+ ISSUE 11 AUGUST 2016
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’ TRIP IN P
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FEATURING CRYSTAL CASTLES, TOBACCO, ANIMAL COLLECTIVE, & MORE!
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NEED SOMETHING TO LISTEN TO WHILE READING THIS? SCAN NOW AND CHILL OUT!
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st MAG // WHERE GOOD MUSIC REACHES GOOD PEOPLE!
STAFF
EDITOR's NOTE:
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF/ART DIRECTOR & FOUNDER
Enjoy our newest issue. We are really proud to present our brand new design that we’ve all been working hard on. I couldn’t be more thankful of the Sailor’s Talk team for all their hard work and dedication on this one. We are looking sharper than ever and I’m extremely excited to see what we have in store in the future.
JAKE LAHAH
JAKE@SAILORSTALKZINE.COM
MANAGING EDITOR/A&R REPRESENTATIVE ALEXA FRANKOVITCH
ALEXA@SAILORSTALKZINE.COM
DESIGN ASISTANT
- Jake Lahah
TIFFANY CHACON
EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS
BROOKE LEE, CAITLYN WILLARD, DYLAN LENTON, KAMNA TALWAR, KRIS KOELEWIJN, PENELOPE MARTINEZ, RICK BEAULIEU, RYAN STACEY
Thanks to AMY SCIARRETTO, AUSTIN GRISWOLD, BIG PICTURE MEDIA, BIZ3, ENTER SHIKARI, FOUR YEAR STRONG, GHOST TOWN, LORI GUTMAN, MARIA GIRONAS, MIKE CUBILLOS, RECKLESS SERENADE, REY ROLDAN, SILVER SNAKES, VANNA, VANS WARPED TOUR AND MOST IMPORTANTLY... YOU!
FOLLOW US ON /sailorstalkzine
@sailorstalkzine @sailorstalkzine Website: sailorstalkzine.com
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TABLE OF CONTENTS COPPED 6 #NeedsMoreSarcasm 9 ST Visuals - A Closer Look At Vans Warped Tour 10 Reviews 26 Reckless Serenade - Making Your Mark 30 Four Year Strong - Merry Christmas 32 Ghost Town - Art, Community, & Creepy Monsters 34 Enter Shikari - UK Genre Boundary Breakers 36 Silver Snakes - Politics & Personal Expression 42 VANNA - A Product That Has Two Meanings 48 Fans To Family - Mosh Pits and Thangs 60
PHOTO BY ALEXA FRANKOVITCH
st MAG // WHERE GOOD MUSIC REACHES GOOD PEOPLE!
CO PPE D
Who doesn’t like getting shit?
feature and photos by Alexa Frankovitch
Here at Sailor’s Talk, we love all things music - we love jamming out at concerts and listening to new albums, we love taking photos and writing articles and finding quality content to make your eyes and ears happy. But we love other things too. Like plates. Before I moved away to college, I took a trip to Target with my mom to pick up the essential things anyone living on their own needs - bed sheets, cleaning supplies, a Costco-sized box of granola bars, and dishware. We bought styrofoam cups and bowls - mainly because washing dishes is difficult when you share a bathroom with 46 other women - but as I picked my way through aisles of ceramics and Ikea magazines full of pretty cutlery, I wondered why in the world I needed to pay $60 for a set of white plates I didn’t really like and would probably break anyway. So I went to Goodwill, and thus began my journey of collecting beautiful dishes. Chances are, if you are a human who lives in a city or uses the internet, you are constantly pegged with advertisements for nice things that you can’t afford or don’t need. I walk past Anthropologie once a week and while I love looking at all of their pretty homeware, heck no I’m not paying $30 for a butter dish, are you kidding me? Who would do that? Instead, thrift shops are my jam: I can find beautiful mugs made in Poland in 1920 that someone donated from their grandmother’s collection. I can find books I never knew existed, cool denim jackets, and coffee tables that with a little bit of paint can look better than anything Urban Outfitters sells - and it will never cost more than $20. Guys, if you don’t browse through local thrift stores or consignment shops, I beg the question: why not? Because they’re cheap? Heck yeah they are, that’s what makes them so cool. You can find some serious gems for little to nothing that no one else will ever have. Because they’re dirty? No, they’re dusty but let’s be honest, your house probably is too. Because you’re too uppity for that? Fine, I don’t want to be your friend anyway and I will not be sharing this box of 50 cent vinyl records with you. If you still don’t believe me, just let me show you what you’re missing. There’s a dozen shops in my city alone and I promise they’re cooler than anything a mall has to offer.
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This past week I went to a little place down the road from my apartment called “Neighborhood Consignment.” Very creative, I know. The place was run by the most hilarious little 80-year-old woman who talked a mile a minute and took down sale records in a notebook because she didn’t know how to use any of the cashier technology. The shop was the size of someone’s living room, but it was jam-packed with a treasure trove of stuff. There were shelves of gorgeous teapots, an old red Schwinn bicycle and wooden record player, a box of tattered comic books, and a set of orange velvet chairs that I absolutely would have bought if I had any way of getting them home. Instead, I snagged a set of four of the prettiest porcelain teacups, an old children’s book that explained astronomy via Star Wars characters, and of course, a beautiful plate. Guess how much I spent: $18. What a splurge. There are over 25,000 second-hand shops in the United States alone - that’s a lot of stuff my friends, that’s a lot to be copped. And I will buy it all for you. Thrifting forever. ~
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COMING SOON
10.25.16
I t ’s a s e c re t . . .
# NEEDS MORE SARCASM
DON’T WORRY, OUR WRITER DYLAN WILL SAY IT
In a general sense, we all know that remakes, sequels, and reboots will generally never be as ‘good’ as the original. I recently went to go see the new Ghostbusters movie and I’ll be honest, the first thing I did when I got home was watch the original as God intended it to be seen – on Netflix in the company of questionable fast food choices. I followed up that questionable life choice with another one and read various comments and hashtags online to narrow down the main things that have caused people to assault on classic film: i.e. they shouldn’t have changed the male cast to female, it wasn’t funny, and chemtrails. Now I want to make one point super clear at this moment – I don’t really find Bill Murray that funny. Conceptually, I should like Bill Murray: he’s unapologetically sarcastic and dry on and off screen. Really he should be my comedic idol, however I’ve never particularly enjoyed his films. That being said, I think I told myself I liked Bill Murray for a long time because of those reasons and his popularity. If you don’t think Bill Murray is funny, you’re an idiot according to internet memes, including that one time Bill ate your cousin’s fry and told him no one would believe him. I’m 25 now so I’m not as much of an idiot as I once was, and I won’t pretend to like something I don’t – except when my grandmother gifts me Shakespeare on cassette tape. That being said, I don’t think most of the people upset about this whole Ghostbusters thing have even watched Ghostbusters. Here’s some real talk: Bill Murray was the only remotely funny thing in the original, he also was the only person who didn’t take a giant turd on the acting portion of the job, and I even like Dan Akyroyd! Don’t believe me? Re-watch it and send me the moments you think are hilarious, I’ll look them up. Compare that to the remake, every actress was a successful standup comedian before making waves in TV & Film; these ladies are funny people. I will say that this wasn’t their shining moment, a lot the one-liners fell flat and the movie really dropped off at the end. However, I laughed hard, and it was clever and witty with lots of ‘gotcha!’ moments. I know that a lot of people point fingers back to Christopher Hitchens’ argument that women aren’t funny (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S692f1tnuQ). If you do that, I’ll tell you two things: quoting Christopher Hitchens doesn’t make you deep/replace the arts degree you flunked out of, and blanket misogynistic statements earn you zero internet points you digital ape; you shouldn’t be entertaining him in this argument while he says that women can’t be funny unless they’re being butch or sexual. This movie features female characters that do neither and guess what: still funny. Is it a good movie? Probably not, but I would argue that it is entertaining. It’s entertaining in same way that I’ll keep scrolling through Instagram photos I’ve already looked at because I hate myself; I’m not stopping anytime soon but I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite thing to do. Now when it comes to chemtrails, I’d argue that the movie was made by the Russians to split the American people down the middle on issues of gender and humor. If so, that would explain the awkward dialogue – Putin definitely isn’t the world’s greatest at English but he passes the test. All in all, get your head out of your butt, it’s 2016. We haven’t had much for original concept films in the last 10 years and you turds keep going to the theaters and buying it up so they’ll keep making sequels and reboots. ~
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st VISUALS We sent our photo team out to Vans Warped Tour this year. Capturing over five dates of this years tour, we ended up seeing some major things. From catching PVRIS’ surprise performance to photographing old schoolers Sum 41, this summer was action packed with some of the tour’s best performers. PHOTOS BY THE ST PHOTO CREW
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ICE NINE KILLS // PHOTO BY JAKE LAHAH
st VISUALS
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PVRIS // PHOTO BY TIFFANY CHACON
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WHITECHAPEL // PHOTO BY JAKE LAHAH
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MAYDAY PARADE // PHOTO BY ALEXA FRANKOVITCH
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VEIL OF MAYA // PHOTO BY RYAN STACEY
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st VISUALS
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I SEE STARS // PHOTO BY RYAN STACEY
st VISUALS
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WATERPARKS // PHOTO BY ALEXA FRANKOVITCH
VOLUMES // PHOTO BY ALEXA FRANKOVITCH
st VISUALS
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AGAINST THE CURRENT // PHOTO BY TIFFANY CHACON
st VISUALS
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ICE NINE KILLS // PHOTO BY RYAN STACEY
st MAG // WHERE GOOD MUSIC REACHES GOOD PEOPLE! REVIEW BY ALEXA FRANKOVITCH
Emarosa - 131 Released via Hopeless Records on 7.8.16
Creating an album is an art. That seems almost redundant to say as music is a form of art everyone is familiar with, but actually curating an album that tells a story, flowing effortlessly and evoking sharp emotions, is incredibly difficult and lives few and far between. So often, artists build an album with songs that can be shuffled together, skipped through, and mixed in with playlists of similar sounding tunes. 131 is not that album. Beginning with an almost angelic a’capella harmony that jumps suddenly, head-first into the cymbal-crashing, ear-piercing, heart-breaking sound that is oh-so familiar of this band, Emarosa’s newest album, 131, literally made my jaw drop at the start. When the band released the first single, “Cloud 9” a few months back, I knew we were in for a treat with this record, but I truly did not expect this. From the first note to the last, 131 is an emotional rollercoaster that will leave you breathless. Beginning with “Hurt,” you are immediately hit with an apology: “If you’re hurt, I’m sorry; But that’s what I’ve been through and; I’m lonely, ‘cause I need you.” There is a clear battle running through the songs – hopeless abandon, hopeful redemption, and so many words that couldn’t be said aloud, but are sung instead. “Miracle” and “Helpless,” two other previously released singles, fit into the lineup like perfectly crafted puzzle pieces. “Never” is a touching melody that features the vocals of lead-singer Bradley Walden’s wife, and “Porcelain” may truly bring a tear to your eye with its humbling words of genuine, selfless love. 131 ends with “Re:,” a stunning piece of its own accord. The song begins with a drum beat and guitar riff that, even out of context, sound like the approach to the end of something big. It layers lyrics from other songs on the album to build one final war of emotions that pulses through you like blood in your veins. The five-and-a-half minute song builds with force until the last 60 seconds when it melts away with the two lines that entrancingly began the album: “I don’t mind where you’re going; The remedy, the remedy’s the same…” With multiple changes in the band’s member line-up and the release of each of their four studio albums, Emarosa has worked to make each release different, creating a record that defines who they are at that moment in time. 131 completely blows away any former sentiments, distinguishing themselves from the pack entirely. Musically and lyrically the entire piece is deeply layered, bursting with emotion, and in so many words, perfect. From track one to track eleven, Emarosa’s 131 is a beautifully curated, effortless album. They’ve created a piece of art and that only comes around once in a while.
VI E WS
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PHOTO BY ALEXA FRANKOVITCH
REVIEW BY DYLAN LENTON
Night Verses - Into The Vanishing Light Released via Equal Vision Records on 7.8.16
Into the Vanishing Light is like David Bowie decided he wanted to play some form of hybrid hardcore, prog, metal.. genre. It’s hard to classify this album because there isn’t a lot of comparisons, every song stands out unique to the other. From the ripping opening track “The Future As History: I Love You Dead” which has frenetic instrumentation and dynamics, as well as screams to howls to singing and back. It then shifts from pure raw passion to subtle laid back atmosphere building to the next section. Tracks like “Vantablac”’ evoke a spacy feel, a haunting melody with pop sensibilities. For a sample of their strong musical chops and influences check out “Blue Shades of the Sun”, any attempt to describe the track would fall short of its impressive execution. What draws many to Night Verses is the virtuoso skill sets of all the members, despite being a four piece using no backing tracks, is that they always sound massive live and on the albums. No matter what instrument you play every musician on this album brings their A-Game with something you’ve probably never seen or heard before. The first time I heard about Night Verses was when they were going to be opening on a tour I was working with. I watched 10 seconds of a Youtube clip and decided I probably wouldn’t mind hearing them every night. I was horribly wrong. I loved hearing them every night; few bands bring energy like these guys do and it shone through their debut album Lift Your Existence, which had to be one of the most unique and challenging albums I’ve ever listened to. This album is no different, despite in many ways being completely different. All that to be said, it’s clear to feel the influences of Tool, Glassjaw, Deftones, and other bands who define genres and movements where they often themselves change from album to album. As much as this album is by Night Verses, I would be stupid to forget the huge influence of having legendary Ross Robinson on board for this album. If you don’t know who he is, look at the albums he’s produced. Fear Factory, Korn, Sepultura, Limp Bizkit, Norma Jean, Slipknot, Glassjaw, Form First to Last are some of them (if you’re reading this magazine you probably liked or still like one of those bands) and a lot of those bands defined their genres for a long time. Night Verses took a huge risk in taking such an experimental direction with their music. That being said, this album is going to be one people are going to be talking about for a long time. Not dark for the sake of being dark, not experimental for the sake of being experimental, but rather, it’s a piece of art. We’re in a stagnant post-modern age of heavy music and it’s about time we as listeners have something that is as raw as it is real.
PHOTO BY TIFFANY CHACON
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FLUME - Skin Released May 27th, 2016 Future Classic
CLASSIXX - Faraway Reach Released June 3rd, 2016 Future Classic
CROWN THE EMPIRE Retrograde Released July 22nd, 2016 Rise Records
ZHU - Generationwhy Released July 29th, 2016 Columbia Records
Introducing, Skin, an album with a dark synthesizing instrumental, the flow of artist Flume attracts you with the force of perfect melodies. The entire 16 track full-length LP immediately creates a story of a relaxing, yet sexy vibe in the first few songs. As you run through track 6, “Wall Fuck”, the energy shifts to an upbeat rhythm that pumps up the volume. You start to wonder what Flume was trying to imagine in the first half of this song, but the louder it gets, and the more you listen to the repetitiveness, you get a sense of motion through your body.
Faraway Reach is a futuristic electronic album with strong dynamics. From start to finish it’s a fresh head-bopping experience. If you’re someone who loves CHVCHES but wants a little more from the musical aspect but not go full EDM, then this is an album for you. Filled with little drops and catches without losing continuity it’s a fun album if you need some background music or something to listen to intently. A fun surprise on the album was having T-Pain featured on the track “Whatever I Want” in a way that’s refreshing and not as over the top as the songs he broke into the scene with. This is a great album to throw on if you’re trying to impress that new person you’re dating. You’re going back to your apartment for the first time, it’ll either make your nice apartment seem chic or your dumpy apartment seem adventurous. (whatever works right?) Like the name suggests, Classixx have released something that is easily a new classic album for our electronic music scene. [Dylan Lenton]
Crown The Empire’s Retrograde reaches a new level of ingenuity and breaches a new industrial world. It’s as if the band has had a voice deep down that they’ve been meaning to discover that has been lost.
What may seem as just a batch of house songs, ZHU’s Generationwhy is much more sophisticated than that. This album is created using a wide range of instrumentals that challenge the motives of what house music is. It becomes way more experiential and ambient other than being a collection of club bangers that everyone has heard.
Flume introduces a lot of artists you may have found via radio or social media. Some of the talent featured in this album includes AlunaGeorge, Vic Mensa, Vince Staples, and even Beck. The vocals of all songs featuring an artist attracts such a hard appreciation to the status of Flume’s creations. An example where Flume does that beyond his expectations is “Smoke & Retribution (feat. Vince Staples & Kučka)”. The deepness of Staples and the angelic-ness of Kučka has such a beautiful balance to not only the sound, but the lyrics. Skin goes out to anyone ready to hear something different and equal flow from a musician that uses breathtaking visuals. The cover of this seductive album says it all. [Tiffany Chacon]
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Tracks like “Are You Coming With Me?” and “Signs of Life” have small intricate fills that are a bit on the industrial side. Songs like “Zero” and “Lucky Us” are a bit grimmer in tone on the converse. The tracks overall speak a wide range of tones moving back and forth from the ambient to the aggressive. The album itself compared to previous releases make the transition from the dramatic stage play to a more experiential like listen. It is more ambient, and something you can get lost into. [Jake Lahah]
These are definitely tracks you wouldn’t hear from some unknown Soundcloud user. But the songs of the album don’t get too experimental and are relatively linear. It’s not a bad thing though, as the focus of the album is understanding the beat and feeling the music rather than feeling lost or confused. Easily comparable to Jamie xx’s In Color, Generationwhy is just a more chic version of it. It’s something you might catch at a club or on late night radio of a top 40’s station. [Jake Lahah]
COME TO THE
DARK SIDE + WE DO COOL SHIT!
+ WE ARE LOOKING FOR TALENTED WRITERS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS TO JOIN OUR TEAM
+ EMAIL JAKE@SAILORSTALKZINE.COM FOR CONSIDERATION
st MAG // WHERE GOOD MUSIC REACHES GOOD PEOPLE!
MAKING YOUR MARK...
has always been somewhat of a difficult thing to do in the music industry. Countless times bands come together and fall off the charts due to failure. For the five-piece group Reckless Serenade hailing from Mahopac, New York, failure wasn’t an option as the band embarked their first time ever on the Vans Warped Tour. With the release of their album Strange Soul, the group has proved that they’ve made their mark. Strange Soul was released this past June via In Vogue records. “I think we were trying to make this our most serious release yet,” vocalist Corey Brent stated. “We always love to bounce around musically experimenting with genres, but I feel like it is important to have a strong message about the music.” Strange Soul touches on concepts of love and what it means on a more personal level. It takes you on a journey allowing the listener to relate to it on a personal and public level.
“This whole release was about what makes up your own strange soul and dealing with anxiety. It’s really about trusting and appreciating yourself before you can become what you really want to become,” Brent remarked. “I’ve gone from writing very personal songs about my own experiences. But I feel like a lot of times I try to make them general enough so people take one important lesson from it that will be a universal or society thing. There are songs off it like ‘Fool’s Gold’ which is very society based talking about how everything is so picture perfect and it’s not really how things are meant to be.” This release was unlike many of the others for the band since they often take the time to write differently each time.
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“I think we always try writing music differently each time. For me, I’ll either go from writing on a guitar or trying new melodies first. I think a lot of that will change how a song comes out. We are never afraid to write different types of music. But I think My Chemical Romance is one of the biggest influences so I get that people see some theatrics in it,” Brent explained. Guitarist Neidhardt stated in an essence, “We have pop-punk roots and then we just try to spread out everywhere else genre wise.” Part of that success has to do with their diverse music tone; however, this release has been a kick ass journey for them. With the debut of Strange Soul and their experience on Warped Tour, it has been eye opening for Reckless Serenade. Really understanding their potential as a band, they are humble from what they have done and where they can go. “We have been hoping to be on this tour since we’ve started playing music,” Brent stated.
“It’s the kind of thing where you spend so much time in a band that people are not really caring what you are doing,” Neidhardt remarks. “But when you start to get on something like this people are like ‘Oh wow! They are actually doing something for real and it’s not like some joke.’” For as humble and hardworking as the band is, they’ve clearly created an impression. But Reckless Serenade’s journey has just begun, and they have a long way to go before they can be considered an all-star. ~
STORY AND PHOTO BY JAKE LAH
AH
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MERRY
S A M T S CHRI WITH
PHOTO BY RYAN STACEY // STORY
BY KAMNA TALWAR
The morning of Warped Tour is full of excitement and anticipation. Waking up early, lathering on sunscreen in preparation for the bright day ahead, and packing essential items like Sharpies for when you run into your favorite band members and extra battery packs just in case your phone gets low in the middle of the day all add up to your already overflowing eagerness. You get in line and wait for what seems like an eternity while planning out which bands you want to see and what merch you want to pick up, creating a mental wish list in your mind. The anxiety of not knowing what time each band will play until after you get through the gates is equally exhilarating and terrifying. Finally, you are in and grab a schedule, and you frantically start laying out what is going to be the best day of the year: Vans Warped Tour.
“We wanted it to be red, and we already knew we were making Hawaiian shirts,” explained O’Connor. “I was like, ‘If we wear the Hawaiian shirts and then have the theme be Christmas, we can walk out to Mele Kalikimaka – it sells itself!’ And everybody [thought] that sounds hilarious and fun.”
The summer festival is truly like a holiday for most fans. One band that brought that holiday cheer to the tour is Four Year Strong. Their Christmas-themed stage setup with snowmen and candy canes and Winter Wonderland merch tent definitely added a unique aspect to Warped Tour that evoked nostalgia and good feels as well as a sense of cool December weather in the midst of the summer heat.
In the true giving spirit of Christmas, there is a charitable cause behind Santa. Every person who has been Santa signed the pants, and the pants will be auctioned away after the tour, with all profits being donated.
The lighthearted holiday theme fit perfectly with Four Year Strong as they are all fans of Christmas, and the scrims that read “WHO CARES?” written in snow tied their music and personality together with this setup. The whole Christmas idea was a product of an eightminute conversation between the group in a hotel room. “It first started with us saying that we wanted a red backdrop, and we were trying to figure out what we were going to do on our backdrop,” said guitarist and frontman Dan O’Connor. One thing that Four Year Strong is already known for on Warped is wearing Hawaiian shirts that are custom-made each year and incorporate pieces of the members in the design. Pairing the Hawaiian shirts that they are recognized for with a wintery holiday theme seems a little random at first, but they made it work in a smooth and ingenious way.
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Like any proper Christmas celebration, it wouldn’t be complete without Santa Claus, who made a cameo appearance every day during “Go Down In History.” “We have a different Santa every day,” explained O’Connor. “We try to have someone come from the tour, like random people in bands have been Santas, random people who work on the tour have been Santas. We just try to get a lot of people,” he said.
“We’re going to auction off the whole suit signed by everybody who’s Santa, and we’re going to donate the money to a Toys For Tots organization,” said O’Connor. “We thought it would be cool because, you know, those Toys For Tots organizations don’t get a lot of money [when it’s] not around the holidays. So we figured this is a cool way to give them some offseason contributions.” With Warped Tour freshly over as of August 13, stay tuned to the band’s social media accounts for auction details. Four Year Strong is currently in Canada for five dates before returning to the States. They will then support Good Charlotte with The Story So Far on their rager of a fall tour, with Four Year Strong hopping on for the first few weeks of November. Consider this tour an early Christmas present and pick up tickets while they last! ~
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STO RY BY JAK E LAH AH // INTE RVIE W & PHO TO BY TIFFANY CHA CON
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For many bands, their album art is just a reflection of their record. For Ghost Town, they’ve crafted an album that follows exactly their lifestyle and what they stand for as a band. Having three studio albums out, with their newest album being Evolution released via Fueled by Ramen, and the band finishing their second run on the Vans Warped Tour, the band has definitely gone through what could be seen as a metamorphosis. Their most recent album was designed by the artist Alister Dippner. “It’s damn near a perfect representation of what we are from audibly to visually,” vocalist Kevin Ghost explained. “It’s almost a perfect representation, and the cool thing is we didn’t just decide we’re going to do a new album and find this artist who killed it with this artwork. He’s literally been there since day one.” Ghost Town is known for having this horror like aesthetic. Having artwork based on ideas of Halloween pop-culture, it reflects the content and context of them both musically and personality wise. This open relationship the band has with their artist is sort of dynamic that has contributed to their visual success. “He’s been there from the first song we ever put out. Since then he’s made an album cover for every single song we’ve ever done. Sometimes a song will start first and then the artwork comes after, or sometimes the artwork will come first and it inspires a song. It’s more proof for us that this is a big representation of an audible and visual relationship,” Ghost stated. Being an artist that differs from the rest visually and in style, the band has been under the radar and for criticism for their unique and engaging tone many times. Their most recent album, is fueled by the concept of community and acceptance. “Its something that I feel that every single person can relate with, from one extreme to the next,” Ghost stated. “I don’t know. For me personally, growing up I was one of the only people in my group of friends that was actually into this type of music, and just really related with this spectrum of the rock scene. And when I felt super different from them or whatever, that void was filled through with this music.”
Having that comfort zone and creating a space that is open to expression is what the bands strives to do and is part of their personal success and fulfillment. “We really strive to spread the message of never settling for less and never conforming to these stupid boundaries that we think we have to live by,” Ghost explained about their message. “You don’t have to live by that boundary, and it’s okay if that doesn’t work for you. We don’t want to be too cliché about that shit, but it means something to us.” But their newest album is not solely centered around the message. It is a transformation of their sound showing a new developed Ghost Town. “If you just listen to it, you know there’s an audible difference. But it’s definitely, no pun-intended, an evolution in our sound,” guitarist Alix Koockaki explained. “Coming from a super electronic sound to feeling a little more of the band coming into its own as a band. After touring for three-and-a-half, almost four years now and us playing together nearly 365 days a year, you start to get a feel of where each one of us lies and sits in the band.” One of the biggest contributing factors to the bands success with Evolution was the bands ability to really sit in and focus in on the art behind it. “We had Josh Abraham produce this album and up until this point it had all been self-produced, self-mixed, all that stuff. So for us to kind of be able to take the seat as the ‘artist’ and not so much on the technical side, it allowed us to get immersed a little bit more in the music rather than worrying about all the technical things; which can kind of take away from the magic sometimes,” Koochaki stated. The amount of effort put into Evolution really shows how much time and emphasis the band put into creating a record that is for fans showing a more centralized and unified Ghost Town. You could easily say the band has discovered their sound through a process of experience, but a large portion of their success is from their artistic craftsmanship and the culture they’ve created. They’ve created a world that is a community of acceptance and creepy monsters, that is a visual pulse unlike any other band out there. ~
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UK GENRE
BOUNDARY BRE
AFR AN KO VIT CH STO RY & PHO TOS BY ALE X
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EAKERS
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An empty venue is an anomaly. A tall building, usually filled to the brim with loud voices and sticky bodies and excited energy is hollow save for big black speakers and winding cords leading to nothing. A handful of people wander about, opening cases and setting up equipment, completely removed from the anticipation outside. And with dozens of people already lined up just beyond the wide steel doors, inside is where I sat with Rob Rolfe, drummer of British rock/punk band Enter Shikari. “I’ve had times where I’m so exhausted. I’ll be on the sofa in the dressing room asleep five minutes before we’re meant to go on, but as soon as you get out there the adrenaline kicks in,” Rolfe said, sipping a cup of tea. “The audience is shouting and the lights are flashing and the noise is pounding in your ears. I’m wacking away at the drums and your heartbeat gets up; it’s all sort of adrenaline really.” Crew members roamed around us, unpacking cases and snacking on donuts from the local bakery for a sugar boost. Touring every day for months on end can feel monotonous and tiring, and the drain of the tour was evident as we sat at our bar stools just hours before their final show of The Mindsweep Tour. But that fatigue was not without exhilaration and happiness that they have just travelled across the entire United States for the 22nd time in their career, playing music in dozens of cities for thousands of people. “Nowhere else in the world can you be on tour for two months and still have not gone to every city. We’ve gotten to know some places pretty well and we’ve been here so many times we’ve built up good friendships over here, so it’s nice that in quite a few of the cities our friends will come and see us. It kind of makes the tour feel not so far away from home.” Beyond their two dozen trips to the U.S., Enter Shikari has travelled world wide to perform countless times during their 13 years as a band. Made up of Rou Reynolds, Chris Batten, Rob Rolfe, and Rory Clewlow, the latter three banded together in 1999 under the name Hybryd. In 2003, Clewlow joined the crew to create the experimentally adaptive rock group that is Enter Shikari. It’s a rarity in the music scene that bands will stick together for so long without members dipping in and out, but Enter Shikari is one of the few that have held true for over a decade. “Because we’ve grown up together, we kind of know each other so well we’ve gone beyond friendship now it feels like we’re family. We can get pissed off at each other all the time but you can get pissed off with your family and you still love them because they’re your brothers and sisters. We’ve gotten to know each other’s boundaries and got to know when we need to push
each other and when to give each other space. I think often when bands don’t work it’s because people are sort of being pushed together, maybe egos clashing and they haven’t known each other for that long. We’ve been playing since kids at five years old and we literally grew up around the corner from each other, we were friends before we got into a band. We’re very supportive of each other.” Support has been instrumental in the foundation of the band, helping not only keep everyone humble, but also keeping them innovative and inspired. Since their inception, Enter Shikari has been breaking boundaries, specifically within their genre. As Rolfe describes it, “The most basic way I say it is punk rock with a lot of electronic influence.” The band got its starts playing rock songs but as the electronic side began to grow into the music, fans began to latch on to the unique sound. “The great thing about being in this band is that there isn’t really any genre that we can’t play,” Rolfe says regarding the fluidity of their music. “You know in the middle of some songs we just bust out a little jazz improvisation piece.” And with the smooth flexibility of their music, they can, and do, jump between genres, appealing to a much larger audience. “I don’t think anyone can really say there’s any genre that they don’t like because there’s good and bad within all genres. You know, there’s some terrible rap music but the there’s some fantastic rap music, as well as terrible modern R&B as well as the classic R&B sort of back to the Motown days. So we can’t just say that we don’t like R&B because there’s good and bad. Basically there’s nothing that would ever really hold us back, we like to explore and get our teeth stuck into anything.” With lead vocalist, synthesizer, keyboardist, guitarist, and trumpeter (among other instruments) Rou Reynolds as the brain of the operation in most songwriting, inspiration can come from any direction. Rolfe says that there isn’t one specific thing that influences their songwriting, but often times Reynolds will listen to classical composers to find inspiration. These “classical” pieces that today seem so tried-and-true, were written once written as new, exciting, unconventional pieces, which is exactly what Enter Shikari aims to embody with their band. Rolfe says Reynolds often imagines how thoughts and ideologies were shaping music in the time period it was written, as well as how that music helped form culture, and how he can do the same today. He writes the instrumental portion of songs - guitar riffs, melodies, etc. - with nonsense lyrics, and then goes back and fills in the words with what he feels fiercely about in the moment.
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“The music that we write is very sort of energetic and passionate, especially when we’re on stage. And to keep that energy up, if we weren’t singing about something that we didn’t all feel passionate about it would kind of be lying to ourselves and we wouldn’t really put our hearts into it. Rou writes lyrics about things that affect us all and that he feels very strongly about, and I think the music reflects that.” Early last year, Enter Shikari released their fourth studio album, The Mindsweep, receiving universal acclaim and topping charts across the board. Later in the year, they released their first remix album, The Mindsweep: Hospitalized, under drum and bass label Hospital Records. “The great thing about it was that every producer that came out, each song that they were given has its own style and sound.” As a band with an already prevalent dance influence, Enter Shikari’s music lends well to dance genres, and has built up a list of previously remixed songs even before the release do The Mindsweep: Hospitalized. “Drum and bass is an umbrella genre and obviously has many sub genres within it and so the whole album has rollercoasters of things within it, emotions I guess you can call it. The same way the original album is up and down, some really quiet relaxing bits and some mad in your face bits. The drum and bass versions reflected that very nicely. We’re really excited about it.” As he finished up his last sips of tea we watched the crew setting up the stage, arranging mic stands and plugging in square LED panels. “We’ve been lucky enough, at least in Europe, that we can afford to put in the production that we’ve always wanted. We just did an arena tour a few months ago in the UK, huge productions with quadraphonic sounds – noises going all around people’s heads, lights going all around, and this huge screen in the back, so that’s been great fun. It’s difficult to keep up that level of popularity to afford to do that kind of thing because obviously, if you can’t sell the tickets you can’t afford to bring in the bigger production and the bigger shows. So if I could ask for anything, I’d say to hopefully keep that up and have America get up to that point. So often we put up videos of our European shows and these Americans are like ‘are you bringing that to the U.S.?’ and we’re like, ‘not when we’re playing in front of 200 people’ - maybe if in front of 2,000 people. It would be great to bring that to the US audience.” If the final show of “The Mindsweep Tour” was any indication of their overseas audience, they’ve got a bright outlook ahead. Even though the venue only held a few hundred people, it was jam packed with an audience more excited than typically seen at other shows. Enter Shikari has a full 2016 ahead of them, a music festival tour in the summer, supporting Crossfaith in Japan in September, headlining a tour in Australia, and capping it all off looking at recording their next album. “The cycle continues,” Rolfe says, laughing. With the final show having some technical mishaps, a stomach bug, and tired eyes all around, it was clear that the guys were excited to have a little break. But just weeks later, they were back at it again, clearly so happy to be in that cycle, and the fans worldwide are pretty excited about it too. ~
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S C I T I L O P &
PERSONAL EXPRESSION st | 42 - AUGUST 2016
PHOTOS BY TIFFANY CHACON //
STORY BY JAKE LAHAH
The music industry is sometimes a tricky thing to talk about. Over the past few years, the scene has become a large network that links non-profits to musicians. A web of ideas and political views is bound amongst fans and the music scene itself. Being in the “in crowd” has always been something the punk-rock scene has gone against. Diversity and individuality are strong values, and it becomes hard to look past those that may have a different opinion. Silver Snakes is one of those groups that thinks differently about what it means to be a musician in the scene. Last January, the four-piece rock group Silver Snakes released their cutting edge album Saboteur. Vocalist and guitarist Alex Estrada explains that the album is much more public in its content while keeping it up to the listener for interpretation. “Saboteur is a record literally about sabotage,” Estrada remarks. “It’s all about negativity, it’s all about doing things to push others down; to further yourself in your agenda. But it’s private in the sense that I want people to interpret that in their own way. It means one thing to me, it might mean something to someone else.” With contemporary art, there always comes the risk of someone interpreting something differently. In a market such as the music industry that is very public, listeners and fans rely on music as a means of guidance and often look up to musicians as role models. To Estrada, he believes that the level of responsibility musicians hold to society is variable from artist to artist. “I think that’s 100% up to the person,” Estrada says. “The last thing you need is for more stupid people giving their two cents on things. So if it’s someone that’s great on music but overall holds ignorant, stupid views, by all means just stick by it. You don’t owe anybody anything aside from just giving them your art if that’s what you want to do.” For Estrada, the notion of his message being heard is enough for his success. “I feel like since we’re in a position where we’re playing bigger audiences and even if they’re not hug - if 100 people or 10,000 people buy our record in the first week - the fact that I have my message in those songs means a lot to me, and I feel like a did a small part. I’ve been vegan for a long time and that plays a role in my lyrics and how I live day to day. So if i can get that through a couple people without forcing them, because that’s not how I am, then that’s great.” Aside from just spreading a message via music, Silver Snakes has more to say about being a musician in the punk-rock community. Recognizing what the flaws in the music scene are and the implications that are tied to it are something important for Silver Snakes. “I think punk/rock and the hardcore community are fantastic and it’s done a lot for us as people. One thing that we’ve encountered more and more with that - even though those communities really base their fundamentals on being welcoming (you know?) being all inclusive in all of this, they kind of draw a line as far as genre goes,” Estrada remarks. “So there’s a lot of types of styles that just aren’t welcome in the world.”
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Having first hand seen it being thrown around on tours that draw in very distinctive audiences, being booked on a Coheed and Cambria, Bring Me the Horizon, and letlive. tour all in 2016, Silver Snakes has been able to really take in the depth of this issue and how it applies to them as musicians. Having a history of playing smaller DIY type of shows, Estrada remarks, “Doing what we do, we want to play to mainstream audiences. We’ve cut our teeth for over a decade and different bands playing DIY spots and all these places that are great. I would love to do that a couple time a year and revisit those places and give back. We’re still real active in those communities - we’re vegan, still punk rock kids; but at the end of the day when we play to these mainstream crowds, I find that they’re in some ways more accepting of these different genres and types of people in the scene.” Diversity leads farther past just being a different sounding artist. It goes farther past just having a different message as well. The motives someone may have to write music is something that says a lot about the musician. “I feel like no one is going to go out there thinking that what they’re doing is unjust,” Estrada explains. “Making a living is a very credible concern, so bands that are considered sell-outs or whatever, at the end of the day they’re just trying to put food on the table and trying to make a living. I think when a band starts switching up their genre to fit what people want to hear, it’s the same way you can see politics. Some politics say what people want to hear, and it furthers their popularity or it turns away crowds. At the end of the day you have to sit back and see where it takes them. They’re doing their thing and everyone is their own person.” It’s the different and diverse viewpoints that Silver Snakes holds that makes them individualized. The punk-rock scene is something that can become very political especially with it becoming more diverse both in styles/genres, as well as beliefs. It has been all about sticking to your guns and never putting down your guard. Many bands use their lyrics as a major means of holding onto this; Silver Snakes on the other hand, goes far beyond that. ~
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A PRO D UCT T HAT HAS...
TWO M EAN S
STORY AND PHOTOS BY JAKE LAH
AH
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Writing a killer album isn’t so easy. Artists nowadays create albums based off of very deep personal standpoints that fans can create and make their own relationships with. It becomes something these fans can rely on and seek out for messages of comfort. The difficulty comes when an artist creates something that is for both the artist and the listener - VANNA is one of those bands, specifically with their most recent release as they talk about what it means to be in...
HELL!
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Five piece, Boston, Massachusetts group VANNA released their newest album All Hell via Pure Noise Records on July 8th, 2016. “It’s funny, we’ve been hyping it up so much,” lead vocalist Davey Muise remarked about the anticipation of this album. “I love using social media to connect to all of our fans and with everyone I can. So if you tweet about our band, I’m going to retweet it. If you Instagram about our band, we are going to like it or try to repost it. We just like to be interactive with everybody and it was CRAZY because I feel like I was ruining people’s twitter feeds for the last three months. I was just retweeting everyone.” With a release centered around the Camden, NJ date of this summer’s Vans Warped Tour, the response was overwhelming with the vast amount of people at VANNA’s signing. “For me, I don’t expect anything. I don’t expect one person to buy a CD,” Muise said. “All the stuff I write down and record is for me to let it out. It’s in my hopes that it will help other people out. Every person in our signing line bought a CD today. I kept track and every single person bought a CD. Kids are buying CDs even if they don’t have a CD player. They just wanted to buy it from us, which that means just so much. It’s so cool when people actually give a shit.”
The build up for All Hell has been exponential leading up to the release. Starting with the release of their first single “Pretty Grim” back in May, the band hyped up what turned about to be one of the most revolutionary albums in the post-hardcore scene. “For me, my hell has been probably my entire 20s,” Muise explained. “I’ve gone through a lot of stuff in my life and most of it has been self inflicted. It has been things that I put upon myself. Hell is not speaking to my parents for two years. Hell is staying confined to my bedroom other than leaving to eat food. Also for me, hell is watching kids not be welcomed in their own home. Hell is me watching kids get picked on in school and to not feel safe to be who they are. Hell to me is hiding your gender, sexuality, race, or age because you are afraid to be the person you are. That’s hell to me. I don’t want these kids to go through that.” All Hell is the album that defines what we as humans go on everyday on earth. It’s the release that talks about the existential nature of what hell is. To VANNA, this isn’t centered around the idea of some afterlife notion, but the actual real life experiences we go through as humans. “Hell is on earth!” Muise said. “I’m not talking about hell as in afterlife. This isn’t about heaven or hell or anything you believe in religiously. This is hell on earth. This is the things we are dealing with and going through. The track that the title of the album comes from, there is a line that says, ‘This is the sound when all hell comes crashing down.’ And that whole song is about how we’ve repeated this history of hate and non-acceptance. Haven’t we learned from everyone’s deaths and the destruction of government? Haven’t we learned from our mistakes? Hate doesn’t work, the only thing that works is love, that’s it!” To VANNA, hell is much more conceptual. It is not a constant, but rather something that is dynamic and exists everywhere.
“ALL HELL” AVAILABLE NOW VIA PURE NOISE RECORDS
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“H ELL IS A YOUR PAR E IS A P FEEL ACCEP HAVE TO TH ROUG H THAT’S
A HALLWAY. H ELL IS ENTS HOUSE. H ELL LACE YOU DON’T PTED THAT YOU FORCI BLY GO EVERYDAY. S H ELL.”
- DAVEY M UISE
The artwork of the release features a hand holding fire. “I hold my triumphs, my flaws, my failures, my victories, and everything that I am out for the world to see. I’ve done a lot of bad in my life,” Muise explained regarding the album artwork. “I’ve gone back and tried to say sorry and sometimes bridges are burned and that is it. My whole life goal now is to do good and put more good into the world than I put bad. I hold all of the hell I put myself through and have gone through and hold it in my hands. I don’t deny any of it and I won’t bury any of it. I keep it there and won’t snuff that flame. I keep that hell there because that keeps me burning on. That’s what keeps me continually moving and the same goes for my band. We live through our mistakes and everything. We are proud of everything we’ve been, and we hold that hell in our hands. The same should go for all these kids out there.” But this lead to an interesting viewpoint about the artwork: another valid interpretation of it is where we all feel anxiety. When going through our destined hell, we all get that moment or spot in our body where we can feel the anger, the outrage, and the fear that we may hold. For many people, we can feel it in our chests, our throats, our heads. For Muise, he feels it in his hands. “I actually feel it in my hands and that’s like another interpretation,” Muise explained. “A very big part of it is that I feel my hell in my hands and that’s why there is a hand in it. I’ve had an anger problem for years and that’s kind of where I feel it. Everything just goes to my hands. I want to destroy things that bring me down. And the way I deal with it is I write songs. I play shows and I go on tour. I get with these kids and that is my therapy. By you screaming these words at me and me screaming them back, that is my therapy.” That anger is fueled through the tracks of All Hell. The record is more than just a collections of songs. It becomes a motto or an anthem. The songs become much more relatable to the audience, and can really speak to the listener. “I feel like an anthem is anything that you could be like ‘that’s me!’ or something that you look at it and know it defines you in a three-minute song,” Muise remarked. “We wanted to write ten anthems that could be ten different sides of your personality, your life, your heart, or your head that can really maybe help define you. It’s kind of our job, we speak for the ones that can’t speak. We stand for the ones that can’t stand up. As far as anthems go this is ten anthems, you know what I mean?”
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The anthem “Mutter” was one of the newer tracks the band performed on this summer’s Vans Warped Tour. “We played “Mutter” today which is just an anthem for kids that are sick of being talked negatively about,” Muise said. “When I was writing this song, I was wondering what people want to do to every person that talks shit about you. For every person that tries to drag you down, you kind of just want to tell them to shut up. We just put it into a song and tell people to shut up in a song. That’s kind of the simplicity in all these songs; It’s just ten anthems for you to sort of adopt into your life.” Even these songs come from a humble heart though. Despite their adverse shows and aggressive tone, it doesn’t define their intentions and what they want from their fans. “Void was sort of my confessions to everything that I’ve ever lived through. Making All Hell was me being a survivor,” Muise stated. “It is about surviving all of these times and being proud of my mistakes, being proud of my triumphs and being proud of owning everything that I am.” Even making an impression on attendees is an important factor for the band. “I want these kids to own everything that they are. It’s okay if you’ve messed up in your life. Everyone has and you are going to continue to mess up. As long as you are striving to be the greatest person you can, that’s all I can really ask for.” VANNA is the perfect example of a band that has built a truly personal relationship with their fans, while also creating a demanding performance for fan interaction. For those who have never seen VANNA play live, the best way to describe it is purely raw and emotional. Jumping into the crowd and thrashing on stage are fairly common for VANNA. In a way, their show isn’t really a show at all - it’s a relic and impression of the band themselves and everything they stand for.
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“For us, there is no stage presence. There is no act. There is no live show. We are literally playing how we feel,” Muise stated. “I go back and watch videos because I almost like black out. I don’t see anybody in my band really. My guys are going crazy and I am going crazy and it’s like we just feel this. The fact of getting down off stage and getting into kids faces is to do exactly that. It’s to get in their face and let them know that I am standing on this pavement or club floor or these festival grounds with you, telling you that we are exactly the same.” But there is a purpose for this persona the band gives off. It’s an open invitation for fans to come in and interact with the group, and not always seen as a static and aggressive personality. “The aggression is part of life and I want kids to come here and let out their aggressive nature. I want them to get pissed. I want them to stomp. I want them to run around because I want them to go home and be happy. I want them to come home and have a smile and maybe have a nice approach to their friends and family. Maybe if you can come to a show and listen to a song and let out your anger, you can go home and make a better connection with your friends and your family members,” Muise said. “We care more about when you leave. When you leave what did you take from this and how do you feel? We always hope that fans passion connects with our passion. You can feel it. You just know it. When I step foot on that stage, it’s an instant that we are fused together for thirty minutes. That’s literally what I live for.” So maybe the private meets the heroic in this case. It’s not often you find a group that can make something extremely relatable to both the artist and the fans. All Hell is something that can easily be understood, and VANNA has crafted something that is merely about recognizing that this is who we are and this is what we go through as humanity. ~
FANY CHACON
FANS TO FAMILY:
STORY AND PHOTOS BY TIF
MOSH PITS AND THANGS
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Half way through Vans Warped Tour, there’s nothing more real than seeing the fans come together in the crowd as they watch their favorite bands perform. Of course, one of the most memorable moments of tours like these is remembering the times when all of your top idols, artists, screamers, drummers are on stage the same day. I had the opportunity to photograph the bands at Vans Warped Tour in Hartford, CT this year. At one point of the day, I knew I had to make time to catch some shots outside the photo pit. Through my half-day at Warped, my mind was set to run into the mosh pits with my camera equipment. I knew what I was getting myself into, but it was definitely worth getting hit. It was so important to me to catch the special moments of the people that make Warped happen: the fans that become a family.
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st MAG // WHERE GOOD MUSIC REACHES GOOD PEOPLE!
As I walked in to every photo pit, I faced the crowd first. My mission was to be inspired by the emotions of the people who waited and waited to be front row. There was no better feeling than seeing how pumped up the fans were to see their favorite band come out and perform. With much anticipation, no matter who came out to play next, every single voice screamed out ready to rock. From crowd surfing to mosh pits, the energy was at a high-level. I have never seen such a bond from strangers before. And it was incredible. Most of my time spent during Vanna’s set was in the mosh pit. You witnessed a range of ages coming together only to appreciate the music. Everyone came through to help one another get back up from a bad fall, or jumping together singing every word to their favorite song, and loving the bond between it all.
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Race, gender, sexuality had no importance when it came to being together in the pit. It was such a thrill seeing an older male (than most) join the pit during Vanna’s set. He probably rocked out more than a lot of the people out there. With amount of dedication and joy people had, all you could feel was love in the crowd. The man in the picture above held a cane in his hand. You could tell he was in pain, but he held on and sung along to every word. Everyone around him supported that. An important statement the was very clear in all of Warped Tour, was that your appearance did not matter. No one was there to judge you for how you looked. As long as you rocked and rolled, you were ready to be a part of some of the best moments in Warped history. ~
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