Winter 2006
HelioMag.com
intro Imagine 1984 – no Internet, few home computers, cell phones the size of a man’s shoe. Most of the fine and fascinating subjects we feature in this issue of Helio were then merely seeds of possibility or simply nonexistent. Maggie Gyllenhaal was 7, Liam Lynch was 12, Beck was just to stroll through his adolescence. There were no festivals on the digital arts and no Brazilian electro-pop goddess named “Lovefoxxx”. Filmmaker Terry Gilliam was just hitting his stride; hip-hop’s ladies were just finding their way and the American Hair Metal scene had just sashayed into public consciousness amid a fog machine cloud and the scent of Aquanet. Looking back, the changes since then have been staggering and monumental. Every once in a while it’s good to sit down and think about that. The world may move swiftly forward – but the place is always here and the time is always now.
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f o e l b a t s t n e t con 8. suitman 10. Maggie gyllenhaal 14. Liam Lynch 18. Terry gilliam 20. stay with me 26. visvim 28. history of hair metal 34. video game remediation 36. beck 40. berko 42. css 44. early female hip-hop 45.tigra 46. tim biskup 50. montreal 54. Ryan Heffington and Grant Krajecki
Cover illustration by Nathan Cabrera Enter COVER and hit JUMP to get this art on your Helio.
winter 2006
contributors Amy Jo (aka Your Hero) lives and works in LA. She holds it down on 2, 4 and sometimes 8 wheels. She does it wrong and rides better than you and sips sancerre and climbs fences and loses things and gets distracted and laughs too loud and rolls in a benz and eats figs and moves away and meets for tea and believes in magic and expects very little and offers even less.
Sam Comen loves street photography and is constantly struggling to shoot carefully composed and thoughtful photographs that look quick and simple. Check in on his journey toward that ever-fleeting goal at samcomen.com
Mr. Darchuk is a family man – always has been, always will. He doesn’t have any family per se, but he has recently acquired eleven mechanical birds, which he feels may in fact be the answer to all his metaphysical woes. He enjoys looking up at trees, streetlights and telephone wires.
Bryan Gardiner writes about technology and the video game industry for numerous publications, and with varying degrees of enthusiasm. He lives and plays these video games in San Francisco.
Anthony Kaufman has written about films and the film industry for numerous publications, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Village Voice and Utne Magazine. He is also the editor of “Steven Soderbergh: Interviews.”
BIO: Benjy Russell is a photographer who divides his time between Oklahoma and Los Angeles. His work spans from conceptual fashion to surrealistic portraiture. He is awaiting publishing of a body of work entitled “It Was A Lovely Crop That Year” and will be showing an expansive body of work in the spring at Pool Gallery in Berlin. benjyrussell.com, lovely-crop.com
Jed Maheu has owned a 1971 Cuda 440, 1970 Challenger 340 and 1977 Camaro with a built 350. He currently drives a Mazda 3. He is unmarried.
Steven Salardino has been published in The Mississippi Review, Pills, Chills, Thrills, and Heartache: Adventures in the First Person, Bedwetter, L.A. Alternative, and other journals, art catalogs, zines, and websites. He was at Heavy Metal Sunday US Festival ‘83 and still has the T-shirt. (Photo by Jula Bell)
publisher StreetVirus Creative Director Random von NotHaus heliomag. com picks e up where th printed mag leaves off
Editor-in-Chief Jessica Hundley Helion-at-large Justin Ried Production Manager Nate Hahn Advertising director Dr. Romanelli contributing writers Teena Apeles, Peter J. Darchuk, Mark Frauenfelder, Bryan Gardiner, Anthony Kaufman, Michelle Lanz, Jed Maheu, Steven Salardino contributing Photographers Sam Comen, Autumn Dewilde, Evan Klamfer, Jeaneen Lund, Buff Monster, Benji Russell contributing illustrators Nathan Cabrera, Amy Jo Diaz copy Editor Lon Rozelle
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No portion of this magazine may be reproduced, in whole or in part without the written consent of the editor. Any material sent to HELIO Magazine becomes our property. We do not necessarily advocate or agree with the beliefs, expressions or opinions of our writers or advertisers, thank you. © 2006 Street Virus
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HELIO Magazine is published by StreetVirus 6725 Sunset Boulevard, Suite 270 Hollywood, CA 90028 323.465.9784 For editorial inquiries, please email: info@heliomag.com
HELIO, the “HELIO” logo and any other product names, service names or logos of HELIO used, quoted and/or referenced herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of HELIO LLC. All other product names and/or company names used herein may be protected as trademarks of their respective owners.
winter 2006
9
I
The Art of
Suitable Pursuits By Peter J. Darchuk
“It’s all about having a strong foundation of self, of identity which is not dependent on place. Once we have this, no matter where we are - we will always be in our world.”
know very little about suits. I own only one. It was expensive. And brown. I had to lug it all over Manhattan in one of those “no-possible-way-in-hell-tocarry-conveniently” bulky suit-holder thingamabobs for a shvitz-tastic summer spousal. Wearing a suit makes me uncomfortable. Self-conscious. Claustrophobic. I can honestly say that I find the experience thoroughly oppressive. So something deep down inside me--some vaguely contemptuous curiosity overtook me when I first became aware of Suitman. Suitman is quite wee--about three feet tall. His suit is sewn on (in a sense) and made of plastic, not cloth. He travels around the world with the assistance of his associate, Young Kim, taking photographs of himself wherever he and Mr. Kim see fit to snap: a waterfall, a 99-cent store, a church, a tram, a theme-park urinal. The photographs are simple and benign, yet somehow align to form an expansive expedition well suited for curious visual wanderers like myself. Each image of the tiny lad seems to produce more questions than answers. Indeed, the more you see, the more you want to know. And perhaps that’s just the point--everything’s a journey. Everything we see, everything we say, everything we think, everything we do. All of it. We are all existential tourists. And we are here to travel. Suitman creator Young Kim has “14 to 20 suits”--a range that seems both oddly specific and suspiciously vague. And yet, the answer seems to suit the self-professed suit-wearer perfectly. Young moved to the U.S. from Seoul at the age of 10, where his identity quickly became “Asian-American.” He considered himself to be American, but could never seem to be accepted culturally as such. A job relocation led him back to Asia where he expected to find cultural acceptance, but instead found an alienation similar to what he experienced back in the States. Kim’s internal and external culture clash organically found its way into his art over time, culminating with the birth of Suitman. According to the Suitman Manifesto, “Suitman is the manifestation, in a physical, plastic form, of this lifelong alienation.” I recently had the opportunity to lob queries at Young Kim via the Worldwide Supergalactic Interhighway: Is Suitman your alter ego, or is it the other way around? Suitman is a separate identity. I only help Suitman carry out his missions and travels. What do you think a person can learn from experiencing alienation, or resistance to alienation? Many people ask us this question. And often the concept of alienation is misunderstood. What we take away from this alienation from two cultures leaves us with more possibilities to create our own world. It’s all about
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having a strong foundation of self, of identity which is not dependent on place. Once we have this, no matter where we are - we will always be in our world. What does it mean to view the world through tinted glasses? In the beginning there was no meaning behind it. But some friends and fans have interpreted it as Asian: yellow. Seeing the world tinted yellow. How many cities has Suitman visited and is there one in particular that Suitman is eager to visit? Over 150. The city of Petra in Jordan. Is Suitman a story with an ending? We just finished shooting for the Snickers Instant Def project, and we had L.A.-based Suitman stand in for us in the States while we are traveling Asia. So far we have six Suitmen around the world representing us in different cities-so they may be joining forces and creating something big. We don’t know where this story will end up. Is there a medium that you haven’t delved into, artistic or otherwise, that you would like to? The art of political campaigns fascinate us: slogans, banners, TV commercials, jingles, art of kissing babies, number of handshakes, etc. Can you explain the evolution of the Suitman products, posters and figurines? How did it start and why? It started from the Tokion show in Tokyo. It was sponsored by Sony Toy Group and they encouraged us to design some kind of product to sell. We made disposable cameras with one frame of the film a pre-exposed Suitman image. How do you feel about merchandising? If a product is affordable it allows the audience to own a work without significant investment. Are your suits tailored or off the rack? Tailored. We have a menswear line called youngmeagher, youngmeagher.com. You’ve taken Suitman all over the world; where have you left him behind? So far we have dropped over 1000: Hong Kong, Tokyo, Bali, Taipei, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and Amsterdam. We are just about to hit Paris. In November we are planning to hit Delhi, Bombay, Barcelona, and Amsterdam and New York again. Responses have been great. People have been sending in pictures from all over. How should the last line of this article read? To be continued… To see Suitman in action, visit suitman.org.
winter 2006
it Keeping
Real Maggie Gyllenhaal Takes on Hollywood By Michelle Lanz // Illustration by Amy Jo Diaz
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here are some actresses who defy expectation, who abandon convention in favor of unique and thrilling talent. Twenty-eight-year-old Maggie Gyllenhaal has managed to carve out a career by delving into resonant female roles with an unmatched earthiness. Passing up teen flicks for challenging, provocative parts, she has solidified her star power and from early on proved she was here to stay. Born in New York, but raised in Los Angeles, she attended Harvard-Westlake prep school along with her younger brother, Jake. After graduation, she moved back to New York to attend Columbia University, from which she earned a B.A. in English in 1999. Gyllenhaal’s theater work while in school eventually led to her pursuing acting after graduation and onto the
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maggie gyllenhaal
“When I have made things that I have been proud of, it’s usually because I have had some intuitive pull toward it.”
path to where she is today. Her talent first became apparent to critics by her portrayal of the slightly disturbed, but strangely sexy Lee Holoway in Steven Shainberg’s Secretary. From there she has enjoyed a steady flow of varied and often controversial roles in films such as Adaptation, Happy Endings and Sherrybaby. In her most recent film, she stars opposite Will Farrell, Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman in Marc Forster’s Stranger Than Fiction. The film is about an IRS auditor who can suddenly hear a narration of his life--the narration eventually begins to affect everything from his work to his death. Gyllenhaal plays Ana Pascal, a tattooed, IRS-hating bakery-shop owner and Farrell’s love interest in the film. Gyllenhaal recently took some time while promoting Stranger Than Fiction to talk to Helio about the film, her career and anticipating motherhood. What goes through your mind when you’re considering a roll? Mostly it’s been pretty intuitive. I’ll just sometimes get this magnetic pull toward something and I have found that that is pretty reliable. When I have made things that I have been proud of, it’s usually because I have had some intuitive pull toward it. Usually it’s pretty immediate. I am always trying to make movies that are challenging to me and hopefully challenging to those people who go see them, but I don’t think about it that intellectually when I actually make a choice, I just sort of feel my way through that, and it has actually been pretty reliable. Which role, out of all the ones you have done in the past, would you say was the most challenging? Sherrybaby was particularly intense, especially because when you’re in every scene of a movie you’re almost a filmmaker. The choices you make as an actor affect what the film is ultimately about, so that’s a different kind
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of challenge than a film like World Trade Center where I had to give everything I could give, but ultimately it’s Oliver Stone who decides what the movie is about. Can you tell me a little bit about Stranger than Fiction? Mark Forester directed it; he made Finding Neverland. It’s with Dustin Hoffman, Will Farrell, Queen Latifah and Will Farrell plays an IRS agent who comes to audit my character. I play a political, radical speaker who has decided not to pay a percentage of her taxes that goes toward things that she doesn’t believe in. We don’t like each other at first, but in the end we fall in love. What’s it like working with Farrell? The movie is not a slapstick comedy like a lot of Will Farrell movies, so he was sort of more sober. I don’t mean that like he’s usually on drugs or something, but he was calmer than maybe he is on those other movies. I think of him as just a kind, lovely man. Do you think having a child will make you choose films differently? I really don’t know, I am going to wait and see. Is there anybody you are dying to work with? I would love to make a movie with Pedro Almodovar. I just like his films. When did you realize you wanted to be an actress? I was pretty young. I had a fantasy about it when I was little, but yeah, I was pretty young when I fell in love with it. What’s next for you? I think mostly I am going to focus on my baby and see how that is. That’s my major focus this year.
“I doubt the guys in Black Sabbath decided to let Dio back in the band because he was in our movie.”
L
iam Lynch is a bit of a modern day Renaissance man, the type of guy who can create a warped network puppet show (Sifl and Ollie), write the world’s shortest hit song (“United States of Whatever”) and utilize his prodigious charms to woo folks like Dave Grohl, Sarah Silverman, Queens of the Stone Age and Jack Black into doing his bidding. Helio chats up the writer/director/rocker/puppeteer about helming the new Tenacious D feature film, Pick of Destiny. So, you have a world record? I do have a world record for the shortest top ten hit song. I got the Guinness certificate hanging in my office. Josh Homme from Queens of The Stone Age, he was like, “Dude, I’m gonna write a shorter top ten hit to dethrone you!”
Cloning, Puppetry and Hanging with the Cool Kids The Blessed Existence of Liam Lynch By Jed Maheu // Photo by Sam Comen, samcomen.com
Have you ever heard of Tetaumatawhakatangihang akoauaotamateaurehaeaturipukapihimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuaakitanrahu? No. It’s a hill in New Zealand. It’s the longest named place in the world. Never heard of it. In the new movie you use a lot of the same ideas or skits from the Tenacious D TV show. Were you at all concerned with fans being bummed out that it was similar to the show? Well, it isn’t exactly the same thing as the HBO episodes, but your fans are your worst enemies because they want something new more than anybody, but they have the hardest time accepting anything new. And so we had to have the original people that were from the episode, a comfort zone so it does feel familiar. How was it working with Ronnie James Dio? Awesome! He’s a friend of the D’s and they have a song called “Dio” and he had them be in one of his videos and then we asked him to be in the movie and he came in and recorded a song. He’s super-intelligent and like a total gentleman and he’s got the most incredible voice. And when we first set him up to record in the studio he actually blew up the microphone! This is the year of Dio. First he gets in the Tenacious D movie and then he reunites with Sabbath! Yeah, sure, but I doubt the guys in Black Sabbath decided to
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let Dio back in the band because he was in our movie. I don’t think his five-second cameo is what got him the Black Sabbath tour. There’s a scene in the movie, I guess you would call it a dream sequence, where Jack is imagining what their stage show would be like... You mean “Master Exploder?” Right. And was that scene inspired by a specific band at all? No, it was really more about what I imagine, when the D are onstage, what they feel like they look like. As opposed to what they really look like. If you could go back in time and be any member of any band, who would you be? Brian Eno in Roxy Music. I studied with him there for a bit, but to be in Roxy Music at that time would just be so kick-ass. How did your TV show Sifl and Ollie come about? Well, I was living in London at the time and I had this tape of my friend and I talking and I took it and rearranged it so that the conversations didn’t really make any sense but they sounded really funny to me. I sent the tape to MTV Europe and they used it in between videos and then it got picked up by MTV over here and I ended up doing 82 half-hour shows. And speaking of numbers, how many pets do you have these days? I had seven cats. I broke up with my girlfriend last January and she took four of the cats. I bought her one more so she has five now. One of mine died, but I got the one that died cloned. I have a baby clone of the cat that died. So now I actually have three cats. Where did you get the cat cloned? Some place in Wisconsin that clones farm animals, but they don’t do house pets anymore because it became too expensive. If you could clone that ex-girlfriend and then you could raise her yourself so that you know when she reached 18 or whatever… No thank you. One was enough. For more info, check out liamlynch.net.
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liam lynch
He’s Got Charm Jack Black and Kyle Gass on Liam Lynch Jack Black and Kyle Gass, the force of two that create the epic power rock of Tenacious D, wax poetic on their collaborative partnership with Liam Lynch. How did you meet Liam? Jack: He saw us, like a lot of people saw us, at Largo in LA. We were playing a little club, and I talked to him afterward and he was just telling me about himself and about the stuff he had done with Sifl & Ollie, the sock puppet show on MTV. I don’t know how it developed, but we ended up jamming at his house and talking about stuff that we could do for the D. We were doing a lot of little skits and stuff on stage and I thought that it would be good to get them on film so that we could show them at concerts and take some intermissions backstage, because it was too tiring to do the show. He directed those, expertly, and he was just in after that. He was a collaborator with us; he came on tour with us and did a great little documentary and we have been working with him ever since. He did our music video. It just weirdly fell into place. Kyle: I love Liam. He is very talented and God love him. There is a little Achilles Heel, though, and you don’t really learn about it until you know Liam. But if there is someone with some juice, Liam will get there faster than shit through a goose, you know what I’m saying? I remember one time we were at some sort of function and I don’t remember who it was, Beck or somebody, and we were right in mid-conversation, and where did Liam go? He was right in Beck’s grill, talking up the next video idea. But, he’s made a career at it. Jack: But you know, a certain amount of courage goes along with that. I wouldn’t have the balls to walk up to people and just start talking.
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Kyle: I mean, when he came up to you, you were already a celeb of note. A lot of people come up to you, after a show especially, like ‘hey man, I’ve got this idea, if you could just read my script or listen to my CD.’ Jack: Yeah, but for some reason Liam cuts right through. Kyle: Yeah, like, mind control. I mean, he’s actually friends with several Beatles. He’s not very old, but he studied with Paul McCartney, he’s friends with Ringo Starr. Jack: And he’s friends with Harrison’s son. Kyle: I mean, how many people know even one Beatle? And somehow Liam has managed to intimately know several members of The Beatles! I have a good Liam story. There was a time where I was like ‘Dave Grohl is cool, he’s the nicest guy, I’m going to cultivate this friendship with Dave.’ I got his number, I’m good at being a friend, I know the rules. I called him up a couple times, but there was no rainbow connection. Then, the next time I see Liam, he’s meeting Dave for the first time and 5 minutes into the relationship they’re laughing and having the best time and talking about projects. Jack: Dave doesn’t call Liam back. He doesn’t call me back either. Kyle: Yeah, I don’t take offense because Dave Grohl is an ADD kind of man. But Liam, that bastard, he’s got charm. If Dave’s gonna call anyone back, it’s going to be Liam.
The Archives: Mining the Vaults of Film History
Deranged and Dysfunctional Terry Gilliam and the Monty Python Legacy By Anthony Kaufman // Portrait by Terry Gilliam
F
lights of wild and exuberant fancy, the films of Terry Gilliam boldly go where no man (or woman and child) has gone before. Tales of dark, grimy pasts and foreboding, apocalyptic futures, Gilliam’s trips are strange, distorted, humorously macabre, and never sugar-coated, filled with killer rabbits, exploding parents, random shootings, train wrecks, monsters—ghastly monsters, samurai monsters, horse monsters—and all kinds of nasty creatures that the 10-year-old in all of us both dreads and relishes. You might expect Gilliam, who first rose to fame as the only American member of the wacky British comedy troupe Monty Python, to have come from some deranged, dysfunctional family life—living with a little brother who practiced taxidermy or a father who ate babies. But growing up in a “solid, normal” environ-
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ment in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the 1940s and ‘50s, says Gilliam, allowed him to develop his fruitful imagination. “I don’t have awful, psychic wounds from my childhood,” he admits. “I could fly without fear, and that’s what’s kept me going.” Gilliam returns again and again to the unconventional and often unwilling escapades of children, be it the young Kevin kidnapped by dwarfs in Time Bandits, Sally Salt’s soaring adventures with the Baron von Munchausen, or in his latest, Tideland, where a little girl named Jeliza-Rose must fend for herself in the American Heartland after her junkie parents kick the bucket. “I suppose it links back to my favorite fairytale,” explains Gilliam of his fascination with pint-sized protagonists. “In ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes,’ it was only
the little kid who was honest and had his eyes open enough to say that the emperor’s got no clothes. I’ve always felt that, too,” he adds. Though Gilliam turns 66 this month, he remains very much a kid himself, always giggling, and often playing the part of the impertinent teenage rebel. “Someone once described me as a ‘film director and a provocateur,’” remembers Gilliam, “and I thought, ‘Great, I like that. It is about trying to shake people up out of their stupor.’” With Tideland, Gilliam ventures further in this direction than perhaps ever before; the story—a sort of drug-addled mix of Gilliam’s own Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Alice in Wonderland—disturbs and confounds, tries audiences’ patience and yet treats them to dazzling visuals and narrative detours, not to mention a strange array of supporting characters, from a wildeyed crazy beekeeper to talking Barbie-doll heads to a brain-damaged boy who imagines submarine adventures in wheat fields. Gilliam shares an aesthetic with the surrealists of the 1920s, fellow traffickers in dream imagery and shock value. In Tideland, for example, there is a direct reference to Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali’s infamous, uninhibited short-film masterpiece Un Chien Andalou. Though surprisingly Gilliam confesses he’s never seen it, he acknowledges the influence. “The human brain seems determined to make sense of things, so you jumble these incompatible things together in a painting or a photograph and the brain is madly working overtime to make sense of it,” he explains. “I can’t describe why a surrealist painting works for me, I just know it makes me uneasy and exciting and slightly frightened at the same time. That’s what I love about it.” In the 1960s, Gilliam’s rebellious streak propelled him to leave the United States and never turn back. He’s since lived in London for 40 years. “I got a good college education, majored in political science, and the more I learned, the more uneasy I felt,” he says. “And then along comes the Vietnam War and I thought I can’t be part of this place. I felt my responsibility as an American was to get out of America and look at the world from a different perspective. “I always felt that most of my films were messages in bottles about America sent back to America,” he adds. Brazil, which some call Gilliam’s crowning achievement, is now just over 20 years old, but the filmmaker is surprised by how relevant the story—about a world where a monolithic government controls its citizens through misinformation and paranoia—remains today. “I’m enjoying Bush and Cheney’s remake of Brazil,” he giggles. “So many people—younger people—come up to me and say, ‘How did I know the world was going to be like that?’ But the world was always like that,” he explains. “It just wasn’t so transparent.”
“I always felt that most of my films were messages in bottles about America sent back to America,”
must see terry Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) Co-directed with Terry Jones, the Python comedy classic chronicles the quest of King Arthur’s knights to find the Holy Grail, all the while struggling against murderous flying bunnies, the Black Knight and some particularly vexing questions (e.g., “What is your favorite color?”).
Time Bandits (1981) In this brilliant kid-pic sure to traumatize younger tykes, a band of thieving dwarfs kidnaps an unsuspecting boy and takes him on a wild ride through history; with terrific cameos from John Cleese as Robin Hood, Ian Holm as Napoleon, and Sean Connery as King Agamemnon, the coolest father figure a boy could ever dream of.
Brazil (1985) In Gilliam’s legendary dystopian retro-sci-fi epic, mild-mannered bureaucrat Sam Lowry stumbles his way against the monolithic establishment, searching for his dream girl and fighting the evils-that-be in his imagination and his reality—and depending on which cut you see (Gilliam’s or the studio’s), he’s either blissfully foiled or heroically triumphant.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) Inspired by Hunter S. Thompson’s famous gonzo journalist tome, this hallucinogenic trip of a movie showcases inspired performances from Johnny Depp, as wild-andwoolly writer Raoul Duke, and Benicio Del Toro, as his sidekick Dr. Gonzo, as they wreak havoc on the chemicals in their brains and the denizens of Sin City.
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Stay with
photographer: Benjy Russell Photo assistant: James G Stylist/costume designer: Nina Tahash Hair & makeup: Little Rock Model: Juka
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If the Shoe Fits VISVIM’s Hiroki Nakamura By Michelle Lanz // Photo by Jeaneen Lund
I
t is no secret that the task of finding a shoe that not only looks great, but feels great too, is nearly impossible. The cliché “slave to fashion” is directly spawned from the scores of women who shove their feet into designer shoes only to be rewarded with painful blisters. Japanese designer Hiroki Nakamura had this predicament on his mind when he left his design job with Burton to start his designer shoe line VISVIM. Already popular in Japan, Hiroki is bringing his line to the U.S. and setting up shop in Los Angeles. He recently sat with Helio to talk about the brand and where he looks for inspiration. What does VISVIM stand for to you? Well, when I started I just really wanted to make a really good product, so I named it by just picking letters. It doesn’t really have a meaning. Visually it looked good, the two V’s and two I’s. What makes your designs different from other designer shoes? Well, in the beginning I really wanted to make something that didn’t exist. It’s so hard, because there are so many products on the market, and I also wanted to push the products to the next level. I wanted to make something comfortable, something that you can really walk in and that also looks good. My background is in the sporting-goods industry, so I really like the sporting-goods products, which perform really well. I just wanted to make something perform in daily life and with style. You worked on Burton--did you design the boots? I was doing everything in Japan. I did marketing, sales, and then I did some projects like jackets and designing.
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Not really designing, but concept. I did that for two years and then I thought maybe I should get into fashion that people could wear every day, so that’s when I started VISVIM. Where do you look for inspiration? I travel all of the time. I’m not trying to look for products already on the market. I don’t want to accidentally get influenced, I just want to focus on my world. At the same time I’m trying to see what’s going on in the market, but I don’t want to be too close to someone else’s product. What made you want to expand VISVIM into the U.S.? When I was a teen, like 15 to 20, I was really inspired by American culture; I think most of my generation in Japan is really inspired by American ’50s, ’60s, ’70s culture. I really like it. I am really happy to introduce the products I am making into the U.S. You collaborate with other artists when designing shoes. How do you choose a collaborator? Well, basically, the person I work with has a lot of passion on the project and the creation, and if I can work with someone that has a different direction but has a lot of passion, I can create something totally different with them. So that’s good for me too. Your store in Japan, F.I.L., looks more like an art gallery than a shoe store. Was that intentional? I have been in the marketing field before I started VISVIM. It may look like it’s a gallery, but that wasn’t the concept. The product has to be king all of the time, so I just wanted to create a really honest, comfortable space.
Kill The Looks That
A Brief History of 1980s American Hair Metal By Steve Salardino // Photos courtesy of American Hair Metal
I 1976:
t was all about the hair. It needed to be long, it needed to be arranged and it needed to be BIG. Helio pulls out the Aqua Net and the double-necked guitar to relive some of the finest moments from rock’s most hair-raising era…
Frank Zappa and his drummer Terry Bozzio become infatuated with Punky Meadows from Angel and write “Punky’s Whips” (“His hair’s so shiny, I love his hips, I love his teeth, ‘n his gums ‘n such”). Angel started in 1975 and were discovered by Gene Simmons (KISS) and signed to their label, Casablanca. In contrast to the demonic costumes of KISS, Angel wear skintight all white and have the most beautiful, flowing locks in rock. Their makeup was understated, more natural, as was the trend in the ’70s. Still, this band was probably the earliest example of the trend about to come. But it’s not enough to fully crack the market and their guitar- and keyboard-driven bubble-gum hard rock doesn’t catch on with the mainstream even after tours opening for KISS. Eventually they break up, with members going on to White Lion and Giuffria and with Punky’s hips, lips, whips, and hair becoming more famous than he ever will be.
1983:
The second US Festival takes place over Memorial Day weekend in Southern California and “the Woz,” Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak, is brilliant and in-tune enough to come up with Heavy Metal Sunday featuring Left, top: Poison; bottom: RATT
one of the best metal lineups of all time: Quiet Riot, Joe Walsh, Triumph, Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, The Scorpions, and Van Halen. Wait a minute...Joe Walsh? Three hundred seventy-five thousand longhairs gasp in unison and plan their pee breaks until it is announced that Motley Crue will take his place and Joe will be moved to a slot on Monday. Bladders are left to spill in the dirt and Motley Crue goes from fringe freaks to arena rockers overnight.
1983:
After 10 years hidden behind extreme kabuki makeup, KISS decide to take it off just when all the other bands are putting it on. A major influence to the Hair Metal scene, their popularity had been waning and their first album without the makeup, “Lick It Up,” was a huge success. But Hair Metal has an effect on KISS too, as they start dressing in bright colors, often with feathers and leopard prints. This phase gets played out just like the rest of the Hair Metal bands, and in 1996 (influenced by bands obviously influenced by them, e.g., Marilyn Manson) they reapply their signature makeup and have yet another comeback.
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history of hair metal
1984:
STRYPER releases “The Yellow and Black Attack.” In their stark, striped, yellow and black uniforms, these four young rockers tried with all their hearts and saved souls to praise the lord and bang the head at the same time. Enigma (which also had Poison and Slayer in its stable at one time) saw the light and released their e.p., unwittingly giving birth to Christian Heavy Metal. Stryper’s name was often followed by ‘Isaiah 53:5,’ referring to the bible verse, “by His stripes we are healed.”
“What influence do you think Hair Metal has had on today’s popular music?
1984:
After two records embraced by the heads but not the mainstream, Def Leppard hits it big in the States with their album “Pyromania” in 1983. Their look was less pretty-boy but their sound was pure pop-metal (including their MTV Marilyn Monroe take-off video for “Photograph”). Riding high ’n’ dry is drummer Rick Allen, who in 1984 is blowing through the turns outside Sheffield in his Corvette when he slams into a stone wall. He survives but loses his left arm. Born to rock, Rick trains his legs to do some of the work of his missing arm on a special drum kit and continues on as an integral member of the band. Later, in 1995, he would use his good arm for bad and get arrested for spousal abuse, beating his wife.
1984:
Glam goes Frankenstein when Twisted Sister takes the makeup to a new level. Bored with blending in with other bell-bottomed Spiders From Mars wannabes, Dee Snider and bandmates create a look that suggests a high school football team on acid chained to the makeup counter at Robinson’sMay. They hit it big with their humorous videos on MTV: “I Wanna Rock,” starring Mark Metcalf in a role similar to his Animal House ROTC drill sergeant Doug Neidermeyer, is actually almost as funny as the movie.
1984:
From top left: Stryper, Whitesnake, Motley Crue, Jani Lane of Warrant, Michael Monroe of Hanoi Rocks, Faster Pussycat
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Motley Crue’s Vince Neil is rocking hard and playing hard and driving fast and stupid when he plows into oncoming traffic while on a beer run and kills his passenger, Hanoi Rocks drummer Nick “Razzle” Dingley. Motley Crue has a history with car crashes: Nikki Sixx got sued by someone who crashed into him on purpose and Tommy Lee injured Armored Saint bassist Joey Vera in a crash after a Saint gig. Hanoi Rocks never really recovered and broke up in 1985. Supposedly Armored Saint used some of the money from the crash with Tommy to help finance recording and ended up signed to Capitol Records.
“None whatsoever.”
1988:
Penelope Spheeris follows up her history of Los Angeles punk with The Decline of Western Civilization Part 2: The Metal Years. Where the first decline showed the birth and apex of the punk movement, the second installment shows a movement committing suicide by excess and ego. Classic Hair metal bands Poison, Faster Pussycat, and London make appearances full of self-importance and self-delusion. Odin says they are going to be as big as Led Zeppelin. Janet Gardner of Vixen admits that “if a guy came to pick me up for a baseball game and was wearing makeup, I probably wouldn’t answer the door.” There is desperation hinted in the bands’ need to “make it.” Although there would be a few more success stories (Guns N Roses), the end is near.
1992:
Jani Lane, singer for Warrant, walks into Columbia records and sees that the framed poster of his band has been replaced by one for Alice In Chains. Nirvana had woken up the world and the music industry moguls who saw a new music to exploit. Some of the Hair Metal bands tried to make a transition, becoming grittier and toning down the makeup and even (gasp!) the hair, but it was too late. The flannel revolution had begun.
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history of hair metal acts--that influence came later, mostly in these bands’ Nirvana-era mad searches for punk cred. Hair Metal’s influence on punk was strictly reactionary--the rise of everyone from Kurt Cobain to Billy Joe was a stand in stark opposition to all things Aqua Net.
Helio minion Steve Salardino further explores the Hair Metal phenomenon with Steven Blush, author of “American Hair Metal” (out now from Feral House). How did it get so big? Hair Metal was the record industry’s move to tame the lucrative-but-”Satanic” Heavy Metal market for bubblegum appeal. Multi-platinum success came with the Power Ballad, a non-threatening formula based on the success of toned-down ’70s anthems like Aerosmith’s “Dream On” and Led Zep’s “Stairway To Heaven.” Every label jumped on the Hair band bandwagon big-time. There must have been 200 to 300 of these bands signed to major labels during the late ’80s, and many of these acts yielded Top 40 hits. So, that’s a lot of airplay. But like the mighty dinosaurs that one ruled the Earth, the Hair bands literally died overnight, and only their skeletons remain... Do you think that if these bands were never signed and made into money-making superstars they would have still continued and created their own underground scene? The Hair bands were all about “bad boy attitude,” which I do not interpret as particularly antiauthoritarian. In fact, it’s kind of the opposite - these guys were not out to ferment revolution, they were simply the latest version of “sex and drugs and rock & roll.” And had these bands never became superstars, they would’ve just broken up. There was no attendant socio-political statement to the Hair bands - they were all about gettin’ laid, gettin’ wasted and kickin’ ass. And that’s why they were so awesome! Obviously Hair Metal was inspired by the likes of KISS, the New York Dolls, Iggy Pop, T. Rex, David Bowie, and Mott the Hoople. It seems that punk also inspired the Hair Metalers. But did punk get any inspiration from Hair Metal? Punk Rock and Hair Metal were polar opposites; there was little crossover. Other than Crue, GN’R and maybe Junkyard, punk was not an initial influence on any of the Hair Metal
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Somehow Hanoi Rocks seems to be sleazy cool while Poison seems sleazy silly. Why is this? Hanoi Rocks was a Finnish punk band, disciples of the New York Dolls and Johnny Thunders. If not for Hanoi, there never would’ve been a GN’R. Poison was a Pennsylvania pop band that moved to L.A. for fame and fortune, and incorporated the members’ training as beauticians/hairdressers to create an over-the-top fashion style. Having said that, Poison was not silly - they were probably the best damn band of the era! Who did have the biggest hair? Who was the prettiest and who just couldn’t pull it off? Cinderella, Britny Fox, House Of Lords and Nitro all had the biggest hair. Cinderella were the prettiest and Nitro just couldn’t pull it off. American Hardcore was a personal history of punk with your own opinions and experiences giving color and context to that world/music/lifestyle. Where does your appreciation of Hair Metal come from? I was a proud member of the American Hardcore movement, and gave my life to it. After the world fell apart, I got into all the punk-influenced speed metal bands, like Motorhead, Metallica and Slayer. I was definitely never part of the Hair Metal scene. I dug some of the bands but was never particularly involved with, or embraced by, the scene. My good friends were members of the Grunge bands, who were also byproducts of Hardcore and they were in many ways fighting against the Power Ballad mindset. I have always cheered for the underdog, and when the Hair scene evaporated in the mid-‘90s, I stepped back to re-evaluate the music and loved what I heard. The tipping point was realizing that the first Cinderella kicked ass on the level of Aerosmith and AC/DC. But I believe I am the perfect type of person to write a Hair Metal book because I have no agenda, and have no checkered past to be embarrassed by. With bands like The Darkness making boogie rock, can a full-on Glam/Hair Metal revival be too far away? Unfortunately, I see no Glam Metal revival on the horizon. Bands like Towers Of London and the Sex Slaves are probably the closest thing and they’re not very close. Everybody today seems too busy being “cool” to play some nice ’n’ sleazy rock and roll. Wake me up when you find the next Axl W. Rose. What influence do you think Hair Metal has had on today’s popular music? None whatsoever. For more info go to feralhouse.com
Screens from Silent Hill
Everything Old is New Again
Screens from Metal Gear Solid
Digital Comics By Bryan Gardiner
I
t’s a highfalutin’ and off-putting word, remediation. Usually employed to describe the process of correcting a fault or deficiency, the term most often pops up in studies and dissertations on environmental science, referring to titillating stuff like “the removal of pollution or contaminants from soil, groundwater and sediment.” Close to six years ago, however, the term underwent a semantic shift when a couple of new-media gurus (Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin) started using it to describe something far more interesting: the unchecked stealing, borrowing and cannibalization that tends to go on in today’s glutted media jungle. Granted, they tend to use fluffier words in their book, conveniently titled Remediation, but the idea remains the same. In new-media parlance, remediation has come to mean refashioning: as in “photography remediated painting; film remediated stage production and photography; and television remediated film, vaudeville and radio.” The general consensus among those interested enough to follow such things is that all burgeoning forms of visual media go through this process, either rivaling or paying homage to (or ripping off) pre-existing mediums as they set about their campaign for
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cultural significance. Take, for example, what were once three distinct visual mediums: the comic book (including its longer, more artistically legitimate, cousin: the graphic novel), movies and video games. Today, we have movies being made into video games, video games being made into movies, comic books being made into movies, which are in turn rendered into video games, and now, video games being made into—you guessed it—comic books (ex: the recent release of the Halo graphic novel by Marvel). This phenomenon intermittently produces a lot of angst in the video-game industry—especially on the independent side of things. Indeed, for those who keep hoping that the industry will develop a story-telling language of its own (a pathway, some believe, to fullfledged legitimacy), remediation is generally considered a perpetual thwarting force. To an extent, these critics are right. Video games have fallen into that old remediatory trap. They clearly aspire (some unabashedly) to the conventions of today’s most dominant and entrenched medium—we’re talkin’ movies here—and have typically gone to great lengths to appropriate that precious cinematic ethos. It takes only a brief survey of all the mini-movies and cut scenes in today’s games to confirm this fact.
So, yes, even 30 years down the road, the video game industry is still searching for a suitable clearing to plant its pixilated flag. But despite all the gnashing of teeth over mimicry/refashioning/wholesale copying, frequently something innovative and unique does emerge from the murky bog of media incest. Take, for instance, Konami. Based on this very principle, the video-game publisher recently stumbled upon a new form of media for the PlayStation Portable (PSP): the digital interactive comic. So far, there are two examples: The Silent Hill Experience and Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel. Both digital comics are based on the respective worlds of two of Konami’s most successful franchises (Silent Hill and Metal Gear), and both happen to be shining examples of how remediation can, and occasionally does, produce something truly sui generis. As the name implies, an interactive digital comic is basically a comic book, on a video screen—but with a bunch of other forms of visual media thrown in for good measure. Unlike static (paper-based) comics, digital comics endeavor to provide an interactive experience that at least approaches that of video games. Like in traditional video games, they try to involve players in the story by requiring them to weave together various plot points and occasionally solve a random narrative puzzle. Put more simply, digital interactive comics are basically an old-school concept updated for today’s media capabilities—a type of digital “choose your own adventure” story, only with better artwork. According to Wilson Cheng, product manager at Konami, the impetus behind creating these interactive comics was based on the desire to come up with something specifically tailored for the PSP—fittingly, one of the best examples of remediation today (a handheld movie/music/video-game device). OK, so it wasn’t pure creativity. Admittedly, there were probably some fancy marketing considerations that came into play as well. Like so many other video games, Silent Hill happened to be getting the Hollywood treatment as of last April, and concurrently releasing TSHE certainly wasn’t going to hurt the bottom line. But that’s the cynical take. As it turns out, TSHE is pretty innovative. Even for someone who was never all that smitten with the franchise (I should also admit I also never saw the movie), playing through the various elements of the interactive comic proved to be far more spooky then slogging through any of the convoluted games. And with content that includes a new book written by Silent Hill scribe Scott Ciencin; illustrations by Steve Perkins and Alex Shibao; 20 tracks from the previous four Silent Hill video games hand-picked for creepiness by the franchises’ music composer; interviews with Christophe Gans, director of the Silent Hill motion
“Even 30 years down the road, the video game industry is still searching for a suitable clearing to plant its pixilated flag.”
picture; and opening cinematics from all four titles in the Silent Hill video game series, the digital comic is truly a mish-mash of mediums that, in the end, works quite well. If all that seems too cluttered and haphazard, comic-book purists will be pleased to know that the digitized Metal Gear Solid Graphic Novel is much more straightforward in its approach: a meat and potatoes comic book-style story from the revered franchise creator Hideo Kojima coupled with some stunning artwork courtesy of Australian comic book artist, Ashley Wood, who actually does the illustrations for the paper-based Metal Gear Solid comic book as well. Go figure. So perhaps remediation isn’t the creativity assassin it’s often perceived to be. In just a few short years, video games have emerged as one of the only major challengers to film’s cultural kung-fu grip. And the industry is still in its infancy. It took film more than three decades to officially usurp what was (around the turn of the last century) the dominant form of visual entertainment: the stage play. Why should video games be any different? Granted, they have a ways to go before they can be considered a true art form, but isn’t mimicry still one of the best ways to understand both how and why something works? So let the ripping off commence! …or rather continue.
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Th e Info r m a tion A ge Beck Keeps on Keeping On By Jessica Hundley // Photo by Autumn Dewilde
W
ho knew a young troubadour early career hit called “Loser” would become inextricably intertwined with the shared cultural identity of the last decade? Following the languid lope of his infectious slacker anthem, Beck followed suit with the unexpected – a series of groundbreaking albums that have defied easy categorization and displayed an ever-evolving imagination. L.A.’s hometown hero has managed to stand both the test of time and passing fancies, emerging as one of most continually innovative artists of his generation. With his new album, Beck keeps up the good work, ignoring all expectation in favor of cheerful weirdness, slick melodies and effect-heavy vocals. The Information sounds like nothing you’ve heard before, but distinctively like Beck--which is exactly his particular charm.
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beck
I know I’m one of about 50 interviews this week. I’m wondering if you resent having to talk about your work all the time. It’s interesting. Once I make it, it’s more finished when it reaches the listeners; it’s something I leave behind in a way. In another kind of music business, in an alter reality that doesn’t exist, I wouldn’t mind just having new songs every week. When I started out, every show I would write new songs, so it was always about being in flux and not really looking where you’ve just been and just getting lost in what you’re doing and surrendering to wherever it takes you. With these records, I’m dealing with a certain enforced time frame, so I have to squeeze in certain ideas here or try something else here, so you don’t get the real fluid, natural stream of things. In an ideal music industry, is that how you would work, one song at a time? I think so. The industry isn’t set up to make things easy for the artist. But at first I didn’t question it. When you start out you get swept up into it, you’re not aware of it. But after a few years you start taking a closer look and realize that it is kind of artificial structure. I do a lot of thinking about how I can work under my own impulses and my own rhythm. It’s definitely a slightly unnatural rhythm. Do you set up rules for yourself, ways of maintaining the challenge? I do try to work with a loose set of rules, whether it’s a timeline that dictates it, or there are certain prescribed instruments that are going to be used. Sometimes limitations are good. Sometimes just making yourself sit down and see what comes out. Nigel [Godrich, the producer of the album] is very specific like that. He’ll impose certain obstructions as a method of work and it always does something interesting. Do you ever go back to your own music, sit down and listen to Odelay or Mutations? Very occasionally. Maybe if I have to play something on tour and I’m trying to get a feel again for how it goes. But not very often. There are other things I’d rather be listening to. And I’ve heard these songs so many times, it becomes sort of erased in your ears; you can’t really hear it anymore. By the time a record comes out, sometimes I’ve heard a song 400 times. It’s part of what it takes
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“I try to just go with what I feel and not become dictated by tastes. I think it just comes down to do you want to become popular and of the moment or do you want to dig in and ultimately just do it for art’s sake.”
sometimes to get it down. It takes time to accumulate all the layers and the ideas. How would you say this album differs from your others? Well, a record like Sea Change is much more melodic, much more singer songs, so I got to project a lot with my voice. I’m sure that’s carried over into the two albums I’ve done since. I try to just go with what I feel and not become dictated by tastes. I think it just comes down to do you want to become popular and of the moment or do you want to dig in and ultimately just do it for art’s sake. That’s kind of the dividing line for me. At least for myself. I’ve not tried to achieve success at the expense of staying creative or pushing myself forward. No one will be the Rolling Stones. I mean, when an artist gets to that echelon, there’s no more challenge. I mean, after you have a jet, where do you go? Maybe it’s time to get back in the van and get dirty again. Beck has, hands down, one of the best websites on the Net. Check it out at beck.com
W
hat ever happened to pop? Before it was usurped by oily production and a slew of former Disney kids, pop music was about infectious melodies and good vibes, songs that were amiable, but never at the expense of fine musicianship. With his “art project,” Berko, producer/songwriter Jacob Berkovici does his best to reinvent the medium for the modern age.
Pop Revivalist Berko Takes it to the Next Level
By Jessica Hundley // Photo by Buff Monster
Why don’t we just start from the beginning, like how you started making music and why? I guess I started taking piano lessons when I was 5. It was something I hated and did not want to do it. All my friends were like outside playing and I resented it. So the compromise was that instead of classical music, I got to learn pop songs and I remember some of the first ones were Shout, by Tears for Fears, which blew my mind, and a Cyndi Lauper song, Time After Time. Then I sort of just stopped. But when I went to college, I wouldn’t go to classes. I would just go home and play with my 4-track for hours. That sort of progressed with making beats and electro stuff. That morphed into living in New York and doing hip-hop stuff. I listened to music constantly and had a gigantic record collection that was stolen when I moved back out here, so I took it as something saying ‘stop listening, start writing,’ and that’s what happened. I feel like there’s something in the music you’re making that sounds particularly like L.A. I’m glad that comes across. It was a very unconscious thing. I grew up in L.A. and then left for almost seven years. Coming back--it was familiar but it was new. The beauty of the city itself lends something to the idea of the harmonic sense, back to the Beach Boys stuff and even jazz stuff, stuff that was happening here was always so melodic, because it’s a melodic kind of town. It’s a big inspiration, just the city itself. What are you working on right now? Well, the record is coming out in the beginning of next year and right now it’s about getting these songs playable by a band, because they are all me, so that is actually a lot of work because I need about 16 people in the band and about nine backup singers. So in the meantime, I’ve got three people besides myself who are amazing and we’re just simplifying these songs, getting to the root of them and then just trying to get fancy from there. I’m fantasizing about having an orchestra at some point.
has 300 instruments on it and it’s great but then sit and play it on guitar and it’s still great, then you’re in luck. Simplifying these songs really makes you realize which ones are the better work. I know you spent a lot of time on the East Coast. How did that affect you creatively? When I went to college I decided to get as far as possible from here. I met a bunch of freaks on the East Coast. I went and instantly met musicians who were playing me things I had never heard of, like Stevie Wonder records from the ’70s, Herbie Hancock albums from the 70s and YES albums, and all this sort of bonker stuff and I had only been listening to hip hop and hippie music. That’s where I ripped the lid off my head. I was sort of waiting for things to happen. I was in this space from like 21 to 25 where I was just making things, constantly, painting, writing, making music. I was listening to music all the time too. I’m part of the mix-tape generation. When I was a kid, that’s all I did, I never listened to records. It was like Alice in Chains followed by De La Soul and so on. I think that had a lot of influence on my writing, and painting too. Like when I paint I look back at something from 1920 and 1980 and like them both, so I feel like that’s the freedom of doing art today--that you have so much access to work from every era. That can be a burden, but it’s a blessing too.
“If you can have a song that has 300 instruments on it and it’s great but then sit and play it on guitar and it’s still great, then you’re in luck.”
Do you find that the songs take on a different life once you bring in other people? You have to allow other people their creativity. It’s whatever suits the song best, so you have to allow freedom. We simplify. We’re working now on trying to do something special and something simple live. If you can have a song that
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Let There Be Dance
hat’s better than six cute kids from Sao Paolo, Brazil, playing dancey synth-rock? Well, not much. Meet Cansei de Ser Sexy, or CSS for short and “Tired of Being Sexy” in their native Portuguese. The six friends, spanning in age from 22 to 32, began their mission to bring the dance party to the masses in 2003 after their bassist leisurely decided she wanted to start a band. Three years later, the group is signed to the forever-hip SubPop label and has been catapulted on a world tour, opening up for acts such as Ladytron, ESG and Diplo. While in Los Angeles during the middle of their tour, Lovefoxxx (vocals) and Ana (guitar) got down with Helio about the band, touring and the music scene in Brazil. How did you guys all meet and become a band? Ana: Our bass player, Ira, wanted to put together a band, and she thought about calling her friends to have a band - she didn’t even think about people who knew how to play anything when she put everybody together. We just kept calling other people to come and there was a time when there were like eight people, but we have downsized it to six. Anyway, it is nice because now we can spend lots of time together and we’re all friends and that’s much better than just having a professional relationship. Do you guys all get along on the road together? Lovefoxxx: It’s like brother and sisters; sometimes people are annoying, but I have to deal with it because this is the coolest thing that has ever happened to me and I don’t want to break it or damage it.
Brazilian Dance-Rockers CSS Shake Your Ass By Michelle Lanz // Photo by Buff Monster // Styling by Nina Tahash // Assistant stylist: AB Chavez // Makeup by Kimi
Tell me about making this record. Lovefoxxx: For this first album when we were making it, it was just when “Crazy In Love” by Beyonce came out and we were listening to a lot of Kelis, Missy Elliot and mash-ups. I think our music has a lot of mash-up influence. We like a lot of dance music like Eurotrash. Ana: Sometimes we like rock. It’s nice if you see our show it’s like a rock show but you can still dance to it. How is the music scene in Brazil different than in the U.S.? Lovefoxxx: There’s an industry going on for small bands here. It’s very professional and we don’t feel like silly-heads being here. Sometimes in Brazil you feel like people are making fun of you because it’s not professional at all. You play a show and there is some drunken 15-year-old kid and he cannot do anything because he’s like, “I’m here to party!” Also, there are no small or cool magazines. What’s CSS’s goal in making music? Lovefoxxx: We have one major goal: it’s to go to Sweden and in the middle of the show we’ll put on a CD of dance music, take off our clothes and stage dive naked. That’s our goal. Also, to be on Saturday Night Live in the skits with
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“We have one major goal: it’s to go to Sweden and in the middle of the show we’ll put on a CD of dance music, take off our clothes and stage dive naked.”
Maya Rudolph. Oh yeah, and to do a video with David LaChapelle and John Waters. You seem to have a lot of fun with your music and not take it too seriously. Do you think a lot of bands take themselves way too seriously? Ana: Yeah, it’s boring. The worst thing is for a person to play a show and be bored. It’s like, ‘hey you don’t have to play a show if you don’t want to.’ Very specific people can do that, but we cannot. It’s so nice to make people have fun and have fun back when we’re playing. It’s like going to a party - why play if it’s going to be boring? Why did you guys decide to do the entire album in English? Ana: The album that came out in Brazil last year had some Portuguese tracks, but English is just a much easier language to deal with than Portuguese because it’s a very difficult language. Also, English is our second language, so when we sing in English, we don’t really mean what we’re saying. Like everybody asks us about the sex content of our lyrics, but we just found out about it when we came here, like, ‘Oh my god, yeah we do talk a lot about sex’. What was your first show like? Ana: It was great. We played like the same four songs twice and nobody noticed because we didn’t have enough songs. My guitar strap broke in the middle of the show and I just decided not to play because it didn’t make a difference, so I was just dancing. After that everybody was calling us to play again; we never had to ask for someone to schedule a show for us. Lovefoxxx: I was so clueless because that was my first show in my whole life and I had no idea that I couldn’t throw water and have water on my face and put the microphone on my mouth. I had no idea. Then I was like, ‘Let’s do a wet T-shirt contest, please!’
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Diggin’ In the Crates: Golden Nuggets from Music’s Past
Have Fun Early Hip Hop’s Feminine Mystique
S
ome say it’s a man’s world, but take a look back at the history of hip hop and you’ll find the estrogen was flowing, even early on. Below are just a few of the finest moments from the ladies who laid down the beginning beats.
ESG
The great godmothers of it all. Formed in the South Bronx in 1980 by four ridiculously talented sisters, ESG influenced a huge number of their hip-hop protégées. The Wu-Tang Clan, TLC and the Beastie Boys are only a few who used their rad beats as backing samples. In 1992, ESG hit them all back with a 12” entitled “Sample Credits Don’t Pay Our Bills.” You go girl! ESG Discography: Self-titled EP 1981 ESG Says Dance to the Beat of the Moody 1982 Come Away With ESG 1983 Sample Credits Don’t Pay Our Bills 1992 ESG Live! 1995
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Salt-N-Pepa
Cheryl James and Sandy Denton (“Salt” and “Pepa,” respectively), and Deidra “Dee Dee” Roper (DJ Spinderella), brought a breath of fresh air to the testosterone domination of mid-’80s rap. Sexy, funky and not afraid to “Push It,” the trio took the groove to a whole new level. Salt-N-Pepa Discography: Hot, Cool And Vicious 1986 A Salt With A Deadly Pepa 1988 Blacks’ Magic 1990 A Blitz of Salt-N-Pepa Hits: The Hits Remixed 1991 Very Necessary 1993 Brand New 1997 Salt-N-Pepa: The Best Of 2000
L’Trimm
In the late 1980s two Miami teenagers blew the doors off the burgeoning Miami Bass movement with a hit single ode to the subwoofer, called “Cars With the Boom.” Lady Tigra and Bunny D were two teenagers who defied rap stereotype by infusing sweetness and fun into an all too selfserious genre. L’Trimm Discography: Grab It! 1988 Drop That Bottom 1989 Groovy 1991
When did you first start making music? I grew up in a musical family. Everyone plays instruments and I grew up listening to all kinds of music - the Beatles and a lot of funk, a lot of Haitian music and classical music. It’s something I’ve been around all my life. I’m from a really large family too and they all had such diverse taste, so I was exposed to a lot of different types of music. I started with L’Trimm when I was 16. Pretty much everyone I knew wrote rhymes and battled at lunchtime. We’d battle with the boys, because there weren’t many female rappers back then. Did you get respect in the schoolyard battles? Girls, who did it and did it well, usually got some respect. But when we started with L’Trimm, the press in the beginning, there were a lot of complaints that we weren’t hardcore enough and we did get flack for being girls and being too pop. But then again we were 16 and 17 years old. You’re about to release a new album. How do you feel you’ve progressed since that time? Well, I am older and I’ve got a lot more experience in life, so some of that comes across in my lyrics. They’re a little more thoughtful and a little more mature. But then again, I’m the same silly person I always was, so there’s a lot of silliness there. And it’s still not anything close to anything I would call hardcore. What keeps you away from doing something more hardcore? I would do it if I could, but I’m just not hardcore. I would love to be able to pull that off. But a lot of the stuff that I’m influenced is softer. Not that I’m not influenced by hardcore, but if I tried to do it, I don’t think anyone would take me seriously, especially with my high-pitched girlie voice! On this new album there’s a lot of Polynesian and Caribbean music, because I’m half Haitian. There’s a lot of rock ’n’ roll and a lot of funk. There’s some scatting. There’s a lot of Parliamenttype stuff. What other female rappers have influenced you? I was really into Missy and Salt-N-Pepa of course. And the more regional ones, the ones that were local. I’m from New York originally, so I was very much influenced by the New York hip-hop style, but when I came to Miami, I was influenced by that Southern hip-hop style. There were some really great acts that came out back then that are just getting credit now.
Photo: Evan Klamfer
Girls Just Wanna
We get it from the horse’s mouth with L’Trimm’s Tigra.
“Pretty much everyone I knew wrote rhymes and battled at lunchtime. We’d battle with the boys, because there weren’t many female rappers back then.”
How do you think being a woman influences your music? I get to talk about the female perspective. What it really is to be a woman, to be a woman of color, to be the object of what a male hip-hop artist might depict as ‘that bitch,’ or all the things that women are referred to in hip hop. It’s great to be able to be the woman, basically, to add that perspective to the mix. To learn more about Tigra’s new album, go to theladytigra.com
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TIM BISKUP IS ONE OF THE TOP ARTISTS IN THE POP SURREALIST MOVEMENT. His paintings and sculptures of fantasmagorical cartoony creatures, hatchet-wielding cyborgs, screaming skulls, and demure young women are shown at top galleries in the U.S., Tokyo, Melbourne, Spain and Germany, routinely commanding five figures. HE LIVES IN A FAMILY OF ARTISTS. Both his parents were gifted amateur artists. His wife, Seonna Hong is a well-known artist, too. Their 4-year-old daughter Tigerlilly (named after the Indian princess in Walt Disney’s Peter Pan) is already such an accomplished artist that more than one gallery owner has asked to exhibit her work. The family paints and draws together in their Eugene Weston-designed mid-century modern home outside Pasadena, California.
1950s. Flora’s highly stylized work is flat, fevered and hyperkinetic, often depicting jazz musicians in states of frenzied ecstasy. Biskup had long been aware of Flora’s work, but says he didn’t “get it.” But in the late 1980s, he was in a San Francisco record store and he found a copy of “Shorty Rogers Courts the Count” (jimflora. com/06/shorty.htm), which Flora had illustrated, and it knocked Tim out. “It was this crazy abstract piano player. I said to my friend, ‘This is going to change my art, right here.’ My friend who was standing next to me said ‘What?’ and I said ‘This is changing me right now - I can feel it. It’s changing the way that I paint.’ The shapes, the kind of movement going on. It’s something I’ve been looking for for a long time. I’ve seen a little bit of it in Miro, I’ve seen a little of it in Ren and Stimpy, I’ve seen a little of it in Mary Blair, but... it was just mind-blowing.”
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Things You Should Know About
Tim Biskup By Mark Frauenfelder // Photo by Mark Frauenfelder
HE’S AN ART SCHOOL DROPOUT. When Tim graduated from high school, he went to Otis Parsons. “But I really didn’t feel like that was the scene for me. I didn’t want anything more than to draw and make art. It seemed like there was so much other stuff going on at art school, like learning how to ‘think as an artist.’ I was a little lazy and not inspired, so I left.” For the next 10 years, Tim says he “drifted”--playing in bands, opening a record store in Fresno, California, starting a record label, and printing posters and record-album covers. “I started having more fun doing the record covers than the music and that got me interested in art again.”
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HE WATCHED A LOT OF REN AND STIMPY IN THE ‘80s. Tim enjoyed watching episodes of John Kricfalusi’s groundbreaking cartoon series about a tailless, moronic, kind-hearted cat and a peevish, greedy, violent chihuahua. They prompted him to get involved in animation. He says that learning to draw by studying animation was “way more inspiring” than anything he learned in art school. He took his portfolio to Kricfalusi, who hired him and became an important mentor. “I love the guy. He’s a genius. He drove me crazy. I had some sleepless nights stressing out because he’s so intense and so brutally honest. I told him I wanted to draw storyboards, and he asked me how old I was. I told him I was 30. He said, ‘Don’t you think it’s a little late to be learning how to draw?’ But lots of people have told me that that’s his way of challenging you, so that you really buckle down and work. And it totally worked. It was the real art school experience that I needed. That’s where I really learned how to draw and think about art.”
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JIM FLORA BLEW HIS MIND. Jim Flora was a prolific jazz record-album illustrator in the 1940s and
HE DOESN’T GET ENOUGH SLEEP. He has a number of art-related businesses: Gama-Go (an apparel line featuring characters designed by Tim and Seonna, and which are sold in over 300 stores around the world), Flopdoodle (a print, book and online business that carries Tim and Seonna’s work), and Bispop (a small gallery in Pasadena where he sells his original art, toys, books and prints). He spends his days with Tigerlilly (who has a tiny drawing desk next to his). “That’s my relaxation time-spending time with her.” He paints at night, often until 3 a.m., waking at 7:30 a.m. each morning to start the day. When he’s working on a show his other business obligations take a back seat. “I won’t answer emails. After I shipped [my work] to my last show [in Germany], I tried to catch up but I have hundreds of emails that I haven’t even opened yet, much less the ones that I’ve opened and flagged. I’ve got this calendar that has all these little things I need to do, and I just keep taking them all and moving them a week later. It’s crazy.”
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THE EMOTIONAL INTENSITY OF HIS WORK RATCHETS UP WITH EVERY SHOW. Tim’s earlier work was filled with happy monsters and flowers. But as time went on, he began sneaking shaded, more painterly elements into his work: a bleached agonized skull. A stunned, bewildered girl. A decapitated griffin. “I’ve been doing these more dramatic themes, and putting a lot more of myself into my work. I realized that the intensity of the images wasn’t quite matching emotionally what I wanted to put into it. The emotion has ratcheted up for me. I’m exploring some really dark areas of myself.” You can see more of Tim’s work at timbiskup.com You can check out Mark’s fine writings at boingboing.net
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Top: “Wrong”, 2006, Cel Vinyl Acrylic On Wood, 24” x 24” From Left: “White Dragon”, 2005, Gouache On Paper, 11” x 14.” “Scatterbrain”, 2006, Cel Vinyl Acrylic On Wood, 10.5” x 7.5” “Helper Dragon”, 2005, Cel Vinyl Acrylic On Wooden Panel, 24” x 36” Opposite: “Mutation On The Bounty”, 2002, Acrylic On Wooden Panel, 30” x 40”
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Getting Digi in Montreal
The City’s Digital Arts Revolution By Teena Apeles
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ith a population of more than three million, Montreal is the second-largest city in Canada and home to one of the largest French-speaking populations in the world. While it is considered primarily a bilingual city, it’s not unusual to have four or more languages being spoken on any street corner in downtown. Take this rich diversity and factor in its European ambience, lively cultural festivals throughout the year, low cost of living and high quality of life rating (not to mention, huge bar culture), and it’s clear why Montreal has long been a haven for artistic folk. So it’s not surprising that the city—with its creative pulse and government agencies offering generous financial support to artistic ventures there (yes, Americans, dream on)—would also be a hotbed of activity for those in the digital arts. This enthusiasm surrounding new art forms began just over a decade ago when the International Symposium for Electronic Art was held in Montreal in 1995. Presented by the Inter-Society for Electronic Arts (ISEA), which made its headquarters in Montreal from 1996 to 2001, the symposium brought together culturally diverse organizations and individuals from the international art, science and technology communities to discuss and debate the theme, “Emergent Senses/Sens emergents.”
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Mission Possible: Starting an Electronic Hubbub
Artists, researchers and educators from all over the world attended the ISEA conference and festival, which featured the latest in electronic art—computer animation and video, visual and media art exhibits and music, sound art and multimedia performances—hosted at close to 30 different venues. For many in the local arts scene, the event laid the foundation for the digital culture that exists in Montreal today. The event attracted many people to work in electronic arts and, more importantly, motivated Montreal and Quebec arts councils to support the developing art forms. An organization that emerged from the excitement generated by ISEA was the Society for Art and Technology (sat.qc.ca). With the tagline of “transdisciplinary center for research, creation and presentation, dedicated to the development and conservation of digital culture,” the organization has quite the mandate. Founded in 1996, SAT has become a place where local and international innovators and artists of all kinds— digital artists, software developers, VJs and DJs, designers and even architects—are able to connect to each other, experiment with new technology, collaborate on
1: Black_Box by Quebec’s Purform at Usine C for Elektra 2003 (Photo: Peter Kimakos) // 2: Man in e. Space featuring France’s Res Publica and Belgium’s LAb[au] and Marc Wathieu at Usine C for Elektra7 2006 (Photo: Isabelle Dubé) // 3 (and next page): Mutek’s Nocturne 5 Finale at Founderie Darling (Photo: MUTEK06/Miguel Legault) // 4: Mutek at Piknik 2 in Parc Jean-Drapeau featuring Richie Hawtin and Ricardo Vilalobos (Photo: MUTEK06/Miguel Legault)
work and share these developments with the public. Or course, having a 36,000-square-foot space in the heart of the city to facilitate such creative pursuits doesn’t hurt. And its success is noteworthy, holding more than 250 events since 2000, with combined crowds of more than 200,000. Plus, the organization’s productions have traveled the globe, touching down in more than 20 countries and 50 cities. While there’s been a lot of hype touting Montreal as “North America’s hub for digital culture,” there’s no doubt that the city is a digital media junkie’s paradise for creators and consumers alike. The second edition of Digimart (digimart.org), The Global Digital Distribution Summit, was just held at the cinema and media complex Ex-Centris (ex-centris.com) in October. The threeday event brought together key players in the digital world to discuss issues relating to the distribution and presentation of media and cinema productions—from the democratization of media and future theatres to copyright issues and on-demand services.
Spring Avant-Garde Fever: An Aural and Visual Attack
During May, artists from all over the world converge on the city to present inventive audiovisual and interactive performances and installations at two of the continent’s leading digital arts festivals: Elektra (elektrafestival. com) and Mutek (mutek.ca). In early May, the five-day Elektra festival presents the work of artists from Canada, Europe, Asia and America who apply new technologies to art. This year’s festival, its seventh edition, included a broad spectrum of media: electronic music, robotics, light and sound installations, dance, special effects, digital video and software. Belgium’s Lab[au], UK’s The Light Surgeons, Japan’s Ryoji Ikeda and local artists ATrak, Purform and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer are among the artists who have participated in Elektra. And the artworks and performances themselves are truly imaginative: industrial robots scratching vinyl, swinging loudspeakers, videomusic triptychs and even vibrating car bodies. The festival developed out of the desire to bring electronic musicians and visual artists using technology together. And Elektra’s audience is not limited to Montreal. It often travels with artists to present works at international festivals in Paris, Berlin, Milan and Lynx
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NEW to reach the greater digital arts audience. Headed by Artistic Director Alain Thibault, who is an electronic artist, Elektra aims to show people what artwork is possible with new tools, which is why workshops are also a component of the festival. This year, the digicurious young and old could attend workshops on the creative use of Pure Data open-source software. Under the direction of Alain Mongeau, who previously oversaw the new-media component of Montreal’s Festival of New Cinema, the Mutek festival has gone on to launch the careers of several local electronic artists, including Akufen, Deadbeat and Skoltz Kolgen, who, after presenting groundbreaking works at Mutek, have garnered national and international acclaim. Started in 2000, the festival happens at the end of May, featuring provincial talent and international headliners who are producing cutting-edge music, sound productions and media works. While Mutek at the onset attracted 20 percent of its audience outside of Quebec, that stat has grown to 40 percent, demonstrating the uniqueness of the festival in North America. This year some 10,000-plus attended Mutek’s 40 performances featuring more than 70 artists, who presented audiovisual presentations, live music performances and informational panels and workshops over five days. Events ranged from a workshop on learning VJ visual performance techniques to an outdoor music performance, in partnership with Piknic Electronik, by artists on the Minus label in Parc JeanDrapeau. While the audience numbers are small compared to the 100,000 that attend Barcelona’s Sónar music and multimedia art festival each year, Mutek’s influence
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on the international electronic music scene is still significant. Mutek’s acts have toured many continents, and mini-Mutek festivals have been produced in South America, Mexico and China.
Digi Dialogue: Bridging and Building Communities
With both festivals, the focus is on the art, not necessarily the party atmosphere. While the presentation of digital art forms is what attracts audiences, the discussion and development of the various art forms is also important to its presenters. At both Elektra and Mutek are panels and workshops where artists are able to share ideas and technology and how they impact and enhance evolving digital art forms. And it’s this ongoing dialogue coupled with often awe-inspiring performances and installations that the most valuable part of the digital movement lies—beyond borders—the building of artistic communities. An important impact of SAT, Digimart, Elektra and Mutek after all is giving credibility to the application of technology to art practice, providing platforms for the digital arts and expanding the audiences for them. But like all new art forms and the organizations and festivals that present them, it’s a struggle to stay afloat, especially in a city where corporate money isn’t necessarily in abundance. Few companies make their headquarters in Montreal. Yet, situated in a province that had wanted to secede for decades, Montreal is determined to maintain its status as a place invested in new technologies—a city that embraces the digital age.
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NEXT ACCESSORIES, BEAUTY, FASHION AND GIFTS FEATURING THE HELIO HOLIDAY POP-UP SHOP
712 Fifth Ave. at 56th St. NYC 1.800.HBENDEL
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Form and Function Choreographer Ryan Heffington and Fashion Designer Grant Krajecki Discuss the Mating of Dance with Fashion.
ashion and dance have been linked since time immemorial, but none have done it with such ease as L.A.-based choreographer Ryan Heffington and fashion designer Grant Krajecki of Grey Ant. Kindred spirits from the get-go, the two have been collaborating for the last 10 years - on costumes, club performances and most recently, at Grey Ant’s hot-to-trot debut at NYC’s prestigious Fashion Week. The two talents tell Helio about the beauty of like minds and the thrill of doing the splits in a tight pair of high-waisted bellbottoms. Ryan: I remember first meeting you at a Christmas party. You walked in, a strapping 6’ 4” hunk of man in a fedora and a swimsuit. Grant: That was my first discovery of the dancing world, here in L.A. And you guys had been doing it for how long, the Psycho Dance show? Ryan: Like three years at that point. We probably started around 1997, I believe. Grant: The Psycho Dance show at that time consisted of what? Ryan: Chaos. Blood. Food. We were really into throwing anything we could at the club - sardines, mashed potatoes… Performance art meets Gallagher meets punk-rock strip club. Grant: You were teaching at the time as well? Ryan: Yeah, I was teaching so we met a lot of performers through class or just word of mouth, from jobs.
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The crazy thing is that people trusted us. The ideas, as absurd as they were, we would put all of them on stage. I think we started collaborating on costumes then. When did we start collaborating? Grant: I just had my company for about a year and a half and I did a runway show in the back alley of Mondo Video. We had a comedian, a lot of band acts, camels, dragons, Alexis Arquette, all my drunk-ass friends, modeling. The backdrop was all this plastic that was brown-stained like hell. I had just got off the movie Stargate and we were dressing all the extras’ costumes with brown dye, so I just rolled up this plastic and draped it up. I didn’t even advertise it. But then I was like, ‘let’s take this show on to a bigger stage!’ and I met you and your dancers, and I was like, ‘OK we can make this work.’ Ryan: With my looks and your brains, we can go far! Grant: You and all your crazy friends were the perfect people to pull off anything we could have imagined. And anything’s possible, right? Whether it’s telling a story… I’ve always had this inbred in me, this Flashdance theology, where everything is in little vignettes, completely different from each other. So that became the theme of the show. All the dancers and your choreography, which is like a mini-Broadway show. Ryan: That’s really the way we created Psycho Dance Show; it’s vignette after vignette after vignette, and it went everywhere. It was humorous, it was grotesque, it was dramatic. I think one of the reasons we can collaborate so well is that both fashion and dance are visual art forms. It’s not the same mind frame, but it complements
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Photo: Jeaneen Lund
Ryan Heffington and Grant Krajecki
the other very well and I think we both have a great understanding of where we want to push it. It’s very contemporary, very unedited. It’s just the basic idea, and we’re like, ‘OK, we’ll make it work.’ Grant: Where do you get your inspirations? Ryan: From everything - from fashion, architecture, a lot of street life. Watching people, the way they walk, or move. I remember seeing this woman outside of Trader Joe’s on her cell phone. As I walked by, she slowly put her head down and covered her mouth. That was the most dramatic thing I’ve seen in a long time. You don’t know what’s going on, but it conveyed a feeling with no context behind it. It was simply movement and it was so powerful. Simple gestures or radical fashion are my biggest inspirations. What about you? I think it’s interesting that you don’t look at fashion magazines, ever. Grant: When I’m going to start designing, I don’t want to be influenced or see what everyone else is doing and subliminally pick it up. As far as inspirations, I love Siouxsie Sioux. I’m always designing, asking myself, ‘would Siouxsie Sioux or Kate Bush wear this?’ I find myself going back to designing recently the way I started eight years ago. I started out really modern and futuristic and minimalist - symmetrical, rubber belts - then I got real country and intricate and ’80s. When you’re in the middle you never see yourself going back, but years later, here you are, back in the same frame of mind. What do
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you think of when you’re trying to choreograph a dance, is it like a story you’re trying to tell? Ryan: It started as heavily conceptual. These days that’s secondary to simply study of movement. I try to concentrate on my own particular style that I have been doing for 10 years. I definitely have my own vocabulary. I’m inspired by music as well. Recently we’ve been putting everyone in masks. You don’t know what they’re feeling by their faces. It’s not fed to you that way, it’s just the feeling that you get. Grant: I love that. Another reason why I think we like working together is that we’re on the same wavelength, with the same references usually. Like when we’re talking--we get it. One of us will say, ‘It’s like Paula Abdul meets Froger!’ and the other will say, ‘I know exactly what you’re talking about, I’ll have it by tomorrow!’ Ryan: I think another reason why we get along so well and we work together so well is because we do what we want to do and we don’t really compromise. A lot of the time we’re both really strong-headed in our visions in the way we want to create and we want it portrayed, the way it sounds, like we want complete control of everything! To learn more about Grey Ant, go to greyant.com To learn more about Ryan Heffington and his Hysterica Dance Company, go to hystericadance.com and sirheffington.com
B L A C K S A B B AT H R E S S U R E C T I O N . C O M