DECORATED YOUTH
ISSUE 13
Ryn Weaver, Savana Ogburn, Roah Summit, Everyone Is Gay, Phases, Saamuel Richard, goodDYEyoung, Marian Hill, The Struts, WALK THE MOON, Shervin Lainez, JMR
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EDITOR’S NOTE As a photographer who doesn’t have the resources needed to learn and use film, I’ve found VSCO to be one of the most reliable tools in my collection of gear. Thus, I knew I wanted to represent them at some point. This company is constantly evolving without ever having compromised their morals. For instance, their app is strictly to create and share images and stories without the pressure of followers, likes, or favorites. In the age of viral sensations and rapid changing trends VSCO is unyielding. Aside from doing features on musicians and their music, we also pride ourselves on featuring their behind the scenes stories and companies. For this issue we got an incredible look into goodDYEyoung, Hayley Willams and Brian O”Connon’s new hair dye company. For another feature, Samantha Kirschberg interviewed co-founder of the company Everyone Is Gay, Kristin Russo. EIG as they say, “works to improve the lives of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning/Queer (LGBTQ) youth. As for the musicians in this issue; some of them have re-invented their music styles, some have only begun to hone in on their style, some have had life changing events that have helped them realize that music is indeed what they want, or need, to focus on. Whichever it is, they all put forth 110% in the process. The photographers in this issue all work primary in the music industry. Although their experience in this field may vary, their passion for music is what connects them all. -
Heather Hawke
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STAFF: Heather Hawke Founder | Editor & Writer | Layout & Design | Photographer
SITES: www.decoratedyouth.com Facebook: facebook.com/DecoratedYouth Twitter & Instagram: @decoratedyouth
EMAIL:
General Info@decoratedyouth.com Press heather@decoratedyouth.com
THANK YOU’S Nicole Busch, Paige Wilson, Cina Nguyen, Andrew Gomez, Pamela Ayala, Samantha Kirschberg, Cortney Armitage, Elisa Richardson, Greg Lutze, Joel Flory, goodDYEyoung PR, Hayley Williams, Brian O’Connor, Kristin Russo of Everyone Is Gay, Marian Hill, Roah Summit, the band Phases, Sherwin Lainez, Luke Spiller of The Struts, Savana Ogburn, Eli Maiman of WALK THE MOON, Anna Lee, Samuel Richard, Emily Hillgren, JMR, Republic Records, Ryn Weaver, Lola Grand, Sacks Co, Johnnyswim, Foals, The Allah Las, Scalla Jakso, Cardinox, Cage The Elephant, Press Here Publicity, Wet, HUNNY, Elohim, Drill Down Media, WATERS, Christian Stavros, The Drums, Ra Ra Riot, Charles Bradley, Troye Sivan, BBGun Press, The Struts, Daughter, MUNA, Liberal Arts co. and all the readers.
PHOTOS CREDITS VSCO - Provided by VSCO Johnnyswim - Cortney Armitage The Allah Las, Cage The Elephant, HUNNY - Ryn Weaver - Nicole Busch Wet - Pamela Ayala Elohim, WATERS, MUNA Heather Hawke The Drums - Andrew Gomez Cardinox, Marian Hill, Foals, Ra Ra Riot, Charles Bradley, Troye Sivan, DAUGHTER, Phases Cina Nguyen Roah Summit, The Struts (live), CHVRCHES - Paige Wilson Mayve - Rick Perez goodDYEyoung - Provided Everyone Is Gay - Corey Hayes, Barbara Green, Eric Ryan Anderson, other were provided Shervin Lainez- himself The Struts (press) - Brian Ziff and Chris Cuffaro Savana Ogburn – herself WALK THE MOON - Anna Lee Saamuel Richard – himself JMR - Provided by Republic Records
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Johnnyswim - 4 Foals - 6 The Allah Las - 8 Cardinox - 10 Cage The Elephant - 12 Wet - 14 HUNNY - 16 Elohim - 18 WATERS - 20 The Drums - 22 Ra Ra Riot - 24 Charles Bradley - 26 Troye Sivan - 28 The Struts - 30 DAUGHTER - 32 MUNA - 34 CHVRCHES - 36 ON THE ROAD: Mayve at the Move Music Festival - 38
48 - Everyone Is Gay 58 - Marian Hill 68 - Roah Summit 78 - Phases 86 - Shervin Lainez 94 - The Struts 102 - Savana Ogburn 110 - WALK THE MOON 118- Saamuel Richard 126 - JMR 132 - Ryn Weaver 144 - goodDYEyoung
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Cardinox // January 16 9:30 Club, Washington DC by Cina Nguyen
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The Drums // Feb 28 The Observatory, Santa Ana by Andrew Gomez
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Ra Ra Riot // March 6 9:30 Club Washington DC by Cina Nguyen
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Charles Bradley // March 18 Pandora Showcase SXSW Austin, TX by Cina Nguyen
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Troye Sivan // March 18 Pandora Showcase SXSW Austin, TX by Cina Nguyen
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Daughter // April 6 9:30 Club, Washington DC by Cina Nguyen
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MUNA // April 14 Grand Sierra Resort, Reno by Heather Hawke
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CHVRCHES // April 14 The Observatory, Santa Ana by Paige Wilson
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MAYVE
ON THE ROAD: MOVE MUSIC FESTIVAL
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“Hey guys, I gotta pee,” Mike Gusman yelled from the trunk of the Yukon, hoping the driver, Nick Micheline, would hear his cries. I had to pee, too. So did Ali Lucena. The three of us were squished in the trunk, while Kyle Murphy, Joseph Rene, Matt Emma, and Dan Bouza sat comfortably in actual seats. We were stuck in New York City traffic headed to Albany, already three hours behind schedule. There was no way we were stopping anytime soon. Thus began my trip with MAYVE. Before this trip, I had only met the guys from MAYVE once. I did an interview and shoot with them back in January which lasted about two hours. We must have clicked, because three months later they asked me to document t heir set a t the Move Music Festival in Albany. Squished in the back, with my bladder about to explode, was all part of the experience. I reveled in it. We finally arrived in Albany at approximately 6:50pm, with the band set to perform at 7:00pm. It was like a race getting everything together. If parking a Yukon with a trailer full of equipment wasn’t difficult enough, the trailer door decided to get stuck, adding a frazzled sense of urgency to the task. Tensions were high, and a few short snarky remarks were thrown left and right. Once on stage at The Hollow, any sign of tension was let go. MAYVE played their hearts out, channeling all that negative stress. These guys are brothers. Although a few of them may clash during intense situations, their bond is strong enough to not make anything personal. MAYVE is made up Nick Micheline, Mike Gusman, Joseph Rene, Kyle Murphy, and Matt Emma; five dudes rooted in Long Island. All of them have known each other for years, connecting over their shared influences and passion for music.
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In addition to myself and the band, a few others were included in the trip: MAYVE’s sound engineer, Dan Bouza, and Joseph’s sister, Ali Lucena. Dan knew literally everyone in Albany - his contacts gave us a place to crash for the night. Ali’s charm landed her with the task of crowd control; handling a few obsessed fans that came to see MAYVE. We each had a role to play, and together we took on Albany. The rest of the night was a semi blur, starting off in the green room, where we had free beer and half off food. We had gotten through the stressful part of the journey, and now it was time to eat, drink, and celebrate our first trip together. As a bystander, there were a few times I had to step out of the scene that I was witnessing. This type of thing was rare. I Still boggled my mind that I had only known these guys for two hours before this trip, and now here I was getting drunk with them in a basement in Albany. After romping around an empty parking garage, we ended up at The World Citizen Party House, a DIY venue and hostel of sorts for bands that are passing through. There were no shows going on that night, just mattresses, couches, and cushions for us to sleep on. The walls were littered with graffiti and vintage album covers, and the basement had a small stage and an American Flag with just 48 stars. My bed was my sleeping bag on top of 3 couch cushions. Extremely inebriated, I laid down on my makeshift bed, falling asleep to the jokes and jabs between the members of MAYVE. I would be back in New York City tomorrow, back to reality, back to observing other things. I love being an outsider. I get to see what the musicians don’t. Through the lens, I can experience their emotions on stage, share in the energy of the show, and more importantly, witness their intimate moments off stage. But it’s even more fun to be a part of those intimate moments, too. I enjoy getting drunk, sharing cigarettes, and talking about god knows what with the characters I am shooting. In turn, I can let others experience the inside world that most people don’t see. Thank you, MAYVE, for letting me be a part of your world. I’m looking forward to
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many more trips in the back of the Yukon.
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It’s always an honor to interview someone I really admire and Kristin Russo is no exception. In 2010, she co-founded Everyone Is Gay with Dannielle Owens-Reid. EIG as they say, “works to improve the lives of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning/Queer (LGBTQ) youth using a threepronged approach: providing honest advice to the youth while keeping them laughing; talking to students across the country in an effort to create caring, compassionate school environments; and working with parents of LGBTQ kids to help foster an ongoing dialogue and deeper understanding.” In 2013, Kristin and Dannielle founded The Parents Project, an amazing digital presence helping educate parents of LGBTQ youth and then in 2014 they decided to co-author This is a Book for Parents of Gay Kids– adding even more information to the topic. Kristin also hosts and co-produces a PBS/WNET video series called First Person. The show is all about gender identity, sexuality, and queer community and has featured some pretty awesome people and interesting topics. Kristin is someone who changes people’s lives for the better and helps them understand and accept who they are. It’s no easy feat. It’s a huge responsibility. One she didn’t know she’d be having, but she does it masterfully. Dannielle is moving on from EIG to pursue some other projects including her own clothing line, but I caught up with Kristin and we talked about Everyone Is Gay and what’s in store for 2016.
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Samantha: Since Dannielle has left, do you want to talk about the future of Everyone Is Gay? Kristin: Absolutely! Dannielle and I are very supportive of each other’s work, and the unspoken rule between us was always, “You have to do what makes you happy.” That freedom that we both gave to each other allowed us to really find our individual voices over the years, and I think has a lot to do with why we’ve both been able to work on new projects outside of Everyone Is Gay. It is also what allowed Everyone Is Gay to become more than just the two of us- it developed its own voice and its own presence. That all said, when Dannielle moved onto projects that meant a complete step away from Everyone Is Gay this past winter, I was equal parts proud of her and terrified that maybe I’d mess it all up in her absence. We were such a team. I knew that I wanted the advice to continue, and I also knew that there needed to be room for new, young, and incredibly important young voices on the site. So, my first step was to engage with several younger writers, and in the last few months we’ve posted advice from a high school senior, a YA author, a trans, Muslim woman, a case-worker at Planned Parenthood, and so many others. It has been incredible to see those new voices reach our audience! My next step was plunging myself back into YouTube. Having always had another person next to me, that step did take me the longest. I was so scared!! I didn’t know what that audience wanted or what it would be like to engage with them one-onone. I posted my first solo video and the response moved me to tears. People were, of course, sad to see Dannielle go, but they were endlessly thankful that the channel was being kept active, and they were full of so many (SO MANY!) questions. Now I’m trying to make two videos per week when I can!
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What kind of content will you be creating? I will still be writing advice and making videos. Right now the videos are advice-based, but I plan to add different elements there — personal videos, interviews, who knows! I listen to them. They have always told me what they want, and I’ve always done my best to hear them! Sounds like it’s going to be great. You’ve created so many platforms (Everyone Is Gay, The Parents Project, a book- This is a Book for Parents of Gay Kids, and First Person) to connect with peoplewhat’s it feel like? It’s unbelievable. I love explaining it to people who have no knowledge of the project at all. It’s always really exciting and amazing for me- for Dannielle and I both. When we started Everyone Is Gay, we did not have any intentions of starting something like this. We were just creating a funny space to be silly and maybe do little bit of good, but we didn’t know the need and we didn’t know what our voice and presence could do at that time at all. Very recently, I’ve been thinking about the fact that on any day, I can wake and go into my inbox and find a question that somebody asked me and answer it and have hundreds of thousands of people read what I’m saying, which is a brilliant, wonderful thing because I’m so glad I can say to people, “It’s okay. You don’t have to pick a word. You can be who you are. This is how you find the resources…etc.” But on the other side, it’s also an immense amount of responsibility. I just feel really honored and thankful to have it and to carry it and I think that I know I’m still accustomed to speaking for Dannielle, but both of us have grown so much and learned so much about the LGBTQIA community and how to navigate internet spaces and be receptive and not have your first instinct to be defensive if you misstep or if you don’t know something. I’m super thankful all the time to be able to help other people. I also feel like every step of the way, they have been teaching me and helping me. You know, half the time I write advice, I’m writing for the person who asked, but I’m also working through something myself, so it’s pretty awesome.
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I was reading one of your Tumblr answers and you said, “It’s a pretty brilliant and powerful thing, putting love into the world. It inevitably wraps up so many more people than we ever anticipate, and always comes back to hold us as well.” 1. I really love that and 2. I was thinking it’s so cool because you’re helping people, but they’re also helping you. I woke up that morning feeling super lost. As excited as I am to see what the next chapter is for Everyone Is Gay and to be in LA with my wife Jenny [Owen Youngs] and to see Dannielle spreading her wings on new projects, it’s a big, big time of change. I woke up that morning feeling so lost. Am I doing the right thing? Am I doing this properly? There’s no road map for it. There’s no place that I could look to see what I should do next. On Everyone Is Gay, I get thousands of inboxes- questions and comments, but I don’t get that many in my personal Tumblr inbox. So when I woke up that morning, there was one there that said all the things I needed to get through that day. It was like a sign. That’s happened to us so many times within the last 6 years, where we get discouraged or we feel a little lost and one of our readers/audience members sort of says, “Look at what you helped me do. Keep going.” And we’re like, “Alright!” Must be the best feeling. You inspire so many people through all your work, who inspires you? You know who I’ve been talking a lot about lately? Amanda Palmer. Especially in the last year or so, I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from her on so many levels. I think the way that she presents herself, her life, and her work in the internet space is really incredible. And she’s really open with who she is and how she is. Whenever I’m feeling insecure or like maybe I shouldn’t say this thing or if I say it this way, does it make me sound old? (which is this new thing I have...that’s like this little demon in the corner), I think about her and her honesty in her work. And I also think about the loyalty and intensity with which she connects with her readers and her fans. I find her to be a really powerful example of courageousness and honestly in the face of what could be a tricky place to be courageous and honest.
The internet is this space where anyone can see what you’re doing and anyone can judge and scrutinize what you’re doing. I think that it can be really scary and that fear for a lot of us makes us get quiet and stop speaking up because we don’t want to get in trouble...we don’t want to misspeak. And she doesn’t stop talking. She keeps speaking. She keeps saying what she believes in a way that matters to her and a way that matters to her readers. She doesn’t take any shit and I think that’s really important. It’s been really important to me to stay strong and keep speaking my truth. I’m also surrounded by so many incredible people that work with Everyone Is Gay. We have so many more contributors than we’ve ever had. I work with a couple of interns- one of which has been with me for over a year now. And those people keep me inspired and keep me going too. How did you guys come up with the idea to create the safe space stickers? We’ve had those stickers for so long. I don’t even remember exactly. We had the EIG Tumblr in 2010 and later that year was when we saw all that mass media coverage about the suicides that were related to LGBTQ bullying, which wasn’t anything new, but what was new was that the media was covering it and showing people it was happening. At that time, we reached out to our readers and said, “We’re already having these conversations. What else can we do?” And in the fall of 2011, we went on our first tour of college and high school campuses because almost unanimously they said, “This is what else you could do…you could come to our schools and talk to the students here.” So I imagine the safe space stickers were created around the same time as thateither the first tour or being informed by being on those campuses. The sticker is pretty reflective of our general tone, which is light-hearted even in giving a message that has a lot of gravity. Also reflective of our Photoshop skills that are nonexistent…. especially in 2011. I’ve gotten better.
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It’s so cool because it’s a small thing that can create such a big impact. It is. We sell them on our website, but whenever I go to a high school or middle school (I’ve been doing more middle schools lately), I bring enough of those stickers to give to the whole school. I think part of the reason safe space stickers in general are so important is it’s like two-fold 1. Obviously, they’re important because they’re like a little beacon of saying that you’re a person that people can talk to. 2. It also starts conversation. “Why do you have that sticker?” Then you have a chance to say, “Well, I believe in equality and want people to know that they can tell me who they are dating or how they identify and that can be a safe conversation.” So yeah, they’re really powerful things. And going back to me learning so much through this process. I really didn’t understand the value of something like the safe space sticker before I worked with Everyone Is Gay. So true. I watched so many of your Everyone Is Gay videos and your lipsynching is so spot-on and hilarious- how much do you guys practice? You know, it varies. Typically, we don’t practice that much at all. There are a couple of songs that I remember we had to practice. When we did Fifth Harmony’s “Boss”, we did it in front of the White House because we happened to be in D.C. and there’s a lyric about Michelle Obama, so we were like, “This. Is. Great! We’ll go over to the White House and we’ll do it.” We pulled the car over in a parking lot before we got to the White House because A. We don’t know how many takes we’re going to get to do and B. there are so many words in that song. When you see us and we’re seated, we’re usually playing a lyrics video or whatever. We’re really good at cheating and looking at the lyrics and you can’t tell. Looking like we’re looking down at the side sadly, but really we’re looking at the words. But for something like “Boss” or another lip-sync where we don’t have the lyrics and we might only get one shot, then we practice. Even a song like that, I think we only sat there for like 25 minutes just deciding like who was going to do the high parts and everything. But yeah, we love it. I think it’s our favorite thing. Last year, I think we reached our dreams with lip-syncing. We went to A-Camp, which is an annually camp put on by Autostraddle and 300 people go up to the top of a mountain and there’s this super queer week. There are all these workshops and it’s a really beautiful thing. Dannielle and I got to teach a lip-syncing class. Speaking of “Boss”, that was the song we chose. We had 30 or 40 young people, who we separated. We had a horn section. It was pretty epic. I don’t think it’ll get much better than that. We had a lot of fun up there.
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That’s amazing. What 3 songs or artists are you really feeling right now? Okay, this is great because I recently took a road trip with Jenny and our friends. There’s this artist named Rayland Baxter and he has this song called, “Yellow Eyes” and I love it. We listened to it on repeat. If you are driving across the country, it is totally your jam. Get into it super hard. I go in and out of music and I feel like I have stuff I go back to a lot. Jenny and I have been listening to a lot of Kate Bush lately. I’m super into Kate Bush because of Jenny. My whole relationship with music felt like a recharge by getting together with her. I was super into music when I was in high school and then after high school, I sort of lost touch with a lot of it. I love music, but when her and I started dating, I kind of remembered how amazing it was to be into artists. So Rayland Baxter, Kate. Who else have I been jamming to lately? Sia’s most recent album. I’ve been playing it on repeat for months. I love it so much. I love every song off of it. And also I’m really really feeling Justin Bieber’s new album. We listened to “Sorry” in probably every state in America. There are a lot of fun songs on that album. Sweet! Anything else you want to tell our readers? I’ve been doing a lot more work with Autostraddle and I’m going to be co-directing A-Camp this year, so that’s a super exciting thing. I’m going to be way more involved with the programming and stuff. I’m really happy to be working with them more. Also, I’m going to be collaborating with them on a project that will be officially announced in the fall, but just to tease it a little bit- I’m going to be working with them on building out more Autostraddle type research for teens specifically. So that’s something that’s in the works. That’s going to be one of my big focuses in 2016. I’m working with more young writers on Everyone Is Gay with the intention of them building a bigger presence. Everyone Is Gay will be around forever and always, but I think that the Autostraddle space is really amazing because they have some really powerful essays and they keep people up on really important topics. They have been seeing a lot of requests because they’re target demographic is like 20’s and above and they get a lot of requests from people in high school and just out high school who are like, “hey, do you have anything for teens?” So I’ve been talking to Riese, the co-founder, about how we can work together to make that happen. It’s still in its early stages, but it something to look for next fall. Oh, and I want to tell everyone to have the best 2016 of all time! Perfect! It was awesome talking to you. Awesome talking to you too! Enjoy the rest of your day!
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During college, they pursed separate musical paths but wrote together on school breaks and spent hours perfecting the lyrics and melodies. The last of those sessions led to writing and recording their song ‘Whisky”. Proceeding that, Jeremy emailed the song to sixty blogs and within a 2 week time span the track had climbed to the top of the Hype Machine chart. With the buzz surrounding them, the labels began calling and in early 2015 they signed with Photo Finish / Republic Records. They’ve since released their debut EP, Sway (Feb 2015), and are now prepping their debut LP.
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GROWING UP
MUSIC EDUCATION
My parents met in an opera class in New York City and I grew up hearing them singing and playing piano in the house - apparently when I was around 4 years old I asked if I could learn the violin and I was singing before I can remember. I was really lucky - I like came into consciousness knowing that music was a super important thing. - Jeremy
I started piano soon after violin and was always singing in choirs, and went on to take music composition and musical theater songwriting courses in college. So I have a pretty thorough conventional music education - but I’ve also been messing around on my own with DAWs since early high school (self-produced an embarrassing debut album that lived a brief life on iTunes) and a lot of my education in music production has been practice, guess-and-check, producer interviews, and YouTube tutorials. - Jeremy
I'm lucky in that my parents actually encouraged my brother and me to pursue nontraditional careers. They very much pushed us to follow our passions, whether that was music or something else entirely. My parents are not musical but they're definitely music lovers. My dad introduced me to Sheryl Crow, The Goo Goo Dolls, The Who, KD Lang and Norah Jones. They would drive me to all of my auditions and rehearsals and lessons. They’ve driven and waited countless hours with me- I owe them a lot! (And my brother of course for tolerating my incessant singing). – Sammy
WHERE THEY GREW UP AND HOW IT IMPACTED THEIR CREATIVITY I think life experience is the greatest fuel for creativity. Even if you don't write your own songs, if you're signing a love song and have had your heart broken, you're probably going to sing the song a little bit differently than if you hadn’t. I had great friends and wonderful family growing up in the burbs, but it wasn't until I moved out and into NYC that I really started to create meaningful and resonant material. And to be honest, I feel that I'm just hitting a stride now. When I was starting out I was a little too safe with my melodic choices and lyrical content, and now I write with less restrictions and more abandon. – Sammy
I grew up singing in talent shows, choirs, and musicals. I also took piano, voice and guitar lessons. – Sammy
THE FIRST TIME THEY FELT INSPIRED BY MUSIC I bet the first time might have been when I finally stopped sounding like squeaky hell on the violin, but I was 6 years old so I don’t quite remember that...the first time I heard Ben Folds Five, I bought the Whatever & Ever Amen album, and I remember that being the first moment when I felt the urge to sit down and write something myself. - Jeremy When I heard Whitney Houston's ‘I Will Always Love You’. I must have been only 5 or 6, but I remember sitting in the backseat of my family's car in California and it came on the radio. I was transfixed by that beginning a cappella- the melody and her voice. – Sammy
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GETTING INTO THE MUSIC SCENE I’ve been incredibly lucky to be essentially doing music full-time since I graduated college a little over two years ago. (Shout-out to the freelance composing/producing gig I had for a year making Korean children’s book songs). Nothing makes me feel as fulfilled as music does - it’s as simple as that, it’s what I love. - Jeremy I started focusing on music full time as soon as I graduated from college in 2012. I considered dropping out of school, but I’d always been a safe planner and I didn’t exactly have a plan at the time which freaked me out, so I graduated. I held a few internships and was actually offered a full time job in music publishing, but turned it down to focus on writing. I guess I just never seriously considered a career in anything else. – Sammy
ART- EXPOSE, PROTECT OR HEAL THEM? Wow getting deep up in here. Art is far too complex to only do any one of those things...for me art is about connection and understanding - sharing a feeling so specific and personal that only music can convey it. - Jeremy All three. The Sway EP hasn’t much exposed me, but the album contains some more vulnerable material for Jeremy and myself. – Sammy
AHA MOMENT Last November we got our first significant iTunes check and took our parents out to dinner. It sounds simple but it was a pretty surreal night and the moment we knew this was going to be real. – Jeremy
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I don't think my whole life has changed yet. I’m still very much the same person- it's not like I get recognized walking down the street! Success is fleeting, and we still have so much work to do. That being said however- several months ago someone created a fake twitter profile impersonating my own that had been active for months- that was definitely weird. And being whisked away to a villa in Spain last year for a private party was surreal. – Sammy
GETTING INSPIRED WHILE OUT AND ABOUT – VOICE MEMOS & NOTES
This happens to me ALL THE TIME. I can guarantee there are at least a few songs on our album that started as voice memos on the beach or in the shower but can’t place any specifically - recently I got up in the middle of yoga class to whisper a melody and beatbox into my phone in the bathroom. - Jeremy
That has definitely happened. I don't believe those lyrics have ever ended up in a Marian Hill song, because we do so much of the writing in the moment and together (although Jeremy says they have??!) But I absolutely have lyrics on napkins and miscellaneous pieces of paper, voice memos and notes on my phone to be used at a later date. – Sammy
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WRITING PROCESS – COLLECTIVE EFFORT VS INDIVIDUAL
Both. Writing for Marian Hill is usually very intentional. Outside of MH, I'll have days where I will myself to sit at the piano to come up with something, because maybe I haven't in a few weeks. It took me months after a particular breakup to write anything worthwhile about that relationship. Then sometimes I’ll be on a roll and write to a few tracks in a short period of time. So it just depends. – Sammy
LYRICS –WHERE, TIMPERIOD & PHYSICALLY, THEY WERE THOUGHT UP
WRITING, SOMETHING THEY ENJOY?
We’ve settled into a pretty good rhythm now. I handle production/chords/etc. and Sam and I cowrite melody and lyrics - often I’ll have a rudimental beat for us to start with but we’ve also been starting a lot from scratch in the studio recently...and then we sing melodies back and forth to each other and fight about lyrics and record as we go! - Jeremy
The lyrics come from the music, first and foremost. My mindset is always to sit and listen to the musical idea we’re working with, the fragment of a beat or melody, and think what does this need to be about? Once we find that feeling, which can be general or specific or anything in between - the idea of the song starts to take shape, and then we write the clearest expression of that idea. The specifics often come from our personal lives, but in a broad sense - there are songs that have been inspired by taking on a friend’s perspective, there are songs that ended up kind of being about someone on my life but then also in another section someone in Sam’s life...but we’re never thinking about if a song is true to our life as a metric of quality - it’s always about just realizing the idea of the song to the fullest potential. - Jeremy Jeremy said that very eloquently. Past relationships, (we're both currently single) the relationships of others and the feeling of being 25, were all fodder for the album. – Sammy
I love writing. It might be my favorite thing in the world to do. If I haven’t written something I love in a 2 week span I get depressed. No joke. It’s a funny life. - Jeremy Not always. Sometimes it can be really tedious and frustrating. Sometimes you're quite prolific and finish the first verse in 5 minutes, and then you get to the chorus and you're like goddamnit what the fuck rhymes with ocean that makes sense with what I’m trying to say, and you're stuck for an hour because you HAVE to have ocean and there’s no substitute. – Sammy
A SHIFT IN THE WRITING PROCESS I think I've gotten "better" in the sense that I’ve become more discerning of quality, and have become less afraid to take melodic risks. I used to try and write like everyone else which of course is the kiss of death aka mediocrity. – Sammy
LYRICS – INTENTIONALLY SITTING DOWN TO WRITE VS HAVING IDEAS IN YOUR HEAD AND THEN THEY COMES SPILLING OUT
It’s always both, and I think it’s gotta be. You’re wandering around with ideas swimming in your head and some of them you write down and accumulate, but we also always set out big chunks of time to just sit and write and work. – Jeremy
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FAVORITE PART OF THE ALBUM CREATION PROCESS The best part is always when Sam and I fall in love with a song and start jumping around and dancing and playing it over and over again. That’s what it’s all about. – Jeremy
THEIR ARTWORK – CONTRIBUTE IDEAS OR REMAIN HANDS OFF
The Sway artwork was done by Zach Bell who’s been a friend of mine since college and is a super dope dude. We spent a lot of time having in depth conversations about what we wanted the cover to look like and then went back and forth with several revisions after he did the shoot. - Jeremy
THEIR ARTWORK – AESTHETICALLY COOL PACKAGE VS COVERSATION BETWEEN LYRICS AND ART
I always say the art should look like we sound. It’s a hard mark to hit but I think it’s worth it. We want people to feel immersed in the world of Marian Hill so every element should come back to the same idea, the same feel. – Jeremy I think ideally it should be both. If someone has never heard your music before, the cover offers the first small glimpse into your aesthetic and your sound. – Sammy
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MENTORS Two of my music teachers I considered mentors at various moments in time. They were very constructive in their feedback, whether it was tough love or encouragement. I found though that ultimately you have to listen to yourself, and trust your own limitations and vision. – Sammy
WHO/ WHAT CHANGED THE MUSIC INDUSTRY I can’t pretend to know a ton about the history of the industry but I think Kanye’s had the biggest impact on music in my lifetime. You look at where hip hop music was before College Dropout -- you look at where pop music was before 808s and Heartbreak -- you listen to anything cutting edge today and there’s almost always a little Yeezus in it...I could go on and on about this but let’s just say there’s no Drake without Kanye and leave it there. Jeremy I’ll be boring and industry and say computers. I mean if you're looking for a more recent revelation than I'd say streaming services. But ultimately, computers. This is old news by now and I have nothing particularly revelatory to add, other than the fact that I’m really encouraged by the current state of music and excited for the future. – Sammy
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Paige: I want to start from the beginning. What was your childhood like? Was creativity a part of your childhood? Jake: My dad is an art teacher, so I grew up in a home where he was painting and stuff all the time so I kind of like started drawing and stuff at a young age, and then I started playing music in middle school. I started doing piano. My dad did a trade, actually, he did a painting for someone and then they had this really old piano and they just did a trade so we ended up with a piano in the house... I just sat down and taught myself how to play piano on that thing.
Paige: How does where you grew up / where you live impact your creativity? Jake: We live in a very interesting part of the world where we are very privileged. Our hardest moments as a kid are probably like a breeze to a lot of other parts of the world. Not to say they weren’t real struggles, but for us we had a lot of opportunities growing up in South Orange County… I think we were just privileged and so like, for us, I feel like we don’t have an iconic part of the world where you can tell that it’s that style of music. Like on the east coast there’s very iconic sounds that come out of certain cities.
Paige: What was your (formally or not formally) music education like growing up? Max: Skate videos… Not kidding. Jay: I grew up playing percussion in like elementary school when I came to America. I played snare drum and I was in percussion and symphonic winds in junior high and high school drumline. I guess it was a very strict, educational mind frame. Like, this is the music that you read, and this is what you play. Jake: I did trumpet. Kevin: Me too. Max: I was in saxophone but I got kicked out. Kevin: I did first-chair trumpet, and now I’m here. Jake: I did first-chair trumpet too! Fifth and sixth grade and then I gave that up. Max: I got kicked out of violin too.
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Paige: When was the first time you felt super inspired by music? Jake: The Killers. Jay: It was the first thing my dad played when we came to America… He played Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters and the song was called “Chameleon” and it was like the funkiest… So, I heard it and I was like “I want to do this. I want to sound like this!” Drew: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. That was the first time I heard something and realized that I wanted to make something.
Paige: How did the band come together? Would you say it was an organic union, or were you all looking to start a band? Jake: It was actually like, all first try. We never really cycled through any band members. So, I guess you could say it came together very easily… Except for Kevin, I think I specifically asked Kevin if he wanted to be in the band. Kevin: I said yes.
Paige: Inspiration for music can come at any place or time and it’s often when you least expected it that you come up with something. Has there been a specific time when you were out and about and unable to write down lyrics / sing into your voice recorder on phone and you didn’t want to forget what you had in mind? Did it ever end up making it into a studio recording? Jake: There’s probably like, the best song ever written out there that I just had to let go because I was like I don’t have anything to write it down. *sarcastically* Literally the best song, ever written… No, I can feel that for sure. Actually, my voice memos are really embarrassing. I don’t let anyone listen to them… They’re all like me in the car with a random idea. You know what the worst is? Because I work at a coffee shop part time, and a lot of times it’s when I’m over there and I’m trapped, I can’t do anything.
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Paige: Where do the lyrics come from? Where were you at physically, mentally when you wrote them? Was there an event or a specific timeframe where a large chunk of the lyricism came out? Jake: A lot of them were here. One of them was up in Drew’s cabin up in Big Bear. Actually, that was the last song that we wrote for the album. There was one song that was missing and we had four songs that we really liked and a couple others that were just doodles… Listening to the EP all the way through, felt like there was a song missing, and it was the opening song. So we went intentionally to write an opening song and I think it’s all of our favorite’s song. Drew: It felt really good because we went up to do something, and we did it.
Paige: Are you ever intentional when you sit down to write? Is there ever a “I’m going to write a song now” moment or is it more ephemeral, like you’ve been kicking something around in your head for days, weeks, months, and then suddenly it comes spilling out? Jake: I’ve been doing that more. I don’t think we’re a band that can sit down and try to write a song. I don’t think it’ll work… You just can’t have too many cooks.
Paige: What was your favorite part about the writing / EP creation process? Jake: I think being in the studio is our favorite… Being in the studio and then playing a packed show in a decent venue. That’s the best feeling in the world.
Paige: When and how did the EP title -----"GIANT" come about in the album creation process? Kevin: Giant came from a conversation Jake and I were having where we were just looking at a generational thing... basically like the idea that in your next step in life, going out into the workforce or going to college, or whatever is coming next has to be something big and impressive and important, and that there is a pressure on people that we know in our lives and that we even felt too… Giant came along in a couple of ways because we were starting to look into metaphors and I found that old Disney Paul Bunyan short film cartoon and that actually ended up being the name of one of the songs and we were just kind of tossing around that idea for a long time and we just coined the term like “to be a giant” like with that mentality of feeling that pressure and anxiety. The album– I feel– because of that title is self-aware of its own concept.
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Paige: With your artwork, how did you interact with the artist/designer? Did you contribute ideas or remain hands-off? Was there a revision process? Jake: A friend named Calvin. Kevin: It’s actually a sculpture. Max: Calvin was cruising the internet and found this really cool sculpture that’s at some museum in Europe and he just screen-grabbed a photo of the sculpture and zoomed in on it. It had a really cool quote on it about how you don’t know if it’s reaching up or pulling down or grasping or letting go, and it’s just really cool. The colors were all set on having the album be symbolic with the color gold, so Calvin did his magic and made it all gold and cool.
Paige: How important is it to you for the art that accompanies your music to represent the sound and the lyrics? Do you aim for a conversation between the two, or are you more interested in an aesthetically cool package? Jake: Yeah, I think it ties in very well… A lot of what Giant is as an EP is kind of all about identity and who you are as a person, or in our case, who we are as artists… A lot of times, it can be kind of confusing. One second you think you’re reaching up, then you’re realizing you’ve been pulling down… I think that’s the exact meaning of the sculpture. I think a lot of it is about finding identity… Kevin: It’s kind of like a philosophical thing, there’s no right answer, is the answer, and that’s what that sculpture is, it’s just frozen.
Paige: Have you had any mentors along the way? Jake: Yeah, [producer] Jon O’Brien has taught us a lot. Even about being a band. I think he has taken us in as friends and a project that he believes in, and wants to see us succeed. I know he has taught me a lot about training my ear and opening up my eyes to different things I didn’t know. Even just us being a band, he’s taught us a lot about what that means and how cutting corners doesn’t get you anywhere, there’s things that are respectable as a band and there’s things that might be a temporary success; he has put emphasis on the difference of the two. Scott Ruth, too.
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Interview with Z Berg
Felling displaced for the first time in a city she’s always been in love with, Z Berg announced she was moving to Nashville to pursue a folk music career and change of scenery. The only way she would stay is if she got a sign that there was a reason to. The fellow bandmates continued on without her, wanting to reanimate what had felt like a creative dead end. They started writing material with a fresh, lightened tone and in turn they began to feel reinvigorated. These new upbeat tunes made their way to Z Berg, who after falling in love with the material took it as a sign to stay in the city and in the band. The band nominated Alex Greenwald to produce, and together they wrote and took full advantage of practicing in his house with three-story ceilings to make big and weird sounding constructions. Creating music became fun again. When the songs were finished they took them to Mike Elizondo (esteemed A&R man and producer), who was instantly sold and signed the band to Warner Bros. Records, and booked them in his studio to record an album and co-produce. What came of the time spend in the studio is their debut LP under the new moniker Phases titled ‘For Life’.
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GROWING UP
I've been playing music basically my entire life. I started playing piano at five, guitar at thirteen (the delay caused by my stubborn refusal to cut my nails, my greatest weapon), writing songs at thirteen, started my first band The Like at fifteen… And meanwhile I've pretty much been singing since I could talk. My voice was raspy and breathy even as a tiny child. I wrote and read voraciously, did theater for much of my childhood.
WHERE SHE GREW UP AND HOW IT IMPACTED HER CREATIVITY To be born and raised in a city like Los Angeles certainly has an effect, I think. LA is a funny place to come from. It took me many years of touring to realize just how singular its attributes are. It's a city built almost solely on dreams and imagination (and the carrion of both).
MUSIC EDUCATION
Education is really the right word for it… When I was young my dad would make my siblings and I mixes called, "Why the Beatles are The Beatles," "Why The Stones are The Stones," "Why Dylan is Dylan," "Why Bowie is Bowie," etc. I grew up with a very solid sixties base, and what's more I was just utterly enamored with that world. I remember listening to the Supremes in my room for hours and hours. That kind of education has been a theme in my life I suppose; My first boyfriend also made me these incredible mixes when I was sixteen years old, leading me to artists like My Bloody Valentine, Suicide, J&MC, The Sundays, Delta5, The Birthday Party, Brian Eno, Nick Cave, Linda Perhacs, Television, Slowdive, just an unending litany of diverse and brilliant artists, and with my own ravenous appetite for discovery I just immersed myself in everyone's discography.
GETTING INSPIRED WHILE OUT AND ABOUT – VOICE MEMOS & NOTES
Before the iPhone's very convenient recording possibilities, I used to call my voicemail on other people's phones and leave myself messages of lyrical and melodic ideas. Many The Like songs probably started that way.
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WRITING PROCESS – COLLECTIVE EFFORT VS INDIVIDUAL
The writing process in Phases is wildly collaborative. Everyone writes and plays and sings and comes armed with an arsenal of ideas so each song is really just an experiment in different combinations. Someone will bring in part of a song or a track or a lyric and one or some of us will help finish it or we'll all write in the room together or I'll write over a track they worked on without me, etc. There are so many possible ways to write when you have four people with boundless creativity and very little ego.
LYRICS –WHERE, TIMPERIOD & PHYSICALLY, THEY WERE THOUGHT UP
Lyrics are, at least for me, but probably for all of us, a way of processing life and the world around us. I'm a bit of an internalizer and I don't like talking about feelings (think of me as a classic Sit-Com Boyfriend) so any time I start writing what comes out is often a clue to what has been bothering me. And from there you have this lovely luxury of analyzing and rewriting your own history until you either like or understand it better.
WRITING, SOMETHING SHE ENJOYS?
Sometimes it's arduous and painful, other times it's totally joyous. Depends on the song. Much of this record was a joy to write BECAUSE it was so collaborative. That kind of totally free creativity and lack of total responsibility to finish something on your own can turn the writing process into something really fun.
WHEN / HOW THE ALBUM TITLE ‘FOR LIFE’ CAME ABOUT
We saw it written on the side of a truck when we were all walking together in the valley late at night talking about what the hell to name our record. Seemed like a sign.
THEIR ARTWORK – AESTHETICALLY COOL PACKAGE VS COVERSATION BETWEEN LYRICS AND ART
I always intend for the aesthetic to match the artwork. It is all conversation, both in real life and in print. I like my personal aesthetic in life to match my art and my perspective no matter what. From the 80's Mercedes I drive that we name check in Betty Blue, to my unending parade of vintage clothes and antiques, I like unique pieces that represent the way I wish the world to look and be (which is rarely what it really is). But you create your own reality, and that's much of what making a record is. You make up your own world out of thin air.
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Shervin says he never really had much of a plan aside from only wanting to photograph musicians. Stating that it became a bit of an obsession to narrow his work into something so specific, but he wanted his identity to be that of a music photographer. He is known for capturing musicians’ personalities through colors and angles, postures and spacing. He’s worked with artists from different backgrounds and genres (Regina Spektor, Amanda Palmer, Conor Oberst, Tegan and Sara, and Chromeo, to name a few). When he worked with Regina Spektor, he says he was given a really rare opportunity to do the entire album cycle from start to finish–all the promo photos, website, album packaging, and posters. From doing that job he says he learned a lot about collaborating and how musicians think. Aside from being immersed in photography, he also traveled with Jukebox the Ghost for most of 2009 doing management work.
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THE BEGINNING – CHILDHOOD AND CREATIVITY I grew up around of a lot of MTV and music imagery - I wasn’t a particularly creative child but always was drawn to music.
WHERE HE GREW UP / WHERE HE LIVES IMPACTING CREATIVITY I grew up in a suburb of Washington DC which was a really safe place to be - almost too safe. I had no real drive or reason to push myself creatively. I have lived in Brooklyn, New York for the last six years and it is the polar opposite of my childhood. NYC forces you to deal with the best and worst of humanity. It’s unavoidable here and that forces a creative person to make choices without too much thought.
ART – EXPOSE, PROTECT OR HEAL?
It protects me. It creates a barrier between me and my insecurities.
CONFIDENCE AND HUMILITY I think any kind of artist has some sense of 'what I’m doing is good... I should share this' so on some deep level I think most of us think what we are doing is worthy of attention. In many ways I think art, specifically photography only lives when others see it - so it’s my responsibility to believe in my work so it can be seen.
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VISION OF PHOTOGRAPHY EVOLVED It hasn’t changed at all - I’ve always wanted to photograph musicians and that is all I ever envision myself doing.
PHOTOS TAKEN SPONTANEOUSLY OR HAVE A VISION Usually the band/singer tells me the vibe they are going for - they send examples or they send music... or just a general idea and I try to deliver my version of that initial vision.
BIGGEST HURDLE & OVERCOMING IT
My biggest hurdle is myself - I think any creative person will tell you that. It’s a hustle and can sometimes be overwhelming...but setting up a shoot is usually doable if you have the right help. I try to overcome stress by asking myself what is actually stressful... it is usually less than you think.
SCOUTING FOR LOCATIONS I almost always shoot in a studio space - if the weather is nice I will find a wall or building that is hopefully not recognizable - something with solid colors.
MOMENT HE RELEAZIED THIS WAS THE PERFECT JOB FOR HIM About three years ago when I realized I am truly not qualified for any other job than what I’m doing.
PERFECT STORM OF PHOTOGRAPHY SCENARIOS (one artist/band, one venue/ studio/ location, gear, one city)
Two hours with Bjork in New York City in a large white room... just the two of us alone.
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Interview with Luke Spiller
The founding members of the Struts, Adam and Luke were introduced by their mutual manager after the dissolution of their previous bands and they had an instant creative chemistry and began to collaborate on creating fun, happy rock songs with big choruses. The other two members, Jed and Gethin, came along later and the four moved into a house together in Derby and soon found themselves a name. Their band name was suggested one day while in rehearsals when someone saw Luke strutting around as they were playing, and made the suggestion that they call themselves The Struts. The band has build up a major following, largely due to their exhilarating live show, and have sold out shows all across Europe and North America. Aside from landing a gig with the Rolling Stones at the Stade de France in 2014, the band also performed at the Isle of Wight Festival that year. Which during the latter, Luke wore a shimmering-blue cape custom-made for him by Zandra Rhodes (the designer who formerly created costumes for Queen’s Freddie Mercury and Brian May). More recently, Ray Brown (an Australian designer who’s also dreamed up outfits for AC/DC, Ozzy Osbourne, and Lady Gaga) came up with costumes for their run of tour dates with Mötley Crüe last December. Their EP Have You Heard (August 2015) featuring their single “Could Have Been Me” was made in collaboration with the likes of Gregg Alexander (a producer/songwriter and former frontman of the New Radicals) and they’ve followed it up with a their debut LP Everybody Wants, released March 4, 2016. Their goal and mission of the band is to bring back that feeling of fun and rock & roll. They truly believe that music, when it’s done right, can help people escape the present moment, and send you somewhere else entirely.
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GROWING UP
THE FIRST TIME HE FELT INSPIRED BY MUSIC
My childhood was great. We did a lot of traveling as a family from America to places like Australia so it was colorful. My parents would never really let the grass grow under their feet for very long so I was moved around quite a lot. Creatively, this made me re-invent myself quite a lot of times. It also helped me to make friends quickly. I wanted to be a dancer, I loved drama, music and enjoyed drawing a lot. I had an obsession with dinosaurs and I would make my own books about them. I remember I wrote a story about a boy who finds a dinosaur egg at the bottom of his garden. Talk about fantasy.
Wow. I've always seen it as two occasions. The first being when I first saw Michaels Jackson’s smooth criminal video. That changed my life. The second being when I started smoking weed I also found Queen. I would go for a walk and sit on a bench around the corner of my house and have a cheeky smoke. I'd then sneak back into my bedroom, lie on my bed and listen to Queen vinyl back to back with these great big headphones on. I'm not saying that's how you should listen to music. But that's what did it for me.
WHERE HE GREW UP AND IF IT IMPACTED HIS CREATIVITY
I fell into it really. I've only ever been in two bands. The Struts and my school band. When I was about 15/16 years old I made a definitive decision that I was going to be a rock star. I went by the name of Ace Phoenix for quite a while! I've been gigging for well over ten years and that's all I ever wanted to do.
Very much so. I feel very lucky to have grown up in the Bristol area in England. Some of the best times of my life were spent in that city. It's a great place to grow up as it's full of color and is a very arty place to be. Whenever I need a lyric or think about a song, it's always taking place there. I went to a brilliantly British school there. It's now a creative arts school. I was taught by a fantastic drama teacher who taught me everything I know today. I would sing in the school jazz band and would spend hours in the rehearsal studios rehearsing for performances or jamming with my band. We had so much fun. On the whole that place really shaped me to be who I am today.
GETTING ITO THE MUSIC SCENE
THE START OF WRITING MUSIC Yes it took me a very long time to independently write something. I was more of a lyric man come top liner. The first real song I wrote was Where Did She Go when I was 16 .A song that I still sing on stage today. Now I can't be happier sat at the piano writing. And I'm also getting paid to do that! But yes it's something I had to slowly learn along the way.
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AHA MOMENT
WRITING, SOMETHING HE ENJOYS?
When I was a very young boy (about 8 years old) I was cast as the Pharoah in Joseph And His Technicolor Dream Coat for my school play. I gave it my all in my solo number I had and all I really remember was the cheer. This crazy lady ran up to me and said "a star is born!" After that it got me thinking.
Yes of course I enjoy it. There are times I have been pushed to hard or I've just not stopped for like a week and my brain is so fried. Then I have to do something else to enjoy the process again. Lyrics are never really finished. You just have to know when to put them down.
BAND FORMATION Adam and I were two guys who wanted to do music. The other guys came along later. It wasn't organic in the way a lot of other groups are built but I don't care. It's good to be different.
WRITING PROCESS – COLLECTIVE EFFORT VS INDIVIDUAL
It's me and Adam in a studio coming up with ideas. Either things we have in mind or just doing something there and then. The other guys come in later when it needs some finishing touches. And that gives it the real sound.
LYRICS –WHERE, TIMPERIOD & PHYSICALLY, THEY WERE THOUGHT UP
Sometimes it's personal. Other times it's pure fantasy. Yeah for me it's always my late teenage years that inspire events. Or I write for my character that I am on stage. He's always good to sing about.
LYRICS – INTENTIONALLY SITTING DOWN TO WRITE VS HAVING IDEAS IN YOUR HEAD AND THEN THEY COMES SPILLING OUT
I'm a bit of a tap, I can turn it on whenever I feel like it. However the quality of what I create is not as easy. Ideas and concepts float around sometimes for quite a while. I've got something huge floating around my head now but it's a secret. I've had that Idea for over three years. Can't wait to show the world.
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FAVORITE PART OF THE ALBUM CREATION PROCESS Being in the Studio is my heaven, that's the most fun you have. It took well over three years to write and has been finished for over four now.
THEIR ARTWORK – CONTRIBUTE IDEAS OR REMAIN HANDS OFF
It’s just a picture of yours truly. No fancy artists or anything. Yeah I did contribute but it needed to be done quickly so I didn't have the time to get creative about it.
THEIR ARTWORK – AESTHETICALLY COOL PACKAGE VS COVERSATION BETWEEN LYRICS AND ART
I don't think it's that Important to have the two go hand in hand. Whatever image you see when listening to the songs, that's the accompanying element. Simple.
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She currently shoots photos for Rookie Mag and Highlight Magazine and on April 11 she even started her own music website called Sonic Blume Zine.
I love being surrounded by nature while also being just 30 minutes outside of the city. The ability to see seasons change is endlessly inspiring to me-seeing flowers start to perk up in spring is really exciting to me right now. I just want to roll around in the grass and take pictures!
PATH TO BECOMING A PHOTOGRAPHER
As her mom’s very into event planning and does amazing decorating jobs for parties, school dances, et cetera, she’s always been a creative influence in her life. Her dad who also has an interest in art, used to doodle characters for her to copy (specifically remembering one of a square-shaped pirate that she spent months copying onto every surface in her sights).
WHERE SHE GREW UP / WHERE SHE LIVES IMPACTING CREATIVITY
I've lived in the suburbs just outside of Atlanta for almost my entire life. I really do love the weather in Georgia (as finicky as it can be)-- - our transition seasons can be pretty long making for ideal outdoor shooting weather! We also have tons of vegetation- there are trees, and thus lots of forests that are perfect for photos, everywhere.
My initial exposure to photography was in middle school. I started browsing Flickr and was absolutely mesmerized by the conceptual photography community- I loved artists like David Talley, Rachel Baran, Lissy Laricchia, and David Uzochukwu. I picked up my mom's DSLR and starting shooting as much as I could; I'd take photos of light posts, flowers, pets- basically everything beginners shoot. It didn't take long before I realized that I prefer to shoot people. This was around the same time that I started going to small shows in Atlanta, so naturally I took my camera in and shot as much as possible. This sparked a huge fascination with live music photography as well-- I took my camera to every show I went to and shot obsessively (and sometimes even sacrificed enjoying the show for good pictures).
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HER ART – EXPOSE, PROTECT, HEAL?
I lean towards protect. Through art, I'm able to create idealized worlds for myself (and my models!) to exist in-- I think that this can act as a shield against the barriers and harsh realities we can face IRL (for me, these barriers can stem from irritation about inequalities and social justice issues, stress, busy schedules, et cetera). I tend to use art as an escape from reality and I definitely see that as a form of protection for me.
SONIC BLUME ZINE
The idea for Sonic Blume spawned a couple of months ago when I realized that I needed an outlet to be experimental with my music photography. In looking for a publication that this would be possible with, I realized that so many music sites can feel so sterile and unwelcoming, especially to someone who may not have a place in the industry quite yet. I wanted to create a space where young music fans could congregate to talk about music and art without the pressure to be perfect or technically well-trained. I think so many music sites have become so focused on appearing professional and credible that they forget why they started the site in the first place-- to be a fan.
WORKING WITH ROOKIE MAGAZINE
It's pretty crazy, actually. Tavi (the editor-in-chief of Rookie) found me through Instagram early last year and reached out to me about being a regular contributor to the site. I obviously said yes and the rest is history! I've had the opportunity to meet so many amazing people through Rookie that inspire me daily and I'm incredibly grateful for all of the opportunities working for the site has given me. I'm very proud (and humbled!) to have my work represented on Rookie alongside so many other talented, young women and gender nonconforming babes-- I think that the work they're doing right now is incredible, inspiring, and absolutely necessary.
CAPTIVATED AUDIENCE- FEELING PRESSURE & STAYING INSPIRED
I actually do struggle with this a lot. I try to post pretty consistently not just to stay *relevant*, but because I genuinely love to get my followers' feedback-- I've met tons of incredibly kind and creative people through Instagram (where my following is largest), so I like to put as much of my work into that world as I can. As far as staying inspired goes, I consume as much art as possible on a daily basis-- whether that be listening to music, reading, looking through a photo book, or even just scrolling through my Instagram feed, I try to take in as much as I can.季
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TAKING A LOT OF FRAMES VS TAKING A FEW FRAMES
It really depends on what I'm shooting! For live music, I take a loooot of frames to make sure that I get all of the shots that I need to accurately represent the band's performance-- this is probably my least favorite thing about shooting live music because it can become really overwhelming (and time consuming) to choose 10 images out of a pool of at least 300. When I'm shooting portraits it can really go either way depending on my medium. If I'm shooting film, I'll be very picky about when I actually hit the shutter as it costs money to develop + scan the images, and I want them to be the absolute best that they can be. When I shoot digitally, I'm a little bit more free with the number of images I take but also try to keep in mind the time frame that I have to turn the images around (more pictures = more editing = more time spent in front of my computer!). When I'm shooting editorial-type images (for sites like Rookie), I always make a shot list, which for me is just a sheet of printer paper with sketches of the shots I need to take. Having these helps me so much with my workflow and also keeps me on track during the shoot; I can't recommend them enough.
PHOTOS TAKEN SPONTANEOUSLY OR HAVE A VISION
I generally tackle shoots with a vision in mind. If I didn't, I would be an absolute mess and would never have usable photos! When I'm planning a shoot, I generally make a moodboard with images that inspire me, gather a group of models to choose from, and sketch sketch sketch! A good bit of planning goes into my shoots, especially when I'm doing them for a site like Rookie, where I know that I need to end up with at least 10 or so solid images. I occasionally have bursts of inspiration where I absolutely have to make something-- these generally result in self portraits, as I really hate to call on models at the last minute.
MAKING THE MOST OF A MOMENT
I did a shoot with Glass Animals, a killer band from England, last year for Highlight Magazine. I was super nervous as I had only shot promos once before (and 2 year’s prior at that), and only had my camera (no speedlight, reflector, assistant, etc). The band was super nice and posed for about 20 minutes so I could get the shots that I needed. I felt okay about the images until I got home and started editing-- I realized that they were pretty dark and shadow-y (shoutout to backstage venue lighting!) and just...not good. Long story short, the photos didn't end up getting used, and I was pretty bummed out about it. About a year later, right after I had really gotten into collaging my photos, I revisited them, determined to turn them into something I was proud of. I ended up painting this pattern, which was sort of psychedelic and amoeba-like, totally inspired by the band's music, and digitally collaging it behind the band members. I'm still pretty happy with the final product and relieved that I could turn a not-so-great experience into an image I can stand behind.
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BIGGEST HURDLE & OVERCOMING IT
A lot of the time, it's set design. I have these grand ideas about how like, I should cover my entire garage in candles and greenery! or My model should be wearing a dress made entirely out of 100+ silk flowers! I sort of have to rein it in, do a couple sketches, and work out the logistics of whatever I'm trying to do. For my "Royals" series for Rookie, I made five different sets (all in my garage!) with the help of my mom. Each set took on average about three hours to create (not including planning and sourcing props), and about the same to disassemble. They were pretty labor intensive (covering the entire floor in silk flowers, pinestraw, sand, etc). The actual shoots took no longer than about 45 minutes each and were mad easy because of all the planning I had done in advance. The whole shoot was a labor of love and I'm so obsessed with the way the images came out.
SCOUTING FOR LOCATIONS
Figuring out the vibe of the shoot is the first priority for me. Again, this can happen while moodboarding, from a theme email from Tavi at Rookie, or just an idea. I used to shoot almost exclusively in natural light, so most of my shoots would take place in public parks or nature trails, but lately I've been more into artificial lighting and have made use of a small portrait studio set up in my garage and even used the neon + streetlights in strip malls and parking lots along with a prism in front of my lens to scatter the light.
MOMENT SHE RELAIZED THIS IS HER PERFECT JOB
Every time I do a shoot where I surprise myself, I'm reaffirmed that photography is my thing. I love the adrenaline rush right as I click the shutter to get the photo that I had sketched onto my shot list, or the anticipation of planning a big shoot. I can't think of a particular moment where I had an "aha moment"-- it's really just something that I've realized over time. I can't imagine doing anything besides making art.
PERFECT STORM OF PHOTOGRAPHY SCENARIOS (one artist/band, one venue/ studio/ location, gear, one city)
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Ooh I love this question! I would love to shoot photos of Florence Welch in my home studio (aka my garage) with my Mamiya RB67. The Mamiya is a medium format film camera and is my newest addition to my camera-family (despite it being manufactured in the 70s); I love the way that it really makes me think before I take a shot. It weighs about 6 pounds and it costs a small fortune to get the film developed, which really forces me to think about composition and lighting before I hit the shutter. Using it basically guarantees that I'll shoot better and more efficiently than if I were shooting digitally. As far as my choice of musician, Florence is an absolute dream; her music has influenced my work immeasurably and I'd love to bring her into my art world in the way that she's brought me into hers so many times. It would be like a cycle of inspiration.
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Interview with Eli Maiman
They independently released their 2010 debut album, I Want! I Want!, and signed on with Brooklyn-based boutique management company Mick Management. Shortly after, they began to work on their follow-up LP with producer/mixer/songwriter Ben Allen at Atlanta, Georgia's Doppler Studios. The result was their sophomore LP entitled WALK THE MOON that was released in June of 2012 via RCA Records followed up by an EP, Tightrope, in January of 2013. After graduating from their local Ohio club scene, they hit the late night TV circuit with performances on Letterman, Fallon, Conan, and Carson and became an international force to be reckoned with. They performed for massive crowds at Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza, and joined bands such as; fun., Pink, Panic! At The Disco, and Fitz and the Tantrums on the road in the US, UK, and Europe. When they finished their nearly three years of touring for their first album they found themselves in unfamiliar territory. They had time, six weeks in fact, to set everything aside and focus strictly on writing. They spent many 14 hour days for weeks on end writing an entire album from scratch, a first for the band, in a repurposed Masonic Lodge in Dayton, KY. This kind of opportunity was a first for them, they, just the four of them, were able to live and work in a really creative space with no distractions from the outside world. After six weeks of writing, the band took their material down to North Hollywood, where they entered the studio with producer Tim Pagnotta (Neon Trees, Tokyo Police Club) and spent over two months recording. What came out of it is their third album TALKING IS HARD that was released in November 2014 via RCA Records followed by an EP, Different Colors, released in December 2015. A newly recorded second live album, You Are Not Alone (Live at the Greek), is slated to be released this spring. Their first live album was released in September of 2012 that covered their iTunes Festival London performance.
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THE BEGINNING – WANTING TO BE A MUSICIAN
All of us are lifelong students of music. We all went to college for music in one way or another. I think that’s part of what drew us together. The only real reason to become a musician is out of a love for the art. Anything else is going to get you twisted up. I think that love is alive in all of us.
GROWING UP We’re very proud to be from Cincinnati, Ohio. It was an amazing place to grow up. Although it may not seem like it at first glance, Cincinnati is kind of central to a lot of things. You can easily drive to Chicago, Nashville, New York, and there’s always a lot of great music stopping through. Creativity was a big part of my childhood. I remember painting pictures and using them as primitive board games when I was really young. That definitely helped open me up to being creative as an adult.
ART- EXPOSE, PROTECT OR HEAL THEM? It does all those things at different times. WALK THE MOON is very much about empowerment. At the end of a record or a show, we want people to feel like they can do anything. A lot of TALKING IS HARD, our new record, is about accepting our (and each other’s) limitations and shortcomings, and moving on and loving one another anyway. It’s about rising above those challenges.
THE START OF WRITING MUSIC
For me, writing music is just the expression that’s always made the most sense. There’s something about a specific collection of sounds that can connect to our memories and our feelings in a way words and images often can’t. It’s hard to explain, but easy to experience.
AHA MOMENT We’ve been lucky that we haven’t really been an overnight success. We’ve been road warriors for the past five years, typically doing 300 days a year on tour. So the changes have been slow and steady. We did have a magical evening recently, though, when we headlined, and sold out, a show at Red Rocks. Looking out at 10,000 people singing along to every song, even the deep cuts, was definitely a special moment for all of us.
WRITING PROCESS – COLLECTIVE EFFORT VS INDIVIDUAL
Songs can come from anywhere. We’ve had songs start from something goofy someone says casually in conversation. It could be a totally individual piece or totally collaborative. It changes song to song. Calling it a “process” is really not accurate. It’s more like writing chaos.
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LYRICS –WHERE, TIMPERIOD & PHYSICALLY, THEY WERE THOUGHT UP
The lyrics from TALKING IS HARD came together over the course of several years. While we didn’t want to totally depart from what we had done before, we definitely wanted to take the opportunity to say something that was meaningful to us. We wanted to talk about climate change, and diversity, and LGBTQ issues and equality, which is where songs like “Up 2 U” and “Different Colors” came from.
LYRICS – INTENTIONALLY SITTING DOWN TO WRITE VS HAVING IDEAS IN YOUR HEAD AND THEN THEY COMES SPILLING OUT
Like I said, it’s always different. Obviously, waiting for an incredible moment of inspiration is the ideal. But sometimes you’ve got to sit at an instrument and make your own magic. You’ve got to be at the plate if you want to hit a home run.
WRITING - SOMETHING THEY ENJOY? Definitely. Sometimes it’s a struggle - you have to fight for it - but those are often the most satisfying writing experiences.
A SHIFT IN THE WITING PROCESS
The writing process has become slightly more focused. You have your entire life to write your first record. With the second one, you have to create on a little bit of a timeline. For us, that meant renting a Masonic Lodge and writing together fourteen hours a day, six days a week, for six weeks.
FAVORITE PART OF THE ALBUM CREATION PROCESS
Working with our producer, Tim Pagnotta, was a real joy. He knew how to keep the process positive and moving forward, which elevated our ability to be creative in the studio.
WHEN AND HOW THE ALBUM TITLED TALKING IS HARD CAME ABOUT
TALKING IS HARD came to us about halfway through the recording process. The phrase just kind of spoke to us, both in regards to the process of making the record, and the overall message of acceptance and empowerment.
THEIR ARTWORK – CONTRIBUTE IDEAS OR REMAIN HANDS OFF
We actually had an entirely different cover planned. It was a little more Pink Floyd. After seeing the photos, though, we got really excited about just having the four of us on the cover, no band name, album title on our tshirts.
THEIR ARTWORK – AESTHETICALLY COOL PACKAGE VS COVERSATION BETWEEN LYRICS AND ART
The visual is really important to us. The bands we love and feel inspired by always had a strong connection between their music and their visual aesthetic. We want everything to be an extension of the music and the message.
TOUR PHOTOGRAPHER- ANNA LEE
Having a tour photographer now is different than it’s ever been before, because it can be so dynamic. We can post a well taken show pic moments after the show has concluded. And fans expect to see new content all the time. Having someone on tour makes sure that we can provide people with the best stuff we can.
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“Music has always been a big part of my life,” Saam says. Since his father plays guitar for the family’s church, he grew up playing and being surrounded by music. His dad got him his first drum kit when he was eight and when photography came into the picture he state’s “it’s always been a dream of mine to incorporate both crafts” and being able to do that now is a “dream come true.” About six years ago his older sister handed him a camera to assist her on a wedding shoot and because it felt “so natural and exciting” the idea of photographing for a living, he says, became intoxicating. “I haven’t turned back since.” After naturally getting involved with shooting weddings he has begun to transition into fashion and music. Since musician Zella Day is the “best of both of those worlds,” the ability to travel alongside her as her tour photographer for the better part of a year he says has “been the bridge to what I have been working for.” Having the ability to capture personality and moments has made taking portrait shots come very natural to him. Mentioning a key factor in making his portraits look so natural is that he really enjoys building relationships with the people he works with. “Guards are lowered when you feel like you are working with a friend.” He states that a lot of his images are inspired by the light he’s faced with, most of which is either “good soft window light or harsh sunny California light.” He also says that although locations can be tricky to work with at times, when you have good light the images “seem to find their way.”
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Living in the digital age, he says he always feels a little exposed (in the best way) when he releases his work into the public, but states his art also protects him because it allows him to live under the roof he’s in and heals him in ways which “tickle creative nerves.” Instead of feeling the pressure of having a captivated social media audience, he feels the feedback he’s been receiving has inspired him to shoot and post more often. Saying that he’s constantly seeking inspiration, “whether that is in personal interactions with people, or going out of my element to experience something new and different.” He finds most of his inspiration in people and who they are. “My main goal when photographing someone is to showcase who that person really is.” As he believes change is a very healthy thing that happens no matter what, he likes to think that his eye for photography is constantly changing and he strives to make changes that happen for the best. Along the lines of changing, he states that it’s very important to allow yourself to be mentored and take in as much information from people that are farther along in their careers and willing to help and teach. “I have built relationships with these mentors, and am still to this day working very closely with them.” As for his dream location to shoot? He says Red Rocks in Colorado. The band? He states it would be one of his longtime-favorites and his go-to, driving-around music: Dr. Dog. “I would say shooting Dr. Dog at the Red Rocks theater on all film would probably be my ‘holy shit’ moment.”
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THE BEGINNING - WHERE HE GREW UP AND HOW IT IMPACTED HIS CREATIVITY I grew up in Lakeland Florida. I was one of 8 children, went to a private school in town and the majority of my life was dedicated to the dream of playing basketball for the Florida Gators. That is until I started getting into music when I was 14. There aren't really any musicians or singers in my family. I remember picking out melodies to songs I knew on this old upright piano that was mostly used as another shelf/table in our living room. My mother would ask who taught me what I was playing on piano and my older brother would tell me the songs I was playing on guitar couldn't be ones I wrote but ones I heard before. I got better and started playing at our church and school and had probably started 56 bands by the time I was in college. Anything from a funny hip hop band that played shows in my best friend’s moms living room (she made snacks) to hardcore bands to folk bands to my solo stuff.
FORMAL / NOT FORMAL MUSIC EDUCATION I took guitar lessons once in high school... I wanted to learn some theory but I quit after 2 lessons because hearing my neighbor come home from work and play Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Clapton on his porch was teaching me way more. The window behind my bed was often opened while doing homework in the afternoon so I could hear him better. I remember my friends all being into punk and rock music but my next door neighbor’s dad's music taste was beginning to steer me on a different path.
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THE FIRST TIME HE FELT INSPIRED BY MUSIC Music is just something I've always naturally done. While mowing lawns for summers in college I was listening to new music... every family vacation I had headphones on the majority of the time... I guess I can say I gravitate towards either unique or good singers. Hearing Ray Lamontagne sing with such a control or hearing soaring falsettos on Sigur Ros records growing up I've always been inspired by voices. I don't think I have ever had that moment where I decided to be a musician, it feels like it’s always something I've done but maybe now its absorbed my need for a job at the pizza joint in town. I'm just doing a lot more of it lately.
THE START OF WRITING MUSIC I was 13 years old and this girl I liked was into the same bands I liked like Lovedrug, Copeland, Anberlin... I remember us talking about how deep the lyrics would sound to us and how she liked that. SO I wrote her a song about how the way her and I see colors could be totally different. It worked and we dated. Worst song ever.
MUSIC – SOMETHING HE’S ALWAYS HAD TO DO, OR SOMETHING HE DISCOVERED ALONG THE WAY
At times I need music to help me forget about what’s on my mind and at other times I need it to speak directly to those thoughts. Writing music is the most healing and consoling thing. I need it for the good times and bad.
BIGGEST HARDSHIP THAT’S INSPIRED HIS WRITING I lost my mother to cancer when I was 18. That was a welcome to the real world moment. Music was probably the only thing that didn't change in those few years after her death. It was my only constant.
CERTAIN SET OF RULES HE FELT HE NEEDED TO BE MAINTED / DISCARDED FOR THIS EP? I think the rule “I can't do this because people will think this..." is garbage. If I wrote something and it came from me and it was honest wondering what people think is a waste of time.
INSPIRATION WHEN OUT AND ABOUT – CELL PHONE MEMOS
Over the years I have developed ways to make sure I never forget a melody that I'm writing. In better words, my battery to my phone hasn't died in a time of need in forever and if it does I grab a friend’s phone and send a voice message to myself of the melody. iPhones changed the songwriting game for sure.
ALBUM TITLE – ‘RITUAL’ I moved from Florida to Tennessee while writing this EP. At first we lived pretty outside any major city or attractions. It felt like I had developed this unique routine for months of waking up making coffee and working on my computer then hanging with my roommates at night time who were also musicians. Music was my whole life with no distractions for the first time so I guess this EP was a result of this new ritual. The word ritual has some spiritual / religious connotations to it and music in my life has my devotion in similar way.
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LYRICS –WHERE, TIMPERIOD & PHYSICALLY, THEY WERE THOUGHT UP
I remember writing a song about June Carter Cash, then a song about Scarlett Johansson then flat out deciding I was going to write an entire album about different inspiring women now or in history. I would read about them online and try and apply stories from their personal lives to their song. Some of this kind of imaginative writing made its way to Ritual. It opened up doors to where I felt like I could write a song about anything at all.
LYRICS – INTENTIONALLY SITTING DOWN TO WRITE VS HAVING IDEAS IN YOUR HEAD AND THEN THEY COMES SPILLING OUT
If I have an idea for a song, I try to not let too many days go by before fleshing it out in a session. Sometimes I'll record / produce the whole song then months later it becomes something even better / more complete. I think I'm always trying to capture what I'm feeling and sometimes life does have those super inspiring days / weeks where you can't put the pen down or leave the computer.
WRITING, SOMETHING HE ENJOYS? I've never understood when musicians say "I hate writing lyrics..." I love lyrics, I just hate cheesy lyrics. It’s hard to not sound cheesy or even just crazy when writing about love though.
FAVORITE PART OF THE ALBUM CREATION PROCESS Exploring sounds and feeling the sense of no rules. Everyone I worked with was very open minded. Trying things and having fun, not following a formula.
ARTWORK – CONTRIBUTE IDEAS OR REMAIN HANDS OFF Jordan Butcher is an amazing freelance artist out of Seattle. We just went back and forth until we had something we felt like was "it." He painted over a photo taken by my friend Rob Crosby.
ARTWORK – AESTHETICALLY COOL PACKAGE VS COVERSATION BETWEEN LYRICS AND ART
I like art that presents more questions than answers I guess. I want the emotion to align as well.
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N RY R E AV
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After two years in NYC she returned back home to Southern California and spent the proceeding couple of year’s couch surfing between friends, family and at a few points, found herself living in her car. In March of 2013, by happen stance, her friend was playing around with her own Tinder account when producer Benny Blanco’s profile came across. Ryn had previously met Benny when she was in NYC, but had lost touch. After her friend messaged him, he invited the girls to his birthday party in L.A. the next night. Ryn came to the party prepared and ready to show off her Soundcloud account (that contained music she had produced herself). After the night, although she didn’t beguile Blanco himself, she had successfully wedged herself into his inner circle. A few weeks later one of his close friends told Benny he was going to start managing her and it was then that Benny became aware of Ryn’s talent and jumped on board. Benny then decided to start Friends Keep Secrets as a subsidiary of Interscope Records, and signed Ryn to the fresh imprint. The producer who started guiding Ryn with her first project, also began to pull some of his famous pals in to help. Michael Angelakos, of Passion Pit, and Benny had been meeting up the previous year, in New York, to collaborate on new music and when Benny showed him some of Ryn’s demos he was impressed enough to assist. Without thinking about any long lead major label rollouts the team, which also included Charli XCX, Jesse Ware, and Cashmere Cat, helped Ryn in creating her first single ‘Octahate’, which was released in June 2014, and her debut EP Promises, released that August.
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The quick rise in the Octahate’s popularity, brought on a deadline and a rushed released music video, which she ending up pulling only a few weeks after the release. For the original version of the video she only had a week to find a director and the original stylist she wanted wasn't available so they were forced to go with an alternative option. Since she wasn’t expecting the track to gain as much traction as it did, they wanted to strike while the iron was hot, but that led to things being done haphazardly. She says that because she was overly ambitious with the idea they had to compensate on a lot of the art direction. She wanted it to look really high end, high fashion and since they only had one day, it ended up feeling more costumey. The ideas were there, she says, but they were executed at 20 percent. In the end, since the video wasn't executed the way she wanted it done, and since it didn’t feel like it aesthetically fit into the world she wanted to create, she decided to speak up about it rather than halfheartedly support it. For her debut LP (The Fool released in June 2015) she thought it was very important that the message represented her in individuality and finding her freedom through leaving a bad relationship. She focused on the story of being a modern woman, which she says, the closer we come to actual equality, is pretty much the same as being a modern man. She touched on the topics such as the fear of commitment, and wanting to be free instead of submissive topics like 'I'm going to wait for you, I'll do anything you want' and 'please stay with me'. In a sense, she focused on her “coming of age’ story for her debut to have her listeners come along with her on a journey and be able to track her growth and movement through a discography and not just the accessibility of a pop song in the clickbait generation.
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Ryn Weaver: How are you doing?
Yeah, I loved it.
Decorated Youth: I'm great. How are you?
I know, I just watched it last night, and I was like, this stuff really happened. All of a sudden I was thinking, it's just a matter of time before we have a giant earthquake in California. All I could think about (my brother lives in San Francisco, which is so fun, because when I was up there too, we got all these extra passes, and he got to be the cool brother) but I was just thinking about, if something happened in San Francisco, what would happen to Taylor? It's so weird, having siblings.
I'm fantastic. I'm pulling over. I haven't done an interview in a hot minute. It's so weird, because I feel like this job simultaneously, it's like a paradox. It creates this total ability, I guess, to communicate on this level that we never have, but then because of the excess communication, and then I guess, kind of the pullback of it all, like when you take some time off, it also develops a weird social anxiety, I kind of become 2 people. There's also the writing process, I think you get, more in your head, versus everything else. No, yeah, that's totally fine. I saw you at Outside Lands last year, and I just wanted to say how great of a show you put on. Oh my god, thank you. One of my ear pieces fell off during that. I remember, afterwards, I came off stage and I was like, "How did I sound?!" I was pissed off, but it felt like a good show. Yeah, it was awesome. San Francisco is one of my favorite cities, so I had to go to that festival. I love it. I stayed up last night. Did you ever see San Andreas, that movie?
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Oh I know, it's so weird. I feel like, there's such a maternal thing involved. When my little brothers, if I saw something happen to them, or I feel like they're going down the wrong path, I start to understand why my mom is the crazy bitch that she is. By the way, I smoke cigarettes so I have no right to talk, but I saw my little brother smoking one, and I was like, "How fucking dare you? Do you know what it's doing to your lungs?" And then I'm like, I should take my own advice. Anyways, sorry, I'm ADD, how are you?
I'm good, good. So I want to go back to the beginning. What was your childhood like? Was creativity a big part of your childhood? My childhood, I was a very lucky kid. I grew up in a beautiful neighborhood. I lived on a cliff, I mean, we lived in condos, so it was a gated community, we had way too many people in the house. We were poor, my dad was trying to start a business, and my mom had a bunch of kids. We were lucky enough to live in San Diego, and live in this gated community, right on this cliff above the beach. The ocean and nature, on this weird level, I feel like has always been so important. My reference points are on the same level that a lot of kids reference points are, for example, old television, I'm there, I'm like, "Yeah, I love that show!" but I can't quote it, because I wasn't allowed to watch a lot of TV. My parents made us play in the neighborhood. Climb trees, and play imagination games, so that's kind of like how I lived. I'm from a very weird family, my little brother would make up stories, I'd make up plays, I'd make up bands, I had so many bands as a kid. I would write 1 song for them, it would be me and my friends, and I'm like "This is our band." But then we would start a new one. I guess that was my youth, and the funny thing is, I got 2 sides of the thing. I have 2 very different educations in music. My mom was the head cheerleader, and my dad was the quarterback, from different schools. If you know anything about cheerleaders at that time, they were goody two-shoes. Then football players, they were more wild. My dad was doing Quaaludes, he was a crazy mother fucker. Then my mom was like, "Oh, oh my goodness." My mom was like pop radio, she loves the Carpenters, she loved all the super white bread shit.
That was my mother, but because of that I was raised on a lot of that white bread shit though, is like classic rock, which is awesome. I learned a lot about, through her, all that old, well she loved Motown too, and she loved, oh God, like jazz, like standards, she was very clean-cut, so I learned about a lot that. My dad loved rock and roll, David Bowie, weird shit, Lou Reed, all that, kind of more arty side of it, I guess. He loved Pink Floyd, he showed me all sorts of artists, so I got a really broad music education, and then I also found Napster, you find that as a kid and then you could listen to anything you want. I think I was lucky enough to grow up having, the way all of us millennials do, everything at our fingertips. I know that you're a true artist at heart, you do photography, you act, you paint, which one did you start out doing? Do you remember, or was it everything at once? I think everything was at once, in a sense that, I drew because I wanted to draw. I would make up plays, because I wanted to be in a play, I wanted to be famous. At that age, I had a little beauty mark above my lip, and my whole family, they would always call me Marilyn, like my grandpa, and all the people. Like, "Come here Marilyn." I put on this oversexualized thing as a kid, and always pretended to be this famous actress that was my air, or my essence. I was always making music. None of it really came first. I think when you're a creative kid, things just kind of come, you know what I mean. It was definitely hard, I guess, choosing one, and I don't think I have fully chosen one yet, because I would love to be involved in all of the arts, eventually. I want a career that's full and beautiful, and not one color.
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Do you remember a specific moment in your life, whether it's a song, a show, or a music video or something, that convinced you that you wanted to be doing music? If there was a time you were just super inspired by music. Yeah, there's different versions of that. When I was a little kid, I would have said it was Britney Spears, because I thought she was glamourous and I went to her show and I thought she was amazing. As I got a little older, I think it would have been Fiona Apple. Hearing someone that was such a talented lyricist, that was able to say everything I wanted to say, but in a cooler way. I think a lot of artists have the same feeling. Also, my first round of festivals, I remember when I was younger, I went to Coachella. I think a lot of artists will tell you this, it's so inspiring, and you're loving the experience, but that first experience that turns you on to being an artist, most of the time is you saying, "Well fuck, I can do that. I can do that." It's not competitiveness, you're in the throes of this inspiration, and you're like, "Why aren't I doing this? I love it." It always comes in this oddly, I wouldn't say competitive, but the need to be up there too, so it's happened a million times. I get that. When you decided to move to New York it was because of school, but you also wanted to form a band? Yeah, I wanted to be in New York City, I applied to schools for all sorts of things, I did art, I did music, I did theater. I got into NYU, and got a pretty decent scholarship to theater, and I was like, I'll just be there, and I'll start a band, because you want to be in a big city, and if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. The indie scene, at the time, was really cool in New York City. A lot of my favorite bands were out of Brooklyn, so I was like, "That's awesome, that's what I want to do."
That's why I moved up there. I actually, from the minute I got there, was trying to network. I was going out and meeting people, and being like, "I make music. I make music," and I made a lot of friends through that. I ended up meeting my exboyfriend through that, who was also a musician. Then I got so busy with school, and it was very hard to balance both switches, ultimately why I dropped out. I realized acting was like my wife, it was the thing I had in my life forever, and it was beautiful and I loved it, but then music was like my mistress. It was this thing, that I was like “ahh, but I need you, I need you,� so I realized that was the most important thing to me. That's awesome. What was it like going from San Diego to New York with the music scene? I can only imagine how different they are. Well there's no real music scene in San Diego, but there's a lot of really cool kids that are making music, there's just not really like a scene. New York, in general, is so much culture. People would be surprised, San Diego, in theory, is this beautiful, progressive, wonderful place, but it's actually pretty conservative. There's not a lot of art, there's not a lot of culture, to say the least, lots of white people. I remember when I went to New York, I was learning every single day, meeting new people, understanding different cultures, I was like, I only want to live like this. I only want to be surrounded by people that can constantly be teaching me. Since I moved to New York, I have a higher standard of the people I surround myself with. I require the people I'm around to be, us to be, constantly teaching each other. I love being around people that are constantly challenging me, and I'm challenging them.
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Yeah, that does make sense. I know that you found Passion's Pit's music when you were in high school, and you were in a dark mindset, what was it like working with Michael Angelakos? I think my mindset is default dark, and I think a lot of musicians are that way, because the amount of pleasure you get from hearing other people's sadness is just too much. You're like, “this is everything to me.” I discovered Passion Pit, he's bipolar, and I read up a lot on him. I have some pretty serious depression issues, and I really connected to the music. It’s serendipitous, it's just crazy that it worked out the way it did, and that I ended up working with him. He's a bad ass. He is, he's passionate about everything he talks about, it's insane, you'd be in a room with him, and he would light it up usually. “Well have you heard this record? It's interesting you say that, because it's just like this record”, and he just goes off, and you're like, “whoa.” What is it like, last year, learning to be your own boss, and running a business and everything? To be honest, I don't think I've perfected it yet. I think I hit a lot of worst-case scenarios things can happen, do happen, and you have to learn how to handle them. I'm still learning. I'm such a perfectionist, and when things like that happen, I shut down, I like, have a heart attack, I’m so sad. I'm like, "This got fucked up, and I owned it, and my band is ruined." I'm still learning to be able to balance the business side and not shut down. I feel like I can get lost in my sadness on that level. Truthfully though, I have grown so much as a boss, I just think I have a lot of growth left to do. It's a tough game, being your own boss, and being a creative, and I have management that has worked very hard for me, but there were some issues with that as well.
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When people aren't communicating, and I'm the boss, and I take the fall, it's a very interesting, sad dynamic for a creative, but I'm still learning, and hoping to become a better boss with this next record cycle. You’re currently writing right now, aren't you? For your next album. Uh huh (affirmative). How far into the writing process are you? That's a hard question, because I don't know. I want to be challenging myself, and keep writing, and writing, and writing until I'm like, "This is the record," so I can't tell you yet. No, that's fine. I heard that when you go for walks, it helps you think about music, and lyrics and stuff. Has there ever been a specific time, when you were out and about, and unable to write down lyrics, or use your voice recorder to, when you have lyrics in your head, or melodies? Oh yeah, all the time. I'll be at a party, or I'll be hanging out with people, in an intimate setting, and something will come into my head, and I'll be like, "I'll be right back." Then I have to go on a walk and record it. Walking is so important for me. When I'm in a creative head space, I'm constantly pacing, which is obnoxious for everyone around me. Pacing, walking, I don't know what it is, maybe it's just movement forward and feeling like you're getting somewhere while you're thinking. I don't even know if it's the metaphor of it, or if it's just actually that your blood pumping is making your brain work better, but I need to be walking. That is, actually, one of my biggest, that's the way I write. I need to be walking, and singing into my microphone, and looking like a crazy person.
Are you ever intentional, do you sit down to write, or does it just come to your head? Do you think about it, are you kicking something around in your head for a while, and then it comes to you? Yeah, I let ideas kind of kick around. I will sit when I'm really inspired, and just lay things down, but I like for them to naturally appear, because they always will. The idea will be in your head, and then I'll go on my computer, and I'll start researching things, things that are related to the topic, and then maybe that'll inspire me to write, sure. I'm never, to a fault I need to be more so, I'm working on becoming more of this kind of artist, but I'm not like, from this hour to this hour, I'm writing. I've never really done that, but it is good for you to do. I hear that when you're in the creation mode, you don't listen to any other music, because you don't want the music to influence you. Have you still not been listening to any music lately? I'm trying to change that habit, because I literally don't know anything when I'm writing a record. Everyone is talking to me about all these records that are coming out. No, I'm listening to music. I'm listening to mostly artist’s albums that I've always loved that are very influential to me. Then I've been listening to a lot of 80's electronic, dancey, fun stuff like that. Also, I've been listening to a lot of hip hop, because I think hip hop is very inspiring in a way that's not very much imitate-able as a white girl. I'm not going to make some rap record, but the way that they're able to talk about anything, creatively, within a song, I think a lot of people feel a different sort of pressure when it's more lyrical. I think hip hop's been very inspiring to me, in my life.
Do you have any favorite hip hop artists right now? Always Kendrick, Kendrick is a bad ass. I love Drake, to be honest, and I love Kanye. I'm a really big fan of Vince Staples, who's this new kid, but I really like his attitude towards the industry. He's so cool. I love that he's not fronting. He doesn't feel the need to be dressed up like some rich rapper, he's like, “I'm a normal person, and why am I going to pretend I have more money, that's stupid.” I like the new wave of young people that are really aware. He's only 20 or 21? Yeah, something like that. It's awesome! I love your sense of fashion. What you wore to perform on stage, is that your everyday style, or is it more dressed up, or is it a little bit different? That pretty much is my every day. I kind of just wear whatever I want, whenever I want. I think if you're not confident enough to rep what you wear on stage in everyday life, then you're pretending on stage. I mean, I actually want to dress more drastically. I'm just building my wardrobe as I go, but I pretty much wear what I wear on stage in my real life. I want to be developing an even more ridiculous wardrobe, I love clothes, oh my god, it's like an obsession of mine. It's because it's another art form, it's another extension of who you are. That's why I think when, I've talked to some artists who feel very differently, they're, "It's all about the music man." I'm like, “I feel you, on a level, but, since you are choosing to be a performer, and you are choosing to be on stage, and you are choosing to have your whole thing be art, why only focus on one aspect of art, when there are so many?” Maybe that's the girl in me that also likes to draw, and act, I just believe in, use every tool you have to hone your vision.
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Definitely! I know that you definitely take a lot of pride in, you're very hands on, in your press photos and music videos, and album artwork, you want everything to be perfect for it. What is your perspective on how you want to be represented through the visuals, of your music? I think it'll change with this next record a bit, not completely. I think the hard part is, actually, I had a tough time with it on the first record, just because it's very hard to articulate your vision to people when they're not coming with the same reference points, so I don't really know how to answer that, other than I guess, only time will tell. I'm very excited to see the whole mixed album cycle, visuals, and music, and everything. Thank you. I have one last question. Who have your mentors been along the way? My mentors along the way, I really haven't had enough, because the tragedy of being a female artist, it's very, very, very hard. Most of the men are the gatekeepers in this industry, and most of them will teach you a couple of things, and then they'll be like, “Okay, well I can't work with you anymore, unless we're going to hook up, because I've never met a girl like you, and it's just so hard, and I can't be around you.� It's very difficult to find an actual mentor, as a female. Thus, I think I've only had, really one as of now. I had old teachers and stuff, sure, but Benny Blanco, kind of has been the only real mentor I've had, as of now. I'm hoping to find more, not just blaze my own trail, and then be able to mentor others.
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FADER
EX-GIRL
STEAL MY SUNSHINE
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Decorated Youth: I want to start from the beginning. Where did you grow up? What was your childhood like? Was creativity a part of your childhood? I grew up in a small town in Michigan and raised by my grandparents. I knew at 12 years old that I wanted to do hair. I grew up around my aunts – a lot of women in the house – and they were all doing their hair and makeup in the morning. - Brian Describe Your Path To Finding A Passion For Fashion And Beauty. Was there a moment in time where you really found a love for it? The first time that I went to Tokyo with my band Paramore was the first time that I fell in love with all of the different ways that you can express yourself. Being a kid from a small town I didn’t really have a lot of cool fashion and crazy pop culture around me. I did look to people like Missy Elliott or Gwen Stefani at a really young age and I would live vicariously through them. Then, when I went to Japan I found cool makeup I wanted to try and crazy fashion and I really haven’t looked back since. – Hayley When I was a kid, I would force my younger cousin Courtney to play salon with me. I’m sure I would pull her hair out since I had no idea what I was doing. Brian Brian, what was your formal / not formal hair and/or make-up education like growing up? I went to cosmetology school and received a license. Growing up my best friend, her mother was a hairstylist and owned a salon. I definitely spent a lot of time there. - Brian
Hayley, you and Brian have worked together since 2005, but in 2007 he worked on the set of Paramore’s video Crush Crush Crush how has the relationship built since then? We met at a salon he was working at, which had a really cool name and I thought there’s got to be someone in their who can do what I’m hoping to do with my hair. Then, we became pretty fast friends and Crush Crush Crush was the first video that he styled me and all the guys for. It’s been an incredible thing for our friendship to have goodDYEyoung, something to build on that’s really creative and expressive and it’s changing all the time as people come up with new ways to dye their hair and wear their hair. I feel like we’re constantly inspired and trying to inspire each other so it’s nice when you have friends that understand your weirdness. Hayley Hayley, besides goodDYEyoung what has been another memorable outcome of you working with Brian? I think the first time he was able to come on the road with us in 2013 for our first self-titled tour in the UK was an incredible time for us as friends. We were living together like roommates on a tour bus and being able to explore different cities all over the world together especially in Europe and you know to have him see what me and the guys were doing day to day on the road and that part of who I am I think was really important just in getting to know each other and understanding each other and who we are. So I really appreciate that and I love when he travels with us for that reason. - Hayley
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Where did the name goodDYEyoung come from? I don’t even know, I feel like I woke up and got hit with a lightning bolt because I have the email that I first sent to our record label president at the time and my band’s manager Mark. I was just so excited and I knew I wanted to create something that I could really call my own and would maybe also be cool for other people to use it to express their personal style. I just wanted to create something rad that me and my friends would love and use I think it’s just because 1. I really love puns and 2. The song “Only The Good Die Young.” I really love referencing music because it’s such a huge part of who I am. It was my way of tying my two sides together: music, and fashion & personal style. - Hayley Do you feel as though you had a sort of “obligation” to start GOOD DYE YOUNG? I didn’t feel obligated because it was always such a passion and I was really excited to do it, but I do feel like when you’re somebody who champions or at least tries to champion personal self-expression and healthy self-expression I do feel that you should always back it up in the way that you live. So goodDYEyoung is definitely a company and it’s definitely a business and it’s a lot of hard work but it makes it more fun that it’s a part of me – it’s not like I’m pretending to be in to something just for the heck of it. – Hayley
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What does it feel like starting, creating, and now sharing this company to the public? Nerve-wracking and exciting at the same time. I’ve put a huge chunk of my heart into this and I’m very excited for people to experiment and share their creativity using goodDYEyoung. - Brian How has your experience in the music industry and running a business helped you start and run this new company? Having been in the music industry for over 12 years has helped in every way. The way that I’m approaching starting this company is no different than the way I felt about kicking off our first record with Paramore on Fueled By Ramen Records. I’m happy to grow this from a very small thing into something that I hope becomes a standard in the hair color industry and the beauty industry as a whole. When people ask me what my expectations are and what I want for it, you know obviously I want to be able to reach as many people as I can with it, but I’m happy to build from the ground up because I think that being authentic and having a story that people can follow and also be a part of is more important. I’m about reaching individuals first because each person that tries this and has a great experience with it counts. That’s what’s important to me and to goodDYEyoung as a brand. - Hayley
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RIOT
BLUE RUIN
ROCK LOBSTER
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What did you look for when trying to pick out the specific colors and names for the dye? What was your decision process? The names for the dye were supposed to be fun and silly. Rock Lobster is a song title – my mom loves the band B-52’s. They were really a discovery for me as a young person into punk rock. The same thing goes for a song like “Steal My Sunshine” by Len, I remember hearing that song for the first time in the late nineties at a skating rink in Mississippi. I was just a kid that knew hardly anything about music, I just knew what I liked and I loved that song and I still love that song. With the nineties being kind of like a cool inspiration for people right now and street fashion and even for larger scale fashion, I think that it was cool to be able to fit something very nineties from my generation into a dye or color title. - Hayley The pink dye is named “Ex-girl” because of the No Doubt music video “Ex-girlfriend.” Is/Was Gwen Stefani an influence? Gwen’s always been an inspiration even before I realized her impact. When I was a kid I wasn’t allowed to watch MTV, but I would sneak it whenever I could. Gwen in the “Ex-girlfriend” video was a big one for me, being able to turn on MTV and seeing No Doubt doing what they do and then seeing Gwen fronting them so fiercely was really cool for me. I was a girl that felt like, even as a kid, I wanted to take on the world. I wanted to get out there and be tough, but I still wanted to feel feminine. I really love Gwen and think that to this day she’s remained really authentic and really cool. You know she doesn’t do anything that isn’t totally her and I love that we got to reference her for this. - Hayley
The line is designed for in-home use – before you had this line, how was it trying to find vegan and cruelty dye? It wasn’t that it was hard to find vegan hair dye but I’ve never found a vegan line that had the colors that were as bright and vibrant as I wanted them to be. As far as cruelty-free – I don’t even understand why there’s animal testing in the first place, let alone now in 2016. I’m hoping that the beauty industry as a whole will continue to shift into being cruelty free as the standard. I’m not talking about everyone becoming a vegan or vegetarian because that is your own personal thing but I just don’t understand why animal testing exists. - Hayley What’s the biggest misconception about people that dye their hair? That’s a really good question. We are kind of seeing it shift already! I used to get a ton of crazy looks for it, especially being in a small town but now that my town is bigger, it is growing, there are new perspectives and new styles and people are seeing bits of culture that they weren’t seeing before. I don’t feel like people see hair dye or even tattoos for that matter as “weird” or even a punk rock thing anymore – they are for anyone that wants to express their identity. The misconceptions are diminishing and expression is taking on a whole new life because I definitely used to make a lot of people confused when I walked down the street in Franklin, TN with my hair dyed these vibrant colors, but now it seems like it makes a lot of people smile when they see someone with colored hair and that makes me happy. – Hayley It’s silly that we live in such a world where people care too much about what other people think. Brian
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What was your biggest hurdle in the process of creating GDY? How did you overcome it? Finding the right people to work with and the right lab...But now I found the right people and lab – I’ve learned so many things starting this business and the reason I’ve learned them is because we work with really great people, and I’m so thankful for them. Brian and I have been friends forever and that helped as we developed specific colors – we wanted to make sure the quality was great and it would be easy for consumers and fun for professionals too. Hayley
Have you had any mentors along the way? Music/ fashion/beauty/entrepreneurship? I’m still really close with 2 girlfriends from high school that I think give better advice than anyone I’ve ever met and my best friend from school lives a completely different life than me. She is a mom of 4 kids and she is my age and lives on her farm with her family! I’m open to hearing advice from someone that does exactly what I do or that does what they love to do with a passion and that’s what is important to me. As for the industry, it would be John Janick from Fueled by Ramen. – Hayley
Regarding getting gooDYEyoung into the hands of your customers, what goals do you have for the company? Our plan is to be in retail locations sooner rather than later. We want to be able to offer it directly to people through our website which gives us direct engagement with them, but retail is important as well because we want to be accessible for that kid that wants this specific color and wants to get creative and wants quality. The accessibility is an important factor and we will just see what feels right as we grow and when it comes time to partner with retailers making sure it is someone that aligns with our vision and believe in what we are doing and believe in this community of people that want to be who they want to be. - Hayley
I find inspiration in every one, every day. In my craft and in my art, I need to it and I find it in my friends, family, and even people on the street. - Brian
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Do you have any advice for young business owners/creatives? I would say partner with people that you love and love to be around. Be around people that celebrate you for who you are and you can do the same for who they are. Be real with each other because no matter how big or small a company gets – make sure you’re still the same person so that the people that are around you are going with you hopefully for a long time. You want to be real about it and at the end of the day go home and not feel tired because you were pretending to be someone that you’re not. Stay real! - Hayley
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Interview done with, Co-Founder and CEO, Joel Flory and, Co-Founder and CCO, Greg Lutze.
Later that year they released VSCO Keys, which was created to drastically reduce image editing time in Adobe Lightroom 4 and Lightroom 3 via keyboard shortcuts.
After noticing Greg’s design work on his favorite band’s (Jimmy Eat World) website, Joel reached out to him to do some branding for his father’s construction business, later working on Joel’s wedding and portrait photography business. In March of 2011, they combined their talents and started a side business of offering WordPress site templates for photographers.
It was their solution for photographers looking to spend more timing taking the photos rather than editing them.
Their day jobs took care of living expenses, but they had to find a way to finance this new startup. They soon found it in offering photography workshops to the wedding industry. During this time, they started thinking of building an entire platform in which they would create tools that they, as photographers, would actually use. VSCO was soon born. Their first products were film emulation tools for Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw, which they call VSCO Film. Since the launch of the first VSCO Film, they’ve released a total of seven packages of the film emulation tool; VSCO Film 01 (April 26, 2012), VSCO Film 02 (August 8, 2012), VSCO Film 03 (February 12, 2013), VSCO Film 04 (August 6, 2013), VSCO Film 05 (February 25, 2014), VSCO Film 06 (October 30, 2014), and VSCO FILM 07 (April 21, 2015). With thoughts of “how to scale” surrounding them, they realized they didn’t want to buy ads, but instead create a tool that connected the VSCO community. The tool was the first version of the VSCO Cam app, which debuted in the App Store in April 2012 for $.99 a download.
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In June 2013, they relaunched VSCO Cam as a free app (with newly added features) and introduced VSCO Grid, their free publishing platform for photography that’s directly integrated into VSCO Cam. Follower count, likes and comments are nonexistent on the Grid. This allows the app to promote artistry and photography and take away the need for people to feel the pressure to constantly upload or cater to a certain audience. VSCO also includes direct access to the VSCO Journal, which hosts creative inspiration, tutorials, photographer interviews and more. March of the following year saw them announced the $100,000 USD scholarship fund known as the VSCO Artist Initiative. The Artist Initiative was launched to provide artists the resources to pursue their creative vision. After documenting their ideation and creation process on VSCO Grid, the recipients get to have their end result sold via the VSCO Store and physical gallery exhibitions. To create a sustainable movement built upon principles of integrity and artistry, the profits are then divided between the artist and a reinvestment in the Initiative, enabling future projects for other artists. They are not currently taking on any more submissions.
The company announced it acquired Denver-based Artifact Uprising® in January 2015. The company enables people to transform their digital images into premium quality photo books, prints, and gifts. The following October they launched DSCO, their free GIF- making app exclusively for iOS. Yet another tool in helping the community express themselves, they wanted this app to ignite the playfulness alongside photos, journals, and curation. As 2016 came to a start, VSCO had something groundbreaking up their sleeves. They announced the launch of exclusive editorial content living on the VSCO platform, this has come to be known as VSCO Originals. This new platform allows them to explore the ideas and people that make the world unique. VSCO Originals will go beyond traditional editorial coverage and offer up a unique point of view on a wide variety of topics. The variety of titles include; Venue (Documenting and exposing vital new music through video and imagery.), All Kinds of Human (Celebrating the complexity and diversity of humanity, showcasing the moments that unite us.), Cyclopedia (Discovering and learning science, history, and culture through visually experimental presentations.), Manifattura (Featuring artists and makers in various fields from all over the world through collaborative projects.), 23.5 (Supporting and exploring global cultural perspectives.), Max (Celebrating the journey of self-discovery and growth for young women striving to express themselves.), CBN (A broadcast of maniacal personas that exist in the recess of an everyday world. Viewer discretion is advised.), Academy (A series of videos, tutorials and interviews helping people of all levels to learn, be inspired, and engage in the art of photography.) If the VSCO team has taught us anything, it’s that settling for one aspect of creation is not enough. We always have to be learning and teaching others and ourselves. We can’t predict what the VSCO team will think up next, but one thing is for sure. We’re ready for it.
Decorated Youth: I want to start from the beginning. What was your childhood like? Was creativity a part of your childhood? How does where you grew up / where you live impact your creativity? From my earliest memories my mom had us doing art projects all the time and exploring with different mediums. I wouldn’t call myself an artist but my mom instilled a love for creating and it is something that I have applied to all areas of my life. On top of that we literally went to every free day a museum would have in the Bay Area. We were always exploring, finding the beauty in the art both in museums and in everyday life. – Joel I grew up in a small sleepy, mountain town in Colorado known for hippies, weed and art. As a kid, Geraldo Rivera (laughably) declared it the “Satanic Capital of the Western World.” It’s not evil, it’s just a weird place. And I love it for all its quirks. I had a great childhood, I have nothing but gratitude for that period of my life. I’ve always been fascinated by all things artistic especially graphic design and music. My mom played a large role in that. When I was little, she told me,” Everyone will tell you to color inside the lines in your coloring book, but you can color outside the lines if you want.” To this day, that is one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever received. In high school, I created a photocopied zine on punk rock and hardcore music, until Walgreens raised their copy machine prices to 10 cents apiece and I couldn’t afford to print it anymore. Growing up in Manitou Springs drastically impacted how I view life. For better or for worse, it is my home and always will be, no matter where I move. Internet and social media didn’t exist when I was a kid, so you created your own local scene from which you drew inspiration. – Greg
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Describe your path to becoming involved with photography. When did you first learn and pick up on it? When did you know you wanted to professionally be involved in the industry?
Greg, I know that Joel discovered your work after seeing your design work on a website for Jimmy Eat World, how did working with that band and working in the music industry come around?
Following up on my childhood I have always had a love of photography as it was by far what I was drawn to most as a child. With that said, it wasn’t really until I traveled while in college that I picked it up and took it seriously and it was the body of work that I captured while traveling that propelled me into taking photography seriously and as my profession. – Joel
In the early 2000s I started working at Asterik Studio in Seattle, WA creating sites, merch and album packaging for tons of bands. We did some crazy stuff for indies to massive major label bands. I lived with seven other guys from the band Emery in a onebedroom. We had four sets of bunk beds and it smelled horrible, but it was an amazing, highly creative time in my life. I lived off of Ramen and .50 cent Taco Bell tacos. No one can say I didn’t pay my dues, and I’d do it all over again. – Greg
Greg, describe your path to becoming involved with graphic design / Art Direction. When did you discover the creative outlets and what made you realize you wanted to work in the creative fields? I really didn’t know what I wanted to do. In college my Dad recommended getting a business degree because it was so broad, which I did (conveniently choosing Marketing since it had the least amount of math classes required). About that time (late 90s), I became fascinated with design through the likes of David Carson, Mike Cina and small design sites like Design Is Kinky, K10K and Surfstation. It was a whole new world for me and I dove in. I loved it (and still do). – Greg Joel, I know that you discovered Greg's work after seeing his design work on a website for Jimmy Eat World. Walk me through what you remember about seeing his work, did you instantaneous feel like to needed to work with him? Did you reach out to him immediately? After seeing the site that the firm he was at did for Jimmy Eat World I knew I wanted to work with their firm. I wasn’t until I worked with Greg on a project for my Dad’s company that I realized I wanted to work further him because we shared so many of the same passions in life. – Joel
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How long was the time period from when you two thought up the idea of VSCO to when you actually had the company up and running? Joel and I came up with the idea pretty quickly - it happened naturally. It was probably about six months from concept to legitimately launching VSCO, along with friends Mike Wu, Wayne Wu and Zach Hodges. We’ve been hustling since day one. Everyone thinks it just “happened,” but we were all working side jobs while we were running VSCO. – Greg Did the VSCO go through any revisions between the first idea of it and the time of launching? We sure did and we are still innovating and always thinking about what is next even today. VSCO started out to build Wordpress templates and today it is far from that but the process we went through to get where we are today was and is still, extremely valuable in shaping who we are as a company. We always wanted to set out and build a community for expression and today we have done just that. – Joel
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Do you two feel as though you both had sort of had an obligation to start VSCO? Not exactly but I felt as though we had to try and life was too short not to give our dreams a shot. – Joel Some things in life happen and it is not until much later you understand why. When we started, I don’t think we felt any obligation to start it - just that it was the right thing to do for our close creative community (and ourselves). We built things we wanted to use ourselves. Since then, we’ve evolved. We aren’t building for us anymore, we are building for the next generation the kids who don’t call themselves photographers, but take photographs all day. So now, yes, we absolutely have an obligation. I feel that weight and responsibility to be more than a photo app. We can be part of this community that is seeking honest expression in creativity. We can back the people that create because they love it, not because they want to gain fake fame on social media. – Greg What is it like after years of, you being a professional photographer and, being your own boss, to running a business and having to be the boss of more than just yourself? It’s been a lot like marriage and being a parent, you think you have it all figured out when you start and
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you quickly realize you have a lot to learn and that everyday needs to be a process of continual learning and pushing yourself to be better. – Joel
During VSCO’s startup how did you both try and balance out the rapid user growth vs. hiring staff? Were you always trying to stay above the user growth percentage by hiring more people than you needed at the time or did you hire just enough? We have done a little bit of both and certain circumstances warrant each type of approach but in general we aim to hire just enough and even a little less. I think it is important for people to understand their limits and the answer to a problem is never hire more people, it is always work smarter and improve communication and collaboration. – Joel In retrospect, we probably hired too fast. And it’s not that we hired the wrong people, but that our process and structure was not scalable. We still struggle with things like communication and who owns what, but we’re getting better at that. If I had to give advice to a new business or startup, I’d say hire as slow as you can. But honestly, it is a tough, almost impossible task to get right, especially when things are growing so fast. – Greg
There is a lot that goes into doing photography / content creation. Since you / the company now has a captivated audience, do you feel pressure to keep creating and releasing products to sustain the interaction with your customers? Since you have to put your all into the creative process, how do you stay inspired? We are driven to continue to put out our best work and continually innovate. For sure we owe it to our community but we also owe it to ourselves as we are all here at VSCO because we want to be a part of something bigger than any one of us could do on our own. With regards to staying inspired, I draw that from a lot of sources but none more than my daughters as the passion in which they tackle life with is inspiring beyond all measure. – Joel
How did the idea of creating the company’s milliondollar scholarship The Artist Initiative come about? This has been a part of who we are as a company from the beginning in which we poured all of our additional resources into supporting and promoting those that were using our products. – Joel As an art and technology company, we’re always interested in helping people accomplish their creative projects. The Artist Initiative was something that we always we wanted to, it’s a statement about what is important to us and what we value as a company. – Greg
VSCO acquired Denver-based Artifact Uprising® in 2014, how did this come along?
I have known the founders of Artifact Uprising, Jenna and Katie, for some time and would advise them time to time on their business as we were very aligned from a values standpoint. The deal transpired as VSCO was looking to get into print and we reached out to them to see if they were interested and a few short weeks later the deal was done. – Joel Our relationship with Artifact Uprising began as a mutual respect for the photography products we each were creating and quickly turned to recognizing that we had found kindred spirits in one another, both in vision and values. Out of years of friendship and many conversations around shared vision, bringing the Artifact Uprising team in-house to VSCO felt really natural- we knew that we were better together. – Greg
In this digital age, what do you think the importance of photography is? Photography has always been and will always be a moment frozen in time where one is able to capture how they are seeing the world at that given moment. I believe that photography will always play a major part in self expression, but as time goes on the lines between mediums will continue to blur and it will be less about photography and more about expression. – Joel Photography is an important means of creative expression that’s very valuable to me. In any age, photography is historical documentation and tells the story of humanity. – Greg
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Joel, being a Co-Founder and CEO of VSCO, and Greg, being a Co-Founder and CCO of VSCO, what has been your biggest hurdle in starting / running this business? How have you overcome it? Every day brings new challenges but that is what makes it exciting. Each day is an opportunity to learn and grow as a leader and I love that. – Joel Finding a work-life balance is really hard. I have immense responsibility to both my family and to VSCO, it’s not easy. I have gratitude for having the opportunity just to be here, to work with friends, and to do something big. I also try to finding humor in the chaos, joy in the journey. – Greg
You and your team at VSCO must always be thinking of ways to improve and to evolve to stay ahead of the game. Do you feel pressure or inspired with all the other photography/social media platforms out there? We have never felt pressure because of what others may or may not be doing. We do what we do because it is in our DNA. We exist to celebrate humanness. – Joel We’re is always moving forward, we’re really focused on continuing to build great tools for our community, based on their needs. We don’t compare ourselves to other platforms but are continually trying to raise the bar. – Greg When it comes to VSCO/ photography / digital media, what is it that you’re most excited about right now? Right now I am most excited about the launch of VSCO Originals and all of the great diverse content that our team is creating. – Joel
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Back in July [2015] I saw the special preview of Venue that feature Leon Bridges performing a solo one-take rendition of "Coming Home". How did this endeavor come about and what can we expect for the future of Venue? Music has always been a big part of VSCO, whether it’s musicians, producers or visual artists that are a part of our community or just our general love for music- because of that, Venue was a really natural extension for us. We’re all big fans of Leon and felt that his music was a great means to introduce Venue. We’re excited about the upcoming features we have planned with both prominent and emerging artists. – Greg February 9, 2016, VSCO® announced the introduction of VSCO Originals– exclusive editorial content living on the VSCO platform, comprised of a variety of titles. All of these variety of titles seem so in depth and needed in the age of the internet with how much we see, but don’t really take in. How did these ideas come about? We see editorial and VSCO Originals as an emotional and intelligent expression of our humanness- a venue where we can explore the extremes of this expression. In aggregate, we believe that these are a representation of our voice. It is our way of being “loud” without being loud. – Joel Any new projects / products that VSCO is currently working on? If so, can you tell us a little bit about those? We launched a new GIF making app called DSCO which was really fun for all of us. DSCO is the first in a series of pop-up applications and new tools that we’ll be launching to really evolve the VSCO platform. We’ve got really big plans for 2016, stay tuned. – Greg
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ISSUE 13