RVA Magazine #39

15 YEARS OF RVA MAGAZINE 2005-2020

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PROVOCATIONS: GUADALUPE MARAVILLA NOW - JULY 1, 2020 Combining drawing, sculpture, and performance, Maravilla’s installation, Disease Thrower, draws on his own experiences with illness, migration, and the anxieties experienced by undocumented peoples.

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Broad + Belvidere icavcu.org

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RVA MAGAZINE 39

The smartest place to stay in RVA Loaded Graduate Richmond mingles Southern prep Loadedwith withlocal localcharm, charm, Graduate Richmond mingles Southern minimalism. prepwith withmidcentury mid-century minimalism.

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UNSTOPPABLE RVA #39 2020

RVA MAGAZINE EST. 2005 RVAMAG.COM

FOUNDERS R. Anthony Harris + Jeremy Parker PUBLISHER Inkwell MANAGING PARTNER LANDON SHRODER PRESIDENT John Reinhold WEB EDITOR-in-chief, Marilyn Drew Necci WEB EDITOR, DIRECTOR OF MEDIA Caley sturgill Business Development Justin Mcclung / justin.mcclung@rvamag.com Ace Patel / ace@rvamag.com DESIGN @splld_mlk WRITERS Marilyn Drew Necci, S. Preston Duncan, Hip Hop Henry, Alicen Hackney INTERVIEWERS R. Anthony Harris, Reggie Pace, Kelli Strawbridge, Hip Hop Henry PHOTOGRAPHY Jake Saxman, Myles Katherine, Lauren Serpa, Charles Long, Joey Wharton, Kathryn Defrank Contributors & Interns ash Griffith, Adrian Teran-Tapia, Ashley Turner, Aviance Hawkes, Christopher Brown, Dominique Bailey, Ethan Malamud, Jonah Schuart, Kaitlin Edwardson, Noelle Abrahams, Taiya Jarrett, Zach Armstrong GENERAL, EDITORIAL & DISTRIBUTION hello@rvamag.com ADVERTISING JOHN REINHOLD 276 732 3410 john@rvamag.com SUBMISSION POLICY RVA Magazine welcomes submissions but cannot be held responsible for unsolicited material.

Send all submissions to hello@rvamag.com All submissions become property of Inkwell Ventures Inc. The entire content is a copyright of Inkwell Ventures Inc. and cannot be reproduced in whole or in part without written authorization of the publisher.

ONLINE Every issue of RVA Magazine can be viewed in its entirety anytime at rvamag.com/magazine SOCIAL @RVAmag SUBSCRIPTION Log onto rvamag.com/magazine to have RVA Magazine sent to your home or office.

HEADS UP! The advertising and articles appearing within this publication reflect the opinion and attitudes of their respective authors and not necessarily those of the publisher or editors. Reproduction in whole or part without prior written permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited. RVA Magazine is published quarterly.

Images are subject to being altered from their original format. All material within this magazine is protected.

RVA Magazine is a registered trademark of Inkwell Ventures.

RVA Magazine is printed locally by Conquest Graphics cover by JOEY WHARTON SPECIAL THANKS to Artifex M. Hunter Haglund

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THank YOU To OUR SPONSORS OUR MUSIC COVERAGE IS SPONSORED BY THE GRADUATE HOTEL RICHMOND OUR ART COVERAGE IS SPONSORED BY INSTITUTE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART

@MUSOVA @JAKESAXMAN

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D.O.M, TRAIL OF FLIES, BRACEWAR, NEVER ENDING GAME, M.A.D AT THE WAREHOUSE // NICK HANCOCK @NICKCAPTURESVA

DONT SLEEP RICHMOND NEVER SLEEPS. Follow us @RVAmag

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dathan Kane @_dkane Title:" 2 Sides" Medium: Acrylic Size; 36 x 48

dathan Kane @_dkane Title: "Forward" Medium: Acrylic Size: 36 x 48 15 YEARS OF RVA MAGAZINE 2005-2020

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ANXIETY photos jake saxman

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m o del l e ah r a e m c namara

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RVA MAGAZINE RVA MAGAZINE 38 | FALL 2019 39

15 14 YEARS YEARS OF OF RVA RVA MAGAZINE MAGAZINE 2005-2020 2005-2019

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1) Fatty Smokes @fattysmokesrva 2) Little Mexico @littlemexicorva 3) Capital Ale House @capitlalehouserichmond 4) Front Porch Cafe @frontporchcaferva

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RVA ON TAP NEW BREWS IN TOWN Welcome back, beer family! Kicking off Richmond’s latest Booze News, we’re catching up with breweries old and new in town, and excitedly starting the season -- from events to fresh beer releases, new locations for our hometown favorites, and all the boozy happenings you’ll need to kick off the new decade. Among the good times, our beer family has also stuck together through two recent tragedies in the community. So before we dive in, we have a letter from RVA Magazine’s own John Reinhold on the last year in Richmond: Over this past year, we have lost some amazing and beautiful people within the beer scene. Many of us are still so affected by the loss of Quy Pham at The Answer, and continue to honor his legacy with the deepest sincerity that we can. This past holiday, we lost another amazing guy from Garden Grove: Head Brewer Michael Brandt. I was lucky to spend time in the past having some brews with him, talking about beers and life. I really enjoyed conversing with Michael, as I found he had a wealth of knowledge; not only of beer, but also of history and travel. Often, our conversations would flow to our families and children. I could see him light up talking about them. We worked on a few events together, and eventually Garden Grove won our Beer Madness poll -- they put a lot of work into it!

Michael was one of those people who, upon meeting him, I really felt like he was an old friend right away. I wanted to be sure we honored him here, with our condolences to his family and friends. -- John Reinhold RVA Our friends at Garden Grove Brewing & Urban Winery have some news following the loss of Mike, their Co-Owner, Brewer, and Winemaker. After the sudden and 22

BY CALEY STURGILL

devastating news of his passing reached the local craft beer community, something special started brewing in Richmond: more than 20 local breweries came together to create the EarthTone beer in his memory.

On January 3, Garden Grove teamed up at Hardywood West Creek with brewers from Hardywood, The Answer, Center of the Universe, Fine Creek, Stone Brewing, Triple Crossing, Lickinghole Creek, Final Gravity, Ardent, Steam Bell, Canon & Draw, Trapezium, The Veil, Intermission, Isley, Castleburg, Strangeways, Midnight, Molly’s Blind Dog, Legend, and Bingo to bring Richmond’s beer family together for a common purpose. In Mike’s favorite variety, EarthTone is a Festbier crafted “as an homage to his love of Lagers, malt balance, and complexity.” Its proceeds benefit the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU and a college savings plan for Mike’s son, Miles -- and while many beers around here are brewed with love, this one might just define the phrase entirely.

FRESH ON TAP The best part of Booze News is the one that always keeps our glasses full: the beer.

with chocolate and dark cherry notes was made with roasted coffee beans from Black Hand, and it’s followed up by Ruse on the leap year date of February 29. Ruse was an award-winning brew at the World Beer Cup and Australian International Beer Awards, so this wine barrel-aged molasses and dark chocolate beer is definitely one to put on your list.

A lot is cooking up at The Answer Brewpub this season, starting with their first-ever hard seltzer. When it rolls out, their seltzer will come in several different varieties -- so be sure to check back in with them as they nail down exactly which flavors will make the cut. As always, most weeks bring fresh IPAs and Joose mixes at the brewery, which gives plenty of inspiration for us all to visit our beer family there often. In event news, Projekt Progress with DJ Williams is coming up on April 2 at The Answer with art auctions, music, and beer specials, and the event benefits the ACE Liberia fundraiser.

Check the RVA Magazine Event Page online for more info, as we get closer and continue updating the happenings around town throughout the year.

If you’re ready to support EarthTone and the community that made it possible, grab a glass at Garden Grove this season, as it just came out on February 10. This month also marks the 5th anniversary of the Carytown brewery, and they’ll be celebrating it with a handful of bottle releases and plenty of activities.

One of our favorite collaborations between Väsen Brewing and Final Gravity Brewing Co. returned this season: The Velvet Walrus.

This velvety-smooth milk stout came together with cinnamon, vanilla beans, and local coffee from Rostov’s, along with other fresh brews like Final Gravity’s Doppler Effect IPA and Solar Flares Hazy DIPA, and Väsen’s Wanderlust 13, Radapils, and Cashmere Secrets.

Several new brews are fresh at Hardywood this season, with Baltic Sunrise kicking off the first day of February in all its roasty Baltic Porter glory. The 9.1% ABV beer

It’s breakfast beer time at Center of the Universe (and we recommend you reserve that for Saturdays), with their latest Pancake Ale aged in maple syrup barrels. Shirts Vs. RVA MAGAZINE MAGAZINE 39 39 RVA

Blouses debuted this month; the oat-based blonde ale came out accompanied by the return of Bald Irishman Irish Red Ale to the brewery. March brings the Oatmeal Cookie Porter ahead of April’s Orange Blossom Ale, and our most favorite food festival of the year comes on April 18: the Southern Food Festival. Trust us, you won’t want to miss this one.

More great beer releases are out this season with Fine Creek Brewing’s Winter Pine IPA, Avec Frère 9 Belgian Tripel, Porter with Black Walnuts, and their Barrel Aged Barleywine -- which spent its aging process in Reservoir Bourbon barrels that previously held Virginia maple syrup from Back Creek Farms. We’re getting extra-excited for the Wild & Weird festival to return on April 11 at Fine Creek, with all the best wild, sour, and funky recipes from breweries around the state coming together at the farm to pour their favorites.

Don’t forget to mark your calendars for their anniversary party as well, which goes down on May 23 and 24.

The Juicy IPA series is set to bring more recipes to Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery through the spring, along with fresh brews like Nuclear Nugget, 9 Mile IPA, Three Chopt Tripel, Maidens Blonde Ale, One Ride non-alcoholic beer, and One Lion CBD Sparkling Water. Lickinghole Creek always has something unique up their sleeves, and their CBD Sparkling Water is one that really stands out among traditional brewery recipes. They’re also dropping their Blueberry Obsession Chocolate Stout along with the French Toast Imperial Brown Ale, plus an Elegant Skull Tequila Chip Tripel in May. Springtime brings the best days of the year to spend on the farm, so make a trip out, enjoy the outdoors, and find a new favorite brew.

Bikes and Beers celebrates its 3rd year at Stone Brewing Richmond on May 2, with routes organized from 15 miles to 30- and 50-mile rides. If it’s up your alley, make sure to grab tickets soon -- this one sells out every year. Stone also released the Neverending Haze Session IPA with its own 15 YEARS YEARS OF OF RVA RVA MAGAZINE MAGAZINE 2005-2020 2005-2020 15

line of t-shirts, along with Stone Viking Space Probe DIPA and plenty more to be announced.

notes... and for our travelers, you’ll definitely want to visit The Veil’s brand-new threestory location in Norfolk.

Some more fresh recipes came out recently with Starr Hill Richmond’s Looking Glass and Ramble On Hazy IPA recipes, and this new Scott’s Addition location is set to release several Richmond-exclusive batches this season to celebrate their long-awaited entrance into the River City. Lagers, saisons, high-gravity stouts, and more Hazy IPAs are coming along with the Currant Affairs Smoothie Sour beer, loaded with black currant and blackberry purée. Be sure to check out their Spring Block Party & Rooftop Launch in early April, with live music, food trucks, and special releases commemorating the brand-new spot.

We highly recommend you swing by Ardent Craft Ales for the return of their famous Earl Grey Brown Ale. It’s been making waves among craft beer lovers this year with its unique tea-infused flavors, and they’ve also got new recipes like their Barrel Aged Imperial Milk Stout, Plum Gose, Summit DIPA, and Maple Dark Rye. Canon & Draw Brewing Company recently dropped their Orange n’ Cream IPA for all the Dreamsicle lovers out there, and their sister brewery Steam Bell Beer Works is all about the Tiramisu Stout this season -- plus their Hoopsnake DIPA brings a “departure from the ordinary” with its New Zealand hops and silky-smooth base. Conjured Darkness is fresh at Intermission Beer Company, along with tons of events each week like themed trivia nights, Old-Time Music Jams, beer pairings, open mic comedy nights, and more.

Triple Crossing Beer has brewed up some great recipes so far this year, with new releases like Dawn Chorus DIPA and The Grid IPA. Dawn Chorus doubles down on the fruit with citrusy melon, pineapple, and dark undercurrent for a soft body, while The Grid brings Mosaic and Falconer’s Flight hops together for sticky mango, passionfruit, apricot, and candied orange slice flavors.

They’ve also dropped Dunkel Landbier, new Falcon variants like Space Falcon and DDH Falcon Smash featuring Lotus, Slow Descent American Stout, and Barrel Aged Disappearance. As they stay busy with so many great releases, we can’t wait to see what else the season brings.

If you’re looking for a big variety of options to sweeten up your week, head over to The Veil Brewing Co. Ahead of their upcoming opening in the new Scott’s Addition food hall, they’re hosting some major multi-releases every Tuesday with tons of delicious recipes on tap -- and with more than five in almost every batch, we guarantee even the pickiest drinkers will find one to fall in love with. Some notable favorites so far this year include the Hollow Place Hazelnut Imperial Stout, Winter Sauce Tastee Smoothie-style Sour Ale, and Strange Strange & Eternal Eternal dry-hopped IPA with fruit snacks, gushers, and pineapple

A guava-infused Pilsner just came out at Isley Brewing Company along with their Black Currant Sour Ale. Isley is another great place for event-lovers to go, keeping things exciting with a variety of live music dates, nonprofit fundraisers, and karaoke nights every Thursday (so grab some friends and buckle up, because booze and karaoke always make for an interesting evening).

Tabol Brewing’s one-year anniversary just went down on the first of the month, and they’re keeping the celebrations rolling through the year with High Five Trivia every Wednesday and salsa dancing with RVA Bachata on Fridays.

As always, make sure to check RVA On Tap on our site every Wednesday, and read the column directly from our Instagram stories and Facebook posts (@rvamag) to keep up-to-date on events and releases happening each week. With so many options of breweries to visit in the area, we’ll go through the best of the best to make sure you don’t miss a drop. Cheers!

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The Otolith Group Xenogenesis FEB 22 - MAY 10 Part fiction, part documentary, Xenogenesis addresses contemporary global issues: how humans have shaped the natural world; what we have inherited from colonialism, and how we are changing in response to new technologies.

Broad + Belvidere icavcu.org 15 YEARS OF RVA MAGAZINE 2005-2020

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P L AY L I S T TRACKS WORTH CHECKING OUT

RATBOYS, "ALIEN WITH A SLEEP MASK ON"

PRINTER'S DEVIL (TOPSHELF) In the world of melodic alt-rock, it can be tough to distinguish yourself from a crowd of similar bands with a taste for catchy, bouncy choruses that stop just this side of punk. But Ratboys have certainly done so with their latest single, which mixes the country-folk vocal twang of Hop Along with chunky guitars more suitable to Superchunk, along with the perfect mix of jangly riffs, feedback, and winsomely unforgettable vocal melodies that made Juliana Hatfield so great. Printer’s Devil will be out in a few weeks, and right now it's my most anticipated release of the year. Listen to this track and find out why. -- Marilyn Drew Necci

THUNDERCAT FEAT. STEVE LACY & STEVE ARRINGTON, "BLACK QUALLS"

IT IS WHAT IT IS (BRAINFEEDER) Thundercat (Stephen Bruner), the bass-playing phenom from L.A., returns after bringing back Kenny Loggins & Michael McDonald from relative boomer-obscurity. On "Black Qualls," he works with funk legend Steve Arrington and Steve Lacy of The Internet, weaving in their trippy thoughts... like whether they'd post their new property on social media, fearing burglary. Melding his psychedelic, liquid-laced bass with lyrics of isolation and paranoia, this track kicks off Thundercat's upcoming album, It Is What It Is, ahead of its release in April. "Black Qualls" features a funk and disco vibe, reminiscent of his first two records with Flying Lotus and recalling Funkadelic. It's almost spring again. -- Kelli Strawbridge

KHRUANGBIN & LEON BRIDGES, "C-SIDE"

TEXAS SUN (DEAD OCEANS) I was never a big Leon Bridges fan. The dressing-like-it's-1962 vibe was not my cup of tea. And while I was a fan of Khruangbin after hearing their J Dilla tribute in a set a few years back, I was sold when these two artists came together and I heard "C-side." The vocal arrangements on this song sound like vintage Leon Ware, and the bassline from the start of the song and throughout its length had me putting it on repeat (a rare feat for me). If you have a playlist going right now, add this to it. You're welcome. -- Hip Hop Henry

PLASTIC NANCY, “TAKING OFF”

LAST OF THE ELECTRIC FLOWERS (SELF-RELEASED) Released on February 10, Plastic Nancy’s second album Last of the Electric Flowers upholds and expands upon a wobbling, wavering, psychedelic vibe the band has been experimenting with since conception.

The album features jaunty tunes like “Taking Off” and “Think of Now,” contrasted by the melting melodies and schematics of “Sonido Amazonico” and its title track, “Electric Flowers.” “Taking Off,” the album’s second track, is a personal favorite. With muffled vocals and unbroken guitar solos, the song carries your soul to summer and floats away from the Virginia winter blues. This album is the perfect pick-me-up for those looking to let loose and vibe hard. -- Alicen Hackney

JOHN MORELAND, “EAST OCTOBER”

LP5 (THIRTY TIGERS) John Moreland has made his career on grit and gravel, the detritus of hard travel and heartbreak.

He’s never been hesitant to pull listeners down the dust of sad back roads, in search of some kind of sweetness. His latest album, LP5, isn’t a gleeful triumph over that turbulence; it is the music of someone who has clawed their way out of a flooding river, but hasn’t quite left the banks yet. “East October” is less stylistically divergent than the rest of the album, and while it sticks a toe back in that dark water, Moreland’s desperation comes across as retrospective rather than all-consuming. -- S. Preston Duncan

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RECORD REVIEWS

BY HIP HOP HENRY (HH) & MARILYN DREW NECCI (MN)

3:33

MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION FEVER DREAM (EDGEWOOD RECORDS)

It's always intriguing to watch hardcore kids mature. Teenagers who start out their musical careers cranking out straightforward, no-frills hardcore with an emphasis on raw urgency might make a powerful connection straight out of the gate, but as they grow, they make new discoveries, which often leads them to branch out. This is what we find with Mutually Assured Destruction, the postBreakaway project of local hardcore luminary Ace Stallings, in which he joins up with former members of Down To Nothing and Holy Land to explore the sort of spooky, metallic sonic space that bands like Life Of Agony and Sacred Reich occupied in the early 90s. They aren't the first band of grown-up hardcore kids to head in this direction -- Twitching Tongues has to be counted as a modern influence -- but hearing Ace explore new dimensions of his voice, finding a clean-vocal range somewhere between that of Mina Caputo and Phil Anselmo, even as guitarists Ryan Groat and Tyler Wall dig into a type of occult metal riffage you'd never expect from a band with this pedigree, is a true pleasure. Expect this to be one of the trendsetting releases for Richmond hardcore in 2020.

--Marilyn Drew Necci

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ZHE AQUEEN

JAWS OF A WOLF (333BANDRVA.BANDCAMP.COM)

THE HYPNOMONIC ALBUM (ZHEAQUEEN.BANDCAMP.COM)

As with all metal-obsessed punk bands, 3:33 owe a strong cultural debt to the Misfits.

However, musically speaking, their new EP lands in a much heavier spot than Walk Among Us, simultaneously reminiscent of Doom, (pre-Pepper) Corrosion Of Conformity, and Harmony Corruption-era Napalm Death. Perfect for punks who love to bang their heads. (MN)

Zhe Aqueen's The Hypnomonic Album is pure R&B pleasure from one of Richmond's finest vocalists. With production from El Christo Negro, NameBrand, TheKomposer, and Zhe herself, the music allows Zhe to showcase her smooth voice without relying on studio magic for a perfect sound. It's all authentic, and it makes for a great moodsetter when you're "having company." (HH)

BIG NO

ILLA STYLES

BIG NO (FLUX EDITIONS)

A QUARTER ‘TIL A MIL (MONSTA INC)

If you'd gotten used to Big No occupying the land of hazy psychedelia, you may be surprised by their new self-titled full-length.

Astral ambience continues to creep in at quieter moments, but there's a real pop element to the songwriting that adds a whole new dimension to the group's sound -- a welcome one that takes them to a new level entirely. (MN)

This is a statement release from Illa Styles.

He's only recently gained a high profile in Richmond hip hop, but this album shows that he brings a lifetime full of experiences to bear on his music, both in the deep, jazzy, soulful production from Michael Millions and the complex, insightful lyrics he powerfully lays out over each of these 16 tracks. (MN)

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STUDIO NEWSRVA

JOHNNY CIGGS & PROFOUND 79 CADILLAC JEAN JACKET (GRITTY CITY RECORDS)

Gritty City deal in the kind of hip hop that's fun; the kind of hip hop that makes you want to walk in the club like you run this place, knock a drink out of a hater's hand without even breaking stride. That's the kind of swagger that rapper Johnny Ciggs and producer Profound 79 show off with panache on this collab, and it's a ton of fun to listen to. (MN)

TALK ME OFF

PRIESTS OF PROMETHEUS LODESTAR

(PRIESTSOFPROMETHEUS.BANDCAMP.COM)

Justin "Turtle" Wolz has played in a variety of metal acts around RVA; now he's put together his own project, recruiting a drummer and a singer to flesh out some excellent death-metal tunes that feature dynamic structures and complex melodies but remain heavy as fuck. If you're looking for a literate take on Dying Fetus-style brutality, look no further. (MN)

ZAE KINCHEN

CURSED (SAY-10 RECORDS)

BETTER THAN MAINTAINING (INNERCITY CLUB,LLC)

Punk rock can be melodic without being pop-punk, and Talk Me Off proves it. Their uptempo songs are driven by ringing bass lines and dual vocals that often deliver catchy melodies. And yet, that dose of punk venom is always right up front, from the aggressive chants and snotty, anti-social lyrics to the crunching guitars and insistent, speedy drumming. (MN)

Better Than Maintaining is ten tracks long, but it's a fast trip courtesy of the InnerCity Club's own Zae Kinchen. Vibey, introspective and relatable lyrics blend over many different musical landscapes for an enjoyable listen -- and clocking in at 22 minutes, you can spend a full day with this album and it still sounds fresh. (HH)

15 YEARS 15 YEARS OFOF RVA RVA MAGAZINE MAGAZINE 2005-2020 2005-2020

Depending on how you count it, it may only have been a couple years since the last Lamb Of God album. But if you don’t count the covers record they released under their original name, Burn The Priest, in 2018, it’s actually been five years since a new album of original Lamb Of God material made its way into the world. And some changes have taken place since that last LP, with guitarist Mark Morton exploring a solo career and original drummer Chris Adler retiring after over 20 years with the band. The first LP to feature new drummer Art Cruz (formerly of Prong and Winds Of Plague) is coming to us in May; the self-titled Lamb Of God album, their eighth under that name, was produced

by Josh Wilbur, who’s previously worked with a host of heavy hitters including Megadeth, Hatebreed, and All That Remains. The fact that the album is self-titled was a considered move; as singer Randall Blythe says, “Putting only our name on it is a statement. This is Lamb Of God. Here and now.”

We’re definitely looking forward to learning more.

It's been a long time, but The Flavor Project, the Latin-funk-soul band led by bassist Gabe Santamaria, are finally about to release another album. Frijoles Negros came out back in 2014, and they’ve been working on a new one ever since.

"After the last one, when I was writing new stuff, I thought, 'This feels a little bit like a formula,'" said Santamaria. He tried consciously to change it up, and the music grew as a result. "I think it has more of a punk rock edge," Santamaria says of the band’s forthcoming new album, citing the changes in government as a partial inspiration for this new direction. "We still have Latin and soca elements, but we brought in some punk rock, and some Afrobeat, too." The recording process began years ago with some abortive sessions at Jellowstone that ultimately led to the departure of the band’s previous guitarist. "We had let go of our guitar player, and I was thinking 'I don't know how I'm gonna do this,'" Santamaria said. Then he met James Seretis, a talented local guitarist who’d previously played with Kid Is Qual, the Awesome Few, and more. Working with Seretis helped kick the Flavor Project back into high gear. "James became a big alchemist to the new album," said Santamaria. "He moved into my place, and that's when we decided to make La Cocina Studios in the basement." La Cocina became the creative home for the Flavor Project; everything for the new album except drums were recorded there. Having recorded the previous Flavor Project album entirely using analog equipment, Santamaria wanted to go in a different direction with the new one. "This one's all digital. It's still live drums and everything, but we went through protools, and there's samples in it.

It's put together in a certain way that I felt like I had more control." The new album, Food For Thought, will be self-released by the band in the next few months -- keep an eye out for it.

--Marilyn Drew Necci

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ANGELICA GARCIA INTERVIEW BY REGGIE PACE

INTRO BY S. PRESTON DUNCAN PHOTOS BY MYLES KATHERINE & LAUREN SERPA

Angelica Garcia is a bold vocalist.

Her voice -- forged in ancestral Latinx culture and the raging kilns of danceable pop -- commands not just attention, but motion. With more shove than invitation, and more strength than seduction, there’s a quality of anthemic pride to her sonic presence. It’s contagious, and you are not immune. Just don’t try to fit it into any preconceived parameters of what ethnic pop music is supposed to sound like.

“I know this is probably just another stupid musician perspective,” said Garcia, “but doesn’t it feel like genres are sometimes like, ‘Hey, here’s another way to stereotype this?’”

While she notes that certain bands are more purist in regards to the genres they fit into, Garcia has found that less concrete adjectives are more effective to describe her music.

“I'll say, ‘Video game. Nightclub of doom.’ Adjectives, nouns… [It’s helpful to be] more open with visuals when you talk about music.”

Garcia’s boldness isn’t limited to her voice. Her first album, Karma The Knife, was released by Warner Music Group. Shortly after, she decided to take creative control of her career and leave the label.

Here in Richmond, Garcia has been working with a diverse cross-section of acts including Russell Lacy, Mikrowaves, and Piranha Rama. Recently signed to Spacebomb Records, the visual artist, songwriter, and L.A. transplant is gearing up for the February 2020 release of her second album, Cha Cha Palace.

For Garcia, making music is all about community.

“I’ve been doing a one-woman show for a while, just because it makes sense for 30

traveling. But when I do play with the band, it’s awesome,” she said.

The band includes a variety of leading local musicians, including pianist Calvin Presents, aka Calvin Brown, as well as Josh McCormick on drums and John Sizemore and Chrissie Lozano of Piranha Rama on guitar and bass, respectively.

With these musicians involved, Garcia has found a new “family bubble” filled with distinct voices.

“Putting together my band was like putting together my own Justice League,” Garcia said. “It's been great, and a lot of them have that same spirit and mentality of community, and everybody helping each other. That's what helped make this album. That's why it sounds the way it does.”

For a West Coast native living in Richmond, community takes on different forms. Garcia’s roadmap seems to hit all the stops.

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BY MYLES KATHERINE

REGGIE PACE, NO BS! BRASS BAND 15 YEARS OF RVA MAGAZINE 2005-2020 14 2005-2019

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BY LAUREN SERPA

Latinidad, the Latinx side of my identity, was that I felt I missed the most of it growing up and living in L.A.” Always being surrounded by the food and the Spanish language in L.A., Garcia realized in Richmond that she felt lonely and isolated. “[I was] homesick,” she said. “'Where my people at? And also, what does that mean? ...What does that look like? And what do I do, blend in? I'm from Los Angeles, but all my blood is Latina. My dad's from Mexico, and my grandparents are Mexican and Salvadoran. But I've been in Virginia for almost 10 years now.

They're both home.”

“[My mother] was a pop singer in the 90s,” she said. “When she broke out, she had a charted hit on Billboard. It was a remake of ‘Angel Baby.’ [What] started her off when she was gigging was her tours of high schools. She said, ‘You totally need to do this.’ One of her friends worked for the El Monte School District where I grew up in L.A. We were able to set up one show, and once you have one, you can go to another school.

It just became a big tour. It's so funny playing for kids.”

Garcia played six or seven schools, navigating questionable sound equipment and audiences that were, at times, a bit less receptive than Richmond’s music scene. Some shows happened for school assemblies, and others were less organized -- at one school, Garcia’s team sent a list of her equipment, and she arrived to find only one wireless mic.

“The speakers were blown out. I had to go into the soundboard and hook it up in the auditorium, and all these middle schoolers were watching me,” Garcia said. “I was sweating so hard. That's the thing; it's like kids read fear. You can't hide. Then, of course, the looper is so temperamental. It was coming out really crunchy-sounding, and there was one kid saying, ‘My ears hurt!’ [laughs].

“It's funny because kids are so blunt.

And whereas an adult would say, ‘Great job!’ Kids are going to say, ‘What's that?

What are you doing?’ And it made me think, what am I doing? I need to be able to talk about this. Why is it loud? Why is 34

this important? But the ones that really cared, it was super sweet. And it was special.”

Garcia says that playing solo shows, for judgmental high school students and the quietly-critical adults alike, has been a process of learning. She’s balanced her presence as a singer with an overwhelming ambition for musicality.

“I want to recreate as much as I can,” she said. “I do have to be careful, because once you start doing a bunch, it's easy to forget, ‘Oh, yeah, I'm a singer. And I better fucking sing this right.’ I’ve got to do a good job. When you’re worried about the feedback and and the loop, the sampler and the gate, then you're not paying attention to how you're singing.”

With a European tour in the works and a YouTube video for her recent single “Jicama” steadily climbing towards 100,000 views, it would seem Garcia has found that balance. Not just between instrumentation and singing, but between the cultural backgrounds that comprise her identity. It’s essential, Garcia says, to all the creative work she puts out.

“I started something called #WearYourRoots. The reason you probably didn't see it more is because I'm not a very good hashtagger.” Garcia laughed. “It came from my song, ‘Jicama.’ It talks about a dichotomy -- growing up in two cultures and having one foot in each world. I realized the reason I leaned in so much to my

Her new album, Cha Cha Palace, which comes out at the end of February, lies between both worlds for Garcia. The album spans her experiences from L.A. and Richmond, finding a middle point in life that reaches each piece of herself.

“A lot of Cha Cha Palace was piecing together memories of my childhood, and trying to connect with my grandparents, their lineage, and their background,” Garcia said. “It was also redefining what it means to be Latina; how do I delve into my Latinidad, what does that look like on me? I know what it looks like on my mom, my grandparents. What does it look like when I wear it? That’s an interesting thing, too -- in L.A., I didn’t have to think about that. I showed up to the club, and everyone was there. It hit me that if I want to connect to my roots, I have to actively choose to be a part of it, connect with my community and create art to honor it in this way.”

While working to reconcile these influences on her life, Garcia drew inspiration not only from her elders, but her younger siblings.

“This is a really special record to me.

The entire time, I thought of my siblings -- particularly my sisters -- and what I want them to hear. I hear the kind of music they put on the radio, and my sister Valeria is 17 years old,” Garcia said. “She's so brutal. She’ll say, ‘I can't dance to this. Not gonna listen to it.’

She’s heard all my demos first. I played her the first draft and she said, ‘Yeah, I need to dance to it more.’”

At 25, Garcia isn’t consulting teenage relatives for youthful relevance, but rather out of a sense of familial RVA MAGAZINE 39

responsibility. For her, the goal is that they’ll be able to put her music on a playlist with other things they enjoy, and that it uplifts them in the process, telling their story. As for the prospect of wider appeal, Garcia isn’t eschewing it. Instead, she embraces it in terms of a higher calling.

“It's such a unique and sacred opportunity that people get to hear your music,” she said. “They're repeating what you're saying. They're singing along. To me, that's a really sacred bond.

So I kept thinking, what do I want them to repeat?”

If family comes first, the chosen family of the Richmond music scene is a close second. Garcia sees Cha Cha Palace as the culmination of finding her place in the local community, and employing that community in a fuller expression of her unique artistic vision.

“I picked everybody that played on this,” she said. “This is the Mikrowaves fam.

This is the Piranha Rama fam. Even the restaurant fam is in here. That's so special. Making my first record, I

15 YEARS OF RVA MAGAZINE 2005-2020

showed up to this world class studio.

Big producer. It sounds really great, but everybody he called in were people that he knew, because I didn't know anybody in Nashville. So it's very special to me that I got to pick everybody this time.”

This dedication to stylistic direction is apparent before you hit play on the album. The cover is a photograph of the sprawling collage on her bedroom wall.

“It started off as just a few pictures,” Garcia said. “I noticed as the album was progressing, the collage got bigger and bigger.”

As a visual person, she loves textures -everything from picking colors to mixed media, and blending the old with the new. The pictures that line her room act as a metaphor for Cha Cha Palace.

“The way this album was made, it was almost like a giant collage,” Garcia said. “Some of the songs were tracked in Eddie [Prendergast]’s shed. ‘Karma’ was tracked at Montrose [Recordings].

James [Seretis] tracked some, too, [at Virginia] Moonwalker [Studio]. It was

done in all these different spaces; I started working on it before I was signed to Spacebomb. I officially signed towards the end of making it, and they helped me tie some loose ends together, getting it mixed and mastered. Up until then, it was like, ‘I'll come after my restaurant shift, then I'll come record at James's house until midnight, then I’ve got to go.

I have to work brunch in the morning.”

As for what’s next, Garcia says that’s less a matter of direction than organic evolution. What’s certain is that it’s bound to be an honest expression of whoever she comes to be.

“It's almost like my spooky disco-femme self made this,” she said. “It was cool getting to be her for a while. She is me and I am her, and we're very connected.

It’s cool to have it documented, because I don't know what the next version of her is going to be.” @angelicagarcia

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INTRO BY S. PRESTON DUNCAN

TIFFAN IE BROOKE

Let’s be honest: among the self-styled “Instapoets” of the world, often there isn’t more behind their words than vaguely-poetic interpretations of fortune cookies and phrases from motivational posters. And while it is wildly popular, whether or not it is authentically poetry could be up for debate. Exceptions to this generality are somewhat rare, but Richmond’s artist and poet Tiffanie Brooke is undeniably one of them. Her writing is both accessible and wellcrafted, a refreshing combination in the literary world of stuffy academic writing and pandering to popularity.

Brooke is an alternative model and a deeply candid poet. Her work is evocative, both in front of the camera and on the page. It’s her juxtaposition of imagery that defines who she is as an artist, and it provides a window into her expressive dynamic of strength and unique vulnerability.

INTERVIEW BY R. ANTHONY HARRIS

RVA Magazine’s R. Anthony Harris had a chance to talk with Brooke about her work, and explore the ideas that sparked her artistic beginnings.

R. Anthony Harris: How did your modeling begin?

Tiffanie Brooke: I had a very negative outlook on my body when I was a teenager; I was super thin, I didn’t have a chest. My cheekbones jut out. My nose goes off in one direction. I consistently beat myself up... One day I came across America's Next Top Model, and I became obsessed. I was seeing women that looked like I did, and they all had something about them that matched my “weird.”

RAH: How long have you been writing?

PHOTOS BY CHARLES LONG

TB: I’ve been writing as long as I can remember.

My brother and I were advised to write in those god-awful composition notebooks by counselors when we were very young. We grew up in a very confusing environment for two small children; I did not come from a communicative family. Writing was, and still is, my form of communication, though this non-direct writing has given me a safe way to express myself.

RAH: When did both of these ideas start to intertwine?

TB: They intertwined when Instagram became popular, honestly. I thought it was the perfect way to give my work a visual; to further push whatever I was writing about at the time. I wanted to give “selfies” another form, and transform how the imagery in my writing was supposed to look. Why not try to capture a visual of how I feel when I’m “in it,” versus a photo of something else entirely? After all, I'm writing about an experience and how it affects me.

RAH: What writers do you draw inspiration from?

TB: James Kavanaugh, Kris Kidd, Louis Gluck, Claudia Emerson, Jayne Pupek, and Richard Siken

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are a few that I obsess over when writer’s block settles in. Each one is immensely different in their writing types and points of view, but I sympathize with a lot of them. They all seem to capture the vastness of my personality traits.

RAH: What about photographers?

TB: I don’t have many photographers that I draw inspiration from, really. I enjoy Jason Lee Perry’s works -- I read over a particular piece, and envision it as a movie with me in the middle of it: “What would this scene look like?”

RAH: Do you see modeling as a way for people to read your writings?

TB: Modeling in itself is a form of communication, so absolutely! Saint Jerome said, “The face is the mirror of the mind, and the eyes, without speaking, confess the secrets of the heart.” Modeling and writing are both forms of expression, so it made sense for me to combine the two. Tacking onto what I’ve said before, we’re conditioned to choke down how we physically handle our emotions. I try to capture those emotions visually.

RAH: Is your body a weapon?

TB: Tough question. I am consistently working with, and against, my body. I think we all are, in some shape or form.

"Everyone is where they are because of an experience that set them there, and if we all took a little more time to really understand each other at more than face value, we would come to know that we are more than the skin we crawl around in."

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RAH: Is it a problem when trying to be taken seriously as an artist?

TB: There is a very fine line in the public eye -of owning your body, and being sexualized for exhibiting confidence -- and that has nothing to do with being an artist. It’s hard being a woman in any industry. Shit, it’s hard being a woman, period. Most of my modeling used for my writing is nude. It’s not an attention thing at all, but more to push that vulnerability of here I am, in all that I am. Clothes are characterbuilding, and we aren't entirely truthful with ourselves until the veil of that day-to-day character is removed. Unfortunately, because of my comfort in that, I am often looked at as an object... and it stops there.

RAH: What does objectification mean to you?

TB: Taking something at face value, without intent to find out the inner workings of an individual.

RAH: Do you objectify other people?

TB: Not all the time, and not on purpose.

Sometimes I have to force myself to. I am a very deep person; I spend a lot of time in my head. If I didn’t push myself to draw a line with someone that is bouncing around too much mentally, I'd be miserable. We all have individual ways of processing relationships with others, and sometimes it comes down to what we find works best for us. I have a tendency to switch off my feelings for someone 39

completely, and that’s typically where I end up objectifying.

RAH: Is it demeaning, or are people just looking for a quick way to understand another person?

TB: When I write about a specific person, I don’t use names as to not intentionally hurt or demean someone. I always give individuals code names, and honestly I think it makes some pieces more mysterious and puzzling. I like that about poetry. That said, resonation is such an important factor in any type of writing -- we are all looking to be understood in some way. Music and writing are excellent ways to fill that void of alienation.

RAH: I have to ask about the Yoda tattoo. Do you love his wisdom, or are you just a super nerd?

TB: The Yoda tattoo began as a tribute to my relationship with my dad. There aren't many positive memories attached to him when I think back on my childhood, except for our shared TV time. He got me into Star Wars when I was really young, and we’d watch the series over and over, weekly. Maybe for him, it was one of the few things we could do together t hat I wasn’t talking his ear off, but that I walked away from with an adoration for a fantasy world I wanted to find myself in.

We didn’t expect there to be sequels, but it’s a relief to have something we can continue to connect on.

RAH: What do you hope people understand about your work?

TB: I am so much more than a “half-naked girl on Instagram.” There is always more than meets the surface; everyone is where they are because of an experience that set them there.

If we all took a little more time to understand each other at more than face value, we would come to know that we are more than the skin we crawl around in. Writing is free, and always available. Whether pen-to-paper or in the notepad on a cell phone, the ability to set our inner workings out in one way or another is incredibly healthy -- and important. You never know how much your experiences can aid another person’s until you make yourself vulnerable. @_baddiebrooke_

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RVA MAGAZINE MAGAZINE 39 39 RVA

- THE UNIVERSE IS A DOM -

- (T)ake (I)t (A)way -

- THE ECHO OF A CRYSTAL -

The diamonds shimmer On the wrong finger On the wrong hand

I grew up with an echo

once considered myself a tragedy

The universe She is sick In her clever Cruel Ways OUT OF SIGHT OUT OF MIND But I am only Operable From wires That fall from A wooden cross

bouncing

yet the devastation lied in the walls I was

off of my back

boxing myself into

at twenty-nine that echo

for the sake of protecting what had been already been demolished

caught up and completed itself in the dissolving of a thought process my body made a fist out of me and me myself

months of berating every soft feeling because sensitivity is a slander kilning myself just enough to not enact a marbling matter of a heart I wished to be careless

and I

So I move in Sick Cruel Ways

were betrayers

and then they tell you to be careful what you wish for

I found solace in believing

I wanted to be brass-bound but I

We have made an Art Of this breaking He believes me now

as much as I can hurt me”

disregarded how much colder that would inevitably make me

what a fucking understatement

they don’t tell you how difficult

With that Parliament Cratering In the right side of His mouth

Death is non

Pall Mall Blues Making an impression On an opposing green cushion

LAUGHTER

Nowhere Goodbye Is just a word Bellowing out of A crying wolf There is a grenade That lies in the spaces Between Incapable And Willing And The universe Has pulled a Trigger And I have misplaced The fucking scissors

“no one can hurt me

as my body made a mockery out of me

it is to shatter jade from the inside of an ore

consensual

or how much of yourself

there is

you lose trying to do so

in sLAUGHTER

- A TOOTHBRUSH COULD NOT PREVENT US you were and were not Tangible FLEETING by definition a sting our only consistency so you share the dull ache caused by a rotting molar in the upper left part of my jaw you found enjoyment in teasing me about my sweet tooth oh how I find enjoyment in things that eventually decay me

15 YEARS YEARS OF OF RVA RVA MAGAZINE MAGAZINE 2005-2020 2005-2020 15

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J. RODDY WALSTON

INTERVIEW BY KELLI STRAWBRIDGE INTRO BY S. PRESTON DUNCAN PHOTOS BY JOEY WHARTON

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You probably know his business: now meet his pleasure. J. Roddy Walston, of J. Roddy Walston and The Business, has officially laid rumors of extended hiatus to rest with two new projects. He’s announced both a solo tour and a new project named Palm Palm -- a harddriving organic rock and roll formation with Charlie Glenn of Trillions, and The Southern Belles’ Raphael Katchinoff and Andrew Carper.

Walston sits down with Kelli Strawbridge to discuss tour life philosophy, the labors of fame and obscurity, Richmond musicality, and his abiding disdain for Americana music.

KELLI STRAWBRIDGE, THE HUSTLE SEASON

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KELLI STRAWBRIDGE: When did you form the band?

J. RODDY WALSTON: I was 21, and I’m almost 39. So it was 18 years ago.

KS: 2002. You got a lot of traction in the later 2000s when social media wasn’t a thing. What do you feel kept the band going? You got a lot of licensing, a lot of songs on TV shows -- what was it, since Facebook wasn’t popular?

JRW: We used Myspace early on for touring. Facebook is so clamped down and monetized; if you were in a touring band doing everything yourself, Myspace was awesome. You could go to any city, search “rock band,” and it popped up the bands in order of popularity. Over and over again, [we’d send messages to bands] saying, “Love your music so much, Band A that we don’t know. It would be a dream to play a show with you.” We had done it so long through word-of-mouth and endless touring -- being this nationwide local band.

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There’s a romance in that; if you can build your audience one by one, they’re yours.

We’re these explorers setting off into the unknown. If I wrote a book about our band, it would probably be called You Missed All the Good Shows, because we were touring for about five years before anybody knew who we were.

were so poor. In the middle of that, though, the iceberg was starting to crack up; we finally had label interest. We were figuring out how to get to L.A. I remember having this feeling many times, thinking I was in the game, then I stepped past this curtain and we were in an infinite loop. It kept happening.

KS: You were also before the “RVA Generation,” if you will. You migrated from Tennessee to Richmond.

So around that time in D.C., we were about to start touring, and it made no sense for us to have a place at all. My in-laws out in the West End had this cabin in the back of their

JRW: We’re old people [laughs]. I went to Baltimore, where I met two of the guys who became the band -- Steve, the drummer, and Billy, the guitar player. Then I came to D.C. for a year after I got married. D.C. is not fun if you don’t have money. Before we went on tour, I had one pair of pants. I walked past a nail, and it wasn’t like “Oh, I have a cool little tear.” It ripped from my mid thigh down to my shin. I was losing my mind. I thought, “This is not cool. I have one leg of a pair of pants, and one short.

I guess this is how I’m going on tour.” We

property... There was no bathroom, there was a wood burning stove. It had a loft that we slept in. It was rustic, but it was amazing because we got to live there for free -- and that was exactly what we could afford.

KS: So it wasn’t ideal at the time, but it seems the scene had changed quite a bit by the time you moved [to Richmond].

JRW: There were bands starting to happen.

The first show I put together in Richmond was us, Trillions, Sports Bar, and Great RVA MAGAZINE 39

White Jenkins. That was a fun show. I don’t even know how I contacted them... I ended up being buddies with all those guys since then. That was the foot in the door.

KS: Your bass player was here in Richmond.

Were the other two [members] here?

JRW: They’ve [always been] in Baltimore.

I met them playing in other bands, and said, “I’m serious about this… I’m trying to get in the van and go.” And they said, “Us, too.” That was probably one of the most

powerful forces for our band -- you hit the point where you’re not making enough to live, but you’re also not in town long enough to keep any kind of job. Then you just have to keep going.

KS: Did it ever feel like it became profitable at all with touring? Did you ever feel like it paid off?

JRW: Yeah, in the way that four of us have paid our bills for the last ten years with it. But we’ve also had to manage 15 YEARS OF RVA MAGAZINE 2005-2020

our expectations of what bills could be…

You start at 17, 18, 19, living in a crappy apartment, keeping a crappy job, and always hoping that at some moment, somebody will come along and say, “Let’s go on tour.” Then you quit that job and say, “See you later. I’ve stopped paying my car bill. Take it back. I don’t care.” And you just go.

When I got to Richmond, it was the beginning of what’s going on now. That’s what was different from when I was

in Baltimore -- everybody here can play. That was the hard part when I moved from Tennessee to Baltimore. In Tennessee, you could throw a rock and hit a guitar player who’s probably also a dope drummer. And everyone can sing; church choirs breeding over and over again.

I’ve never been the guy to say I’m the greatest musician in the band; I [like to] look around and feel it out, get involved with players I think are rad. I have a lot of ideas, so that was tough for me. [It was] way different from Richmond… it’s crazy how good everybody is. I’m still just an idea guy. The new band I’m in, Palm Palm,

I’d rather not even touch something.

KS: Let’s get into that a little bit. I really dug the last record that you guys did, the J. Roddy record. I feel like you didn’t tour as much; you did promo, pushed it, and then you had some shows with Palm Palm.

JRW: The first show of Palm Palm was Crowefest 2018. I’m pretty sure I got hit by lightning… One of the things I love about Palm Palm is that it’s so fast. I experimented with Charlie Glenn on a few

ideas, and at that point, we didn’t know what the band was going to be. I was writing riffs with keyboards and talking to drummers from around the country. I had a very specific idea of who I wanted that drummer to be; someone who could play heavy and fast, but also funky.

Glenn invited me to see Raphael Katchinoff play with Nightcreature. There’s one song Nightcreature has where he starts feathering his kick foot, and I thought,

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“What’s going on here?” We got together and [it worked]. He said his buddy Andrew Carper should play bass. We got together, and I thought, “Wow, this is something else.” It’s weird, because it is actually complicated, crazy music. It takes a lot to put that music together. We went to South

By Southwest with one-half to threequarters of any song actually written, then experimenting on the way down. We were making up words and melodies on the spot.

KS: This is definitely different from J. Roddy and The Business, so what made you [decide] to do something different altogether?

JRW: It’s still developing. We were never making so much money that I would call us an “industry,” but it was our job. It was difficult to disconnect -- “this is art, this is job.” I honestly think that artists aren’t doing their job. Art is not doing its job. Everyone thinks it should be making money.

It feels like in the social media age, success is popularity and making money. Kids change. I’m not sitting here saying, “Back in my day, we all liked anger. Why aren’t kids angry?” But also... why aren’t kids angry?

There’s one teenager from a different country, [Greta Thunberg], sailing around going, “The world’s on fire!” and all the other kids are saying, “Eh, I’ve got Tinder and Fortnite.” Stop being distracted, and listen to the music that supplements your anger, grief, and anxiety. The awfulness of being young, alive, human, and aware of all the weirdness -- that’s what I want art to be. Art can be celebratory and great, and positive too… but [for example], I hate Americana. I think the South should not rise again. Shove your flag up your ass. I hate this stuff. [Art] should be confrontational and pushing buttons.

That’s what I was getting at with Palm Palm. I think stuff should be risky; it should potentially go off the rails. If it doesn’t, that’s amazing. If it does, you stand behind the curtain. But if it’s not pushing you all the way out there -- to that point where you’re just holding on -- you’re just going to do what you do in rehearsal. I want this gooey energy to flow out of the speaker, like “Is that a saxophone? Am I just making up that melody?” That’s what I think rock and roll should sound like.

>> Backstage at J Roddy Walston & The Business last show at The National

@jroddywalston @palmpalmband

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TODD HALE

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@FLAVORHEAD

RVA MAGAZINE RVA MAGAZINE 38 | FALL 2019 39

VIRGINIA’S ALE HOUSE and so much more. capitalalehouse.com 15 YEARS OF RVA MAGAZINE 2005-2020 14 2005-2019

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JR DA RAPPER AND ESCO OF THE POVERTY CREW RICHMOND'S THE POVERTY CREW SITS DOWN WITH HIP HOP HENRY TO TALK NEW MIXTAPES, TELLING STORIES THROUGH MUSIC AND FUTURE FULL-FLOW ALBUMS. INTERVIEW BY HIP HOP HENRY PHOTOS BY KATHRYN DEFRANK

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IN THE EARLIER DAYS OF RVA RAP ELITE, WHEN STRANGE MATTER STILL HOSTED THE RVA LYRICIST LOUNGE, I REMEMBER BEING ONSTAGE DURING AN OPEN CYPHER SESSION WHEN SOMEONE STRUCK MY EYE. HE WALKED ON STAGE IN A PLAIN WHITE TEE AND JEANS, AND LOOKED UNASSUMING AT FIRST. HE CAUGHT THE ENTIRE ROOM OFF GUARD, BOTH EVERYONE ON STAGE AND IN THE AUDIENCE, WITH SOME OF THE BEST LINES OF THE EVENING -- AND MADE IT TO THE SUDDEN DEATH ROUND OF THE CYPHER CHAMPIONSHIP. HIS NAME WAS JR DA RAPPER. WHEN HE LEFT THE STAGE FOR THE SECOND TIME, I REMEMBER SHAKING HIS HAND AND TELLING HIM, “YOU HAVE TO COME BACK.” HE NEVER DID. FAST FORWARD TO THE RVA RAP ELITE SHOW ON SEPTEMBER 25 AT THE DARK ROOM, AND HE’S BACK IN THE BUILDING. THIS TIME, HE’S HERE AS ONE OF THE HEADLINE PERFORMERS, DOING TRACKS FROM HIS MIXTAPE 96 DEGREES, AND HIS NAME IS ON THE FLYER. I HAD THE CHANCE TO TALK WITH HIM ABOUT NEW MUSIC, WHAT HE’S BEEN UP TO IN THE TIME BETWEEN THOSE TWO RAP ELITE APPEARANCES, AND HOW THAT FIRST PERFORMANCE BOOSTED HIS DESIRE TO MAKE MUSIC WITH YOUNGER PERFORMERS FROM THE CITY’S NORTHSIDE. THE POVERTY CREW CONSISTS OF HIMSELF, VONTON SOUP, AND ESCO, WHO WORKS BEHINDTHE-SCENES. I BROUGHT JR AND ESCO TO THE WRIR STUDIO IN RICHMOND, WHERE WE COULD SIT DOWN AND HAVE A QUICK RAP OVERLOOKING BROAD STREET.

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HIP HOP HENRY: So what exactly is The Poverty Crew?

ESCO: Poverty isn’t just a record label. It’s a movement that’s [using] music to bring something greater to the city. We’re tapped into local politics to know what’s going on, because at the end of the day, it’s our city.

We’re fighting for a better city. It’s not a music group out here to make a bunch of money and flex on people. It’s more than that.

HHH: JR how did you and Esco meet?

JR: Vonton and I are cousins, we grew up together. I was rapping in elementary school, but I was the only one rapping. I took a break when I got to high school and moved to a different school, I hadn’t seen him for a minute. Von ended up moving around my way, and we started linking back up. They had a studio at their crib, and they were rapping now -- so I said, “Damn, niggas remember me as the rapper, and now y’all have a studio at the crib. Y’all are freestyling every day.” So I started going over there, getting situated again, and that’s where I met Esco.

ESCO: Vonton was saying his cousin rapped. I blew him off, because everybody wanted to come in and rap -- half of the hood would come. People would come from Fulton to Northside just to rap. I think I walked in one day, and JR was freestyling. I said, “Man he hard, that’s your cousin? Tell him to come back over.” He wasn’t really trying to come back, but I said “You need to get him back over here, he needs to keep coming.”

HHH: Not showing back up reminds me of his Strange Matter performance when I first saw him. How did that appearance in the Cypher happen to begin with?

JR: That was my first performance. That was the first time I really ever rapped in front of niggas I didn’t know. I was already thinking, “Eh, I wonder how motherfuckers that aren’t around me every day are going to feel.” That reaction was definitely what I needed to take it seriously. People really fucked with me, genuinely. I needed to start going to a studio -- when I rapped at Rap Elite, I had still never been to a real studio.

You know what I’m saying? We do our little shit at the crib. We might make a dub tape, throw some plugins here and there to make it listenable… but I had never been to a studio and published a record out.

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HHH: What I notice in your music is that you have a street style, but you can do the lyrical music as well. Where did the balance in styles come from?

JR: I’ve thought about this a hundred times.

I know I can rhyme… But at the end of the day, I rap for me. A lot of people will give you bullshit excuses that they rap for the fans, the money, all that. When I first started rapping, it was a way for me to vent; to talk about shit I can’t talk about -- because like any nigga in the hood, you look weak when you start talking about certain things.

The only way I could get certain things off my chest was to rap. [If] you fuck with my raps, you’re saying you fuck with me as a person. That’s how I take it.

ESCO: I think it was also a journey because at first, it wasn’t always like that. When he first came back to the studio, he was leaning more toward trap and street music, but you could always see the talent. It wasn’t basic ABC trap music. I think as he started to find this -- his flow and sound -- it all developed. We always have talks that we strive for greatness, right? You play the game like a pro. Somebody like Kendrick, he’s playing the game to be the best. Not everybody plays the game, and that’s cool.

Some people rap like Dom Kennedy. He’s not really rapping to be the best, but he’s dope.

HHH: You have a buzzing video for “Real Niggas” right now. What’s in store for the new year? Or is that just a loose single?

JR: That’s just a loosie. On my next project, I’ll probably do some mixtapes. I won’t do an actual album until I get a little bit further toward where I want to be, with more listeners. When I do my first album, I want to tell a story.. something you’ll be listening to 20 years from now. I want it to be timeless, not hot right then and there. I want something that people can go back to 20 years later and say, “You remember when this came out? I used to listen to this every day.” We’re going to do skits, and I like that album flow, full songs. I’m not a stream seller. I want it to be quality music; it puts you in a space.

ESCO: We’re here to play like the pros play it. We aim for longevity.

Be on the lookout for more singles from JR in the coming months. 96 Degrees is streaming on all platforms. @jrdarapper @vonton.soup RVA MAGAZINE MAGAZINE 39 39 RVA

The only way I could get certain things off my chest was to rap. If you f**k with my raps, you’re saying you f**k with me as a person.

That’s how I take it. @

15 15 YEARS YEARS OF OF RVA RVA MAGAZINE MAGAZINE 2005-2020 2005-2020

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To all of our friends in Richmond Breweries United and to all those who have came out to support us, share stories over a beer or to just check in on us,

THANK YOU. Cheers, GGBC

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RVA MAGAZINE 39

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H UMBLE INTERVIEW BY R. ANTHONY HARRIS

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WORDS BY S. PRESTON DUNCAN

RVA MAGAZINE 39

RICHMOND MUR ALIST, CLOTHING DESIGNER, AND MODEL REFLECTS ON HIS JOURNEY FROM STARVING ARTIST TO MODELING FOR PROFESSIONAL SHOOTS IN THE DESERT: AND HIS DEVOTION TO THE LOCAL COMMUNITY STAYS UNCHANGED. Humbleness isn’t exactly a native concept in the fashion world. In the popular mythos of the “Starving Artist,” there’s rarely a tenement devoted to bedless clothing designers sleeping on a pile of blankets and ambition. But then, Richmond’s Kyle Harrell -- better known as Humble -- doesn’t quite fit in the glossy fashion box hawked

by Hollywood scripts and reality television.

That’s partially because Humble is a gestalt of artistic vision. Muralist, model, clothing designer, and event coordinator, he takes creativity as an articulation of Creative Class culture. He brings disparate sources of inspiration together into an identifiable expression of experience and taste. But the Virginia Beach native didn’t grow up on aerosol dreams or lofty runway aspirations.

“The goal was to go to VCU, because I wanted to be an engineer. As soon as I got here, though, the culture was crazy. So I thought, ‘Fuck engineering. I don’t wanna do that.’ I started [studying] psychology and religious studies. I’ve been in Richmond for 11 years now, I fell in love with this city. We were hosting a lot of events, so I kind of got stuck here. ‘Stuck’ not in a bad way -- I just love this city so damn much.”

It wasn’t just Richmond’s underground music and art scene that kept him here, but the culturally-inclusive environment that encouraged Humble to carve out a name for himself by way of social immersion.

Humble says his interest in art came about in a Van Gogh and Spirituality course at VCU. And it wasn’t so much the coursework as boredom; one day he started drawing portraits of his classmates. By the time he graduated, he found his priorities shifting.

“Eventually that became obsessive.

Around that time, I was married,” he said.

“I had been playing around with the idea with her, that I wanted to make art. And she said, ‘Well, you’re too smart to make art. You could do something better.”

The two had a falling out, and Humble 15 YEARS OF RVA MAGAZINE 2005-2020

spent 12 hours a day in the VCU library, pulling down books and drawing everything he could get his hands on. He also found himself divorced and living in Section 8 housing.

“Art was the only thing I had that was inspiring me to get up and do something,” he said. “It was a pretty depressive point in my life. It was tough, but it was for the better. I forget where I was working at the time. I think Alamo, which was a sweatshop hellhole. Great food. It’s really good -- I’m not gonna lie. But no air conditioning.”

Around that time, Humble found commiseration and mentorship in Navid Rahman, an illustrator and muralist willing to share in poverty and inspiration. He moved into Humble’s apartment, where the two slept on the floor and practiced drawing.

“That moment in time was definitely pivotal. Navid had just gotten out of a relationship. He was an artist as well,” Humble said. “In fact, I call him my master. He took me under his wing. So [he lived with me] free of charge… We'd wake up every day and just draw. He taught me a lot. He [wasn’t afraid to] say, ‘Yo, that looks like shit. Do it again.’ He’s definitely one of my best friends.”

Per the archetypal artistic plight, Humble began to reconstruct himself from rock bottom. He emerged from a landscape of broken relationships and bank accounts, as a designer with credible life experience and a compelling narrative arc. None of this would have happened without Rahman, who brought him in on a mural project for the Lamplighter on Addison. The two spent the better part of a week pulling all-nighters while putting the piece up in the bathroom.

“I would work a double at Alamo, drive across that damn Leigh Street Bridge, and we’d stay up until 6 or 7am, then I’d go back to work,” Humble said. “It was all his art direction and style. I was laying down lines, but that sparked something. It lived in the space.”

That project was what made Humble decide to take their work in a larger direc59

tion. Together with Rahman, he strived to find more work and create a portfolio as a foundation for their careers.

“From there, I started reaching out to mad people. At the time, I didn’t know how to paint. I had never played with color,” he said. “We were doing black and white stuff, and that’s when I switched to painting. I met up with Chris Tsui, who owns Fat Dragon and Foo Dog. He set us up on our next piece, which ended up being huge. It was Fat Dragon.”

Up to this point, Humble had never touched spray paint. He and Rahman mapped out the mural spanning the side of the building, and improvised their vision for it. They completed it with little more than a mental image and an electric lift.

“We didn’t really know what we were doing at the time. Chris was cool about it, too,” Humble said. “We did a giant anime dragon on that wall. It’s different, and not a lot of people are into that. From there, our next gig was Foo Dog. We did the patio; the giant anime girl with chopsticks and the dragon coming out. That was the start of it -- so our street art and painting, in general, has gone about 5 years strong.”

It was during this formative whirlwind of creative development that Humble began designing and manufacturing clothes, on an almost-literal shoestring budget. His target demographic consisted of Richmond’s skate and music scene denizens who attended his parties. He saw it as a way to make money from his art and promote his work.

“Learning how to screen print, I started out in the bathroom at my house, exposing [prints] in the sun. It was chaos,” Humble said. “From there, I worked with RVA Threads, who had a screen printing studio in his basement. He took me under his wing and showed me how to do everything.”

When Humble went to Studio Two Three to start making clothing, the time came to find a name for his clothing brand. He still remembers the conversation with Rahman that would eventually define the company.

“Navid said, ‘You should call it Humble.

People call you humble about the fact that you’re doing this, but you’re doing it low key. You’ve got talent, but you don’t really flash it.’”

While he was selling out shirts at house shows, an underground fashion scene began to emerge. Separate from the institutional culture at VCU, these DIY designers developed a collaborative environment 60 60

that led to an unforeseen shift in Humble’s trajectory.

“At Studio Two Three, that’s when my homie Chase Beasely (of Crud City) was kicking around. He was just starting up art as well; I was teaching him how to screen print. Earl Mack with Chilalay was in the studio. So we’re buzzing around, sharing ideas. We were doing underground fashion shows building these runways,” Humble said. “It was crazy how much people were willing to put these things together.

We had no idea what we were doing, because none of us were part of the school.

Our fashion shows were ridiculous -- but people showed up, and then we partied our asses off. That energy, now that I think back on it, was very, very alive. There was always something to do every weekend, and it had something to do with art, music, fashion. We were doing a lot, especially for that community at the time.”

During those early days at Studio Two Three, Humble’s interest in fashion deepened -- until, in an aura of fate, an opportunity presented itself at Lamplighter.

“I was sitting outside smoking a cigarette, and this blonde girl came up to me and said, ‘Hey, do you live in Richmond?

You’ve got a good look. I would love for you to come by the studio and take some test shots.’”

Having never thought of himself as a model to generate income, he agreed to pose for a shoot. Without even knowing her name, he came to find that the gig was for Need Supply Co. here in Richmond.

“I was nervous. I’m a humble dude, I don’t see myself in front of the camera. I still don’t,” he said. “It’s still always weird to me… But I went, and they started booking me all the time. They were flying photographers from L.A. to shoot me here in Richmond. And they were paying me out the ass.”

While modeling for Need Supply Co.’s Look Books, Humble connected with Giovanna Cordero, who transferred to the agency Modelogic shortly after. The two kept in touch when the Need Supply Co. shoots died down.

“I focused on my art career for a while, then Gio hit me back up to say, ‘Hey, I’ve got this gig I think you’re perfect for.’ Ends up being Totokaelo. Super high fashion stuff,” he said. “I’ve been working with them for a couple years now, and they’re incredible. Eventually Modelogic got privy, so I got signed. I’ve been doing gigs in Baltimore, New York, down here. The money is insane. It’s what’s kept me in there -- it’s given me a look at the fashion industry that I wouldn’t have had access

to otherwise. Seeing how things work, how to do photoshoots, garment instruction, what you can really do with fashion.

It’s limitless.”

A few months later, a small company reached out over Instagram. They turned out to be Veilance, a subsidiary of the Canadian high-end outdoor clothing and sporting goods company, Arc’teryx.

“My agent calls me and she says, ‘Hey, they want to fly you out to Utah, pay for everything, pay you 4k per diem. You’ll be out there for four days.’ It was insane. The first time I’ve ever been flown out anywhere for something like that, and we had private chefs catering for us.”

The shoot was staged in the middle of the desert, “where NASA tests land rovers for Mars,” Humble said. He was the only American there.

“There was a guy from Russia, an incredible model-looking dude. I thought, ‘What the hell am I doing here?’ There was a famous photographer from France that shoots futuristic technology stuff, and the whole crew is from Canada where Arc’teryx is based,” Humble said. “The hairdresser is good friends with Kanye.

We’re all sitting around this table in the middle of the desert, sharing stories, and I’m just starstruck. I had taken a step away from clothing, especially creating, and over the past couple years I’ve been coming back into it through modeling, being re-inspired.”

True to his name, none of this has gone to his head. Humble’s plan now is to continue working with his community in mutually supportive, innovative ways; figuring out upon what great walls -- both physical and allegorical -- they may together make their mark.

“I see it metaphorically as walking through the dark with a candle,” he said. “You are the light. You don’t know where you’re going. You might be blazing the way, but mostly it’s a crapshoot, because there are no answers to any of this. There’s no methodology that will make you successful. Just keep working, keep your head down, keep producing dope shit, and help your homies as much as you can. Help everyone as much as you can. I think that’s a really big thing, working together in the scene.” @hmbl_

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COME SEE WHAT ALL THE FUSS IS ABOUT!

John MacLellan Photos & Design

RTP’S 27TH SEASON 2019–2020

LOVE CAN TELL A MILLION STORIES

ABOUT THE HEALING POWER OF ART

FALSETTOS

A NEW BRAIN

by William Finn and James Lapine SEPTEMBER 4 – OCTOBER 5, 2019

by William Finn and James Lapine MAY 14 – 30, 2020

LET’S DO THE TIME WARP AGAIN!

WHERE ONCE UPON A TIME IS RIGHT NOW!

THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW

by Richard O’Brien OCTOBER 17 – 26, 2019

A HOLIDAY CLASSIC IN HARD-BOILED 1940S HOLLYWOOD

HEAD OVER HEELS

by James Macgruder and Jeff Whitty; songs by The Go-Gos. JUNE 17 – JULY 25, 2020

TIMES SQUARE ANGEL

CABARET SERIES:

ABOUT LOVE, ACCEPTANCE AND BUTTERCREAM

The singer, raconteur and gay theater legend, brings his new show to RTP for two performances only.

by Charles Busch NOVEMBER 13 – DECEMBER 21, 2019

THE CAKE

by Bekah Brunstetter FEBRUARY 12 – MARCH 7, 2020 IS LOVE POWERFUL ENOUGH TO SET YOUR TRUE SELF FREE?

SUGAR IN OUR WOUNDS

by Donja Love APRIL 1- 25, 2020

CHARLES BUSCH

OCTOBER 11 & 12, 2019

NEW YEAR’S EVE CELEBRATION!

Featuring local award-winning actor, singer and sell-out cabaret artist Scott Wichmann. DECEMBER 31, 2019

BARE: A POP OPERA –The Reunion Concert RTP’s RTCC-winning Best Musical of 2013 returns in a one-night only reunion concert featuring members of its original cast! APRIL 14, 2020

And make sure you check our web site at www.rtriangle.org for special events and performers checking in from all over the country!

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