VULTUREHOUND MARCH 2017 ISSUE 16
INTRODUCING
BRUTUS DISNEY
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST MANCHESTER BY THE SEA
LESLEY BARBER
’S D A E D G N I K L A THE W
DAILY UPDATES: VULTUREHOUND.COM
THE WARRIORS
MICHAEL BECK NCIS
MICHAEL WEATHERLY WHY?
YONI WOLF
N A M R NO
S U D E R E SERRATOS
+ C H RISTIAN
I NT E RVI EW OUR FAVOURITE SOUNDTRACKS | ALL NEW POWER RANGERS
WELCOME FROM EDITOR
W
TOP FILM SOUNDTRACKS 2001 SPACE ODYSSEY
elcome to the latest issue where we’ve not one, but TWO of the biggest names from The Walking Dead as we speak to cover stars Norman Reedus and Christian Serratos and Season 7B. We also got the chance to speak to The Warriors star Michael Beck, and former NCIS star Michael Weatherly. There’s a look at two upcoming remakes or is it reimagings, from our childhood with Power Rangers and Beauty and the Beast coming back. The team all picked their favourite soundtracks and we also got the chance to chat to the composer of Manchester By The Sea composer Lesley Barber. We’ve also got more interviews, more features and more reviews.
David Garlick (@davidgarlick)
VULTUREHOUND EDITORIAL David Garlick Editor / Design david.garlick@vulturehound.com
@V ulture H ound M ag
Michael Dickinson Film Editor michael.dickinson@vulturehound.com
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Grae Westgate TV Editor grae.westgate@vulturehound.com
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Dan Withey Music Editor dan.withey@vulturehound.com
Craig Hermit Wrestling Editor craig.hermit@vulturehound.co.uk
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To discuss advertising please contact advertising@ vulturehound.com Cover photo: Gene Page/AMC
MARCH 2017 VULTUREHOUND 03
Walking dead
PHOTOS: GENE PAGE/AMC
Interview
INTERVIEW:
NORMAN REEDUS, CHRISTIAN SERRATOS & GREG NICOTERO WORDS: GRAE WESTGATE
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s preparations were underway for this year’s Walker Stalker event, we were extremely lucky to sit down for a chat with some of The Walking Dead’s biggest stars; fan favourites Norman Reedus and Christian Serratos, as well as director, producer and make-up guru, Greg Nicotero, to talk vengeance, fandom and little old ladies…
A
As one of the last Altantans, how would you describe Daryl’s journey up until now? Norman: Jeez, that’s a big one… He used to just talk out the side of his mouth and not look people in the eye and he had this big chip on his shoulder… After all these things happened, he finally straight-up talks to you and he means everything he says. Having these people rely on him turned him into a man. It’s interesting watching all these characters like Rosita… Andy (Lincoln) and I joked at the beginning of this season that all we’re doing is crying all the time! All the girls are kicking so much ass! We used to be so tough! What happened to us?? It is a testament to the writers of the show to give us different things to do instead of being a one-note character all the time. Daryl; he would’ve been mini-Merle. If this didn’t all go down, he would’ve been Merle. He’s never had people rely on him, and let people in… That journey, it’s still going. Greg: There’s so much that these guys bring to their characters. Daryl will say something, Rick’ll say something… They always check in with each other before either of them makes a move. They’re equal. I would never call Daryl a lieutenant… Norman: I was gonna say Batman and Robin… Greg: Well… Norman: But Robin’s equally important! Greg: Well…? (laughs) Shooting scenes with the two of them, even if it’s not scripted, if one of them is in a position where they have somebody around the throat, or whatever, they’ll always check with each other. They’re equally committed to preserving their way of life. That’s not in the script, it’s something these guys added. Norman: It kind of started when Shane was around… Greg: In season two…
Norman: ‘Cause we’d have somebody on the ground and then look, check, check, check with each other naturally. It just sort of happened.
With the whole “If Daryl Dies We Riot”… Greg: Why did you do air quotes for that??? Norman: (making air quotes) I don’t know what this means!!!
You can’t mime a hashtag! Do you feel pressure from the fans to deliver “their Daryl”? And do you feel safer because of it? Norman: (laughing) No!!! No I don’t feel any safer. (air > quoting) “Their Daryl” is funny, because the beginning of this season was definitely not anyone’s Daryl. But being able to do that keeps it fresh and interesting. People don’t like to see their Robin face down in the ground. I was telling Scott, this season sucks! (laughs all round) I’m having the worst time ever! I’m not having fun! And he’s like “well, you’re not supposed
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Walking dead
to have fun!”. Way to mind-fuck me Scott… You need to take those characters and knock them really low to bring them back up. But I’m no longer wearing pyjamas or eating dog food anymore, thank god! And hopefully I’ll get some revenge. Christian: I think we all want revenge right now, which is cool! How is that need for revenge driving us right now?
You are angry at the moment… Christian: Anger! Another side effect of trauma!
Christian, how are you coping with finally getting to kick some arse? Christian: I love it so much! I’m getting some juice and some meat, and I think some people are shocked to see her acting as sharply as she’s been acting, but I think that’s a really interesting thing to see; how something as traumatic as episode one - losing family members and loved ones -
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will affect different individuals in different ways. This is one way that a trauma could affect a human being. It’s real, and we’re seeing it. As much as the fans are learning more about these characters, we are learning more about these characters, and I’m learning so much more about her and the way that she responds to things, so it’s a constant learning curve. It pushes me out of my element, but that’s what it should do. It should challenge me as an actor, and it should challenge the audience to what they are willing and prepared to see. Hopefully they want and are prepared to see more, because we want to keep giving them more and more! Greg: She’s activated…
Christian: Rosita’s like “Look, I’m not fucking around! I’m not waiting!”
Norman: Like a terminator! Greg: The second half of the season, as soon as Rick kind of comes back to life a little bit, seeing every single character activated; they all handle it in different ways. Rosita’s like “Look, I’m not fucking around! I’m not waiting!” Episode nine was all about wins and losses. They go to The
Hilltop, they’ve got Maggie and her people, but then they go to The Kingdom and Ezekiel’s like “Urgh, I can’t help you…”, but then they find the weapons and the people in the heaps… The whole second half of the season is about the wins and losses that every one of these characters goes through. But
they’re all activated to kill Negan. Literally, I have people come up to me on the street and go “kill that fucking guy!” Norman: I was with Jeffrey (Dean Morgan), and we were riding motorcycles together. We were in this small town and we stopped to get coffee. We’re sitting outside having our coffee and this car pulls up and this little old lady gets out and she’s like “You’re my Daryl!”. Then she sees him and she’s like “FUCK YOU! Don’t you touch him!” and Jeffrey says “hey ma’am, we’re just having coffee!”, and she’s all “where do you live?!” She just flipped out on him! It was great!
Going back to the subject of vengeance, there arguably hasn’t been a major female character death since Beth back in season five. With you having a baby on the way, and Sonequa (Martin-Green) landing a role in the new Star Trek, could this suicide mission be just that?
Christian: There’s always an opportunity to lose somebody on this show. That’s what it’s about. So yeah, of course, there’s always a possibility. I read that script every week hoping it’s not me. One day that day will come, and if it has this season or not is yet to be seen. But I think everyone on this show gets an incredible story. When the death comes it’s almost a badge of honour, like you’ve done your duty here, you’ve done everything you can here to the best of your ability. It’s like wrapping it up in a pretty little bow, now go out into the universe, take all the amazing things that you’ve learned and put them together and hopefully bring them to something else. I will be very lucky to experience any death on this show. Norman: I’m gonna steal that answer… Greg: If you look back to the first episode of season seven, a lot of deaths on this show, as shocking as they feel… Emily Kinney’s death, for example, was much more shocking than Chad Coleman’s because you had a whole episode to go on the journey with Chad as he was going
through denial and acceptance… Then the first episode this season, we had two characters wham, wham, back to back… People weren’t prepared for that! They didn’t know how to process it. Good work by the way Daryl… Norman: Aww man! Come on!!!
Are we gonna see something between Maggie and Daryl? Because we haven’t had that reunion yet… Norman: The thing was, we were going to the premiere of that, and it started to rain, and I said to Jeffery “I wonder if I’m gonna catch any shit for this?”. And then he goes up on national TV and says it’s Daryl’s fault! And if you put that out there, people are gonna say that! But to tell you the truth, I never really thought about that before that. I only thought “God, I hope Maggie forgives me”. But I’m sure, at least I hope, we’re gonna see that. The Walking Dead, Mondays at 9pm only on FOX
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TERRY PRATCHETT
PHOTO:BBC/CHARLIE RUSSELL
WORDS: LEE HAZELL
A PRATCHETT FAN’S REVIEW
TERRY PRATCHETT: BACK IN BLACK nce I saw the opportunity to write about Terry Pratchett: Back in Black in the magazine, I jumped on it immediately. Terry Pratchett was the hero of my adolescence. The sheer breadth and depth of his satirical targets in the Discworld novels made them my favourite source of comedy since The Simpsons. There was no subject he didn’t seem to be worldlywise about and every time I picked up one of his books I felt like I was in for an education as well as a good read. I have based so much of my moral standing as a human being on his teachings.
O
He was a master wordsmith that could make a sentence funny, thought-
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provoking and tear-jerkingly tragic all at once, and make it look frustratingly easy while he was doing it. You’ve no idea the nights I’ve spent staring at my computer screen, hands impotently resting on the keyboard, trying to make them do something remotely Pratchettish. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2007, and his fierce anger at the unfairness of the disease (oh, how Terry was enraged by unfairness) was channelled into writing seven more novels and even a set of memoirs. Unfortunately, in the words of co-author and Pratchett’s personal assistant, Rob Wilkins, they left it six months too late. This docudrama, a continuation of the project they started before Pratchett’s
death, begins by showing you his deterioration as they try to illustrate the necessity of passing on his own story to you, not in a book, but in a film. Pratchett, a man whose literary credentials need no explaining, cannot for the life of him remember the word ‘mirror’ without being prompted. It’s no anomaly either. He, just a few sentences on, cannot get a grasp of the word ‘pilot’. It’s an odd thing to sit down and choose to watch something that you know will have an extreme effect upon your emotions. You might smile, you hope you’ll laugh, but you know you’ll cry. No matter how good or bad this documentary/adaption/drama will
"Kaye has taken the DNA of Terry and run it through one of his own novels." own words. After all, when asked what the one thing he wanted from his funeral service was, he said, “To be there.” Speaking them however, is veteran British character actor Paul Kaye. Kaye has been praised for his broad comedic caricatures, and criticized for them, by me, in this very magazine. His portrayal of Pratchett is a strange mix of detailed mimicry – bordering on method acting – and cartoonish exaggeration. It’s perfect. Kaye has taken the DNA of Terry and run it through one of his own novels. All of Pratchett’s works were studies on deeply human issues and themes, through the lens of preposterously comedic exaggeration.
turn out, it will more than likely reduce me to tears multiple times in its lean, 50-minute length. To resign yourself to that kind of emotional heartache is a very strange thing to do. This film is a real labour of love. It is made as a lasting tribute by his friends, fans and family. All the important f’s. There is no attempt at balance here, no effort to challenge Terry on his ideals, beliefs or writing style. This is part biography, part eulogy. You’ll find no objectivity here. You probably won’t find any in this review either. Just sayin’. The eulogy part is right, too. This is Pratchett’s own contribution to his own tribute, written in (mostly) his
When he first speaks, you know you aren’t hearing the voice of Pratchett, but that of someone very Pratchettesque. When the author was a boy he had an accident on a bicycle. It gave him ‘a mouthful of speech impediments’. You can hear them all in Kaye’s impression. Yes they are far more pronounced here than they are in the mouth of Pratchett himself, but that’s the point. When you hear Pratchett’s harsh ‘ck’ it sounds like the click of a keyboard, but when Kaye does it, it sounds like someone taking a pick to stone. But that’s the point. He’s made Terry Pratchett into a Pratchett character. Why he hasn’t been snapped up for one of the Sky One Discworld adaptations is beyond me. With this programme being written with the words of the author woven into its DNA, the rest of the production would have had to be filled with accountants and lawyers in order for it not to be funny. Some of these moments are humorous just because they are witty,
well observed and filled with the warmth of human optimism, some of them are hilarious just because they are so typically Pratchett and are glorious reminders of his quirky, eccentric, vigorous personality. And it is those very moments of joyous levity that make the moments of brevity drop your soul like a stone. You can feel it getting heavier in your chest and sinking with the speed of The Nautilus. Moments like Neil Gaiman losing his composure as the sadness of missing his friend briefly consumes him or seeing a random fan simply say that we miss him. A woman dreading reading the last of his works, knowing that there will never be any more, hit a particular nerve as I knew she spoke for me. She speaks for all of us. It reminded me of the day of his passing and seeing the first of several fan made images of Terry meeting Death in person for the first time as if they were old friends. Even writing those last couple of sentences, I’m not doing well. I’ve had to wipe the keyboard more than once writing this. Terry Pratchett: Back in Black is a roaring success. It is an act of rememberence. It is desperately trying to claw the feeling of Pratchett back from the grave, a salvage mission acknowledging that we have lost Terry but still arranging things in a room so that when we enter it, it will be as if he’s been here the whole time. It has his humour, a playfulness, a sense of righteousness and a deeply felt humanism. This is Terry in one easy to swallow sentence. Be more Terry. Good night.
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soundtracks
OUR
FAVOURITE SOUNDTRACKS I
It’s easy to overlook the responsibility that comes with scoring a film. There’s a surprising amount of sway that a good or bad soundtrack can have over the overall quality of the narrative it accompanies - too much, and it threatens to become overbearing. Too similar to something else, it can become a sedative, or worse, forgettable. Too weird or out of place, it becomes distracting. The best soundtracks establish the tone of the film without thinking the audience stupid, needing to be told exactly how to feel. They are memorable without overstaying their welcome, unique without being off-putting. So the writers at VultureHound have chosen what they consider the greatest ever film soundtracks, composed or curated, classic or recent, that fit these criteria. From Blade Runner to Goodfellas, there’s plenty of variety to be found here. KAMBOLE CAMPBELL
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MULAN
2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY
Overwhelmingly brilliant even among the great quality of Disney’s 90s movies, Mulan’s soundtrack is rich in strong, passionate songs. Together with a beautiful score by the late Jerry Goldsmith, we are guided through Mulan’s story with songs conveying joy and sadness and everything in between. My personal favourite is (surprise!) “I’ll Make A Man Out Of You”, which transports us right into the Captain’s struggle to train his hopeless army – and how they nevertheless manage to overcome their weaknesses. The most powerful moment, however, comes in the form of an instrumental score, “Mulan’s Decision”, with Mulan transfiguring from family girl into male fighter, running away in order to take her frail father’s place in the army. A far cry from the naïve, ever-the-victim princesses, Mulan is certainly one of Disney’s masterpieces – with a soundtrack to match. Rita Aresta
Why use music which is less good when there is such a multitude of great orchestral music available from the past and from our own time?” – Kubrick. While it’s easy to feel for Alex North, who’s soundtrack was dumped in favour of Kubrick’s logic, you can’t deny he has a point. If you start humming the opening of Der Genesende at someone; they may not know the name and they may not have seen the film, but the music is so ingrained in public consciousness they’d know the tune. Kubrick’s excellent choice of orchestral songs perfectly complements 2001; each scene, whether bombastic or chilling, is greatly enhanced by these classical gems. Stéphane Moungabio
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD Mad Max: Fury Road gets a ton of well-deserved praise for its gorgeous cinematography and excellent use of practical effects, but a big part of the
high-octane thrills the movie delivers constantly also comes down to Tom Holkenborg a.k.a. Junkie XL’s brilliant score. Thunder and fury, death and destruction, guzzolene and chrome all rolled into one mind-blowingly spectacular package that makes an already incredible movie all the more awesome. No other score could have done Fury Road justice – no wonder the marketing used it for the trailers! Stanyo Zhelev
GOODFELLAS Adding to the plethora of reasons why Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas is widely recognised as one of the finest films ever made is its era-spanning soundtrack of hits, which ranges from classy ballads by Aretha Franklin and Tony Bennett to the harder rock of Cream and Scorsese-regulars The
ultimately we have to recognise that only one thing could inspire such discussion. Greatness. And that is John Williams’ score summed up in one word. Greatness. Lee Hazell
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY Ennio Morricone is one of the greatest composers of all time, and his finest
PURPLE RAIN Purple Rain has a funny place in history. Generally considered to be Prince’s magnum opus and one of the best rock albums of all time, it’s often forgotten (for good reason) that it served as the soundtrack to 1984’s tie-in film of the same name. A great soundtrack washes its film in colour, flourishing but never upstaging. But Prince, never one to go unnoticed, soaks it in purple; dousing scene after scene in grandiose guitars and sugary synthesizers. Featuring some of the greatest and most iconic songs of the 80s – Let’s go Crazy, When Doves Cry, the title track – it’s worth watching purely for the music and the little genius alone, and serves as a pure, glistening purple relic of the optimistic 80s. Edward Dixon
TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE Not memorable just for the 1980’s stadium rock or power ballads that infect the animated masterpiece with it’s punch in the air awesomeness. It’s also Vince DiCola’s breathtakingly barmy synth score. Ellicitng genuine chills with a sparse mood piece that reveals the monster planet Unicron to one of the finest action motifs ever created, it’s one of the finest electronic scores. ‘Autobot/ Decepticon Battle’ is a deliriously pounding epic and ‘Escape’ is filled with danger and optimism. It does help that the songs are some of the finest 80’s rock you’ll ever hear though. Try not to get pumped listening to Spectre General’s “Nothing Gonna Stand in Our Way”. Michael Dickinson
2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY Rolling Stones. With a huge list of legendary songs and artists backing Henry Hill’s rise and fall in the criminal underworld, Marty ensures the music becomes a dramatic crux in the violence, romanticism and opulence of his character’s lifestyles. Ultimately drawing comparisons that crime, like the pop-classics themselves, is as American as apple-pie. Chris Moyse
STAR WARS What can I say about the Star Wars Score that hasn’t already been said? Even talking about how all conversation surrounding it is clichéd, has become a cliché. These pieces have been poured over, dissected, pulled apart and put back together again by every writer of film and every writer of music. No note from the title theme could not be considered iconic nor the dread of the Imperial March be denied. But
work is on display in Sergio Leone’s masterpiece The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Packing a nearly three-hour film with a collective of what have since become a myriad of legendary pieces of music, Morricone’s score is punchy, touching, memorable, harsh, striking, subtle and apt. You could basically take any list of positive adjectives, no matter how conflicting, and attach them to his work in this movie, such is it’s oxymoronic genius. Alex Halsall
THE SOCIAL NETWORK If you ask most people, their favourite movie soundtrack will be comprised of a collection of classic, favourite songs, or will be a grand and imposing orchestral score. So it was refreshing when Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross took charge of the OST for The Social Network. The ambient, brooding score fits perfectly
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soundtracks with the tone of the film, and there is always the sense of threat looming. Not only that, but it helps to fuel the tension and the drama on screen, at times even propelling the action with a sense of urgency. The nuanced, subtle approach the pair took to the soundtrack works tremendously in the film’s favour, and it’s unsurprising that they bagged the Academy Awarder the superb efforts. Ross Taylor
Conchords-esque sound also make this a modern Disney soundtrack rightly poised to become a classic of the future. Sarah Buddery
MAGNOLIA During promotion of what was only his third full-length feature, wunderkind P. T Anderson was adamant that he’d never make a film better than Magnolia. Of course, today we know Anderson would go on to disprove his own humility by making There Will Be Blood. Still, there is a certain untouchable magic to Magnolia that separates it from his other films. This magic has a name: Aimee Mann. The opening montage, set to the Mann’s ‘One’ and the metamusical number ‘Wise Up’ is the stuff of pure cinema. The day I see a more impactful use of music in film is the day it rains frogs. Robert Whitehead
MOANA Already picking up some awards nominations for it’s stand-out power number “How Far I’ll Go”, the soundtrack to Disney’s latest animated movie Moana has the early makings of a classic soundtrack. Incorporating elements we know and love from Disney’s music, and combining a traditional Southern Pacific sound with pop and Broadway stylings, the gorgeously diverse and authentic soundtrack features lyrics in English, Samoan and the Tokelauan language. The aforementioned song is undoubtedly the shining star of the soundtrack but “You’re Welcome” sung surprisingly well by Dwayne Johnson, and “Shiny” sung by Jemaine Clement with it’s unmistakably Flight of the
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LOST IN TRANSLATION A perfect blend of dream pop and shoegaze, cult classic Lost in Translation had a soundtrack that meticulously accompanied each scene within the film. Featuring songs by My Bloody Valentine, Air, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Death in Vegas and more, Rolling Stone’s magazine classifies it as one of the 25 greatest soundtracks of all time, no doubt because of how well it works both on and off screen. Without constraining itself to any one given mood, the songs, and what they evoke, are as eclectic as the essence of the movie itself. To put it in other words: say you wanted to walk around a city and let the array of impressions swarm over you, but you physically didn’t have the chance to do that. Playing this soundtrack from start to finish is the equivalent of that journey. Everything feels one step removed, and you can’t quite pinpoint how you’re responding to things. Sort of like watching Lost in Translation. Sort of like being lost in translation - the soundtrack to Coppola’s film a language of its own. Kristian Radev
DRIVE When Drive hit theatres in 2011, audiences left with a lingered love for a classic in the making. With thoughts of Ryan Gosling’s uber cool stunt man by day and getaway driver by night in
their thoughts as an idealistic icon in modern day neo-noir crime thrillers, there was one thing which appears to have continued throughout the years as something that director Nicolas Winding Refn nailed even more perfectly on the head. Its pulsating, thumping soundtrack propels Drive’s popularity. Blasting through car stereos, cruising like Driver himself, or stylising on an authentic record player, Cliff Martinez’s 80’s nostalgia is effortlessly cool as ambience meets electronic-dream-pop, crafting a near-perfect complementary soundtrack to one of the coolest, most dazzling films of the decade. Between the score itself and tracks such as Kavinsky’s Nightcall, Desire’s Under Your Spell and crowd-pleaser and personal favourite A Real Hero by College & Electric Youth are additions that fully round an experience that has already held firm as a modern classic of its kind. Ash Walmsley
BLADE RUNNER With his score to Ridley Scott’s cinematic jewel Blade Runner, Vangelis succeeds in creating a body of music that compliments perfectly the retro futuristic cityscape that has been so eloquently created. An electronic masterpiece whose shimmering notes invoke a bustling, globalised metropolis heaving with Asian influence; and whose pulsing, seedy elements nod to the noir heritage that the movie proudly wears on its sleeve. Try to listen to Blade Runner Blues without conjuring the smoke-wreathed image of a drunken gumshoe in your head. Or the yowling saxophones of the Love Theme that accompanies Deckard and Rachel’s tryst without feeling a note of joyous energy rise in your chest. Evocative to the point of otherworldly, this is a faultless score to a superb movie. Chris Banks
VOX
WORDS: DAN WITHEY
PHOTO: DAVID GOMEZ MAESTRE
ARTIST OF THE MONTH: VOX ver the past few years L.A. based artist, vōx (pronounced wokes) has been drip feeding us examples of her haunting take on experimentalpop. One. Track. At. A. Time. From the creeping post-Empire anthem of ‘Better’, to the stripped back and beautifully melancholy, ‘Put The Poison In Me’, she has been demonstrating her knack for producing darkly intriguing and, at times, totally intoxicating pop. With a unique array of influences, both in terms of music and visual aesthetic, there’s no one quite like her – or at least no one that quite does it as well as her. Recently she announced ‘some’ details about her debut EP, in that; it’s been recorded, and it will be released…soon. It’s the kind of vague and mysterious aurora that’s surrounded this most intriguing of artists for the past two and a half years, ever since she emerged with the track
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‘Better’ in 2014. Since then it’s been a bit of a waiting game. One that offers moments of satisfaction along the way whenever a new track suddenly pops up online. 2015 came and went with a handful of new tracks, as did 2016. We got the tracks ‘Money’, ‘Claws’ and ‘Get Down’, we even got her take on Kendrick Lamar’s ‘I’ (ft. Dylan Brady), recalling a time pre-vōx when, under her real name Sarah Winters, she would record her own versions of various Hip-Hop tracks, from Kanye to Kendrick. Each new track that landed in that time seemed to adhere to the same principal; the voice is an instrument and it’s very much the main one. Every > song is constructed around her voice; layered harmonies, vocoders and reverberant vocal drones, creating a mix that would more than stand up as straight out a cappella. But we do get some very fitting musical accompaniments, ones that
move between rhythmic trip-hop and bass driven soundscapes, all simmering and reacting to an ever evolving, hypnotic vocal performance. So, fast forward to March 2017, and the announcement that a debut EP is incoming AND AND AND a brand new track… ‘I Was Born’ not only keeps the ‘voice is an instrument’ line, it does away with musical accompaniment all together. She’s finally gone complete a cappella. Proof that this most unique of voices is capable of going it alone.spite still being in the relatively early stages of her musical career, Sarah/ vōx has managed to find such a distinct and unique ‘voice’. Hard to pigeon-hole and nearly impossible to predict, any upcoming release should be met with both anticipation and a warm blanket (because, chills). Find vōx on Soundcloud, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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brutus
INTERVIEW
INTRODUCING BRUTUS
WORDS: TIM BIRBECK
T
here is a strange type of beauty hearing blast beats accompany some catchy vocals. So when Belgian threepiece Brutus mix these two elements together with such ease, it’s always going to grab your attention. The band’s debut release Burst is already among VultureHound’s potential albums of the year. And with an extensive European / UK tour in March, it seems like 2017 could be a year the trio really make their mark on the alternative music scene. Tim Birkbeck got the lowdown on the band from Stefanie (drums/vocals), Stijn (guitars), and Peter (bass) and found out what makes them tick...
Could you give us an insight into the history of the band, and how Brutus came to be the 14 VULTUREHOUND MARCH 2017
band we hear today? Stefanie used to be in a punk band with Stijn when they were in their late teens, so they go way back. Stefanie and Peter met in a Refused tribute-band. When Refused started playing again they pulled the plug on that project and we started something new together, called Brutus.
When starting the band what ideas did you have going into it for the sound you wanted to produce? It’s not something we think about. The three of us just bring our own thing to the music. It’s really nice to be in a band with open minded people. It’s nice to be able to try almost everything in the rehearsal-space before ending up with
songs that come from totally different places. The three of us listen to all these different bands and we like different genres. I guess we try to write songs that unintentionally can have all kinds of vibes or influences. Sometimes that can be a punk vibe or a black metal feel, while Peter, our bass player, is trying to write hip hop basslines.
Where did the name of the band come from? The story is really simple. Stefanie has a love for single-word names. Brutus is one of her favourite names and it was as simple as that. The music is fast paced and aggressive, yet the vocals have a haunting beauty to them, was this a conscious thing you wanted to put across in your music? It wasn’t really a conscious thing. Like everything else in this band it’s
something that just happened. It’s just the way I sing.
Which other musicians have influenced the Brutus sound? It’s a combination of influences. Stefanie likes bands like Isis and a lot of electronic music, Peter likes all things rock and even R&B, and Stijn likes almost everything.
You’ve just released your debut full-length BURST, what
live show for you? It is physically demanding, but I think that everyone plays physically demanding stuff in their own way. But it asks a lot of me. Being the drummer and the singer has some negative sides to it, but the best part is that I choose my own tempo. If it is too fast I can adjust it quickly because I’ll notice when I start singing that it might be too fast or too slow.
You recently did a video for ‘All Along’ what was it like
STEFANIE HAS A LOVE FOR SINGLE-WORD NAMES. BRUTUS IS ONE OF HER FAVOURITE NAMES AND IT WAS AS SIMPLE AS THAT. are you hoping listeners take away from it? We’ve put a lot of effort into writing songs that are equally heavy as they are catchy - we really tried to make a coherent record. Everything that shouldn’t be on Burst was filtered out.
Do you have any particular favourite tracks? There are always songs you like more than others on a record you make. The three of us have different favourites on the album, but I think we all really like ‘Child and Bird’.
Stefanie – what’s it like being the drummer and the singer? How physically demanding is a
having the experience and did you enjoy it? It was really cool performing in the museum. Spending a day in the presence of all this beautiful art was very inspiring. We contacted Charles de Meyer, the director of the video, and he was ready to go from the start. We started brainstorming and decided we wanted to give Charles carte blanche for this video. He could literally do what he wanted. I think it is the same with every artist you go to. For example, a tattoo artist - you go to the artist for his or her specific style. It was the same with Charles. We saw what he could do with strong images in combination with CGI and we just basically said to him: do whatever you want. It was all his idea and we love it!
“Drive” it is a very simple concept, is this just a case of wanting to mix things up? Every song is different, but we actually have another ‘proper’ video coming soon for ‘Drive’!
What is the music scene like in Belgium? What sort of crowds do you guys pull in your native country? There are a lot of talented bands and a lot of cool clubs in Belgium for the moment. You can feel that everybody is really going for it. There’s always a show somewhere, there’s so much stuff going on and the crowds are always very diverse.
You are about to embark on an extensive European / UK tour, is there anywhere in particular you are really looking forward to play? It might sound cliché but we’re excited to play every city on this tour! There are a lot of cities on the list where we haven’t played before so seeing these new places and meeting new people is going to be awesome.
What other plans do you have for the rest of 2017? We just wanna play live as much as we can and maybe start writing for the next record.
Burst is out now on Hassle Records. Live dates at: Twitter: @wearebrutus Facebook: fb.com/wearebrutus
However, for your video for MARCH 2017 VULTUREHOUND 15
power rangers
WORDS: GRAE WESTGATE
ALL NEW, ALL PC
POWER RANGERS
or any child of the nineties, Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers was undoubtedly a large part of growing up. Saturday mornings spent watching the exploits of the “teenagers with attitude” made way to playground re-enactments (much frowned upon by parents of the time), and the utmost jealousy towards anyone lucky enough to have got the Deluxe Megazord for Christmas.
F
With its special place in the heart of now thirtysomethings, it was only a matter of time before a bigbudget remake was on its way. We’ve done Transformers, we’ve got more Turtles on their way, and frankly it’s a shock that Michael Bay has nothing to do with this rehashing of a much-loved classic. With the long-awaited reboot hitting our screens this month, we decided to take a look at the new generation of rangers squeezing in to the iconic spandex…
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Becky Gomez – Trini Kwan (The Yellow Ranger) The beautiful Thuy Trang will always hold a special place in my heart. The late Vietnamese actress was the logical and kind-hearted second in command of the original team. The casting of Mexican rapper Becky G as such as something of a surprise, especially given that the character name has not been changed, but at least there won’t be uproar about the “yellow” ranger’s ethnicity. That said, I’m sure I’m not the only one somewhat disappointed not to have a sexy Asian lady in the mix…
RJ Cyler – Billy Cranston (The Blue Ranger) Another somewhat surprising casting choice. Fans will forever associate Billy with David Yost; geeky but lovable with questionable sexuality. Yost remains one of the longest serving rangers of all time, and as such young Mr. Cyler has some big blue shoes to fill. That said, judging from his past performances, the Me and Earl and the Dying Girl star will shine an endearing new light on the beloved brainiac.
Ludi Lin – Zack Taylor (The Black Ranger) We all knew that after the kerfuffle with season one, the black ranger would never be African-American again. Much like the yellow ranger never being Asian. According to interviews with the cast, no-one even picked up on what would become one of TVs biggest political-correctness debates until the (mainly white, middle-class) critics got their teeth into the show. Jones was great as Zack; his utter coolness coupled with his kick-ass hip-hop aikido made him a fan favourite. So long as Chinese-born Ludi Lin keeps up the cool factor, this could be a great interpretation of the character.
Naomi Scott – Kimberly Hart (The Pink Ranger) Did you know that there has never once been a male pink ranger? And that the role has almost exclusively been filled by a white Valley girl? Amy Jo Johnson won over red-blooded males across the globe in the original show (though watch it now, and dear god, Kimberly is, like, totally, like, so annoyiiiing), so casting of Kimberly was always going to be a tricky one. The adorable Naomi Scott, best known for her performance in the sadly short-lived Spielberg venture Terra Nova, however, seems like a safe bet.
Dacre Montgomery – Jason Lee Scott (The Red Ranger) Before Tommy burst on to our screens, Jason was the kickass leader of the Power Rangers. Austin St. John’s performance as the red ranger will always be remembered fondly, especially for that awe-inspiring roar of “TYRANNOSAURUS”. Little is known of Dacre Montgomery, but he certainly has the look to lead our new team into battle.
Elizabeth Banks – Rita Repulsa
The shrill antagonist of the show. Throughout the first two seasons, Rita was simply Machiko Soga from the original Super Sentai series dubbed over by American actress Barbara Goodson, and Julia Cortez (the Thai bride in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert) in the movie. The casting of Elizabeth Banks has sent a ripple of unease across the interweb. It’s a rather odd choice, but Banks has proved to be adept at a range of different roles, and with so much hanging in the balance, I’m sure Saban know what they’re doing.
MARCH 2017 VULTUREHOUND 17
MANCHESTER BY THE SEA
WORDS: KAMBOLE CAMPBELL
INTERVIEW: MANCHESTER BY THE SEA COMPOSER
LESLEY BARBER enneth Longergan’s powerful, low-key masterpiece Manchester By The Sea’s tone is a complex mixture of comedy and tragedy, assisted by a marvellous, unique soundtrack – so we spoke to the film’s composer, Lesley Barber.
K
Thought I’d just start off by saying what a wonderful job you did on the score – it complimented the film perfectly. It never feels overbearing or invasive in the way a lot of soundtracks do in films with very raw emotional material. How did you find working on the film? It was a complete pleasure. I was really thrilled when
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Kenny called me about this project and when I read the script, I wanted to jump in right way – it’s beautiful material to write for.
It’s not your first time working with Kenneth either, you did You Can Count On Me together, was it a different experience this time? Well, when we were doing You Can Count On Me, that was Kenny’s first film, and it was one of my first features. It was really interesting working with him and realising that he was going to be as interested in the details as I was, and that there was room to keep going until we got everything right. That was something we learned over the collaborative process on You Can Count On Me, and I think with this one – we had both since worked on
"I MEAN, IT’S NEVER RELAXED! WHEN YOU SEND YOUR MUSIC TO A DIRECTOR, IT’S VERY SCARY YOU KNOW?" different projects and films and then when we came back together we could just be bolder, make bolder choices right from the get-go. We had a shorthand that really worked well for us. I really felt like I had a lot of room to try different ideas and play them for Kenny, because he gives the luxury of time when bringing the composer in with the script, and it gives time to create ideas that you might not otherwise have time or space to try.
That almost sounds quite relaxed. Especially if you have this shorthand already? [Laughs] I mean, it’s never relaxed! When you send your music to a director, it’s very scary you know? Well, it can be. There was just this space there to try things that you might not otherwise try, like the acapella voices. If we only had four weeks we wouldn’t be able to try anything unconventional.
You’ve cited in the past that Philip Glass and Radiohead among your influences, did that also apply when you were working on this score in particular or was there anything else you wanted to bring in? With this score going in, I knew that Kenny would have some classical music in the score, you know, he’s had that in all of his films, but we also went for music that felt contemporary, but would work with some of the harmonics of the classical pieces. And since> my pieces are the only pieces that recur thematically and sort of gather strength and develop with the film, I wanted to make sure they were pieces that could blend and unify and counterpoint in the right ways. Instead of going into the score and thinking like “I’m just doing the score”, and other choices will be made with the source music, this was a way of taking on the darker texture of the film as a single score. So it was a slightly different approach, and I really enjoyed that.
I thought that with this consistency in the soundtrack it was really interesting when this is broken with the use of that one Duke Ellington song. I thought it was a really nice, surprising interjection. Was that Kenneth’s choice? Yeah that was something Kenny added to the score. He has a really deep, broad knowledge of music – so there are those blues standards in there, and more contemporary pieces as well. There was just that really nice counterpoint in places, yeah, that was one of my favourite things too.
Do you have any favourites in your own body of work? Or do you just move onto the next thing? I feel when I’m connected to a film, it’s more as a storyteller and being part of that world; it’s a very immersive and wonderful way to write music and be part of a collaborative team. And then I get some space, and then find myself in another world. [Laughs] I just see it more as part of the whole film rather than just music choices I made. That’s a cool way of seeing it. You can really feel the events of the film playing out in the tracks. Not to sound too pretentious. [Laughs]
So, what’s next for you? I’m working on a couple of films at the moment – one is this really beautiful documentary that I’m just finishing up this week, and then I’m working on a horror film with Boaz Yakin. Starting that in a couple of weeks, I’m really excited about doing something in the horror genre, it’s gonna be a ton of fun, Boaz is a filmmaker who I really enjoy working with.
"I FEEL WHEN I’M CONNECTED TO A FILM, IT’S MORE AS A STORYTELLER AND BEING PART OF THAT WORLD" MARCH 2017 VULTUREHOUND 19
BEAUTY&THE BEAST
WORDS: ASH WALMSLEY | PHOTO: DISNEY
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
A TALE AS OLD AS TIME... ith Disney’s live action revival just around the corner, our love for the French fairytale will truly never cease. With two trailers already building anticipation as they tease how beautiful and idealistic director Bill Condon has envisioned such a retelling, audiences are gasping and biting at the bit to see what new things are brought to the table and to witness which of those classic Disney moments make it back to the big screen.
W
But what really makes this tale
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as old as time as the tagline and its incredibly popular title song states? Walt Disney’s classic musical animation was brought to life in 1991 by the collaborated efforts of its base material, a French fairytale by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, its directors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise and the wondrous musical talents of Alan Menken, and of course was the first animation to win Best Picture at the Oscars. It’s beloved by many and holds firm as one of Disney’s finest, so what makes Condon feel obliged to invent another entry to the long list of efforts in the
Beauty world -- for the last two, the very modern retelling Beastly and the Christophe Gans’ French live action didn’t particularly take flight -- that will carry the legacy? The magic, of course. Disney magic. With the alarming success of Disney’s recent live action updates -- Cinderella, a perpetually sweet, cutesy fairytale with an abundance of heart and The Jungle Book, a glorified CGI-extravaganza with enough star talent to boot -- it was only a matter of time before others are thrown into the pipeline. And as Beauty and the Beast was announced, others followed
" IT MAY NOT EVEN LIVE UP TO THE 1991 CLASSIC OF THE SAME NAME, BUT DAMN IT APPEARS LIKE BILL CONDON AND CO AND TRIED "
suit such as reboots of The Little Mermaid, Dumbo, Mulan, The Lion King and an Emily Blunt-starring sequel to Mary Poppins, Mary Poppins Returns. Without sounding too much like my five-year-old former-self, but bring ‘em on. There may be a stigma that riding on Disney’s past success is a technique catered to the Disney giants, but really, Disney magic is the only kind of movie magic that gets away with such tactics. Growing up on animations such as Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid etc makes me a glorified 90’s fanatic. Whilst i appreciate the former classics
such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Sleeping Beauty and other wonderful fairytales, my time is cherished wholly by those released late 80’s/early 90’s where I sat down, the makings of an early movie fanatic, and revelled in the wondrous tales of magic, the love between a Prince and his Damsel in Distress (I understand now the obvious sexism aspects, cue Frozen and Tangled), swashbuckling sword fights and villains fighting to their bitter end. It’s a kind of magic that still harbours something incredibly special today, and recreates so magnificently upon every viewing. And those in the same boat will fully understand the necessity behind the want and the need for these films. They may contain schmaltzy messages, but what’s wrong with living in a fantasy for a little while? The magic behind these reboots may come and go in short bursts compared to the long-lasting effect of Disney’s originals, but as they arrive, I’ll happily show a rebooted attempt that contains as much, if not more, spark, paralleling the experience I had as a child and passing that on to a younger generation where they may envision the likes of the gorgeous Lily James as Cinderella, Neel Sethi as Mowgli or even transcend the likes of Emma Watson from such a
well known character as Hermione Granger and positioning her in the role of the charismatic and rambunctious Belle, a village girl with big dreams, landing in the clutches of a cursed Prince and falling for each other, battling the odds and the villains whilst meeting a few new colourful characters along the way. As Emma Watson signs on to portray one of her favourite characters, Downton Abbey’s Dan Stevens dons the suit as the Prince/ Beast, Luke Evans as the mirrorhogging Gaston, Ian McKellen as Cogsworth, Ewan McGregor as Lumiére, Emma Thompson as Mrs. Potts etc etc. The list of this unimaginable cast goes on and on, and much like the fans of today showing their love, the popularity of this film shows with its star talent. This story truly is a tale as old as time. It may have been done a thousand times before, it may not even live up to the 1991 classic of the same name, but damn it, it appears like Bill Condon and co and tried their very best to pay homage to one of Disney’s most spectacularly romantic tales. Beauty and the Beast hits UK cinemas on March 17th.
MARCH 2017 VULTUREHOUND 21
Weatherly
"I think I’m much more like Jason Bull in real life than I am DiNozzo” PHOTOS: PATRICK HARBRON/CBS
INTERVIEW:
MICHAEL WEATHERLY WORDS: PRIYANKA PULLELA
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ichael Weatherly (NCIS) features as the brilliant Dr. Jason Bull in FOX’s slick new legal drama. An expert in human psychology, he utilizes human intuition and high tech data to learn what makes jurors, attorneys, witnesses and the accused tick, making him the best trial consultant in the business. Inspired by the early career of Dr. Phil McGraw, the founder of one of the most prolific trial consulting firms of all time, Bull tackles the US judicial system from a fresh new perspective, while providing entertaining characters and an inventive narrative. We spoke to the star of Bull to get a closer insight.
M
How did you like the ad campaign with the slogan “He’ll Get You Off”? Yes, well that was a lot of fun. I was pleasantly surprised that CBS was taking a somewhat provocative approach, because it could have been much more conservative. I thought it was fun. I thought it was a little bit of a wink to the character from “NCIS,” from DiNozzo. And there I was with my Michael Caine glasses giving a little bit of a smirk. I thought it was a lot of fun.
Your character basically plays the jury. Doesn’t the fact that this is even possible say that the judicial system in the U.S. doesn’t quite work?
Dr. Jason Bull can read people. What would he say about you? Oh, I wonder. I think Bull would probably spot me pretty quickly as an actor. It’s why it’s kind of fun to play him. When I was doing DiNozzo, everyone would say “You’re just playing yourself.” That was always interesting to me because it didn’t seem to me that I was playing myself. But there were certain enthusiasms and idiosyncrasies that I have brought alive in DiNozzo that seemed very much like me. I think I’m much more like Jason Bull in real life, than I am a DiNozzo. So a very comfortable role for me. Maybe my answer to your question is I think Dr. Bull would find himself looking at himself a lot more than he might be comfortable with, if he had to look at Michael Weatherly.
So obviously, Dr. Bull is inspired by Dr. Phil’s earlier career. Other than that, where did you draw inspiration from to create such a charismatic man? Well, I really looked at Marcello Mastroianni in Fellini’s ‘8½,’ because I really strangely identified with that character as we were getting prepared to make the pilot and I started drawing a great deal of inspiration from that film and from a few other areas.
Well, I think that the show is looking at something larger than the American legal system. And what Bull, Dr. Bull, is up to in his analysis of the jury, is really an analysis of human behavior. It’s my intention with this show to try and understand people. So especially in an election year like this, when you have a very divided population politically, I think it’s important to understand how people get to a certain way of thinking, whether it’s based on real or imagined things. And what’s the difference? I think it’s really complicated but I think that it’s worth examining.
I feel like Dr. Bull is a man covering up a very chaotic sort of deep-seated confusion. I think that he’s trying to analyze everybody else because there’s something about himself that he fundamentally doesn’t understand, and it drives him. That, it’s not an insecurity, but there’s a bit of an irrational addiction to trying to figure everybody out. I don’t know if Dr. Phil is like that, because I’m not really basing this character on > Dr. Phil. But what Dr. Phil is well-versed in is the world of jury selection.
Whether it’s politics or advertising or a jury system, it really is fundamentally the most important thing you can do, which is understand the world around you and remain open and curious and not closed-minded.
I want to focus on your transition from Anthony DiNozzo to Jason Bull, because you’ve been playing him for about 13 years. Has it been
MARCH 2017 VULTUREHOUND 23
Weatherly
really hard for you to let go? No, it hasn’t been hard at all, because I spent the last two years really understanding that I was drawing that part of my life to a close. Professionally, DiNozzo took up a huge amount of time and creatively and personally it really controlled my life. I didn’t expect to jump right in to something else that would be so all-consuming. But it has been not a difficult transition. I think it’s harder for other people than it is for me.
You said in an interview how great it was to meet Steven Spielberg for this project. What kind of input does he have on the show? Well I had to go over – once the show was picked up after the pilot – I had to go over to Amblin to Mr.
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"I feel like Dr. Bull is a man covering up a very chaotic, deep-seated confusion".
Spielberg’s company. I got to sit for about two and a half hours with him and discuss the character, the world of the show, what the episodes were going to be like and what they should feel like and what to look for. And then we also talked about Steve McQueen and Close Encounters of the Third Kind and lots of other stuff that just made me happy as a movie buff. He has input to this day. You know he’s a busy guy making movies and other things, but I’m looking forward to, every time his name comes up I feel very proud that he is involved and making his notes and having his input. As we try to make the show, the first year of a series is always sort of a trial and error and I think we’re getting closer and closer to something that he and I talked about. Watch Bull on FOX.
COCK SPARRER © GORILLA BISCUITS © H2O IGNITE © STICK TO YOUR GUNS © UNDEROATH © ??????
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IL L U S T R AT IO N A ND D E S IG N : © D O MINIC VA N HE U P E N
TRAINING DAY TO TAKEN BIG FILMS TO THE SMALL SCREEN WORDS: SCOTT OAKES
sequel isn’t always the road ahead for a critically approved, financially successful feature film. Many of our fondest pictures have made their way to television.
A
Read our Top 10 list here:
Hitchcock’s 1960 film, Psycho and follows the lives of Norman Bates and his mother Norma before the events of the film. With Norman’s ‘mother’ persona threatening to take complete control in this final season, we are promised to bare witness to a violent, bloody end.
1. FARGO The snowy setting of Minnesota has its murderous roots in the 1996 film of the same name. The film, by the Coen brothers, premiered at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival and went on to win numerous awards including the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The television series came to FX in 2014 with the brothers serving as executive producers and Noah Hawley as showrunner. The series has showcased superb talents, including Martin Freeman, Billy Bob Thornton and in the upcoming third season, Ewan McGregor.
2. BATES MOTEL A&E’s longest running original scripted drama had its fifth and final season premiere this February. The series serves as a contemporary prequel to Alfred
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3. WESTWORLD Science fiction and Western aren’t genres you’d normally see intertwined but with HBO’s Westworld, it really works. Based on the 1973 film of the same name, the series takes place in the fictional Westworld, a westernstyle theme park populated by ‘hosts’ - essentially androids produced for the entertainment of the paying guests. The guests are able to indulge in their many fantasies, without fearing any retaliation - however, it isn’t quite as simple as that. The first season tackled the possibility of the androids being more than just that and saw many characters clash on the handling of the park. Though, fans will need to wait until next year for a second season to answer those burning questions.
4. THIS IS ENGLAND The 2006 feature film drama focused on the skinhead subculture of 1983 and followed twelve year old Shaun, who meets a gang of young skinheads on his way home from school. Fans of the film will know the title is a direct reference to Combo’s nationalist speech of a bold and brash set of views resulting in the film’s central conflict. The film spawned three television miniseries, each taking place with two years between them; 86, 88 and 90 with the returning cast from the film and aired on Channel 4.
5. HANNIBAL Hannibal Lecter has been a cultural name for a number of years now, a central character in the novels of Thomas Harris, played by Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs and most recently by Mads Mikkelsen in NBC’s Hannibal. The series follows FBI profiler Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) who is supervised by psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Unbeknownst to Will, Lecter is the cannibalistic killer we all know he is and Lecter
PHOTO: JOE LEDERER/NETFLIX
takes advantage of his position to manipulate the FBI. The series ran for three critically acclaimed seasons before its cancellation due to declining ratings.
following its initial television run. Canonical, Season Eight debuted in 2007 with Dark Horse Comics and is now on to its Eleventh overall season.
6. A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS
8. PARENTHOOD
The most recent adaptation on our list found its home on Netflix. Starring Neil Patrick Harris as Count Olaf (played by Jim Carrey in the original film) and takes inspiration from the first four books of the series. The outlandish visuals are impressive and at the heart of the overall appeal of the series. It is beautifully unique and has shown itself as a separate entity to the film. It’s fun, it’s over the top in the best possible way and it’s worth watching.
7. BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER Following the 1992 film of the same name, Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) battled Vampires, dark forces and other miscellaneous monsters in the seven seasons it was on television. So popular still, the story continued in comic book form in the years
This family centric drama is loosely based on the 1989 film of the same name and during its run it followed the Bravermans. Set in California, the series revolves around three generations. A particular point of interest of the series, gaining attention from critics and the press was the grandchild character Max, who is diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome. The series came to its conclusion in 2015 after a critically successful run of six seasons, unfortunately however it never gained a strong audience and the ratings faced a gradual decline over the years.
9. ASH VS. EVIL DEAD Who doesn’t love a comedy horror? Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) is back in this sequel to the original trilogy of Evil Dead films. Set thirty years after the events we last witnessed, we learn Ash has a now comfortable existence but that soon changes when he is thrust into
becoming the hero we know. Once again, he must fight, the Evil Dead. With a third season announced, the Evil Dead won’t go down without a fight.
10. LIMITLESS What if you could use 100% of your brain’s capacity? That’s what both Limitless the film and the TV series look at. The film follows uninspired writer/layabout Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) who is given the drug from his former brother-in-law. Although opening doors for him, the drug has adverse side effects damaging his health and mental state. The television series followed Brian Finch (Jake McDorman), a failing musician who is not only given access to the brain changing drug NZT-48 but also an immunity shot to the side effects, courtesy of Morra himself. Sadly cancelled after just one season, it appears the series would have benefitted greatly by shifting Cooper’s character to series protagonist.
LETS US KNOW YOUR FAVOURITES ON TWITTER @VULTUREHOUNDMAG MARCH 2017 VULTUREHOUND 27
THE WARRIORS
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW: THE WARRIORS
MICHAEL BECK WORDS: TIM BIRKBECK
earing the clinking of bottles and the screeching of “WARRIORS COME OUT AND PLAY” is something which changed how I viewed films. The simple story of a gang’s journey of survival across New York City has become an absolute cult classic. Now nearly 40 years on from the 1979 classic, the cast of Walter Hill’s film are set to be reunited at the Edgbaston Stadium, in Birmingham for a special celebration of the film. I managed to speak to the leader of the Warriors himself, Michael Beck, who played the iconic Swan, to find to discuss why so many years later people are still on the hunt for the Warriors.
H
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I wanted to jump right in and ask you about The Warriors celebration which is taking place in Birmingham; how did that come about? Vic Wright, who is the promoter of the event sent me an e-mail saying that he wanted to put on this reunion and I got back to him and it just grew from there.
Do you enjoy doing these reunions and the panel appearances at comic and film conversions?
Yes, I really do. I enjoy the reunions on a lot of different levels, because it gives all of us in the cast a chance to get together again and even after nearly 40 years we all still like each other and we have maintained the friendship, so that part of it is really fun. But even when I appear solo at something like a comic-con I have always enjoyed meeting with the people who have given me a career. I mean if people never brought tickets to movies, turned on their TV or brought DVDs none of us would work. And the fans always have stories to tell. I am always intrigued, especially with The Warriors situation; a movie which has transcended generations; that people come up to me and say “I love this movie” and my first question is always who put you on
to it in the first place? Inevitably, if they didn’t come to it through the video game, it’s their dad or an uncle or even mums- and I’m always really proud of those mums. I’m really a people person so I always enjoy those kinds of exchanges.
Touching upon the reunion aspect, you recently did the Last Subway Home short, how was it going back to the character of Swan all these years later? I think we all had a ball doing it. I mean here’s all these grey haired old guys putting on their vests and getting on the subway. We all had an ironic sense of humour about it and what was endearing to me was that when we got on the train, there were commuters on the train and it was priceless to see people’s reactions. I mean we got on and generally speaking New Yorkers don’t pay much attention to what’s going on around them on the Subway, but there was a “THE WARRIORS ARE HERE”, which was great. So yeah, I had a huge smile on the inside when we were shooting that.
Since its release The Warriors has picked up this cult status and still today it feels very timeless and still holds it own. When you were filming was there ever a sense it would still be so loved today? We had absolutely no idea. But that begs the question: does anyone involved in the making of a movie have an idea that it will become
a cult movie which will transcend generations? I don’t think people can know that when they are making the thing. Everyone involved is just trying to tell the story the best they can. The rest of it really depends on the audience which receives it. We were all young actors just thankful to get a job.
"Does anyone involved in the making of a movie have an idea that it will become a cult movie which will transcend generations?"
station, to seeing them on the street in the semi-circle around us to the conclusion- it was really fun to make that sequence and it is fun watching it. I love the bathroom fight as well in terms of action sequences. Another bit I loved and I loved doing with Deborah (Van Valkenburgh), as it said so much silently, was the bit with both of us with the prom couples. So, I would say those scenes stick in the memory.
Something else people will know you for is your role in Xanadu, which is the other end of the spectrum compared to The Warriors. How was it for you to do something so vastly different? Well I think it was more just good fortune that Larry Gordon was the producer of both those movies. I find it really interesting that the two major roles that I did early in my career have become two huge cult classics. I’m grateful to have been in it and you are right, they are two vastly different characters and movies. I’m not sure if that is attributed to my acting but it was nice to be given that opportunity to work on such a broad spectrum.
Everyone who is a fan of The Warriors always seems to have a stand out scene they can always recall; looking back is Something else you have done there a favourite part of the more and are well recognised film you really enjoyed? for is working in TV roles, how did you find the transition from There is a lot that stands out, and film to television? especially going to conventions over the years and speaking to people like yourself it certainly brings back a lot of memories. I loved doing and watching back the Baseball Fury’s. From us stepping out of the subway
It is just more compressed and you have less time. You aren’t altering the process you go through as an actor; it just gets sped up due to time pressures. I did an hour-long
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THE WARRIORS does, they need to honour the original and tell their own story. Speaking to fans over the years, I think the general feeling is they would not want to see a re-make of it.
If there was ever to be a remake could we see a Swan cameo? drama called Houston Nights where in eight days you are shooting a 45 minute little film, whereas something like The Warriors is twice as long and it’s shot in four months, so there is a big difference. But what you bring to it is, from the point of view of an actor, the same. You just have to do it in a more economical fashion because you don’t have the time. Also though, in a series if it goes on long enough, you don’t have to worry about having to figure out a character because you have played them for long enough. You look at television today, and I was asked if there was anything that I had seen recently that impressed me and I said ‘Sherlock’. I mean what great television. And I am sure it is on a tighter schedule than some of the feature films that we see. But the writing, production and acting is wonderful so nothing really suffers. Did you enjoy working under those tighter time constraints? I did. I grew up in a highly dysfunctional family, so chaos was never far around the corner. I was an athlete as well in high school and college, so pressured situations when it’s golden light and the sun is going down and you’ve got one take, it’s a challenge. And rising to
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that challenge is something that I have always liked, not just in acting but in life.
With so many films being rebooted, could you see a Warriors re-make happening at some point and do you think a modernisation of the story would work? Well the late Tony Scott for years talked about doing a re-make and setting it on the west coast, casting it with hip-hop and rap artists. I think if that movie had ever been made it would have been vastly different from what we did. I look at The Warriors as a quintessential New York movie, I mean the city is a huge character in that movie. If it was set in a different location it would give it a whole different feeling. The latest I heard was that the Russo brothers were planning on doing a television series of The Warriors but I don’t know what that would be, whether it would be trying to tell the same story or prequel or sequel, I have no idea. Re-makes to me in general have been going on forever and I don’t really care for them. If anyone
Well I would cross that bridge if it happens.
Are there any other projects that you are currently working on? Not working on, but there is an independent film which I was in called The Grace of Jake which we shot in late 2013 and has done the festival circuit. It’s a father son reconciliation movie and I can tell you I don’t play the son.
Have you ever thought of doing any work behind the camera? You know, I have. I made some attempts to in the 90s but it didn’t quite get the traction I had hoped. But I am always available for that, but I think nowadays it would really need to be a property that I was invested in and have a passion for me to tell that story. UK Conclave presents The Warriors Celebration at Edgbaston Stadium, Birmingham on 1st & 2nd April 2017. Visit: UK Conclave - The Warriors
WWE NXT:
ALEXANDER WOLFE WORDS: LEE HAZELL
e got a chance to chat with Alexander Wolfe who joins their ranks in the WWE as part of NXT’s anarchist faction, SAni†Y. You can read the full interview in our wrestling magazine SteelChair coming soon.
W
What are your ambitions in WWE? Of course, the main goal is becoming a champion, but the main goal in WWE for me personally? I want to stand on the Grandest Stage of Them All. I want is to perform in the main event at WrestleMania and become the champion of WWE.
How is it for a German wrestler to join the WWE? It’s so awesome. I wrestled for over ten years in the Indies and to just have the opportunity to perform here for WWE, to show how good European athletes are, it’s amazing. I’ve been here nearly two years and it’s been awesome so far. There have been lots of ups and down. This is normal for development, but for me personally? I’m just stoked about the fact that I’m performing for WWE NXT.
This will be your second WrestleMania weekend in WWE as part of the NXT roster. What’s the WrestleMania weekend experience like?
The WrestleMania weekend his huge. Personally, for me, it’s Christmas because WrestleMania is only once a year. Last year was a crazy experience for me because you have the chance to see everybody you see on the television, but most importantly ,you have all of the attractions you have there. You have WrestleMania Axxess, you have the WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, you have NXT Takeover Orlando and, of course, you have WrestleMania. To be a part of that and attending Axxess to see all of the fans worldwide is amazing.
Do you think being alongside Eric Young in NXT is an opportunity for you? Eric Young a very, very, experienced guy. He is our veteran. He has so much experience with live events and he’s performed for a very long time in other promotions. He knows how to do things and he knows how to do things the right way. He’s a great guy to be around, he’s a great mentor and since I’m with him, the future is going to be amazing. It will lead to more opportunities to step up the ladder and prove myself that I am material for NXT and WWE. WrestleMania 33 is live on WWE Network on Sunday, 2nd April. To signup for your first month free, visit wwe.com/wwenetwork Catch Alexander Wolfe this June when NXT Live! returns to the UK! Tickets are on-sale now on LiveNation.co.uk
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MANIC STREET PREACHERS
WORDS: RITA ARESTA
CULTURE, ALIENATION, BOREDOM AND DESPAIR – 25 YEARS OF GENERATION TERRORISTS
ith Generation Terrorists, the Manic Street Preachers brought to life one of the most conscientious albums of the past few decades, full with declarations of musical, political and aesthetic intent. Twenty-five years ago, on February 10th 1992, the Manic Street Preachers released their debut album; their fame preceded them and the hype surrounding it was huge. A few songs, in the form of EPs, had started to uncover it to the world. Both critics and media had already been brought to their knees and the anticipation for its full release couldn’t be more promising in terms of both sales and quality; ‘Motown Junk’ had been a single with some level of commercial success and the Manics were expected to follow that path, boasting they’d sell sixteen million copies “from Bangkok to Senegal”.
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Its rock sound, combining touches of
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melodic punk, energising and seductive guitars, coupled with politically relevant lyrics, absolutely nailed it. It was exactly what the public demanded of them and they knew just how to deliver the 80s generation what it needed – and so emerged Generation Terrorists (Columbia Records, 1992). Just over seventy minutes across eighteen songs, produced by Steve Brown and recorded in Black Barn Studios, gave life to an album whose working title was Culture, Alienation, Boredom And Despair. Perhaps too direct a message, they chose to hide it behind the ambiguity of Generation Terrorists, directed at the corrupt political class and the way in which it called the youth to revolt against it. However, the record was perhaps too long for its own good with an excess of minutes and songs; a real shame, as it could’ve been an almost perfect album with only maybe twelve or thirteen songs – for example, six singles were released for this album, all of them with good radio potential. Each track has its own quote, such as
the early 20th century radical Italian art movement’s Manifesto of Futurism’s “Regard all art critics as useless and dangerous” in ‘You Love Us’, setting a trend for future albums as well as concert setlists. The constant attacks on capitalism and the way in which people headed towards that very way of life were the bases for the openly declared socialist Welsh band’s critical content. Songs like the indestructible concert favourite ‘Motorcycle Emptiness’, describing this system’s most superficial face, and the visionary ‘Natwest – Barclays – Midlands – Lloyds’, a perfect prediction of today’s economic situation, are two clear examples of this. It’d be impossible not to mention ‘Little Baby Nothing’, a duet with controversial former porn actress Traci Lords, covering the sexual exploitation of women, albeit feeling a tad orchestrated, since there was probably a Sony executive watching over them.
Ferocious lyrics such as those demanding justice for the third world in ‘Slash’N’Burn’ were written by creative tandem Nicky Wire (bassist and current lyricist) and Richey Edwards, the Manics’ most iconic duo, lyrical poets and responsible for the band’s androgynous image and the glam label they carried for years. From then to this day, Richey’s presence in the band was as essential as his absence following his disappearance in 1995. We owe him for the intense messages included in ‘Born to end’, ‘You Love Us’ and ‘Stay Beautiful’, or those dedicated to drugs, in ‘So Dead’, ‘Spectators Of Suicide’ and ‘Methadone Pretty’. His words came to life through the lips of James Dean Bradfield, permanent frontman and lead vocalist of Manics, who gives the lyrics an even more suggestive character. Similarly, drummer Sean Moore, who together with Bradfield composed the music of every song in the album, produces a neat balance between urgency and stoicism. With this combination, the Manics managed to, over the years, lead the alternative rock scene, removing and adding different tones at their own will along the many albums that would follow. All in all, this didn’t turn out to be the best rock album in the world, as the Manics had impertinently preached before its release. It doesn’t even come close to 1994’s mythical The Holy Bible. But what they did do with Generation Terrorists was to bring to life an album that contained more youthful rage and socio-politico-economical awareness than anything else kicking around at the time. It was pure self-expression and the desire to make themselves heard. Perhaps their greatest achievement was to show they were “4REAL”, with their ability to play with Marxist and liberal clichés and turn them into marvellous, furious but elegant songs. It’s an album that, twenty-five years later, no one should ignore; humankind is all too cyclical, and they sure as hell already told us that.
GRAE WESTGATE TV EDITOR
ostalgia is a powerful thing. The entirety of Hollywood and the land of television in the 21st Century are built upon it. Take a look at the blockbusters and big hit shows of the last few years, and one cannot help but notice the spate of reworkings, rehashings and remakes that have littered both the big and small screens.
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It seems to be something prevalent in the children of the ‘80s that we have a need to relive our childhood memories through the screen; Michael Bay has made a living off butchering our favourite cartoons, Disney are reworking all of our beloved classics, and even Channel 4 are getting in on the game by bringing back The Crystal Maze. Indeed, I’m sure there are thousands of thirty-somethings currently sharing my utter excitement at the new Power Rangers, safe in the knowledge that it’s gonna be shite (which if Turtles is anything to go by, might actually be a pleasant surprise…). Of course, Power Rangers isn’t the only thing blurring the lines between the big and small screens; last year we were awestruck by Westworld, and now we have Taken and Training Day joining it in the listings. Sure, these aren’t necessarily the films of our childhood, but there is
I'M SURE THERE ARE THOUSANDS OF THIRTYSOMETHINGS CURRENTLY SHARING MY UTTER EXCITEMENT AT THE NEW POWER RANGERS something weird about the 80’s generation… We are probably the biggest cinephiles of all time. The blockbuster was our thing. We never had a thousand and one channels, nor smartphones. We simply had our VHS players and the Sunday morning Disney Club. Nostalgia is important to us. Recently, whilst sat in the pub, I lost my shit at a dear friend, ten years younger, who carelessly mentioned he had never seen Who Framed Roger Rabbit? But why does it matter? Does it matter? No. I guess not. But to a child of 1986, not having seen Bob Hoskins topless is possibly one of the greatest crimes of all time. We complain about the remakes, and yet we are the ones that fuel them. Bring on the Power Rangers, and bring on the seven hundred inevitable sequels, ‘cause no matter how much we pooh-pooh them in pre-production, we’re the ones that fund the franchises. Now, bring on the freakin’ liveaction Darkwing Duck.
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yoni wolf
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW: THE WANDERING WOLF
WHY?’S YONI WOLF WORDS: DAN WITHEY
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YONI WOLF f you don’t know Yoni Wolf, you probably should. His cynical outlook on life propelled his alt. hip-hop/indie rock collective, WHY?, to cult heights with the release of their seminal 2008 album, Alopecia. Since then, Yoni’s selfdeprecating, ‘open therapy session’-like lyric sheet has been delivering a relatable life textbook to every cynical twenty-something lucky enough to stumble across it. In the five years since WHY?‘s last LP, Mumps Etc., there’s been a lot of change in the world. From Trump to Brexit, the words ‘hate’ and ‘fear’ have never been so prevalent. But change comes in all forms. Even the deep cynicism so associated with the band, and particular it’s lyricist and frontman, transforms every now and then. So much so that with the band’s latest album, Moh Lhean, a new, positive outlook on life appears to be blossoming. The first WHY? album to be completely recorded at a home studio since their 2003 debut, Oaklandazulasylum, Moh Lhean sees the fight for life’s answers replaced instead with a relative calm and acceptance. One that says maybe we’re just not meant to know what it’s all about, even when the world seems so messed up…
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Moh Lhean is being trailed as a kind of transformation of your outlook on life. Would you say it’s the most positive WHY? album yet? I think so, yeah. I would say that. I think it’s an uplifting album, whereas most of the others have been pretty cynical, you know?
But we love the cynicism. Yeah, well I guess Alopecia is for the cynical, hipster 20 year old and this one’s probably more for 30 somethings trying to figure their shit out or something, I don’t know.
that you don’t have to battle and fight against everything in order to get answers – there is a definite peace and acceptance in the ‘not knowing’… Yeah. I’m trying! I am still definitely struggling through every day trying to figure it out. Trying to figure out my place in space and time and all that shit, but I am trying. I’m recognising that you don’t always have to be kicking and screaming, you know?
In terms of trying to figure out your place in the universe and the meaning of life, are you a scientific person? Do you find yourself interested in those questions posed by theoretical physicists as to those unanswered questions? How deep do you go? I go as far as I can go until the panic attack sets in. You know, there are things that the human mind is not supposed to know. So, you take it to that edge and your body tells you, “nope, you’re not going to know that!” But seriously, yes, I am interested in science and I am interested in mystical ideas that science hits at, whether it’s ‘String Theory’ or parts of Quantum Theory – stuff like that. I just like thinking on stuff like that.
But there is a danger in overindulging in that, and maybe it’s easier sometimes to just let go? Yeah, yeah. I guess the danger is a panic attack, which isn’t the end of the world –but I guess you could die from one, but even that isn’t the end of the world either. So sometimes I guess you just have to turn on Netflix or whatever and just try to zone out.
With Moh Lhean there is a definite feeling DECEMBER MARCH2016 2017VULTUREHOUND VULTUREHOUND29 0535
yoni wolf
There’s a theory called the ‘Simulation Hypothesis’. It argues we’re all just part of a computer simulation set up by our post-human selves and the chances that we’re living in a ‘base reality’ are incredibly small. Have you come across that? Cause there’s some real indulgence to be done with that one! Yeah! Who knows? That’s the thing – we have started with the computer age and we have started to, very crudely, simulate human consciousness and we’re doing it with more and more deftness. So does it follow that future versions of ourselves have created full on consciousness and have the ability to manipulate it…? I don’t know! It does seem pretty far-fetched but I do think of stuff, like - if we’ve gone from being apes with spears to what we are doing now in this time, what will we be like in another million years…? Basically you’re talking about the fact that we would
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look like a God to the first humans, so what would the humans of the future look like to us? Even in a thousand years from now! Would they still even really be human? They’ll be totally modded out, with that cyborg shit and manipulation of genetics. That’s the interesting stuff right there.
I guess there’s some comfort to think that we might just be a part of some future kid’s science project, tasking them to creating a universe as homework. I don’t think…for me that seems a bit too simplistic. But I think whatever’s going on is equally as strange – actually, I think it’s way stranger. But I think if you were able to see behind the veil somehow, I think that it would make perfect sense. I think you’d see it and go, “oh, of course, right, right, right…” – cause you already know somewhere in your cells, somewhere in the atoms that are you that have existed since the Big Bang. Somewhere you know what’s
going on.
Do you think you would actually want to know either way, or just stay content with the mystery of it all? Oh man, if I had my way I would know everything! I wanna know. (Singing) “I wanna know!” I would know it all. But I don’t think we’re given that option and that’s because we’re still in those baby steps of evolution. I think of our brains as receivers and in terms of evolution we’re still babies – we can’t receive all those answers, yet. But when we do, that’ll be the end of everything somehow, and then it’ll start over.
I guess that’s one of the fears behind death – the not getting to find out those answer. But maybe you will! You might not have the same sense of yourself, but in death you may just sink back into the hole of consciousness and
know everything on some level.
I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to go so off topic. No, this is the stuff I actually like talking about. Of course I love talking about my music, but that’s alright!
Back to the music – WHY? has always had a DIY approach, and you yourself have had a pretty DIY last few years – from the podcasts, to concept records like The Golden Ticket – how much of that influenced your decision to avoid the studio this time around and record Moh Lhean at home? As far as how much that stuff has influenced this? Everything you do influences everything else you do, but it’s not always super obvious to me how much the other stuff influenced this album. I guess when you’re working from home
you have the time to keep tinkering with things, keep altering, changing – and I guess this album is a product of that, whereas Mumps Etc., Alopecia, Eskimo Snow, the albums we did in the studio, we did them in a relatively quick amount of time. I mean, they were written over a longer period, but in terms of recording it happened very quickly. We recorded Alopeciaand Eskimo Snow in 21 days, something like that. Mumps Etc. was less than a month. Moh Lhean was over the course of several years.
That’s a big difference. And it’s good and bad. It can become like this lingering thing that you still haven’t quite gotten out of your system, but it does allow you to keep on making revisions and turn it into whatever you really want. Whereas sometimes on those other albums it’s like, “okay, this is what it is”. That’s not to say that I don’t stand behind what we did on those albums but… it’s just a different method.
So I guess as this is the most
"I wanted to go back to where it didn’t feel like there had to be all these expectations" positive album WHY? has ever created there was probably no other way to do it – avoiding the rushed, maybe stressful environment of a studio? Well, we could have done that but… I guess we spent so much money on Mumps Etc. I felt with this one I just wanted it to be low key and I wanted to go back to a situation where it didn’t feel like there had to be all these expectations on sales, or how it was received – I just wanted
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yoni wolf to make work, put it out there, and not really stress so much about if people are going to like it or not. And I actually do feel different about this one than I did about Mumps. Although with Mumps I knew it was good and I do feel like that was my best writing, and my most witty…
Mumps was the funniest WHY? album in terms of lines and lyrics, for sure. Not that everyone appreciates their work being described as ‘funny’. Yeah, some people don’t like that, but I felt pretty good about myself having written that stuff. But it was a bit overblown, I spent a lot of money, hired six musicians for the tour… Whereas on this one I was like, “okay, let’s just keep it low key, keep it the four of us in the band”. So I’m just a bit more realistic about expectations here. I don’t expect everyone to love it, it’s just something we did on a smaller scale… but I do still hope people like it.
Would you say that Moh Lhean is more for you, than to meet the expectations of the fans? I don’t know about “more for me” – I’m still well aware that I have a career in music, you know? But I think I have less of a ‘do or die’ feeling. I feel like when I made Mumps there was this feeling of “this better do well or else I’m fucking beat in a hole of debt and my career is gonna be over!” or something like that. But now, I’m feeling like, well, we made this album, it took a really long time, but we’re releasing it and I hope people like it, but if they don’t… I am not controlled by that and I can
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make another album or I can do something else. I can write a book or I can make beaded jewellery and sell that on ebay or whatever.
Do you make beaded jewellery? I don’t, no. But I have. I guess what I’m trying to say is that it’s not the end of the world – even if I get laughed off stage. And that’s part of our positive outlook. Well, even more than just positive, it’s our even field approach – being able to endure whatever is thrown at me whether it’s suffering or adulation – taking it in my stride.
It almost sounds like you’re expecting people not to like it, almost defeated to the fact that they might not. Oh I’ve been defeated. I’ve been defeated since I was born. But defeated is not the right word here. I think that when I was young, well…younger – when I was in my 20s I had a cockiness. I thought I had something that no one else had. I was a shy person and I never talked shit about being better than anyone but I had this feeling of, “I got this”, you know? I had this private little thing that I did and it was totally different to what anyone else was doing… I don’t know… I’m not that way anymore. Now I’m 37 and I’m at this point where I realised that not any single one thing that I do is going to change the world that much – I have a larger perspective now, that’s the bottom line. I was so abuzz with the small world of independent music that somewhere in my mind was a competition, and there was a feeling that I was maybe showing off – I don’t feel that way anymore.
So you’ll be back in the U.K. in Juneor a couple of shows. Looking forward to it? In all sincerity I definitely am. It’s been way too long. Not only the U.K. but I’m looking forward to being in Europe, for sure man. Just the whole trip I’m looking forward to.
One last thing - If there was one thing you would say to all U.S. citizens to either reassure or rally – what would it be? Oh my god. I don’t have a sound bite for this! I guess this is something that we’re all going through right now and I’m hoping the dude will self-destruct at some point and be cause for impeachment – and I already think he should be impeached, or at least has given cause for it. I feel like we just need to live our lives and support anyone that’s being fucked with. We have to resist it, we have to fight it. But we also have to think about it on a larger perspective and know that while it is a big deal – it’s not the end of the world, hopefully… unless he does blow up the world, which is also a possibility! But we hope it’s not. Also, it has actually radicalised a lot of people that were a-political before the election, including myself to an extent – I’ve cared about politics before but now I’m fired up and I feel like it will eventually swing pretty hard the other way. You throw a ballot down in front of us now and I know it will swing hard to the left. So maybe it had to go this way… Moh Lhean is out on Friday March 3rd via Joyful Noise.
CHANCE
WORDS: CAYLE HOTENE
E:
AME SINC S E H T N E E B ’T N E V A H S G VULTUREHOUND’S THIN
D R A E H I E M I T T S R I F E H T P A R T T E N N E B R O L E C N A H C W
hen I speak about Chance The Rapper, I almost exclusively just say Chance. I didn’t realise that was weird or unusual until I started writing this. Maybe it isn’t. Maybe you all do it. Who cares? This, is not, about, you. It’s about me. And Chance, a bit, I guess. As if that guy doesn’t get enough attention. It’s an affectionate term, but it’s not borne from choice – it’s habit. I was 18 when I first heard Chance, back when his name still needed the suffix to tell people what he was. I’m not a day-1 er, or, a 10 Day-er, precisely – my life changed whilst listening to a Childish Gambino cut, and that wasn’t the first, or the last time that’s happened. I’ll spare you the complete story of where I was and what I was doing because it is only special to me – though I will say I’ve never felt happier standing in a cold flat with a friend. The song is called ‘They Don’t Like Me’, and it’s an early, raw Chance verse bookended by two short Gambino passages. Incidentally, it’s also one of the pivotal moments in modern hip hop. I see it personally as the artistic genesis of Chance The Rapper, because it contains everything that makes him the superlative, upper echelon artist that he is today. If we’re talking
guest verses of the last ten years, this is nestled right up there. I have to assume it’s lost just a bit of its power, because we all know that Chance can rap god-level at this point, we all know about his inimitable energy, we all know how he can make you feel like the world isn’t just OK, but beautiful, and worth saving, to borrow a line. To hear all that for the first time without having a scooby who you were listening to is a memory I hold very close to my heart, and it hasn’t happened again in the 4 years since, as much as I’ve willed it to. Cue:
“Eddie Scissorhands is working on my liningggg” Bare in mind I had completely glossed over the fact there was a feature on the song. It was an unadulterated shock to the system. Screwface to this day when I hear that.
“In school I got suspended, but in turn I got some earnings Could’ve spent it all on Thursday, but I saved it for my parents” Is a window into Chance’s approach to family, which objectively, for all I like to hear him beat on a track, is probably his greatest strength.
“I’m tired of McDonalds, want a chick that cook chicano.That can’t speak a lick of English, and
pronounce my name like Chano” I’m not going to go into the haughty shit they tried to teach us at university in Poetry classes but my god is that a tasty morsel of genius.
“Tonigggggghhht I’mma make decisions for liiifffeeeee” As enduring as his writing is in this verse, the real shock came from the timbre of his voice. Chance’s voice is his god given gift. It glows, somehow, even though it’s audio and it’s a silly, illogical description – but you try and find a better way to describe it. To me it’s the sound of what it is to be young, to be hopeful, to be alive – and I hate to get so pretentious when discussing a thing that is so pure and uncluttered in its brilliance but Chance has got me a little fucked up trying to put words to his talent. This verse reminded me of the idea that anything’s possible, and never more than while we’re young, dumb, and unsure of where our life is headed. So I’ll keep it simple. So simple that I’ll even be using Chance’s own words to describe what he has given me, us, the culture, the world – he made us remember how to smile good. You can’t put a price on that, and the beautiful thing about it is: Chance has never tried to.
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REVIEWS
REVIEW JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 2 WORDS: KAMBOLE CAMPBELL
ohn Wick isn’t just played by Keanu, he is Keanu. The role is a mostly physical performance, both in the fight scenes and the moments in between, gaining a surprising amount of pathos between killing sprees from just the sadness that emanates from his performance.
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When he’s not amassing a body count that would make Darth Vader sweat, you can feel Wick desperately trying to claw back his humanity, as any evidence of it is (quite literally) burned away. It’s a testament to Reeves, or maybe just the desensitisation of cinema audiences to violence, that he still makes us care about his life outside of being “Baba Yaga”. John Wick: Chapter 2 is an extension of the first film in almost every way, building not just on the violence and blunt one-liners, but also the mythology of the world that the film inhabits. The society of rule-abiding assassins gets a whole new subset of rules, one
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of which kicks the narrative into motion - a blood oath that Wick made in order to leave his life as a contract killer, which is now being called in. Director Chad Strahelski and writer Derek Kolstad mine plenty of intrigue and humour out of the society’s rigid code of conduct. A standout sequence has two highly trained assassins (played by Common, of all people) having to call a hilariously uneasy truce due to the Continental’s (assassin hotel) “no killing” rule. The plot is slightly more complicated this time around, and perhaps not quite as satisfying as the absurd revenge plot of Wick gunning down the killers of his dog, but there’s still plenty of heart-stopping, hair raising action to go around. The video game sensibilities of the John Wick films are undeniable, as Reeve’s stoic, lone protagonist carves through wave after wave of faceless hitmen (and women). There’s even a direct visual reference to Grand Theft Auto that
can be seen in a bird’s eye view camera shot of Wick charging to his next enemy. The nature of Reeves as a blank cipher only enhances this experience - it’s hard to be concerned for Wick’s safety, nor do we care - the only thing that matters is the next time Wick blows someone away. This combined with the broad, almost ethereal presence of enemy agents is absurd, but makes for a hellishly entertaining action flick, where everyone from a hotel concierge to a homeless man on the subway could be holding a pistol behind their back. Reeve’s former stunt double Chad Strahelski returns to direct (this time, alone - the first film was also helmed by fellow stuntman-turneddirector David Leitch), bringing with him the style of shooting that made John Wick such a breakout hit for fans of action cinema. Every shot is constructed to show every single bit of choreography, and in turn Reeve’s dedication to the role. Long takes and wide shots are the
EP REVIEW: WILLIAM CONTROL – THE BLACK EP WORDS: RAI JANE HEARSE
name of the game here, again heralding a departure from the Bourne-inspired quick-cuts and camera shake. It’s pretty too; along with the new setting of Rome, John Wick: Chapter 2 finds Reeves murdering people in lavish interiors, from old Roman architecture to a weird art exhibit. There was plenty to be skeptical about when John Wick: Chapter 2 was announced, especially considering how much of the joy derived from the first one is based on how unique it is among other action films - it’s hard to imagine that more of the same would hold up. And yet, here we are. John Wick Chapter 2 is a highly refined action sequel, that improves on almost everything that there is to love about the first film without running any of its quirks into the ground. Bring on John Wick: Chapter 3.
illiam Control is back with the second release in his Revelations series. The Black EP, the follow up to 2016’s The Pale, sees the former Aiden frontman continue to deliver his distinct brand of sexy, gothic electro.
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The opening track, ‘Analog Flesh In A Digital World’ is an instant floor filler with its sexy synths and catchy hooks. As the strongest track on the record it conjures images of a smoky, gothic nightclub, a party atmosphere full of sex and darkness. It’s as though She Wants Revenge and Orgy’s cover of New Order’s ‘Blue Monday’ met and produced this gothicelectro love child – it’s pretty beautiful. A deeper bassline is the focus for the moody second track, ‘All I Need’, but the drums and earworm of a chorus ensures that it retains that sexual-disco vibe. Control’s sultry tones compliment the 80s arrangement perfectly and this song wouldn’t be at all out of place on the soundtrack
of Joel Schumacher’s seminal vampire movie, The Lost Boys. ‘Knife Play’ is a great classic synth hit and although the tempo is significantly slower than the previous two songs it still has a sensual danciness to it. If you’re a goth/alternative music fan but not too sure about electro, or if you’re an electro-freak but never really ventured past the happy, shiny stuff into the darkness then The Black EP is the perfect crossover collection. Closing the record is the piano ballad ‘Velvet Rose’, a sombre but moving track that really shows off Control’s exquisite vocals. Though this is the final song of the EP it doesn’t quite feel right to end on, so it’s a good job we have two more Revelations installments to look forward to. In typical William Control style he is enjoying teasing his fans with sexy little snippets of luscious music, keeping them waiting and begging for more. William Control’s voice was made for this genre and hopefully he will continue in this vein. The Black EP is out now via Control Records.
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FINAL WORD
FINAL WORD
WORDS: AMY WATSON irstly, I have to start by saying: 2017, you’re becoming just as bad as 2016. We’ve prematurely lost a fair few popular names and faces over the last 18 months, and Bill Paxton is no exception. I fell in love with him in the 1996 film Twister, which I saw on TV aged just six years old late one night when my mum had gone out. I distinctly remember my babysitter entering the room as she saw me completely and utterly ensconced by scenes of tornadoes tearing through North America, with huge, tough 4x4s ripping through dirt roads and blasting out loud classic rock.
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“I think this film might be a bit old for you, Amy”, she said. Mesmerised, I sat there in rapture, watching Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt screech in fear and ecstasy as they ploughed through a house that rolled into their path and gazed at the almost hypnotic display of cows whirling around their vehicle mid-tornado. “No, it’s fine!” I insisted, and ever since I’ve simply adored that film (I ended up being allowed to stay up to watch it). The late and beloved Philip Seymour Hoffman cast as lax but loveable Dusty was brilliant, and Carey Elwes is more than memorable in his role as Jonas, the arrogant, naïve, heavily financed competitor of the group. Twister is clichéd in places, heart-wrenching in others, and I genuinely adore Bill Paxton throughout. As the narrative progresses we find that Bill(y) was once a wild, ambitious, passionate man with hopes and dreams, who after the breakup of his volatile relationship with
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IN MEMORY OF BILL PAXTON Jo ended up a staid, career-minded and very typical everyday American. Watching him fall back into the clutches of the twisters and his ex-wife is genuinely pleasurable: it’s like watching a trapped bird break out of its cage. As much as I love his character in Twister, I can’t help but warm to him in Aliens too. Paxton’s vaguely dense and easily panicked character Private Hudson could never match up to Ripley’s logical and somewhat slick demeanour, but his onscreen relationship with Sigourney Weaver when the mission starts to go down the tubes is arguably one of his best performances. Then there’s Titanic where he plays the initially greedy but eventually remorseful Brock Lovett, chasing ‘the heart of the ocean’ just as fervently as Bill Harding chases tornadoes in Twister. Wherever you’ve seen Bill Paxton, and whether you loved him or not, it would be foolish to deny the obvious loss to cinema that the world has experienced upon his passing. Whilst we can (and should) mourn his premature death, what we can be grateful for is that like many of his counterparts who we’ve also lost in recent months, his image and memory will be forever immortalised on our screens. It’s cruel that such a bold and brilliant actor should be taken from us so soon, and for me, watching ‘Twister’ will never be quite the same again, but I grew up with that film and I intend to continue to revisit it and the euphoria it gives me for as long as I’m on this earth. Thank you Mr. Paxton, and may you rest in peace.
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