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howaminotinthestrokesyet · 3 years

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Where Have They Gone Now: Izzy Stradlin

Born Jeffrey Dean Isbell, the future guitar player for Guns N’ Roses was born and grew up in Lafayette, Indiana. He always held a fondness for the small-town life in Indiana. “It was cool growing up there. There's a courthouse and a college, a river and railroad tracks. It's a small town, so there wasn't much to do. We rode bikes, smoked pot, got into trouble—it was pretty Beavis and Butt-Head actually." His first instrument turned out to be the drums because his paternal grandmother played in a swing jazz band. Izzy started his first band in high school with a group of friends including a young man named William Bailey, who later became Axl Rose. Stradlin would later recall his first impression of Rose. “We were long-haired guys in high school. You were either a jock or a stoner. We weren't jocks, so we ended up hanging out together. We'd play covers in the garage. There were no clubs to play at, so we never made it out of the garage." He would go on to actually become the only member of GNR to graduate high school with a D average. Upon graduation, the future rhythm guitarist moved to Los Angeles in 1980.

Upon his arrival in LA, Stradlin joined the group, Naughty Women. During their first show, audience members began assaulting the band as they played. Izzy would later recall the incident. “I just grabbed a cymbal stand and stood on the side trying to fend them off, yelling, 'Get the fuck away from me, man!' That was my introduction to the rock scene in L.A." After two months, he left Naughty Women to join the punk band, The Atoms, which was short lived. During his time in that group, his drum kit was stolen, so Stradlin switched to the bass guitar. In 1983, he joined with Axl Rose to form the group, Hollywood Rose. They would go on to record a five song demo, but they eventually disbanded. He had a short stint with Sunset Strip local favorite London before reuniting with Hollywood Rose. In March 1985, they added more members to Hollywood Rose to become Guns N’ Roses.

As Guns N’ Roses began work on a first album, Stradlin emerged as the key songwriter for the album, Appetite For Destruction. He held a co-writer credit for almost every track on the album. At the time, this might have surprised some people as Izzy had garnered the reputation as a go to guy for really good heroin. He had become quite the addict himself as well. Yet, the guitarist was still able to function as a member of Guns N’ Roses at a very high level. In the band’s follow up EP, Lies, Stradlin also contributed by helping to write the track, “Patience.” Yet, the good times quickly went bad for the guitarist, when he was given probation for a year for urinating in the aisle of an airplane. This led him to making the decision to get sober going home to Indiana to detox from drugs and alcohol. Upon his return to the band, things were not quite the same. In 1991, Guns N’ Roses released Use Your Illusion I and II. The group was probably at the height of its fame during this time. Stradlin shocked the music world when following its release, he quit the band. His last performance with the band was in late August of that year at Wembley Stadium. He received songwriting credits for 10 songs on the new albums. In interviews, he would go on to say that he did not want to deal with the band drama any longer, but more specifically the antics of one Axl Rose. Another issue was the fact that other band members were trying to pay him less in royalties. “Once I quit drugs, I couldn't help looking around and asking myself, 'Is this all there is?' I was just tired of it; I needed to get out."

Following his surprising exit from Guns N’ Roses, Izzy Stradlin returned to his home town of Lafayette, Indiana. It was here that he began writing and recording new music. He formed the band Izzy Stradlin and the Juju Hounds, which included members of the Georgia Satellites and Broken Homes. Their first album, self titled, was released in October 1992. In the Rolling Stone review, they said it was a “thoroughly winning solo debut.” The band played their first show at the Avalon in Chicago that September. In May 1993, Stradlin would return to Guns n’ Roses to fill in for his replacement, Gilby Clark, who had an injured wrist. After that ended, Stradlin returned to the Juju Hounds for a tour of Japan. He would then take time off from any music-related projects.

In 1995, the guitarist began working on material for a new solo album. The album would not be released until 1998. Duff McKagan formerly of Guns N’ Roses played on the album. Much like his album with the Juju Hounds, Stradlin did absolutely nothing to promote the album. He would not do any interviews, no tour, and for the most part tried as hard as he could to stay out of the public eye. This was his last album with Geffen, as they dropped him from the label because he did not sell very many records. In December 1999, Stradlin released his third solo album, Ride on on the Universal Victor label. This time he would actually play four live shows to promote the album. Stradlin and his band would go on to record two additional albums, River in 2001, and On Down the Road in 2002. The latter album was a Japan only release. Around that time, he was asked by former bandmates, Duff McKagan, Slash, and Matt Sorum to join the supergroup Velvet Revolver. In the end, he decided not to join because of his dislike for life on the road and collaborating with a lead singer. Though, he did contribute to some early songs.

In the next few years, Stradlin turned out to be quite prolific in the release of new material. He released solo albums in 2005, 2007, 2008, and 2009. In 2012, Izzy was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of Guns N’ Roses. He released a statement thanking various people, but did not attend the induction ceremony. Stradlin would join Guns N’ Roses for a few shows later that year, but the guitarist ultimately decided not to return full-time. One of the sticking points was salary for the concerts not being split equally. He might have been offered guest appearances, but he would have declined those as well. Since then, Stradlin has only released a few singles and played guitar on a John Mellencamp album in 2017.

Izzy Stradlin is one of the most unique stories in the history of rock and roll music. Here is a guy, who walked away from fame, money, adulation, and did not think twice about it. He still lives in Lafayette, Indiana remaining a bit of a recluse to this day. The only time you hear from him is upon the release of any new music. Yet, it is interesting because you never hear him, but instead the only time you hear him talk at all is probably in his lyrics. In 2016, people did make a big deal out of the fact that he had joined Twitter. Stradlin has since deleted that account. The guitarist felt that the royalties he would earn for the rest of his life because of one album was good enough for him. Over the years, people had said that he was the coolest dude they have ever met in their entire life. Nothing ever phased him at all. I would say that is fairly accurate. Izzy Stradlin walked away from Guns N’ Roses and didn’t give a fuck what anybody thought about it.

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fyexo · 5 years

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191016 Breaking Down the SuperM Phenomenon: The K-Pop Debut Group With the No. 1 Album in America

When K-pop super label SM Entertainment was deciding where to launch its new all-star boy band, it settled on an emerging growth market for the genre: the U.S. Now at the top of the Billboard charts, the group may have revealed a path for other Korean acts to follow.

K-pop fandom in America is an increasingly accessible way of life, but never has the industry catered to U.S. fans as directly as it did in Hollywood this month. In early October, new seven-member boy group SuperM made their official international debut at Capitol Records, notably choosing to focus on the American market from day one. Compiled from several established SM Entertainment acts—SHINee, EXO, NCT 127, and WayV—and created in partnership with Capitol, the all-star supergroup took over Los Angeles, shutting down Hollywood streets for their first showcase and popping up everywhere from billboards and posters to an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

SuperM’s self-titled EP dropped on October 4, and the group promptly made history as the first debut Korean act to hit no. 1 on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart—they are the only K-pop group other than BTS to reach the top spot. To those unfamiliar with the industry, it may seem like SuperM came out of nowhere, but the group was constructed from some of SM’s most popular boy groups for a reason—they brought with them a dedicated legion of fans. SuperM’s immediate sales success could reveal a path to follow for other K-pop groups hoping to make it in America.

SuperM’s first week of U.S. promotion was designed with their established fans in mind, and there were plenty to be found in L.A. alone. The weekend began with a live Q&A broadcast from Capitol Records, during which the group answered Twitter questions, interacted with fans, and watched their new music video from casual seats in the audience. Then they closed down Hollywood for a live performance on the following Saturday, performing three of their new songs for a crowd of thousands on a giant stage built outside Capitol Tower. And on Sunday—once they’d been deposited practically on my doorstep—it was time to get to know the boys in real time.

When I walked into the interview room at Capitol Records, I was greeted by raucous hellos and bursts of recognition from the seven members of SuperM: SHINee’s Taemin, EXO’s Baekhyun and Kai, NCT 127’s Taeyong and Mark, and WayV’s Ten and Lucas. No, we’re not longtime BFFs, nor had I interviewed them before; the group had been inexplicably seated directly behind me in the press section for the first viewing of their “Jopping” music video a few days before. After offering to move several times, dodging photographers, and enduring a series of increasingly ridiculous interactions, I finally gave up and appreciated my literal front-row seat for SuperM’s video premiere. Despite my best efforts to make sure they could actually see their hard work play on the big screen, several members—Baekhyun especially—became extremely well acquainted with the back of my head.

On Sunday, it was clear that they were slightly less familiar with the front of it. As I got set up, the guys chatted among themselves in Korean, laughing quietly. It was only when I heard Mark (born in Canada, and the group’s most fluent English speaker) ask, “Wait, should I translate?” that I looked up and realized I was on the receiving end of a table full of amused gazes. “Are you talking about me?” I asked. Group leader, eldest member, and unofficial comic relief Baekhyun nodded mischievously and gestured to Mark—no matter that there were several professional translators in the room—who said, “They’re asking whether you were at the afterparty yesterday.” I replied that I hadn’t known there was one—“Sick invite, though!” I added. When Mark sheepishly relayed my answer, Baekhyun erupted out of his seat with a shout of indignation, which quickly turned into an embarrassed bow.

I tried to start the official interview, but Baekhyun refused to move on until he figured out how he knew me, if not from the afterparty. Mark helped me explain, and when Baekhyun realized I was the one awkwardly slouching in front of him so that he could see his own music video, he decided there was no recovering from our rough start. “Sorry, I’ll go!” he said in English, dramatically shoving away from the table and pretending to walk out with a flippant wave. The exchange was scored by giggles from the rest of the group—a constant soundtrack to just about everything Baekhyun does.

He returned with a grin, and Mark got things back on track—already a familiar scenario from the first month of promotion, as the youngest member of SuperM stepped up into his role as the unofficial English voice of the group. The 20-year-old’s original awe of his older, more experienced groupmates has been an ongoing narrative during the first few weeks of their debut, but it’s hard to imagine him as shy or intimidated now. Many fans may still think of Mark as the endearingly goofy NCT youngster of years past, but SuperM has brought out a new side of him—confident, eloquent, and thoughtful. As their primary English speaker, he was under a lot of pressure during the group’s first week in the U.S., but he said he left the anxiety in Korea.

“You always worry the most before the actual thing happens, so I guess I was worried before we came to America,” Mark said. “But once I was here, I realized that we’ve all worked so hard. To see everyone learn even the shortest English lines took my worries away.”

The members of SuperM said they’re invested in learning English because they want to communicate with American fans, but fans aren’t the only ones appreciative of their hard work. SM Entertainment founder Lee Soo Man attended Thursday’s Q&A, serving as SuperM’s biggest hype man. Every time a non-fluent member attempted a sentence in English—which was impressively often, for their first U.S. appearance—Lee erupted in whoops from the audience. That energy extended through the first live “Jopping” viewing, as Lee sat with and practically tackled the boys during standout moments in the video. It’s no surprise that Lee has made his support painfully obvious—they’re his golden boys, and he has a lot riding on this venture. Providing a little hype is perhaps the least he can do.

Despite the fact that many of SuperM’s members have never worked together in a group setting, most of them have known each other for years. Longtime best friends Taemin and Kai are the main dancers of their respective groups, and widely considered two of the best dancers active in the industry; it’s not the first time they’ve collaborated, but it’s their first time working together as fellow group members, which inevitably ups the stakes. In the room, I asked both of them, sitting side-by-side like two perfectly coiffed peas in a pod, whether they’ve learned anything new about each other now that they’re groupmates. They turned to each other simultaneously and seemed to be at an utter loss. “We know everything, right?” Kai asked. Taemin agreed; both were smiling, but clearly serious. “They’re so close,” Mark told me. Everyone nodded.

“We’ve known each other for such a long time, there’s nothing new to learn,” Kai said in Korean. “But if I had to add something … we’ve been friends for such a long time, but we’ve never worked together as artists. We’ve had separate groups and careers, so coming together on the same team like this has changed the way we communicate, because we’re teammates now. We’re not just friends, and we’re not just giving each other advice, but we share the same goal and create team synergy. So that’s something that’s changed with our dynamic.”

Before SuperM officially debuted, theories abounded that Taemin would be named the group leader—a designated role in nearly every K-pop group that amounts to an official team captain of sorts. At 27, Baekhyun is one year older than Taemin, but the latter has been active in the industry longer and has an impressive solo career to boot. In fact, early teasers seemed to paint Taemin as the architect of SuperM. But Taemin appeared to have no interest in the role, and when Baekhyun was officially announced as the leader, it became clear that Baekhyun’s primary focus would be on keeping everyone happy and relaxed at all times.

Thus far, I’d been addressing different members at random, trying to follow the natural flow of conversation, and I’d unintentionally ignored the leader’s corner of the table after our initial chaotic beginning. As I swiveled toward Baekhyun, he made an exaggerated “Finally!” expression, rolling his shoulders, leaning forward, and sucking in a deep breath as if he was about to hit one of those iconic high notes. But no, this time it was just a steadfast commitment to the bit. The other members craned their heads, already grinning, as he pretended to psych himself up for my incoming question. I asked Baekhyun whether he had any newfound empathy for Suho, the leader of his other group, EXO, now that he is a leader himself.

“I can’t really relate, because I feel like I don’t actually do much,” Baekhyun said in Korean. “My biggest role here within this team is to keep the spirits high, and that’s easy for me—because I’m usually in high spirits myself, and it’s really easy for me to do that with these guys.”

Fellow EXO member Kai laughed at Baekhyun’s over-the-top delivery, but piped up in disagreement. “I’ve been in EXO with Baekhyun for a long time, but before he was just a member. Now, with him as a leader, I definitely see the difference. I can see that he has more sense of responsibility for what he does, and he really goes out of his way to care for each of the members. When it’s hard for us to voice our opinions or complaints, Baekhyun makes sure that everyone’s opinions are relayed, and that everything is communicated. He doesn’t realize he’s good, but I’m 100 percent satisfied with his leadership.”

Language barriers aside, Kai was feeling talkative—our Korean translator was forced to scribble intricate outlines to keep up with several of his elaborate answers. At one point, Kai told a story about shooting the “Jopping” music video, complete with dramatic gestures and poses.

“It was my first time in a helicopter,” he said. “They told me it was going to fly really low, and I thought I could handle it. But all of a sudden, they put me up in the helicopter, and it flew around the area four times. The director and cameraman yelled, ‘Keep your eyes open! Have good facial expressions! Fight the wind!’” Kai imitated the shouting crew members, then leveled his signature intense gaze at me in a re-creation of the action-star pose he was going for.

It was a lot.

“I tried my best, and kept my eyes open for as long as possible, and when I came back down, there was sand in my eyes and I couldn’t open them. I thought, ‘OK, I did a good job,’ but when I saw the final cut, none of the footage was used! Nothing at all!” He burst out laughing as Lucas clapped him on the back. Ever the optimist, Kai continued. “It was still a good experience. It’s motivated me to work harder until I can ride a helicopter again—maybe from Korea to America.”

The younger boys seemed impressed by his goal, but Taemin was skeptical. “Wouldn’t it take too long?” he asked. Baekhyun had other concerns: “From Korea to America? You’d get shot down with a missile.”

Ten and Lucas had their own iffy encounters with heavy machinery on the “Jopping” set. There were no helicopter rides for them, but they posed on a giant tank in Dubai in the summer. Lucas summed it up nicely. “So hot!”

Ten elaborated: “We couldn’t really touch the tanks, but we needed to pretend that we were cool on top of the tank.” He struck a pose as if he was leaning against the combat vehicle, then flipped back one stylish sleeve to gesture at his elbow. “I got burned a little,” he said. “But it was pretty cool. It’s not every day you get to sit on top of a tank and like, take a selfie.”

Ten, born in Thailand, collects languages like he collects earrings, and they were all on full display during our chat. In a light, lilting accent, Ten said that his (near-perfect) English hadn’t gotten much practice during the past few years in Korea and China, as he and Lucas promoted with NCT and WayV in quick succession, and he’s still self-conscious about using it around native speakers in the U.S.

That said, Ten loves getting the opportunity to learn about new cultures and languages. “If you know multiple cultures, it’s easier for you to express yourself in performance. You learn more about dancing, singing, and expressing. It makes you grow and mature, I think. You don’t need to care about people’s race. No matter what, you can empathize with them. That’s the most important thing.”

It’s not immediately obvious from his answer, but Ten was demonstrating his aptitude for learning in real time. According to fellow reporter Elizabeth de Luna, who was helping record the interview from the other side of the room, Ten had leaned over to Mark earlier as I asked Baekhyun about having newfound empathy for his EXO group leader. “What does ‘empathy’ mean?” Ten asked Mark. After a whispered discussion, Ten nodded and returned to attention. Then, just a few minutes later, he inserted the word perfectly into his own sentence. So goes the quadrilingual life–and, to a certain extent, the future of K-pop as an ever-evolving, increasingly global industry.

To wit, Ten and Mark aren’t the only SuperM members juggling several languages. WayV’s Lucas is Chinese, born in Hong Kong, and he’s actively working on his English and Korean. Still, he doesn’t have any trouble communicating with his groupmates, four of whom are native Koreans. “Anything can be overcome by music,” Lucas told me in Chinese. “Cultural differences do exist, but music gets rid of all that. I just use music to simplify everything, and I don’t think too much about the differences.”

It’s a sweet sentiment, but music can’t do it all—Lucas and the rest of the boys devote immense effort and concentration to even simple interviews like this one. When I first posed a question to Lucas via the Korean translator, there was a flurry of activity and laughter as the game plan was decided upon: First, Kai suggested in Korean that Lucas answer in Chinese, and Lucas turned with his ever-present smile to address a Chinese translator who was seated against the wall. Ten was then recruited to help from the other side of the room (“I will try, but my Chinese is not that great!” he chirped) and Lucas just leaned back in his rolling chair, swiveling his head around, and looking massively entertained by the commotion. In the end, Lucas gave his answer—with various interjections from Ten—to the Chinese translator, who relayed it to the Korean translator, who then gave it to me in English. It was like a game of multilingual hot potato. Lucas was rewarded for his efforts with scattered applause and high fives from Kai and Baekhyun. The group effort, energetic as it was, is painfully representative of the extra effort K-pop groups have to expend in order to break out in the U.S. market.

NCT 127 leader Taeyong is no stranger to the multilingual interview scene. As the face of the NCT megaunit, he’s worked with group members from China, Thailand, Canada, the U.S., and just about everywhere in between. He’s also unique in that he’s the only SuperM member with a producing credit on the EP. When I asked Taeyong to talk about his work on “No Manners,” which is basically a song about savagely dumping someone, I received a brief panicked look. “Speak from your heart,” Baekhyun suggested. Taeyong did his best. “At first, it was difficult to understand what the song was trying to say, so I tried to make my rap into a story to help listeners understand. I’m not saying that breaking up is always the answer, but a bad breakup is … ” he trailed off, and looked around for an assist. Baekhyun stepped in, saying that the song is about how sometimes it’s best to cut a relationship off before it hits rock bottom.

In our current context, it was hard to imagine Taeyong as an expert on breakups of any kind. He’d been engaged and friendly, but very quiet—mostly just watching the other members speak with wide-eyed attention. As he sat tiny in his seat, in an oversized T-shirt and fluffy purple hair, it was difficult to reconcile him with the fierce, steely-eyed Taeyong of the stage. Next to him, Taemin was quiet and serene as well, but no less attentive—just beaming cherubically as he sipped on his Starbucks. Such is the duality of some of K-pop’s most arresting performers.

After all, no matter how transcendent they can seem on stage—they’re called “idols” for a reason—at the end of the day, they’re just guys. It’s something they reminded us of during their showcase stage for “Super Car,” when it was revealed that the official choreography is centered around hitting the woah.

As soon as I brought up the viral dance move, I was faced with an entire room of boys hitting the woah, like it was impossible for them to talk about it without doing it. Lucas jumped out of his seat to put his whole body into it. “It’s just a feeling!” he exclaimed in English. The guys persuaded me to try hitting the woah a few times myself—unfortunately, it appeared to be a feeling I couldn’t quite grasp, but they very sweetly pretended I nailed it.

Always ready with the polished take, Mark weighed in. “We feel like ‘Super Car’ has a really trendy vibe to it. We wanted to include a movement that the American audience would find familiar. The woah has been popular for awhile now, but it’s all a cycle–it started in America and took a while to make its way over to us, so we brought it back. It just made sense for us to perform it in America.”

American music fans may think it would have made more sense for a group to incorporate the woah a few years ago when it first became popular here, but Mark is self-aware enough to know that it takes time for things like this to make the rounds in Korea. Besides, we all have a teenage cousin who refuses to stop dabbing—viral dances don’t come with expiration dates. Incorporating the woah into “Super Car” seems less like an attempt to cater to American audiences, and more a statement that this is what K-pop looks like in its current state—even if SuperM knows that the woah is passé in American culture, K-pop groups still love it. So, by god, they’re going to hit it as hard as they can.

“Super Car” was one of the three songs the group performed at their debut performance on a massive stage outside Capitol Records. It was a highly anticipated moment—for a group made nearly entirely of idols known for their dance skills, the first live show felt like a make-or-break moment for SuperM.

No one should have worried. SuperM’s first performance proved that they know how to play to each member’s specific strengths, numerous as they are. Need a standout high note? Baekhyun and Taemin are on it. Time for a rapid-fire dance solo? Ten is your man. What about a blue-steel gaze directly into the camera? Well, options vary, but Kai and Taeyong have turned it into an art form. Mark and Lucas have thrived both onstage and off, as the official crowd-pleasing charmers. It’s an all-star formula, and it’s no surprise that it has been a success. But the extent of that success in the U.S.—the blanket press coverage, the Billboard chart record—has exceeded expectations. SuperM’s immediate impact, both on the charts and in the history books, raises the question: If SM can beat the odds by debuting a new group in the U.S. market, who will follow? Other K-pop labels may now focus on America from the get-go, or create their own collaborative groups, following SuperM’s lead.

That, of course, is not SuperM’s concern. As we wrapped up the interview and said our goodbyes, Baekhyun dragged Mark over to apologize for him once more, and dramatically resolved our short-lived beef—as any good leader would. I told them I’d see them again on their upcoming U.S. tour, which kicks off in Fort Worth, Texas, in November.

To the person who will be sitting behind me at said concert, apologies in advance. You’ve got a tough act to follow.

source: Kate Halliwell @ The Ringer

#exo #baekhyun #kai #t: info #album: superm

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honeyjaez · 5 years

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Hi. Hello. I know I am probably annoying all my followers with the amount of times I talk about this beautiful group known as SF9, but I’m back again, I just don’t know when to quit.

Some of you may have heard the name. Maybe it came up on Pandora when you were doing homework. Maybe a video popped up with their name but you never clicked on it.

I wanna give you the faces to the name.

SF9, short for Sensational Feeling 9 is a 9 member group who debut back in October of 2016 under FNC Entertainment.

Like most boy groups it seems like these days SF9 went through a survival show called D.O.B (Dance or Band), competing against fellow trainee group Band later known as Honeyst (Who you might have seen disbanded recently)

SF9 went onto win D.O.B as the dance group with their winning track K.O along with their unique choreography. To this day I’ve never seen anything quite like the choreography that they had in K.O

K.O was featured on their debut album along with their title track Fanfare which had a jamming vibe if I say so myself. The debut album debuted in eighth place and peaked at sixth place on the Gaon Album Chart.

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They boys performed against Cube’s PENTAGON since both groups were debuting live the same day. To this day SF9 and PENTAGON remain close close friends, often being paired up with one another.

In December of that year, just a few months after debut the boys release the single “So Beautiful” as a gift for their fans, later known as FANTASY as a way to say Thank them for all their love and support. The song was originally an OST of their interactive web-drama Click Your Heart that the members stared in.

2017 was their busiest year some would argue. In February their first mini album, Burning Sensation with the title track Roar was released, hitting as high up as #6 on Billboard World Albums Chart.

Just 2 months after Roar promotions, FNC confirmed the group would make their second comeback in April with their second EP Breaking Sensation. The title track Easy Love is often regarded as one of the best title track song of SF9, as well as title tracks that occurred in 2017. It ranked at #2 on the world album charts.

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In June of that year they had their Japanese debut and performed at both KCON New York and KCON L.A that summer.

In October they had released their 3rd mini album Knights of The Sun and their ever catchy title track O Sole Mio. This was the era I came in. Yes I am not a debut era stan, but it doesn’t make me any less of a FANTASY. I was amazed by their unique style and charisma that I got hooked right away.

In February of 2018 SF9's fourth EP, Mamma Mia! was released. Their Japanese single, under the same name was released in May, and they held a Japanese tour titled "SF9 Zepp Tour 2018 MAMMA MIA!" that month.

On July 31, they came back with their fifth EP, Sensuous, with the lead single "Now or Never". 2-18 also saw their first domestic convert and a south american fan meet tour.

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After that, the boys managed to finally get a well deserved break and came back in February of this year 2019 with their sixth mini album, Narcissus and the title track Enough, but promotions did not last long because after a month, on March 20, 2019 they released their 2nd Japanese album with the title "ILLUMINATE" In order to promote their album, a tour was held in japan and the boys continued to work hard, performing concerts and even KCON Japan.

Their most recent comeback was on the 17th of this month (June). It was their 7th mini album and its title track, RPM continues SF9 concept and style, while giving it a bit of a flare.

The main reason I spent hours writing this post, giving you their history, is because I’m sure a lot of you have heard of SF9, but never quite watched them. Maybe they came on Pandora, or Youtube Auto Play, but you’ve never taken your time to actually watch them.

Their current comeback, RPM is quite possibly one of their best comebacks. The album is by far a fan favorite, and represents SF9′s style, while also giving a bit of a twist to it. Each comeback they get stronger and stronger and firmer in their style and I love it.

But for a group like this, a group of 9 beautiful, sweet, passionate, hardworking souls, they are day after day underappreciated.

The went on their first world tour this year but already had some shows cancelled because not enough people were going and so the cost to had the concert was too high.

As of now, their title track RPM, released on the 17th, just barley has a million views. And I know, we should consider ourselves lucky because a lot of groups never even hit 1 million views, including maybe your favorites. But if that is the case then you know how we FANTASY feel. You understand. We just want more for them. We want to give them the world. We will never stop wanting to give them more.

A group like SF9 deserves to be loved.

Which is why I ask you, if you have a spare 4 minutes in your life, maybe sit down and watch them. Actually watch them. You may up deciding they aren’t your cup of tea, and that’s okay, at least you tried. That’s all I can ask.

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Also going to throw the live performance in there if you want to see Dawon being a shithead.

Open your arms and give them a chance, because if you even somewhat enjoy their music, you'll never regret once having them in your life.

That was is, Thats the post. My shameless attempt at getting people to check SF9 out there in the world. I love this group with my whole ass and even though they aren’t my ult group, they hold a special place in my heart that only SF9 can fill.

And if you are still reading, thank you for sticking through this all and know I already love you for taking your time and listening to my Ted Talk.

If you would like to meet the members, Ill give you an introduction down below! They are cute and only bite a little bit 😁 💗

Youngbin

Real Name: Kim Youngbin

Birthday: November 23, 1993

Position: Leader, Lead Rapper, Dancer

Our hardworking dad of the group. Claims he doesn’t play favorite but everyone knows Chani is his favorite kid.

Inseong

Real Name: Kim Inseong

Birthday: July 12, 1993

Position: Main Vocalist, Dancer

The oldest member (but is he really?) who speaks the best English and is a giant flirt. He likes that he looks like a Desert fox.

Jaeyoon

Real Name: Lee Jaeyoon

Birthday: August 9, 1994

Position: Lead Vocalist, Dancer

Honey voiced sweet boy who just loves Pokemon. Has an ever going bromance with Inseong.

Dawon

Real Name: Lee Sanghyuk

Birthday: July 24, 1995

Position: Lead Vocalist, Dancer

King of Variety, he is the mood maker of SF9. He just loves to make people smile with his jokes ^_^

(Also is a little shit sometimes)

Zuho

Real Name: Baek Juho

Birthday: July 4, 1996

Position: Main Rapper, Dancer

Our charismatic low toned rapper, with one of the most unique voices in kpop. I don’t like compareing idols, but think of Wonwoo from Seventeen. He reminds me a lot of him. He loves songwriting, and is good friends with EXO’s Chanyeol and Red Velvet’s Wendy.

Rowoon:

Real Name: Kim Seokwoo

Birthday: August 7, 1996

Position: Main Vocalist, Dancer, Visual

The groups Mother, a rising actor in the K drama world. You might have seen him in “Where Stars Land”

Taeyang

Real Name: Yoo Taeyang

Birthday: February 28, 1997

Position: Lead Vocalist, Main Dancer

SF9′s Dance Machine and appointed Sunshine of the group who loves to choreograph dances. Big EXO fan, and if he reminds you of SHINee’s Taemin, don’t worry, you aren’t alone.

Hwiyoung

Real Name: Kim Youngkyun

Birthday: May 11, 1999

Position: Rapper, Supporting Vocalist, Dancer

Our sensitive happy virus of the group who just loves the rain,because it makes him feel calm and comfortable.

Chani

Real Name: Kang Chanhee

Birthday: January 17, 2000

Position: Vocalist, Main Dancer, Rapper, Maknae

Another rising star in the K Drama world. You might have seen him in the 2018 widely popular “Sky Castle”. The residential cutie, who idolizes SHINee’s Taemin. He is also a host on MBS’s Show! Music Core along with SKZ Hyunjin and Gugudan’s Mina.

These are our 9 wonderful boys. Please, if you care to, love them, because they are worth it all.

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animeraider · 3 years

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Of all of the strange stories in my lengthy music career, this is one of them.

In the 1980's I was the lead guitarist and occasional vocalist for a band called ASK. We were pretty good after a while. It was me, Kevin Donville (bass and lead vocals), Ed Lee (Keyboards and vocals) and a series of drummers before we finally settled win with Tim "T.J." Klassen. We started off slow but after some rough gigs, including an horrific one where we were the act that followed the famed songwriting team of Holland-Dozier-Holland run through their biggest hits (we sounded nothing like them and the audience was there) we built up a reputation in West L.A. as a solid band and had earned the trust of the famed Esther Wong herself.

We played 20 gigs at Madame Wong's during our run.

In 1989 Kevin had to leave the band. The rest of us tried to soldier on for a bit, recruiting my brother to play bass and trying a few other guitarists to take over lead duties while I took over vocals. None of it really worked, but we did have fun with one song. Back in the ASK days we had a hard rocker called "Run To Me" that featured a riff I stole from Don Dokken. I re-worked the song as a ballad and we worked up a pretty good arrangement. Tim and my brother worked up a solid rhythm section part and we all agreed that this was pretty awesome.

The band fizzled out and that's mostly my fault. But one night Tim and I got some beers and watched a VHS tape of U2's "Rattle and Hum", and when they got to "Bullet The Blue Sky" Tim's air-drumming that slamming part and I'm pretending to be The Edge when Tim asks me if I can play that slide guitar part. I could and I can. He said, "wouldn't that be awesome in Run to Me?"

We had one more practice, jut him, me and my brother and it WAS awesome.

I then got sidetracked by the events that led me to record a song called "Favorite Partner", a dance track that was completely played on acoustic instruments. That song took off in the beach town clubs and I suddenly needed a full demo to shop around - because people were starting to ask who I was. I had two other songs ready to go in the same vein as "Favorite Partner" and I asked TJ and Alex (my brother) to come to a session and we'd record "Run to Me" like we had last practiced it, "Rattle and Hum" bits and all.

In those days I practiced and recorded at a placed called Pendragon Studios. None of us lived close to it, but their engineer - a man named Bill Krodell - was a genius.This of course means that we all have to drive there. On the day of the session Alex's car breaks down, and he can't make it. So now I have to play bass.

TJ and I record a reference track - my guitar and his drums, and then I record the bass. I had never tried to play bass on the song before, so I just copied with Alex had done. It's a pretty good bass line, and later he would be very happy that I had kept it. I record the guitars and when it comes time to do the solo I pull out the slide and do the "Bullet the Blue Sky" bit. It's only a few seconds but Bill claps his hands together and says, "Wait until you hear how I mix THAT!"

It gets time to do the vocals and it takes me a few takes to get the lead down. The harmonies were easy though (that had been my part when it was an ASK song). We're listening to a take and getting to the last chorus when TJ, who's been just sitting and listening for the past couple of hours as his part was long finished yells out, "Knock Knock Knockin' on Heaven's Door" in time with the drum part he played.

Of course, we just HAD to incorporate that. Understand, There were about a dozen version of the old Bob Dylan song making the rounds right around then, including the Guns 'N' Roses one, so it was once again part of the zeitgeist. In the space of a few minutes I came up and recorded with a blistering 4-part harmony of those six words, and then returned to the song as I had written it. It was a fun off-the-cuff moment and I love those.

We mixed the tracks and I suddenly had a 4-song demo. A friend of mine did a photo session for the cover. I'm terrible at those and to try to get me to loosen up she had me balance a small rubber shark on my shoulder. The photo that resulted led to not only the cover but the title of the demo, "Hand Feeding the Hungry Shark".

God's Teeth I'm young in that photo.

The demo got circulated around and label interest started up, but they wanted to hear more. They wanted live shows and at this point I really didn't have a band. I was getting club play though and I was selling demos, so I decided to record a full album. The result was the first album I released as Jim Christopher, "My World - Welcome To It", named after a television show I barely remembered from my childhood. It's available to this day:

https://open.spotify.com/album/0MZo7Zlk9cis5s0mcv0giy?si=RUce_ECtRH-ndKprKkx2QA&dl_branch=1

Thing is, if you listen to track Seven you will NOT hear the Bob Dylan Lyrics. You need to remember that this is 1989-90. The world wasn't then what it is now. I hadn't sampled Dylan. I had essentially just used his words, and I realized I was going to need his permission. So I asked.

It took a bit of doing, but I found his agent and sent him a letter outlining what I was doing, and sent him a copy of the demo. I figured that their publishers would want a cut and I was prepared to give it. Instead I got a letter back stating that if I were to release this version of the song with Dylan's lyrics included that they would sue me into the ground and crap on the smoldering remains.

Well, I'm this 24 year-old broke dude and this is Bob Dylan's battery of lawyers. I wasn't going to win this one, so I went to a studio and rented one of their editing consoles and spliced out most of the last chorus (I'm a VERY good editor - most people don't even realize the cut).

That was that. My little tribute to Bob Dylan was left on the cutting room floor. 20 seconds of the song just gone. End of story.

Except.

Long after I had left Los Angeles and retaken my own name as a recording artist, Dylan gives an interview about all of the covers of his songs done over the years, and how many musicians quote him. Part of the answer he gives is about how he got overly protective of his catalog at one point and wouldn't let anyone use his music without using the whole song. Guess about when this was? He goes on to say in the interview that he doesn't mind people quoting him - that he does it himself.

In essence, he was giving everyone permission to do the very thing his lawyers had told me not to do. I'm not going to go into the story of how I confirmed this, but I did learn that he actually had never even heard my song (Hugh Hefner did, but that's another story). The ultimate response I got? "We're cool."

But I had edited that chorus out of the master for the album. I went back to the original 2 inch tapes I had recorded on and remixed and remastered the song. I let it hang around bandcamp for a little while, but I never really gave any thought to releasing it.

Well, 2020 and 2021 have been such game-changers in my life. After spending years struggling with a new album the floodgates opened up for me as a writer and a recording artist. As many of you know, I've released a ton of material this year, including some of my older tracks that never saw the light of day. It took a while, but it finally got through myu thick skull that I could finally put out in wide release the original version of "Run to Me", complete with The Edge guitar solo and 6 words by Bob Dylan.

It's the opener of "Demolisten", which is mostly a random collection of songs that never saw wide release for one reason or another. Some of this work is seriously unpolished, but I figure if the big artists can release their back-catalog crap so can I. But I'm really proud of "Run to Me".

I played every instrument and sang all the vocals except for the drums, which are played by Tim "TJ" Klassen (who now lives in New York). If you listen very very carefully you can even hear TJ "singing" (screaming, really) as he plays drums, especially on some of the fills.

Every song on this "new" EP has a story behind it, but this one is the one from the very early days of my life as a solo artist. I can tell the other stories if you want. I promise to be less verbose on the others. Their stories are shorter.

#Spotify

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glittergummicandypeach · 4 years

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Bad Religion Recall the Rowdy LA Punk Scene in a New Book

One of the problems with being an L.A. punk band in 1980 was there were very few places to play. Part of this was due to bias. If you weren’t a known commodity, it was hard to get people to take you seriously. For instance, Keith Morris literally begged bookers and promoters to let Black Flag play. When his band was finally invited to perform at the venerable Masque, the show was shut down and the venue closed its doors for good. Many of the older punk scenesters from the seventies looked down at hardcore bands and their fans for the negativity they brought to their scene. They were too violent, too reactionary, or just didn’t get it. To their minds, bands like Bad Religion embodied everything that was wrong with the punk scene.

Hardcore bands had to get creative. They realized that by supporting each other they could make their own scene within the scene. One of Bad Religion’s first live shows was with a relatively unknown band from Fullerton called Social Distortion who invited Bad Religion to play with them at a party in Santa Ana.

“I think our first show was at a warehouse,” Bad Religion guitar player Brett Gurewitz recalled, “which was fairly common back then because there weren’t that many venues that would book hardcore punk bands.”

On the day of the gig, bassist Jay Bentley was so anxious he threw up before the show. Steve Soto, a Fullerton native and bass player for the Adolescents, gave Jay a bit of friendly advice.

STEVE SOTO: You’re really nervous.

JAY: I know. I get so nervous before we play.

STEVE SOTO: You should always drink at least a six-pack before you play.

JAY: Okay, I didn’t know.

Lead singer Greg Graffin remembered the audience being particularly hostile because the promise of free beer had not materialized, but they made it through their set unscathed. When they got off the stage, Brett received a boost from a familiar face who’d made the journey from Woodland Hills to Orange County to see them play. “After the show,” Brett recalled, “my friend Tom Clement said to me with great seriousness, ‘Brett, no matter what else you do, just don’t break up. If you guys don’t break up you’re going to be huge—seriously. You guys are really good.’”

A Greek organization at the University of Southern California was having a punk-themed party and naively decided to invite actual punks to perform.

Another early show was even stranger: a frat party opening up for the Circle Jerks, the band Keith Morris started after leaving Black Flag, and one of the most popular L.A. punk acts of the early eighties. A Greek organization at the University of Southern California was having a punk-themed party and naively decided to invite actual punks to perform. Once the gig was confirmed, members of Bad Religion and the Circle Jerks invited their friends and distributed flyers like they would for any other show. The frat boys dressed like punks and the punks behaved like, well, punks.

For Lucky Lehrer, the drummer for the Circle Jerks, “it was a typical funny, bizarre, tragic night I’d come to expect with Greg Hetson, Roger Rogerson, and Keith Morris. At the end of the party, Roger got drunk off several free-flowing beer kegs and tried to fight half of the USC football team’s offensive line. They beat the shit out of him.” Apparently, Roger had it coming because Brett recalled watching him attack the jocks with a pair of nun-chucks while blackout drunk.

Despite the hijinks, it was an important gig for Bad Religion. Punk photographer Gary Leonard documented the show, and the band made a favorable impression on Lucky. “I connected with Bad Religion a little because as we were loading all our gear back into cars and mini-trucks I sensed these ‘kids from the Valley,’ as I called them, were a little less insane than the Circle Jerks.”

Lucky wasn’t being condescending. They were teenagers who despite their intelligence and ambition had very little experience in the ways of the world. “That was the first time I ever witnessed a beer bong,” Bad Religion drummer Jay Ziskrout said of the party.

Keith Morris also had fond memories of the show. When the beer ran out at the punk-themed party, Keith went searching for more, and discovered he wasn’t the only one on a reconnaissance mission.

“My favorite part of the night wasn’t playing with the Circle Jerks or watching Bad Religion,” Keith said. “My favorite part of the night was scamming on as much keg beer as I could possibly glug down. We played fraternity or sorority row and every house had some kind of thing raging. Directly across the street was a party with a country theme. They had all these bales of hay stacked randomly in the front yard. I went to go check it out and there’s this big, tall, blonde-haired surfer dude in a USC frat jacket who turned out to be Ricky Nelson’s son hanging out with Darby Crash.”

The presence of Darby Crash and Pat Smear of the Germs did not escape Brett’s attention. Brett, who idolized Darby, was astonished. “The first hardcore band that I ever saw and fell in love with was the Germs. It was distinctly separate from the punk I had been listening to. It was not the Buzzcocks or the Sex Pistols or the Ramones, who had this very accessible power pop sound, almost like it came from the fifties. The Germs were dark and felt more dangerous.”

The show signaled the start of a long association between Bad Religion and the Circle Jerks, with Bad Religion being one of what Keith Morris referred to as “baby brother bands.”

“The scenario with Bad Religion and the Circle Jerks,” Keith explained, “was that we appreciated each other’s music. There weren’t any assholes in the group. There were no dicks. Everybody was cool. We wanted to go to the party and bust the punk rock piñata. The situation was because of our friendship with Bad Religion they started playing shows with us.”

But that night at USC, Bad Religion learned that the Circle Jerks were going to be interviewed live on KROQ during Rodney Bingenheimer’s show, Rodney on the ROQ. Rodney was one of the few L.A. scenesters who was connected to the music business and understood the importance of punk rock. (Greg Shaw of Bomp! Records was another.) He was an eclectic figure who’d had his own nightclub in the early seventies called Rodney Bingenheimer’s English Disco. He ate lunch at the same Denny’s in Hollywood every day. People in the music industry would drop off records, and musicians would try to get an audience with the “Mayor of Sunset Strip.”

During his show he would often play music by local punk bands. For early enthusiasts it was the best way to find out about the latest music in the scene. Kids would record Rodney’s show and exchange the tapes with other punks at school. As strange as it sounds in today’s era of corporate commercial radio, in 1980 you could turn on Rodney on the ROQ and hear the Adolescents, the Circle Jerks, and the Germs. In fact, the Adolescents’ song “Amoeba” broke through into KROQ’s regular rotation and became an underground hit.

Brett understood Rodney’s importance to the scene. “He was a guy who prided himself on knowing who the cool new bands were because he went to shows. Rodney had a radio show that started at midnight. He’d play imports from England that we couldn’t get and local bands that were hard to find, but the bands would give him their tapes to play on the radio.”

Rodney’s show made Greg’s dream of making music seem more attainable. The music Rodney played on his show included crude demos. This sparked the realization that you didn’t have to be signed to a major label to get on the radio. All you had to do was do it.

For Ziskrout, Rodney’s radio show was a crucial link to the Hollywood punk scene. “In those days KROQ had a really weak signal. We were out in West San Fernando Valley and we couldn’t get KROQ at my house most of the time. I used to go to Brett’s house because he lived up on a hill. There were times when someone would have to hold up a wire so the signal would come in clearly.”

The Circle Jerks brought Bad Religion’s demo tape to the radio station. (Both Hetson and Lucky have taken credit for delivering the tape.) Keith introduced the band and Rodney played the song “Politics” on the radio. Even though Ziskrout was aware that it might happen, he wasn’t prepared for how he’d feel when it did. “The thrill of hearing yourself on the radio for the first time can’t be put into words. There’s nothing else like it.”

“Rodney really championed us. He liked the song. He felt we were good. That got us known because kids would tape the show. It was a way people could hear our songs before they were even on a record.”

Rodney’s listeners were enthusiastic about the new band from the San Fernando Valley. They wanted more, and Rodney gave it to them. “That was really the start of the band getting popular in L.A.,” Brett said. “Rodney really championed us. He liked the song. He felt we were good. That got us known because kids would tape the show. It was a way people could hear our songs before they were even on a record.”

[By year’s end] they’d made a popular demo, played some shows, and recorded an EP. They’d accomplished more in their first year than many bands manage in their entire careers. That two of their earliest shows were with Social Distortion and the Circle Jerks and attended by people like Darby Crash suggested they were well connected.

They weren’t. While punk was more popular than ever in L.A., there were very few places to play, so people would come out from all over greater Los Angeles and beyond to attend backyard parties and warehouse shows. On the flip side, punk bands were always looking for like-minded bands that were hungry to play and could be counted on to show up—even if it meant hauling their gear to someone’s house or a rented hall in Oxnard, East L.A., or San Pedro. That was Bad Religion.

“The scene was fairly small,” Jay said, “so you kept seeing the same people over and over again. You’d go to a show and watch a band play. You’d go to a show and you’d be the band playing.”

In those days, a punk kid who’d never set foot in Hollywood could go to a show and stand alongside one of his heroes. Of course, the feeling of admiration wasn’t always mutual. Jay’s first interaction with John Doe of X was when the bass guitar player gruffly said, “Move, kid.”

“He was probably twenty-one,” Jay recalled, “and I was fifteen. He probably thought I was ruining his scene, and he was right.”

The subculture distrusted outsiders and protected its own, even nerdy punks like Bad Religion. Going to a show where you didn’t know anyone and they didn’t know you could be dangerous.

One of the things about Bad Religion’s early shows that stood out to the band members was how many kids knew the words to their songs—and their EP hadn’t even been released yet. When people in the audience sang along with the band at their shows, it made them realize that this weird thing they did together after school in Greg’s mom’s garage had made an impact beyond their immediate circle of friends. It also reinforced the idea that what they were doing was important and had value. The realization slowly took hold that perhaps these kids memorized their lyrics because they had something meaningful to say.

With an audience made up of their heroes and peers, Jay found it hard not to be critical of his performance. “I remember always thinking, That was a good song. That was a good one. Oh, that one sucked.”

Jay wasn’t the only one who struggled with nerves. Brett also admitted to feeling uneasy onstage but credits Greg’s charisma for winning over the crowd. “I feel like Greg was a real performer from the get-go, and I think that was a big part of Bad Religion’s success. A charismatic singer is very important to a punk band, and Greg was always a great performer while I didn’t feel like I was until many years later.”

Greg may have appeared confident, but inside he was just as nervous as everyone else. “It was really nerve-wracking but I had a lot of confidence in the music. My view was, We’re all in this together, so I’ll do my part, but if I’d been up there alone I’d be shitting bricks. And I’ve felt that every concert since. A big part of my confidence comes from the guys behind me.”

It also didn’t hurt that the three performers standing at the front of the stage were all well over six feet tall. With his dyed hair, motorcycle boots, and leather jacket Greg looked the part of a punk rock front man. Brett stayed out of the spotlight but exuded a don’t-fuck-with-me aura. While Jay, the tallest member of the group at six foot four, focused on his guitar, his face a mask of intense concentration.

Brett, who was always a self-described “nerdy kid,” was surprised to learn that simply being in a band deterred people from starting trouble with him. “I remember when we were starting to get popular, more than once tough punk kids would be very menacing to me. Then someone would say, ‘Aren’t you in Bad Religion?’” When Brett told the aggressor he was, that usually ended it.

The subculture distrusted outsiders and protected its own, even nerdy punks like Bad Religion. Going to a show where you didn’t know anyone and they didn’t know you could be dangerous. For Brett, encounters like these were part of his punk initiation. “What attracted me to the punk scene was it felt like a tribe of outsiders. I felt like a person who chronically didn’t fit in. So, joining the punk scene was a way of making that a choice rather than having it inflicted on me.”

Skyler Barberio

Each of the members of Bad Religion had attended punk rock shows and had witnessed things that were difficult to understand or even explain. That’s how the media was able to hijack punk and advertise it as a violent free-for-all that attracted people who were drawn to such behavior. It was violent, at times shamefully so.

At the first punk rock show that Jay attended, Black Flag and the Circle Jerks at the Hideaway, someone crashed a car into the warehouse where the show was being held and drove through the gate. Brett recalled a show attended by Jack Grisham of T.S.O.L. who brought a friend whom Jack kept on the end of a leash. Jack would introduce his friend to strangers and tell them they had to fight his “dog.” If they declined, they had to fight Jack, who stood six foot five and reveled in violence. For Jay, the early Bad Religion shows were “exciting and terrifying and cathartic.” Punk bands whipped the crowd into a frenzy, and when the audience gave that energy back, unpredictable things happened. Bad Religion tapped into that energy in places that were unsanctioned, unsupervised, and unsafe.

Many if not most punk rockers used drugs and alcohol to rise to the occasion and/or deal with the emotions the experience generated. For some punk bands, like the Circle Jerks, the party was their whole reason for being. But Bad Religion wasn’t a party band, nor where they interested in writing confrontational lyrics for the sake of being obnoxious. They had a higher purpose in mind.

“There’s a reason we called ourselves Bad Religion,” Brett explained. “Greg and I were attempting to be intellectuals. On our debut EP I wrote a song called ‘Oligarchy’ and Greg wrote a song called ‘Politics.’ We weren’t writing joke punk or funny punk. We were teenagers, still naive and quite immature, but we were trying.”

For all their intelligence, there was no getting around the fact that they were suburban kids who didn’t know what they were doing or what they were getting into. As fans, they were outsiders, but participating as performers didn’t make things any less baffling.

“I felt like we were in an adult world that we didn’t understand,” Jay explained. “There were other people dealing with the business side of things that I didn’t want to know about. I just wanted to play and leave. It wasn’t business and it wasn’t a party.

There was this feeling that this was important without knowing why. Maybe that was just youth and not having a grasp on things, but the party thing wasn’t really for me. I think part of that was from our discussions in Greg’s garage: ‘What do we want to be as a band? What do we want to say? How do we want to present ourselves?’ I don’t know what other bands talk about when they’re forming. I just know that we had that discussion. We didn’t want to just be up there screaming, ‘Fuck the cops!’ or ‘I hate my parents!’ There had to be something more meaningful than that. That was how we felt about the band. It wasn’t a vehicle for drugs. It wasn’t a vehicle for money. It was a vehicle for us to say the things that we felt. That was more important than anything else.”

This content was originally published here.

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leo-blackwood-rp · 4 years

Photo

CHARACTER INTERVIEW PART I: BASICS.

UI: Hello, welcome. Thank you so much for agreeing to do this interview with me.

Leo: Of course, no problem. Thanks for having me.

UI: Okay, shall we start?

Leo: Sure, go ahead.

UI: Well, can you start by telling us your full name and where you were born?

Leo: My name is Leo Ellis Blackwood and I was born in Los Angeles, California.

UI: Is Leo short for something?

Leo: (Chuckles) No, it’s just Leo.

UI: Oh okay. And do you know why you were given that name?

Leo: Well Leo was picked out of a baby name book to be honest, my mother’s name is Laura and she had this thing about wanting her children to have names that started with the letter “L” and so she picked Leo and then my middle name was after my father.

UI: So did you grow up Los Angeles?

Leo: Yep, I was born and raised there.

UI: And you still live in Los Angeles?

Leo: Yeah, I do. That’s just where my life is.

UI: Did you ever think about leaving your hometown?

Leo: Uhm… yeah there was a brief time in my life where I thought about moving somewhere else but at the end of the day, I love L.A.; it’s where my family is, it’s where my friends are and my job is mainly there.

UI: Why were you thinking about leaving L.A.?

Leo: Uhmm, I was in a dark place; I had relationship gone very wrong and I was hurt and I just felt this need to distance myself from her and this City. I did travel for a while but home is home and I wouldn’t lose that over a bad relationship.

UI: Okay, we’ll get back to that later on. So What do you like about Los Angeles? What do you not like?

Leo: Like I said it’s where my life is and that’s why I love this City so much, It’s where I grew up. But the cultural aspect of Los Angeles is also amazing; there is people of all these different cultures and backgrounds and somehow if you take the time to really know the city you’ll see these different cultures plastered all around and it’s just very interesting to see and get to know; whether is their traditions, their food, their people. It’s just very nice to see and be part of this diversity. Something I don’t like probably how crowded it can be and the traffic… traffic sucks. (Laughs)

UI: So back to your family, Can you tell me a little more about your parents?

Leo: Sure, what do you want to know?

UI: What are their names?

Leo: My mother is Laura Blackwood and my father is Ellis Blackwood.

UI: And what’s their occupation?

Leo: They are both actors. And very good ones (smiles).

UI: It must have been very interesting growing up with people like them, what are they like?

Leo: Well, my mom is very strong. She has a strong opinion and she’s not afraid to speak her mind or stand up for what she believes it’s right. She’s always been very protective, she was constantly reminding me that I couldn’t let anyone make me feel less; just as she reminded me to be equally kind to everyone because our social or financial position doesn’t really give anyone the right to treat people like they are less. My father, he’s strong on the same aspects but somehow I find him to be… a little softer than mm, he was always the calm one who would just sit and listen and give you advice without telling you what to do or how to resolve an issue, he just let me find my own way. Both of them are extremely sweet people and are generally nice to everyone… unless you did something bad to them or their children then my mom can turn on this switch and be very tough. (laughs)

UI: Are you close to them?

Leo: Yeah, we are a united family. And they live in Los Angeles so we see each other often for the most part.

UI: So we’re going to do something, close your eyes.

Leo: What? Why? (laughs)

UI: It’s a dynamic. Can you? (chuckles)

Leo: Okay (chuckles).

UI Okay now with your eyes closed, picture your parents… Can you find a memory of them? What do you see?

Leo: I see my house where I grew up, I see myself around fifteen years old years old going downstairs with a box of Christmas decorations and my father is following me. We get to the living room and my mom is looking at the tree, surrounded by boxes and boxes of Christmas lights and decorations… she’s looking at it almost deeply analyzing where she wants each thing to go; she’s a perfectionist. I put the box down and my father tells mom that’s the last box, she turns around and she has this huge belly because she’s pregnant with my baby brother. She turns around with this big smirk on her face before she sits on the couch, she has glass of fresh lemonade on her hand with a ton of ice because that’s what she’s been craving in the middle of December (chuckles). She starts telling me and dad what to do, teasing my father at the same time because she doesn’t quite like when people tell him what to do but for mom, he puts up with it. In the middle of decorating the tree while we are trying to figure out what my mom wants, she gasps and touches her stomach; we immediately turn around and look at her as we are about to go into panic; she laughs and tells us to calm down and say the baby is kicking. My dad laughs and shakes his head because walking up to her, kneeling down on the ground and pressing his hands gently on her belly smiling as he feels my brother kick; mom looks at dad with this soft look on her face, which is rare… I can tell how much she loves him. She looks back at me with a smile and eyebrow raised and tells me to put the ornament back to where I originally put it because it looks better, I laugh and shake my head.

UI: So you have siblings. Have many do you have?

Leo: Just one, my younger brother.

UI: What is his name and how old is he?

Leo: His name is Lucas Blackwood and he’s seventeen years old.

UI: Can you close your eyes and do the same dynamic we did with your parents? What do you see?

Leo: I see my parents home, this is a few years ago… I go in and I’m angry… I’m really hurt; it’s the day I found out my former fiancé had been cheating on me. I walk around but there’s nobody there. I got outside to the backyard and text my father to see where he is. I sit down on a chair and put my head between my hands… I feel like I’m about to cry but just as I started to close my eyes I hear my brother voice… he tells me he heard what happened. And as I look up to him, I nod… I don’t know what to tell him. He tells me to talk to him that he can give me advice and I laugh a little bit because… he is my little brother; he was barely sixteen at the time. I tell him that I don’t know what to do, I start talking and it’s like every thought I had in my brain at the moment just pours out of my mouth… my brother looks at me for a while and nods before sitting next to me and just says… “Well, I would ask you if you can trust her again but even if you said yes I would punch you on the face because she’s not worth the trouble… You’re a Blackwood, you deserve better.” He said as he looked at me as if I thinking too hard about it, for him the answer was easy and clear… and he was right actually.

I spent the rest of that day with my brother and I learned that day that perhaps he might be smarter than me… but don’t tell him, I don’t need his ego growing more (laughs)

UI: It seems to me you two are close, do you see him often?

Leo: I do actually, I try to. There’s a huge age gap between us but I don’t want to be a distant brother just because of that.

UI: So growing up with famous parents, what was your family’s financial status?

Leo: Upper class. My parents success made it very easy for us, I can’t complain about struggles although they did make sure we knew they worked very hard to get there.

UI: And where do you live now?

Leo: I live in Beverly Hills, I bought a house there about a year ago.

UI: Is there any particular reason why you picked that area?

Leo: Well I did want privacy and gated residential areas are the best for that but I picked that house in particular because I liked the house, I’m a very… detailed person and I just wanted the house to be exactly what my brain wanted and that’s the one I found.

UI: So what do your house looks like?

Leo: It’s very minimalist; it has a lot of open spaces and windows so I get a lot of light into my house which is what I wanted.

UI: Do you live on your own or do you have roommates?

Leo: No roommates, I live alone with my dog.

UI: So a Beverly Hills home with a ton of space, you must been doing well on your own. What do you do as an occupation?

Leo: I’m a film director.

UI: How did you get into it?

Leo: Well, my parents are actors so I grew up arounds film sets and stuff like that. I got curious very early in my life, I tried acting when I was around thirteen and realized that’s not really what I wanted and that I was much more comfortable being the one behind the camera deciding how things would look like. I went to college to study film and while I was there I started working on projects on my own; I did a few indie films and started gaining recognition.

UI: Wow, that’s impressive. So what social class do you live in now?

Leo: Probably the same as before; upper class.

UI: How do you feel about that?

Leo: I don’t really give that too much thought. Of course, I’m lucky enough that I haven’t really had to be through hardships in that matter but yeah, I try not to pay attention it.

UI: Okay, next question is… Can you describe yourself in as much detail as possible? You might want to consider factors such as height, weight, race, hair and eye color, style of dress, and any tattoos, scars, or distinguishing marks.

Leo: I’m six feet tall and weight around a hundred and eighty pounds, I’m pretty active; I like working out so I have a much defined body. I’m Caucasian and I have blue eyes and light brown hair that I keep short for the most part, although I’ve let it grown in the past. I keep somewhat of a scruff or a beard most of the time, I do feel weird being without facial hair for some reason (chuckles). Style wise, I think I’m very casual most of the time but I enjoy dressing up on occasion, I grew up around fashion too because of my parents and I’m currently dating a stylist so I’m trying to not disappoint her. (laughs)

I also have three tattoos; two on my left arm and another on my right arm. I don’t have any distinguishable marks or scars… and I think that would be all.

UI: Alright, moving on. Are you allergic to anything?

Leo: I’m very allergic to soy.

UI: How did you find out?

Leo: I think I was around fourteen, I ate something with soy and I started feeling weird and then I felt difficulty to breath; they had to take me to the hospital and they ran some tests and that’s how I found out.

UI: Does this affect the quality of your life?

Leo: Not really, I just stay away from soy products (chuckles).

UI: Okay, what about diseases? Do you have any?

Leo: Not that I’m aware of.

UI: Do you have any mental illnesses?

Leo: Nope.

UI: Are you ambidextrous? Are there any strange things about you physically?

Leo: I’m right handed actually. And I don’t think there any strange things I can do with my body… well I can lick my elbow… which is stupid but I can (laughs).

UI: What do you think people think you sound like?

Leo: That’s a very awful question to ask… I’ve no idea, I don’t listen to myself often. (laughs) I… I know I don’t have a super deep voice but you know I’m still a man. Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t think I have an accent either.

UI: Are there any phrases you over use?

Leo: “Shit”, shit is probably my every day word (laughs), I’ve been told a lot that I start most of my phrases with “Well…” So there’s that. And I think that’s it.

UI: Do you have any quirks or strange mannerisms?

Leo: Perhaps not a mannerism or a quirk but I’ve been told that I have a “serial-killer” resting face (laughs)

UI: Alright, we got to the last question; what do your character think of fame?

Leo: It’s a double edge sword for sure. It’s very nice to be recognized by your work, I think anyone that’s what we would ever want to be recognized and be told that our hard work is paying off. However… fame comes with a bad side, as anything does really. When people start getting interested in you are under constant scrutiny and that part sucks, you can’t smoke because somehow then you’re a bad influence in the world when you’re just really trying to mind your own business. Fame is a complex scenario; it can easily make people lose who they are too for sure.

UI: It definitely is. Alright, that’s a wrap on the first portion of the interview. We’ll take a break and come back with the second round of questions.

#CharacterInterview #Character Interview: Basics #CharacterDevelopment #CD

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sinceileftyoublog · 4 years

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Michael David Interview: Circles of Rain

BY JORDAN MAINZER

With 2013′s Hanging Gardens and 2016′s Faraway Reach, production/DJ duo Classixx released two of the decade’s most underappreciated, club-ready dance records, the former containing undeniable songs like “Holding On” and “All You’re Waiting For” (which featured LCD Soundsystem’s Nancy Whang on vocals). In between then, rather conspicuously, one half of the duo, Michael David, released a two-track single under the name Studio Paradiso. The blippy “Samurai Dreams” was a score to a soft porn insert of the same name from David Cronenberg’s Videodrome, while “Ohana” was a tribute to the smooth jazz stations he listened to growing up in L.A. Both were a far cry from Classixx.

Finally, late last year, David started to put out music under his own name, with English vinyl-only label Is It Balearic? releasing an EP, Melona, and Cascine releasing the single “There In Spirit / Rain II”. While Melona returns to the same level of sunny bliss as the best Classixx songs, it’s this latest release that best bridges the gap between the duo David’s most known for and what he does as a solo artist. The first track, “There In Spirit”, is an upbeat dance jam with a retro feel, with interweaving hand percussion and wind instruments that could nonetheless find home on a Classixx record. In contrast, “Rain II” is, as David put it to me over the phone late last year, influenced by less “tasteful” finger-style guitarists, adjacent to but still different from the smooth jazz that preceded “Ohana”. The raw, falling, strummed guitar lines represent a new direction for Davis, one that he’s currently exploring more on as-yet-released material.

Overall, Davis is happy to just be releasing music. “I’ve been just making things and keeping them on my hard drive for many years. I guess it just occurred to me to start putting stuff out as a fun exercise,” he said. “My projects with Classixx aren’t established, necessarily, but old. We have a sort of a sound. It’s nice to have this separate outlet.” Read the rest of our conversation below, in which Davis also touches on the “slow” version and Jex Opolis remix of “Rain II” and what’s next for him and for Classixx.

There In Spirit / Rain II by Michael David

Since I Left You: The two tracks on “There In Spirit / Rain II” are definitely distinct from Classixx. Of them, the first one, “There In Spirit”, is probably the closest to what you do in Classixx. Was that your way of easing people in to the idea of you as a solo artist?

Michael David: Not consciously, but I guess that would be a sensible thing. I didn’t do it deliberately. I don’t worry too much about betraying anything that people have come to know about Classixx. I don’t really think about it as something so widely known. People probably know Classixx because they’ve heard it in a sushi bar. To actually know the name and recognize the material and be so attached to it that you’d find a solo project to be such a tangent you’d be confused by it, it’s far-fetched.

SILY: “Rain II”, the idea that you can hear audible guitar scrapes, it’s retro, but more raw than what you do in Classixx.

MD: That’s interesting. The guitar scrapes, I didn’t really consider it, but I do like that quality of “Rain”.

SILY: How long have you been working on these tracks?

MD: For about a year and a half?

SILY: When did you decide you wanted to do a couple versions of “Rain II”, the slow version and the remix?

MD: What I had been doing is recording some of the stuff to tape, which has a sound, but part of the thing that’s fun about tape is that before finishing a song, you can slow down the tape speed, and interesting things emerge. I’ve been bouncing versions of pretty much everything I’ve been doing at a slower tape speed, just to have it.

SILY: What about the remix?

MD: I’m a huge fan of Jex. I was going to ask Cascine to do a remix of “There In Spirit”, but they wanted to focus on “Rain II”. Jex’s name came up.

SILY: What else do you have coming up after the release of these tracks?

MD: I’m working on quite a few other things. Nothing that has a proper release date. I have a handful of other songs that kind of sound similar. There’s some natural guitar stuff and primitive sounding electronics. I am releasing a bit of Classixx stuff simultaneously, so it’s hard to dedicate time to finding a proper mix. I work really slowly.

SILY: Are you releasing a new Classixx record, or just singles?

MD: They’re just singles for now. We’re gonna be putting something out on Valentine’s Day. It’s the only date I know for sure.

SILY: Do you ever do any DJ sets under your own name?

MD: I haven’t, but I’d like to. Sometimes, I’ll step in. My friends in LA will do some weekly residencies, and I’ll hop on and DJ, but it’s never under my own name.

SILY: Is there anything you’ve been listening to, watching, or reading lately that’s caught your attention?

MD: Relating to the “Rain II” release, I listened to a lot of what you would call sort of contemporary finger-style instrumental guitar players. It’s a sound that was pretty popular in the mid-80′s, early 90′s. They were kind of lumped in with smooth jazz because they were lumped in on that radio format, but it’s artists like Michael Hedges. Essentially solo instrumental steel string guitar performers. I grew up listening to them with my parents, and I’m getting back into that. It’s a little bit of a call to that in “Rain II” specifically and a bit more with the work I’m doing right now.

I don’t have the same chops as any of those guys, and none of them are particularly virtuosic players. But I love the sound and the tone and the production quality and the songwriting. I’ve always been drawn to it.

SILY: It’s about the feeling.

MD: Totally. It’s a feeling, for sure. It doesn’t get a lot of love in music today, but if you put that stuff on, it’s really nice to vibe to...It’s cyclical. It’s a cool sound, and maybe it’s experiencing a sort of resurgence.

#interviews #michael david #cascine #hanging gardens #faraway reach #classixx #lcd soundsystem #nancy whang #david cronenberg #videodrome #Is It Balearic?#melona #there in spirit / rain ii #jex opolis #michael hedges

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musearch-blog · 5 years

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Olivia O’Brien: All about her music

Hi everyone!

Do you remember the “I hate u, love you” song by Gnash that became really popular in 2017? Did you know that the featured artist, and original author, in this track was a 16-year-old girl who had previously covered one of Gnash’s songs on SoundCloud? Her name is Olivia O’Brien and today we are going to explore her career as a singer and songwriter while analyzing how has her perception of life and love changed through the years.

The Single “Trust Issues” is her first solo single. This song talks about how she is not able to maintain a relationship because of her own doubts about people, she can’t help distrusting everyone. She uses the classic phrase “It’s not you it’s just me”, explaining that she can’t let anyone love her due to her fear of betrayal. Olivia states that she has Trust Issues which cannot be solved.

https://open.spotify.com/album/6xiOhG85RasYka2y4CNMAU?si=abGtTm3XRgWCsTPWzX2sRw

Let’s not forget, that she uploaded the demo version of “hate u love u” on Soundcloud during 2016. The previously mentioned single, later officially recorded with much better sound quality and some little fixes here and there, talks about how Olivia is very close to a guy who’s she’s in love with. The issue here (because there’s always a problem) is that he doesn’t love her back, cause he’s in love with another girl. In this song, the american songwriter expresses sadness and impotence for not being able to “be her”, the one he loves, while blaming him for not noticing her. As well, she’s aware that thinking about him is not healthy, but she just can’t stop. Olivia loves him and hates him at the same time... Yeah, those feelings are relatable to almost everyone.

https://open.spotify.com/album/0rajxwGsaQ1sqoegXK6gvw?si=7z6RsGG6QpiMTvFb6IPA7w

Now, moving on to her next single “Root Beer FLoat (prod. by Gnash)”, is kinda weird… I mean, if your listen to this song and interpret it literally, your first impression of Olivia would be that she’s flying up in cannabis clouds. Nevertheless, then you'll realize that she’s actually describing how it’s like to get faded and live a crazy life full of “fun”. We’ll see later how her perception of debauchery later changes.

https://open.spotify.com/album/4P0lFGK6UFLojxEzh6DqBM?si=xEJar-V6RTW2gfITcp-YyQ

Her next song is “Find what you’re looking for”, which is such an empowering single. It talks about how Olivia grew tired of loving to a boy who doesn’t really cares about her but asks her to stay because he doesn't want to be lonely. In other words, she regrets staying for so long when she knew that everything was a lie and finally says goodbye giving her best wishes to her ex. Also she portrays one of the most common situations now a day: girls and boys being rebellious and trying to look cool when they are actually trying to fill that void inside of them. Basically, she realizes that she’s more precious than a boy who’s using her as a toy.

Sorry, I couldn’t find the cover in better definition :c

https://open.spotify.com/album/09bMRl0m2qgtMT6QzOP4pd?si=MStFQ2aTTL2IIr3fDWZ7mw

In 2017, Olivia finally released her first EP called “It’s not that deep”! And let me tell you that this album is perfect for those times when you stop believing in love. *insert sad melody*

https://open.spotify.com/album/5XFhtk8Svc1NWYYgrkZjpI?si=vdWve4YTRlSKJlyYEDNxJw

The opening song, “Tequilawine”, is inspired by a party where she got drunk by pouring tequila into a half empty wine bottle and chugged it. Really poetic, Olivia. Nonetheless, the song itself expresses the reason behind this reckless behavior: She wants a guy who played with her before but she doesn’t want to expose herself that easily, as a result, she's “Mixing this drinks until he’s out of focus” so that she won’t even notice him.

The second song is “F*ck Feelings” where, as the title says, she condemns feelings because of her confusion at trying to figure out if her crush feels something for her when she has already fallen for him. Although, because she knows that she’s isn’t able to handle him turning her down, she tries to keep a distance which becomes impossible due to her love towards that boy. I know, this sounds like a tongue twister: another reason to hate how complicated feelings are.

Moving on to “Empty”, this song is really, really deep, so I would recommend you to move on to the next paragraph if you are a sensible person. This song is more about personal feelings and struggles, conversely to the previous songs. According to Olivia, it was really difficult to write this song because it let the world know that she’s vulnerable and can get easily sad. Basically, the song portrays how feeling empty is like: you feel like you don’t have anymore reasons to live and you just wanna throw yourself away; you can’t control your auto destructive behavior and just let yourself drown in alcohol and drugs; you can’t see the point in living but you’re just too afraid to die; and even if you are trying to do your best to fix yourself, you keep making everything worse, so eventually you just give up and wait for the inevitable. It’s really hard to portray this kind of emotions in a single song and it’s even harder to share it with the world: one of the reasons why I admire Olivia O’Brien, she has been even deeper that rock bottom and managed to return to the surface.

Now, let’s shake off all the sad vibes and move on to another empowering song! Its name is “R.I.P” and it means so much to me because it helped me to overcome a difficult moment in my live. It let me know that it’s okay to miss the good ol’ times even if they are not coming back, but eventually, you have to bury that memory and move on, be strong enough to “not answer that sh*t” because it doesn't matter anymore. So, R.I.P in a nutshell: One of Olvia’s closest friend or perhaps boyfriend has drastically changed, he became just like the people they hated; as a result, she’s leaving his memory six feet under, knowing that it won’t come back and it’s better to get over it.

The last single of “It’s not that deep” is ..... “No love”! We can chill a bit because this song is not that personal: get some snacks and drinks an enjoy a break from deep feelings. Olivia realized that people in the music industry are just fake. They give fake love in order to get credit, fame and contacts, and once they achieve their goal, they just stab you in the back. Yeah, just like high school but the students are famous and extremely rich. So, as an evidence of how this situation annoys Olivia, she wrote this song as a way to low-key expose them and show what really happens in L.A.

Spoiler Alert: This is just the beginning of a rivalry between Oliva and the music industry.

Finally, her next Album “Was It Even Real?” will be released on April 26th, 2019; although she has already shared 4 singles that will be included in this album.

Note: Today, 31/03/19, Olivia realeased the 5th single “Just Friends”, nevertheless, it wont be included in this analysis :c

We’ll start with “UDK”, this song is about people who start hating, judging and talking about people who they don’t know (UDK is the abbreviation for You don’t know). She explains that nowadays everyone believes whatever they hear without any proof. Unfortunately, what she says is amazingly accurate, and I’m a 99.9% sure that you been through the same problem at least once in your life.

https://open.spotify.com/album/1htk6Vanc9Gl494tL0V3iB?si=Fw2DCgULRr-Nx_-KvLGvgQ

The next song, “I don’t exist”, is also one of my favorites. It was born as a result of one of Olivia’s therapeutic writing sessions where she lets all of her feelings out of her head. This track describes how there are times when you feel so empty and depressed that it gives you a sense of not being anywhere. During these times you don’t find your life interesting and just wanna go back to when everything was brighter. And, even if you try everything to feel excited and happy again, it never lasts: it’s difficult to know if you are real when you can’t feel anything. Nonetheless, it's important to recall that you are your own salvation: the change begins with yourself and only you have the power to decide how are you gonna get out of the situation. Fortunately, this amazing songwriter has also given some advices to her fans through social media in cased they feel identified with the struggles she mentions in her music.

Fun Fact: This song is also inspired by her experiences at the music industry. What’s your opinion about L.A now?

https://open.spotify.com/album/0VEtZgtg2Uk4CvT37cFgBx?si=SFJLmCWfRJ6MBEE1scfseQ

The third track is “Care Less More”. It perfectly describes a relationship where two people frequent each other in order to fill up the gap left by their ex-lovers. Nevertheless, they are unsure, so they keep telling themselves that they don’t feel anything for each other while playing “this game of who can care less more”. Moreover, if you pay attention to the last part of the song, you can realize that Olivia is subliminally suggesting that the boy is actually caring about her. Although, this is just my point of view.

https://open.spotify.com/album/0trfa5BfNcC0Wp5wBy7eHu?si=HykMEpx7Rm66wfcD83HMcg

Finally! Her last track, and probably the most inspiring, “Love Myself” was released this year. After NUMEROUS sad songs, Olivia has found the solution to most of her problems: Just love yourself. During the first Verses, she states that she’s different from everyone else and isn’t even sure of who she is. Conversely, she affirms that it doesn’t matter if you don’t have a solid plan yet, you just have to let all the judgements go and start loving yourself. Olivia realizes that it’s senseless to care about what will people say because they are gonna talk anyways. So... why don’t just be yourself? In addition, she affirms that in order to truly love someone, you have to love yourself, otherwise, you will lose yourself.

https://open.spotify.com/album/4gg4tspg0MgBXY4SF2DhTb?si=MODP70auRNKgQevS7_Jlvw

To sum up, Olivia O’Brien is an extraordinary songwriter with so much to share to the world despite her age. Her music is basically focused on personal struggles and it’s main purpose is to let her fans know that it’s okay to feel that way and that she has actually been through that; nevertheless, you will eventually get over it and move on. Also, I can assure you that hearing to these songs when you are feeling down will help you to clarify your feelings and get a better perception of your situation; and later or sooner. you will find a solution to everything.

We have to survive the storm in orden to find the clarity, we have to fall before we get up and we have to make mistakes in order to learn.

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weareasiam · 7 years

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>>VIEW: Peter Su on his music video debut, magic musician ju-ju and his journey around the world

Before boarding the plane that would take him on his two-month sojourn across the world, L.A. based pop/folk artist Peter Su took a second to share with us the details on his first official music video for the single “Santa Barbara” (you can watch it here).

Read on to find out how it felt to sacrifice his magic musician ju-ju, where this accomplishment falls in his journey and his growing perspective on marginalized voices.

"Santa Barbara" is your first official music video. Is there a particular reason you chose this track to represent and kick off your album, visually? Two reasons. 1: The beachy folk sound and bittersweet vibe of the recording really summarizes the sound I've gotten to with Lions on the Beach. 2: Personally, it's my favorite track off the album. Song-wise, the melody is one of the most beautiful melodies I've written (imo hehe) and lyrically it's a Pet Sounds kind of coming-of-age lyric with that saudade I can't get enough of!

The video looks great, and... you shaved! We got to see the face behind the signature scruff. How did it feel seeing that face again, and how long did it take to grow the beard back? Haha I felt naked, and cold. Not alone though. After the last take on the beach at Del Playa, I busted out this rusty razor I hadn't used in years and went at it with the whole crew watching and pouring water out of bottles for me. I used the camera as my mirror. Turns out shaving medium-length facial hair on a beach without running water is really hard. Being shaved was not cool. The scruff is like my magic musician-juju! I actually acted in Ryan Fung's short film the next week and he required all the male escorts to be shaved. After that, I waited about 2 weeks to regain my juju again.

It seems like since the release of your EP and the last time I got to talk to you, you've not only continued to develop as an artist but have grown even more into the community. How involved were you in the process and creation of the music video, and how did it feel working with friends from #weownthe8th to create this music video? Any special anecdotes from the music-video-making process in general you're up for sharing? Our Mic and #weownthe8th were the best thing that happened to me last year (if you're a creative in LA, you really should do yourself a favor and check it out). That's how I met the whole cast and crew. Stanley Wong and Travis Ash were Directors, and I was sort of a third co-director as the artist. They were really good at asking questions to get to the essence of the song. From that, we wrote the visual story together to bring it out. Directing-wise, it was pretty impressive to see them go from Hand Fart (an absurdist comedy) to a more sentimental romantic music video. Super creative and structured at the same time. They've got something special, those two. Vivian Ngo, she is such a talented actor. She's one of few people I've met whose emotional range is both so limitless and so in control. Watching her slip into a moment – of dejection, hope, joy, etc.– was like watching a year's worth of acting masterclasses. Nate Elegino (DP). Man, that guy seriously is a beast behind the camera. Every shot I saw on playback looked like a postcard – on the PCH, in Isla Vista, even looking out of the office high rise in downtown LA. Plus, he's really good at working with actors. I still remember how it felt when he told me to stick my hand out the window, and reach for the sun, and how it felt filling me up. Work it, baby! Jes Vu (Producer). So organized and top of things, with boundless energy. Her breakdown on the script, she turned over in like a day and kept looking to see how we could run everything smoother. Oscar Ho (BTS). Hardcore, the man behind the cam. He shot the BTS footage while we were in Isla Vista. He's got a great eye and was always down to help out wherever he could on set. Lianne Lin (Hair). It was just fun to chat with a friend about the live music scene, hair thinning techniques, and good restaurants in the SGV. And oh yeah, getting the best haircut I've gotten in 3 years was pretty confidence-boosting too.

I noticed in the middle of "Santa Barbara," there's a shot with a growing stack of books. Are these books you actually read? If so, what, in any of them, especially impacted you? I love books! These were important books to me that I've read, minus some of the business books are in my queue. The first book in the stack is Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke. It was one of the first books I read for inspiration after I decided to leave my job to pursue a creative path. Connie Lim actually recommended it to me when I asked her for advice when I was first starting out. One takeaway was that you have to love writing so much, that you'll still do it even if nothing external ever comes from it. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, my old VC Partner gave that to me and I still turn to it whenever I feel stuck. It's a metaphorical story about a kid in search of his personal treasure and all the lessons he learns along the way. It's always cool to check-in and see what part of the journey I'm at, especially when my will gets weak to keep exploring.

So far, a lot of inspiration in your music has been taken from your journey and experience of "going off the safe path" and forging into the unknown, unpredictable lands of being a musician and artist. Your first EP is done, you're putting out your first official music video -- where do you see yourself in that journey now and how does it feel to be in this place? Yup! I finished the tour out to Nashville, released this music video. I'm close to wrapping up the album cycle and I'd say I'm in transition now. It's kind of scary but exciting too. I'll be headed to India next week to study yoga and travel solo for 2 months - definitely a lot of reflection and contemplation about what's next. The tour in November out to SF, Austin, New Orleans, Nashville, Denver; playing at Sappho in Taipei; and now studying yoga in India - I've been filling the inspiration well, that's for sure. Can't wait to get back into creating mode!

Just wondering -- in the very first interview you did with us, we talked a little bit about being an artist in conjunction with Asian American identity. In your recent article with the Huffington Post premiering your music video, you had something to say about that, and it seemed more definitive and of a stronger opinion than before. Have your thoughts on this changed or gone down any certain pathways? It's still weird to me when people label you as an Asian American musician vs. just a musician. But I now know the only thing to do is to just tell my story. The more I've been a part of the Asian American creative community in L.A., the more I want to support other marginalized voices in telling their stories. "The Godfather" is a good model of marginalized voices producing work so good that mainstream media had to take notice. Our Mic, #weownthe8th, TNC, Sunday Jump, Kollaboration, the whole API creative community in LA, we're telling our stories in increasing numbers, at higher and higher levels of quality. I'm very encouraged by the movement and hope that my kids will have a generation of creative role models to look up to.

Final question. In our last conversation, you left us with this lesson learned: "Instead of asking what the world can do to fulfill you, ask what you can give to the world." How has that perspective and value been shaping what you've been up to? And do tell what's next for you and anything else you want to share with your listeners. I've learned I'm pretty good at bringing people together for a cause bigger than ourselves, and with collaborating. So my next step, will probably be less going solo and more collaborative, and more audience-first. I'm sure India will give me some good inspiration, and I feel a lot of new songs coming on. I've already got a few creative buns in the oven, with Dion Leon and Jenyi Lee - so stay tuned! The best way to follow along on my journey will be to follow my instagram stories (@petersumusic) while I'm in India or signup for my newsletter!

#indie music #indie #music #artist #aapi #asiam #api #apa #asian american #asian americana #asian america #peter su #music video #interview #view #asiam interview #asiam view #asian american artist #singer songwriter

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samanthasroberts · 5 years

Text

Who Is Kaia Gerber & Who Are Her Friends? · Betches

Ask any normie who runs Instagram, and they’ll tell you the Kar-Jenners. And you know what? They’re totally right, but they also need to know about the newest clan taking over the ‘gram. Anyone with their finger on the pulse and on the right follow button knows that Kaia Gerber and her squad are taking over Instagram. We all know who Kaia Gerber is: she’s an up-and-coming model whose mother is supermodel Cindy Crawford and whose father made Casamigos with George Clooney (and apparently he does boring high-end business sh*t too, but let’s not pretend like I know how any of that works). She’s 16 years old and has way more going for her than any of us: perfect genetics, an endless supply of tequila, and more than two friends. But who is this friend group, exactly? Sure, they keep Shadow Hill and I.AM.GIA in business, but what else are they up to?

Presley Gerber

Presley is Kaia’s equally good-looking brother, of course! He’s an up-and-comer in the industry, just like his little sis, having modeled for big time brands such as Burberry and Calvin Klein. This mainstay at fashion week and the pages of Vogue has even been in a Pepsi commercial with mama Cindy, who was in her own iconic Pepsi commercial decades ago. It was cool and all (and much less controversial than Kendall Jenner’s Pepsi ad), but still will never be as great as Britney’s Pepsi commercials. Not much else is known about Presley, because when you’re that good-looking, you really aren’t obligated to be interesting.

Huhhhhh

A post shared by Presley (@presleygerber) on Jul 5, 2018 at 11:36am PDT

Charlotte Lawrence

Charlotte is Kaia’s equally leggy, equally barely legal ride-or-die. Her dad is producer Bill Lawrence and her mom is actress Christa Miller. Her dad was a bigwig on Scrubs and Cougartown—those shows that you kiiiinda forgot about up until now—both of which her mom starred in. That means that Charlotte has clocked in a lot of time growing up around actors like Zach Braff and Courteney Cox, that actors you kiiiinda forgot up about up until now. Charlotte is pursuing the music career route, and has performed at venues such as Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn and Bowery Ballroom. She’s actually pretty great and has a promising career ahead of her.

film cameras & mom hats

A post shared by Charlotte Lawrence (@charlotteslawrence) on Jul 16, 2018 at 5:21pm PDT

Charlotte D’Alessio

Charlotte D’Alessio (no relation to Amber, who made out with a hot dog) is Kaia’s other bestie, because Kaia seems to love being affiliated with girls who are as lithe and brunette as she is. She is also dating Presley Gerber exclusively, which totally doesn’t sound awkward for Kaia at all. This Canadian beauty was discovered at the age of 16 at Coachella. That festival is a sh*t show of Bachelor franchise starlets and Instagram models, so the fact that she stuck out enough to get discovered as a model is a feat in and of itself.

Charlotte has a few bikini campaigns under her belt, as well as having modeled for brands like TopShop and starring as a femme fatale in some really confusing music video for some European band we’ve never heard of. (Can some film major put their worthless degree to use for once and please explain to me why there was an evil octopus in that vid?) When she’s not modeling or having good-looking sex with Presley Gerber, you can usually find her making Boomerangs where she’s slightly tilting her head and sticking out her tongue, or hosting Instagram lives, where she repeatedly answers the same questions over and over again about whether or not she got a nose job (which she denies getting because “I just know how to work my angles!” Sure, Jan) and what her workouts are like (which she claims to not even do. Again, sure, Jan).

pleasseeee

A post shared by Charlotte D'Alessio (@charlottedalessio) on Aug 6, 2018 at 12:41pm PDT

Chiara

Chiara is the token edgy, crazy chick of the group that they need to have. Otherwise, their clique would look more Wonderbread than an Abercrombie & Fitch ad, and that’s just not exciting. Chiara is, of course, a model, and her mom was a model as well. Her Instagram reeks of the kind of pictures that would be reblogged along with Lana del Rey quotes and Sarah Bah Bah art.

Resting face

A post shared by Chiara (@chiara) on Jul 29, 2018 at 8:58pm PDT

Madison Beer

Madison Beer was *discovered* by Justin Bieber when she was a tween for covering Etta James’ “At Last” on YouTube. She moved from Long Island to L.A. to make music, but is more known for her knockout good looks and incredible street style on Instagram. She actually only released a few singles, yet garnered over 10 million followers on Instagram with little to no legit music career. She finally released her first EP this year, As She Pleases, and it’s actually really, really good. Like, I don’t know about you, but I was expecting a girl that’s more Instagram famous than famous for, ya know, talent to drop a stinker of an EP, but “Home With You” and “Say It To My Face” are legit bops. She recently completed an American tour as well, so things are definitely starting to ramp up for Madison Beer.

dat fendi fendi

A post shared by Madison (@madisonbeer) on Jul 10, 2018 at 12:11pm PDT

Zack Bia

I don’t even get what this kid’s deal is. Even before writing this article, I have Googled Zack Bia repeatedly to figure out what he does or what famous parents he has, and I got nothing. It honestly keeps me up at night wondering how this hypebeast twerp hangs with this crew and has accumulated the following he has. He’s dating Madison Beer, so maybe that’s where a lot of my disdain for this kid comes from, because I can’t decide if I want to be Madison Beer or date Madison Beer. Signs show he may have gone to USC at one point, but that honestly means nothing because you barely attend USC unless you’re in Greek life or are an athlete. I really don’t have anything else to say about this kid because, like I said, I don’t know what the f*ck he does. So I just hate-scroll through his douchey Instagram instead.

beverly hills high alum

A post shared by ZACK BIA (@zackbia) on Feb 1, 2018 at 10:19pm PST

Isabella Jones

Isabella Jones is actually @bananablue17 on Instagram, because she didn’t get the memo that you don’t have to use your AIM screenname from 6th grade as your Instagram handle. Isabella is—wait for it—a model. She’s also currently dating a SoundCloud rapper whose tattoos look like a sleepover prank that you’d doodle on people while they’re asleep. He goes by Teddy. Just Teddy. A match made in heaven, really.

happy 4th🇺🇸

A post shared by Isabella Jones (@bananablue17) on Jul 5, 2018 at 2:36pm PDT

Emma Delury

Emma Delury is basically the girl next door’s little sister who hasn’t been corrupted yet, but the older quarterback of the football team plans on making a move on her once it’s no longer creepy to hook up with her. So it makes total sense that she’s modeled for the likes of Pink by Victoria’s Secret, PacSun, and Brandy Melville. No word on if she’s dating anyone, but Isabella leaves comments on every single picture of hers within 10 minutes of posting them saying how beautiful she is and how in love with her she is. These girls are well on their way to being so famous that they have BS rumors about them dating like Karlie Kloss and Taylor Swift do, right?

❤️💙

A post shared by Emma DeLury (@emmadelury) on Jul 5, 2018 at 4:13pm PDT

Kevin Malone from “The Office”

I am Kevin Malone and you all are the Instagram models pic.twitter.com/fIVMj4yfyn

— Millie (@milliebeemoore) July 17, 2018

No, seriously. How the f*ck did this happen?

Whoever This Leech Is

Madison Beer did an interview a couple months back and was asked about her famous crew, and she took the opportunity to throw some shade—even though no one even asked! Ugh, this kind of drama is the only thing that make petty 18-year-olds tolerable. Anyways, she said some toxic chick keeps trying to swindle her way into their group to get followers and ever since, I’ve been wanting to know who it is. My money’s on Meredith Mickelson, because everyone in this group follows her except for Madison, and I don’t really know what Meredith does with her time besides take selfies while driving, take Boomerangs of herself sticking her tongue out, and taking videos of herself fake laughing.

dinner🍝

A post shared by MEREDITH MICKELSON (@meredithmickelson) on Jul 30, 2018 at 12:39pm PDT

Images: @presleygerber , @charlotteslawrence, @charlottedalessio , @chiara, @madisonbeer, @zackbia, @bananablue17, @emmadelury,@meredithmickelson / Instagram; @milliebeemoore / Twitter

Source: http://allofbeer.com/who-is-kaia-gerber-who-are-her-friends-%c2%b7-betches/

from All of Beer https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2019/02/12/who-is-kaia-gerber-who-are-her-friends-%c2%b7-betches/

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adambstingus · 5 years

Text

Who Is Kaia Gerber & Who Are Her Friends? · Betches

Presley Gerber

Huhhhhh

A post shared by Presley (@presleygerber) on Jul 5, 2018 at 11:36am PDT

Charlotte Lawrence

film cameras & mom hats

A post shared by Charlotte Lawrence (@charlotteslawrence) on Jul 16, 2018 at 5:21pm PDT

Charlotte D’Alessio

pleasseeee

A post shared by Charlotte D'Alessio (@charlottedalessio) on Aug 6, 2018 at 12:41pm PDT

Chiara

Resting face

A post shared by Chiara (@chiara) on Jul 29, 2018 at 8:58pm PDT

Madison Beer

dat fendi fendi

A post shared by Madison (@madisonbeer) on Jul 10, 2018 at 12:11pm PDT

Zack Bia

beverly hills high alum

A post shared by ZACK BIA (@zackbia) on Feb 1, 2018 at 10:19pm PST

Isabella Jones

happy 4th🇺🇸

A post shared by Isabella Jones (@bananablue17) on Jul 5, 2018 at 2:36pm PDT

Emma Delury

❤️💙

A post shared by Emma DeLury (@emmadelury) on Jul 5, 2018 at 4:13pm PDT

Kevin Malone from “The Office”

I am Kevin Malone and you all are the Instagram models pic.twitter.com/fIVMj4yfyn

— Millie (@milliebeemoore) July 17, 2018

No, seriously. How the f*ck did this happen?

Whoever This Leech Is

dinner🍝

A post shared by MEREDITH MICKELSON (@meredithmickelson) on Jul 30, 2018 at 12:39pm PDT

Images: @presleygerber , @charlotteslawrence, @charlottedalessio , @chiara, @madisonbeer, @zackbia, @bananablue17, @emmadelury,@meredithmickelson / Instagram; @milliebeemoore / Twitter

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/who-is-kaia-gerber-who-are-her-friends-%c2%b7-betches/ from All of Beer https://allofbeercom.tumblr.com/post/182756223262

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allofbeercom · 5 years

Text

Who Is Kaia Gerber & Who Are Her Friends? · Betches

Presley Gerber

Huhhhhh

A post shared by Presley (@presleygerber) on Jul 5, 2018 at 11:36am PDT

Charlotte Lawrence

film cameras & mom hats

A post shared by Charlotte Lawrence (@charlotteslawrence) on Jul 16, 2018 at 5:21pm PDT

Charlotte D’Alessio

pleasseeee

A post shared by Charlotte D'Alessio (@charlottedalessio) on Aug 6, 2018 at 12:41pm PDT

Chiara

Resting face

A post shared by Chiara (@chiara) on Jul 29, 2018 at 8:58pm PDT

Madison Beer

dat fendi fendi

A post shared by Madison (@madisonbeer) on Jul 10, 2018 at 12:11pm PDT

Zack Bia

beverly hills high alum

A post shared by ZACK BIA (@zackbia) on Feb 1, 2018 at 10:19pm PST

Isabella Jones

happy 4th🇺🇸

A post shared by Isabella Jones (@bananablue17) on Jul 5, 2018 at 2:36pm PDT

Emma Delury

❤️💙

A post shared by Emma DeLury (@emmadelury) on Jul 5, 2018 at 4:13pm PDT

Kevin Malone from “The Office”

I am Kevin Malone and you all are the Instagram models pic.twitter.com/fIVMj4yfyn

— Millie (@milliebeemoore) July 17, 2018

No, seriously. How the f*ck did this happen?

Whoever This Leech Is

dinner🍝

A post shared by MEREDITH MICKELSON (@meredithmickelson) on Jul 30, 2018 at 12:39pm PDT

Images: @presleygerber , @charlotteslawrence, @charlottedalessio , @chiara, @madisonbeer, @zackbia, @bananablue17, @emmadelury,@meredithmickelson / Instagram; @milliebeemoore / Twitter

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/who-is-kaia-gerber-who-are-her-friends-%c2%b7-betches/

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ethelbertpaul444-blog · 6 years

Text

Who Is Kaia Gerber & Who Are Her Friends? Betches

Ask any normie who runs Instagram, and they’ll tell you the Kar-Jenners. And you know what? They’re totally right, but they too need to know about the newest clan taking over the’ gram. Anyone with their thumb on the pulse and on the right follow button knows that Kaia Gerber and her crew are taking over Instagram. We all know who Kaia Gerber is: she’s an up-and-coming mannequin whose mom is supermodel Cindy Crawford and whose father impelled Casamigos with George Clooney( and apparently he does carrying high-end business sh* t extremely, but let’s not impersonate like I know how any of that works ). She’s 16 years old and has practice more going for her than any of us: perfect genetics, an endless supply of tequila, and more than two friends. But who is this friend group, accurately? Sure, they obstruct Shadow Hill and I.AM.GIA in business, but what else are they up to? Presley Gerber Presley is Kaia’s equally good-looking friend, of course! He’s an up-and-comer in service industries, just like his little sis, having modeled for big time brands such as Burberry and Calvin Klein. This mainstay at pattern week and the sheets of Vogue has even been in a Pepsi business with mama Cindy, who was in her own iconic Pepsi commercial-grade decades ago. It was chilled and all( and much less contentious than Kendall Jenner’s Pepsi ad ), but still will never be as great as Britney’s Pepsi commercials. Not much else know anything about Presley, because when you’re that good-looking, you really aren’t obligated to be interesting. Huhhhhh A post shared by Presley (@ presleygerber) on Jul 5, 2018 at 11:36 am PDT Charlotte Lawrence Charlotte is Kaia’s equally leggy, evenly just law ride-or-die. Her pa is farmer Bill Lawrence and her mommy is actress Christa Miller. Her dad was a bigwig on Scrubs and Cougartown — em> those shows that you kiiiinda forgot about up until now–both of which her mom performed in. That means that Charlotte has clocked in a lot of time growing up around performers like Zach Braff and Courteney Cox, that actors you kiiiinda forgot up about up til now. Charlotte is pursuing the music job superhighway, and has performed at venues such as Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn and Bowery Ballroom. She’s actually pretty great and has a promising occupation ahead of her. film cameras& mama hats A post shared by Charlotte Lawrence (@ charlotteslawrence) on Jul 16, 2018 at 5:21 pm PDT Charlotte D’Alessio Charlotte D’Alessio( no relation to Amber, who made out with a hot dog) is Kaia’s other bestie, because Kaia seems to love being affiliated with girls who are as lithe and brunette as she is. She is also dating Presley Gerber exclusively, which wholly doesn’t sound ungainly for Kaia at all. This Canadian attractivenes was discovered at persons below the age of 16 at Coachella. That festival is a sh* t display of Bachelor dealership starlets and Instagram simulates, so the facts of the case that she poked out sufficient to come discovered as a mannequin is a feat in and of itself. Charlotte has a few bikini expeditions under her region, as well as having modeled for symbols like TopShop and starring as a femme fatale in some really muddling music video for some European strip we’ve never heard of.( Can some cinema major applied their worthless stage to be applied for once and please explain to me why there was an misery octopus in that vid ?) When she’s not modeling or having good-looking sex with Presley Gerber, you can usually find her offsetting Boomerangs where she’s slightly tilting her ability and sticking out her tongue, or hosting Instagram lives, where she repeatedly asks the same questions over and over again about whether or not she got a nose job( which she denies coming because “I just know how to work my directions! ” Sure, Jan) and what her workouts are like( which she claims to not even do. Again, sure, Jan ). pleasseeee A post shared by Charlotte D’Alessio (@ charlottedalessio) on Aug 6, 2018 at 12:41 pm PDT Chiara Chiara is the token edgy, crazy chick for the working group that they need to have. Otherwise, their clique would look more Wonderbread than an Abercrombie& Fitch ad, and that’s merely not eliciting. Chiara is, of course, a pattern, and her mama was a representation as well. Her Instagram reeks of the kind of portrait that would be reblogged along with Lana del Rey quotes and Sarah Bah Bah art. Resting face A post shared by Chiara (@ chiara) on Jul 29, 2018 at 8: 58 pm PDT Madison Beer Madison Beer was* discovered* by Justin Bieber when she was a tween for dealing Etta James’ “At Last” on YouTube. She moved from Long Island to L.A. to determine music, but is more known for her knockout good looks and staggering street vogue on Instagram. She actually merely liberated a few singles, yet garnered over 10 million admirers on Instagram with little to no legit music vocation. She ultimately exhausted her first EP this year, As She Pleases , and it’s actually really, really good. Like, I don’t is familiar with you, but I was expecting a girl that’s more Instagram famed than acclaimed for, ya know, endowment to fell a skunk of an EP, but” Home With You” and” Say It To My Face” are legit bops. She recently completed an American tour as well, so things are definitely had begun to ramp up for Madison Beer. dat fendi fendi A post shared by Madison (@ madisonbeer) on Jul 10, 2018 at 12:11 pm PDT Zack Bia I don’t even get what this kid’s spate is. Even before writing this article, I have Googled Zack Bia repeatedly to figure out what he does or what famous parents he has, and I got nothing. It frankly obstructs me up at night doubting how this hypebeast twerp hangs with this gang and has accumulated the following he has. He’s dating Madison Beer, so maybe that’s where a great deal of my disdain for this minor comes from, because I can’t decide if I want to be Madison Beer or appointment Madison Beer. Signs show he may have gone to USC at one point, but that frankly means nothing because you just attend USC unless you’re in Greek life or are an athlete. I certainly don’t have anything else to say about this kid because, like I said, I don’t know what the f* ck he does. So I only hate-scroll through his douchey Instagram instead. beverly slopes high alum A post shared by ZACK BIA (@ zackbia) on Feb 1, 2018 at 10:19 pm PST Isabella Jones Isabella Jones is actually @bananablue17 on Instagram, because she didn’t get the memo that you don’t have to use your AIM screenname from 6th gradation as your Instagram handle. Isabella is–wait for it–a model. She’s also currently dating a SoundCloud rapper whose tattoos look like a sleepover prank that you’d doodle on people while they’re asleep. He goes by Teddy. Just Teddy. A coincide manufactured in heaven, really. happy 4th A post shared by Isabella Jones (@ bananablue1 7) on Jul 5, 2018 at 2:36 pm PDT Emma Delury Emma Delury is mostly the girl next door’s little sister who hasn’t been tainted more, but the older quarterback of the football squad plans on making a move on her once it’s no longer sinister to hook up with her. So it originates total sense that she’s modeled for the likes of Pink by Victoria’s Secret, PacSun, and Brandy Melville. No word on if she’s dating anyone, but Isabella leaves statements on every single picture of hers within 10 hours of affixing them saying how beautiful she is and how in love with her she is. These girlfriends are well on their acces to being so notorious that they have BS rumors about them dating like Karlie Kloss and Taylor Swift do, right? [?] A post shared by Emma DeLury (@ emmadelury) on Jul 5, 2018 at 4:13 pm PDT Kevin Malone from “The Office” I am Kevin Malone and you all are the Instagram patterns pic.twitter.com/ fIVMj4yfyn — Millie (@ milliebeemoore) July 17, 2018 No, severely. How the f* ck did this happen? Whoever This Leech Is Madison Beer did an interview a couple months away and was asked about her famous crew, and she took chances to propel some shade–even though no one even asked! Ugh, these types of theatre is the only thing that offset inessential 18 -year-olds satisfactory. Regardless, she said some toxic chick maintenances trying to defrauded her highway into their group to come adherents and ever since, I’ve been wanting to know who it is. My money’s on Meredith Mickelson, because everyone in this group follows her except for Madison, and I don’t truly know what Meredith does with her age besides take selfies while driving, take Boomerangs of herself putting her tongue out, and making videos of herself forgery laughing. dinner A post shared by MEREDITH MICKELSON (@ meredithmickelson) on Jul 30, 2018 at 12:39 pm PDT Epitomes: @presleygerber, @charlotteslawrence, @charlottedalessio, @chiara, @madisonbeer, @zackbia, @bananablue17, @emmadelury ,@ meredithmickelson/ Instagram; @milliebeemoore/ Twitter Read more: https :// betches.com/? p= 33731 http://dailybuzznetwork.com/index.php/2018/09/16/who-is-kaia-gerber-who-are-her-friends-betches/

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jagilsdorf · 6 years

Link

Now I understand based off the rules that typically if you wanted to submit a link, you submit a regular link post, but there is so much that I wanted to share with you all that I decided to create a discussion on some of my favorite overlooked artists. I am new to this subreddit, and to my knowledge I believe lists like these aren't against the rules, so please bear with me if I do some wrong. I created a similar thread on twitter, but I really believe these artists deserve more ears listening so I decided to submit something here. So without further ado, here is my list of 11 overlooked artists that deserve more listeners. I will include a short paragraph on each and link three of my personal favorite songs of theirsQuiñ: Born and raised in L.A., Quiñ has two EPs out as of now titled Galactica and DREAMGIRL. Her sound as she describes is "fantasy soul". I got hooked once I heard the first single from DREAMGIRL, "STICKY SITUATION", and I can’t get enough of her unique sound. This 20 something y/o is killing it. STICKY SITUATION SEA OF SPACE THE BEGINNINGA. CHAL: I was introduced to A. CHAL from a Insta’s discover page where I heard a snippet of "GAZI" 2 years ago, and I’ve been following since. The Peruvian-born R&B singer has two LPs out: Welcome to GAZI and ON GAZ. Both are both must listens all the way through. I was lucky enough to see him live at Day N Night, so trust when I say you will not regret giving him a listen, on GAZ. Round Whippin' Vibe W/U GAZIAri Lennox: Up next is the first lady of Dreamville herself, Ari Lennox. I wish I was able to catch her at Day N Night, but at least the setlist introduced me to the Washington D.C. Native. Her E.P. Pho is a daily listen and each of the seven songs is a blessing to the ears. She may describe her voice as “imperfect but pretty”, but if it isn’t perfection I don’t know what is.(Read P.S.) Night Drive Backseat BackwoodYe Ali: I went early Sunday morning just to make sure I caught Ye Ali as he was the first on the setlist that day. The man is an amazing producer and performer, and recently produced Chris Brown’s and Joyner Lucas’s "Stranger Things" and his first plaque for his work on Heartbreak on a Full Moon. His projects TrapHouse Jodeci and Passion and Patience are must listens, and his vocals are angelic. Talk Less What to Do AmmunitionDuckwrth: Thanks to Rich Brian's Come to my Party Tour, I was introduced to Duckwrth, a South Central recording and visual artist. His debut release I’M UUGLY brings a “unique identity of masculinity and femininity” which I just cannot get enough. “I’M DEAD” ft. Sabrina Claudio is easily my favorite as the two compliment each other so well. Don’t forget to check out his an XTRA UUGLY Mixtape and support your "Friendly Neighborhood Duck". I'M DEAD RP+ BH LOWRIDRSiR: SiR needs some more love from my TDE fans, his vocal work is a gift. HER and HER TOO, his two EPs, are very mellow, but soulfully impassioned. Songs like “Love You” and “All in my Head” will have you feeling some type of way. Thankfully early this year we finally got a full length release in the form of November. Cannot wait to catch him again at the Championship Tour in May. All In My Head W$ Boi The CanvasSAINt JHN: Also known as Ghetto Lenny, SAINt JHN is a full time silk collector and part time life coach. When not attending his other two passions, he gives the people music for the soul. Ghetto Lenny, a Brooklyn native, has lots songwriting under his belt, but thank the heavens he started making his own material in 2016. At first he only had 6 singles up on Spotify (including jams like "Roses" and "3 Below", but just recently he came out with Collection One. If your a stripper and into him, just know you got great taste, and show him you can really be your momma’s daughter. (Read P.P.S.) N**a Sht Lust SelfishAzizi Gibson: Born in Frankfurt, Germany under a military family, Azizi Gibson spent a lot of early years in transition. But in 2010, he moved to L.A. after being increasingly interested in hip hop production and lyricism. I can’t get enough of unique voice, especially his early work on Backwards Books and A New Life. Toast Sailor Moon CabaretAlan Love: Alan Love loves to drink whiskey and Sprite, swim, and fish. From UND, Alan only has one song on Spotify and its amazing! Vibes is a song I can have on repeat all day. I hope eventually we can get some more music on there soon. Shout out to Lil Dicky for giving the opportunity to stumble up Love! VibesJMSN: I gotta thank another member of this list, Quiñ, for if she didn’t go on tour with JMSN, I may have never found out about him. His voice and style reminds me of Justin Timberlake, and yet I enjoy JMSN more. Every album of his has been just perfection. So Badly Girl I Used To Know Cruel IntentionsSnoh Aalegra: From Quiñ I found JMSN and from him I stumble upon Snoh Aalegra, and girl must I say, Goddamn, you got me. I love a soulful sound, and there’s a reason she’s sampled on Drake’s “More Life”. Her album FEELS will have you in your feels. Nothing Burns Like The Cold Fool For You You Got MeThere is my list! Hope you enjoy these artists and continue to follow their work, its been a pleasure to share with you all! Happy listening :)P.S. Okay heres the thing regarding Ari: Back in 2011 she released a free mixtape called Five Finger Discount where my true favorite songs of hers come from such as "Plea to the Industry", "The Way You Is", and "Precious Flower". The thing is none of those songs can be found on youtube or Spotify or Soundcloud. Even the official link no longer functions. However, a quick google of the mixtape title along with her name displays a third top result which I will not link here as it isn't the official link as much as I would love to share.P.P.S. To those who may be interested, SAINt JHN is hosting an AMA tomorrow on the subreddit HipHopHeads 6:30 EST/3:30 PST. I know I'll be visiting, hope to see some of you there! via /r/listentothis

#IFTTT #reddit

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ismael37olson · 7 years

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Jon ALi Interview: Erik Hassle Leaves Sweden Behind On ‘Innocence Lost’ – Out Now!

It’s been a little over seven years since Erik Hassle – perhaps better known around these parts as my Swedish Ginger Bae – first stole my heart with his stunning and underappreciated 2009 debut Hassle, which was later released as Pieces in U.S in 2010. In the years since, Erik has smartly and carefully curated a space for himself in the pop music arena.

As a songwriter, Erik‘s had a hand in crafting some superb pop releases over the past few years, including Shakira and Rihanna‘s “Can’t Remember To Forget You,” Icona Pop‘s “Emergency,” and most recently, “Cruel” by Snakehips and Zayn Malik – and he’s still writing for others (more on that later).

As a singer in his own right, he’s supplied us with a number of high quality Swede-esque, soul-pop solo tracks: From the glorious stuff of his debut Pieces – “Hurtful” and “Don’t Bring Flowers” – to We Dance standout “Stay” to 2014’s Somebody’s Party EP, the prequel to his latest full-length album Innocence Lost, available everywhere today (January 27).

The 12-track collection – including the previously released “No Words” and “If Your Man Only Knew,” Somebody”s Party EP cuts “Pathetic,” “Talk About It” (feat. Vic Mensa) and “Innocence Lost (feat. Tinashe),” as well as his Gorgon City cut from their debut Sirens, “FTPA” – is a impressively sophisticated set of intimate and emotional, moody (and sometimes devastating) pop gems, brimming with smooth-sailing grooves of thumping electro-R&B.

Below, Erik opens up to us about the meaning of Innocence Lost, the recording process, songwriting, and plans for the rest of 2017.

Jon ALi: Why give the album the title Innocence Lost? What does it mean to you?

Erik Hassle: The title is called ‘Innocence Lost‘ because the title felt like it represented the whole album in the best way. The songs on the album are stories of my encounter with Los Angeles when I first decided to move there and leave Sweden behind four years ago.

Jon ALi: There is a lot going on lyrically in this group of songs. Were the feelings on this project in hindsight or were they feelings that you went through over a long period of time?

Erik Hassle: When I started working on these songs, I did it together with a Swedish songwriter, artist and producer named Daniel Ledinsky who became one of my best friends. We were gonna work for a couple of days when I had just come to L.A. and decided to not put any thought in what we were writing about. Instead we just decided to write unconditionally. It was later, after a couple of weeks, that I realized that I had been writing about my own life and my own feelings. After that, I realized that I was gonna sing the songs myself. In the process though, I was not thinking about that at all — so there really wasn’t any plan before we started writing.

Jon ALi: How was the recording process and who else did you work with this time around?

Erik Hassle: I wrote most of the songs with Daniel. When we were new to the city we got in a room with a couple of amazing producers, so it’s like different producers on almost every song. Some of them were Dave Sitek, John Hill, Al Chucks, SOHN and Swedish producers Sikow and also Grizzly. It was a pretty mashed up recording process. It was my first time in the city and I tried to meet new people, so the album kinda turned out like a debut album in a way because it’s from different adventures from a new city.

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Jon ALi: What was the best part about making this album for you?

Erik Hassle: I went to L.A. with my crew from Sweden that I had been working with for years already. The best part of everything was to build a new kind of home and place in L.A. together with my friends and all the amazing people I got to meet during this process.

Jon ALi: Were there any songs you recorded that made you think, “I can’t release this” or “I can’t believe I’m releasing this”?

Erik Hassle: I didn’t really ever have a song that I wrote that I thought ‘oh my god, I cant believe that I am releasing this!’. But there have been a couple of songs that I’ve been a part of writing that have been unreal. One of the first one that I wrote that got picked up by another artist was a duet with Rihanna and Shakira, called “Can’t Remember To Forget You“. Daniel and I wrote the song at the same time as we wrote my new album and that was huge, I mean unreal. But we wrote a song called “Happy Idiot” that turned up as the first single for TV On The Radio‘s previous album and that was… yeah, I cant believe that til this day still.

Jon ALi: What unreleased song from Innocence Lost are you most excited for people to hear?

Erik Hassle: “Silver & Gold” because it’s my favorite. “No Words” has already been released but it’s also one of my favorites.

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Jon ALi: You collaborate more so than ever on this project? Tinashe, Vic Mensa and Gorgon City. How was it collaborating with them and is there anyone else you would’ve liked to have had on the album that didn’t make the cut?

Erik Hassle: I actually haven’t thought about anyone that I would have liked to collaborate with that didn’t make it on the new album. But I am really happy about the collaborations that are on there, they came along kind of differently. Tinashe and I are signed to the same record label, RCA, and we were both up-and-coming at the same time. We took a day in the studio to sing on eachother’s stuff basically and “Innocence Lost” was a song I had thought about being a duet. She liked it and made the song better than it was before and did it amazingly. Vic Mensa wasn’t through me, that collaboration happened while I was releasing my EP. My label was looking for different types of features and remixes to release together with a song. I’m still so grateful that Vic wanted to do a verse on “Talk About It“. We didn’t meet until afterwards, but “Talk About It” wouldn’t be the same without that verse. There is so much more to tell in the story than just what the song was before Vic Mensa featured on it. He really fulfilled the song in a way and took it to the next level.

Jon ALi: You’ve written a lot of songs, presumably, that were meant for you and ended up going to other people. Are there any songs you wished you kept for yourself? Are you still writing for others?

Erik Hassle: I don’t really have any songs that I wish that I kept for myself, but I can say that at the time “Can’t Remember To Forget You” was about to be released, I thought about doing the song myself.

Jon ALi: Are you still writing for others?

Erik Hassle: Yes, I am still writing for others and I’m trying to stay busy and write as much as possible. It’s a good break from your own world to get out of your head and just write for others. It’s actually something I really appreciate – to help somebody or be a part of creating a vision together with somebody else and collaborate. So it’s fun, really fun to write for other people.

Jon ALi: Do you want to still be doing this in five years? Do you have different ambitions?

Erik Hassle: I don’t know, I think so. But five years from now, I might develop into another genre of what I’m doing as far as being a writer/artist. Maybe sign other artists or something. But I feel like I wanna keep being a music person because I have been doing this my whole life, and I have so many relationships in this choice of a career. It feels like I’m a part of something and I wouldn’t wanna change that.

Jon ALi: What are you most looking forward to in the next year?

Erik Hassle: Unfortunately, there have been so many bad things happening in the world so you gotta stay really positive in these times and maybe spend your time getting excited about less important stuff. Like football for example in the next year, which is something I am very fond of. So what I’m looking forward to is that; maybe Manchester United could be in the Premier League next year. That would be a good thing. Maybe I wanna get a dog too, something to look forward to. And then finally, after a long time waiting to release this album, it’s a super nice feeling to have it out.

Jon ALi: Do you plan to tour with this album?

Erik Hassle: I haven’t got any tours or shows planned at the moment actually since I’m currently back in Sweden, but we’ll see what happens. I would love to tour.

Jon ALi: Will we be getting any more visuals from you for this album?

Erik Hassle: I am actually putting together a video as we speak for a single that I put out recently called “Missing You” that’s on the new album, so there will be a video for that one. And probably more visuals for forthcoming songs from the album. Hope you like them!

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Erik Hassle’s new album Innocence Lost is available on Spotify and Apple Music now!

from Jon ALi's Blog http://jonalisblog.com/2017/01/27/jon-ali-interview-erik-hassle-leaves-sweden-behind-on-innocence-lost-out-now/

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