ZIGGY June 15

FLORENCE + THE MACHINE Big, blue and beautiful

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$ Free June 2015

The Teen Age Issue Charli XCX Donnie Darko Julia Cumming Backstreet Boys Daria Morgendorffer

Contents 4

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FEATURE: TEENAGE KICKS Going from invisible to invincible, the power of teenagers as only grown as fast and wild as any teen-driven car. Behold this selection of music movements that in being made by and for adolescents, just can’t help the teen spirit.

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Screen: Daria TV’s teen cynic is positively negative

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Résumé: Taylor Swift Tay Tay’s swift ascent from country to Haim

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Genius: Jonathan Richman You don’t have to be a teen to be a teen

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Lookbook: Julia Cumming for Saint Laurent The sound and style of the new Saint Laurent girl

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Incoming: Florence + The Machine “We wanted it to sound like Tom Petty taking off on a jet plane in the ‘70s”

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Collection: Bella Freud for Fred Perry Back to the dancehall we go

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Shopping: Teenage Wasteland The interior decorating habits of on-screen teens made chic

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Talk: Charli XCX “I want people to feel free and alive

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Talk: Spoon “We’ve made a lot of good ones”

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Talk: Markus Lupfer “You have to do what you believe is right for yourself”

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Explore: W Retreat & Spa Bali We down a chill pill for a weekend in the embrace of W Bali

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Listings: ATTAGIRL! 2nd Anniversary x Good Times Girls bonding over music and art? We’ll take it!

Hello 6

#38: THE TEEN AGE ISSUE

“I hope I die before I get old” – The Who, “My Generation”

Editor in chief

General Manager

Writer

Account Manager

Editorial Intern

Contributors

Min Chen min@ziggymag.sg

Indran P indran@ziggymag.sg

Lee Xin-rui

Yu-Jin Lau jin@ziggymag.sg +65 9844 4417

Lydia Chow lydia@ziggymag.sg

Amanda Tan Chuck Reyes Ivanho Harlim Marie Liang Rosalind Chua Shysilia Novita

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or part without permission from the publishers. The views expressed in ZIGGY are those of the respective contributors and are not necessarily shared by the magazine or its staff. Every effort has been made to ensure all information in the magazine is correct at the time it is sent to print.

MCI (P) 067/04/2015 ZIGGY is published every month by Qwerty Publishing Pte Ltd. Printed in Singapore by Also Dominie Pte Ltd (L029/09/2013) Bye, you guys!

Introduction 8

THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART Oh, grow up!

Immature, rebellious, angsty, frivolous and ready with an existential crisis triggered by every math assignment – those of us who dwell in the space between the blissful ignorance of childhood and the self-realisation of adulthood don’t always get the best of reps. Then again, slack has to be cut here: for all the youthful good times that teen-hood promises us, it also brings with it a fair amount of soul-searching, existential questioning and OMG, future-building. And all that’s without the external pressures of peers, parents and social media, which, on top of the initial stress of becoming your own person, ask only that you do it in in a socially and Instagramly acceptable way.

Being a teenager looks easy but it sure isn’t, you guys!

Props, then, to history’s teenagers, who despite everything, press on in questioning the foundations of their moral compass, making full use of their metabolism by ordering up another drink, learning what music to listen to and what clothes to wear, picking up on ideals and pretentions, knowing it all, and in general, making the best of a very teeny

situation. Evidence of the above is scattered all over pop and web culture – the first and last bastions of teen angst, dreams, lust and sorrow – in songs, books, films and blogs made by, for and with teenagers. Besides legitimising and providing outlets for every adolescent urge, they’re also the best insights into just how awesome and awful being a teenager actually is.

And that’s where we take our cues for our sprightly little Teen Age Issue. It’s a celebration of the best/worst time of our lives, as well as various magnificent teen specimens, from the teenybopping likes of Backstreet Boys and Justin Bieber, to the budding artistic voices like Stephen Dedalus’, to the fringe heroics of Daria and Katniss Everdeen, and to world-moving forces like Tavi Gevinson and Taylor Swift. If the few certainties in life are death and adolescence, then you really can only make the best of one of ‘em. Sure, growing up is hard and awkward to do, but it’s the only time you’ll have (or had) to be smarter, faster and weirder than any generation before you. Have at it, young padawans.

Introduction 9

Listomania 10

YOUNG, WILD AND FREE Get ready to dance, sweat and feel with these revved up teen anthems Words: Indran P

Trail of Dead: “A Perfect Teenhood” How’s this for an us-against-theworld teenage war cry: with a hook like, “Tommy gun / Bloodlust / A perfect teenhood”, coming at you with an uppercut’s force of riff-led rhythm, this is the quintessential don’t-mess-with-me song.

Kindness: “For The Young” “Oh, look at me would you! I’ve barely been alive for more than a decade but I’m suffering from a full-blown existential crisis!”

– this is what Adam Bainbridge implies in this beautiful ode to transcendental sadness, which is really much ado about nothing.

The Runaways: “Cherry Bomb” The audacity with which Cherie Currie sneers, “Hello daddy, hello mom / I’m your ch-ch-ch-chch-cherry bomb!” is a testament to the perennial teenage mission statement of making the parents squirm.

Japandroids: “Fire’s Highway” Wishing, wanting, dreaming – these things always seem to recede into the rearview as we grow older. But it’s with the sincerest urgency and the most earnestly summoned guitar-drum wallop that Japandroids invoke those earlier days, that “one night to have and to hold”.

Iggy Pop: “Sixteen” There’s something infectious, something dangerously enveloping about the descent into the most primal depths of one’s teen spirit.

And Iggy, who wrote this song long after he was 16, is living proof.

Migos: “Young Rich Niggas” Even though flexing isn’t agespecific in rap, it’s understandably more pronounced amongst its youngblood. Here’s a masterclass from the best in the game: “Every time I’m on the phone, we talkin’ ‘bout some money / I weigh it up, and wrap it up, I ship it across the country”.

The Cramps: “I Was A Teenage Werewolf” Fact: Your body changes at the first blush of your teenage years. And thanks to Lux Interior’s winking, prurient wit, those “puberty rights and puberty wrongs” are equated with turning into a werewolf.

Beware the bloodthirsty teenagers then, with “braces on [their] fangs”.

Lookbook 12

HERE SHE COMES NOW Julia Cumming dons the black and white for Saint Laurent Words: Min Chen Hedi Slimane has never been shy about how much he digs rock ‘n’ roll. His listening habits have informed his photography and design, and more so, have ascribed a whole new way of life at Saint Laurent. Over at the house, music rules, not just on its runways, which have seen leather and glitter being expended in the name of rock ‘n’ roll, but also in its campaigns like the Saint Laurent Music Project and the incoming Paris Sessions. And in a bid for

authenticity, all of the above come anchored by real-life musicians – from the up-and-coming likes of Rex Osterkamp to buzz-making types like Clementine Creevy to big guns like Kim Gordon, Daft Punk and lately, Joni Mitchell.

They aren’t just mere faces, of course, but act as inspirations, muses and lenders of credibility to meet Saint Laurent’s cool.

This season, a new Saint Laurent girl has been crowned. Closing in

on the footsteps of Sky Ferreira before her, the 19-year-old Julia Cumming has walked Saint Laurent’s shows for the past three seasons, served as inspiration for its latest Fall/Winter ’15 collection and can also be seen looking spiffy in its newest campaign. All that’s on top of Cumming’s musical endeavours as the frontwoman of Sunflower Bean, the New Yorkbased trio that’s been leaning into neo-psych-punk with a youthful gusto. And the teen’s done well

reconciling her work in music and fashion: “In my mind, I’m just trying to make art.” She also nods Saint Laurent’s way with, “I think what it tries to do for musicians is more authentic that what I think has ever been done before.” True words: with Saint Laurent doing the driving and the likes of Julia Cumming in for the ride, the distance between the stage and the runway has again gotten that much smaller.

Screen 14

THROUGH A LENS DARKLY The sick, sad world according to Daria Morgendorffer Words: Min Chen

Being a teenager is the best, but also, the worst. For every opportunity that youth affords teens to live up and party down, they’re also confronted with a wave of societal expectations, high-school hierarchies, beauty standards and peer pressures that ask that they belong or be elsewhere. It’s a sick, sad business, and between 1997 and 2001, Daria Morgendorffer had to live with it. The star of the once-cult, now-iconic MTV-produced animated series, Daria was the archetypal smart, disaffected and sardonic high school outcast, whose amazingly dry monotone could be counted on for witty and withering quips (“I don’t have low self-esteem; I have low esteem for everyone else”), and whose integrity never bent back for anyone’s popularity

vote. Taking no prisoners and no bullsh*t, her self-isolation and outsider status meant she ranked way below Lawndale High’s airheaded cheerleaders, guileless quarterbacks and shallow Fashion Club members (of which, her sister, Quinn, was vice president), but Daria never wanted a part of that anyway. “I’m not miserable,” she declares in “The Misery Chick”, “I’m just not like them.”

Then again, Daria has never been less than aware that her alienation also acts as her most effective defense. In “Gifted”, when taken to task about her negative approach to everything, she counters, “I’m too smart and too sensitive to live in a world like ours, at a time like this, with a sister like mine. Maybe I do miss out on stuff, but this attitude is

what works for me now.” The only thing to be even mildly successful at softening Daria’s edges comes in the form of her bestie and partner-in-misanthropy, Jane Lane. Equally caustic and cynical, and yet, irreverent and less hungup where Daria’s plainly rigid (“I like having low self-esteem. It makes me feel special”), Jane wasn’t just our protagonist’s sounding board and shoulder to lean on, but her window to the possibility that things aren’t so sick and sad, always. It’s through Jane that Daria’s interactions with the world – summer camp, film projects, Trent-induced rashes, one navel piercing and that nut stand job – are ameliorated, especially if pizza is involved.

For a teen who began the series as a self-professed “cranky, know-it-

all curmudgeon”, the Daria that graduates from Lawndale High in the series finale Is It College Yet? boasts an emotional maturity and a willingness to engage beyond her comfort zone. Her worldview and ethics remain firmly her own, though she’s cracked her door open just enough to let the sun in. Not for nothing does she collect the Dian Fossey Award (“for dazzling academic achievements in face of near total misanthropy”) in her final episode with a speech that allows, “Stand firm for what you believe in, until and unless logic and experience prove you wrong.” This is a Daria that still won’t belong, but again and always, isn’t afraid to just be.

Résumé 16 LOW CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2009) In her acting debut, Taylor played a lip-piercing-bedecked girlfriend of a meth dealer. Throughout, her performance was stilted, bearing all the signs of a good girl overperforming bada**ery.

HIGH Billboard Woman of the Year (2011) Taylor was all of 22 when she received this honour, but also a multi-platinum, top-of-thepantheon triple-threat icon by this point. Let her have it.

TAYLOR SWIFT

From teen sensation to pop culture icon, Taylor Swift has made leaps and bounds that transcend her evolution from country star to pop monolith.

Here, we follow the trajectory of her memegenerating career from country to Haim.

Words: Indran P

OKAY Taylor Swift (2006) It’s hard to imagine that from this debut offering of country songs, a future world-conqueror and model crazy ex-girlfriend would arise. On serviceable but fangless hits like “Teardrops on My Guitar”, it seemed like all she wanted was a hug.

HIGH “Our Song” (2007) “I wrote it about this guy I was dating, and how we didn’t have a song. So I went ahead and wrote us one,” says Taylor about one of her best. Unlike its predecessors, this was earnest without being cloying. And its motive was hella sweet.

HIGH “Shake It Off” (2014) Taylor SwiftTM received a jaw-dropping update in this cut that had the once-vanilla starlet rapping, twerking and shrugging off the haters. Also, Kendrick Lamar freestyled over it, so, yes.

HIGH “You Belong With Me” (2009) The Great Taylor Swift Crossover Experiment began on this confident pop-informed country single about her not getting the guy she wants because of her selfdiagnosed “girl-next-door-itis” and made her a teen-girl prophetess.

HIGH “We Are Never Getting Back Together” (2012) Kathleen Hanna speaks for all of us: “I’m totally into Taylor Swift… I’m so happy she really cares about her female fans. She’s not catering to a male audience and is writing music for other girls”.

LOW John Mayer (2009) The disgraced man-child specimen that is John Mayer marked a low point in Taylor’s endeavours. In her scathing breakup anthem “Dear John”, she slammed the self-proclaimed “ego addict” for his “dark, twisted games” :( HIGH Speak Now (2010) Continuing her musical winning streak, Taylor’s third album and 10th best-selling album of all time evinced her ability to manipulate country to flavour her pop strides instead of the other way round.

HIGH Valentine’s Day (2010) Yes, the ensemble romantic comedy was a cliché-plagued flop.

But Taylor’s Felicia Miller was a charming and convincing portrait of a teenager navigating the mythic concerns of sex and love.

HIGH Fearless (2008) Besides being the album home to her best-selling song to date in “Love Story”, Taylor’s second coming also clinched a Grammy and remains the most awarded album in all of country music – proof that at 20, she had mastered her impossible-to-dislike charm.

HIGH Red (2012) Red was Taylor’s blockbuster pop-rock-dubstep-melding window into her inner life, episodic romances and wrestling match with fame, and all but erased away her aw-shucks country past.

OKAY “Innocent” (2010) Following that Kanye incident, Tay Tay played the diplomat with this breathy soft-rocking truce. But her high-horse-ry conflicted with passive-aggressivisms like, “Wasn’t it easier in your lunchbox days? / Always a bigger bed to crawl into”.

HIGH That Instagram photo with Haim (2015) Allegations of Photoshop fraud don’t detract from the unmatched glory of her friend-gathering prowess and the finality of her crossover appeal: everybody wants in, even indie-leaning trios haunted by the ghost of Stevie Nicks.

Rewind 17

WHEN WE WERE YOUNG Why is it that teenage kicks are so mythically high-stakes? In 2006, The Hold Steady supplied answers on their magnificently punch-drunk and victorious third album Boys and Girls In America in ways that ring true even today.

Words: Indran P Celebration rock The most powerfully poignant aspect about the teenage experience is that it’s the only time in one’s life when the muchadvertised transformative power of music, people and places can be felt most resonantly and indelibly.

And what makes this record such a definitive testament to this time is how it seizes upon the “Life Happened” theme and how richly detailed it is in its rendering of it. It was his story-mode songs about his young characters Charlemagne, Gideon and Holly and how they dealt with the circumstances they found themselves in that established Craig Finn as one of the best songwriters of his time. The record soars when its protagonists do, and in the boozedout, euphorically baked high times chronicled particularly vividly on “Stuck Between Stations”, “Massive Nights” and “Party Pit”,

Finn conjures true-to-life tableaux of teens relishing in the ecstasy of their present. How much more perfect could it be than when “every song was right” and when “everyone was funny and everyone was pretty?”

Paradise lost It’s funny that what gives those look-backs to our pleasureobsessed teenage years that awe-inspiring quality owes as much to “crushing lows” as well as the “massive highs”. Rarely are the situations described in songs written so relatably for those who are listening to them as they are here and in having his characters treat every day like it’s the last day of school, Finn makes the seeming finality of their decisions resound with monumental force.

In every song, the pursuit of sexual or narcotic happiness always ends in two outcomes. And it’s in the bad endings that we see the beginnings of teen mettle: “Hot Soft Light”’s recreational user resolves to “end the session” after it “got medical”; on “Citrus”, a wounded heart inches towards growth with the admission, “I’ve had kisses that make Judas seem sincere”. Escapism is a teenage rite

of passage, after all, and Boys and Girls In America is a hi-def view of the other side.

Once in a lifetime Everything burns brighter than it does in reality when you’re a teen.

You have to be a teen to feel the colossal reverberations of life as an amplified phenomenon and the band’s greatest coup here is how sincerely and compellingly it captures this feeling. From kissing a stranger, to shooting up, the episodes here produce an emotional blast that inspires self-actualisation, which at a later time, would mostly be dismissed by the advent of “maturity” as a trifle.

Until then, this record is proof that it’s totally okay to “feel Jesus in the clumsiness of young and awkward lovers”.

Genius 18

JONATHAN RICHMAN IS ETERNALLY TEEN How the Modern Lovers frontman remains a fount of undying adolescent passion Words: Indran P

“You gotta come see this weird guy.

He’s really nuts, but he sounds very cool,” this is how future Modern Lovers bassist Ernie Brooks remembers being made aware of Jonathan Richman’s existence in 1971. It was the band’s keyboardist Jerry Harrison who furnished the introduction, laying the bricks for the legend of his band’s frontman, a legend that radiated outward and endures till today. And why was he so cool? Not because he commandeered one of the most criminally unnoticed indie bands ever, or because he had a look that was dashing in its countercultural anti-everything pose – that would’ve been too easy. Unlike iconoclasts like Lou Reed and Iggy Pop whom he adored, Richman was a square, a perennial doofus who never stopped singing about his wide-eyed, unabashedly heartfelt outlook with a naïve yearning that just oozed script-flipping charm.

Into the giddily burgeoning punk scene of early ‘70s New York, where heroes like The Velvet Underground and the New York Dolls were being made, Richman entered like an awkward teen. And this rep would be crystalised forever in 1976 on the first and only album released by The Modern Lovers.

Before, “Roadrunner” ushered the self-titled record in and in its driving-as-transcendence essence, intimated the scope of Richman’s genius. While he sung about chasing the thrill of “Going faster miles an hour”, he also

evinced a certain youthful purity in sentiments expressed by the line, “I’m in love with the radio on”, which, when coupled with the open-hearted follow-up, “It helps me from being alone late at night”, felt like a cathartic exhale. Even in this isolated instance, he was a paradigm-shifter at a time when his scene stood for nothing less than transgression and confrontation.

That teens could relate to “Roadrunner” is a dull thing to say, because when else is the possibility of loneliness that terrifying? But Richman didn’t just stop at diaristic confessionals. On low-key bluesrock ditties like “Astral Plane” and “Hospital”, he turned his awkwardness towards the opposite sex into a calling card, consistently basking in the tortured-yetsublime tentativeness of his early encounters with girls even in late-period songs, especially 2008’s punning masterpiece “The Lovers Are Here and They’re Full of Sweat”: “They’re the ones who laugh and cry / And they take so long to say goodbye / ‘Cos they’re lovers.”

That he’s maintained this level of honesty, humour and rose-scented optimism as a man now in his 60s is nothing short of spectacular.

Unlike many of his peers, he never went over the hill, playing live shows in small rooms to this very day. So if going against the grain and doing the things that you believe in makes you a teen, then Richman is still very much one.

Bookmark 19

YOUTH IN REVOLT

Four books in which no one’s adolescence is Sweet Valley High Words: Min Chen

THE VIRGIN SUICIDES

BY JEFFREY EUGENIDES

“You’re not even old enough to know how bad life gets,” says a doctor to young Cecilia Lisbon after her first suicide attempt.

“Obviously, Doctor,” she counters, “you’ve never been a 13-year-old girl.” That’s all the reason we’re going to get in Eugenides’ first novel as the five Lisbon sisters take their lives over the course of two summers, leaving behind only the haziest of clues for a group of boys to piece together. They uncover no answers, but their undertaking says enough about adolescent love, loss and loneliness, and the impossibility of recapturing any of it.

GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN

BY JAMES BALDWIN

A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN

BY JAMES JOYCE

Literature is crammed full of disaffected, romantic teenagers, questing for meaning in their young lives, and by and large, they’ve all had to stand in the shadow cast by Stephen Dedalus.

The original Angry Young Man, James Joyce’s creation (and alter-ego) is fairly archetypal in his adolescent tribulations, crises of an existential nature, and rage against the institutions of home, fatherland and church.

What crowns this Portrait, though, is Stephen’s eventual and joyous aesthetic revelation on the Dollymount Strand that sees him give his life over to creativity, beauty and truth with the pronouncement: “I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can.” It’s a grand moment that, while cut with just a smidge of pretension and naïve bliss (he’s a teenager, after all), rejoices in the utterly youthful prerogative to “live, to err, to fall, to triumph, to recreate life out of life”.

James Baldwin’s semiautobiographical tale of his coming-of-age in a pre-Civil Rights Harlem unfolds in the shadow of injustice and inequality as much as under the fire and brimstone of the church. His stand-in, the 14-year-old John Grimes, negotiates a dark night of the soul, recounting the Biblewaving hypocrisy of his parents, undergoing a spiritual and moral awakening, and uncovering his very own identity as much as the experience of being black in a ‘30s America. Baldwin’s rhapsodic prose lends the proceedings an extra lyricism: “He was filled with a joy, a joy unspeakable, whose roots, though he would not trace them on this new day of his life, were nourished by the wellspring of a despair not yet discovered.”

THE HUNGER GAMES

BY SUZANNE COLLINS

Before becoming the allconsuming, Jennifer Lawrencestarring franchise it now is, The Hunger Games was Suzanne Collins’ post-apocalyptic landscape where youths are made to fight it out in an annual culling exercise.

These titular games were also arenas where Collins would unravel social and political complexities, besides giving the world the plucky teen heroine that is Katniss Everdeen, whose tenacity and spirit never once required the odds to be in her favour.

Runway 20

Olympia Le-Tan Spring/Summer 2015

Marc by Marc Jacobs Resort 2015

Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2015

Gucci Resort 2015

Tommy Hilfiger Fall/Winter 2015

TOO SCHOOL FOR COOL Prep yourself Words: Min Chen Academia may not be the most stylish or sexiest thing ever, but fashion has long begged to differ. On its runways have the Ivy League, collegiate sports and boarding school uniforms been reborn as smart and preppy silhouettes so much so that you don’t have to be part of the academic elite to look like you are. As Ralph Lauren, the man behind the preppiest brand of all time, once said, “People ask how can a Jewish kid from the Bronx do preppy clothes. Does it have to do with class and money? It has to do with dreams.” Those

collegiate dreams have indeed fueled labels like Brooks Brothers and Tommy Hilfiger, and lately, have also encouraged a preppy resurgence of chinos, sports jackets, penny loafers, Oxford shirts and the like. More of such blazer-wearing and satchelcarrying options litter the latest Resort collections of Gucci and Marc by Marc Jacobs, while Louis Vuitton, Olympia Le-Tan and of course, Tommy Hilfiger wink at us from across the runway with schoolgirly cuts that are by turns playful, strict and sporty. School’s out? Not quite yet.

Lookbook 21

WE ARE YOUNG! Kendall Jenner brings teen spirit to Calvin Klein Jeans Words: Min Chen Last year, Calvin Klein launched its #mycalvins campaign, which engulfed social media with selfies taken by celebs and common folk in their favourite Calvin Kleins. To date, the hashtag has generated more than 13 million interactions across 25 countries, and amongst those impressive numbers lies a contribution from Kendall Jenner herself. The 19-year-old model’s participation in the #mycalvins

campaign, however, won’t just be ending at a selfie and a hashtag, now that the brand has stepped in and appointed her the new face of its latest limited edition line. And as Jenner would say so herself, it’s “really a dream come true”.

Calvin Klein Jeans’ #mycalvins Denim Series emerges directly from CK’s wildly successful

social media crusade and in that same dynamically young spirit, leans onto a logo-heavy, athletic aesthetic. The campaign images, photographed by Alasdair McLellan and styled by Melanie Ward, come bearing CK’s spare yet sensual visual signatures, and see Jenner paired with Simon Nessman in an array of sweatshirts, jeans and washed jeans. Says Kevin Carrigan, the

man behind the #mycalvins range, “These are the perfect essentials for an active, youthful lifestyle like Kendall’s.” And however minimal, the campaign, anchored by Jenner’s bright-eyed beauty and spirit, has more than got its fresh face forward.

Shop Calvin Klein Jeans #mycalvins Denim Series at Paragon, #02-33/34

Genius 22 fashion and designers that were precocious and not without a teen-y artlessness. A post on a Yohji Yamamoto collection read, “I love it mostly for the model alone.

He looks so mysterious, and like he should be sitting on a bench in the rain reciting Poe or playing a cello on the roof of a train.” Her “About Me” section went further: “I like to think I’m a mix of Little Lu Lu and Iggy Pop, with a bit of Snoop Doggy Dog… I take part in a rap group with a pirate, and we write about Japanese designers and furry vests.”

TAVI GEVINSON STARTS A BLOG How an adolescent and her Internet connection ruled fashion Words: Min Chen

Good, bad or ugly, the relationship between teenage girls and the Internet has roots that go deeper than a Geocities website.

Though generally a rat’s nest of trolls, the virtual world has long been providing teens a refuge, a distraction and a learning experience, and when it comes to online publishing, an outlet for their obsessions, self-doubt and attempts at poetry, allowing them to be seen and yet, unseen. Numberless Blogspots, LiveJournals and Tumblrs have since been home to teen-girl rantings and ramblings, as much as a nerve center where adolescent friendships are formed, communities built and voices heard – for serious. So when a 12-yearold Tavi Gevinson started her own blog, Style Rookie, in March 2008, it seemed to be just another addition to the online teen-girl chorus. Except that it wasn’t.

In a time before street fashion and #ootds were actual things, Style Rookie simply saw Gevinson get herself up in outlandish outfits that showcased her distinctive taste as much as her preternatural handle on fashion. Accompanying these self-portraits were also Gevinson’s musings and commentary on

If the casual reader found Style Rookie irresistible (and there were 30,000 of them each day), the fashion world was practically foaming at the mouth for Tavi’s personal style and original voice.

Two years after her first blog post, Gevinson had been to both Paris and New York Fashion Weeks, graced magazine covers, styled shoots, written articles and provided inspiration for the Rodarte sisters. Not bad for a blog that its founder started to “liven things up” because, “Life is boring in 6th grade.”

Tavi Gevinson’s immense success, though, wouldn’t just be hers alone: her rise to prominence equally saw teenagers and their online endeavours being taken very seriously indeed. Of course, there’ve been naysayers who’ve seen Tavi as a short-lived gimmick or fashion plate, forgetting that, hey, the world – virtual or otherwise – is for the young to inherit. It’s a responsibility that Gevinson has not taken lightly, as Style Rookie has since paved the way for Rookie Magazine, an online magazine dedicated to teen concerns, issues and creativity beyond fashion, and featuring contributions from fellow teenagers, as well as guest contributors like Miranda July, John Waters, Lena Dunham and Thom Yorke. Says Tavi, “I’ve been looking to other places for creative outlet and for inspiration. Now I’m more intrigued by mixing fashion with the other stuff I’ve been enjoying.” Rookie, though, doesn’t just reflect the evolving interests of its editor, but in its execution, lends a great deal of credence to teen-girl expression in a way that Twilight couldn’t. Thank heaven, then, for little girls who love to play dress-up.

Seriously 23

BOY ZONE

With 1997’s Backstreet’s Back, AJ, Kevin, Brian, Howie and Nick all but ensured that N*SYNC would forever be known as the other boy band. Built on feels as much as hooks, the album propelled the fab five to the zenith of the teen pop pantheon. Also, it spoke to you.

Words: Indran P Sound: Like teenage hearts beating The “band” in “boy band” has long been a glaring fallacy because none of the boys ever play any instruments. But this misnomer still prevails because the boy band was always more than just a musical construct. As the living avatars of the Teen Age, it’s the teenage ideal focus-grouped into faultless perfection. And so, a teen-inspired product like Backstreet’s Back bowed to the order of the zeitgeist and distilled all that was trending musically in 1997 into the “pop” of its day. Borne by the twin currents of “style” and “feel”, the sounds on this record simulate teenage yearning on soulful r&b-lite cuts like “As Long As You Love Me” and “All I Have To Give”, and exhort teenage exuberance on dance-implying hits like “Everybody” and “Hey Mr. DJ”. When the aim is to appeal as broadly as possible to a demographic renowned for its

emotional expressiveness and need for release, following a formula can’t hurt. And in doing so, Backstreet set a gold standard.

Message: Backstreet’s back After their first album Backstreet Boys, village curmudgeon Robert Christgau accused the band of “genius teensploitation”.

It’s pointless arguing over how much “intent” is influenced by “expectation”, but the old grump was right in affirming how well the Backstreet Boys knew their audience. In this respect, the focus of Backstreet was simple and ingenious: “Everybody”. Even today it doesn’t get any more inclusive than, “Everybody, yeah / Rock your body, yeah.” And if you didn’t know how to commit to the feel-good abandon, fret not ‘cos the Backstreet Boys are “gonna bring the flavour [and] show you how”. Likewise, the love-pledging effusions that suffused the album begged not for “subtext”, but guaranteed that the boys were

there for you, and from them, you could learn, love and live.

Even the invitingly titled “That’s What She Said” stands for the passionately simple literality of following the Boys’ lead in loving on despite being wronged.

Legacy: Subject to listener Of course, something as userspecific as this is bound to have a sell-by date. Few things are universal all the time and if you’re no longer what the shorthand of “impressionable” suggests, it’d be unwise to regard the revelations of the record as gospel. But if you belong in the target audience or if you just want to throwback to those younger days, then Backstreet’s Back.

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TRUE ROMANCE

Stolen looks, hearts driven to near-palpitation, the helpless feeling of having an external force take over your very being as the walls of cynicism crumble around you – that’s what love, or at least the first blush of love, feels like.

Below, we examine the anatomy of the scene-defying phenomenon that is the Apple-Of-My-Eye love song.

Words: Indran P Nothing without you More than the overt simplification of vague truisms like, “The heart wants what the heart wants”, it’s the wisdom of the medieval bard Geoffrey Chaucer that illumines the essence of love. Comparing the yearning for the love object to a “quenchless fire”, he wrote that its only aim was to “burn up everything that burnt can be”. Anyone who’s “been there” can attest to the sacrificial bent of the heart’s first stirrings and music history is rife with these telling effusions. Bruno Mars

will “catch a grenade for you”; on “Thinking Bout You” one of the most self-immolating confessionals in recent memory, Frank Ocean is on his knees fighting back obsessive thoughts of his not-yet beloved; and on “Ambulance”, TV On the Radio emote more viscerally with, “I will be your accident / If you will be my ambulance”. Throwing back, Lionel Ritchie and Diana Ross said it best on the perennial heartmelter “Endless Love”: “You’re every breath that I take / You’re every step I make”.

Mine, all mine As an infinitely complex facet of human relationships, love most certainly isn’t immune to drama, the oft-documented acute stage of love-paralysis. With heart overpowering head by this point, possessiveness and ownership begin to colour the humble fixation on that special someone.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ seemingly innocuous, “They don’t love you like I love you” refrain on “Maps” is instructional in this regard. But no one in contemporary pop is guiltier of this dominance-by-

pining ethos than Ed Sheeran. His Nice Guy schtick belies a frankly twisted sensitivity that positions him as the infallibly ideal lover bar none: it’s all him on “One” and “Thinking Out Loud” and especially on “The Man” (uh huh), where he lays down the law: “The irony is if my career and music didn’t exist / In six years, yeah, you’d probably be my wife with a kid”. Feint misogyny aside, ask yourself: Can you really blame him for feeling that way?

Forever in you Lastly, the most vital ingredient in these songs is the foreverand-ever narrative. This is why “Uptown Funk” is firmly excluded from this category. Projections into eternity always play up the fantastical quality of one heart locking in on another, and whether a moment holds the significance of a lifetime, like on Suede’s “Stay Together”, or if as it goes on The Flaming Lips’ “Do You Realize?”, the world’s about to end, or as Jenny Lewis wistfully contemplates on “Love U Forever”, it’s always assumed that “our” love will last a lifetime – because that’s how high the stakes are.

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TEENAGE KICKS Going from invisible to invincible in a single lifetime, teenagers continue to run the world in loud and fashionable ways Words: Min Chen

COMING OF AGE

Before World War II, teenagers didn’t exist. There were children and there were adults, and the rest of the people caught between childhood and adulthood were simply known as adolescents. Too young to be a grown-up and too old to be a kid (hence, Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women), they were largely disregarded and left to their own devices, seen and not heard from. All that changed in the ‘50s, when the end of the war exploded the economic markets in America and Europe, bestowing jobs upon everyone and leisure time for all. Every child and adult stood to benefit, and finally and more directly, every adolescent too.

The post-war period may have birthed the teenager, but also likely, the teenager was invented

exactly for such an era. Shorn of responsibilities to country and family, the ‘50s teens had all the leisure time and spending power in the world to form identities, grow up (or not) and positively revel in the experience of being young.

Armed with these new freedoms, they danced, drank, watched movies, dated, drove fast cars, daydreamed, shopped, rebelled, formed bands, held hands, went to bed in the wee hours and got up to do it all over again. As psychologist G. Stanley Hall so presciently put it in 1904, “Adolescence is a new birth.”

These new births of the 1950s would bear significant impact on individual households – instigating a generation gap that further singled out the teenage class – and more vitally, on pop and consumer culture as well. Probably one of the first mediums to immortalise,

legitimise and ignite the teenage experience, rock ’n’ roll hit big in ’55, circulating its tales of adolescent shenanigans behind an audacious backbeat that made no bones of its lack of innocence.

And neither, too, would the ‘50s teen. In fact, more than eager to delineate their own identities, teenagers formed tribes, subcultures and communities, secondary families that cultivated a sense of belonging and ironically, individuality. Hearts were worn upon sleeves: rockers took to leathers, teddy boys fronted Zoot angles and mods had their tailored suits. And makers of fashion, record players, magazines, coffees and TV shows had the world’s first teenage demographic.

More than just another target group to be marketed at, the teenagers that came after the ‘50s would also come to shape and

shift trends and cultures. Punks, pop stars, nouvelle vague, Harry Potter are just some cultural milestones we now have, thanks to the dreams and desires of the young. In many ways, to come of age is to come into being, and even better to come into being in a world that’s ready to be remade and remodelled in your image.

As the following selection of teen-centered music movements show, it is indeed a young person’s world. And since they’re doing the driving, be ready to go fast.

A teenage sport More than any other sound, rock ‘n’ roll is eternally and defiantly young. Its appeal wasn’t just built into its relentless groove or beat that must’ve been grating to pre‘50s ears, but in its red-blooded, hot-headed newness. Rock ‘n’ roll was so excited and exciting, centered on the most simplest of

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concerns – 1) cars, 2) girls and/or 3) partying – and yet, so utterly vital and evocative of the 1950s teenage experience in America and Britain. And like any teen age, a rock ’n’ roll single or singer could only claim a short shelf life before being cleared away for the next big bang, though the effects of each explosion remain thoroughly permanent.

With a literal snap, crackle and pop, rock ‘n’ roll entered the world’s bloodstream in ‘55 with the release of Bill Haley & His Comets’ “Rock Around The Clock”. An irresistible blend of country and rhythm & blues, the single soundtracked a spot of juvenile delinquency in the opening sequence of 1955’s Blackboard Jungle, and from there, would go on to top charts, start riots and unbolt the door for the rest of rock ’n’ roll to

follow. Granted, Haley’s hit was no frontrunner: he’d had several chart successes in the form of “Crazy Man Crazy” and “Shake, Rattle and Roll”, and that rockin’ and rollin’ thump was already familiar in the world of jump blues. Then again, none had the sheer anthemic quality of “Rock Around The Clock”, with its galvanising call-to-arms, “If the band slows down, we’ll yell for more / We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight”, that more than endeared it to the teenage instinct.

Of course, the grown-up world saw rock ‘n’ roll as a mere flash in the pan, with Frank Sinatra, for one, deriding it as “the martial music of every side-burned delinquent on the face of the earth” – which, to the new teenage ears, might as well have been a compliment. But naturally,

Uncle Sinatra had to disapprove: this stuff was mad, bad and unwieldy, playing by no one’s rules but by the worst thing ever: the adolescent impulse. That’s why, amongst the Little Richards, Gene Vincents, Chuck Berrys and Elvii that came to rule the rock ’n’ roll market (alongside Tin Pan Alley’s whitewashed creations), it was the youthful likes of Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran that best embodied teenage frustration and yearning. Revisit “Summertime Blues”, “Peggy Sue” or “C’mon Everybody” for exercises so joyous (“Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty Peggy Sue”) and untamed (“When you hear that music you just can’t sit still”) that they could only come from a teenager. It’s enough to make you yell for more.

Young, loud and snotty For all its early claims on youth,

rock ‘n’ roll would, sadly, not be young forever. And just as it arrived to sweep Sinatra and his ilk away, ’twas only a matter of time before rock ‘n’ roll itself lost its bounce and elasticity, and fossilised into yesterday’s business. In the late-‘70s, English punk saw it out. Like any proper adolescent, punk was outspoken in its rebellion and plainly anarchic, where rock ‘n’ roll only dropped sly hints. Best of all, punk was largely run by actual teenagers: John Lydon was 19 when he become Rotten, Pete Shelley was similarly young when he logged membership in the Buzzcocks, Poly Styrene recorded her first demo at age 18, and Paul Simonon, Sid Vicious and Gaye Advert had barely aged out their respective teen-hoods when they stepped onstage. In between them sprung tracks like “Bored Teenagers”, “Seventeen”, “What

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Do I Get” and “Identity” that brushed aside polite frustration to convey adolescent rage, boredom and displacement. More than knowing what they wanted, these were teens that knew what they didn’t want.

And yet, London was not always burning up with teenage angst.

The Slits rolled into town in 1977 with a 14-year-old frontwoman, the firebrand that was Ari Up, and while still angry after a punk fashion, sought to illuminate teengirl exploits with inspired fun, cheek and innovation. “So Tough” mocked their fellow punk boys with a winking call-and-response, “Typical Girls” explored adolescent archetypes against a jumpy reggae riddim, and in the band’s finest hour, “Shoplifting” captured the sheer glee of deviancy with a schoolgirl chant of “Do a runner!

Do a runner!” It wasn’t exactly

a party at Eddie Cochran’s house, but punk didn’t have to be – not when it took this great care of its bored and disaffected teenagers. Besides turning the page for a whole new generation, it offered a refuge, a tribe for that teenage need to belong, even and especially if you were an outsider. An 18-year-old, queuing up outside London’s 100 Club for the Punk Rock Festival in 1976, once confided to Caroline Coon: “I’ve been waiting for something to identify with. There’s been nothing for years. I just want to be involved.”

Three idiots create a masterpiece Rick Rubin was one such outsider.

“I was the only punk in my high school,” he recalled in 2007, “When I did magic, I was the only kid. When I worked with Johnny Cash, I was completely out of place in Nashville. And when I

started Def Jam, I was the only white guy in the hip hop world.”

Though initially an anomaly when it had its start in Rubin’s NYU dorm room in 1983, Def Jam wouldn’t remain that way, but signalled a new broadening of the rap game (and into the suburbs, no less) that began at Kool Herc’s West Bronx party.

Raised on a diet of Grandmaster Flash, Bambaataa and Wild Style, this new school retooled its inheritance with a starkly hardcore approach that was not without a crossover appeal and that, in David Toop’s words, rendered “everything that preceded it distinctly old school with one fell swoop”. Bill Adler, one of Def Jam’s earliest employees, called these new hip hop guns, “Young, smart, fast and hard… Lean and winning.” And he wouldn’t be wrong: the new school charged ahead with a radical momentum

that surely only belonged to the very, very young.

Rubin, for one, cashed his first six-figure cheque at 20, after pressing a record by a 16-yearold LL Cool J (“I Need a Beat”), which he’s latterly declared “the real birth of Def Jam”, and roping in Russell Simmons as partner, if just so he wouldn’t be “just a kid making records”.

Then again, he needn’t have worried, for all around him were kids making records that belied their adolescent roots. There was Run-D.M.C., the Hollis, Queens trio of late-teens who changed the name of the game with “Sucker MCs”, and then, in 1986 – stand back – came The Beastie Boys whose frat-rap burned wildly up the charts. Licensed To Ill, released in 1987 by three middle-class white boys fresh out of their teens, moved four million units

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to become America’s first-ever number-one hip hop album, but not before Run-D.M.C. roped in Aerosmith for the landmark collaboration that was 1986’s “Walk This Way”. As journalist Jeff Chang remembers, “The black group crossed over to white audiences with Raising Hell, then the white group crossed over to black audiences with Licensed To Ill.” In reintegrating and fusing American’s culture as such, rap and the newly crowned hip hop demonstrated a staying power and world-shifting prowess that was definitely no teen novelty, Beat Street be damned. And all because some kid was once in his dorm room, making records.

Pure pop for now people The teenage pop idol is a unique animal. Crafted and structured to appeal to the largest amount of young people, it has been primed

with a good number of pop sounds and preened to the last inch to emerge as Pure Image, a specimen to be fawned over, screamed at and have their posters attached to the walls of teenage girls the world over. Yes, more than just possessing the perfect face and form to kindle adolescent desire and adoration, teen idols also laid claim to the one glorious thing that teen life hinges on: they were popular.

The 1960s was filled with such teen pop idols (Frankie Avalon, Paul Anka et al), but none matched the sensational effect that The Beatles had, simply by showing up. Credible to the end, John, Paul, George and Ringo would nonetheless set the template for all assiduously manufactured boy bands, girl groups and teen pop stars to follow. The teeny-bopping likes of

The Osmonds, The Monkees and The Jackson Five spent the rest of the ‘60s charming their way right into the adolescent demographic with pop hooks, stereotypical personalities (The Cute One, The Quiet One), and resounding tales of friendship, young love, growing up and being blue. And of course they did: this was pop that, in a huge acknowledgement of the tastes and consuming habits of adolescents, was being tailored directly for teenagers.

In turn, these teens were more than willing to fall for, scream for and if necessary, riot when in the presence of every new kid on the block.

Being a commodity, though, the light of pop and its respective teen idols burnt but briefly. In 1973, a decade after “Love Me Do”, the Bay City Rollers, five tartan-clad Scottish teens, incited

their own Rollermania to match Beatlemania; still another 10 years on came Bros and New Edition, before the ‘90s swept in with a world-consuming amount of teenaged pop acts with names like Destiny’s Child, Take That, Christina Aguilera and Mandy Moore. Unlike rock ‘n’ roll before it, pop intends to stay young forever, no matter how many boy bands it may leave behind. From this perspective, it would be too easy to Sinatra-scoff at this, yet another adolescent novelty (“It was not hip for people to like us, because their little sister liked us,” remembers Raspberries’ Eric Carmen), but the sheer amount of Justin Biebers and One Directions that continue to rule young hearts and charts is continued proof of the almighty existence and power of the teenager. After all this time, they’re still screaming.

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ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED The young rule the world and the high-scores of these millennials are most definitely through the roof. If you’re feeling bad about your life’s accomplishments, avoid this appraisal of music’s teenage triumphs.

Words: Indran P

TINK

“I knew I had something,” Tink, 19, said recently when surveying her dominion over a post-Nicki rap world. Her time in the scene has been but a flicker but because of her skills on the mic – sledgehammer bars and a tasering sexiness – on originals like “Don’t Tell Nobody” and assists like “Moving Bass”, she’s inspired reactions like Jay Z’s when he voiced approval to her mentor Timbaland: “Where you find this girl?!” Her crowning moment – the first of many, undoubtedly – will be her forthcoming debut album due this year, but until then, know that Aaliyah came to Timbaland in a dream and hailed her as “the one”.

PORTER ROBINSON

He was 12 when he was messing around with pirated software on his mother’s computer. At 16, he demonstrated his break-making chops at his first live show. A year later, Skrillex himself came knocking with a record deal, and aged 18, he sat at the summit of the iTunes dance chart with “Language”. We’d go on about how he co-wrote Zedd’s “Clarity” at 19 and birthed an inescapable, polarising but undeniably world-conquering sound, but you get the picture: Porter Robinson is the undisputed poster boy of the multicoloured EDM landscape – and he still lives with his parents.

SAM SMITH

JAKE BUGG

This Nottingham native is one of the few musicians for whom Noel Gallagher is consistently full of praise. Of course, this is more an illustrative than defining fact about his triumphs. He was barely 18 when his first self-titled album dropped and critics esteemed him as the successor to Bob Dylan. Without crying heresy, consider how his rock-folkcountry balancing act on singles like “Trouble Town” and “Country Song” might at the very least unveil a young troubadour with a dashing sense of poetry, leading a revival that few have the sensibility to even attempt.

Only two years separate Sam Smith and Justin Bieber (more on him later) but they’re as polar as two individuals can get. Listening to the former’s Grammy-bedecked, perfume-scented gospel-pop debut In The Lonely Hour, it’s hard to believe that a 22-year-old can exude such transfixing old-soul charm. But the roots of this lie deeper, in “Latch”, the Disclosure romp he sung into sublimity when he was an unknown pub-worker, all of 19. Everything else, including Mary J. Blige’s vote of confidence that he’s a “true artist” who’s “not afraid to be beautiful”, came after.

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DISCLOSURE

In the height of the English winter of 2012, a disco-flavoured song called “Latch” was released into the world. The world then said, “Thank you for making dance music fun again”. Its makers were a pair of brothers, Howard and Guy Lawrence, 21 and 18 respectively. And like the best of them, its chart-climbing, unit-shifting momentum was the least of its virtues. What’s especially illumining about it is how it has elevated the sleeper UK garage sound to the forefront of clubland’s consciousness and that it was made by two bros who weren’t even born during its former heyday.

LAURA MARLING

Even though she’s said that her inheritance of her father’s folk music interests has been a thorn in her side because she’s been unable to “slot [herself] into the age-appropriate genre”, don’t get it twisted: her debut folk-doused and Mercury Prize-contending album 2008’s Alas, I Cannot Swim, released when she was 18, remains one of the most distinct and ruminative works by a young artist in recent memory. The haters who baulked at her singing for Noah & the Whale just a year before that must really be sucking it now.

TYLER, THE CREATOR

A rapper, producer, video director, visual artist, designer, clothing label owner and leader of one the most influential crews in contemporary rap, Tyler, 24 today, is perhaps the only artist-mogul of his generation.

But the awe-and-sometimesdisgust-inspiring splendour of his contrarian ethos began in 2009, when at 18, he released his debut mixtape Bastard and from its teenspleen aesthetic, built an empire of prurient, violent, viral gold whose coolness is more than the sum of its shocking parts.

LORDE

RAURY

The first words uttered on Raury Tullis’ feted 2014 debut album Indigo Child are, “We are together, we are the truth / We are forever, we are the youth”. The other thing that helped makes this release one of most compellingly crafted documents of the teenage experience are its four interludes, which are actual recorded arguments between Raury and his mother over whether or not he should pursue music instead of just getting on in the straight and narrow. It’s a tale as old as time told by a hip hop renaissance man who also happened to be 18.

ARIANA GRANDE

ADELE

Sometimes, age isn’t just a number. 19 is one of those times. Yes, it was the age at which Adele released her debut album. And what an album it was. Think of the last time a first showing turned into a scenestirring multi-platinum behemoth – and situate her amongst the ranks responsible for those monuments. There’ll always be something to be said about the derivative nature of formulaic styles like blue-eyed soul but when they’re inhabited by a force of nature, the listening experience is something else entirely. Before adulthood’s first blush, Adele established herself as just that.

Who would’ve ever thought that Mariah Carey’s reign would be threatened by a cat-ear-wearing stripling with a Nickelodeon past?

In 2013, after acquiring teen-idol gravitas from her TV-show run, Ariana Grande dropped Yours Truly, her first solo contribution to the bubblegum canon. None of its songs emanated the sass-laden spunk of her newer statement piece “Problem” and they didn’t need to.

The heart-bearing r&b-soul of “The Way” and “Baby I” attained the Top 10 chart success that no 19-year-old had seen since Yael Naim.

“Phenom”, “Sensation”, and “Wunderkind” – none of these vaunted epithets do justice to the fact that this Kiwi child-gawdess has things we’ll never have (like a direct line to KimYe) and done things we’ll never do, enough to make David Bowie to regard her as the future of music. “Royals”, that electro-pop lightning bolt, was penned when she was a wee lass of 17. That, today, she’s still the youngest artist to clinch a Billboard #1 is telling enough: there are prodigies, and there’s Lorde.

JUSTIN BIEBER

Before he became a hate-magnet, the Biebs accomplished more than enough to earn a spot here.

Look at the facts: he rose from the millions of fledgling teeny-boppers serenading the YouTube captive to Usher’s esteem as a “young phenomenon” and then to a global teen pop overlord with his debut EP My World. By that, we mean he was 15 when he had most of the teen world’s female population eating out of his hand, or wishing they could. A year later, his first full-length My World 2.0 made him the youngest male artist to top the charts since Stevie Wonder. See?

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VENUS IN FURS At this date and time, it’s more than appropriate to affirm that Florence Welch is an omniscient talent. Her two prior albums – the from-the-depths eruption that was 2009’s Lungs, its cloud-headed 2011 follow-up Ceremonials – and a run of highlight-speckled live performances have made it a given that encountering her megaphone vocals and its urgent, primal rendering of elegant pop-soul will leave you awestruck and somewhat saved. Now, on her newly minted third full-length How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, the London chanteuse takes her titanic chops to altogether more revelatory and light-shining extremes. And in this exclusive session with us, she took us by the hand and led us up to her all-seeing domain.

Words: Indran P Special thanks: Universal Music

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Congrats on How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful. As a whole, it feels like a window into your fears, reflections and desires.

Thank you. I thought it was about a relationship, but actually as I’ve listened to it and gone through it, I’ve realised that it was as much about a relationship that I was having with myself as well, and the conflicts that come with that.

Although the kind of confusion of love and loss is in there, I think I was trying to figure myself out as well, but just didn’t realise it until it was all finished.

You’ve also called it the “most personal” record you’ve ever made.

Yes. It’s a very personal record, perhaps the most personal one that I’ve done. I thought it was about one thing and then, as these things happen, it turned out to be about so many different things. Often when I’m writing something, I don’t know what it is that I’m trying to tell myself until I listen to it afterwards. A lot of it is about trying to figure out how to live and love in your own time.

How did the year-long break you took help you gather yourself and put the record together?

I’m really glad that I took my time off, because I don’t think I would’ve made this record if I hadn’t been made to reflect on stuff a bit. It was really sad and hard at times, but there were moments that were just completely fun and outrageous and debauched; those things often go very much hand in hand. I felt like I wanted this life, but I was confused about what it was that I actually wanted from it. Did I want to carry on the whirlwind of

touring? Or did I actually need some quiet time just to read and to reflect? I think for a bit of that year I was caught between those two completely polar opposites, because all of a sudden it’s just your life, you know? There’s no big show at the end of the day, there’s no schedule.

Was there a moment when you were making How Beautiful where you felt you were on to something entirely new?

The process of recording “How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful” just completely reconnected Markus Dravus [producer] and me. The song was already written, but he really took it on; he sped it up, added the guitars, and then got Will Gregory to do this outro.

I heard it and just absolutely burst into tears. I knew that this was it; this was the song and this was the benchmark, this was how we were going to make a great record. It was written about the last tour, which was a really exciting and intoxicating time. The first line of the song, “Between a crucifix and the Hollywood sign”, is talking about the Hollywood Bowl, where we did a couple of concerts. It was one of my favourite tours around America, I think.

Speaking of which, unlike Ceremonials, a good section of How Blue was recorded in America. Did that change anything for you?

I met some people in LA who introduced me to these incredible characters like Vali Meyers, this amazing shaman and artist, who was actually the subject of Eduard van der Elsken’s photography exhibition Love on the Left Bank.

She then went and lived in a

cave in Porto Fino, making these amazing dream paintings. She essentially became this icon that I found out about during the making of the album – I couldn’t believe I’d never found her before!

She would go and get inspiration from the dream world and bring it back to reality in the form of her paintings, and that’s something that I’ve always been interested in in terms of songwriting, being able to take these emotions from one place and then bringing them up and outwards.

Likewise, did you too seclude yourself from the buzz of the city, then?

There was an almost meditative quality to the repetitive structure of my life at the time. I would ride my bike to the studio everyday, and I didn’t really do anything else. I couldn’t go out much, so it became a very introspective album-making process. I mean, you hear about people making records in some secluded château in the south of France, but actually this record was quite like that; it was a methodical and quiet process of slowly making this sound. I spent some time in LA as well during that period – I would go off and write songs and then bring them back to my own little cave. Sometimes, though, I found when I was writing, I’d be like, “Oh, I’ve written a four-minute song that’s just chords”.

Artists who make music in California often speak of the state’s inspiring presence in their music. Was it like that for you too?

I think a lot the album was quite dictated by driving cars around LA. There’s this idea of expanse

and space in the album, which was there in Ceremonials, but it was darker then, and more about submersion. Whereas I think How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful is more about elevation. We said we wanted it to sound like Tom Petty taking off on a jet plane in the ‘70s. It does quite sound like that!

“What Kind of Man” definitely fits that description.

“What Kind of Man” was written in LA actually, with Kid Harpoon and John Hill as well. I couldn’t quite figure out what it was I’d been looking for guitar-wise until we found it. We’d been looking at a lot of Fleetwood Mac and all that kind of stuff; I can’t remember who played it, but it had that directness and that aggression that I think I was looking for.

Lastly, how does it feel now to have this utterly bold and bracing collection of songs out?

I’ve never worked so long and so consistently on an album before, but I think it was really good for me because I was in a bit of a mess when I started. It was going to go one of two ways; either I was going to keep pressing the self-destruct button, or I thought maybe I could try something different. So, I went with the latter and just dedicated myself to the record, which was really hard in the beginning, and I think Markus didn’t quite know what he’d signed up for. I think he slightly expected this fancy Valkyrie to come swooshing in with a big broadsword, and instead he got a mopey woman in leggings!

How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful is out now on Island

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BEST COAST Billabong’s Fall/Winter 2015 Lifestyle collection lays back Words: Lee Xin-rui Fashion is fleeting, but summer is forever. Billabong catches our drift, and is delivering sunshineappropriate threads accordingly.

Packing its racks with light tank tops, cotton short-sleeved tees and plenty of polos for surfers and landlubbers alike, Billabong is ready to dress the beach-goer looking to beat the heat in style. Because no truer words have been said than, “Life’s better in board shorts”.

Coming exclusively to Asia this Fall is a collection of men’s essentials in darker hues and soft comfortable fabrics. Together with eye-catching yet understated mini marks and photo prints, Billabong’s used a variety of dye techniques such as tonal and reverse acid wash to land that laidback vibe they’re so known and loved for.

Some of our favourites include the Paradise Noir shirt with a luxurious

dark floral print and the Chopper Muscle Tee with a clean-cut design and flattering silhouette.

The collection is completed with an array of cotton shorts and of course, board shorts, with the Dope Dyed Garage navy board shorts being a standout.

Prepare your wardrobes and brush off those surf/wake/skate boards, because it’s time to grab

some of that quintessential Gold Coast fashion and join the ranks of Billabong’s boardsport movement.

And you know you won’t be naked whilst doing so.

Shop Billabong at 313@Somerset, Bugis Junction and Wavehouse

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CONVERSE CHUCK TAYLOR ALL STAR MONO WEAVE Words: Lee Xin-rui

Ward Whillas Summer 2015 Applying high fashion and functionality onto swimwear, New York-based Ward Whillas has put together a line of elegant stitch-free reversible swimwear, crafted with quick-drying Italian compression fabrics to sculpt a sleek silhouette and protect you from the sun. Totally indispensible to the poolside trendsetter, this.

Available at net-a-porter.com

Kate Spade New York: Show Your True Colors Suns out! And Kate Spade is making full use of the season’s burst of youthful exuberance. Its Show Your True Colors collection draws inspiration from a riot of flashy critters. All from flamingos to butterflies stand out on gorgeous crop tops, flare dresses and accessories, including a funky flamingo applique clutch and the adorable X-body pineapple purse.

Available at Kate Spade New York

It seems the fashion industry is catching on that us Asia-Pacific inhabitants are far greater shopaholics than the rest of mankind. In accordance, Converse is releasing the freshly reworked Chuck Taylor All Star Mono Weave sneaker collection exclusively in our neck of the woods. Though keeping the strong silhouette of the iconic Chuck Taylor hi-tops, the brand has reimagined

its original concept for a more cutting-edge contemporary look. The sneaker is hand-crafted with coloured interwoven fabric strips (available in black, white, blue and papaya) and punctuated by solid white details such as a white midsole, toecap, and of course laces. Converse’s classic logo fashioned in leather is proudly displayed on the tongue, the cherry on top.

Uniqlo UT x Star Wars The force is strong on this one, as they say! Following its successful Star Wars-themed UT Grand Prix 2015 T-shirt design competition, Uniqlo will be delivering a collection of 23 tees featuring the best entries chosen by an esteemed panel of judges, including Lucasfilm executive creative director Doug Chiang, cartoonist Jeffery Brown and Sith Lord Darth Vader. Yes, him.

Available at Uniqlo

Saint Laurent California Sneakers A stunning testament to Saint Laurent’s foot being forward, the California Sneaker collection will have you head over heels. Arriving as part of Hedi’s Psych Rock collection, these mid and low-top sneakers see different coloured transpositions of the American flag on an all white background. And as testament to their first-rate craftsmanship, they’re beautifully proportioned and boast applique leather stars that shine on the skate ramp and off.

Available at Saint Laurent

WeSC Summer 2015 When the weather’s a-scorching, the allure of the pool/sea is just too great for any mortal being to resist, and the folks at WeAreTheSuperlativeConspiracy couldn’t agree more. Turning to water as their inspiration for the summer collection, the pieces are centered on blue, black, and grey hues, with indigo and a crisp white being particularly prevalent. The polka dotted T-shirt, pin-striped collared tops and classic denim shorts will be beating the heat along with us.

Available at WeSC

Fresh 36

REFUSED: FREEDOM Words: Indran P

“It’s not a reunion anymore,” says frontman Dennis Lyxzén. “This is one of the most radical things we’ve ever done, both musically and lyrically.” 17 years after their masterpiece The Shape of Punk to Come, the Swedish hardcore oracles have returned to assure you of something more game-changing than A

Chimerical Bombination in 12 Bursts. The fulfillment of one of punk’s most hoped-for possibilities has been guaranteed by superproducers Nick Launay and Shellback, as well as first listen “Elektra”, a cathartic, tectonic hardcore, metal and prog herald that reminds you that “nothing has changed”.

Out 30 June

Ryn Weaver: The Fool In June 2014, Erin Michelle Wüthrich uploaded her single “OctaHate” on SoundCloud and ended her anonymity as Charli XCX, Benny Blanco and Michael Angelakos raced industry execs to get to her. This month, brace yourselves for titanic dancepop sounds that come with an undeniable, career-sparking voice.

Out 16 June

Jamie xx: In Colour Jamie Smith has been involved with so much music that ushering In Colour as his “debut album” feels wrong. But it’s not – it is his first solo album. As first plays “Gosh”, “Loud Places” and “Sleep Sound” have shown, the crosspollination of the dance and pop worlds will be taken to next-level heights.

Out 1 June

Giorgio Moroder: Déjà Vu Bridging the 30 years since his last album, the disco gawd’s enlisted Charli XCX, Sia, Kelis, Britney Spears and any many others for his new dance-honouring album.

Before it hits the ether, listen for the sound and sensibility that birthed it all on the Kylie Minogueguesting “Right Here, Right Now”.

Out 12 June

Jenny Hval: Apocalypse The Norwegian experimentalist has said that her third album “exists somewhere between fiction and reality... a colourful timelapse of death and rebirth”.

The gut-wrenching confessional “That Battle Is Over” prefaces the existential drama and revelatory pop transgression to come.

Out 9 June

Hudson Mohawke: Lantern Nothing in dance, rap and even pop has been the same since HudMo’s ascent. There’s a lot his hallowed horn-led stampede brings with it and his debut solo album, which he’s promised will be a “classic”, will undoubtedly be a virtuosic full flourish. For a revolution in miniature, hit up “Ryderz”.

Out 16 June

Sun Kil Moon: Universal Themes Gentle cooing, from-the-gut shout-singing, spoken word – these are just some of the modes that Mark Kozelek switches between in the nine-minute epic “The Possum”. It’s not nearly an apology for his appalling conduct last year but as a herald for why he’s mostly forgiven, it’s beautiful.

Out 2 June

Jocks 37

ADRIAN WEE

Adrian Wee is synonymous with good times of a next-level, cutting-edge type. For 10 years, his boundary-burning Poptart parties have left no sound unturned in pursuit of feel-good, musically first-rate fun. 10 years on, we speak to the man himself.

Words: Indran P

Game On Lately, I’ve been involved with the music and audio programming for the production behind the SEA Games, specifically, basketball and netball. That includes in-game music and sound effects and music to get the crowd pumped too. Basketball, in particular, is a very interesting sport and I’m excited to be a part of this.

Modern Love I just started a night called Modern Love at kyo. It’s basically exploring house more. I play with CATSONCRACK and we each bring our own interpretation of house to the floor. Personally, I have a selection of house, techhouse, indie disco and the more groovy stuff that I’ll drop.

No Rules Everyone should come to a club to have fun, not to stroke their chins. As much as it’s important to be discerning, I don’t agree with that mentality when it gets too extreme, when people judge and pigeonhole music. As a DJ, I think it’s important to play tracks that people know and lesserknown tracks that will still make the crowd feel something. I want to DJ because I want to share music with people so that they can connect with it and have a good time. That’s always been the goal.

For One and All Poptart actually came from a running idea I had of doing a fun night, playing the stuff I grew up with like, Britpop, grunge, indie rock and ‘80s electropop, sort

of like the Best of the ‘80s and ‘90s. I pulled together two of my friends, Zaidi and Aidah, and we came up with the name after a couple of drunken conversations.

Also, I wasn’t enjoying myself in the clubs anymore at that point in time. Dance music got a bit too pompous, which was ironic.

This was when minimal house was big and it got to a point where “minimal” just meant just meant “as little as possible”. So, part of the reason for Poptart was me wanting to enjoy myself again.

Victory Lap I feel great that Poptart has been going on for 10 years. None of us expected it to turn out like this when we first started. It took us a few months to get the word out and since then, everything has been rolling on until now. I don’t think we ever had a bad party!

Since the beginning, I’ve always been happy just seeing people enjoying themselves on the dancefloor. It feels good to have survived for so long with this as my only expectation.

Thanks for Partying I’m very grateful to everyone for coming and tolerating my nonsense. I’ve always maintained that my crowd is the best crowd I’ve ever hoped for. There’s no denying that all of us at Poptart really love our crowd – they’re the craziest and nicest people we’ve ever met or could ever want for an audience.

The 10th Poptart Anniversary happens at kyo on 20 June

Grapevine 38

#WORDOFMOUTH Words: Indran P

INSTAGRAM WATCH

THE SLITS NEED YOU

ROYAL TRUX REUNITE

But only “for at least one Earth Night”, according to their label. Neil Hagerty and Jennifer Herrema will play Berserker Town II Festival in LA on 16 August. You should go make the best of this Earth night.

Before she passed from cancer, Ari Up tasked her friend Jennifer Shagawat with documenting the story of her peerless punk band.

Shagawat and director William E. Badgely have recently launched a Kickstarter page for Here to be Heard: The Story of The Slits. Pledge your support at kickstarter.com/ projects/1983160957/here-to-beheard-the-story-of-the-slits

@victoriabeckham: “Last minute preparations…who said I was too Posh to push???? x vb #SGFW” Singapore Fashion Week might’ve been the first time that Posh Spice ever “pushed” a vacuum cleaner.

SHE SAID HE SAID

JAMES MURPHY GOES UPSCALE HIPSTER

In early June, all those wringing their hands over how toxically hipster Williamsburg has become will undoubtedly suffer an aneurysm because the ex-LCD Soundsytem honcho is going to open a wine bar there called The Four Horsemen.

MADONNA JUDGES DRAKE’S MAKE OUT SKILLS

@mistercap: “Roll Model.”

He may know his way around a swagged-out pun, but Wiz Khalifa doesn’t know what a model is.

When asked about her recent tongue-down with Drake during her surprise appearance at his Coachella set, the once-vixen had some harsh words of the r&b softie: “I kissed a girl, and I liked it”. Wait for his very soulful and sensitive response.

@chrissyteigen: “FRIENDS FOREVER” Being possessed by Taylor Swift has also led to Chrissy Teigen’s phone being tapped. FOREVER.

RIP B.B. KING

We lost the blues legend and one of the greatest guitarists of all time to dehydration and exhaustion this month. 89 when he passed, King made his first recording in 1949 and toured continually throughout his life.

Whatever your views on heaven are, he fully deserves to rest in a higher place.

BILLY CORGAN AND MARILYN MANSON ARE TOURING TOGETHER! ‘90s icons and sworn enemies Billy and Marilyn are now hitting the road for The End Times Tour.

Why this tour is happening after a 15-year blood feud, where at one point the latter compared the former to “Charlie Brown” is beyond us. Maybe the ‘90s are coming back?

KENDRICK LAMAR IS AN ICON

Kendrick’s rise from Compton spitter to worldwide star has brought with it the some of best material to ever bless the rap canon. For that, he was recently honoured by the California State Senate, who named him the 35th Senate District’s Generational Icon.

@isthatjessiej: “Reunited. And the vein in my hand is clearly happy about it. My lover.”

Why did Jessie J have to ruin this lovely moment by being grossly self-conscious?

Next 39

FANCY FOOTWORK Jlin breaks into the boy’s club Words: Indran P There are two things about Jlin that will inspire fears of a world-ending apocalypse from purists in a scene as cagey as footwork: Jlin is young and she’s female. For all the good work done by its most celebrated envoys, the late great DJ Rashad and his longtime partner DJ Spinn, the transcendental appeal of a sound, that in taking house music to the nth extremities of potential and affecting everything in its path, the Made in Chicago movement is still lacking adequate youngblood and most glaringly, a female presence. And Jlin’s going to fix that.

As a woman still employed in a steel mill in Gary, Indiana, Jerilynn Patton has always known that in the male-ruled footwork scene too, the odds against her are unforgiving. This is part of what makes her recent debut album Dark Energy such a remarkable, almost-unimaginable surprise.

“This album took my life to make,” she exhales. And every inch of it bears the high-stakes intensity and ingenuity of an artist shattering glass ceilings.

For starters, she flips the script on the footwork canon and the mores of its preceding Chicago juke

sound by crafting frenetic, blitzing sounds, sample-free. Besides the stray vocal hook, the sounds on Dark Energy are constructed with a studied approach to footwork and trap – and a fearless drive to make something entirely her own.

She credits this impetus to her mother, who lit her creative spark with just one Socratic teaser: “It’s cool to sample, but what do you sound like?”

Stark, icy and irresistibly pounding, the record honours the lineage of transformative dance music by adding to it. In considered touches like “Mansa Musa”, a ray-of-light comedown from all the roiling intensity, she brings an individuality and a rare balance to a sound whose hyperkinetic pacing and carefully guarded perimeters have limited its expression of either. Still, like the tradition it recalls and furthers, Dark Energy is a mesmerisingly teeming work; sound giving way to sound in unpredictable streams that dissolve into each other. We’d have to look back quite a bit for the last groundbreaking occurrence in dance. Thanks to Jlin, the clock now starts from 2015.

Dark Energy is out now on Planet Mu

Collection 40

OH! YOU PRETTY THINGS A bohemian rhapsody of glam and grunge on Chloé’s Pre-Fall collection Words: Lee Xin-rui Drawing inspiration from the androgynous glam of Bowie as much as the delicate air of Kate Bush, Chloé’s Fall 2015 collection is tailored for the contemporary Chloé woman whose urban attitude comes softened by a nostalgia for folky bohemia.

“It is a mix between the very boyish against an ultra-romantic femininity,” explains creative director Clare Waight Keller, “The former comes through in the tougher silhouette of the blousons and low, wide trousers; the latter from the delicate prints in diaphanous fabrics.”

Those gossamer touches begin with Chloé’s newly loose-fitting silhouettes, seen in the slew of gorgeous ribbon-tied blouses with bishop sleeves as well as a number of draping Mongolian goatskin outerwear. Dresses range from tiered ivory daytime options channelling a languorous romance to luxurious evening gowns, which tumble to the ground in a flurry

of metallic galaxies and stain-glass paisley. Away from the Kate Bushesque countryside idyll, Chloé has also embraced the grunge of the city in well-tailored separates that offer a streamlined counterpoint to the collection’s otherwise ethereality. Amongst the highlights are the waist-high sailor pants that are embellished with antiqued buttons, a tooled leather aviator jacket carrying autumnal hues of chocolate, and wide-lapel blazers cut with confetti tweed.

Complementing the RTW goods is also a line of stunning accessories, amongst which the multi-coloured knee-high suede calf boots, the rounded Georgia saddlebag and the warm-textured Faye accordion satchel harmonise sweetly with the collection’s starry-eyed fluidity and urban functionality. Even Marc Bolan wouldn’t mind.

Shop Chloé at Ngee Ann City, #02-10.

Icon 41

THIS SPORTING LIFE SHOP

Band of Outsiders Fall/Winter 2015

SWEATSHIRTS

Chloé Denim-effect sweatshirt

SWEAT DREAMS

Gap Multi-print sweatshirt

The sweatshirt is still cleaning up the competition Words: Min Chen An item of clothing that can boast of comfort naturally first springs from a situation of discomfort. For the sweatshirt, those circumstances have athletic roots as much as an inconvenient itch. Things go way back to the 1920s, when the uniforms worn

by American football players consisted not of protective helmets or padding, but a heavy woollen sweater. Besides being of about zero help against the game’s knocks and bumps, the sweater also annoyingly caused chafing and itching when mingled with sweat. Enter Benjamin Russell Jr., a football player himself, with the idea of replacing the uniform’s wool with the more sensible cotton. Russell took inspiration from the cotton workwear jerseys being produced by his father’s company, which he redesigned for his own football team.

History takes over from here: Russell’s casual and comfortable creation was a sportswear

sensation that necessitated the opening of Russell Athletic to meet nationwide demand. Nonplayers, too, would warm to the sweatshirt’s functionality and fashionability. It had its moment on Steve McQueen’s back in 1963’s The Great Escape, for one, and in more recent times, the sweatshirt has found itself a sweet niche on the runways. High fashion houses like Givenchy, Alexander Wang and Kenzo (and for Fall/Winter ‘15: Christopher Shannon, DSquared and Band of Outsiders) have lately given the sweatshirt a chic facelift, unearthing its potential to be cropped, printed, ripped and bejewelled for maximal fashion statements. At the same time, though, the sweatshirt, in its most timeless and unchanging guise, continues to be produced by staple-heavy labels from A.P.C. to Maison Kitsuné. Everlasting and ever-comfortable, today’s sweatshirts still scratch itches of all sorts.

Neil Barrett Printed bondedjersey sweatshirt

Orlebar Brown Dudley sweatshirt

Maison Kitsuné Jungle cream sweatshirt

Clockwork 42

THE OPEN ROAD Tudor’s Fastrider chronograph brings the speed

Words: Lee Xin-rui In Tudor’s takeover of the contemporary watch market, it’s been holding up its cornerstones of stellar craftsmanship, heritagedriven sophistication and oh yes, escape. Where its Heritage Chrono Blue glowed in the sunshine of the Riviera and the Ranger tracked the Arctic zone, its latest Fastrider chronograph powers in on a motorcycle with the promise of contemporary adventure. This partnership with Ducati, begun in 2011, embodies a dream meeting between the worlds of watchmaking and motorcycling, as much as a perfect blend of aesthetic and cutting-edge functionality that is essential for the modern non-conformist. Keeping in line with the unbridled spirit of the Ducati rider, the new Fastrider chronograph comes inspired by the iconic Scrambler and with its youthful and spontaneous style, has been crafted to be an exceptional travel companion.

The Fastrider dial is a dynamic number that’s available in three colours: a bright yellow (the Scrambler’s signature colour),

a rich olive green for an urban look and a red for a retro-chic aesthetic. All of them sport a matte finish that accentuates the model’s slick yet rugged personality. Encased in a scratch resistant sapphire crystal and edged by a sleek matte black ceramic bezel, the Fastrider chronograph is waterproof up to 150m and holds a selfwinding mechanical movement.

Its two available straps also further emulate the body of a motorcycle: one being a black leather strap with gadroons reminiscent of a leather bike saddle, and another in matt black rubber, which highlights the watch’s technical language.

Handsome from its middle case to its sandblasted details, the Fastrider’s a reliable timepiece designed to be lustrous yet edgy, and appropriately powered for all tomorrow’s adventures. Make way; this easy rider’s coming through.

Clockwork 43

Collection 44

SCRATCH PERRY Bella Freud’s Blank Canvas Spring/Summer ‘15 collection takes Fred Perry back to the dancehall Words: Min Chen When Bella Freud and Fred Perry first teamed up in Fall/Winter ’14 for a Blank Canvas collection, it was a regular punky reggae party.

To the table had Freud brought her experiences of the rude boy and reggae cultures of East London, alongside choice sounds of Jamaica, to be comingled with Fred Perry’s sporty swagger. The effect was a natty and turned out capsule collection that was earthy and yet, not without flashes of red, gold and green. For their second collaborative act, Freud and Fred, while remaining in the

neighbourhood of reggae, have headed down to the dancehall, and returned with more items equally heritage-rich and playfully idiosyncratic.

Again, Fred Perry’s unearthed more retro sportswear styles from its archives for Bella Freud’s Spring/Summer ’15 Blank Canvas offering. Tricot tracksuits and pique shirts come embroidered with gold stars (a reference to reggae artists’ obsession with military regalia), with the latter carrying wider collars and unique

tipping in a further nod to the rude boys of the ‘70s. A feminine air arrives with the collection’s signature knit mini-dress and cotton jumper, both slimly cut and fronted by a Dancehall logo in an intarsia circle. Framing dancehall’s fun and upbeat energy in Fred Perry’s casual authenticity, Bella Freud’s latest Blank Canvas capsule rides to its own riddim.

Shop the Bella Freud Blank Canvas collection at the Fred Perry Laurel Wreath Shop at Mandarin Gallery, #03-08

Next 45

PERFECT PAIR Say Lou Lou makes it pop Words: Indran P “Everything always come from us,” says Elektra Kilbey, 23, just before the steely-eyed kicker: “I mainly trust just us.” She’s referring to the pop-reconfiguring project she shares with her twin sister Miranda – and yes, given who they are and what they’re capable of, she’s got every right to be territorial. Who knows what ravages await stunning makers of a strain of pop music that is ominous, lovely and catchy, all at once?

The Say Lou Lou story contains familiar elements. The inescapable thrall of distance, the span of separation that comes with it, and the age-old and impossibly perennial youth feeling of wanting something more and yet, not quite knowing what that more is, are built-into the sisters’ inward-butepic musical ethos, one that’s got them transitioning from once-indie to almost-stars. And if this cosmological sense of longing created the need to “escape”, Miranda and Elektra eventually found it in music.

Picking up on the most universally relatable form in all of pop, the

love song, the girls released the shimmering bass-buoyed ballad “Maybe You” in 2012. Sending the hype-factory into a frenzy, it piqued the interest of Kitsuné and ultimately ushered them to doors of industry titans Columbia Records. It wasn’t long after that that “Julian”, the swooning ode to a mystery man, took over the Internet and compelled nu-disco godhead Lindstrøm to request for their sweetly byzantine vocals on the song “Games for Girls”.

All the while though, they were hard at work on their debut album, and fine-tuning the music so that, as Elektra affirms, it sounded like them and only them. Then, in April this year, Lucid Dreams was unveiled. Tapping into a power greater than themselves and the ‘80s synth-pop universe they draw from, the girls address vast and elemental topics in ways dancefriendly and reflective, as consoling as they are alluring in their invitation to the dancefloor.

Lucid Dreams is out now on á Deux

Paint 46

Dior Diorshow 5 Couleurs in 508 Nude Pink Design

Clinique Anti-Blemish Solutions Clinical Clearing Gel

MAC MAC is Beauty Zoom Lash Mascara in Black

RMK Irresistible Glow Lips in EX-03 Marc Jacobs Beauty Insta Marc Contour and Highlight Powder in Mirage Filter 40

Ray-Ban RB2180 in Classic Green The Body Shop Vitamin C Instant Glow Enhancer

X MARKS THE SPOT

Alterna Caviar Perfect Texture Finishing Spray

We’re still basking in the fresh-grad glow of Winona Ryder’s Lelaina Pierce Words: Min Chen

Sephora Teint Infusion Ethereal Natural Finish Foundation in 20 Cream

Clio Gelpresso Waterproof Pencil Gel Liner in 04 Dark Choco

MAC Wash and Dry Fluidline Brow Gelcreme in True Brunette

Paint 47

SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT If you can’t yet feel the heat of summer, let its latest scents supply you with the youthful feels Words: Rosalind Chua Miss Dior EDP by Dior Smells like A symphonious marriage of fruity top notes and floral absolutes, with an Oriental interlude in the form of Indonesian Patchouli and Turkish rose Feels like Romantic poetry Incredible Things by Taylor Swift Smells like Delicate all the way through, with the velvety tones of passion flower and vanilla orchid, and the creamy woods of amber and vetiver living in perfect harmony Feels like Swift-sanctioned sleepovers Modern Muse Chic by Estée Lauder Smells like An accord of vibrant florals (jasmine sambac, stargazer lilies, juicy plum) and sultry woods (patchouli blend, suede musks) Feels like A Jackson Pollock canvas Sakura Cherry Blossom Cologne

by Jo Malone Smells like Gossamer-light layers of cherry blossom rubbing elbows with rose and sparkling bergamot Feels like Teen girls reclaiming a meadow Ralph Fresh by Ralph Lauren Smells like A thoroughly revitalising cocktail of magnolia and lemon Feels like The sun’s out, and so’s the fun

Marni Spice by Marni Smells like As its name suggests: a crackling formula of peppers, ginger, cinnamon, rose, jasmine and musk that’s dark yet delicate Feels like Something naughty Walk On Air by Kate Spade Smells like A bouquet that opens with linden blossom, bergamot, heat of the lily, magnolia, jasmine and narcissus, and with crinum lily, white iris and violet leaf serving as base Feels like Springtime arriving in the city Very Sexy Now EDP

by Victoria’s Secret Smells like A party where fruit meets floral, with coconut water, tuberose and cucumber flower leading the conga line Feels like One exotic tan

Shopping 48

TEENAGE WASTELAND The interior decorating habits of on-screen teens made chic Words & styling: Min Chen

THE LISBON SISTERS: SOME GIRLS WANDER BY MISTAKE Yes, the Lisbon girls would eventually seek solace in suicide, but not before they indulged their teen-girlhood with all the feminine trappings of flowers, birds, romance and anything that’s remotely pink. And in Sofia Coppola’s 1999 adaptation of The Virgin Suicides, if the sisters’ bedrooms belied none of their dark and final solutions, they at least offered a picture of the corners that adolescent girls too often get painted into.

ASOS Floral knit halter-top

Sea NY for Net-a-porter Lace dress Gilbert O’Sullivan Back To Front

Dorothy Perkins Floral kimono

Zara Home Hummingbird wallpaper

Dorothy Perkins Felt hat

Topshop Pom-pom straw tote Topshop Floral dress Cath Kidston x Gola Harrier trainers in Paradise Fields

Roger Vivier Miss Viv’ Santa Folk handbag

Jack Wills Dress

Merchant Archive Washed-silk blouse

Kate Spade New York One-piece striped bathing suit

Shopping 49

DUCKIE DALE: ALL THE YOUNG DUDES

Duckie Dale isn’t the kind of guy to get the girl or the kind of guy that gets the girl is never a Duckie Dale. However defined by those parameters (“I live to like you”), the Duckie of Pretty in Pink nonetheless manages to wrest in personality, style, loyalty and not a few quips in the face of ultimate rejection. Then again, his heartbreak probably finds better expression in his attempts at decorating.

Billabong Baron SS shirt

Linda Farrow Luxe Round sunglasses

Kobra Spray paint in Big Black

:Chocoolate Khaki jacket

Jack Wills Parka Bimba Y Lola Panelled vest

Coach Printed dots barrel bag

American Apparel Printed twist scarf in

Gap Printed crop shirt

Alexander McQueen Skull-patterned socks

Ben Sherman Red chinos

Tim Coppens Slim-fit crinkled sweatpants

Bimba Y Lola Oversized cardigan

Forever 21 Printed sleeveless sweatshirt

Shopping 50

CHER HOROWITZ: VALLEY OF THE DOLLS

The queen bee to match even the queen-est of Heathers, Cher Horowitz had everything: looks, wealth, wit, charm, popularity and a killer fashion sense. And in 1995’s Clueless, she even managed to get herself a heart and soul. But were those really necessary when girlfriend’s already got herself a room-swallowing, colour-coordinated walk-in wardrobe equipped with a computer system? As if, right?

Topshop Fringed suede backpack Jack Wills Coat

Maison Kitsuné Printed T-Shirt Saint Laurent Eighties Lipstick brooch Merchant Archive Dress

Kate Spade New York Colour block sequin dress

H&M Suede loafers

Forever 21 Pastel blue motorcycle jacket

agnès b.

FEMME Bodysuit

Forever 21 Lace-trimmed shorts

Jack Wills Dress

Urban Outfitters Literally Don’t Care mug

Shopping 51

JOAN JETT: SWEET 16, REBEL QUEEN

Being cast as Joan Jett in Floria Sigismondi’s 2010 biopic of The Runaways must’ve been something daunting, but just look how Kristen Stewart walked off with it. She brought a slouchy swagger, yes, but her Jett is also a hot-blooded teenager right down to the rock posters on her bedroom wall. There she goes, making her own Sex Pistols T-shirt with the same gusto as she made the world’s first all-girl rock band.

Urban Outfitters American Flag tapestry

Undercover Printed T-shirt

Saint Laurent Leopard print sweatshirt

Suzi Quatro Suzi Quatro

Monki Denim vest

Alexander Wang Hybrid leather track pants

Paul Smith Bovens straw hat

Jimmy Choo Alaric boots with pearls and studs

Sonic Editions Johnny Rotten, 1978, by Anwar Hussein

Jack Wills Tote

H&M Tank top

Saint Laurent Eighties pin set

Shopping 52

AMY BLUE: THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH ASOS Gingham bralet

COS Sandals

“There’s just no place for us in this world,” is how Amy Blue characterises her particular state of affairs in Gregg Araki’s The Doom Generation.

Then again, being the uniquely depraved, nihilistic, Diet Coke-fueled adolescent she is, it’s no wonder she’s had to construct her very own world in the form of an all-checkered habitat, where sex, violence and vulgarity aren’t given the benefit of a grey area.

MoMa Store Checker pillow by Alexander Girard

Marc by Marc Jacobs Sally handbag in deep blue

Oscar de la Renta Gingham top Linda Farrow Luxe Cat-eye sunglasses Vans Checkerboard slip-ons Michael Kors Gingham midi skirt

ALDO Aquino clutch

Dolce & Gabbana Gingham coat

Jack Wills Lace-trimmed bra

Balmain Checked pencil skirt

Shopping 53

DONNIE DARKO: TEENAGE APOCALYPSE

Ridden not by teen angst or frustrations, Donnie Darko’s adolescent woes come more scarily specific: he’s haunted by hallucinations of a giant rabbit bearing news about the end of the world. Troubling, to say the least, Donnie’s premonitions cast a dark cloud over his mad, mad world, littering the most ordinarily adolescent of situations and surroundings with a creeping disquiet.

Saint Laurent Printed T-shirt

Alexander McQueen Silk scarf

DKNY Jeans Midi skirt

MoMa Store Eye clock by George Nelson

Forever 21 Long hoodie

Dr. Martens Pascal 8-Eye boot with Tattoo Digi Leather Saint Laurent Ivory skull print Paris-collar shirt

Markus Lupfer Emma embellished wool sweater

Helmut Lang Shearling-trimmed leather gilet

Topshop Ombre faux fur coat

Faherty Printed swim shorts

Givenchy Butterfly-print T-shirt

Talk 54

GIRL ON FIRE

Unlike many of her pop-starlet contemporaries, Charlotte Aitchison doesn’t mince her words or blush on demand. With a knowing confidence matched by an irreverence that’s as alluringly sexy as it is fearless, the 23-year-old Cambridge singer is pop music’s veritable firecracker, gifting the cosmos with striding, maximalist bangers like “I Love It”, as well as epically genre-confounding hits found in her debut album, 2013’s True Romance. And even as she lent her irresistible charms to unforgettable, scorched-in-memory effect on Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” in 2014, she released a punk-honouring follow-up in Sucker.

Before her much anticipated first showing here, she sat down with us and allowed us to be privy to her heat-seeking vision.

Words: Indran P Did True Romance influence Sucker in any way?

Throughout True Romance, I felt kind of pressured to be cool. I was really worried about what people thought of me and then “I Love It”’ came out and did really well. It was written when I wasn’t thinking about anything, when I was just in my hotel room, singing into a laptop. I didn’t think about it, it just happened very naturally.

And I thought, “If I can do that for someone else why can’t I do it for myself?” Also, I had a lot of anger built up after True Romance, because even though the success of “I Love It’” was great, I basically had to keep

answering questions about that song for ages when I’d just released a record that I’d worked on for five years and nobody really wanted to talk to me about it. That kind of led to the whole energy behind Sucker.

There’s definitely a stronger punk strain running through it, especially on songs like “Break the Rules” and “Boom Clap”.

Certainly. I was very much influenced by punk and the energy of punk for this record.

I was listening to the Ramones, the Vibrators and Bow Wow Wow before I made the record and it definitely rubbed off on it.

Talk 55

As you’ve said, the record has “a very shouty, girl-power, girl-gang” feel. It’s definitely is unequivocal about its stance on female empowerment. Where do guys stand in the Charli XCX universe then?

Oh, I don’t think you have to be a girl to appreciate girl power. You can be a guy and still be into it, if you’re a bada** down for girls to be bada** too.

So, your music is for everyone then.

I want people to feel free and alive. I don’t really think about my audience when I write songs. I’m very selfish as a songwriter; I just write songs that make sense to me and I don’t think about other people. But if people can connect their own personal experiences to my songs, then that’s really amazing! I just hope people are able to do that – identify my songs with something in their life so that they become important to them.

You’ve worked with Rostam from Vampire Weekend, Rivers Cuomo and superproducers like Stargate.

What do you make of your unique place across the spectrum of pop music?

I really enjoy my position, for sure. I like being able to work with Rostam, Rivers and Stargate, and it’s not really be an issue for me.

Creatively, I like mixing sounds. I came from a more leftfield place and I’ll always have that in me – I’ll never go straight down a Top 40 road. Besides myself, I think big name artists like Lorde, Taylor Swift and Haim are mixing things up as well by working with guys like Jack Antonoff and Max Martin.

You’re also quite prolific as a writer. How different is it writing for other people than for yourself?

It’s kind of the same. Like, if I’m writing for someone else, I feel very aware that they want me to write for them because they like my style and my personality as a songwriter, so I try really hard not to change that. I think if any good artist sings a song that you’ve written, they put so much of their own energy into the way they sing it and the music video. So, it becomes them anyway, through

their performance of the song. I just do my thing and if it’s a good artist cutting that song, I’m never worried like how it will be.

You must be proud of the success of “Fancy”.

Thank you! I feel great about it!

Really good! I feel like there was absolutely no expectation on that song, or on Iggy and me as artists before it happened. We sort of just proved everyone wrong when that song blew up and that was really exciting for both of us. I feel really happy for her, and really happy for the song.

You’ve been on the road with huge names like Coldplay, Ellie Goulding and Katy Perry. What’s been the best part of that?

Being on tour with Coldplay was really cool because it was my first-ever experience in a stadium.

But I totally messed up the first performance! I flashed my pants for the whole show because I had no idea there were cameras underneath me and it was actually really traumatic. But it was really amazing to do just because I’d never been on a stage that big or played to a crowd that large before. By the time I opened for Katy Perry, which was in Europe, quite a few of my songs were on the radio there. That was a really incredible experience for me because the whole audience knew the songs and I felt like I belonged on that stage. Also, Katy managed to undo my bra through my T-shirt on the last night which is an incredible skill I don’t possess.

You’ve said that your next album will contain elements of J-Pop and will sound like “another planet up in the clouds”. Can you tell us more?

I wrote a song about being in Japan. I actually wrote it a while ago but I keep coming back to it. I remember the first time I went to Japan, it was just so different from anything I’d ever seen before, you know? The culture was so amazing.

Tokyo is a city that’s so beautiful.

The culture inspired me so much that I want to do something with it.

Sucker is out now on Asylum / Atlantic

Talk 56

MERCHANTS OF SOUL Rock ‘n’ roll is a fickle mistress. Scratch that, rock ‘n’ roll is a downright merciless gamble. But for more than 20 years, Spoon have been exemplars on how to come out on top with a victorious swagger that isn’t without empathy and that most elusive of fundamentals, soul. Blasting aside simplistic maximal-minimal binaries, the band’s catalogue is the sum total of how beautiful and stylish an impeccably recorded marshaling of loudness and quiescence can be. But in 2014, with the inclusion of a new member in the form of Divine Fits’ Alex Fischel, the band took its charisma-suffused sound to the next century on its eighth album They Want My Soul. We ran into frontman and honcho Britt Daniel at Laneway Festival Melbourne earlier this year and he obliged our Soul-related queries.

Words: Indran P

What’s kept you busy since Melbourne?

Writing new songs and trying to stay out of trouble – I’ve been doing a lot of socialising and that’s no good for the writing-songs part. But it’s going pretty good. I go in spurts, which means I’ll work for three days straight and not do anything else and then I’ll let loose for a bit.

Your recent network TV performance on Jimmy Kimmel was great too.

It was fun. There’s a lot of build up and lot of pressure when you’re there but I can’t really remember one that I don’t feel pretty good about. We usually pull it off.

Funnily enough, I was on the plane with Jimmy Kimmel a few days

ago. We were both going from Austin to LA and I was sitting right in front of him! It was weird.

They Want My Soul has unanimously been received as Spoon’s best work. How do you feel about the critical consensus?

I like it a lot but I’m starting to get tired of playing those songs because we’ve been touring for so long. I mean, when it first came out, I was very proud of it. In the moment that a record comes out, I don’t always feel that I know whether it’s good or not but this time, I really felt that it was for sure the one. It’s hard for me to say that it’s the best thing we’ve done – we’ve made a lot of good ones. I’d say my favourite is Gimme Fiction.

Ours too!

I was just looking at old stuff I recorded and I found 25 four-track cassettes of demos for Gimme Fiction. That’s a lot of demos, a lot of prep work. It might just be the album that had the most demo-ing.

The first song from that album “The Beast and Dragon, Adored” chronicles a period of writer’s block you went through. Do you still encounter this every now and then?

Yes, all the time. I deal with it in different ways at different times.

Sometimes you just have to set it aside for the day; sometimes you just have to have a drink, and sometimes, you get lucky just by pushing through and continuing

to work on something that doesn’t feel like it’s coming to you. But if you give it enough time and perspective, it’s there.

Not always, though. At this point, I brace myself for days that feel less productive for making a record, whether you’re writing or recording it.

Was that how it went with They Want My Soul?

Well, I wrote a bit of it in LA by myself, and then I’d take the songs to the band and we’d figure out how to play them as a band. The songs would be kind of done in terms of the chords and words, but we wouldn’t know how the beat was going to be or how the dynamics would play out.

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You also worked with two producers this time around.

Yes, it was different. They’re very different producers. We started the record with Joe Chiccarelli, who lives in LA. He’s very professional and prolific and good at making records get on the radio. I think that sometimes, we frustrated him because we weren’t coming up with stuff that would get on the radio. He helped us a lot with the arrangements of the songs; we learnt a lot from him.

Dave Fridmann, on the other hand, lives up in the middle of the woods in upstate New York. He’s good at establishing mood.

How did the inclusion of Alex influence the record?

Alex makes things fun. He’s got

a really good spirit to him and a really good perspective, so it was really great having him around.

Sometimes, when you’ve been hanging without the same old guys you’ve been hanging out with forever, you know each other too well. It worked because he brought a lot of things that we couldn’t have done without him.

For instance, the solos on “Inside Out” are something we’ve never done before. They’re intricate and moody in a way that we hadn’t explored before.

Besides that song, another one with such an awe-inspiring level of detail is “Knock Knock Knock”.

That was something that Dave brought to the table. He brought

all those strings and he came up with this effect that sounds like whispers by devil children, the scary string sounds and just the horror-movie aspect of it. The beat was also programmed by him. We wanted it sound like a created beat and he was on top of that too.

Would you say that essence of the record is its statement of resistance against the soulsucking forces of the world?

Yes. This whole thing started when I was watching TV and this commercial of a Christian dating service came up. The tagline was something along the line of, “Help us find you so we can find out what God’s choice for you is”. The presumptuousness of that got to

me. A lot of people in America still buy into that.

And lastly, can we expect you in Singapore sometime soon?

Probably not, sadly. I’ve always wanted to come to Singapore, but it’s so expensive to get over to that side of the world. We don’t get the offers that Foo Fighters do. It was nice when I was there with Divine Fits in 2013. I remember rehearsing near this mosque and everything about it was so different from the rest of the country that we had seen. I hope to be back again.

They Want My Soul is out now on Loma Vista

Talk 58

Words: Indran P

In physics, waves are phenomena responsible for transferring energy throughout time and space. Imagine then, what Joywave have to live up to.

Fortunately for itself and for progressive, genre-confounding music, the Rochester, New York quintet has been responsible for tidal-scale sounds that sweep up just about every element of popular music into its

awe-inspiring thrall.

And while its first statement of intent, the Koda Vista EP unveiled a band onto something profoundly exciting, its recently released debut album How Do You Feel Now establishes it firmly as a group of sonic scientists wielding cutting-edge revelations. And in that smartly charismatic way, frontman Daniel Armbruster responded to our queries.

Congrats on How Do You Feel Now. You’ve said you spent “a lot of nights on air-mattresses” trying to make this album a reality. How does it feel to have it out?

Really good! Yes, we spent nine months in the studio working on it. Sean, our bass player, and I produced it and we slept on those uncomfortable things the whole time! We were still touring while we were recording, so it took longer than it should have. But it’s definitely nice to have it out in the wild. Actually, we finished it sooner but there were a lot of loose ends with the mixing and mastering to tie up. So it’s been done for a minute but it’s nice to have it out.

Would you say that there was the same kind of rigour and intensity with Koda Vista?

You know what? I don’t know.

With How Do You Feel Now, we actually had a studio to record in.

With Koda Vista, we did drums at a local studio in Rochester and

WAVE

everything else on a laptop. We didn’t even have guitar amps. This time, we actually had a budget so I was able to make this list of equipment that I’ve always wanted and have all the stuff show up on my front porch. It was nice. We had a studio and our own space to work in and though it was a very different experience, we were still in control of it.

You’ve described your sound as “incredible”. How did the new space and equipment help flesh that out?

It definitely helped in terms of making it easier for us to create the sounds we wanted to create.

But I think it has more to do with what I got from my formative years in music. I could hear everything I wanted to hear and it was different from today where “maximal” is a norm. We’ve always felt that it’s not necessary for a band to only play one type of sound.

Talk 59

Yes, even in the mainstream, fidelity to one particular sound has long been thrown out.

Definitely. You know, I don’t see us a “band”. I think we’re more like “musical artists” or a “musical group”. We just like doing what we like in that moment. In that way, it’s always fresh and exciting to us. We’re not going to get tired of making new music this way.

Then there’s the question of editing…

Trick question! Yes, there’s a bit of editing and we do it in two phases.

I do most of the writing and I’ll demo the song into computer.

Once that’s done, Sean and I will go back and change it up and work on the arrangements to see what works and what doesn’t. There’s usually the first step and if we feel good about it, we move on to the production phase.

songs, in particular the lead single “Somebody New”, sound thoroughly modern yet timeless.

Thank you. We wanted to make something that sounded like The Matrix. “Somebody New” started from a dream I had where Skrillex was DJ-ing at a club and that “wahwah” bass riff was just destroying everything. In my dream, I found it funny but I thought it’d be cool to recreate it. So when I got up, I played it on the bass guitar and it sounded nice. We built from that into a pop-ish kind of song.

The Fantasia sample on “Destruction” is also intriguing.

When we were deciding whether or not to sign to Hollywood Records, which Disney is the parent company of, we never thought we’d get access to the Disney catalogue. But one day, the head of Disney Music Group was at our show and he was buying us drinks after and off the top of my head, I asked if we could sample Fantasia

and he said, “Yeah, that’s fine”. A few days later, a high-quality copy of the sound file showed up on my inbox.

Being in a band that collapses dance and indie rock together, are you bothered by purists who’d point a finger at you for contributing to the “death of indie rock”?

In a way, it’s exciting because people are surprised by all the rock stuff happening when they come for our live shows and when some even find it refreshing that we’re using guitars. To me, the survival of rock music depends on whether or not it can be infused with other sounds like hip hop or dance.

Rock fans should be encouraged by better rappers like Kendrick Lamar using a live band as well as a DJ – musically, this can make the biggest difference in the world.

With Joywave, I just want to make music that’s fresh and exciting for people.

And going back, how did it feel to be, as you’ve said, “playing to four people” and then playing arenas with The Killers?

It was amazing! We were working on our record and the head of our management company called and said to drop everything because tomorrow night, we were going to be opening for The Killers! We had to show up and do it cold; there was this adrenaline rush the whole time. When you’re opening for a band that big, you’re inconveniencing the people who came to see their favourite band – that’s a fact – but the first night, I didn’t even notice that. The Killers’ fans flew in from all parts of the country for those shows last May, and we’ve met some of them along the way since then who told us that they saw us play back then. It still blows my mind.

THEORY Yes, the album brims with this considered approach. The

How Do You Feel Now is out now on Hollywood Records

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PRETTY LUSH There are some locales that have a special pull over us. One that immediately evokes memories and associations with phenomena that exude a similar vibe or spirit. The beach is one such place and since the advent of dance music into popular attention spans, it’s come to be the embodiment of a very specific strain of sound. But throughout his career, Manhattan-via-Paris DJ-producer Joakim has enriched this field of sounds by expanding its lexicon with a bold and beautiful mélange of jazz, electronica, soul and pop, threaded together with an irresistible dance pound. Before his set at the recently expanded Full Steam Ahead edition, he spoke to us about his worlds-traversing touch.

Words: Indran P

Where are you now and what’s kept you lately?

I’m on a plane between Ho Chi Minh City and Hong Kong, hung over and sleep-deprived, touring around Asia for 10 days.

We can imagine that this might be hectic period for you since you just moved from Paris to Manhattan.

The move was crazier when I look at it now than when I decided to do it. Sometimes, it’s better not to think too much before taking action, otherwise you might give up before trying. Now that I look at my studio and all the things I had to move, build etc, I think it’s a very crazy decision, but it makes me happy. I didn’t move for one particular reason, but I always dreamed of living in NYC for a few years and a number of things made it possible at this point in my life, so I thought it was now or never.

Congrats on the Tropics of Love.

There’s a certain physicality about the sounds on the record. Would you say so?

Well, thanks for that. I think it’s a good compliment. I attach a lot of importance to the physicality of sound, the sensuality of it.

That’s also why I started collecting analog machines a long time ago, because that’s the kind of organic sound I like. Although, this album

was recorded mostly in my new bedroom in NYC before I had set up a proper studio, with a much more minimal setup, including two or three analog synths, two drums machines and a few pedal effects.

What was your vision for the album; how did you imagine listeners responding to it?

It’s always very hard to imagine how listeners will respond to music, and I think it’s best not to think too much about it, otherwise you might end up making music that people expect, which is for me a failure. For this album, I tried to do something slower and more sensual in a way, with slow songs inspired by American soul music and r&b as well as tropical sounds and rhythms which have been a big influence lately.

“Rx777” definitely has some hard, tropical grooves that evolve unexpectedly.

This one was actually hard to finish. It started with the drum machine, I recorded those beats in an early ‘90s techno style, and then I found that piano riff you hear in the beginning.

But I couldn’t figure out the arrangement, and it took me a long time to finish it until I found those Fairlight samples (like that flute sound that you hear on a lot of late 80s and early 90s records, like Art Of Noise’s) and then the song got a more precise direction. But it’s still some kind

of Frankenstein, like a lot of things I do.

Would you say that the Each Other EP is a stylistic continuation of Tropics of Love?

It is part of the album and a good example of the kind of music I want to explore at the moment.

Something between pop, soul, futuristic sounds and beats.

Your music has long evaded easy categorisations. But what would you say is one sound that has inspired you the most from the beginning?

There have been different phases.

I got very inspired by Krautrock at one point, around the Monsters And Silly Songs album. Disco and post-punk are big influences too.

I think, in general, I’m influenced by all kinds of music that are a twisted mix of “dance” music. I say “dance” in a very general sense, from traditional African music to weird techno music, with the common element between those being the trance aspect. Again, I say, “trance” in a general sense, not the trance genre. Then, the other thing that I’m obsessed with is the universality of a great song.

You’ve said before that you are not satisfied with anything you’ve done so far. Is this something that keeps you going? Also, when do you decide, then, that a record is finished?

Yes, of course, I guess when you

start to be satisfied with what you do, it’s like a little creative death.

But I’m not the kind of artist who can’t stop working endlessly on a creation because of that dissatisfaction. On the contrary, I’d rather keep going, try new things, and not get stuck. So I can’t really tell when a record is finished, but I won’t wait until I think it is “perfect “.

And when is a song “perfect?”

When it strikes you as much at the first listening as it does at the 1000th listening.

You have a background in classical music and jazz. Do you see DJ-ing and producing as allowing you to bring all these sounds together?

Not really. I never tried to bring classical music into electronic music and I actually think this is pretty bad 99% of the time.

People who do that usually have a very poor understanding of classical music. I just feel like classical music training maybe helped me have a broader perception of music.

Lastly, what are your biggest hopes for dance music in 2015?

That the kids who listened to EDM in 2014 will start to get curious in 2015.

Listen to Joakim at soundcloud.com/joakimbouaziz

Talk 62

KNIT WIT

Markus Lupfer may be in the business of producing everyday-wear, but there’s nothing basic about his brand. With a good dose of wit and play, the London-based designer’s redefined the most basic and regular of silhouettes, endowing his separates with inspired tailoring and a clever use of print. Indeed, it’s Markus’ innovative sequined embroidery, cheekily applied to knitwear (see graphic motifs like his Lips and Fries), that’s done wonders for his profile. Vogue’s Sarah Mower has called his label “easy and dressed-up and witty and smart”, and celebs from Beyoncé to Cara Delevingne have concurred. Lupfer recently dropped into our town for a hang at Club21b and nice man that he is, lent us a few minutes for the following shop talk.

Words: Lee Xin-rui

Talk 63

globe, particularly the hubbub of London. Do you ever feel the desire to return to your German heritage?

I think there’s a mix, both in me and in the garments, but you never really know. I’m not influenced by my German heritage in a direct way… more in an indirect way. I think you can tell from the finishing of a garment – how it’s made and finalised. They’re not traditional, not like traditional German dirndls. The influence is in how I work, how we organise and time ourselves.

How are you enjoying our city, Markus?

It’s my first time! I love it.

Yesterday, we went to the Marina Bay and took a look at the casino.

Crazy! I also wanted come to Club21b to look at the collection and obviously, to get a feel of the city, its people and the climate.

We’ve heard that your grandmother was instrumental in sparking your interest in design.

Do you remember what exactly got you to make your first piece and what it was like?

You don’t want to know! I was 15 when I started to make my own garments; I was just on the sewing machine, making things.

Now, looking back, I’m obviously like, “What was I thinking?” I was making them for myself… and I knitted things!

Was it at all reminiscent of your current style?

No, no, totally different! I just had a real interest and I loved it, and yes, my grandmother’s sister was inspiring too. She was a dressmaker and we always went to her because she made all my grandmother’s dresses. That was my first brush with dressmaking. Looking back, I think it did influence me.

They were just really nice, really traditional hand-made clothes.

You seem to draw a lot of inspiration from all over the

And how about your strong English influences?

I learned a lot when I studied in London. That inspired me quite a lot: the way you’re quite free in the UK in terms of design has influenced me more than the German way. So I think when it comes to design, I do have an “English-ness”.

And what’s your process when it comes to designing your seasonal collections?

Well, it depends, because each season is slightly different. We think about things like, “What do we like?” or “What do I like?” and in terms of colours, silhouettes and details. I usually start with colours, and I go into print and fabrics.

We develop our own fabrics a lot now, because we’re working with amazing English weavers, and that gives us something really special and individual that’s just for us.

And then we work with those fabrics for shapes and silhouettes, and try to move things on to the next level while staying within a certain range. It’s a step-by-step creative development of the collection.

That brings us nicely to your Fall ‘15 collection, which features an earthy woodland aesthetic. How did that come about?

Well, I went to a friend’s garden party, in this really nice house in the middle of London, and she was like, “Markus, I want to show you something!” And so, she brought me to this wall with a wooden door, covered with plants, and through this door into this other garden.

And I thought, “This is amazing!”

I mean, it was really a gorgeous, insane garden, and I felt that this was so inspiring! So the whole of the collection was really based on that experience. I call it The Secret Garden, so you go from one place into one that is a bit mystical. And you know, there are gnomes in there, along with rabbits and bunnies and big flowers, so it became a bit like a story of this garden.

How you’ve presented your collections have been really novel too, like the Markus Café last year and this year’s whimsical bunnyassisted runway.

I always want to do something that is a little bit different. I think presentation is a new and a bit of an unusual form of showing your collection, but what I really want to do is create a feel and a mood.

As a designer, do you find yourself monitoring trends and designing according to what’s popular?

I’m not looking at trends; I don’t really care about the trends. And I always think I do what I feel is right for our brand and what is right for us. I think in order to feel free and continually develop, you have to let go of almost everything you know and do what you believe is right for yourself. Then what very often happens is the trend follows you! So it’s really important for us to create what we believe in and move forward in our own way.

Do you also see a need to balance creativity with more consumercentric concerns?

That’s an interesting point. You know, competition is so fiercely big in fashion, and you almost can’t compete with the big brands. You have to make sure that you also have a business! Unless I have a business, I can’t provide and I can’t just create anything. I get a bit excited about the business development, so it’s about finding a balance between being really creative, but also having a great structure in place so your business can flourish and grow.

Shop Markus Lupfer at Club21b, Forum The Shopping Mall, #0107/08/09

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WHIPPER SNAPPER

Photography: Chuck Reyes Hair: Yoko Okuwaki (KIZUKI+LIM) and Chie Ebina (PACT+LIM) Model: Rebecca D @ AVE

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18 AND LIFE Photography: Ivanho Harlim and Shysilia Novita Styling: Marie Liang Models: Veronika, Lemmie and Jan @ ave

Leather bomber jacket, shirt and jeans by McQ by Alexander McQueen, socks and sneakers, Lemmie’s own

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On Lemmie Leather jacket and shirt

by Saint Laurent, and pants by Sacai On Jan Cotton drill jacket by Miharayasuhiro, T-shirt and velvet pants by Burberry Prorsum

Ruffled trapeze jacket and ruffled skirt by Comme des Garรงons

Suede leather jacket and trousers

by Burberry Prorsum, and sweater

by Paul Smith

On Lemmie Silk trousers by Paul Smith On Jan Velvet pants by Burberry Prorsum

Silk organza dress by Burberry Prorsum

Silk top by Paul Smith, and jeans by McQ by Alexander McQueen

Clockwise from top right: On Lemmie T-shirt, Lemmie’s own On Lemmie Silk shirt by Paul Smith and suede leather jacket by Saint Laurent On Veronika Textured coat and shorts by Issey Miyake

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THE HEAT Photography: Chuck Reyes Styling: Amanda Tan Hair & makeup: Alex T Model: Estella B @ ave

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Opposite page Shirt and skirt by Paul Smith, belt by Marni, and bralet (worn throughout) by H&M This page Sleeveless top and culottes

by Paul Smith, and sandals by COS

Shirt and dress (worn as skirt) by Paul Smith

Dress by COS, and shoes by Marni

Top, trousers and belt by Marni

Shirt and trousers by Paul Smith

Top by Tsumori Chisato

Shirt and skirt by Paul Smith

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Review 87

boundary between misogyny and affection, culminating in the top-of-the-world declaration, “We f**ked the world but now we overseas”.

Words: Indran P Remember, remember when rap wasn’t as it is today? When it wasn’t a surreally real realm inhabited by freaks and heretics?

Remember when the old rules governing everything from sound to subject matter to how you dressed still applied? Compared to today, those were the dark days.

Today, rap can do anything. And if there’s one single person whose every twitch of activity avers that, it’s Young Thug. His place in the prevailing rap renaissance is nonpareil partly because unlike his esteemed peers – or any other “rapper” – he’s completely unconcerned with climbing the mountain to give us a testament.

He’s always been his own thing and by that only token, Barter 6 is already the year’s best and most controversial rap album.

But some things don’t change: the rap album will always be a battleground. Adversaries will be named and slain and selfaggrandising mythology will be propagated. And Thug knows this

YOUNG THUG: BARTER 6 well. What also informs Barter 6’s accomplishments is a crucial bit of behind-the-scenes happenings: Thug’s idol and forbear Lil Wayne was supposed to release his longgestating album Tha Carter V soon but in the meantime, for reasons unclear, ties between them soured to point where Thug was going to christen this Carter 6, until Wayne reportedly took legal action.

So, this is partly the manifestation of beef-inspired brinksmanship because Wayne still hasn’t released Carter V but Thug’s literally taken the brand and gone one-up. But the only time Thug airs this out is on “Can’t Tell”, with the threat, “I’ll leave you dead and call it Dead-ication”, alluding to Wayne’s series of name-making mixtapes. Notable also for the bigname guest of T.I., the track is the only time Thug lets someone else

into his concerns. Elsewhere and throughout, at the center of the record’s dense, near-impenetrable essence, is only him.

Though the record is inward and debaucherously perverse, Thug has the wisdom to choose subjects that encompass Everything. The excellent starter “Constantly Hating” has him putting his defining features, that unearthly warble of a voice and his cultivated wit, to wild, careening effect: “I’m a gangster, I don’t dance, baby, I poke,” he says, promising a stabbing just as he bends his singular voice into gender-defying shapes. This casual crassness evolves by degrees progressively: on the chugging “Halftime”, it’s a self-given high-five, and even when he’s pledging love on “Knocked Off”, his squelchingly specific sex-talk finesses the

The simple, sacrosanct matter of songcraft has no place here – because nothing except Thug’s free-associative fancy does. Barter 6 dictates that a verse is as much a hook as a chorus and it’s often difficult and more so, pointless, to tell them apart. “Dome” and the quicksilver flows on closer “Just Might Be” are the best testimonies of this. Nothing here isn’t un-quote-worthy and even tossed-off brags like, “I got that old money, call it Atari,” exude winning verve. Cloudy in its entirety, the sound here is space-y and cavernous, hewing to a kind of minimalism where phenomena is scant but resounding. This is the perfection of Thug’s murk-rap aesthetic, because when you hear a tight snare or a melodic strain through all the stormy, subterranean bass, you feel it.

Barter 6 is a formal challenge to rap music. Its 13 songs are radioaverse because they’re not meant for an old-fashioned medium. On the Internet, where anything goes and where everything happens, they exist as avatars of this world-changing moment we’re in. Lil Wayne is the god of an old age and his laurels can never be discounted. But Thug is right now and right now, there’s no one like him.

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BLUR: MAGIC WHIP METZ: II

It’s now very clear that if Metz were to make non-Metz music, they’d either have to break up or make a hip hop album, because like its self-titled predecessor, II’s a white-hot bolt of sound radiating with almighty devastating power.

Frontman-guitarist Alex Edkins promised the band would stick to the exact script it used on its first album. And true enough, II is a 30-minute encore of new material, with a disclaimer that round twos need not be a rote rehash of the storied first time. The way the three-piece overcomes its self-imposed constraints of brevity and hardnosed uniformity is even more crushingly inventive than it was before. Its approach to eschewing verse-chorus structures is to stun the listener with whirling tapestries of guitar feedback and a low-end that sounds like it can’t not make tectonic sounds. “Acetate”, “IOU” and “Nervous System” are fantastic in this regard and as the best of a great bunch, honour everything we expect from makers of post-catchy rock. After the pummeling wonder that is “Kicking a Can of Worms” closes out the proceedings, you’ll be left with more energy than you’ll know what to do with.

What made Britpop seem like a more than viable alternative to the corporatised kind emanating from the pop cultural nerve center across the pond wasn’t just that its voices sung in Anglophile-baiting (and therefore “different”) accents, but that its best exemplars seemed to bear – most times, fashionably – some kind of aggrieved sociological weight. Within the Albarn-Cocker axis, globalisation and capitalism, the two most all-powerful organisational forces in the world, have been given quite the whipping. And for the most part, the first Blur album in 12 years furthers that narrative arc. Opener “Lonesome Street” is a stand-up approximation of the more-connected-butmore-distant state of human relationships in the current age, consummately dystopic in its appraisal of us all “crossing on the guillotine” and “going down to Lonesome Street”. “Thought I Was a Spaceman” is another good one, evolving from an ambient pulse into an electro-psych romp with a choppy backbeat, to lend some drama to Albarn’s feeling of disconnection with his hometown. Of course, these are all things that Parklife-era Blur did. If there was any arms-clasped anticipation for this, it’s rewarded by the Oriental influences the band bows to – “Ong Ong” is the only cheery song here.

TORRES: SPRINTER

“Strange Hellos” might just be the indie world’s breakout Event of 2015. With its roiling stadium-sized grunge guitars, and Mackenzie Scott’s unabashed “I hate you all the same” airing of grudges, it’s a manifestation of supreme actualisation. The reflection and resolve she shows on, “I was all for being real / But if I don’t believe then no one will,” is a double-barreled emotional blast, as unignorable as the song itself and as close as a moment of reckoning on a lead single as any. And like the best followups to the promises made by high-stakes heralds, the rest of Sprinter is likewise magnificent in its uncompromising level of detail and disclosure. “New Skin”, which comes next, is suffused with this ethos but brings an ameliorative sensibility to the record’s largely antagonistic stance with, “If you never know the darkness, then you’re the one who fears the most”. Carrying the freight of this revelation is a squall of ringing guitars, making for an unlikely but breathtaking alt-rock gravitas. PJ Harvey associate Rob Ellis and Portishead’s Adrian Utley help out on this score, creating emphatic noise for fractured (“Ferris Wheel”) and joyous (“Cowboy Guilt”) states.

But it’s Scott who’s responsible for its infinite scope.

SPEEDY ORTIZ: FOIL DEER

Thus completes the transition of this Massachusetts outfit from a band with a knowing grip on a specific sound to one that’s got that sound on lock and then some, and shows it off with a clinching attitude.

“Everybody’s getting wasted / I just pick my teeth, lurking in the shadows of the party lights,” sneers woman-in-charge Sadie Dupuis on the moody rumble of “Ginger”. But that gesture isn’t a result of boredom; it’s just the best example of the better-than-you outlook that Dupuis adopts throughout the album, which seems dedicated to all the lesser folk who’ve ever held her back or refused to give her her due. A poet, she lays on her literate charm in her most serrated display yet, like on the all-crushing stampede “Raising the Skate”: “I’m chief, not the overthrown / Captain, not a crony / So if you wanna row, you better have an awfully big boat.” The rest of the band is reciprocally fantastic; Foil Deer, like the best group efforts, sees members carrying their leader who in turn carries them toward a higher end.

Every riff, every hook, every redgummed backbeat, is a multitude.

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BLANCK MASS: DUMB FLESH

Blanck Mass is Benjamin John Power, one-half of F**k Buttons.

That means the “dance music” here is, you know, noisy. But in his return to his solo guise, Power seems to have learnt a few things from his band’s celebrated 2013 album Slow Focus, and chief of that is that droning, freeze-dried layers of sound can actually be made danceable. Dumb Flesh then, is very accessible but excellently crafted in that respect, even though Power’s said that it’s “a comment on the flaws of the human form in its current evolutionary state”. “Dead Format”, the epic centerpiece proves instructional, beginning with a pinging whine of a vocal sample and progressing to extended soul vocal loop over a minimal techno pound until, from out of nowhere, white noise swarms out the vocals, engulfing the only human element in the song. It’s a powerful allegory – if you thought about it. But the record’s cerebral import is secondary to the sheer scale and physicality of its sonic movements. “Detritus” is a noiserock freakout par excellence; “Atrophies” is the loudest chillwave song you’ll ever hear.

Dumb Flesh will stay in your head.

MATTHEW E. WHITE: FRESH BLOOD

There’s something about love, isn’t there? Something that makes the connection between Coldplay’s “Yellow” and the entirety of an indie-lurker like Fresh Blood ineffably obvious.

“Oh the diamonds on the sea look like your eyes to me… Sing me a song with a voice so sweet / That could calm all the oceans and part the sea,” is just one of White’s bleeding-heart whispers on opener “Take Care My Baby”, and it’s a superb testament to why this connection will always be upheld.

Fresh Blood is White’s exploration of the confusion, transcendental joy, staggering downers and more-than-the-sum-of-ourselves turns that dot the landscape of love. It’s a folksy, sometimes jazzy confessional that doubles up as an inquiry into its subject matter.

White’s great triumph within this old, very established mode is that his effusions are conveyed in quick, hushed breaths as opposed to from-the-gut soulful eruptions.

More than a reactionary style, this amplifies the import of his turbo-charged songs: when he sings, “Don’t you ever give a man false hope,” on “Holy Moly”, he sounds like he’s pleading to his ladylove. On “Tranquility”, an ode to Philip Seymour Hoffman, his near-purr is legitimately devastating.

BUILT TO SPILL: UNTETHERED MOON

If there was moment that crystallised indie’s rock most distinctive quality, it was when its makers gave their captive a sense of comfort in their enveloping, life-giving music.

This moment didn’t last and now it’s lost forever, but Built to Spill’s enduring appeal has always stemmed from how it’s managed to invoke a sense of the spectral and sublime within the endearments proffered by capital I indie. All this is obviously a trickier proposition in 2015, but on his band’s first album in six years, honcho Doug Martsch has emerged from a years-long funk, to bring the faith. The essence of this brilliantly concise yet teeming work is contained in the line, “Rock ‘n’ roll will be here forever,” from the widescreen opener “All Our Songs”. Besides the sheer guitar artistry here, it’s more urgent because it feels like something that Martsch himself needs to hear. This is why you can now describe a BTS record as “contained” and “direct”.

Even when he goes through the blues, “Living Zoo” and “Never Be the Same” suss out misery and mortality in deftly brilliant riff-resplendent ways. And for a denouement to the saga, closer “When I’m Blind” proves guitar rock right.

BEST COAST: CALIFORNIA NIGHTS If and when we as a culture were to look back on Best Coast’s catalogue, their third album will undoubtedly be flagged for the minor marvel that it is. Two albums ago, Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno basked in the sunlit glory of their home state, using its geography as musical and songwriting foil for their breakups and makeups. But like it says in front, California Nights is different: it’s about the nocturnal energy that pervades Cali and the epiphanies, revelations and realisations that spring forth then. For one, Cosentino isn’t equivocating here. On the triumphant opener “Feeling OK”, she sings with emphatic gusto, lines that’ll make everyone glad on her behalf, “Today I know I feel okay… / I know it’s love that’s got me feeling okay”. Reflective of her hard-won confidence, the sounds throughout are likewise robust and affirmatively so. Skyward hurls like “Heaven Sent” and “Run Through My Head” reprise ‘90s radio alt-rock chords but savvily coat them with studio sheen for added liftoff while emotional climaxes like the shoegaze-y title track and twinkly finisher “Wasted Time” present vividly detailed, purple-hued tableaux of head meeting heart in the dead of the California night.

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CHARLI XCX @ THE COLISEUM, HARD ROCK HOTEL Words: Indran P

What: A pop vixen shows off With the release of “I Love It” in 2012, it became clear that Rihanna wasn’t the only bad girl raising cain in pop. In the hooks of the pop-EDM headrush the world still hasn’t tired of sing-shouting, its maker Charli XCX inserted herself into the conversation about who was rocking the boat and making it sound immense and incredible all the while. And then came her subsequent two albums True Romance and Sucker, as well a string of Top 40 scorchers penned for other artists that further emblazoned her name across the pop firmament. Auteur, provocateur and consummate entertainer, Charli guarantees both craft and spectacle. And at her debut live showing here, we got to enjoy both those gifts.

Who: Teens, adults and girl power advocates It’s too late to marvel at the universality of pop in 2015 but it was stunning how teenyboppers and those who would normally be their tormentors, the fully-grown – some of whom even came, gasp, straight from the office! – had gathered together for a common purpose. In the crowd were young ‘uns with defiantly dyed hair, emphatically stomping their combat booted feet, singing along all while selfie-ing dutifully. And thanks to the literally leveling pop-rock splendour of Charli and her backing band, no one looked out of place.

How: Boom clap!

It was a foregone conclusion the moment Charli stalked onstage in a flattering silver one-piece: the show was going to be some kind of spectacular. With the brusque exclamation “Sucker”, she lit the torch on the proceedings and commenced an incendiary and delightful hour. And sure enough, the hits flowed relentlessly, with “I Love It”, “SuperLove” and “London Queen” all ringing in turbo-charged succession.

Throughout, she was a gyrating lightning bolt of energy, more than doing the due diligence for her screaming flock. And at the moment of reckoning, the long awaited closer of “Boom Clap”, she shook the stage with one final flourish.

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RHYE @ TAB Words: Indran P

What: A hushed spectacle Even today, in the glare of the Internet’s unblinking gaze, Rhye has managed to convey its distinct musicality with an enduring mystique. In an age where to be “enigmatic” means having a thoroughly schizoid media guise, Danish producer Robin Hannibal and Canadian singer Mike Milosh, have kept people guessing by delivering gorgeous contemporary r&b music where the torch is held

by Milosh’s angel-voiced, whispercoo, and keeping themselves out of the spotlight. In the prevailing musical climate, particularly in the alt-r&b universe, this insistently

self-effacing stance is needful and refreshing. But the live space is a different world from the one we inhabit when our headphones are on, and this night, we reaped Rhye’s quiet glories live and direct.

Who: Fans and some overzealous tools who couldn’t stop talking A sound as imploringly earnest and earthy as Rhye’s hypebeastunfriendly, itself being devoid of any exhibitionistic ego. So we found ourselves in the midst of peers likewise charmed by the band’s slow-burning gifts. All was well until the band started playing and a puzzlingly intoxicated bunch

(this is a Rhye show, not Ozzfest) near the back took it upon itself to sing along with Milosh, while from the right of the stage, chatter was heard throughout. Why anyone would want to compete with a voice like Milosh’s is beyond us.

Still, it was a fascinating show.

How: Soft soul Rhye’s apparitional melodies possess a hallowedness that casts any tampering of its effervescent parts as sacrilegious. But in the old fashioned way that testifies to expert musicianship, Milosh and his accompanying five-piece band added a sense of tangibility

to Rhye’s whispery ways in a performance that floored us completely. This was the going from the outset, as opening with the trembling “Verse”, ponderously beautiful cello sounds merged with sensuous bass-buoyed r&b grooves, the set eschewed scalability for detail and nuance.

Offering up favourites from Rhye’s 2013 debut album Woman like “Fall Apart” and “Open”, as well as solo material like “The City”, Milosh was undoubtedly the scene-stealer. Every sound from him was transfixing and his every utterance made the music even more mesmerising.

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KIRIN J CALLINAN @ BLU JAZ Words: Indran P Image: Maria Clare Khoo

What: Shock rock so fine There’s something incredibly cerebral, not to mention dangerous, about standing before a performer whose moves you’re never going to be able to predict.

It’s not punk here; it’s not a pose or an available attitude that the person onstage has claimed. It’s about a feeling – an uncanny, mystical feeling. Australia’s Kirin J Callinan, whose one-man band set-up is fully capable of staggering expressionistic strokes, is a master of eliciting that feeling.

And this night, as he summoned the cavernous scale of his debut

album Embracism, the proof was all around us.

Who: The cool kids Callinan isn’t a next-up indie hopeful. With his art-damaged sound, devastatingly open sensibility and theatrical voice, he’s a fully realised persona, the king of a darkly debaucherous subterranean realm. To show up for his first-ever appearance here said two things about you: that you were in the know and that you liked your thrills primal. This wasn’t a black-clad crowd toting airs like fashion-forged sabres, this was

a roomful of people quantifiable only in their anticipation of the brilliantly twisted pleasures of the night.

How: Noisy confessions by a dangerous mind Following the leftfield experiments

by Boy Kulisap and Mary Ocher, Callinan emerged on the starkly lit stage in traditional Indian garb that he had apparently newly purchased from Mustafa. The knowing grin and mischievous gleam in his eyes vanished with his opening song “Come On USA”. Dance beats and jagged ripcord guitar noise

gave vent to his earnestly penned political diatribe; this was the going throughout when he wasn’t trying to seduce you with blacked-out ‘80s synthpop like on “The Edge” or with his dance moves that made Thom Yorke’s shimmying on “Lotus Flower” look just stupid. At some point, he took off his tunic. And at some other point, he put down his guitar; walked off the stage to the sound booth and sung over new music he had recorded on his laptop. He played a song called “Big Enough”, dedicated another to a teacher in the audience, and then invited all to dance.

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THE CHILL WAVE Bliss is one sumptuous weekend spent at W Retreat & Spa Bali and we should know Words: Min Chen

An island abundant in scenic beaches and mountains, warmed by an unwavering sun and populated by a good amount of friendly folk, Bali is indeed very close to paradise. Today and everyday, it continues to welcome plane-loads of travellers seeking spiritual and visual uplifts, sporting opportunities and most of all, ultimate relaxation. For all those reasons has W Retreat & Spa Bali flowered in the heart of the island: to provide an escape into sumptuous and sensual environs, as well as adventure into Bali’s richly overflowing culture.

REST

Any journey into W Retreat & Spa Bali begins with a drive through a bamboo-framed tunnel,

past tranquil pools and trees, the combined effect of which does the twin tricks of physical and spiritual transportation. The warm welcome continues at the resort’s massive arrival hall – dotted by monsoon screens and backed by a wall of glass jars – the nucleus of the hotel which also houses its Starfish Bloo and Fire restaurants, Wired & Words meeting room and library, Away Spa, FIT fitness center and Wet pool. Atop it are more than 150 guest rooms, amongst the biggest on the island, providing breathtaking garden and beach views, including a number of suites that more than supply the wows.

Us, we’re whisked away to a Marvelous villa, one of 79 of W Bali’s villas, ranging from the

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Clockwise from left Another day on the beach at W Retreat & Spa Bali, WOOBAR at sunset, Chef Matthew McCool, the table’s set at Starfish Bloo, a treatment suite at Away Spa and the Extreme WOW Three-Bedroom Villa

REFUEL

One-Bedroom to the Extreme Wow Three-Bedrooms. Plush to the core, each villa is its own oasis, tucked into luscious gardens, fronted by a private pool, lavishly designed and well-equipped to satisfy even the most finicky of customers. Indulgence is built right into the villa – from its facilities like the rain forest showers and BOSE® sound system, to its decor that sees aquatic green hues commingling with weathered oak surfaces – to surely be more than just a place to rest your head.

RELAX

Things get even more sybaritic outside the villa. W Bali’s Away Spa exists to recharge, re-energise and refuel weary bodies and souls, and it does so with signature fabulosity.

As its name suggests, Away is a refuge made for meditative reflection and relaxation, though it too knows its way around the

glamour. So while you’ll find a calming embrace in the Spa’s tranquil treatment rooms, Hot Stone Bath, Cold Plunge, Oxygen room and Chill Bar, it also provides beautifying services (hair, manicures, pedicures, waxing) to get you stepping out with your best face forward.

Away Spa’s menu itself packs something for every need, be it glitz-getting, fit-seeking or serenity-wanting. Massages like Zen Balancing and Well-Healed will be handy in revitalising tired muscles, the Body Bliss and Take a Break treatments will soothe souls and senses, and for those in need of a shot of glam, there’s the Goddess Glow treatment, the Sun-Kissed facial or the 24K Gold Wrap to get you that party-ready radiance.

Fact: no one goes hungry at W Retreat & Spa Bali. On the hotel’s sprawling grounds are tucked away restaurants and bars made to excite taste buds, fill tummies and sustain your epicurean buzz.

For example, there’s Fire, which sizzles as its name does with prime cuts of grilled meats and seafood amidst a thoroughly casual and unpretentious atmosphere. And there’s also the Ice Bar, just one of W Bali’s beach-facing spots, where freshly iced cocktails are paired with a smart selection of artisan cheeses and house-made chacuterie.

We had the pleasure of dining at Starfish Bloo, W Bali’s signature dining destination, which faces the sea in view and in menu too. The restaurant recently appointed a new Chef De Cuisine in the form of Matthew McCool, who doesn’t just bring his award-winning, Gordon Ramsay-approved chops to the table, but also arrives with a Western flair to meet Starfish Bloo’s Pan-Asian feels. “I’m always looking for innovative ideas and cutting-edge approaches I can bring to my cooking,” says the Aussie chef. McCool’s innovative takes are evidenced in succulent plates like Crab Tacos, Teriyaki

Lamb Loin, Crispy Duck Steamed Buns and Saikyo Miso Marinated Japanese Black Cod, all of which, besides effectively fusing Western methods with Asian fare, also do well in showcasing Bali’s natural produce.

Since no one steps into W Bali without also hitting up WOOBAR, we’re there too. WOOBAR is the hotel’s fun and flirty epicentre, where music and cocktails are unleashed in the transcendent glow of the Balinese sunset. Its three levels provide different pleasures: the club level houses a dancefloor and every opportunity for party, the bar comes surrounded by comfortable and private nooks where guests may lay back and summon a juice, cocktail or nosh, and last but not at all least, the alfresco sky deck offers a panoramic view of the beach and the chillest vibes this side of the coast. The sun sets everyday from the view at WOOBAR, but only so that it may rise and shine on another day at W Bali’s sublime oasis.

Find W Retreat & Spa Bali at Jl. Petitenget, Kerobokan, Seminyak, Bali. Make your reservations at wretreatbali.com.

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SINGAPURA: THE MUSICAL NOW UNTIL 7 JUNE @ CAPITOL THEATRE Words: Min Chen

The story of Singapore’s fight for independence has been told and retold many a-time, but not yet with the highly personal and emotional resonance that Singapura: The Musical is about to embark on. Masterminded by the prolific composer and president of The 4th Wall Theatre Company, Ed Gatchalian, the original musical takes up the tale of a pre-independence

Singapore through the eyes of the average man: a bus driver and his family, who are made to deal with the fall-out of the Hock Lee bus riots in 1955. The result is not just a history lesson, but also, an exploration of the spirit, passion and dreams of everyday people who – through political and social upheavals – built themselves a home. Its rousing subject aside, the

musical can also boast of a diverse cast and crew, including Broadway vets Greg Ganakas and Kevin Kern, Filipino names including Joel Trinidad and Julien Mendoza, as well as local thesps like Jonathan Lim, who serves as dramaturge.

Singapura: The Musical has already had its stellar debut last month at the newly refurbished Capitol

Theatre, and will enjoy a further six-week run.

Before the musical hit the ground, we gathered up its creative team – composer Ed Gatchalian, librettist Joel Trinidad, and cast members Julien Mendoza, Maybel T and Reb Atadero – for a chat about the love and lessons that emerged from Singapore’s darkest hour.

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Ed: In 1955, there was the Hock Lee strike, and our protagonist, Mr. Tan, a bus driver, refuses to participate in this strike for fear of his family’s safety. But his daughter, Lee May, is being asked by her classmates to join the strike. You know what happened: there were four deaths, which affects Mr. Tan so much that he wants to get out of Singapore, and conversely, it affects Lee May in a way that makes her want to stay in Singapore. That’s their journey.

And this all happens between 1955 and 1965; the story ends with no conclusion because that’s the time when Singapore was left alone.

What was it that drew you to the story and history of Singapore?

Ed: Here’s how it went: a couple of Singaporean businessmen asked me if I wanted to do a musical on Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, so I read up on his two-volume memoirs.

However, I felt that everyone in the world knew what happened to Singapore from history books and news clippings, and what I really wanted to find out was how the average faceless, nameless people who lived during that time were affected by the political events.

So I ended up interviewing 16 70 to 90-year-old Singaporeans, and I discovered that their stories were very interesting and in a way, more so than the political leaders’. You wouldn’t expect heroism on the part of an average Singaporean. What made me

Did you feel any pressure to deliver on historical accuracy?

Ed: Oh yes! I really did my research, talking to the people and knocking on the doors of people like Dr. Kevin Blackburn, a respected historian at NUS. We wanted to be very accurate, but we didn’t want to be a political musical or a historical musical documentary. Instead, we just wanted that historical backdrop, because we want to show how these events affected people during that time.

And what’re everyone’s thoughts on being part of this musical?

Joel: I feel very privileged, because it’s such a huge project and an enormous responsibility to tell the story of a country’s fight for independence. And as Ed said, you have to get things right, because no matter how good the show is, if it doesn’t ring true, it won’t resound in people’s hearts and minds. It’s been a great process too. Our director Greg [Ganakas] is a genius; everyday at rehearsal, I see something new I’ve never seen before.

Julien: As Ed told you, the musical was initially about Lee Kuan Yew, but when he remodified it, it became more universal. And I appreciated that because you can play around with the relationships.

Family is family, no matter what nationality you are, and I’m sure that will resonate with audiences anywhere.

Reb: I just want to echo that; it’s definitely been a privilege.

I’ve grown so much, as an actor and as a person as well. There’s something about creating together that inserts maturity in you. And at the same time, it’s been fun, because there’s nothing like working with your friends and a father figure like Ed who takes care of you. It’s been a blast!

Give us a synopsis of what goes down in Singapura: The Musical.

It’s also great that the cast is so diverse.

pursue this was because the story of Singapore is so colourful and inspiring that the whole world should know about it.

Joel: This is the actually the first time I’ve worked with different cultures, within such a small country. Our cast consists of Indians, Chinese and Malays, and each culture has different nuances that we’ve learnt. It’s been very educational for us to learn how these different cultures coexisted with each other.

Maybel: This is all new to me too. My favourite part of this whole process is to actually see how all of us who come from different cultures still share the same universal feelings towards family, love and all of that. And it’s amazing to see how these themes resonate with different cultures.

And did you learn something new about Singapore during the process of making and producing the musical?

Ed: What really got me was how much Mr. Lee Kuan Yew felt that unification was essential to Singapore’s survival. So when Singapore was finally expelled from the Federation of Malaya, I can’t imagine how he and the people around him felt. But what really amazes me was how, after August 1965, your leaders just rolled up their sleeves and said, “Let’s clean the rivers, the triads and the kampungs. Let’s give everyone a home and an education.” I don’t know if the modern-day Singaporean truly appreciates that. So when you find out the stories about your founding fathers and grandfathers, you’d be prouder that you’re a Singaporean and appreciate what you’ve got right now. These are priceless lessons I’ve learnt.

Joel: I’d like to think it’s a story about the whole world, because every country has gone through hardship and poverty and strife.

Very few have gotten out of it but Singapore is one. And if you can do it, then we all can do it. It’s inspiring for all us, no matter what country you’re from.

Tickets: $65 to $175, available at singapurathemusical.com

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Yellow Mushmelow

Casie Lane

Jean Reiki

Oak and Bindi

ATTAGIRL! 2ND ANNIVERSARY X GOOD TIMES 5 JUNE @ BLU JAZ CAFE Girls don’t just wanna have fun; they know how to get that fun started. Behold: ATTAGIRL!, the femalecentric club night and community that for two years now, has been throwing parties, starting fires, and building a platform equally powered by women and empowering for women. The masterminds behind the venture are A/K/A, Durio and Jaydah, who, after bonding at the FFF Girl DJ Bootcamp, set out to promote, elevate and celebrate girl-driven music and visual culture. ATTAGIRL! has since warmed the decks at venues from Gem Bar to Zouk’s Wine Bar, while bigging up such local heroines as Rah, Casie Lane, CATSONCRACK, Jean Reiki and Debbie Chia. As the platform marks its second anniversary this month, it’s tied up with Good Times for a very solid line-up of local art and music, and best of all, the promise of grrrl-powered fun.

Words: Min Chen

EJ Missy

Yeule

Inkten

ART WITH A HEART

To broaden the night’s visual horizon, ATTAGIRL! has roped in nine local artists and illustrators to do maximum damage to a number of skateboard decks.

Kindly supplied by Triad Skateboards, these boards are pre-loved artifacts and however knocked and scratched, will serve as unique canvases for the visual artist line-up of Kristal Melson, Tiffany Tan (Lovage), Dawn Ang (Aeropalmics), Teresa (Teeteeheehee), Sophia Ong, Mary Lee (Mrydette), Nur Aida Sa’ad (Yellow Mushmellow), Lydia Yang (Oak and Bindi) and Inkten (Ink + Clog). Working off the theme of upcycling, they’ll be breathing new art and soul into these decks – and for a good cause too! The final boards won’t just be showcased at ATTAGIRL!’s second anniversary, but will also be put up for sale, with all proceeds and additional donations going straight to the Autism Association of Singapore. Respect to that.

Pixiedub

GIRLY SOUND

And naturally, there’ll be singing and dancing too! From 8pm, the party will hit its musical stride with nine DJs lined-up to woman the decks. The bill’s full up with FFF co-founder Pixiedub, Casie Lane, EJ Missy of kyo, Fatim Guzel, REN and the formidable Jean Reiki, and comes rounded off with ATTAGIRL!’s founding trio of A/K/A, Durio and Jaydah.

Between them, there’ll be a mixed bag of beats from techno to hip hop to drum ‘n’ bass, and for the first time in ATTAGIRL! history, there’ll also live music to be had.

The stage’s set for three rock-solid acts: Yeule, who’ll be armed with her diaphanous experiments in electronica, The Analog Girl, our very own space-age dream-pop cadet, and Vandetta, whose mighty soul-tronic chops are not to be trifled with. Listen right up.

Entry: Complimentary, but do come with donations! Stay updated at facebook.com/attagirlparty

Listings 32

GIRLS TOGETHER OUTRAGEOUSLY

ON THE EVE OF ATTAGIRL!’S SECOND ANNIVERSARY SHEBANG, A/K/A, DURIO AND JAYDAH OPENED UP TO US ON COMMUNITY-BUILDING, PARTY-STARTING AND GIRL-BONDING. How did ATTAGIRL! come about and why do you feel it’s essential?

Durio: I guess all three of us had the same little ambition to do something and contribute to the music scene here.

A/K/A: “ATTAGIRL!” as a name was fitting – it’s an encouraging term, and our primary goal was to reach out and connect with different creative women who have so much to contribute to the scene. Some girls might find it scary and daunting to step out alone in search for more gigs and to explore more underground genres of music and art, and we wanted to create that space and network for them to be able to do that.

Jaydah: The fact that ATTAGIRL! isn’t limited to just music but also has a interdisciplinary agenda, is something we feel would pull in the different crowd personalities. It’s really about accessibility.

What’re your thoughts on the female representation in the local electronic scene?

Jaydah: It’s definitely opening up, but I have to say that we weren’t the first to push this out.

The credit belong to the ones who become DJs when it was most inaccessible to the female community. Shouts-out to the ladies behind FFF Girl DJ Bootcamp, EJ Missy, Angela

Flame, Casie Lane, RAH and many others. They’ve made the ground easier for us to step on and ATTAGIRL! would not be where it is now without them.

A/K/A: So far, we’ve received lots of encouragement and help from both girls and guys alike; I don’t think there has ever been a time we were subject to extreme scrutiny or competition for simply being a girl collective.

But we’d certainly like to hopefully slowly change the stereotype of electronic music being associated with men most of the time, or that certain genres of music are more feminine than the other.

What’s your stock-take on ATTAGIRL! two years on?

A/K/A: It’s been a incredible ride with these ladies. I think it was a good learning process for all of us, in improving ourselves as selectors, curating a night with different DJs, working with venues and sponsors. We’re humbled to get so much love from everyone in the last two years who gave us so much advice, and especially when we encountered event hiccups.

Music institutions and venues like Zouk, Butter Factory, Gem Bar, who believed in us and gave us the chance to get our nights up, and brands like Asahi, New Balance, Flesh Imp, Dailymotion, Lush

99.5FM and Bcube Entertainment who are sponsoring us in different ways to get our anniversary night going.

Durio: We probably got a little more exposure only in the past one year. In between, we’ve gotten to know many amazingly talented artists and musicians, which motivates us. We do get a lot of support for what we’re doing, I guess that’s what kept us going and wanting to do more.

And what are you most looking forward to at ATTAGIRL!’s second anniversary bash?

Durio: Everything! Other than DJs and visual projection, everything else is new to us!

Having live acts, an art showcase, DJs playing with live streaming, working with a charity – all the things that we’ve wanted to do for the past two years are happening in one night!

A/K/A: Curating the artists and DJs was not hard; all we had to do, was call the girls and ask. Everyone pretty much knows everyone here, and we just had to make sure everyone was cool with the idea and was available.

Jaydah: Definitely looking forward to seeing everybody have a good time. It’s been a challenge but I’m very proud to see this through with my homegirls. The

ladies who will be working with us have also been soooo supportive – it really shows the progress we’ve made as a collective, and how united we can become as a female community. It’s only fitting for this occasion to give back to the community for all the progress we’ve made, so please donate as much as you can, no matter how small. We can guarantee you a good time, but you just gotta do your part and donate!

Lastly, fill us in on your hopes and dreams for ATTAGIRL! Jaydah: To continue building a network infrastructure with female creatives from various backgrounds, finding more ways to give back to the community and inspire more girls to step up to the game. We’re here to support you and we’re open to collaborations, all you have to do is reach out to us.

A/K/A: That it becomes an incredible melting pot of ideas and a source of inspiration for everyone out there to just do what you love. Hopefully, we get to bring this overseas too, to connect with similar collectives to get incredible parties going beyond Singapore.

Stay close to ATTAGIRL! at attagirlparty.com

Listings 100

DENNIS FERRER 5 June @ Velvet Underground-Dance $28/33 Words: Indran P

This will be a legendary night, because Dennis Ferrer. He was one of the first to bring afrocentric soul to house, paving the shape of dance music then and forever, and prefiguring deep house. Before you head over for his blessings, hear him out on his life, times and sounds.

You’ve played some stunning sets in Singapore before. Do you have any fond memories from when you were here?

Singapore is always an amazing destination for me. The culture, the people, the clubs – it all gives me great inspiration to perform and bring my A-game.

Congrats on Objektivity’s new single “Turn Off the Down”. How do you think crowds will react to it?

Hopefully, in a positive way! We love putting out records that we believe are a bit different than the norm. If there’s one thing I can assure you of, it’s that our releases truly reflect our musical tastes here at Objektivity.

And what do you make of current popularity of deep house all over the world?

I find it kind of funny that the masses have now joined the mosh pit. In all honesty, I haven’t seen much of a change except on the EDM and festival side of things, but underground house was always popular among a certain demographic and has always had its great supporters.

Would you say that there’s continuity between the music you made as Morph and the music you’re making now?

I would say life is never a perfect circle. Sometimes it’s oblong; sometimes it is a figure eight. One thing is for certain though: the loop is closed, which guarantees a return to the familiar at some point. Sometimes sooner, sometimes later. Mine was later.

What do you think of the journey that house music has taken since you first started?

I have witnessed the natural occurrence of evolution in its most simplistic form. I’ve learned so much about life by following the journey house music has taken. It’s no longer a simple lifestyle; it’s actually a part of my life, of who I am. I hope it continues to evolve, as it will provide me with the desire to evolve along with it.

Lastly, what’s got you excited the most about playing in Singapore again?

THE FOOD!!!!!

Listings 101

ADRIANA LOPEZ DAEDELUS 6 June @ kyo $20/25

A Colombia-born, Barcelonabased DJ, producer and sound technician whose career dates back to the late 1990s, Adriana Lopez is one of South America’s titans of techno. Hers will be set both instructional and sensational.

LAIDBACK LUKE 6 June @ Zouk $33/38

13 June @ Velvet Underground – Dance $28/33

Behold The Deep End! A new night at the pre-eminent venue for forward-shining dance music, its first guest will be none other than LA IDM icon Daedelus. Gear up for a journey through the spectrum of electronic music that’ll take you to places you never knew existed.

TYDI

19 June @ Zouk $28/33

NOSAJ THING 6 June @ kyo $40/50 at peatix.com

You already know what you’re in for here: big builds, bigger drops, lightspeed melodies, and the magic electro-house ingredients behind “Get Dumb”, “Show Me Love” and “Blow”. Once again, one of the world’s greatest DJproducers will take good times to the nth extremes.

GIRAFFAGE 12 June @ kyo $20/25

San Francisco’s supreme beatmaker has picked our little isle to kick off his Asian tour on. This means we’ll be the first to receive his dream-pop, electronica, trap and if he feels like it, lo-fi, tidings.

Keep your hands raised the whole time.

Being a new entrant into the dance world hasn’t stopped this classically trained prodigy from soaring to its upper echelons.

Besides having his name sung by greats like Tiësto, he’s also got chart-killers like “Shooting Stars” and “ReDefined” that have flipped the script on EDM, trance and house.

X: THE POPTART 10TH BIRTHDAY PARTY 20 June @ kyo $20/25

Poptart is everything that makes being on the dancefloor a transcendental experience. This is the celebration of 10 glorious years of the sounds and songs that have spoken to us, led us astray and picked us up again. Come happy. weelikeme, KiDG and Jah will see to it that you leave happier.

How lucky are we that the maker one of the best albums of the year will invoke its merits before our very eyes!

With Fated, Jason Chung has set the bar anew for warped soul and hip hop of a particularly bewitching leftfield shade. Coaxing seething, stellar performances from guests like Chance, the Rapper and Whoarei, he’s also shown a growth in his already on-point curatorial gifts.

So, whether you’re a hip hop head, a soul sister/brother or moored in deep-space electronica, there’ll be something in his showing here that’ll make you feel.

ALEX M.O.R.P.H 20 June @ Canvas $18/25

Armin-certified and tranceelevating, this German spaceman is everything we’ve always wanted the makers of transportive dance sounds to be. “Sunset Boulevard” and “Life Less Ordinary” are just some of his resume’s highlights.

Head over to get the rest.

DIMITRI FROM PARIS

26 June @ Velvet Underground – Dance $28/33

Yes, this Parisian gent counts disco, funk, hip hop and electro as his main arsenal. But his exquisitely lush feel-good blasts are way more than the sum of their parts. Dance music is all the more fun and intelligent for his existence – this night will be a real-life testimony.

Directory 102

STOCKISTS Where to shop

agnès b. Located at Raffles City Shopping Centre, #01-26; ION Orchard, #03-24; The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands, #B2-31A, Paragon, #02-39; Isetan Orchard and Takashimaya Shopping Centre Aldo Located at ION Orchard, Paragon, Junction 8, VivoCity, Parkway Parade, Tampines Mall, Bugis Junction, 313@Somerset, Westgate, Raffles City and Takashimaya Shopping Centre Alexander McQueen Available at On Pedder, Ngee Ann City, #02-12P/Q Alexander Wang Located at Hilton Hotel Singapore, #02-03/04 Alterna Available at Sephora at Bugis+, Ngee Ann City, Great World City, Plaza Singapura, ION Orchard, VivoCity and The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands American Vintage Located at Ngee Ann City, #03-13B ASOS Available at asos.com Balmain Available at net-a-porter.com Ben Sherman Located at Paragon, #03-48; VivoCity, #01-24; and orchardgateway, #01-04/05 Billabong Located at 313 @ Somerset, Bugis Junction, Raffles City Shopping Centre and WaveHouse Bimba Y Lola Located at ION Orchard, #B1-22 Burberry Prorsum Located at Ngee Ann City, #01-28/29; The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands, #B1-103 & #B2-78; and ION Orchard, #02/16/17/18 Cath Kidston x Gola Available at Cath Kidston at Bugis Junction, Great World City, Suntec City, Tampines One, ION Orchard, Plaza Singapura and The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands :Chocoolate Available at i.t, Wisma Atria #03-15 and Bugis Junction #02-11 Clinique Available at Tangs Orchard and Tangs VivoCity Clio Available at selected Watsons stores Coach Located at Paragon, Raffles City Shopping Centre, Takashimaya, VivoCity, Wisma Atria, DFS Galleria, The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa Comme des Garçons Located at Hilton Hotel Singapore, #02-39/40 COS Located at ION Orchard, #03-23; and Westgate, #01-41/42 DKNY Jeans Located at ION Orchard, #03-02 Dior Fragrance & Beauty Available at counters at BHG Bugis Junction, Isetan Scotts, Isetan Tampines, Isetan Katong, Robinsons Raffles City, Robinsons Centrepoint, Takashimaya, Tangs Orchard and Tangs VivoCity Dolce & Gabbana Located at ION Orchard, #01-24 & #02-12; and The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands, #01-60/62 & #B1-138-140 Dorothy Perkins Located at Orchard Gateway, Raffles City, City Square Mall, Bugis Junction, Great World City, Plaza Singapura, Wisma Atria, Junction 8, Causeway Point, Tampines 1, Jem and Bedok Mall Dr. Martens Located at Wheelock Place, #02-17A; and Orchard Central, #03-05 Faherty Available at mrporter.com Forever 21 Located at Orchard Xchange, #B1-01 to 35 Gap Located at VivoCity, #01-129; Centrepoint, #02-12/02-101; and Wisma Atria, #01-17A/19, #B1-20/22 Givenchy Available at net-a-porter.com H&M Located at 1 Grange Road; ION Orchard, #B2-28; Suntec City Mall, #01-307, #01-308, #01-309, #01-310 & #01-311; JEM, #01-01, #0201/02/03 & #03-01/02; VivoCity, #01-19/20 Helmut Lang Available at net-a-porter.com

Issey Miyake Located at Hilton Hotel Singapore, #02-07/10 Jack Wills Located at Raffles City Shopping Centre, #01-19 Jimmy Choo Located at Paragon, #01-10 Kate Spade New York Located at Raffles City, #01-24; ION Orchard, #03-27; and Takashimaya, L1 Kobra Available at kobrapaintusa.com Linda Farrow Luxe Available at On Pedder, Ngee Ann City, #02-12P/Q MAC Located at Bugis Junction, #01-17S; Ngee Ann City, #B1-13/13A; and available at Robinsons Raffles City, Robinsons JEM, Isetan Scotts, Isetan Tampines, Tangs Orchard, Tangs VivoCity and Sephora at ION Orchard Maison Kitsuné Available at kitsune.fr Marc by Marc Jacobs Located at ION Orchard, #03-21; Mandarin Gallery, #01-11 & #02-12; and Raffles City Shopping Centre, #01-11 Marc Jacobs Beauty Available at Sephora at Bugis+, Ngee Ann City, Great World City, Plaza Singapura, ION Orchard, VivoCity and The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands Markus Lupfer Available at Club21b, Forum The Shopping Mall, #01-07/08/09 McQ by Alexander McQueen Available at Club21b, Forum The Shopping Mall, #01-07/08/09 Merchant Archive Available at net-a-porter.com Michael Kors Located at Scotts Square, #01-16/17 Miharayasuhiro Available at Club 21, Four Seasons Hotel Singapore, #01-01/02 & #01-09/10/11 MoMa Store Available at momastore.org Monki Available at monki.com Oscar de la Renta Available at net-a-porter.com Paul Smith Located at Hilton Hotel Singapore, #02-24/25; Mandarin Gallery, #01-08; and Isetan Orchard Ray-Ban Available at all fine optical stores River Island Available at riverisland.com RMK Available at counters at Isetan Scotts, Isetan Serangoon Central and Takashimaya Shopping Centre Roger Vivier Located at Ngee Ann City, #02-12F Sacai Available at Club 21, Four Seasons Hotel Singapore, #01-01/02 & #0109/10/11 Saint Laurent Located at ION Orchard, #01-25; The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands, #B1-116 Sea NY for Net-a-porter Available at net-a-porter.com Sephora Located at Bugis+, Ngee Ann City, Great World City, Plaza Singapura, ION Orchard, VivoCity and The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands Sonic Editions Available at soniceditions.com The Body Shop Located at ION Orchard, #B2-39; Centrepoint, #01-47/48; Ngee Ann City, #B1-34; and Wisma Atria, #B1-37 Tim Coppens Available at mrporter.com Topshop Located at Knightsbridge, #01-05/05; ION Orchard, #B2-01; Raffles City, #02-39; Tampines Mall, #02-16; and VivoCity #01-72 Undercover Available at mrporter.com Urban Outfitters Available at urbanoutfitters.com Vans Located ION Orchard, #B3-61; Orchard Central, #01-22/23; and Orchard Cineleisure, #03-07 Zara Home Available at zarahome.com

Directory 103

DISTRO Where to find ZIGGY

ART, DESIGN AND MUSIC STORES

BooksActually 9 Yong Siak St Grafunkt Park Mall, #02-06; 85 Playfair Rd, Tong Yuan Ind. Bldg, #02-01 Lomography Gallery Store 295 South Bridge Rd, #01-01 The Substation 45 Armenian St Tokyobikes 38 Haji Lane Vinylicious Records Parklane Shopping Mall, #01-26

BARS & CLUBS

Acid Bar & Alley Bar 180 Orchard Road, Peranakan Place Bikini Bar 50 Siloso Beach Walk Sentosa #01-06 Blu Jaz Cafe 12 Bali Lane Club Street Social 5 Gemmill Lane Maison Ikkoku 20 Kandahar St Outdoors Café & Bar 180 Orchard Rd, Peranakan Place Overeasy One Fullerton, #01-06 Paulaner Brauhaus Millenia Walk, #01-01 Tanjong Beach Club 120 Tanjong Beach Walk, Sentosa The Merry Men 86 Robertson Quay, #01-00 Canvas 20 Upper Circular Rd, #B101/06 The Riverwalk kyō 133 Cecil Street, #B1-02, Keck Seng Tower Taboo 65/67 Neil St Zouk Singapore 17 Jiak Kim St

HOTELS

Klapsons The Boutique Hotel 15 Hoe Chiang Rd Lloyd’s Inn 2 Lloyd Rd Naumi Hotel 41 Seah St Naumi Liora Hotel 55 Keong Siak St New Majestic Hotel 31-27 Bukit Pasoh Rd Sultan Boutique Hotel 101 Jalan Sultan, #01-01 The Club Hotel 28 Ann Siang Rd The Quincy Hotel 22 Mount Elizabeth Unlisted Collection 13 Cantonment Rd W Hotel 21 Ocean Way, Sentosa Cove Wanderlust Hotel 2 Dickson Rd Wangz 231 Outram Rd

HAIR & NAIL SALONS

Artisan Hair 42A Lorong Mambong, Holland Village Essensuals Orchard Central, #B1-20; 1 Vista Exchange Green, #B1-22 Hairloom The Arcade, #03-08 Kizuki Raffles Hotel Arcade, #03-03/04 Manicurious 41 Beach Rd Next Salon 271A Holland Ave, Holland Village; ION Orchard, #03-24A Prep Mandarin Gallery, #03-34 The Golden Rule Barber Co. 188 Race Course Rd, #01-02 The Panic Room 311A Geylang Rd Toni&Guy 170 East Coast Rd; 24B Lorong Mambong; Rochester Mall, #02-01 What He Wants 181 Orchard Rd, #03-30; The Cathay, #01-06

SCHOOLS

LaSalle College of the Arts 1 McNally St, Block E, L1 Reception Nafa School of Performing Arts 151 Bencoolen St NTU Students Activities Centre 50 Nanyang Ave, L1 NUS Radio Pulze 31 Lower Kent Ridge, National University of Singapore Office of Student Affairs, Level 3, Yusof Ishak House, Tembusu College University Town, NUS, 28 College Ave East, #B1-01 Thunder Rock School 227A Upper Thomson Rd

EVERYWHERE ELSE

Bottles & Bottles Parkway Parade, #B1-83K/L; Tampines Central 1, #B1-28; 131 Tanglin Road, Tudor Court Shopping Gallery Camera Rental Centre 23 New Bridge Rd, #03-01 Comfort Taxis Durasafe Showroom Shun Li Industrial Park #02-08 OCBC Frank VivoCity, #01-160; Singapore Management University, Li Ka Shing Library, #B1-43; Nanyang Technological University, Academic Complex North, Ns3 01-01; Singapore Polytechnic Foodcourt 5, (Fc512) Premiere Taxis SMRT Taxis The Central 6 Eu Tong Seng St

FASHION BOUTIQUES

Actually Orchardgateway, #03-18 agnès b. ION Orchard, #03-24; Isetan Orchard, Wisma Atria; Isetan Scotts, Shaw House; Raffles City Shopping Centre, #01-26; Takashimaya Department Store, L2 Ben Sherman Paragon, #03-48; VivoCity, #01-24 Dr. Martens Orchard Central, #03-05; Wheelock Place, #02-17A Fred Perry Orchard Cineleisure, #03-07A; ION Orchard, #B3-01; Mandarin Gallery, #03-08 Front Row Raffles Hotel Arcade, #02-09 Granny’s Day Out Peninsula Shopping Centre, #03-25 J Shoes City Link Mall, #B1-22 Leftfoot Orchard Cineleisure, #02-07A; The Cathay, #01-19/20 Little Man 7C Binjai Park Mdreams Wheelock Place, #B2-03 New Balance *SCAPE, #02-15; 112 East Coast Road, #02-25; Tampines Mall, #02-18; Novena Square, #01-39/42 Porter International Wisma Atria, #03-06 P.V.S Orchard Cineleisure, #02-05 Rockstar Orchard Cineleisure, #03-08 STARTHREESIXTY Wheelock Place #02-08; Marina Square, #02-179; VivoCity, #02-09; Paragon, #03-08 Strangelets 7 Yong Siak St Surrender Raffles Hotel Arcade, #02-31 The Denim Store Mandarin Gallery, #03-09/10/11 Topshop & Topman Knightsbridge, #01-05/06; ION Orchard, #B2-01 & #B3-01B; Raffles City Shopping Centre, #02-39; Tampines 1 Mall, #01-26/27 & #02-16; VivoCity, #01-72 Vans ION Orchard, #B3-61; Orchard Central, #01-22/23; Marina Square, #02-160; Orchard Cineleisure, #03-07; VivoCity, #02-111/113 Victoria Jomo 9 Haji Lane Wesc myVillage @ Serangoon Gardens, #01-04; 112 Katong, #02-19

F&B ESTABLISHMENTS

Bar Bar Black Sheep 879 Cherry Ave; 86 Robertson Quay, #01-04; 362 Tanjong Katong Rd Coq & Balls 6 Kim Tian Rd Cupcakes With Love Tampines 1, #03-22 Doodle! Pasta Oasia Hotel, Novena Square 2 Forty Hands 78 Yong Siak St, #01-12 Habitat Coffee 223 Upper Thomson Rd IndoChine Restaurant 47 Club St Island Creamery Serene Centre, #01-03; Holland Village Shopping Mall, #01-02 Kilo 66 Kampong Bugis Kith Café 7 Rodyk Street Kuro Clarke Quay, Blk 3C #01-11 Loysel’s Toy 66 Kampung Bugis, Ture, #01-02 Moosehead Kitchen-Bar 110 Telok Ayer St Oblong Place 10 Maju Ave Open Door Policy 19 Yong Siak St PACT Orchard Central, #02-16/17/18/19 Papa Palheta 150 Tyrwhitt Rd PARK. 281 Holland Ave #01-01 PasarBella 200 Turf Club Rd Potato Head Folk 36 Keong Saik Rd Selfish Gene Cafe 40 Craig Rd Shots 90 Club St Skyve 10 Windstedt Rd, Block E, #01-17 SPRMRKT 2 McCallum St SuperTree 18 Gardens by the Bay, #03-01 Sushi Burrito 100 Tras St Symmetry 9 Jalan Kubor #01-01 The Forbidden City 3A Clarke Quay, Merchant’s Court, #01-02 The Fabulous Baker Boy The Foothills, 70 River Valley Rd Veganburg 44 Jalan Eunos; Golden Shoe Carpark, #01-28D; Marina Bay Financial Centre Tower 3, #02-05; 200 Turf Club Rd, #01-32 Wheeler’s Yard 28 Lorong Ampas

REST OF THE WORLD Zouk Kuala Lumpur 113 Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

Word 104

THE ZIGGY CROSSWORD

Across 1 The youngest of The Jackson 5 3 The teen behind “Two Fingers”, __ Bugg 5 A writer of verse 6 Canadian music collective, __ Social Scene 8 Tavi Gevinson’s online magazine 9 Director of 2004’s Dig!, __ Timoner 10 Taylor Swift’s world-conquering 2012 album 11 James Todd Smith’s stage name 13 Fifth single off Avril Lavigne’s debut Let Go 14 Texan band fronted by Britt Daniel

15 A state of mind 19 Maker of Girls, __ Dunham 21 This Mortal __ 23 The kind of track that slays dancefloors 25 An object of obsession and/ or worship 26 The oldest Baldwin brother 27 One of the One Direction, Harry __ 28 Scottish teen-pop band, __ __ Rollers 29 Bob Dylan lyric, “Your __ and your daughters are beyond your command”

Down 2 The Runaway’s first hit 4 The modelling Jenner 5 The fictional nation in The Hunger Games 6 Twilight’s teen heroine 7 The Beach Boys’ 1988 contribution to the Cocktail soundtrack 12 Cher Horowitz’s exstepbrother 16 Informal term for a young teen being introduced to fashionable society

#6

17 1982 hit by Dexy’s Midnight Runners, “Come On __” 18 Miley Cyrus’ 2009 single, recorded for Hannah Montana: The Movie, “The __” 20 Beastie Boys’ 1998 album, Hello __ 21 Late-‘70s punk band behind “Banned From The Roxy” 22 The band formed by an 18-year-old Kele Okereke, __ Party 24 The yé-yé girl famed for “Les Sucettes”, France __

Crossword #5 key Across 1: About 4: It 7: Horn 9: Joker 10: London 11: Cops 14: Interstellar 16: Die 17: Lorde 21: Victor 22: Francis 25: The Who 28: Time 29: Get On Up Down 2: Bijou 3: Them 5: Hansel 6: Pan 8: Bogdanovich 10: Lost 12: Pike 13: Argo 15: Len 16: Doves 18: Riff 19: Hornet 20: Andes 23: Omen 24: Dig 25: Gun 26: Won 27: Old