THE SPRING ISSUE
Music
Marika Hackman
Over recent years, folk has remerged from the depths of music history to fronting the British music scene once again. Whatever way folk may affect you, whether it lullabies you to sleep, or hypnotizes you into another runic realm that helps you forget the troubles of daily life, Marika Hackman’s pairing of her guitar and voice, since the tender age of fourteen, has played a large success in that part.
Tori Amos
Top by Sally LaPointe, full skirt by Carolina Herrera Tori Amos became a force in popular music with Little Earthquakes, an album full of confessional songs that balanced strong melodies with even stronger emotional content, including “Me And a Gun,” a graphic song about rape and abuse. Her slightly quirky melodies and emotional honesty won […]
Sea Wolf
Alex Brown Church, the central figure behind the Los Angeles-based musical entity Sea Wolf is uncomfortable. Twitchy and evasive, he populates silences with filler phrases, then ends up mumbling, “I don’t know,” when his thoughts remain unarticulated. Luckily, this communication impairedness doesn’t present itself in Church’s music. In fact, on Old World Romance, his latest […]
Onuinu
Dorian Duvall, the artist known as Onuinu (On You, In You), calls his music Disco-Hop, a moniker that obscures as much as it reveals. While the energetic thump of disco and the erratic beats of hip hop are evident in his sound, the songs on Mirror Gazer, his striking debut, can’t really be tied down […]
Afghanistan is her name
After the Soviet invasion, just days before Ariana Delawari’s birth, her father’s entire family fled Afghanistan. Many of them found refuge at the Delawari home in Los Angeles, where baby Ariana was welcomed by a huge extended family. Her name, Ariana, is the ancient name for Afghanistan. “I think those early years really shaped me,” […]
Swedish Euphoria
Loreen is navigating through rush hour traffic in Stockholm. The phone picks up the noise of honking horns, squealing breaks and revving engines. Every so often, she leans out the window and delivers a few choice words to a passing driver in rapid Swedish. Then she laughs, “Doing an interview while driving is maybe not […]
Anaïs Mitchell
Folk songstress Anaïs Mitchell weaves emotional stories throughout her albums, tales that convey the singer’s dark romanticism, despite the breathless innocence of her voice. The disparity between her vocals and her lyrics endows Mitchell’s compositions with a profound resonance. Mitchell’s latest album, her fifth to date, focuses on the complexities confronting America, and those at […]
Yuna
The Malaysian indie singer-songwriter Yuna is on a charm offensive. She enchanted Malaysia with her soft, powerfully emotive vocals and warm acoustic guitar; won over audiences on her recent U.S. tour with Graffiti6; and has fans and critics everywhere raving about her music, including the Grammy award–winning Pharrell Williams, who produced her new single, “Live […]
Trippple Nippples
Trippple Nippples have been rocking clubs and astonishing audiences in Tokyo with their chaotic-come-beautiful live shows since 2005 and have recently begun to turn heads overseas. Led by three female Japanese vocalists/dancers and backed by an American and two Australians on instruments, the band plays each and every gig differently. Costumes, props and routines—theirs really […]
Bo Ningen
Currently residing in London by way of Tokyo, the band Bo Ningen is a psychedelic four-piece with the greatest hair and one of the most distinct looks in rock and roll. But their luscious locks are not all that these guys have going for them: The fact that a Japanese band singing in its native […]
Verbal
A pioneer and visionary in both fashion and music, VERBAL has inspired a generation of Japanese youth since his musical debut in 1999. Thirteen years down the line and with a handful of successful musical projects and his own label under his belt, he remains one of the most respected and hard-working musicians in Asia. […]
ZZ Ward
“I was always attracted to powerful female voices,” says ZZ Ward, a singer, songwriter and guitarist intent on redefining the blues for a new generation by blending traditional sounds with the beats and rhythms of hip hop and rap. “There aren’t a lot of singers out there with the sincerity and commitment of Etta James […]
The Synergy of Art & Music
As a child, when Luke Rothschild was sent to his room for misbehaving, he would collect pots and pans and take them with him to “make sounds.” His earliest memories center on him making music, but he was also constantly drawing, forever painting and always creating. This childhood preoccupation with several media proved strangely prophetic. […]
Enya Meets Kraftwerk in Outer Space
Text by J. Poet Photography by Aaron Sterns Grimes is the queen of the mash-up, an artist with an omnivorous musical appetite and an ability to make coherent, futuristic pop out of the most unlikely elements. On Visions, her latest album, she blends a kitchen sink of musical styles, everything from Korean pop to old […]
The Man Behind the Music
Text by Ellen Georgiou Photography by Farah Sosa Encouraged by a friend to list all the skills and talents that would help guide him in life, 16-year-old Eddie Cota had only two things on his list, a short list that proved to be more than prophetic: 1. I listen to music 2. I tell people […]
FENSTER’S SONIC HIDE-AWAY
Hauntingly visceral and poetically cerebral, the melodic and lyrical compositions that comprise Berlin-based band Fenster’s debut album Bones seem to excavate our collective subconscious. The result is a powerful collection of songs that have rapidly infiltrated Europe’s independent music scene since forming in the winter of 2010. The creation of Jonathan Jarzyna, a Berliner, and […]
SCREAMING FEMALES
It’s Saturday night in New Brunswick, New Jersey. A restless crowd buzzes with energy as a petite girl with jet-black hair slowly pushes her way through the crowd. Once on stage, she picks up a guitar that’s almost as big as she is and starts generating a grinding dissonant wail. She seems to double in […]
BAG RAIDERS
Sunny Sounds from the Heart of Winter Three years ago Sydney residents Chris Stracey and Jack Glass, the duo known as Bag Raiders, were hard at work making mix tapes for their friends. They enjoyed the process so much, they started a production company and were soon doing remixes for bands like Cut Copy, Midnight […]
DAVID GRELLIER
College & the Valerie Collective “So you suppose I play an instrument?” It was more of a statement than a question that came from David Grellier, the one-man band behind College and composer of the track, “A Real Hero,” whose thrumming synth and chaste vocals have made their tour of today’s retro-laden blogosphere and have […]
THE GOOD NATURED
You won’t hear Sarah McIntosh complaining about the demise of the record business. When she started The Good Natured, she ignored the industry and set out to do things on her own. She created the band and became their manager, publicist and booking agent, as well as the lead singer, songwriter and keyboard-player. “When I […]
UH HUH HER
“Welcome to the glamorous world of life on the road,” says bass player and singer Leisha Hailey, one-half of the creative team that fronts the indie rock band Uh Huh Her. Hailey and her partner, singer/guitarist/producer/keyboard-player Camila Grey, are in a laundromat in Cleveland, Ohio. They’re washing their stage clothes. Later on, they’ll jump in […]
High Places
Photography by Colin Patrick Smith High Places is the duo of Mary Pearson, a classically trained bassoon player, and Rob Barber, a guitarist, visual artist and producer. Pearson and Barber were introduced by a mutual friend when Pearson came to New York City to audition for her graduate program. After a lengthy conversation about musical […]
Delicate Cutters
Photography by Brandon Brown When Delicate Cutters front woman Janet Simpson sings, her warm, inviting tone pulls you into her troubled and emotional world. The music may be mellow, marked by lilting melodies with pop, folk and Celtic influences, but lyrically, Simpson investigates the darker regions of the human heart. She visits the disturbing places […]
James Allan/ Glasvegas
Few examples better illustrate the well-known inferiority complex of the Scottish than the 1996 indie masterpiece Trainspotting. “It’s shiet being Scottish! We’re the lowest of the low. The scum of the fucking Earth!” Mark Renton deftly exclaims with a sentiment that can only be calmed by massive amounts of heroin. Evolving as it did to […]
