Summer 2014

VERSUS magazine 11

Rap Is A Black Sport

Hip-hop has a sense of belonging to black culture, but why do rap shows say different?

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The Showcase

The Showcase series focuses on introducing the best unknown, creative talent a wider audience.

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Interview with...BBNG

We speak to the Toronto trio about bringing instrumentalism to the masses.

Living in a world that come with Plan B Cause Plan A only make another mistake And you can’t see success coming from Plan C Welcome to the brand new Versus Magazine.

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Creative Editor Konrad Ziemlewski Copy Editor Jonathon Bartlett Writers Robbie Rusell Jamie Taylor Marlon Dorsett Martin Hendry Thank You Nicolae Negura From The Editor If I didn’t say the road to this issue was a turbulent one, I’d be lying. Yet with all that adversity, we have undoubtedly created the most impressive issue yet. This issue marks a new dawn for us, a re-launch if you will, a fruitful new beginning.

We’ve gone out of our way to collate some of the most talented musicians and designers for your pleasure alongside some of our most evocative pieces yet. Welcome to the brand new Versus Magazine.

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Interview With... TMLOE Marlon sits down with the elusive TMLOE and talks influences, UK culture and of course London.

Interview With... Matt Ferguson English born designer Matt Ferguson has tackled some of the biggest brand names possible. Matt talks about his first comic book, Marvel and more.

Inspiration A glimpse into some of the best creative word across all mediums found in this last quarter of 2014.

The Sea Of Distractions 2014’s increased interconnectivity has exhibited more than ever to us as audio consumers. As a result of the increasing amount of choice, jb fears that we are losing sight of what’s most important.

Interview With... BBNG We caught up with the Toronto trio “BADBADNOTGOOD” in Leeds earlier this year to pick their brains as they bring their brand of instrumentalism to the masses.

Versus Concert 101 Have you ever spent £50 and had your gig experience ruined for you? Well this piece is for you and for those ruining your experience too.

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Rap Is A Black Sport Hip-Hop music and hip-hop culture are two commodities that have a sense of belonging to the black community.

So why is it that rap shows tell a very different story?

Trouble With Soundcloud Soundcloud has become one of the most successful , music driven startups ever, but could it actually be too good to be true?

Hearing The Words “I Don’t Like It” A short insight into receiving criticism in the creative industries and how to get the best critique possible.

It’s Not Me It’s You For many, music is an integral part of their lives, but what happens when we fall out of love?

Why Do We Need Yeezy’s Rants?

Kanye West has never been one afraid to speak his mind, resulting in fan frustrations, but are they really justified?

Kaytranda’s Big Decision: Craft or Commerciality?

The crossroads of commerciality and staying true to one’s self are one of the biggest fears a music fan has... and now Versus favourite Kaytranada is next up.

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Technology x Music & Death Grips In the 21st century technology has been pushed not only by the creative industries but by musicians too. So where do Death Grips fit into all of this?

Introducing: Hawk House For Hawk House like many other British artists 2014 has been a great year. Having caught our ear with their ability to make hard-hitting, inspired music, we let you know why they should be on your playlist.

Interview With...

MOVEMENT The Australians are running a musical uprising. A huge part of that are ozzy trio MOVEMENT who speak to us about influences, humility and Australia.

The Showcase The Showcase series focuses on introducing the best unknown , creative talent to the masses.

Putting a Price On Your Talent In the creative industries money has always been a delicate subject, one which we are tackling head on.

Interview With... OnCue Conneticut’s Oncue has been on quite a journey these past few years. Konrad sit’s down with the young emcee and finds out about Just Blaze, relationships and what it’s really like being an Angry Young Man.

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Define Marlon sits down with the elusive TMLOE and talks influences, UK culture and of course London.

Written by Marlon Dorsett @ImLoopee Photography by TMLOE Find TMLOE at @TailrMdeLvn tailrmdelvn.com

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Interview

An Interview With... TMLOE Boxpark, London. Originally the proposed setting for the much awaited interview with one of hip hop’s most elusive, yet fresh acts in London’s TMLOE: comprised of René & Maîtresir Arki, who were also joined by their first lady, who goes by the name Chun Li.

Define Marlon sits down with the elusive TMLOE and talks influences, UK culture and of course London.

Written by Marlon Dorsett @ImLoopee Photography by TMLOE Find TMLOE at @TailrMdeLvn tailrmdelvn.com

With the sun shining and there being nothing but good vibes, what was supposed to be just an interview turned into a night out, which ended in Shoreditch’s Troy Bar, featuring more talent from around the way - an open mic night with one of the best bands I have never heard of composing the music for the artists that came on stage to perform. Everything was chilled and what came to mind when it was all over was that we had experienced a “London Vintage Night”.

With Boxpark being filled due to everyone wanting to enjoy their summer, we had settled with an empty

table within Spitalfields, sharing a few drinks together, literally just conversing about any and everything for more than an hour. It was clear that TMLOE knew their end goal, but most importantly, enjoyed making music for music-sake. After much delay, we started the interview.

First off, introduce yourselves.

René: I am Rene aka Coco Black aka The Big Lipped Bastard, The Popular Loner.

Maîtresir Arki: I’m M aka MA aka Meko Black.

Midnight Fox. TheMyth.

Maîtresir. Young Lord Arki.

TheDarkMelaninKing.

How did you end up meeting and forming TMLOE? R: Mutual friends, family and all of that.

M: Actually, to be honest, I heard his songs before and I liked it. I was interested, it was different, nice. I was like I wanna meet him so I was just telling my friend like “make it happen” and then it happened. At first we were just talking and it clicked.

We really just clicked before music and anything and then the music just happened.

I’m gonna get the cliché question out of the way - who or what are inspirations for both of you?

R: There is one God to this man (speaking on Maitresir).

M: Kanye. Kanye West. I’ll be honest, before anyone it’s Kanye West, but as it goes on, Isaiah Rashad. TDE on the whole. There are some people like Rush Midnight. There are a lot of indie bands that we just find.

R: For me, it’s the same people he’s saying.

(Schoolboy) Q, (Ab) Soul, (Jay) Rock, (Isaiah) Rashad, but everyone in my circle knows that no one has touched me more than Kendrick, and that’s literally from before Section 80. Even when he was just K.Dot. When I heard all of his stuff before I thought this guys alright. Then I heard Overly Dedicated, and I literally

“Then I heard Overly Dedicated and I literally felt like someone stole my mixtape... I related to everything he rapped about”

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felt like someone stole my mixtape. Sort of like, this was mine I was making it and someone took it. I related to everything he rapped about.

As mentioned above, you have inspirations and role models, but are there any albums or past movements that you wish you could have been a part of?

R: I know one straight off the bat in hip-hop. If I could have been born in the 80’s I would have been the youngest nigga in Wu-Tang, ‘cause Wu-Tang, to me, have inspired A$AP, Odd Future, TDE, D12 - any group. No one did it better than Wu-Tang, because WuTang weren’t giving you that ‘I’m gonna shoot you’ - that’s what people forget. People always think they’re street.

Wu-Tang were just giving you life. In “C.R.E.A.M”, I remember listening to Raekwon and thinking he’s telling your life, people could relate to that.

M: There was one project I heard recently and I was like this is crazy. “Cilvia Demo” by Isaiah Rashad. I don’t think people realise how much creativity was in that.

R: The whole Black Hippy movement is amazing and I love the fact that it’s not even blown yet.

How did London Vintage Nights come about?

Define Marlon sits down with the elusive TMLOE and talks influences, UK culture and of course London.

Written by Marlon Dorsett @ImLoopee Photography by TMLOE Find TMLOE at @TailrMdeLvn tailrmdelvn.com

R: With LVN a lot of credit has to go to William Herring.

He’s like Yoda. Whenever life is rough you turn to Will, and if life is great you still turn to Will. I’ve always said that if all of a sudden something happened where a song we made was going to get a Grammy, Will would have to get a mention, because he’s always mentioned. He’s a genius and it’s weird because music is his second thing.

M: It’s weird, because he doesn’t create.

R: LVN was an experiment.

LVN is a representation of the youth currently in London and this isn’t just me saying it because I’m a part of it.

We’re all trying to figure shit out, and sometimes we know what we like, sometimes we don’t. Sometimes you adapt to things, and sometimes you just do what the fuck you want. That’s what LVN is.

Alright - we can’t mention LVN without asking you what are your favourite places in London to chill?

M: We just really like to be out really.

R: For me it’s here, Shoreditch, Brick Lane What’s the craziest or funniest stories you have in London?

R: I can tell you one pretty much, but I’m battling with myself whether I should let people know that story, because baring in mind this is when I was 17. I took a piss in a Nissan Micra, in the petrol pump.

Okay, we spoke about this before; I think the London scene is strong, but you think it could be a whole lot stronger. Why is that?

R: I think it could be a whole lot better if we don’t look at everything as just black and white, and what I mean by that is these niggas stay over here because they’re hood, these niggas is the Shoreditch niggas - they stay over here and these are the others.

Fuck that, we’re all talented.

I would like to hear Little Simz on a Hawk House track.

That would be dope. King Krule I would like to hear do something with Jessie and all that lot. I would like to see Last Night in Paris link up with us or Piff Gang or OGR. I would love to see shit where we all just function together as well as the indie scene. My biggest dream collaboration

“I would like to hea That would be dop something with Je

right now is Bombay Bicycle Club. They are sick. Or Future Island. After them, Wolf Alice - they are the coldest indie act right now. But that’s what I think London needs to do, it needs to not be afraid to branch together.

Why don’t you think the UK ever push or embrace their own artists? West Coast do it, Atlanta do it, everywhere does it but the UK.

ar Little Simz on a Hawk House track. pe. King Krule, I would like to hear do essie and all that lot”

R: I’m going to explain this using a football metaphor.

Matt Le Tissier and Paul Gascoigne - put them over there. Cristiano Ronaldo, Steven Gerrard, all these type of people - put them in a different place. Matt Le Tissier was happy to be the best thing at Southampton, but he never wanted to move to Manchester United, because he’d have to train harder and he’d have to step his game up. Ronaldo was the best thing at Manchester United, but he still wanted to go to Real Madrid where he knew he wouldn’t be the best anymore. That’s the problem.

to be strictly 90s shit your favourite video game.

R: Easy! WWF No Mercy. I will borrow you my Nintendo 64 and you can play it, because it’s still relevant.

M: Golden Eye with four players Any last words before we wrap it up?

R: Always embrace new artists whether you like it or not you can’t actually decide that until you listen to it.

Take in change. Always have an open mind, an open heart, you can critique but don’t critique unless you have a solution. Labels don’t mean shit anymore. Music and the art world in general is in a great place right now and we need to realise it. What Versus are doing is amazing.

It stands out.

Why do you hate the term UK hip-hop?

R: Drake doesn’t call his music Canadian hip-hop because it boxes you in. It’s just hip-hop. Why are you so special that you have to be in this box? Because you have an accent? Because there’s French niggas as well. There’s German niggas and I’m pretty sure they’re just calling themselves hip-hop. Why are we calling it UK hip-hop?

To finish up - because of the 199x movement, it has

“Why are you so special that you have to be in this box? Because you have an accent?...

Why are we calling it UK hip-hop?”

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Essay

Rap Is A Black Sport Hip hop and rap were quintessentially African-American movements, progressions from jazz-infused blues that waxed lyrical through smoke-filled rooms about the trials a tribulations of race in a segregated nation. When the cigarette smoke became much thicker, the subjects became more sinister and the candy-coated Sugarhill Gang found themselves replaced in the hearts of many by aggressively activist collectives like Public Enemy and NWA. Hip-hop music and hip-hop culture are two very different beasts, but both are beasts that even in 2014 and even with their global appeal, carry with them a sense of belonging to the black communities of the US. So why is it that modern day rap shows tell a very different story?

Why is that when the rap game is dominated by black artists, rapping about essentially black issues, so many of it’s proprietors at shows and in terms of music purchases are white, mostly males, and between the ages of 14 and 25? It’s not a genre reserved exclusively for any demographic, but can a 20 year old from costal England, studying for a degree in literature really sympathise with a world so different to his own?

Define Hip-Hop music and hip-hop culture are two commodities that have a sense of belonging to the black community.

So why is it that rap shows tell a very different story?

Written by Robbie Russell @robbierussell17 Photography by Thomas Hawk Avatunnicliffe

“Rap taught us to keep a hopeless optimism that all teenagers ought to have”

I love hip-hop and appreciate it as an art form as much as anyone else, but perhaps my race and upbringing condemn be to being an impostor now, and a Pink Floyd fan in the future.

Look at me and you will not think, “this guy is a fan of rap music”, oh no. Peter Gabriel, Radiohead, perhaps even Savage Garden, but never the hard-done-by fellas with an awful lot to shout about. If I asked the type of friends I kept as an angst-filled preteen if they knew who DOOM was, I would be luckily not to get a reply somewhere along the lines of; “I know Doom. Doom is what sits at the end of this perpetual tunnel of darkness that consumes my aching soul.”

Too much Gameboy and My Chemical Romance turned a large portion of our generation to infinitely less credible predecessors of the sadboi kids threatening to overrun us in 2014. On reflection, it was inevitable that my friends and me would be drawn towards scrawny, middle class American teenagers who used the synonym function on Microsoft Word to whine about the things we hated in more eloquent terms. Those who adorned eye-liner and existed only with perfectly straightened fringes, managed to corner

the market with music that simultaneously helped to create a vacuum in the lives of their juvenile and highly impressionable fans, to then filling it piece by piece with the revelations that came in album-sized increments at yearly intervals. These guys weren’t revolutionaries; they did not stand for anything other than tight fitting trousers. They shipped melancholy wholesale, including to my mates, providing soundtracks to puberty and 3min exposés of feeling for their MySpace pages.

My teenage years were by no means troubled, yet it did not take long for the theatre of soft-core emo rock to come crashing down around me. As soon you realise that all they do is sing in metaphors representative of precisely nothing at all, it’s not long before you start looking for something real. In the mid 00’s, hip hop culture was somewhat confused in Britain, as loosefitting sweatpants, hi-top trainers, hoodies, graffiti, breakdancing, theft and teenage pregnancy all tended to be lumped under the guise of ‘Urban.’ Somewhere in the dystopian world of the urban was hip-hop from the US, and it’s special needs cousin, UK grime.

In 2008 I was 14 and even though I was yet to acquire either a criminal record or a pregnant girlfriend, I decided to buy my first real rap album (since the Bloodhound Gang’s “Hooray for Boobies” doesn’t really count.) Kanye and Fiddy dominated the charts, so obviously I wasn’t totally foreign to the genre, and granted I should have started with Illmatic, Blueprint or

“These guys weren’t revolutionaries, they did not stand for anything other than tight fitting trousers” even College Dropout, but somehow I was turned on to Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III. It was like nothing else I was listening to at the time and its appeal still runs through me today. I’ll never get sick of hearing 3 Peat. Of course the bars didn’t speak to me personally, representing an existence that I could never aspire to attain myself.

What it did do though was illustrate to me a life that was wildly different to the one circumstance had mapped out for me. Rap was and is escapism far more optimistic than the soft-core suicide of my contemporaries. It is essentially story telling, and I had 2008 Weezy, the best rapper alive, narrating for me. A greater importance was placed upon wealth and pussy, which to a 14 year-old is intriguing to say the least, but only because

we all thought it, and only they made music about it.

I wouldn’t say that rap was rebellion for the suburban youth, but when the 70’s had mods and rockers, and

the 80’s had anarchy in the UK, what did we have to collectively ascribe to other than Playstation 1 or Blazin’ Squad?

When I used to look out of my bedroom, I saw family cars, well kept lawns and polished-glass windows with inappropriately large TV screens just beyond them.

Just beyond the cul-de-sac where my abode happened to be situated, was a road that, pretty much, lead to nowhere. I didn’t have a city to talk about, a ghetto to get out of. Apart from homework, I didn’t know what a project was, but rap taught us to keep a hopeless optimism that all teenagers ought to have.

We didn’t adopt hip-hop; we were invited into it by its fascinatingly idealistic treatment of success and the enigmatic and beguiling artists that make it. Through it we found an indifference to race and circumstance, and above all, something our parents didn’t want us to listen to.

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Essay

Technology x Music & Death Grips Over the course of history, both music and technology have enjoyed an interesting relationship, with innovation continually providing new opportunities for performance and generating hype. In this piece Versus explores Death Grips’ forward-thinking use of technology over the past four years and its positive bearing on the future.

Define In the 21st century technology has been pushed not only by the creative industries but by musicians too. So where do Death Grips fit into all of this?

Written by Martin D. Hendry @mdhendry Photography by Kenny Sun @kennysun

Here at Versus we keep music and technology pretty close to our hearts – as a result we’re always looking out for the next big thing that helps us and you enjoy music more.

Whatever tune it is that gets your blood pumping; today it is seemingly available to us at a seconds notice.

Not only can we listen to anything we want for free with a few choice taps of our smartphones, but today’s technology has allowed us to effortlessly build communities around music as well as reach out and interact with our favourite artists directly through social media.

When you take the time to compare this to what was available in previous years, we really have never had it so good – with music becoming something that is increasingly ubiquitous and significant in our day to day lives (at least since the days that I walked around highschool with a CD Walkman bumping Toxicity from my jeans pocket.)

If so much has moved on in recent years, how will technology change our relationship to music in the next two decades? In this article we’ll explore how this might occur drawing upon

the avant-garde activities of Death Grips - focusing on their live performances, how they used technology to build their audience and maintain hype, and finally how this directly benefited their listeners.

Culture Shock In the world of musical appreciation Death Grips are the dictionary definition of an acquired taste. Some (such as myself and the much busier Anthony Fantano) cite them as one of the most significant musical acts of recent times – with others presumably discarding them as overhyped, contrived and even straight-up pretentious.

Arguments about their musical significance aside, what cannot be denied about the Sacramento 3-piece is: over the course of their four short years in the industry, they used the technology available to them to great effect to generate and maintain interest towards them. Whether this was the result of a predetermined plan or simply their convulsive activity expressed through the internet – the effect was a sense that the band was always at arm’s reach, offering up another piece of the puzzle.

To the few who are unaware, Death Grips are an experimental “noise-rap” group who in their time became infamous for their unpredictability. Highlights included the release of

I Want It I Need It their second LP from 2012 No Love Deep Web against the wishes of their major label and complete (with strangely appropriate) erect penis album artwork.

Additionally, the band were criticised for a spate of no-shows, with countless appearances chalked off again recently as a consequence of their disbanding. In their short time the band was remarkably able to release six full-length projects; only two of which (provided the final LP “Jenny Death” lands as promised on Harvest later this year) were released through conventional channels.

Yet despite this appetite for self-destruction, the band clearly exerted an almost hypnotic influence upon its fans as well as on the wider world of music in general – with many convinced that Kanye West’s Yeezus was directly on DG’s sound.

Decisively, whether they were delighting the fans with unannounced material or inducing chaos by not turning up to their performances, Death Grips were a group that entertained fans both in and outside of music.

“With others presumably discarding them as overhyped, contrived and even straight-up pretentious” Where other artists fall victim to the strong-armed machinations of an album cycle; through their rare and inspired use of social media, Death Grips maintained constant hype over the four years that they were active. Central to this was a persistent feeling that they could and would drop a fully realised project at any given moment. A feeling that still lingers despite their disbandment.

To the community of fans following the band this meant constant speculation around esoteric coincidences, such as the band’s habit of releasing material on a full moon. To others it meant immersion into spectacular ARGs (alternate reality games) on 4chan’s /mu/

board. Here following a series of clues crossing over the digital and physical world, the games ultimately lead fans to a trove of unreleased material including instrumentals and lossless “stems”.

Often a number of eager fans created their own ARGs presumably as a way of advertising their own material (e.g. Primordial Gods), as a way entertaining their peers, or simply as a means of trolling the f**k out of the thirstier contingent of the fan-base.

It was not uncommon to follow the progress of these activities over hours and days only to receive ironic disappointment. Whilst it’s easy to get salty over this, it is also can be seen as a commendation to the

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fan-base who identified and connected with each other on the basis of /mu/ culture and through emulating the kind of actions they expected of the band. Simply put, by the end of their activity the band didn’t have to go out of their way to intrigue fans as this became completely autonomous.

For DG fans it wasn’t so much about the destination, but the journey. In this, the music was the eye of the storm – a kind of fulcrum to which the spectacle of DG was attached. How far you wanted to immerse yourself in the band’s actions (or inactions) was entirely your choice. This kind of intrigue is something that simply wouldn’t have been possible should Death Grips have formed ten years earlier. They were a band

Define In the 21st century technology has been pushed not only by the creative industries but by musicians too. So where do Death Grips fit into all of this?

Written by Martin D. Hendry @mdhendry Photography by Kenny Sun @kennysun

that understood and expertly manipulated their presence online peerlessly.

I would like to think that artists in the future will follow suit – as I can only think of Jay Electronica (off the top of my head) as someone else who’s every move is being anticipated as obsessively. There seems to be something significant in depriving fans of their importance, where social media allows fans to make or break artists through their attention. Like Jay Elec, you just have the sense that Death Grips were going to do whatever they were going to do, and that what the fans thought about it (or anyone else for that matter) had no bearing whatsoever.

The display of this singlemindedness is what makes

or breaks an artist – and with DG, this was something that, communicated through technology, became clearly fundamental to their philosophy.

“Wouldn’t have been possible had Dea years earlier... They were a band that u manipulated their presence online pee

Feels Like A Wheel Death Grips’ unique use of technology wasn’t only limited to their online presence, it also was seen in some of their live sets.

In 2013 in Austin, TX the band played at SXSW. In this show it appeared that drummer Zach Hill was phoning in his performance, literally, by playing alongside the band over Skype using what appeared to be a headmounted camera or Google Glass.

Through this setup the band were able to project Zach’s perspective of his drum kit behind the other band members as the performance took place, as well as in the live video feed. This,

alongside recordings taken from the perspective of MC Ride and Flatlander became DG’s video for Lock Your Doors from NLDW (and was also the culmination of the “No Hands” video series on YouTube).

Whilst this performance could be taken as being avant-garde for the sake of it, equally it was an unprecedented way (at least to my mind) of immersing the audience in the act of performance. By blurring the distinct line between performer and spectator by allowing the audience to see (and by extension, experience) what Zach Hill did allowed the audience’s presence to be even more hype during the performance itself. This is something that is all the more compelling when the group that allows this to occur are among the most enigmatic in history.

In addition to this, the band leaves behind a legacy of music and video that fed into the performative value of technology. Musically, the sampling technique used by the band relentlessly accelerated over the course of their discography, from full phrase sampling on Ex-Military, to micro sampling on Niggas on the Moon in which even Bjork’s unmistakable voice is difficult to isolate. This ramping up of the intensity of their music offered a clear sense of progression, as well as the distinct sense that (pending the next release,

ath Grips formed 10 understood and expertly erlessly”

“It also can be seen as evidence of an astute awareness of the ways in which technology we use... skews our perception” which I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out to simply be a wall of noise) the band had nowhere else to go with their music – as well as the desire not to over extend themselves.

On screen the band leaves behind an extensive videography as a consequence of their habit of releasing videos for the lion’s share of their material.

Clearly a lot of this material is influenced by the internet as much as experimental cinematography through the continued use of glitchy visual effects (see Guillotine, Takyon, The Fever as well as the videos for Government Plates), as well as ironic nods - whether deliberate or not to how people looked at the band.

Hustle Bones’ use of a rearparking camera and No Love’s use of 3D rendering got us used to seeing the band through technology in various different ways. Whilst these augmentations of our gaze upon the band primarily fed into the claustrophic and paranoid feeling the band happily portrayed, it also can be seen as evidence of an astute awareness of the ways in which the technology we use to view and critique the band skew our perception.

After each video the band remains equally enigmatic, with their motivations equally ambiguous.

Next Grips Ultimately, it is largely impossible to predict which emerging technologies will shape our relationship with music in the future – this is something that I experienced painfully when attempting reconcile previous versions of this article. For every single technology that captures the imagination of society, there are a thousand that fade into obscurity.

At the end of the day we really don’t know what is possible until someone shows us how music and technology can be combined in new and exciting ways. In this way the activity of a band becomes something so much more than the music alone.

With both virtual reality and augmented reality technologies fast approaching around the corner, I am both fascinated and excited to see how the next progressive group use these to push the boundaries of our relationship with music forward. There is plenty to look forward to. Death Grips’ unique artistry and success in their short time is substantial enough to warrant the attention of musicians now looking to push the envelope.

Until those artists emerge and arrest our imaginations once more - decrypting DG’s enigma is sure to keep us all busy.

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Interview

An Interview With... Matt Ferguson The ‘Pop Culture Poster’ movement has slowly been building, giving birth to the juggernaut that is Mondo, but with that - other artists have been garnering attention. One of which is Matt Ferguson. The Sheffield born designer has worked with some of the biggest names in the world, including everyone’s favourite Marvel. We spoke to him about his introduction to comics, his love of cinema and who his dream client might be.

Hi Matt. It’s actually amazing how little is written on you online, so how about you start with a short introduction to yourself and your work?

No problem, I haven’t actually done many interviews so thank you for having me! I’m an artist/ designer based in the UK. I primarily create poster art for film and television. I’ve been concentrating on this poster stuff for the past few years and I think it’s been going quite well so far.

Who introduced you to your first comic book and what was it?

Define English born designer Matt Ferguson has tackled some of the biggest brand names possible. Matt talks about his first comic book, Marvel and more.

Written by Konrad Ziemlewski @kziemlewski Find Matt at @Cakes_Comics

I can’t exactly remember but it was bound to be one of my older brothers. I’ve been into comics before I could even read; it was the pictures that really captured my imagination. My first comic was definitely an “Asterix” book. I loved those when I was younger along with “Tintin”.

Quite often one reason that gets cited when readers are questioned why they invest their time in Comic Books is that they get to lose themselves in “another reality” - what qualities do you try to put through your own work?

I think through being I think through being invested in

comic books for so long I’ve learnt to channel what’s great about them in my own work; the sense of movement and dynamism in just one image. Also being able to boil down an image or idea into something easily digestible for the viewer.

One thing that’s immediately obvious about your work is that you’re quite the cinephile, often using iconic moments from film as a base for your work. How do you go about choosing and selecting these iconic moments from film to best depict what you want out of your work?

I think it’s pretty simple. I just watch the film or read about the subject matter and choose the scene or moment that best resonates with me.

I don’t try to think too much about what I am doing as this can dilute the creative spark.

I find that if I just go with the flow and do what feels right, I’ll stumble on compositions and ideas I might have not thought about initially.

Being English, what’s your opinion on some of the biggest movies, including a number of the upcoming CBM juggernauts like Age Of Ultron and BvS having their creative assets created in the UK? I think it’s great! It sort of

“Boil down an image..into something easily digestable for the viewer” feels a little like how a lot of my favourite films from the 70’s and 80’s were made over here, films like Star Wars, Alien and Batman. It’s like a return to those kinds of movies from my youth.

To say you’ve worked with the cream of the crop would be an understatement but has there been a project that you had and were really passionate about that never really materialised?

I really wanted to work on the Arkham games. I even got so far as to come up with some comps for them. It just never worked out sadly.

On the opposite side of the coin, what project so far has been the most fun to work on and why?

Working with Marvel has

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“The fact that Ridley Scott was so exact and controlling o detail and how he created a sense of scale with real effe I always play around with, really influenced me” Define English born designer Matt Ferguson has tackled some of the biggest brand names possible. Matt talks about his first comic book, Marvel and more.

Written by Konrad Ziemlewski @kziemlewski Find Matt at @Cakes_Comics

been amazing. Especially getting to create the key art for the Phase One box set.

They gave me the freedom to come up with all the concepts and execute the project in my own style.

Who are some of your visual inspirations, maybe focusing on some of the lesser expected ones?

I am inspired by so many different things. Obviously there are other artists doing similar work to me, such as the Poster Posse. Those guys and gals are all great to work

with and pass ideas by me. I also have a lot of respect and admiration for an incredible artist called Burce Yan. His work is crazy and he is also a really good guy who will tell me if what I’m working on isn’t really any good.

A couple of defining influences are actually from the film world. First of all Blade Runner has been hugely influential to me on how I work. The film isn’t an aesthetic inspiration to me but an inspiration in the sense of how it was made.

The fact that Ridley Scott

was so exact and controlling over every detail and how he created a sense of scale with real effects, something I always play around with.

Another big influence is John Carpenter. His use of simple production design and cinematography has had a profound effect on how I compose things.

With all that minimalism going on you always seem to be able to get a strong sense of atmosphere and emotion through your work. With that in mind how do you actually go

about creating that “je nais se quoi” for each and every piece?

I think this goes back to what I said about doing what feels right. I never try and bend a poster or character to fit my style; rather I retrofit my style to fit around them. Research helps me know how to best translate the characters on the page.

Being part of the PosterPosse must be like having an internal inspiration board - am I right?

You’re right on the money.

We have a private group on Facebook where we can brainstorm ideas and chat / let steam off. The collective is a really great bunch of people.

Don Thompson of Blurrpy has done a great job getting us all to work together, but more importantly work together cohesively.

Is the environment within the PosterPosse competitive at all?

over every ects, something Yeah, but healthy competition. I think it drives us to do better work when we see a fellow member do something awesome that is well received. We all support each other online which is a really great thing.

What’s your opinion on this whole ‘pop culture poster’ trend we have been seeing the past year or two?

Well I think it’s great! But then I would because it’s the way I make money that feeds my family and me. I think it’s just a natural response

from fans and artists to the watering down and bland reality that comes out of official studio one sheets.

It’s a little like what I said about films being made here in the UK again... a return to how things were done in the 70s and 80s - a much higher quality margin.

Now, placing some focus on Mondo. What’s your opinion on them doing such a limited run of copies for each print and charging so much for them? This then results in extortionate eBay sales…

I think that’s just good business. They keep everyone’s interest levels in what they do sky-high, all the time, by making the product exclusive and limited. I myself do limited runs as it makes the art more legitimate and collectable. Although I think I might prefer timed sales where there is a window of opportunity for people, so everyone can get one.

What are you top 5 Comic Book Movies / Movies?

Batman’89, Hellboy, Guardians Of The Galaxy, Dredd and Spiderman 2.

What are your plans for the rest of 2014?

I’ve got more official stuff coming up that I can’t talk about. I will also be attending Thought Bubble festival in Leeds this coming November.

“Yeah. But healthy competition. I think it drives us to do better work when we see a fellow member do something awesome that is well received”

21

Essay

The Trouble With Soundcloud Track after track after track. I’m worn out, tired and fed up of sifting through endless piles of mediocre tracks that producers have uploaded to SoundCloud without more than a moment’s thought.

Define Soundcloud has become one of the most successful, music driven startups ever, but could it actually be too good to be true?

Written by Jamie Taylor @Jamietaylor01 Photography by Atikh Bana @TikhBana

As much as I can appreciate the effort that must go into making and uploading a beat what seems like every single day, I can’t help but feel that the way some producers go about trying to get recognised is a genuine enactment of the saying “if you throw enough mud at the wall, some of it will stick”.

SoundCloud is undoubtedly one of the finest resources available to those of us who value music and like to be at the cutting edge of the creative side of the industry.

It’s my first stop on a daily basis when my laptop creaks open and there’s a reason that Warner, Sony and Universal Music Groups are negotiating a deal with the bosses of the site that grabs

over 250 million listeners per month. There’s one real problem though. It’s packed full of too much shit. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of brilliant artists to grab my attention and my appreciation of their work is unbounded, but it seems that we’ve reached a point where music is so disposable that producers and musicians will have said goodbye to a track or beat before it has even hit the web. But why?

The reasons vary and fingers can point in all directions without any real conclusions.

Consumers, the music media, labels and the producers and musicians themselves all play a part in this overload and the debate about who is to blame could rage on endlessly.

“Just as we can assess, enjoy and appreciate one track we are swiftly distracted and moved onto the next”

that the physical asset that appears to have more craft and thoughtfulness imbued into it is so much more fulfilling and rewarding than pressing play on a track on SoundCloud once and then forgetting about it.

However, what is important is that the value of an individual track seems to be descending evermore. Such is the mass we find ourselves trying to digest that, just as we can assess, enjoy and appreciate one track we are swiftly distracted and moved onto the next. The competition for our attention is suffocating us as we’re exposed to this endless production line of digital uploads and instantaneous supply of mediocre music, as highlighted by jb in his “Sea of Distractions” article.

Rather interestingly though, this immediacy and lack of purpose in such a large portion of the industry appears to be driving a backlash in the form of rising vinyl sales in the UK. Last year vinyl sales hit their highest level since 1997 in spite of rising prices and costs. Thus it’s becoming clear that the tendencies of the music industry to pump out as much music as possible online are turning consumers onto more physical forms.

More and more British music-lovers are recognising

It’s a pretty sour state of affairs and whilst the rise in vinyl sales is definitely a good thing the state of SoundCloud and the endless and majorly thoughtless mass production of music is both depressing and overwhelming. Maybe we should all clamour together and force the big bosses at Soundcloud to put some kind of upload limit on user accounts or maybe somebody should tell all music-makers out there that “absence makes the heart grow fonder”.

Let’s refine, slimline and persuade producers to spend their time creating one really great track rather than five that are mediocre. Maybe then we’ll see things change and perhaps the situation wouldn’t be so overwhelming.

Most likely though, that won’t happen and I’ll just keep on scrolling through hoping I don’t miss out, and inevitably I’ll simply waste more of my time listening to tracks that I won’t remember the name of; listening to track after track after track.

“British music lovers are recognising that physical, valuable asset that appears to have more craft and thoughtfulness, is much more rewarding”

23

Feature

INTRODUCING : Hawk House

“like the vowels in the sentence / you might not hear us at first but best believe that we’re still present” - Round We Go Define For Hawk House like many other British artists 2014 has been a great year.

Having caught our ear with their ability to make hard hitting, inspired music, we let you know why they should be on your playlist Written by Jonathon Bartlett @rawjb Photography by Hawk House Find Hawk House @HawkHouse

I was walking down New Street in Birmingham just the other day after getting off a four hour train journey and after leaving the station and being submerged once more into the hustle and bustle of city life, there was only one group I could think of to let me slip into another word of perception.

I distinctly remember gazing despairingly at the skinhead arguing with the imam as I slipped the cumbersome headphones onto my head and longingly pressed play on ‘Save It For Another Day’.

Finally the UK scene have a group that champion lyricism

over commercial success and it looks like after a fairly long journey of being unknown, as a result of their recent ‘A Handshake To the Brain’ EP, they’re piquing peoples interests and it couldn’t be any more justified for such a talented trio.

Formerly known as ‘A Yellow Man’, their 2012 track ‘300 Miles of Youth’ set the tone for what is now a signature sound. The importance is placed on lyricism in their music, something that the UK seems to have forgotten as one of the horcruxes that create life in a hip-hop jam. Alongside Rejjie Snow

and Jesse James, Hawk House are one of the few hands supporting the torch for hip-hop in the UK and they’re gaining both kudos and popularity at an ever increasing rate.

Comprised of brothers Sam and Eman as well as vocalist Demae, the trio have a modern electronic undertone that sits somewhere between Lupe Fiasco, Lauryn Hill and Saul Williams. People have often referred to them in the same circles as the ‘Beast Coast’ movement which sprung up back in 2013 with the likes of Joey Bada$$ and The Underachievers (the

latter, a group they shared the stage with). However, I don’t think this is valid. They talk of societies ailments and issues with a candour and beauty unparalleled by any current group or artist.

Demae’s pitter-patter on a tin-roof delivery is nestled in between the colloquialisms and gruff wordplay of the two brothers. There seems to be a shared consciousness on the tracks as if they are all writing in unison rather than attempting to oneup each other, there is a goal with each one of their tracks: whether that be to paint a picture or rectify a qualm. This intellectual delivery is something sorely lacking, in general, amongst the offerings of the UK in 2014 and coupled with their impeccable ear for beats (using beats from the likes of Ta-Ku and Evil Needle, MNDSGN and Ghost McGrady) they form

a talented triple threat that seems sure to do nothing but grow.

There’s an idea behind them, and though not explicitly clear, the serious wordplay coupled with flecks of a tongue-in-cheek attitude (as highlighted by interludes on both of their projects released as Hawk House: 2013’s funky ‘A Little More Elbow Room’ and 2014’s ‘A Handshake To the Brain’) differentiates them from their peers and sets out their own lane. They aren’t taking themselves deadly serious; yet somehow retain an offering of calmness and calculated solemnity, something that is unfortunately rare in our current culture of brash 808s and ignant spittings.

Tracks like ‘Pause’ have unmistakably simple yet emotive beats, the simple guitar purrs in the background as each of them

takes the talking-stick to assault the audience audibly with alliteration, assonance and an astounding arsenal of vocabulary. Then when you take the time to look through their videos, chiefly ‘Liveation’ and ‘Tidle Tendancies’ you realise that they aren’t even simply audible heroes, their visual execution is on par with their music. These two were videos were put out before signing to Virgin EMI, and since, the video for ‘Chill Pill’ has only allowed themselves to take the next step.

You should be passionate about Hawk House because they’re doing their own thing.

They encourage you to listen not with overt displays of extravagance or rehashed ‘wit’, but with an ever expanding edifice that entices you to listen and deliberate.

“It’s like Moses had a rod but it’s lyrics that we part waves with / Believe that we starve hatred and the bars major” - Tidal Tendencies

25

Define A glimpse into some of the best creative word across all mediums found in this last quarter of 2014.

Work by All work has been collected from artists’ Tumblrs and or galleries.

27

Essay

Hearing the words “I Don’t Like It” As a designer having your client, or for that matter anyone, critique you with the phrase “I don’t like it” ranks right up there as one of the most annoying things that could ever happen. Contrary to popular belief, us creative folk are pretty happy being critiqued and challenged but when someone throws hate our way, with no reason behind their comments, we’re bound to get a little defensive, aren’t we?

Define A short insight into receiving criticism in the creative industries and how to get the best critique possible.

Written by Konrad Ziemlewski @kziemlewski Photography by Peter Alfred Hess pahess.net

“You have to understand, having a client pretty much means you’re in a short-term relationship”

The thing is though we can’t just be throwing the blame directly back at the party that is complaining. Why? Because not many people are actually well versed in design etiquette. Be it aesthetic related or something much deeper, the term is often used by clients but it’s down to us to pretty much drag the information that’s useful to us out of them, whilst figuring out if their complaining is down to their own tastes or the taste of the target audience your design will be put in front of.

The question is then how do

we get better client feedback?

Straight from the off you have to understand having a client pretty much means your in a short-term relationship and being in a relationship you want two things; One, you want to have an open dialogue between yourself and your client. Two, you need to know when to stamp your authority.

Knowing that we can move forward. First of all the simplest and most obvious way to get better feedback is to simply push your client verbally. If they say they don’t like something, ask them

why. The more you push, the more you’ll be able to zero in on their issue and in turn that will help you solve your problem ten times quicker.

You also have to make sure, when designing anything user focused; you don’t base any of your decisions on assumptions. Rather, ask your client if he truly believes this one thing your interested in will impact their user base and if you disagree test it out for yourself.

From personal experience I’ve often found peoples subjective aesthetic taste is where you most will run into issues. In the past I’d have shown a mood board or two to a client and they’d fixate on one specific thing and have that cloud their judgment moving forward,

always wanting that one thing they saw and loved.

One way to combat this insane annoyance is literally to try and keep your clients expectations down, don’t let them fall in love with the very first thing, keep challenging them be it intellectually, or visually. If they have unfortunately fallen into the trap of going down one route,

it’s very much down to you to really evaluate their decision and, from an intellectual standpoint challenge, their stance. You may end up at the very same solution, but by not testing others you will only hinder the project.

With all that in mind, it all comes down to your relationship with the client.

The better the relationship, the better the feedback and outcome. Be proactive.

Lead your client. Fill them

chances are they will be much more happy to listen to your side of the argument.

So if you keep all those points in mind and remain a good ‘spouse’ to your client, chances are the feedback you’ll be getting will only be helpful in your pursuit of the creative crown jewels. That is, unless your client has the personality of a 5 year old and enjoys trolling you. In that case, good luck.

“The better the relationship, the better the feedback and outcome. Be proactive. Lead your client. Fill them in on everything”

in. Make sure you are as transparent with everything you do as possible, because if you do, your client will understand all of the decisions behind everything you do and in turn, the chance of running into issues will dissipate drastically. Then there’s also the fact that they trust you, so if they have issues and you counter them,

29

Define The Australians are running a musical uprising. A huge part of that are ozzy trio MOVEMENT who speak to us about influences, humility and Australia.

Written by Robbie Russell @robbierussell17 Photography by Robbie Russell

31

Interview

An Interview With... MOVEMENT

The Australian renaissance is well and truly in full flow. Musicians from d dominate the blogosphere. Whether it’s heavyweights like Flume and Che chances are you’ll have a few of these guys in your ‘most played’ list. It’s pr is happening, and we personally have not been more excited for somethin whole 25 seconds of side-boob is on show. With such a wealth of talent in except when it comes to this three-piece from Sydney called… Movement.

If we were to ask anyone to describe the sound of suburban Sydney, they’d struggle.

Written by Robbie Russell @robbierussell17

“It’s hot and sunny, right…?

‘Land Down Under’ perfect!” is the answer we are most likely to receive, but Men At Work could not be further away from the newest members of the Modular Records family. Their moody brand of throbbing, electronic r’n’b is wholly unique, and is pleasure manifest to anyone who finds themselves in a particularly brooding state.

Photography by Robbie Russell

When Jessie Ward and Sean Walker first met at high

Define The Australians are running a musical uprising. A huge part of that are ozzy trio MOVEMENT who speak to us about influences, humility and Australia.

school, they made music for the love of music. Since then they’ve added the powerfully fragile vocals of Lewis Wade, signed a record deal, scored a 9/10 from us with their debut EP, supported Solange, Darkside and (kind of ) Thom Yorke and have sold out shows in Europe. Still though, they’re making music for the love of music.

Three bleary-eyed Aussies in a hotel basement in Shoreditch sounds like it’s from a hipster version of Cluedo; it is in fact where I found myself in June of this year to grab a few words with Movement before the

inevitable happens and they become as hard to tie-down as their name suggests. We settled in a booth in the very room that would be packed to the rafters later that evening for their first, and totally soldout, London performance and every few minutes a spontaneous smile would spread across the face of at least one of them. At first this was off-putting until Jessie defined the shared emotions that sat beneath the fog of jetlag in all of them. “We’re sat here in London, we’ve just been to Paris, and it’s all from something we genuinely just loved to make.”

down under are selling out shows across the world and pretty much et Faker or the up-and-comers like Courtney Barnett or Jordan Rakei, retty much impossible to pinpoint the cause of it, but something amazing ng Australian since the video for Holly Valance’s ‘Kiss Kiss,’ in which a this movement it’s difficult to separate out one new act from the rest; .

Soon I realised that sat in front of me are three guys who have just played a sold out gig the night of their first visit to the French capital, and are about to play two in a row in London and they can’t quite believe it’s actually happening. I defy anyone though to listen to their first single, “Us”, and tell me that the attention from the internet community, and the support they’re getting from Modular isn’t utterly justified. The music they make is almost impossible to define. It changes depending on the mood of the listener, with so many different elements that come out at you as your emotions vary. It really is the work of artists who ought to beat those many years their senior, but still they hope to evolve.

“As far as finding a sound goes, it’s a really progressive thing. We’re perfectionists and we’d hate to claim we’ve ‘found our sound.’ We’re still exploring that and with each track we release we get better at working out what we want and what we want to do with it.”

Well, it’s pretty fucking great for “trial and error”. Trust

me. Their debut, self-titled, EP received a great deal of love from critics and fans alike and for a first attempt, they could not have asked for more. I asked how they felt about the reaction it received, to that Lewis replied: “We’re extremely grateful. It’s something that came about organically and to think people have got hold of it and enjoyed it so much is crazy.” Organic is a word that typifies the Movement aesthetic. Nothing is forced, from their creative process right up to their individual personalities and how they present themselves both onstage and off. They don’t have flamboyant outfits, they don’t rely on excessive set production or lights, they don’t even need a fancy website. “We hate the over complication of music, there’s always too much information. No one wants to be bombarded with useless shit all the time, so we keep it simple.”

Simple is true to an extent, but just as the darkest shade of black is simple, so too is the potential for it to be full of the unexpected.

When I asked how they would themselves describe

“We’re sat here in London, we’ve just been to Paris and it’s all from something we genuinely just loved to make”

33

Define The Australians are running a musical uprising. A huge part of that are ozzy trio MOVEMENT who speak to us about influences, humility and Australia.

Written by Robbie Russell @robbierussell17 Photography by Robbie Russell

“Night Music. We only write at night time, because found that putting pressure on ourselves during th just didn’t work... that’s what MOVEMENT is”

“It’s happening. Australian musicians are coming through because they’re not trying to just be Australian versions of such and such.

Honesty is such a big part of music”

e we he day

Movement, to people yet to hear them; Jessie, without needing to think said “Night music. We only write at night time, because we found that putting pressure on ourselves during the day just didn’t work. But after sunset that’s when it comes together. We just sit in a room with our equipment… that’s what Movement is.”

This is clearly the source of their originality. They isolate themselves from what’s going on around them to focus on creating a debut album that is an accurate snapshot of them as they are now, as Movement. So much so that they haven’t listened to many of the artists that are considered their contemporaries. I quizzed them about the reason behind Australia’s recent output of quality music and they replied: “It’s crazy, we lock ourselves away and miss it, but it is happening.

Australian musicians are coming through because they’re not trying to just be the Australian version of such and such. Honesty is such a big part of music, and these guys are being original and are finding success as a result.”

It certainly goes without saying that the Internet now plays a pivotal role in the unearthing of new musicians, and it has taken us to a point where it literally doesn’t matter where you’re

from. The world is getting a lot smaller and you can be neighbours with everyone that has access to an Internet connection.

is. When the album drops early next year or whenever, I’m sure it will be just about the only thing you hear for weeks.

“Australia sits in the pacific and tends to get left out. Now we can post a track up at any time, and if the right people pick it up then there’s no end to how many listens it can get. We put up ‘Us’ and it got about 1000 plays, we went to bed, Pitchfork got hold of it and we woke up on about 40,000”

When you or I sit in our rooms and play “Wonderwall” on our guitar, or mess about for a few hours on Garage Band, we can’t help but think “what if ?”. Right? Well, upon meeting Jessie, Lewis and Sean it became clear that all three of them are struggling to stop asking themselves exactly the same question.

Their music, though, is completely self-believing.

It’s confident and sonically perfect. Movement are not just the future of Australian music, but of music as a whole.

Now I’m starting to feel bewildered, and I’m not even close to being a musician. In just over a year things have happened to them that people dream about their whole lives.

“Within the first week of signing to Modular they asked us to DJ before Thom Yorke, we don’t DJ but we did it. He came in and left, the club was so packed it wasn’t funny. We then Sean tried to DJ again in Paris and Gaspard from Justice happened to come and watch us play and then came to watch us DJ. He said he wanted to come, I was like ‘That’s fucked’ I asked him to give me a hand, but unfortunately I was left to my own devices.”

Considering how much time these guys spend in dark rooms, it’s ironic to think about how bright their future

35

Feature

Humble Beginnings: Action Bronson

BAM !

For any aspiring rapper, Christmas is the worst time of year. Festivities and yule-tide joy tar the urge for lyrical aggression and the musical incitement of anarchy with the brush of ‘not very Christmassy.’ Ab-Soul never let’s in the Christmas spirit, Young Lean is always on the precipice of drowning himself in Arizona Ice Tea, and you’ve got to be fucking mental to think that Freddie Gibbs is going to wear the paper hat he got in his cracker. Even Diddy, with his beautiful and long-lived affiliation with winter-themed get-ups and the colour white in general, actually despises all forms of holiday fun. He never really passes the Courvoisier. It’s all that’s stopping him from wrecking the place with his new golf clubs.

!

M

A B

When you grow up with drug dealers and criminals, the middle-America Christmas ideal is probably pretty hard to come by, but there is one rapper who knows Ol’ St. Nick a bit too well. Turn the clock back 8 years, visit a mall just outside New York any day between 1 November and 24 December, enter the dubious-looking ‘Santa’s Grotto’ and you might end up sitting on the knee of a man with similar festive pedigree to a rough bout of ebola. A man who, while eager children tell him of their dreams of toy cars and Barbie dolls, thinks only of diving off the side of yachts, or driving a Jeep to the top of Pizza mountain and eating his way down. He might be action man now, but he used to be little more than a bloke with a beard full of dye and a belly full of despair.

!

M A B

Growing up in Queens wasn’t always easy for Alan Bronson. Exotic food isn’t cheap, neither are exotic women. When you’re 22 and living in your parent’s basement, feeding addictions to both is an almost impossible task. Hustling was a viable option, but pushing crack had never appealed to him; push was yet another one of those pesky verbs that Alan sought to ignore. He needed a job, but always was a broken train with ideas above his station, and going from A to Jeep doesn’t just happen overnight. So, when the Nets turned him away, questioning his fitness and sanity, he found the one job that encouraged liberal eating habits and a penchants for sitting down.

Define We’ve all asked ourselves the question “what would my favourite rapper be doing if he wasn’t reciting words in a rhythm.”

‘Humble Beginnings’ challenges that exact thought with us exploring a rappers past, the only way we know how.

Written by Robbie Russell @robbierussell17 Illustration by Simon East simoneast@me.com

He didn’t like kids and spreading joy wasn’t exactly his idea or fulfilment, but Alan would turn up to work everyday; no one told him that just turning up isn’t enough to pass as working. Day after day he’d have his beard pulled out, his suit puked on, and his soul destroyed. His game was waining and even his famous appetite was diminishing.

Christmas was killing Alan and in the pursuit of money and happiness, he was becoming an empty shell of the man he used to be.

BAM!

A string of lacklustre performances, highlighted by numerous complaints of ‘inappropriate language’ and particular ‘heavy-handedness’ by distressed parents lead this Papa Noël down a path towards a very different sack to the one he’d become so familiar with.

When the day finally came, it was bitter-sweet. The mall-manager struck Alan off with few words, few words that had unprecedented impact on Alan’s life. “This is your fault, you’ve left kids feeling blue and put me in a position where truly the chips are down. It’s time for action, Bronson. Get the fuck out my office.”

The rest of course is history, but even now, turkey leaves a bitter taste in Action’s mouth. Rappers hate Christmas, but none so much as him. Hence why we’ve decided that giving you this rare insight into his humble beginnings in September is a far safer bet. We’ve never seen a man close-line a Magazine, but if anyone is going to try, it’s Bronsolinho. Merry Christmas.

37

Essay

The Sea of Distractions

Define 2014’s increased interconnectivity has exhibited more than ever to us as audio consumers.

As a result of the increasing amount of choice, jb fears that we are losing sight of what’s most important.

Written by Jonathon Bartlett @rawjb Photography by Meredith F. Schlaepfer Abe Coloma

In 2014 the way we consume music has altered so drastically from our parents’ or even older siblings’ generations that comparison is almost impossible. Unless you’re a vinyl aficionado or stuck in 1984, chances are you won’t often be purchasing music physically, or even at all. I’m not going to go into the inanity of the details of music sharing and downloading, but with the advent of SoundCloud, Bandcamp, Spotify, Pandora and the like, we’ve got so many different conduits via which we can consume music that it’s a little bit of an overwhelming affair to differentiate between those you like enough to play on a boring Sunday afternoon, and those that reach the rare esteem of gracing your iTunes library.

“What about Le1f? and has received s of buzz that... I’m s

the beats and lyrics, before another one of your favourite artists/writers/friends has a track/album that just begs to be played? It’s something that the generation before us reveled in when they unveiled that beautiful black disk from its aesthetically inspired casing. A lot of the time in 2014, particularly with SoundCloud producers, the artwork for a standalone track or remix is something reminiscent of an unwanted holiday snap, only they rotate it 90 degrees and invert the colours in order to add an edge of allure.

That’s part of the glory of the current music scene as well as its fatal flaw. There are a seemingly infinite number of artists that are putting out such an unbelievable volume of music that unless they have a particularly striking image (Mykki Blanco) or have some kind of cosign from bigger artists (Pink Grenade.

Read: more money than talent) then they go unheard.

? He’s been killing it for so long now such a comparatively pathetic amount surprised he’s still going” And so the “Sea of Distractions” rolls in and out.

You open up your Twitter feed to see a flood of retweets that include free downloads, remixes, links and reviews… then you click through into a link that piques your interest and you’re offered a whole ‘nother plethora of consumable online goods to tempt you. Then you click over to Facebook and you ironically see an endless list of reasons why you should unfriend the high school laser quest team… or something.

Even our social lives have become a futile shell of what they formerly were. Then, once you’ve stalked your

ex-girlfriend and realised that she’s doing a lot better for having finished with you, you open up SoundCloud and once again start the scroll of death, just like on Netflix. With the Internet now so crucially interwoven with our lifestyles, we’ve allowed ourselves to become saturated by the very things we love.

As music fans it’s both a blessing and a curse. How are you going to listen through all 6 of the mixtapes that Gucci Mane’s put out in the last 5 minutes, as well as actually scrutinising and enjoying the intricacies of

Mykki Blanco is an average MC, but because he crossdresses and grabs people’s attention in his music videos he’s slowly building the epithet of “-THE- gay rapper”. What about Le1f ?

He’s been killing it for so long now and has received such a comparatively pathetic amount of buzz that, quite frankly, I’m surprised he’s still going. In 2014 talent very rarely shines through. Isaiah Rashaad’s ‘Cilvia Demo’ tape is one of the best projects of 2014 yet nobody’s really talking about him because he doesn’t have a bucket hat, and hasn’t dyed his hair in a weak attempt to be shocking (Future, Vic Mensa; I’m looking at you). Just because Nicki Minaj’s wigs have done her image a service doesn’t mean you have to imitate her image; rappers please take note.

This goes beyond the aesthetic of artists as well though. An ever-increasing trend in modern music

39

Define 2014’s increased interconnectivity has exhibited more than ever to us as audio consumers.

As a result of the increasing amount of choice, jb fears that we are losing sight of what’s most important.

Written by Jonathon Bartlett @rawjb Photography by Meredith F. Schlaepfer

is for the beat switch; on certain tracks, I even found myself wishing that they had swapped it half way through. After a minute and a half of the same 808s and snares, I’m bored. That’s 90 seconds of my time that’s had a consistent component throughout. When A$AP’s ‘1 Train’ came out, I had that on repeat so often that it was like my life had been looped. That track is full of lyrical prowess and, frankly, mastery of the modern hiphop genre. However, as the beat stays the same without a hook breaking up the verses, many of my friend’s chief issue with the track was that nothing happened beyond the beat. Ab-Soul’s most recent album ‘These Days…’ had so many beat switches that it was difficult to actually focus on his lyricism, as I was anticipating a beat change on every song. People in hip-hop are forgetting that production is the metaphoric lock for making a successful, credible song with longevity; add a smattering cadence and wit into the key-mould and you’re cruising through into a room full of liquor.

The culture of quick consumption that we live in today has leaked through from the ceiling of potentially infinite information and enjoyment all the way down to where we are now - the basements of attention deficit. Unless it’s an album created by one of the old greats, people don’t hold it in high enough regard.

There’s a fair chunk of people who refute that Kendrick’s GKMC is a classic album. I have to ask that very specific sect of hip-hop fans one question: are you off your fucking tits? Cilvia Demo, Because The Internet, Run The Jewels, Trap Lord, Old… all of these projects if they were released in a culture that reflected the way that the music scene acted in the 90s would be venerated as some of the best music around at the time. Yet it’s 2014, and as Cilvia Demo came out back when you didn’t know who Ed Milliband was, it’s not current enough to be on heavy rotation for the mass populace. Turn on the radio and you’ll still fucking hear Thrift Shop as if you hadn’t already had the beige

lyrical tripe branded right into your cerebrum. In chart music they’ve managed to retain some essence of what formerly was. To you, the savvy modern day music fan, I ask you to give tracks a few more chances, actually listen

“People in hip-hop are forgetting that production is the metaphoric lock for making a successful, credible song with longevity”

through tracks by artists that you know are respected in the wider scene. To you, the artists, I implore you to take more time on your music to make it worth people’s time; if were to let out an audible sigh every time you inadvertently put out a track with offbeat drums and synths, I’d have the lungs of a cremated Dot Cotton.

There’s too much going on in 2014. Everyone needs to take a step back, chill out and properly understand where we are with regards to music. Tracks do not need an unnecessary beat change unless you’re using a specific beat in return for keeping your kneecaps. If we continue to give consumers bite-size versions of the craft we know and love, they’ll just keep swallowing your metaphoric

popcorn chicken and forget how to chew the sirloin.

“Turn on the radio and you’ll still fucking hear Thrift Shop as if you hadn’t already had the beige lyrical tripe branded right into your cerebrum”

41

Essay

It’s Not Me It’s You! Often we’re left muttering the clichés: “We’ve grown apart” or “I need space”, wondering what happened to someone that we were deeply in love with. Going through a break-up is hard and we’re often lost in a world of our own wondering where it all went wrong.

Define For many, music is an integral part of their lives, but what happens when we fall out of love?

Written by Marlon Dorsett @ImLoopee Photography by Tanner Almon Waltz

There are various occasions when we try to salvage a relationship we have, but the feeling of knowing that it’s just not the same strikes hard. As a result we mourn, bitch and complain about what could have been, then find ourselves searching the next best thing which usually ends up in us settling for second best as we reminisce on the good memories. Yeah... sometimes, we just have to accept that certain artists will never remember the reason we fell in love with them, and in what seems like a pathetic attempt at recapturing the past, most will revisit their magnum opus, then proceed to simply add the number “2” at the

end, as if that means anything at all. If only things were that simple.

Falling out of love with one of your favourite artists can be a painfully upsetting experience as you watch yourself go from Stan to Matthew Mitchell, a bitter ex-fan who literally cannot stand the person you once looked up to. Sometimes it isn’t so bad, as you move on to find bigger and better things, making the moving on process a lot easier, much like when Toy Story’s Andy becomes infatuated with the “cool” Buzz Lightyear, throwing the “tired” Woody to the side, completely forgetting what originally

made him happy. Eventually, we grow tired of the same thing, so even if the artist we grew to love releases great project after great project; as we grow accustomed to a certain sound, as humans we somewhat tend to seek something new. With so many fish in the sea, the idea of playing around with the next new seabass seems inevitable.

We go through phases, but the relationship between fan and artist really is much like the relationship between two actual people that eat, sleep and... Well, you know the rest. Artists will drive fans crazy, not listening to their every demand. Often, we grow sick of seeing the person that made us happy literally everywhere, slowly turning us away as we realise that the thing that made them so great, is the one thing we now despise about them. In short, you were cool until you popped up at every turn I made. Some say you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone, which is true. But when we’re barely able to breathe without feeling obliged to check the latest guest verse, stand-alone-track or mixtape, that statement becomes null

“Falling out of love with one of your favourite artists can be a painfully upsetting experience as you watch yourself go from Stan to Matthew Mitchell” and void. Do you remember the last time someone anticipated “that new 2 Chainz”?

In closing, there are certain factors that make us as listeners look like complete music whores that will jump from trend to trend. While those that will only listen to something because it’s “hot” come across as shallow and worthless, there are occasions where falling out of love with our favourite artists is a whole lot deeper than what’s shown on the surface.

Simply put: it’s not me, it’s you.

43

Showcase

Elinor Hagg

Swedish born graphic designer Elinor has taken Instagram by storm this year thanks to her #leaveastory project. Her ability to combine child-like illustrations with adult tendancies through her work, grabbed our attention and we wanted to know what really made her tick.

Define The Showcase series focuses on introducing the best unknown creative talent to the masses.

Written by Konrad Ziemlewski Find Elinor at @elinorhagg elinorhagg.com

“Someone once said you need to practice 10,000 hours... so I feel I still have my 10,000 hours to put in”

Elinor. To start, could you describe yourself in a sentence or two?

Hi! I’m a Graphic Designer and Illustrator from Sweden with a passion for making the web more beautiful.

Sweden has been a hub of many things, specifically some top quality musicians right now.

But how has the Swedish culture influenced you creatively?

Music has definitely been a great source of inspiration to me, but what has influenced

me even more is the fact that Sweden itself is a hub of opportunity. All you have to do is reach out and grab it. I mean we have free education, healthcare and nature at our door step. The only thing standing between you and your dream here is yourself.

Judging by your blog, you love your travelling. If you could move anywhere in the world where would it be and why?

Right now I’m in a phase where I want to live everywhere, at the same time!

If I had to choose though, I

would for sure have a flat in San Francisco, as it is a city full of dreamers and hard working people. A hut near a rice plantation in China, as I love their magical culture, yummy food and peaceful nature. Lastly I’d have a house with a chicken coop in the Swedish countryside as nothing beats the Swedish summer.

Your #leaveastory project is outstanding and has gained some awesome traction. Could you let me know why you went about starting it and why using stories?

I was looking for some kind of project where I could channel all my creativity and at the same time evolve as a designer. Someone once said that you need to practice 10 000 hours to become really good at something and

I just needed something to put my 10 000 hours into. At that time I was living in San Francisco and met a girl who told me about a coffee shop in The Mission where people could get a free coffee (or was it a cookie?) in exchange for writing a story. I loved

the concept and went home that same day and created #leaveastory. It’s the same concept but instead of a cup of coffee the people who leave stories, get my imagination.

What has been your most favourite and least favourite story?

My favourite ones are the ones that tug at your heart strings when you read them.

Some people are really able to move you in a very few sentances and everytime someone submits a story, I feel oh-so grateful. My least favourite ones just feel like commissions rather than stories.

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Showcase

Conrado Salinas

When looking comparing all creative fields, I imagine illustrators outnumber everyone. Standing out of the crowd in such an environment is extremely difficult but Conrado Salinas manages to find a way with his work emotive work transcending all of his competition.

Define The Showcase series focuses on introducing the best unknown creative talent to the masses.

Written by Konrad Ziemlewski Find Conrado at be.net/viobear

“Imagine a simple illustration of a woman’s portrait with blood running down her face”

Hey Conrado. First of all thank you for introducing me to the Latin version of my name and secondly, could you give us a short background on how you got into design?

I want to know who’s decision it was to add an ‘O’ at the end of Konrad and then follow up by changing the ‘K’ to a ‘C’. It’s a question that has plagued me for years. I just want you to know that I had nothing to do with it.

I got into design in 2007 at the age of 16. At the time, I was doing very bad in

school. I was focusing all of my efforts in becoming a professional gamer. Coming out of summer school, I was placed into a class that was doomed from the start. There were only three students and none of us had the requirements to be there.

The tutor let us know that we would all be transferred in a week, but before that, she wanted us to write a narrative essay about anything. Long story short, she loved my essay and asked me to join her program called ‘The Academy of Arts’. Keep in mind that I only passed one class out of six the previous year. I wasn’t

lying when I said I was doing VERY bad in school, so I knew her offer was generous.

I was hesitant because of the name, but joining the program would mean better classes and new students to boot. One of the first classes I took was an introductory course to Photoshop. We only learned the very basics: move tool, clipping mask, text tool, etc. but without a doubt, this is the class that sparked my obsession with art and design.

With how vector heavy your work is, what artists inspire you?

I first got into vector art early on in 2011, but I really started to appreciate it the followign year. The first artist that really got me into it was Mel Marcelo; his illustrations have a dope, pop art style. However it wasn’t til I discovered the work of Ken Taylor that I really learnt what vector art could achieve, both in a visual and narrative sense that is.

Judging by the majority of your work, you clearly take an interest in people, and specifically their facial features. What is it about this particular part

of the human anatomy that draws you in and interests you?

The thing that has always fascinated me the most is how much facial expressions tell a story. Imagine a simple illustration of a woman’s portrait with blood running down her face, messy hair, and maybe a few chaotic things in the background - but the woman is laughing like a maniac. The entire mood changes just through the use of her face and eyes.

Looking back at your ‘native sneaker’ illustration, are you much of a sneaker head? and if you had the chance to design a sneaker for one brand who would they be and why?

Haha, calling myself a sneaker head would definitely be an insult to all sneaker heads. I created that illustration to test myself. I wanted to see if I could make an interesting story out of something not so interesting on its own. I don’t know if I succeeded, but it was definitely fun to create.

If I had the chance to design a sneaker for a brand it

would be Adidas. I love their branding and how experimental they are with the products they release. I would definitely be a great fit for them.

What one album would be the soundtrack to your life?

Without a doubt it would be “The Rising Tied” by Fort Minor.

47

Showcase

Krakatuf

Alexander, a designer from the huge expanses of Russia, is someone not afraid of experimentation. Working in motion design and being passionate about typography, I speak to him about his work related clashes, cultural influences and how music plays a part in his day to day life.

Hey Tuf, before we start could you give us a little about yourself and your creative background?

Define The Showcase series focuses on introducing the best unknown creative talent to the masses.

Written by Konrad Ziemlewski Find Krakatuf at be.com/krakatuf

Well my real name is Alexander first of all.

Currently I live in the northern capital of Russia, St. Petersburg. My dayto-day is motion graphics and content production for television but my passion is typography. That and psychotheraphy that seems to bring out my creative side!

How has the Russian culture influenced you creatively? And, if you

had the chance to travel anywhere in the world to expose yourself to another culture what would it be and why?

What’s pretty interesting is that my creative work is actually largely influenced by western culture. My type obssesion came from my love of graffiti as a child, which later on led to practicing calligraphy. I’m heavily inspired by gothic lettering that generated in Europe.

I love the sensibilities of European type, which is why European cities are always the first on my wish list... I’d

“I’ve always been a strong believer in the notion that you never stop learning”

Which is why I originally only did calligraphy with a brush pen, marker or flat brush.

When I find the correct compositions and dynamics of something, then I can sketch. Then it’s pretty much the same old Photoshop detailing in vector.

If you had the chance to work with one musician dead or alive who would it be and why?

love to visit the Gutenberg museum in Mainz, Germany.

You’re someone that works both in motion graphics and in typography but what came first?

Prior to working in motion design, I spent my time designing logos which developed into a love of type. Then my work in television took over, with me learning motion design, something that has become my main source of income.

Typography right now is heavily experimental for me, as I’m trying to combine all of my passions together and then transferring them into my motion work to keep it fresh and clean.

Being someone that has their hand in a number of mediums, what discipline would you love to learn?

I’ve always been a strong believer in the notion that you never stop learning.

Receiving knowledge in

various disciplines can never be taken for granted but the one I’d love to learn is Chinese Calligraphy. I would love to be able to express emotion through type.

From a typographic stand-point your work is incredibly intricate and detailed. How do you go about creating your type?

What’s the work-process like?

For me the inner dynamics are the most important to me.

I mean my music taste is pretty varied. It helps me focus on my work but it also add’s an aggressive physicality to me. But when Wanda Jackson is singing; she makes me fall in love/ Her ability to charm you is amazing, where I’d like to work on something for the ‘Queen of Rockability’.

49

Showcase

Nicolae Negura

Romanian born, Portugal based Nicolae Negura is a designer of many talents. Having collaborated with us on an amazing selection of illustrations for this issue, we spoke to Nicolae about his grasp of many mediums, his love of music and his incredibly interpretation of Fashion.

Define The Showcase series focuses on introducing the best unknown creative talent to the masses.

Written by Konrad Ziemlewski Find Nicolae at be.com/ cucubaou

Hey Nicolae. Could you give us a little background into who you are and what you do?

on one sole medium. Yet if you had the chance to learn something new, what would it be?

Hey! I’m an illustrator and street artist from Romania currently living in Portugal. I studied traditional painting as well as graphics and communication at school.

I’ve been working as a part time and freelance graphic designer / illustrator, but recently I finally decided to go with illustration and street art as my career path.

Yeah, as an illustrator I could definitely say I found my way, but it’s been through years of experimenting in different mediums and with different techniques. Yet I still have a curiosity for animation as it has always fascinated me and it would be a nice thing to combine my current work with I think.

Throughout your work your incredibly focused

One of your most intriguing projects is your ‘Fashion Project’.

Could you explain your thought process in coming up with these very artsy depictions of our favourite characters?

The ‘Fashion Project’ series continues a selection of projects I’ve been working on for ages. It’s a project all about my personal experiences with TV series and cartoons as well as cinema and other media.

When I was putting it together on paper, I realised it’s not just about me, but also about the other consumers of this media. ‘The Fashion Project’ along with a few

“The Fashion Project, like many projects of mine challenges the idea of how we view media and how media wants to be viewed by the viewers watching it”

other ones of mine, always questions how we view media and how media wants us to view it.

What musician would you love to collaborate with and why?

Oh, there are a lot of them. I guess I’d love to collaborate with artists from all genres, ones I work to and ones I party to. Their music inspires me and their songs always dictate my mood, regardless of my obsession with a specific band. Some of the artists I’d love to work with are: Lykke Li, Arcade Fire, Sigur Ros, M83, Bon Iver amongst many others.

Where do you see yourself in 3 years time?

Ideally I’d love to see myself in a bigger studio, with a number of collaborations

behind me with other editorials and brands, having finished my first illustration book that I’ve wanted to do.

51

Interview

An Interview With... BADBADNOTGOO

We caught up with the Toronto trio ‘BBNG’ in Leeds earlier this year to pick their brand of instrumentalism to the masses.

Define We caught up with the Toronto trio ‘BBNG’ in Leeds earlier this year to pick their brains as they bring their brand of instrumentalism to the masses.

Written by Jonathon Bartlett @rawjb Photography by Martin D. Hendry @mdhendry

How’s III been received so far do you think?

Really good. Every show’s been really sick. It’s been really intense for us, catching trains and doing sessions everywhere. We haven’t been giving ourselves enough sleep, but every show’s been really intense.

I saw you guys at Glastonbury last year, your live performances are incredibly memorable.

Did you see the guy in the Jesus outfit with the hula

hoop? I didn’t even seen him when we were playing but on the archive footage I noticed him. The whole festival was amazing, the weather was great too. Metallica seems like a weird choice for a headliner, it’d be really fun though for sure.

Why are you guys called BADBADNOTGOOD? Matt: Before I even met these guys, me and my friends were working on a stupid youtube show for our own fun. An internet TV show, we never got too far but, the name was

BADBADNOTGOOD and we thought that was a cool name.

Chester: It had zero subscribes.

Matt: Yeah it had never even got the chance to get off of the ground, we didn’t even finish the first episode. But we had the platform set up with that name already, and after we put out the first video we didn’t relaly have a choice.

We thought “we have to be called this now”.

You put out your first album in the summer,

OD

k their brains as they bring

Chester: So Surreal.

Alex: We really never expected any of it to happen.

Really strange.

How was it, did he email you, did he call you?

Matt: It was just one tweet, and then he text me his number and then we met up.

It was just that one tweet the day before we were supposed to do it, and then the day of, we hadn’t heard anything until five miutes before he came. We just assumed it wasn’t gonna happen.

Chester: To answer your last question, we never thought we’d be touring the UK one or two years ago. No way. I guess it’s just kinda luck and...

and then by the winter you’d already done the performance with Tyler.

Matt: Obviously all of the internet support really helped. At the time we didn’t know how our live show would translate. If people saw us doing a cover of a song on the internet with someone, how would it work? But we just thought if we give it our all and go crazy, then the people will do the same... hopefully.

I’m sure you’re sick of answering questions

about Odd Future. But how did it come about? Did you reach out to Tyler or did he reach out to you?

Matt: We just put the video out and then a bunch of people who were stoked on all of the attention on the internet linked it to him and then he reached out to us.

He said “This is really cool, thankyou for doing that.”

Then the next time he came to Toronto he hit us up and got us to come over and hang out and that’s when it happened. None of us thought it was gonna happen.

I know it’s quite early on in your career, but would you ever consider doing something along the line of The Roots... a residency kind of thing?

Even just short term. You seem to be able to take music and reappropriate it for your own means, your own style. I think something like that would be amazing.

Matt: We’d love to do something like that. It’d be awesome. Aslong as it’s in the right setting you know?

If we could make it feel really comfortable then we’d be keen. We’re always wanting to do more collaborations instead of just doing it to par, really try to make it unique.

Make it feel really organic and super dope.

“People were just really offended and all that, but we’re absolutely not trying to disrespect Jazz.

It’s an amazing culture of music and language”

53

Alex: Every rehearsal we jam on whatever song is stuck in our heads at the time. Doing something where we’d be able to play other peoples music would be really fun.

I’d never even read about it until I started researching for this interview. But what do you have to say to the people who are saying that you’re disrespecting jazz music?

There was that article in the Ottawa Citizen...

Alex: That came when we weren’t even really that big of a band. We started doing interviews and stuff and at the time we were really fed up with school and started to brew all of these opinions. We said a whole bunch of stuff about jazz...

Matt: It wasn’t even serious though. It’s not like we were being snobs or whatever.

Define We caught up with the Toronto trio ‘BBNG’ in Leeds earlier this year to pick their brains as they bring their brand of instrumentalism to the masses.

Written by Jonathon Bartlett @rawjb Photography by Martin D. Hendry @mdhendry

Alex: Exactly. We weren’t able to articulate our thoughts and feelings as well as we probably can now. People were just really offended and all that but, we’re absolutely not trying to disrespect jazz. It’s an amazing culture of music and language, but from the stuff that we noticed in school and stuff like that. We’re just saying that we want people to push it harder like, branch out more. We’re never meant to be disrespectful by any means. Just like, challenge it... you know?

Matt: It’s a complete genre too. Not only does it have a sound like any genre, but it has a super rich history that’s tied to alot of different things. Not just music history but political history and then also it’s this amazing approach to playing music that people study in school, it also has this vast catalogue and chronology of recordings you know what I mean...

So... yeah. It’s one of the best genres ever.

From reading the article, there didn’t seem to be any rebuttal. There was noone saying ‘noone actually said this’. We’ve done quite a few interviews recently and everyone that we’ve spoken to has said that they’ve had their answers changed to elicit a response.

Alex: It’s more attractive for a journalist to have an angle to their story rather than just the bland same old.

Matt: It’s an unfortunate case of... today I guess.

Some people are just not as intriguing or might not have got the answers they wanted or whatever.

The element of objectivity seems to be lost in a lot of modern music journalism.

Matt: Absolutely. It’s the same with music, film, art... everything. You have to remain who you are, you can’t just fake it. Unless that’s your performance.

I know you guys are up to date with your music,

“I read his whole bac that... I thought to my what are the standout tracks/albums/artists from 2014 so far for you guys?

Collectively: Definitely Pinata. For sure. One hundred percent.

What about individual tracks?

Matt: I personally like Knicks... the fifteenth track or whatever *dum dum dum* and also Deeper, Shame etc.

What about other than Pinata?

Alex: I’ve been listening to the new Future album alot actually, I think it’s pretty cool.

Chester: No Label 2 Bambigos, that’s pretty sick.

Alex: One rapper out of

I assume you could tell it was DOOM straight away Collective: Yeah for sure.

His voice and personality are just so obvious.

Chester: We heard him talk in between us playing the soundcheck and instantly knew it was DOOM. He was sitting in the corner in the dark and we were just like “He’s literally over there... that’s crazy.”

On the topic of DOOM, have you heard much of Bishop Nehru? Obviously he’s got the joint album NehruvianDOOM coming out sometime soon.

Matt: Of course, yeah. We’ve met him before, he’s a sick dude. Such a nice guy. He’s

ckstory about why he wears the mask and stuff like yself maybe we don’t need this gimmicky mask” Texas, DT Blanco is really sick. She’s a female rapper, really dope.

What’s the deal with the pig mask? It’s kinda synonymous with you guys now.

Alex: I basically don’t wear it anymore. Again, like, you asked about all the jazz stuff before... it’s part of our growing process. Going from students, not really having a band and then trying out some ideas... forming them into more ideas and then we end up where we are now. I guess the whole story I was rehashing was like, we played a show with MF Doom last November. We also got to meet him with no mask, I was literally frozen. Didn’t know what to say, I was like “Uh... hey man. How’s it going? It’s nice to meet you”.

gonna be one of those really progressive, talented young MCs. Alex: But anyways, back to DOOM. I was just reading up before we went to potentially meet him, just before that date in November. I read his whole backstory about why he wears the mask and stuff like that, with his story of quitting music and all of that stuff like that. After reading that, I thought to myself maybe we don’t need this gimmicky mask. I literally brought the pig mask to the first jam session as like, kind of a joke. Because I tried to play a show with another band wearing a mask, it was at a funeral home for a halloween party and it was like one thousand degrees and I just couldn’t even play.

55

I started doing it with these guys and then we were kinda like “OK. You probably don’t really need this anymore”. It’s kinda the theatrical aspect of it, but realistically it’s just so hot to play in something like that it’s not worth it.

What’s the deal with the cover art for III? I was trying to figure out if there’s some kind of meaning behind it or something, but I got nothing.

Define We caught up with the Toronto trio ‘BBNG’ in Leeds earlier this year to pick their brains as they bring their brand of instrumentalism to the masses.

Written by Jonathon Bartlett @rawjb Photography by Martin D. Hendry @mdhendry

“We wanted to make something that so analogue and referenced old drum bre we love how three mics on a drum kit c some real similarities.

Chester: It’s weird cause I guess we haven’t listened to that (Endtroducing) since like highschool, yeah. But it’s definitely a classic.

Alex: The album was inspired by alot of amazing samples/recordings that we’d looked into further, and then found other artists based on those genres. Like Brazilian music, psych music, crack rock and all of these different inspirations. We wanted to make something that sounded very analogue and referenced old drum breaks and stuff like that, just because we love how three mics on a drum kit can sound literally incredible instead of micing everything and then, tweaking it post. You can get a great sound if you do the right things with the right mics, and then it’s exactly what the drum kit sounds like but... you can create amazing tone with different mics and stuff like that.

Just the heavy cymbols and stuff like that, I heard

Where do you think you guys would be now if you

Matt: It’s actually a mirror laid down on the floor, in our friends appartment. Really weird film and lighting, so it’s just a reflection of us basically. In a room. With a flash.

When I heard the drums on Hedron, I immediately thought of DJ Shadow.

Martin: Midnight in a Perfect World.

wern’t making music together?

Matt: Programming, probably.

Chester: Hopefully still playing music, but probably not. Maybe working at Walmart or something.

Alex: I’d probably still be playing music too but, not full-time.

You had Flashing Lights on BBNG2. What’s your favourite Kanye track?

Alex: Recently I’ve really been digging Sanctified off of the Rick Ross album. Kanye production.

ounded very eaks... just because can sound”

Matt: Even though he didn’t rap on it, Numbers on the Board. The way he used that sample was so insanely innovative.

I’ve gotta ask you about Leyland Whittee. What’s your relationship with him like? He’s was on BBNG2 and III. Alex: He’s a friend of ours.

Plays sax, we knew him from school back in the day.

We thought he was really talented and a great guy, so we wanted to do something with him. We got him on the 2nd project and then ended up writing a song with him on III and have played alot of shows with him...

You worked on The Man With the Iron Fists. You were on the soundtrack for that. How did that come about?

Chester: It came about through our friend, Frank Dukes who we share our studio with in Toronto.

He’s a hip-hop producer. A couple years ago, we met him when we first started playing together, at our first show actually. About two years ago now I guess, he brought us to New york to do a session cutting a bunch of instrumental stuff. You know the Menahan Band?

Yeah they did Rio with Theophilus London.

Chester: We went to their studio which they weren’t using at the time, and got to use all their crazy old analogue gear and mics and instruments. It was a great experience. RZA ended up hearing a couple instrumentals we did from that session and liked them and I guess wanted to put them on the soundtrack.

If you could pick any rapper, dead or alive, to jump on one of your

“I think Meech would work pretty well over our sound. You’ve got so much shit going on, you need someone with serious tombre to cut through it” tracks. What track, and who would it be?

with a bunch of other things happened.

Matt: I think Meech would work pretty well over our sound. You’ve got so much shit going on, you need someone with serious tombre to cut through it.

Chester: It wasn’t like “You’re fired!”, he just wanted to do try something different the next week, and we were like “Yeah sure, we understand, that’s cool.”

Alex: I dunno about a certain song, but I could say rappers that we’d want to work with.

Matt: We’ve seen him a bunch of times since. We don’t have a problem at all or anything.

Matt: Kendrick... Gibbs... Shit with DOOM. Drake. Getting Frank Ocean to rap would be sick.

Alex: Dead, probably like Big L. That’d be crazy.

There was a ton of speculation around what happened with you guys and Frank Ocean at Coachella. I read somewhere that you were fired by him?

Matt: Yeah. I mean, that’s basically what happened.

Alex: It was a multitude of factors, we don’t really wanna get into it too much. But it was basically a few things going on with having the set set up like that, the sound didn’t come out as much.

I think he had really bad monitor troubles...

Matt: The sound was really weird when we played the show.

Alex: We were just like there to do our absolute best job and then the situation along

Final question, is there anything you wanna say to your fans... and what’s next for BBNG? Chester: I dunno well, we’re excited to... be in Leeds I guess... be on tour...

Alex: Yes we’re excited to be in Leeds and on tour, of course Chester: You do it *laughs* Alex: Hahah. We’re super excited, really happy with how the album came out and are hella greatful for the opportunity and everything that’s happened so far. We’re gonna keep releasing stuff, can’t really disclose alot of what that is like I said but... to anyone who’s making music or loves music, just keep on stayin’ positive, keep sharing.

You know what I mean?

Enjoy life and let music fucking influence you and help you every day. Peace and love.

Matt: Big time.

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Essay

Why Do We Need Yeezy’s Rants?

Kanye West’s ‘rants’ at Wireless Festival in London and Birmingham at the start of July garnered some pretty interesting press coverage. Whilst focusing on the apparent booing that emerged during at least one of those rants, very few publications actually addressed the content of his various ‘rants’.

Define Kanye West has never been one afraid to speak his mind, some of which resulting in fan frustrations, but are they really justified?

Written by Jamie Taylor @Jamietaylor01 Photography by Brandon Blattner Thom Decker @thomdecker

Instead, reports tended to sensationalise this supposed backlash from his supporters and some slandered Kanye in the process. Although an unsurprising reaction, why are reporters and even fans so willing to mock and criticise the Chicago-born rapper whenever he speaks out on the issues that bother him?

His Zane Lowe interview, Wireless monologues and others have nearly always ended in Yeezy being dubbed an idiot. But why?

It isn’t unsurprising that he attracts this response, as he does tend to polarise opinion.

Many eccentric characters and creatives have had the

“You can’t have a musician who has created some of the most innovative work of the 21st Century and yet expect him to be passive on all the issues” same effect on the public in the past and that will never change. However, despite the potential for polarisation, we still have massive expectations of Kanye’s work.

We expect him and other musicians/artists/authors to produce intellectually superior and fascinating work; yet Kanye in particular is so consistently criticised when his intellectual interest or exploration expands into other areas of society or politics that, frankly, it’s counter-productive. You can’t have one without the other.

You can’t have a musician who has created some of the most innovative work of the 21st century and yet expect him to be passive on all other issues. These people are eccentric, that’s how they work and that’s why we love their work. These are the same kind of people who have lit the way throughout history and produced ideas that have improved lives

globally and for us to expect Kanye’s thoughts to be isolated to music alone is ludicrous. The thing is, Yeezy is never going to President.

He’s never going to be elected and he’s never going to wield any political power. That’s obvious enough. So then isn’t it worth our while to pay attention and listen? His music has guided the way in the past and it seems stupid to neglect someone’s opinion that obviously connects with people.

Disregarding the fact that these ‘rants’ often take place during a performance for which his fans often have paid pretty spectacular amounts of money, they cause no harm whatsoever and his messages are, contrary to popular belief, not totally illogical. The fact is that Yeezy raises genuine issues and his conjecture is based on his own experiences. As one of a handful of black males that possesses a voice that can be heard by vast groups of people, especially youthful ones, we need him and others like him to keep speaking out. Kanye can reach out and have a rapport with young people that the politicians of our time could only dream of, and he can talk to an audience that the media, politicians and political organisations often can’t.

His monologues might be ill timed, ill judged, badly communicated and often not entirely elegant but Kanye’s ‘rants’ are important nonetheless and we do need them. We need our icons to speak out, inspire and motivate people; otherwise the media and politicians will

continue to attempt to skew our thinking and control the agenda. Although massive contradictions are present sometimes and these must be acknowledged, Kanye’s thoughts about creativity and equality are worth listening to. For all of his flaws, he is at least making some kind of attempt to change things.

Too few of our idols and role models are politically and societally passive, so why is it such a bad thing? The simple truth is: it’s not.

59

Essay

Putting A Price On Your Talent One thing that seems to bypass many that go into freelancing is the fact that in this particular industry there is no go-to pricing structure. Meaning money is always a thorny subject for creatives.

As each project is unique with its own benefits and pitfalls, it’s almost impossible to have a standard rate for anything - well unless you’re “fiverr”, who of course deliver amazing outcomes for, you guessed it, a fiver...

Define In the creative industries money has always been a delicate subject, one which we are tackling head on.

Written by Konrad Ziemlewski @kziemlewski Photography by Nick Keppol @nkeppol

Obviously my experiences will have varied to yours, as that’s simply the nature of a graphic design business. Yet, with that in mind, here are my go-to methods when trying to figure out how to price any project.

“The levity you have with a brand quite lot to do with if they got in touch with y you hit them up”

1. Deliverables Your first port of call when looking at any and every project should be figuring out the scope of the entire thing.

You need to be able to figure out how much work you need to do versus how much work you might want to do; as this will be the barometer your client will be testing you against. The best way to figure this out is to come up with a strong design brief, or if one has been provided for you, it’s down to you to go through it and refine it to your needs. Educating your client is an incredibly important part of your job.

2. Big Names, Tight Deadlines amount of collateral required.

With that disclosed it’s then down to you and the client to agree on a contract and making sure all of the minimum requirements are set in stone so no arguments or hiccups happen in the future. Any additions have to be talked through with your client and then added to the contract with a reasonable monetary gain added too.

When forming or looking through a design brief you should pay attention to: your clients wants and needs, time-scale, budget and the

Something that’s a huge part of deciding your pricing structure is the size of the brand you might be working for. If you’ve been given the chance to work for someone like Nike versus a forum hipster, it should be pretty obvious to you that Nike will have a much bigger budget to work with. Your levity with the pricing will actually be down to if you contacted the brand or if the brand got in touch with you. If the brand had reached out to you, it means they identified you specifically meaning you have the chance to push their budget, if you see fit. But, if it’s the other way around, the ball’s in their court.

That’s not to say a smaller budget doesn’t have its

3. Time vs Value Billing One thing that I’m often asked by fellow designers is if I prefer to charge by the hour (time) or by the project (value), but the thing is there are benefits on both sides. The key is to retrofit each form to best suit that particular project.

If your someone that might be interested in the time paradox, there are a few things you should think about. For one you should be the sort of person that knows their always on time, and preferably you don’t work odd hours. Secondly as you need to make sure you charge

e often has a you versus if

for your overheads, such as your Adobe CC subscription, to make the best out of your deal. Revisions could also plague you, so if you are someone that works in that way make sure to account for it. Or if it’s on the opposite spectrum of what you do and your client requires it, make sure to make space for it in the contract or budget.

Value based payments are my preferred method. This particular method tends to group a project into specific sections, such as; Research, Concept, Design, Revision, Final, with each section upon completion requiring a payment that’s part of a bigger figure.

If this sort of structure sounds appealing to you, keep these things in mind. If your someone that is shit at time management, are a night owl or have weird working

benefits, a smaller project often give the designer much more creative control.

Regardless in both situations, as risky as it might be, if you feel the job doesn’t meet your needs, it’s perfectly fine to decline.

The time frame of the project is another incredibly important pricing factor. If I’m expected to turn around something in 24-48hours, I’ve often found I try to charge 50% more than my usual bracket for this sort of project - a sort of ‘life disruption’ tax.

Now if the client isn’t happy to oblige to your higher fee, quite often it means they do not understand how valuable your time is - a no no.

4. Numerics patterns, this is right up your alley. Always make sure you have a minimum fee clause in your contract, so if your client for any reason decides to pull out, you always get paid a minimum (50% or so). Being value based, puts a lot of pressure on you as a person, so make sure your incredibly professional throughout and are able to articulate your points correctly, because for people to allow you endless time boundaries, they need to trust your judgement first.

Having taken all of that information in you are probably wondering, where are the figures? As I mentioned before, it’s extremely difficult to suggest any price points, without knowing skill level, client size and another dozen factors or so. But with you hopefully knowing a lot more than you did before, here are some basic money recommendations that might just come in handy; Hourly Rates - anywhere between £15 £30, depending on experience.

Day Rates - anywhere between £100 - £200, depending on experience.

61

Essay

Versus’ Concert 101 In every facet of life, there’s a list of social dos, and likewise, a list of do nots. These things can make or break your much-anticipated social experience - things such as being nice enough to turn your phone off while out watching the latest summer blockbuster, and also cutting down on the need to bring the loudest foods ever known to mankind into the cinema. It’s always nice to give people a helping hand to make their experiences more enjoyable, such as: be completely open to socialising. Here I’ll be listing a few things that you could do to ensure that you aren’t killing anyone’s vibe.

Let’s begin.

Define Have you ever spent £50 and had your gig experience ruined for you? Well this piece is for you and for those ruining your experience too.

Written by Marlon Dorsett @ImLoopee Photography by Darren Cox Rutger Eeling Larry Mcallister

Are You Going Camping?

So we’ve made it. We’re finally in the venue and the floor’s starting to crowd up as we’re anticipating the event everyone has been looking forward to for what feels like forever. The air gets hot as space becomes scarce.

Eventually, the DJ comes on and we’re all vibing out.

What I would describe as “long-shore drift” happens, and here comes the prick that thought it was a good idea to pack what seems like every item he owns into his backpack. I mean, the backpack looks nice, but

there’s no reason to show off.

With the cloakroom being [on most occasions] £2 or less, everyone else that decided to use said service in a way of being considerate to the listeners around us should not have to endure this. My eyes are now off the stage and fixated on his Herschel and I’m thinking: how the fuck can I properly enjoy myself with Bear Grylls’ pointand-click jabbing my chest.

Please, for the love of all things sacred, drop your bags off before the night begins.

Intimacy: A Time And Place For Everything

You and your significant other having a moment is perfectly fine. We’re all mellowed out, drained from the past set of songs that even your grandma would be turnt up too. There is not a single problem wrong with intimacy between two people - especially if you’ve decided to take the easy route out for the night as you sit, looking

down on us peasants like you’re royalty. No, intimacy becomes a problem when you completely fuck up the flow of a swaying crowd, which can be a problem within itself.

enjoys the sight of a mosh pit, please save all that romantic guff for the tedious journey back.

There is a time and place for everything - and knowing very well that a majority of the songs you’ll be hearing today are by a RAPPER that

“My eyes are now off the stage and I’m thinking, how the fuck do I navigate with Bear Grylls infront of me?”

The Concert Live Stream

At this point in 2014, it’s become human nature to record most of our lives. We all love our phones and thrive on being popular within our social media circles.

Having the most watched video on YouTube is cool, as well as getting the most likes on Instagram for your concert picture. Humans love attention. Realistically, we’re not saying don’t capture the moment – I’m sure nostalgia will eventually set in years from now if you ever decide to look back on your poorly recorded portrait videos.

That’s all well and good. What

I’m saying though is don’t record every moment.

There are so many other things you could be doing; enjoy the moment, vibe with the people around you, become a part of the experience. Don’t be the person who constantly has their smartphone and/ or tablet high in the air, attempting to capture every moment of the show you’re at. A Snapchat story is never that deep, nor is the jealousy of the people that didn’t go.

Because you’ve decided to

watch the concert through your screen throughout 80% of the show, it doesn’t mean that I and everyone else behind wants to - especially when you’ve thought the idea of bringing a fucking iPad to the show was ever a good one. Call me inconsiderate for not giving two shits about your memories if that motherfucker ever crashes to the beer stained pit below us all. I won’t be the only person thanking the concert gods for that one.

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Define Have you ever spent £50 and had your gig experience ruined for you? Well this piece is for you and for those ruining your experience too.

Written by Marlon Dorsett @ImLoopee Photography by Darren Cox Rutger Eeling Larry Mcallister

Turn Down For What?

Moshing has pretty much become a standard part of hip-hop concerts in this day and age - and as scary as it may seem to outsiders, it’s actually pretty relaxing. Pent up energy and rage being let out amongst a bunch of strangers who are drawn together by their musical connection. I mean, thinking about it… It’s like letting out the inner toddler as you pretty much throw all fucks out the window, pushing and shoving anyone or thing that’s within arms reach.

Being able to escape a mosh pit unharmed is truly the sign

of a warrior, but here’s where the problem lies...

’N Sync Is Not Just A Name Of A Band

If, when you listening to music you have a problem with picking up lyrics, don’t force it. Please, don’t force it.

We, as fans, hate posers more than anything else. Rapping out of time, reciting all of the wrong lyrics and throwing off anyone around you that does know, is not cool in any world. Instead of hearing the performer we hear you, Mr I’m-Really-FuckingConfident-That-My-VersionSounds-So-Much-Better-

That-I’ll-Shout-Every-LyricOut-Of-Sync. Please, stop.

You’re embarrassing us all.

Not every song calls for it.

You’re at a Tyler gig? Fine.

We’re all rebellious pricks that enjoy breaking rules for the hell of it. That’s part of what being a product of the 90s covers, but when the chords for “IFHY” hit, mellow the fuck out, as if you’d smoked a bag beforehand.

Vibe out. Raise a lighter. Be normal.

Youre Friend Doesn’t Exist, Nor Does This Space Infront Of Me

We’ve all witnessed it - the group of people that have apparently lost their friend somewhere near the front.

The group of people that you never once saw make their way past you on the way to the bar, who then go back the same route they did to their original space. This non-existent mystical space where their friend “Tom” has made sure no one has stolen an air pocket that was, in their eyes, rightfully theirs.

Shouting his name out will not make any of us feel any more sympathetic. Here’s an idea for anyone that really is trying to make their way back to the front - once the music’s started, don’t bother.

All in all, we all just want to have fun, but to that same merit, having fun at the

“Here’s an idea for anyone that really is trying to make their way back to the front... once the music’s started, don’t bother”

expense of others pretty much makes you pretty inconsiderate. Purposefully being inconsiderate essentially means you’re a dick. Nobody likes a dick.

If your name isn’t Richard, please don’t be that guy.

Ignoring all other crimes such as throwing your unwanted cup of beer into a crowd of people, spitting gum, or even simply standing there not doing a single thing looking like you literally couldn’t be less interested, we’ll forgive those for now. As you head out to your next gig, keep these in mind and I have no doubt everything will be blissful. Thank you and enjoy your experience.

65

Essay

Kaytranada’s Big Decision: Craft or Commerciality?

Kaytranada is a firm Versus favourite. Any track with his name on it sends the internet into overdrive and he is making a habit out of selling out venues in Europe and even further afield. His loyal, crazy fan base will watch on avidly in the coming months as the temptations to commercialise confront the Montreal producer. Will he act on them?

Define The crossroads of commerciality and staying true to one’s self are one of the biggest fears a music fan has... and now Versus favourite Kaytranada is next up.

Written by Jamie Taylor @Jamietaylor01 Photography by Diego HernĂĄn Barra @dbdubto

Life as an up and coming producer or rapper has to be pretty swell. Touring the globe, creating with your contemporaries and making a life doing something that you love sounds pretty great to me. However, with success comes responsibility and with this responsibility comes a dilemma. As may not be immediately obvious from the envious position most of us occupy, rising underground musicians face a moral, creative and commercial problem. At some point in the relative

infancy of their careers, they face a crossroads. There is a genuine decision to be made and the consequences of which they will be made to live by in the coming years and possibly for life.

The thing is, in the modern day music industry, producers and rappers are commodities. They have a genuine monetary value to labels and whilst it may seem to be an easy life from the outside looking in, there are surely deep and dark dilemmas bothering artists

in a certain place at a certain time. Although not presented as such, these artists often must choose whether they want to attempt to fulfil their commercial potential or to stick to their underground roots. This is not a decision that many have to make but it is a decision that many of the best will have to. Whether it be the artist or their label, that elect to attempt to penetrate the mainstream and maximise their commercial potential through a hybrid of being

radio play rapidly dilutes a formerly unknown act’s appeal and those who had “been there since the start” develop a resentment for both the artist and those lazy bandwagoning bastards who have now decided your favourite producer is their favourite producer.

Undiscovered bands are only cool when they’re undiscovered and now that they’re not, well, they’re not cool anymore.

This is a fate that can often

producer’s tracks find their way into the greasy mitts of those who cavort Radio 1 with the same fervour as a fat kid does cake.

Undeniably I have somewhat overstated this decision as it is obviously not as clear-cut as it is may sometime seem.

Some are propelled into stardom and others never get the opportunity to make the aforementioned decision.

However, rather intriguingly for us, one of those rising stars that face this dilemma is

“With success comes responsibility and with this responsibility comes a dilemma” commercially friendly along whatever it was that made them popular initially, they risk one big problem.

They tempt the alienation of their loyal fan base. As often occurs, on striking a mainstream artery and being sucked up through the levels of culture popularity - segments of their original, devoted fan base disappear. The distressing and overwhelming swell of

seem unavoidable and has claimed many victims in the past. Disclosure immediately spring to mind as an increasingly popular duo who, under pressure from all angles and tempted by commercial success, found it easy to cave and release content that was more accessible to the masses.

That’s not to say it makes it any easier for the long-time fans though. It’s undoubtedly painful to see your favourite

Versus favourite and everpopular Montreal producer Kaytranada. His success thus far has seen him garner over two hundred thousand Soundcloud followers, tour the world and most recently sign a deal with XL Recordings for an EP to be released very soon.

There is, as is clear given his talent, an ever-present temptation to go down a similar road that his good

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“Expect more original music. It’s definitely gonna surpris gonna be abstract feeling... That’s what I’m aiming for, to funky as possible” friends Disclosure have done.

His recent remixes of MNEK and Pharrell’s “Happy” would have raised a few eyebrows as they represent the most commercial of his work to date, but it appears that there is hope yet. For now, rather encouragingly for his loyal fans, it appears that Kaytranada’s intentions are to stick to his roots whilst continuing to innovate and expand.

When speaking to The FADER, Kaytra said the following of his upcoming EP: “Expect more original music.

It’s definitely gonna surprise you. It’s gonna be more abstract-feeling. I tried to do more of my unique stuff—the uptempo, neo-soul type of stuff. That’s what I’m aiming for, to make it as funky as possible.”

The raft of features expected will likely further endear him to his fans as, whilst the temptation would have

Define The crossroads of commerciality and staying true to one’s self are one of the biggest fears a music fan has... and now Versus favourite Kaytranada is next up.

Written by Jamie Taylor @Jamietaylor01 Photography by Diego Hernán Barra @dbdubto

been to go after a big feature, he seems to be keeping it reasonably low key yet still fresh. According to the same interview, Kareem Riggins, Reva DeVito, Shay Lia and another Versus favourite Vic Mensa are set to appear which is no doubt both encouraging and relieving at the same time.

So far, so good then. We’re feeling positive and life is still pretty great for Kaytranada, touring the world and doing what you love. However, if the EP is as big a success as it may well be, and his popularity continues to grow, it is at that point where we’ll see if the commercial pressures and temptations that unfurl themselves will have an impact. It is clear already they are present. The commercial stresses and urges of the music industry can enter a situation and regardless of any longheld intentions to avoid succumbing, musicians careers can often prove far

se you. It’s o make it as too short to be pretentious enough to stick fervently to your creative principles and values.

Whilst Kaytranada appears to be striking a balance at the moment, the temptation will be strong in some ways and a choice will have to be made. Will he stick to his individual craft and art of making music or dilute this for commercial success? It is the ultimate choice. The latter would be veiled as the former regardless but only time will tell as to whether the same fate lies ahead for Kaytranada. The same fans who have “been there since the start” will watch on with baited breath whilst the next intriguing chapters of his already impressive career unfold. Judgments will have to be made and his moral, creative and commercial instincts will inevitably be tested.

“Will he stick to his individual craft and art of making music or dilute this for commercial success?”

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Define Conneticut’s Oncue has been on quite a journey these past few years. Konrad sit’s down with the young emcee and finds out about Just Blaze, relationships and what it’s really like being an Angry Young Man. Written by Konrad Ziemlewski @kziemlewski Photography by Adam Ross @beardbacon

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Interview

An Interview With... ONCUE

Define Conneticut’s Oncue has been on quite a journey these past few years. Konrad sit’s down with the young emcee and finds out about Just Blaze, relationships and what it’s really like being an Angry Young Man. Written by Konrad Ziemlewski @kziemlewski Photography by Adam Ross @beardbacon

For Conneticut’s Oncue, his upcoming project Angry Young Man has been a work of love. Having had the chance to work under the wing of the legendary Just Blaze, the talented artist spoke to me about his struggles, musical relationships and hidden creative talents that blew my mind.

Right as I don’t really know where to start... how about we begin with the song that really reintroduced me to you and evolved my appreciation for your music, ‘Closer’. How did the song come about and who decided to sample Banks & Shlohmo?

ARW killed it, but it was my idea. I’ve been listening to Banks for the better part of the last year, and when ‘Brain’

came out I sorta freaked out, showed my engineer/ producer Andy Wright (ARW) and we looped it up after a tracking session for the album.

Oh and I also want to marry her.

Did you consider the track your re-introduction at all? To wider blogs that is. I found a lot of blogs sort of eased off from your music for a little while

but the mix of your vocals and emotive bars with her vocals just seemed to blow up everywhere.

Yes and no. I mean to be honest, I disappeared for a while. I dropped Leftovers 2 back in the fall but I pulled a Beyonce before Beyonce pulled a Beyonce. LO2 was just for my core fans, but ‘Closer’ marked me being ready to finally drop Angry Young Man.

“I pulled a Beyonce before Beyonce pulled a Beyonce... LO2 was for my core fans, but ‘Closer’ marked me being ready to finally drop AYM” grow and show the world what I truly have to offer, and upon completion I knew I achieved just that.

Word. Were there any moments where you seriously felt it might just not happen? And to counter that can you identify any moments that really pushed you forward and got you to finish your first, proper body of work?

You mention AYM, an album that has been in the works for what seems forever. Before we mention all the good that there is to come with it, what did it feel like finally being able to say, “It’s done”?

Man, it was crazy.

Indescribable. This body of work has been my life for what is almost 3 years. It started off as something and then blossomed into this incredible thing. I felt the growth as it was going on.

So to finally be done with it, was such a huge weight off my shoulders. I had to prove something to myself as an artist. I was so focused on Angry Young Man being the one, the one where I really

The beginning of the process was nightmarish. It was a slow start to be honest. We were working for 4-5 months and maybe had 2 records.

Writer’s block started creeping in over that summer of 2012, the production work was going in multiple places.

Then all that subsided and the album really was on a roll.

I think the record ‘Roleplay’ marked the shift for the album. Not necessarily sonically, but it seemed to be

really didn’t know if I could top it. I was too close to the project at the time. I always was proud of myself for making leaps and bounds from project to project but from Can’t Wait to Angry Young Man it really is like a boy turning into a man. It was fulfilling.

You mentioned the sonics of the album. Your music has always had a range of influences, be it straight up hip-hop to electronica and indie, but slowly and surely you’ve been refining your sound, finding this dope middle ground of what somewhat similar to the Soulection sound. So in turn how would you say your sound has grown?

100%. This isn’t sonically Can’t Wait. No way in hell.

It’s damn sure not anything before that.

Just Blaze really set the tone when he re-worked (Can’t Wait’s) ‘Running’.

Would you say your relationship with Just Blaze is similar to having a father figure thats a wizard behind the boards? From an outsiders perspective looking in, it just seems like ever since you’ve been around him, you’ve found your confidence.

Father might be extreme.

Hahaha. I’d definitely say more like an uncle. Uncle Just Blaze!

But finding my confidence?

That might have to do with me working with a personal idol of mine.

I’m from the East Coast, Hartford, CT area, which musically in the 90’s and early 2000’s, is pretty much

“I finished my last project and I really didn’t know how to top it... but from Can’t Wait to Angry Young Man it really is like a boy turning into a man” the tipping point when my team and myself really knew things were starting to click.

I think quite often pushing through adversity and hitting your stride thanks to that yields the best and craziest results.

Yeah no totally. I felt a shift going on. It’s funny, after I finished my last project I

The biggest thing that really played a role in the sonics of this album were actually two things. I finally had a nation wide tour under my belt, and Just Blaze’s presence. These two factors made me want to make a BIG album. Something you play loud, something you get hype to, but still maintaining the content and personal anecdotes I’m known for.

New York, 2 hours out. I’m a Roc-A-Fella kid. Jay Z is my favorite rapper of all time.

Kanye is my favorite of all time, and Just is physically responsible for a lot of their music and stuff.

I actually remember when news broke that Just had a joint venture deal with Atlantic (it was called Fort Knocks Ent.) I kept saying to

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“We all work in weird ways, I like to envision the artwork to the album, or the song, it helps me organise my thoughts” myself “Em got Dre, I need to sign to Just Blaze!”. It’s really a dream come true I have an album coming out with him.

Can’t front.

What was it like meeting him for the very first time?

I’ll never forget it. I was a big Supra head for like a year, and during that year I met him and he was rocking Supras.

I’m thinking to myself “Me and Just are Supra heads!” ha.

You mentioned Kanye, and although it’s nothing I want to focus on what is your favourite track and album by the self proclaimed Yeezus?

Maybe I Am A God? That album had to grow on me.

I was a little off put by it initially, like a lot of people.

Define Conneticut’s Oncue has been on quite a journey these past few years. Konrad sit’s down with the young emcee and finds out about Just Blaze, relationships and what it’s really like being an Angry Young Man. Written by Konrad Ziemlewski @kziemlewski Photography by Adam Ross @beardbacon

Now looking back at producers, you’ve obviously had Blaze behind you for quite a while, but what was it like working with the trippy sonics of Hudson Mohawke? and was it always in your mind to bring your close circle of friends like ARW on the album?

Just set up the HudMo thing.

I haven’t met him (yet). But yeah, when I heard the beat for ‘So Much Love’ I flipped.

It was earlier on, I spent nearly a year writing the song, and when it comes out , and then the video to follow, I think people will understand why it took so long.

I’m adamant about keeping you’re in-house people around. Andy (AhhRW) and

I didn’t start making records together until later in the album process. But from the jump, I definitely wanted to have CJ Luzi, Manicanparty, Mike Kuz, Brenton Duvall involved as much as possible.

Through the process though I got really tight with Maki, and he really helped me round out the album the way I saw fit. They’re all incredibly talented people.

Having a team of people behind you that truly believe in you is never a bad thing. Which makes me question, what do your parents think of your music pursuits?

My parents are cool about it. It’s been a few years since real success started following my way. When I first moved to New York though my mother was scared thinking I might be making the wrong

decision. But honestly, I’ve been passionate about music since I was 10 or 11 years old, I never was a dumb kid, so overall my mom didn’t trip too much. Me and my father’s relationship is in a way better position than it was say back in 2010, and he’s totally cool with it as well.

Oh and I had a ‘Fade to Black’ DVD copy at my mom’s crib for the last 3 years. I went home one day pointed at Just’s name on the DVD cover and said “Mom, I’m working with this guy”.

She said “Oh Jay Z’s people?

Cool!”, amazing right?

I’ve gotta ask about the AYM Cover. It’s pretty damn excellent. How did you actually settle on this particular iteration of the artwork?

Thank you for asking seriously. I take near equal pride in the art direction as I do the music. And I know how stupid that sounds. But I’ve

been a graphic designer since I was 15 years old.

The artwork was completed in the summer of 2012.

Literally, 2 years ago.

I had maybe 2-3 songs for the album, and saw that little Cambodian kid smoking on Youtube, and it just hit me.

I had Adam Ross (in house creative director, director and photographer) take the pictures. We ran through options, and started the process. Theres literally 20 drafts of the album cover with the same picture on it.

But the art actually helped me conceptualise the album a little bit more. The album artwork really plays into the trajectory of the whole album as well. Which for the design nerd in me, is everything.

We all work in weird ways, I like to envision the artwork to the album, or to the song, it helps me organise my thoughts.

What one piece of advice would you give to that Angry Young Man in the photo if you had the chance?

to feature on one of your tracks / vice versa who would they be and why?

I’m elitist. I’m so fucking picky. I’m so about being on-brand constantly. I have a lot of rap friends I hardly do records with because I feel it’d be off brand for the both of us. Haha.

Quit smoking.

Someone you have collaborated with quite often has been The Kings Dead - whats your relationship with them and specifically Sonny Shotz like?

We met through a mutual friend back in 2010. Actually, after this interview I have to finish writing a hook for their new project. Sonny and I, are friends. You know... it’s nice to have an actual real friend in the industry. I haven’t seen him in a year and a half. He’s been down in Florida. But, we keep in contact weekly I’d say.

Features and specifically rap features aren’t all that common when it comes to you. How selective are you with your features and if you could get anyone

You’ve been someone that has put their heart out on a number of records but my question is what has been the most crazy passionate thing a fan has done for you?

Not necessarily a passionate thing done for me but a story stands out. I was on the road in Chicago and an autistic boy maybe 16 / 17 walked up to me and told me my music changed his life. Then it really got crazy when his father walked up to me and said “Thank you for bringing me and my son closer together, I’m a recovering addict myself, just like your father.” That shit was crazy.

Bringing the interview full circle, if you could have one thing for the listeners to get out of AYM what would it be?

We’re all the same.

“I have a lot of rap friends I hardly do records with because I feel it’d be off brand for the both of us.”

We leave you with a rundown of our favourite songs so far, this year...

ZHU - Superfriends | Wantigga - Just Friends | Vic Mensa - When a Fire Starts To Burn Travis Scott - Backyard | Todd Terje - Inspector Norse | Mikos Da Gawd & Tele Fresco Japanese Bucket Hat | Sango - Middle of Things, Beautiful Wife (Stwo Remix) | Shlohmo & Jeremih ft. Chance The Rapper - The End | KidGhost - The City | Sango - Amor Rochina | Photay - No Sass | Pablo Nouvelle - Poison Movement - Ivory | Moody Good ft. Rejjie Snow & Joshua Idehen - Grumbles n Sparkles | Lxury - Raid | Little Simz & Waldo - Mandarin Oranges | Knight One - Swords Cry | King Henry - Kingdom of Love | Kidnap Kid - Like You Used | Kaytranada - I’m Really Really Hot KAASI - Caroline Street | Jacques Greene No Excuse | Jungle - Julia | Jack White - High Ball Stepper | Isaiah Rashad - Webby Flow (U Like) | IAMNOBODI - Schillerpromenade | GoldLink - Bedtime Story | Galimatias & Joppe ft GoldLink - One Step Back | Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Deeper | FKJ ft. Jordan Rakei - Learn to Fly | clipping. - Work Work | Cashmere Cat - Rice Rain | Basecamp Shudder | Action Bronson - Easy Rider | Jesse James - Lionel Jesse D.P | Jamie XX - G.I.R.L | Jaded - Gully Creeper | Banks - Drowning | The Weeknd - King of The Fall | Run The Jewels - Blockbuster Night 1 | Travi$ Scott ft. Big Sean & The 1975 - Don’t Play | Vince Staples - Blue Suede | aywy. & Ekali - Your Love | DJ Shadow - Six Days (Machinedrum Remix) | DELS - RGB | NEHRUVIAN DOOM - OM | Biggie Smalls - Big Poppa (nosleep Remix) | Patrick Keel - Jamaica Running (Poolside Remix) | Chet Faker X Goldlink - On You | Sia - Chandelier (Dev Hynes Remix) | Little Dragon - Killing Me (Chad Hugo Remix) | King Avriel - 180 | Lil Silva - Mabel | HAIM ft. A$AP Ferg - My Song 5 | Corinne Bailey Rae - Put Your Records On (Nehzuil Remix) | Matthewdavid - Perpetual Moon Moods | Nao & A. K. Paul - So Good | Little Simz - Barz Simzson | Goldlink - Sober Thoughts | Lupe Fiasco - Next To It | Chynna - Glen Coco | Ab-Soul - Stigmata | Etta Bond - Feels Like | OpenGoldenRucksack - Mail | Rachel Foxx - Crazy | Banks - Goddess | Kirk Knight Extortion | Yung Lean - Yoshi City | Your Old Droog - Sleepers | LSDXOXO - Perfect | Wiz Khalifa - Foreign | PARTYNEXTDOOR - West Disctrict | T.I. - About The Money | SZA - Babylon | Spooky Black - Without U | ShaboozeY - Jeff Gordon | SBTRKT - Temporary View | Robb Bank$ - Let Me See It | Riff Raff - Versace Python | Rejjie Snow - Nights Over Georgia | Piff Gang - Slumpy Joe | Moon Bounce - Whore | Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire - I Ain’t Even Fucked Rihanna | Mick Jenkins - Martyrs | MellowHype - The Daze Little Simz - Quest Luv | Lee Scott - Puta | Lana Del Rey - West Coast | Lakutis - Too Ill For The Law | Kitty - Marijuana | Joey Bada$$ - Big Dusty | Jesse James Solomon - JFSE ItsNate - Got You Right | Hawk House - Chill Pill | Ghostface Killah & Danny Brown - Six Degrees | A$ton Matthews - Fiji | Tessela - Butchwax | Popcaan - Where We Come From | Hot Chip - Go Bang | FKA Twigs - Pendulum | Sophie - Lemonade | Gwilym Gold - Muscle Objekt Ganzfeld | Bok Bok - Howard | Ratking - Canal (Ad Rock Remix) | Rustie ft. Danny Brown Attak | SLK - Call | Raury - God’s Whisper | Sam Lachow - King Lear | Kai Straw - American Cotton | Daye Jack - Trapped In Love | Write Brothers - Extraordinary I | Luke Christopher - Heartbreak Fiction | James Scott - Bigoaktree | Ab-Soul - W.R.O.H | Little Simz - Enter The Void | OnCue - Alotta Smoke | Drake - 0 to 100 | Sonny Shotz - Neon Hooligans | Mayo - Rock With You | Pell - Dollar Store | Love Mansuy - Pilot | Ced Hughes - Do I Wanna Know | IYES - Crazy In Love | Intuition & Equilibrum - Never Going Home | Big K.R.I.T - Mt. Olympus | Asher Roth - Keep Smoking | Oncue - Closer | SZA - Julia | Alex Wiley Vibration | Banks - Brain | Goldbloc - Black Gold | 100s - Ten Freaky Hoes | mdnt - 1v1 | haich - Lounging | LOVELIFE - Nova | Subculture Sage - Stories and Tales | Azekel - New Romance | Just Chris - Broken Hearts | Violet Skies - Power | IYES - Toys

VERSUS magazine