returning once again, and for them to deliver a well-polished, enthralling set made it that much sweeter. For those new to BAYY: if you’re devoted to new music that explores creative, intricate and warming sounds then be sure to give them a listen. Tracks are recorded in a wonderfully harmonious, constructive manner yet in comparison to a live show they offer an exciting, punchy and destructive sound. With a support slot for Jackson Scott in Brighton later in the year things seem to be going up and up for them, so watch out. facebook.com/WEAREBAYY soundcloud.com/wearebayy wearebayy.tumblr.com
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click here to listen to bayy
music • album reviews
albums of the issue our clever music editors have hand-picked three of their favourite recent releases. to discover the rest, visit pebblezine.com
What a year it’s been for Arctic Monkeys. The stratospheric rise of the Yorkshire youngsters, from the chavvy, no-nonsense 20-somethings, into the designer-loafer-and-bespoke-suitwearing rockstars behind fifth album AM. ‘Do I Wanna Know?’ and ‘R U Mine?’ ask the questions, perhaps perfectly abridged in the line from the latter, the two-year-old teaser for AM: ‘R U mine tomorrow/Or just mine tonight?’ The complicated ideas of love, sex and lust are explored throughout the album; the questions are answered through urban poet Turner’s mastery. Matt Helder’s drumming expertise provides the perfect platform for the record, from the slow, blues-esque beat of ‘Mad Sounds’, to the distinctly hip-hoppy rhythm barely trying to hide in ‘Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?’
AM ARCTIC MONKEYS Stephen Chapman • 9/10
There’s an entirely different feel about AM, it has the same North-Eastern swagger, the same poetry about the lyrics, and the headbanging beats. But this time the swagger comes clad in expensive leather jackets and slick hair, the lyrics are intelligent and grown up, and there’s not a song that doesn’t work. The album feels like the work of a truly established force in post-punk. It feels new and fresh, but just as culturally apt as ever. And boy does it feel good.
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music • album reviews
Days are gone HAIM
HAIM already feel so much like part of the furniture that it’s hard to describe the album as anything other than classic HAIM. You get all the staple reverb, cowbells and hand claps you’d expect, even more 90s R&B sass and echoes of one particular 1970s rock group that a thousand broadsheet music hacks could predict. Yes, Mum – they do sound a bit like Stevie Nicks – thank God someone finally pointed that out!
Sam Thomson • 8/10
Whilst tracks like ‘Forever’ might sound more 80s than songs from the actual 80s, Days Are Gone is very much an album for 2013. From the wob-wob bass line of ‘My Song 5’ to the Get Lucky disco-revival-esque ‘If I Could Change Your Mind’, HAIM are taking the best bits from whole range of eras, and putting their own distinctive stamp on it. The only real disappointment is that some of the raw energy we’ve seen in their live shows has been watered down. There’s less wailing guitar or Danielle’s snarling vocal delivery – but with insanely danceable tracks like ‘Days Are Gone’, it’s a small price to pay. However long we might have had to wait to hear it, this is one hell of an infectious record. Good things really do come to those who wait.
If you wait LONDON GRAMMAR Sally Rose McCormack • 7/10 Much like The xx, London Grammar rode the wave of 80s ambient synth nostalgia right into our ears. Their chilling debut If You Wait has all the hallmarks of an album that’s going to cause quite a bit of a stir. A stand out track on the album is ‘Metal & Dust’, which has been swimming around for a while. And for good reason, it displays Hannah Reid’s delicate vocals perfectly. At times the album can sound a bit like Faithless, if they’d stayed away from the trance clubs, particularly on the title track ‘If You Wait’ and ‘Strong’. It’s a strong first album by London Grammar particularly after all the hype and anticipation any new young promising band receives. It’s not an album that you can just casually whack on whilst making a cup of tea, unless maybe that tea has a bit of a kick to it.
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music • let’s get physical
physical music
charlie case From a small village called Box, home of Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios, Charlie gives us his thoughts on the art of the mixtape
music • let’s get physical
Scrabbling through the house for a pen or pencil all in aid to wind back an overused mixtape cassette is not an action many now partake in. With Spotify and iTunes, amongst others, able to create readily available playlists with a simple click this task seems all most laughable by today’s standards. Yet tapes enable users to capture a low tier DIY aesthetic in music that no other format allows. This year cassettes celebrate their 50th anniversary whilst lying in the shadows of other formats. Vinyl is having a renaissance, CDs despite dropping in sales are still going strong in comparison, and FLACs are an audiophile’s dream in a world of digitalised music leaving little room for tapes. In no way am I trying to argue the greater quality of cassettes, but like a blank canvas, mixtapes allow for a tangible piece of music that is yours, one that you had put hard work into create. Not only that but they highlighted the true coming of people’s creativity in wanting to get their hands on music, leading to the creation of the slogan ‘Home Taping is Killing Music’, foreshadowing the music industry’s worries of today. True, cassettes had their heyday well before I was born, but it was this creative element that really hooked me and forced me on an infinite
hunt for new music. Blank tapes provide the wonder of capturing music in a way that feels connected to you, a personalised soundtrack. As a child, music was only accessible to me through the radio and borrowed CDs, and so with a handful of blank tapes I would sit for hours trying to create my own favourite tapes. Sat on the floor with everything spread around me, making sure tapes were wound to the right place, calculating the right song to fit in next. The time I would waste scrawling out the names of each track onto the side of cases... Sure there were flaws, a Beatles song cut short, odd pauses, and sometimes three minute silence were I forgot to press record. However, it is was those flaws that made it mine, waiting for the time it was finished to sit back and enjoy. As I grew older I would still make Mix CDs for girlfriends, and later playlists for myself, but with each step to the future I feel a detachment from personalisation in my listening. Music is so easily accessible - any song, any album from Son House to A$AP Rocky. While this is the dream for music fans, mixtapes allowed for building a greater relationship with the music. Unfortunately cassette mixtapes seem near redundant to the speed at which society now moves, and are what some may call a ‘lost art’. Let us hope that’s not completely true.
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music • live review
smith westerns
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music • live review
smith westerns • 100 club • 17.09.13 words by sam cornforth • photography by waves & leaves
Smith Westerns don’t tour the UK very often, so when they do it’s pretty special, and tonight’s performance at the 100 Club is true to that mantra. The last time the Chicago youngsters were visiting these shores was in 2011 in the support of their second album Dye It Blonde, whilst at the time they were enjoying the status as one of the U.S.’s most exciting new bands. Since then, they have lived up to that promise with the release of sensational album Soft Will. Their newly found confidence and development as musicians is plain to see as they take to the stage and launch into ‘Fool Proof’, with Cullen Omori’s often criticised vocals close to perfect. Instantly, they have the crowd wrapped around their little finger, as they gloriously work their way through the glistening best of their two latest albums. Despite the recent line-up change with
keyboardist Ziyad Asrar leaving and turning his full attention to Touching Voids, Smith Westerns seem to have taken this obstacle in their stride. Max Kacakek effortlessly switches between delivering jaunty synths to melding sublime guitar melodies, with his solo during the climax of ‘White Oaf’ providing the highlight of the night. ‘My Heart’ gets a welcome airing, as it stomps along recalling their youthful exuberance of the early days, and is perhaps their best ode to the punk-indebted history of the 100 Club. Even a broken string isn’t enough to ruin their triumphant turn, as a flurry of their most wellknown songs round of proceedings nicely, with ‘Varsity’ acting as their victory lap giddying the audience into even further admiration. Smith Westerns performance is testament to the quote that “the best things in life are worth waiting for”.
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music • traams
TRAAMS words by cleo greaves • photography by james kendall
Pebble caught up with Leigh and Adam of TRAAMS on the last leg of their tour to chat about what’s next for the trio Ever wondered what the result of three guys with a love of garage punk-rock and a passion for aviation acronyms meeting in a nightclub in Chichester would be? Enter band du jour, TRAAMS. “We sort of had a chat about starting a band a long time ago but nothing really happened. Leigh went to Huddlesfield Uni and we sort of spread apart,” explains Adam, as he jumps out of their modest van, drum kit balancing in his arms. “It was Liam’s birthday and he was like ‘Oh, come listen to this album’, so we sat in the car and ending up saying ‘let’s start a band’.” Before TRAAMS, frontman Stu tried his hand at DJing, and it was at one of his nights (at the bizarrely named Chichester nightclub Goo) that he met Leigh. “We’d played in
click here to listen to TRAAMS
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music • traams
bands before, but he just wanted to DJ for a bit so we just knew him as the ‘StuGoo’, you know?” Leigh laughs as he takes a sip from his Heineken, preparing for the long evening ahead. Recording Grin was a rather unique process for a debut album. The closing song, ‘Klaus’ was recorded in 2011; whereas some of the songs were saved on to a mobile phone and then re-recorded in the studio. “It’s just like the classic story of like, we had two years to write an album we didn’t even know we were writing until like six months ago,” says Leigh. “The EP and the album are from the same sessions.” The live experience is something that worried the band when writing the album, as Leigh is happy to admit, “We’re conscious when we write like, ‘will people be able to dance to that?’ because that’s what
we enjoy most at live shows, people jumping around and having a good time.” It’s clear that there really is no rest for a band on tour, as Leigh and the boys begin another pint at just gone 6pm. Despite this being still an early gig for the boys, who admit they haven’t toured much, the positive reception to Grin is enough to give them the confidence they need. “We managed to get a lot of gigs off the back of other people being really positive about our live shows. So we were hoping that we would be able to transfer that on to the record as well and yeah, it’s been great.” This isn’t the last we’ll be hearing from TRAAMS this year, as Adam exaplins that we should all be keeping our ears open in the near future, “We’ve got an album pretty much written. We write quite fast, so we’ve had most of it for quite a while now.”
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food & drink • recipes
fall favourites These simple dishes make the most of autumn’s finest ingredients to tickle those taste buds recipes by briana millett photography by charlotte dart
Cheesy mushrooms Serves four Ingredients
Method
4 large field mushrooms
1. Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas Mark 6. Arrange the mushrooms on a baking tray, place a knob of butter on each mushroom and scatter over the cheese and seasoning.
100g crumbled Gorgonzola Salt and pepper Knob of butter Rocket leaves
2. Cook for 10 minutes until the cheese is melted and mushrooms soft. Serve on a bed of rocket.
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food & drink • recipes
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food & drink • recipes
Aubergine bake Serves four
Ingredients
Method
For the tomato sauce For the tomato sauce 1 onion 2 garlic cloves 1 tin of chopped tomatoes Salt Pepper Mixed Herbs
For the bake 2 large aubergines Flour Salt and Pepper 200g sliced mozzarella 200g grated parmesan
minutes on each side.
3. Preheat the oven to 190C/Gas Mark 5. Put a thin layer of the tomato sauce at the bottom of a casserole dish. Place a layer of 2. Add the seasoning aubergine slices on and tomatoes, top and cover with simmer for 30 more tomato sauce. minutes and set to Add another layer one side. of aubergine slices and top with more For the bake tomato sauce. 1. Slice the 4. Add the slices of aubergine and salt. Leave in a colander mozzarella onto the dish and sprinkle for 30 minutes for with Parmesan. the water inside of them to drain. 5. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes. Cut 2. Heat up a pan with 2-3 tablespoons into squares and of olive oil. Coat the serve. aubergine slices in flour and fry the slices for a few 1. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil and add the diced onions and crushed garlic until soft.
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food & drink • recipes
Toffee apple shortbread
Ingredients
Method
110g butter
1. For the biscuit base cream together the butter and sugar. Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4. Sift in the flour and use your hands to work into a doughlike mixture.
40g caster sugar 175g plain flour 100g eating apples 450g bottle of Carnation caramel
200g milk chocolate 2. Spread the mixture evenly into a greased 17cm x 27cm x 4xm tin. Bake for 20 minutes. Allow to cool. 3. Scatter over the sliced apples and add the caramel. Chill in the fridge for 1 hour. 4. Melt the chocolate and pour over the apples. Spread evenly and chill in the fridge for a further hour.
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tea & cake pebble’s newest profile of a cafe favourite is the ideal place to put your feet up
food & drink • tea & cake
The venue It’s no secret that Pebble’s a fan of all things independent, but coffee#1 is perhaps the one exception to the rule – a cutesy chain that’s managed to keep an independent and homely feel despite having just over 30 branches in the South West. The product Coffee lovers won’t be disappointed with the standard of coffee#1’s cappuccinos or lattes but there’s plenty on offer for those who prefer something a little different. Their white hot chocolate or warm apple and cinnamon drinks are the perfect winter warmers to go alongside
a tempting tasty treat, from chocolate crunches to mini cake squares coffee#1 is sure to make you ditch the diet. While you’re there Depending on which branch you visit you could end up getting sandy feet on Bournemouth’s beach, taking a short stroll to Exeter’s cathedral or browsing through Cirencester’s beautiful boutiques. A full list of stores is available at www.coffee1.co.uk Perfect for Losing track of time chatting with friends or getting lost in a good book.
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food & drink • tea & cake
let’s talk about toast
Spice up your morning with some forward thinking and surprisingly easy to make toast toppers recipes by briana millett photography by charlotte dart
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food & drink • toast
Blackberry jam Ingredients
Method
200g blackberries
1. Place the blackberries, water and lemon juice in a 4. Raise the heat pan. Heat on a high and bring to boil for heat until they come about 10-12 minutes. to the boil. 5. Place the mixture 2. Lower the heat in a sterilised jar and simmer for 10-15 and enjoy. The minutes. jam should last for around a month at room temperature.
50ml water Juice of half lemon 200g sugar
3. Add the sugar and stir over a low heat until fully dissolved.
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food & drink • toast
Peanut butter Ingredients 500g dry roasted peanuts
Method
1. Place all the ingredients into the food processor Sprinkling of salt and process until the nuts release Tablespoon of vegetheir natural oils table oil and the mixture becomes creamy. Make sure to scrape down the sides of
the bowl every 1-2 minutes to ensure all the peanuts are processed evenly.
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food & drink • toast
Chocolate and hazelnut spread Ingredients
Method
225g hazelnuts
1. Preheat oven to 190C/Gas mark 5. Place the hazelnuts onto a baking tray and roast for around 15 minutes, until dark 3. Add the icing brown. Allow to cool. sugar, cocoa powder and salt and process 2. Remove the skins until fully mixed. of the hazelnuts and Spread on some place in the food toast and enjoy. processor. Process
1 cup icing sugar 1/2 cup cocoa powder Pinch of salt
until the natural oils are released, ensuring to scrape down the sides of the bowl every few minutes.
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Thanks for joining us. See you in 2014
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