Fourculture issue 11

ISSUE ELEVEN | MARCH / APRIL 2014

CALLING ALL ARTISTS

F OR T H E HUM A N R ACE

thot | parade of lights | pompeya my personal murdereR | john park | Jaani Peuhu the secret post | mtns | juan carlos noria

STRAIGHT SHOOTING

THOT

SOUNDS | VISIONS | WORDS | VOICES

6

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

The Artist D

THE SOUND IS ALWAYS EVOLVING

pompeya

12

Managing Editor

Paula Frank creative director

Ann Marie Papanagnostou CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Doug Seymour MARKETING & promotions

Felicia C. Waters SUBMISSIONS

Serena Butler

jaani peuhu

WEB DEVELOPMENT

absolutely no regrets

Rene Trejo, Jr. EDITORIAL

20

Christine Blythe Simone Brown Serena Butler Kathy Creighton Paula Frank Marguerite O’Connell Derek O’Neal Mark Sharpley Annie Shove Darya Teesewell Aaron Wallace Felicia C. Waters

360-DEGREE DESIGN

PARADE OF LIGHTS

26

john park COVER IMAGE: THE DIVINE LORRAINE HOTEL photograph by DOUG SEYMOUR © 2014 Fourculture Magazine Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

2 www.fourculture.com | ISSUE ELEVEN

ART & SEOUL

36

the secret post WE ARE SEXWAVE

48

MY PERSONAL MURDERER adam d

SIZE MATTERS THE JOURNEY:

70

THE COMPLEXITY OF HUMAN NATURE

58

darya teesewell

mtns

SUZY

66

86

juan carlos noria

THE UNBEARABLE RIGHTNESS OF BEING...KIND

72

frank cotolo

HEADS-UP WARNINGS FROM THE MAFIA

89

divine lorraine hotel for the human race

92

who we are The artist d The Artist D has been performing online since the mid 1990s; a relic from the cam show age before social networking was a network, advocate for the rights of the underground, author, painter, columnist, raconteur, provocateur and host of The Fabulous D Show, a radio show broadcast weekly for anybody with a brain in their head. Catering to the freaks, geeks and black sheep of society, he makes the extraterrestrials of culture feel right at home on planet Earth.

PAULA FRANK Writer, painter, music lover, dreamer; Paula’s ever-changing Pisces spirit rolls with whatever the tides bring her. Constantly in pursuit of the beauty of art in all its forms, she pours her love for human connections into everything she does, be it writing fiction, interviewing her favorite musicians and artists, painting an emotion, or sharing time with the people she loves. This small town girl has great big dreams and strives to make them reality. She is thrilled to offer them to you, the readers and fellow dreamers. After all, what good are dreams with no one to share them? ann marie papanagnostou Ann Marie likes to make things pretty. This award-winning designer loves to lose herself in the creative process and is psyched to work alongside amazing individuals who fuel her artistic fire and tolerate her fierce coffee addiction. She is most content with a beverage in one hand and a mouse in the other.

ADAM D Adam is approximately one half of Photostat Machine. They are a synthpop duo hailing from York, England. When not working on devastatingly handsome pop tunes with his creative other half, @ nik_krudeshaw, you can find him hunkered over a cup of coffee. He likes to smile but isn’t that fond of talking about himself in the third person. “So I’ll stop there,” he added.

PAUL B. BLUES Paul B Blues is one half of the duo who host one of the most listened to Blues shows on the internet, The Blues Connection on OnAirTunes.com. His mantra is “Blues music is a healer” and he thrives on promoting the artists who are making strides in the genre.

If you need some healing of the soul, then tune into The Blues Connection. Be prepared to lose yourself in the ultimate Blues listening experience and enjoy the ride.

SERENA BUTLER Serena “Rena” Butler marches to the beat of a Linn LM-1 Drum Computer. Currently, she remains in a virtual time warp looking to hit that day where replicating a DeLorean time machine becomes reality.

Sadly, it has yet to occur; she remains in the current year here to bring you the latest noise making waves in the four pillars of culture. When not working on the magic behind these pages you can find her rummaging the local independent record shops for CDs and vinyl, trying to get past the second level in Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker game for Sega Genesis, or mastering The Force just from watching the Star Wars trilogy.

FRANK COTOLO Known for his comedic acumen, Cotolo has made his living as a writer and a performer all of his life and during the lives of others.

He is the author of the novel License To Skill and has co-authored its screenplay version, Molotov Memoirs, a collection of short stories, The Complete and Unabridged History of Japan, an epic novel, and a serious novella, Sweet Shepherd. Cotolo, born in Brooklyn in 1950, has worked in broadcasting, film, theater, music and television. kathy creighton Kathy Creighton, a.k.a. Mama Kath, is on a magical mystery tour of current fine, literary, and performance art and wants to bring you along for the ride. How? Besides watching, reading and listening, Kathy sits down with these creators and discusses everything from what inspires them to where their journeys began to how to fix the current A&E industry. She asks the questions you’ve been waiting for someone to ask.

SYLVIE HILL Sylvie Hill is known in Canada’s Capital City for writing a provocative life/culture column called “Shotgun” in Ottawa’s hip arts/entertainment newspaper weekly. Print dies, she goes on-line contributing about bands, books and babes. She’s a spoken-word poet and author of Hoxton Square Circles: Starfucking tales of sexless onenight stands. Find her at www.sylviehill.com and @SylvieHill.

4 www.fourculture.com | ISSUE ELEVEN

Marguerite o’connell Writer, attorney, wife, and mother of three boys in a bicultural interfaith family, Marguerite isn’t one to shy away from a challenge or decline an adventure. A semester in London studying art history and Shakespeare sparked her life-long passion for music and all things art and law school sharpened her natural abilities for research and communicating. Hoping to show her boys how it’s done, Marguerite has set out to use the things she’s good at, to communicate about the subjects that fuel her passions. For the reader, that might mean interviews with awesome indie artists one month and reviews of their latest works the next. For Marguerite it means lots of words, art, solitude and coffee.

And happiness.

DEREK O’NEAL “You have to hear this song” is a phrase you’ll often hear from Derek.

His fierce music obsession began at a young age, an age when playlists were captured on cassette off the radio with TLC and Soul Asylum in heavy rotation. As a writer, Derek has been sharing his stories since he was old enough to hold a pencil, which is a big deal since he really dislikes pencils. Derek now educates the masses with a combination of things he loves most: music and writing. Today, you can find Derek scouring the web for fresh sounds that both inspire and entertain. Sometimes he takes breaks for coffee and sleep. producer mark Producer Mark can be found at www.OnAirTunes.com, specifically The Indie Show, playing some of the best rock, goth and alternative music there is. His hunger for fresh, new talent is almost as intense as his love of crisps. Salt and vinegar, please.

DOUG SEYMOUR Doug Seymour is a featured photographer with Paste, Pollstar, Billboard and now Fourculture. Over the past several years, his work has graced sixteen magazine covers, dozens of album & DVD covers, tour posters, countless published photos and even a book cover. He has also been the recipient of four Independent Music Awards for his photography. In his spare time, Doug is an avid collector of rare vinyl LP’s (and loves to get them autographed too). mark sharpley English writer Mark Sharpley brings a view from the other side of the Atlantic. A former bass player and drummer, he now concentrates on giving his two cents on all things musical. A huge lifelong fan of The Smiths, anything to do with them will always be a biased affair but don’t worry, he doesn’t come equipped with a Morrissey style quiff... darya teesewell Darya Teesewell has been a lot of things, often simultaneously. She’s spent years working in the velvet prison of the Los Angeles movie biz, but nothing is below her line, because she hates lines. Darya travels freely from gender to gender and had made her living as a cinematographer, a writer, a teacher, a shop girl, a union organizer, and she’s ridden in Angelyne’s pink corvette; oh, does she have a tale to tell.

AARON WALLACE Aaron Curtis Wallace spreads his time between tending to a jungle of houseplants and cats, performing as a damn good female impersonator, and supporting various charities, as a board member, founder, or fundraiser. When he’s not out passionately trying to make the world a better place, he is following his other passion by writing amazing reviews for Fourculture magazine. Friend him at facebook.com/ aaron.c.wallace.3 and follow him @aaronforever87. felicia c. waters Born and raised in NYC, she began her lifelong love affair with music the moment she first heard T Rex. Throughout her life music has always been there...the steadfast friend with no judgment, always accepting. It nourishes, it angers, it heals and it makes you feel embraced. It is a part of her just as a limb or a lung. If she can bring any of those feelings to people through her writing, not only does she feel she’s done her job, she feels like she’s given them a gift.

Can you not see the mystery? Father Divine walked a line before the lines were completely drawn. In plenty of full circle ways we find ourselves where we once were a very long time ago. All of those lines were drawn and now are mussed, fussed and have bled out onto the streets in a rainbow of day old grease.

Where are the lines for you? What is holding you back and are you sure it really is? Can you not see the mystery? The fears of the 21st century are a Loch Ness Monster in the shallow end of the pool. Something is in there lurking free. We imagine the horrors but it never comes up for air. We hide in fear from the boogeyman more than ever.

Art is smothered by fear on a regular basis. The release needed to express ourselves is clobbered by what is implied in the shadows. Can you not see the mystery for what it really is?

Pull back the curtain, breathe a sigh of relief and push your art to the spotlight. Expression is a force making the expression of our art the most powerful form of our output. Pieces of art are a talisman created by the artist and they house the artist’s energy.

Father Divine’s Lorraine now stands touched by time. Its face is cracked with artistic age, but like an elderly human it has class in all of the creviced shadows. What lurks in those shadows?

Nothing but pure art. Reverend Major Jealous Divine kept asking if we could see the mystery.

I see the mystery and those shadows. Art levels the playing field; art strips away the gender categories and equalizes us into “just” humans.

Lurking in Fourculture’s issue is the mystery. It’s the mystery of artists and allure of true underground maddening reality in full color. Where the inspired underground is full of shadows we find nothing but delightful surprises. Artists know madness. We’ve looked in dark eyes but always respond by lighting fires to see in the dark.

I know the mystery and you’ll learn of it in every single page of this issue. From page to page you will discover that we are all divine.

From the shadows, Follow The Artist D: @theArtistD

let’s get connected

by ser en a butler

Musicians tell stories.

Sometimes it feels as if those stories are buried in complex analogies and lyrical prose; in other words, the music beats around the bush. Other musicians give it to us straight, like the band called Thot.

Thot creates industrial style, vegetal noise; they play it and live it. Grégoire Fray, Gil de Chevigné, Hugues Peeters, Julien Forthomme, and Arielle Moens have already produced an impressive catalog of videos and songs that directly address the darkest emotions that many of us are too afraid to confront; the world around us isn’t all roses and rainbows.

Their new album, The City That Disappears, builds on what they have already explored and goes beyond. In their new music, you feel their anger, protest and alienation; they dare us to look inside with them.

2013 was a busy year for this band. This year is going to be just as, if not more, exciting than the last with a new album on the horizon and a special DVD release. We talked to Grégoire about the ideas behind Thot’s new work and what 2014 has in store for Thot fans worldwide.

The name Thot has such a unique sound.

How exactly did you all get together?

How did you come up with the name?

Thot is a character that appears in the episode 4 of an old French tv comic called Les Mondes engloutis (Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea in English). I’ve been captivated by this gigantic monster and how he was screaming when I was five years old. Years later, when I was thinking about what I would like to do with my own music, his name directly came to mind. But you might know that Thot is also an Egyptian god associated with the the arts of magic, the system of writing, the development of science and the judgment of the dead. And I like this explanation.

On your Tumblr, you’ve been releasing little bits of information about your new album coming out April 14. What is this album going to be called? How does this album differ from other Thot releases?

The album is called The City That Disappears and is the result of two years of writing, composing and recording. This album starts where the previous release, The Fall of the Water Towers, was ending.

There are less guitars than in Obscured by the Wind, much more electronics and synth parts. But it’s still wild and powerfull, as Thot’s sound has to be.

Along with the release of the album, you’ve announced a new DVD entitled Vegetal Motion Story 2008-2013. From what we have uncovered, this DVD is a very expansive project covering the past five years of Thot’s existence.

What can you tell us about the making of the DVD? What little surprises could those who purchase it expect?

Well, a few months ago I was doing some cleaning in my hard drives and doing some backup copies. I noticed that there were plenty of videos about various things: live, studio, music videos and unseen stuff. Most of them are available on our YouTube channel, but I had the idea to collect them on a single DVD in order to close a chapter before opening a brand new one with the new album. It’s limited to 50 pieces, including hand signed and numbered postcards, personal greetings and random printed HQ pictures and stickers. Expect a very unique object crafted with passion.

Some of our fans were asking for that kind of release, though.

Unlike many indie artists across the globe, you guys have the cleanest shot live videos available on the web (on YouTube). What do you feel makes those live videos different than that of a major artist?

We try to tape every single show and publish live videos as soon as possible. I’m lucky to have passionate and skilled people who are following us on the road. Then, I like spending time to edit videos myself.

We’ve found out that you’ll be releasing It’s a DIY process where I can control evyour new single in March. What can you erything and bring an honest point of view tell us about it? Are there any produc- on our live acts to our fans. tion surprises we can expect?

This new single is the opening track of You have had the chance to direct your our upcoming album. It has been written as own videos in the past. What is your a very evolutionary piece of music, crafted creative process like when it comes to with anger and dizziness. This is not an directing your own work versus if you easy path. I think some people are going were to direct another band’s video? to feel lost when they enter this new album, To me, Thot has always been designed but I can promise that they’ll be also excited. as an experience mixing visual arts and ISSUE ISSUEELEVEN ELEVEN

| www.fourculture.com 9

“To me, music can be a powerful thing where people can unite. It can be for good, but also for bad and I think every musician has to be careful with that as it’s quite easy to be misunderstood.”

having your book (or CD) available in a public library. I don’t expect any income from this, but only exposure. That said, it’s pretty hard to me to measure if Spotify could have enhanced a bigger exposure. However, I always promote our Bandcamp store instead, because you’ll find here the right door to be considered as a true fan and not as a buyer.

Black Basset Records will handle the physical output of this new release, while White Leaves Music will still handle the digital output. This is a real chance for me to team with these passionate people in this young Belgian label, and I’m pretty sure we will manage to lead Thot on a higher step together.

A popular concept with indie artists as of late is to leave it to the fans to remix their latest singles in contest form. How do you feel about this new trend in interaction with fans and other music creators like yourself?

I’ve already tried this “trend” and I got very good results. It’s always exciting to discover how fans will use your music and make their own interpretation. This time, I want to go a bit further with the “deaddrops” project.

music. Most of the time, the images come to mind before the music — that’s why I know exactly where I want to go or where I don’t want to go. By the way, I’ve studied cinematography in Brussels, and these skills are very useful to me and the way I perceive Thot as a whole concept. However, I haven’t directed videos for other bands so far, so I don’t know if I can be good at this. I hope I’ll be able to try in the near future!

Speaking of “vegetal” motion story; you refer to your sound as “vegetal noise” which sounds as if it has its roots in industrial music. Where do you feel the origins in vegetal noise lie in regards to Thot’s sound?

The origins lie in my own journey from my native countryside to the city where I live now. Even though some side of my music reminds you of industrial music, I’ve never tried to stick to this musical genre, or to any other genre precisely. All this comes from inner feelings and observation of the world that I’m struggling with. Or dancing with.

When going through the artist list at White Leaves Music, you’re very handson with the artists you’ve signed to the label. What do you feel is the most rewarding part in being so hands-on with the artists you work with? What do you feel differentiates your work at White Leaves from any other label?

White Leaves Music is a home for my own releases. I’ve decided to work with an artist like Moon Prototype because we are long time friends, and we share similar points of views on music. My goal would be to offer personalized services to other artists I’m going to work with, but I haven’t any precise plans or new signings scheduled yet.

Recently you’ve announced that you are collaborating with Black Bassett Records for your next release. How will this partnership affect future releases for Thot? How will you be releasing in conjunction with your own label White Leaves Music in the future?

Coming up real soon, you’ve got a project you’ll be releasing more information on involved around “deaddrops.” What can you tell us about the project? How did you come up with the idea to use these deaddrops for the project?

This project has been created in order to release our new single. In a few words, we are in touch with some of our best fans around the world, and they’ll each own a stem from the song (the drum track, the guitar track, the vocal track). They’re going to upload each stem in their own city’s deaddrops. Here starts a kind of game to find the other stems in order to rebuild the song, or maybe, make a remix. This idea is to improve the connection between our fans, but also, as an artistic matter, between cities through this project since the new album focuses on my relationship with cities.

Along with everything you’ve got in the works, you’ve recently joined us here at Fourculture with your own radio show.

For those who are currently unfamiliar, could you us know what Sunday Noisy Sunday is all about?

Yes, and I’m very grateful for this invitation! Well, Sunday Noisy Sunday is a monthly one hour program, where I invite you to a journey among songs that I find fascinating, in any musical genres possible. By the way, it’s a good exercice to me and help to keep a trace of my musical crushes.

A while back you were vocal about your support for the music streaming service Spotify, which has come under scrutiny by other artists. How do you feel services like Spotify have enhanced your band’s exposure?

To me, being exposed on Spotify is like

www.thotweb.net 10 www.fourculture.com || ISSUE ISSUEELEVEN ELEVEN

Many bands, including yourselves, are putting your music out as “pay what you want” on platforms like Bandcamp.

Why do you feel that this pay as much as you like method has gained in popularity? Why has Thot decided to use this method?

I like to give a mic to the audience, and ask them how much they want to pay or support us. To me, this kind of dialogue is very important and helps you to build better relationships with your audience, when sometimes, some people become true friends.

Regarding a past release you wrote this powerful message, “This is the beginning of a new story. From the fields to the city. This song speaks of the crisis versus the people’s unity that’ll empower us to overcome the shit together.

I hope you will raise your fist and claim your dreams.” What is the main reason you as an artist try to spread a message through song?

I’ve always desired to be able to bring people some positive messages, or at least, a message where they can find some useful inspiration for their own needs. To me, music can be a powerful thing where people can unite. It can be for good, but also for bad and I think every musician has to be careful with that as it’s quite easy to be misunderstood. However, for this new album, I’ve decided to try some more cynical lyrics, in order to protest against some stuff that has worried me for a long time.

ISSUE ELEVEN

| www.fourculture.com 11

photograph by Алексей Киселев

the sound is always evolving

by derek O’Neal ISSUE ELEVEN

| www.fourculture.com 13

Pompeya has been making waves in the Russian music scene since they began making music in 2006. More recently waves have been spotted in the US after the band signed with Brooklyn record label No Shame and reissued their debut album, Tropical, in October 2013. Pompeya is a four-piece pop band from Moscow with hits such as “90”, “Slaver”, “Power”, and “YAHTBMF” – and that is “you always have to be my friend,” in case you were wondering.

The band consists of vocalist and guitarist Daniil Brod, guitarist Denis Agafonov, keyboardist Sasha Lipskiy, and drummer Nairi Simonian. They began making music in 2006 and released their first album, Tropical, in Russia in 2011, followed by Foursome in 2012. Since then, Tropical has been rereleased and remixed. After its reissue in the US in October 2013, the band released Tropical Remixed featuring twelve remixes from the album in January 2014.

Pompeya will be playing SXSW in March and have a tour starting in April. The band just recorded a music video in LA for a single off their new EP which is slated for a March release. According to Daniil, the band’s frontman, “the sound is always evolving,” the EP leads Pompeya’s music “into a bit ‘darker’ direction,” and that some fans “will be a bit surprised.”

People are definitely wondering what Pompeya might sound like with a little darkness — a tropical storm?

What is the significance behind the name of your band, Pompeya?

It’s a girl’s name that we like the sound of and the way it looks. So we use it.

The band formed in 2006. How did you guys come together?

Pompeya as a trio started in late 2006. We all had mutual friends and just started jamming together. Since 2010, we added a fourth member, and shifted our sound away from more UK noisy rock to funky, new wave pop. We got a pretty good fan base in Russia, so decided to stick together and be a band full time.

How would you describe your working relationship? What is it like making music with one another?

Usually it is myself (Daniil) and Denis, the band’s bassist, writing the melodies. Sometimes when we play it all together, things get changed, or new songs emerge. When it comes time for lyrics, I have helpers who can speak English better than I flesh out ideas.

When writing music and lyrics, what is your ideal songwriting atmosphere? What is your process behind creating a song?

It’s hard to say, all the time we have sounds and ideas coming to us. Usually, I (Daniil) need to sit down with Denis alone in isolation to sort through sketches and decide what is a song and what is not. As far as inspiration — even though we are all from the very cold place of Russia, we prefer creating in warmer climates. Like LA. Foursome was very inspired by our time recording in Bedrock Studios in Silverlake.

Your album Tropical was first released in Russia in 2011, followed by Foursome in 2012. After signing with No Shame Records in the US, you re-released Tropical – with a slightly altered tracklisting – as your US debut in October of 2013. How did you decide which songs to add and which songs to remove?

We picked our favorite songs from both, which we felt would give the ‘best’ impression to a new audience.

The singles for the album include “Power”, “Slaver”, and “90”, all of which have music videos. Several songs from the US version of Tropical appeared on other releases and also have music videos: “Cheenese” is on both versions of Tropical; “Slow”, “Wait”, and “YAHTBMF” are originally from Foursome. Do you plan on creating any more music videos for the album or is the band planning to move onto newer music for videos?

We are focusing everything now on the new material, which will be released as an

14 www.fourculture.com || ISSUE ISSUEELEVEN ELEVEN

photograph by alexander reshetilov

16 www.fourculture.com | ISSUE ELEVEN photograph by Slava Filippov

EP in April. We have already begun production on a new music video for our first new single, which will be out later in February. Can’t give away any more details than it’s going to reflect a bit of a different style and sound for us.

The song “Wait” appeared in the film Young & Wild and features a music video created from scenes of the film. How did the inclusion of your song in the film come about?

Our friend made this video, and wanted to use the song. We thought it fit really well, and would make a great music video too.

I read that some of your earlier live shows were jam sessions and improvisations. Short of jamming, what is your favorite song (or songs) to play live?

Definitely the “hits”: “90”, “Slaver”, “Power”, “YAHTBMF”. We will play these forever, they are our signature songs that our fans old and new love as much as us.

You toured the US for the first time in May of 2013, then again in November and December. What was it like touring the US compared to other countries? What were your favorite cities along the way?

Well, the main difference for now is the size of the crowd. We are still building an audience here in the US, so don’t have quite as big of crowds as in Russia and Eastern Europe. Favorite city, is tough, but as far as show experience — Tampa was definitely the craziest. We did not expect it at all. We played in quite a dive bar, with not so good equipment. The show was actually free. The audience though was very mixed and just let loose. I don’t think many of them knew of us before the show, but after — they wanted us to never leave! Mexico was also great. The kids at those shows knew most of the words to our songs, and really were enthusiastic, which is always nice to know that the fans are there for you.

Pompeya will be playing in the Pop Showcase at SXSW 2014. This will likely open many doors for the band, as well as broaden your fanbase in the US. Are you looking forward to playing the festival? What do you plan to do to prepare for the event? Are you nervous?

We hope it will open many doors! SXSW will be our first time to Austin, as well as

photograph by Alexey Kiselev

our first time playing our new material from the EP. For now, it’s hard to see what will come of it, but we definitely are told that it is an important step by our manager and agent. We aren’t really nervous, just excited to make new fans and see new places, like always.

Your sound has evolved over the years and been described by many different labels including funk, disco, psychedelic, synth-pop, indie rock, and indie pop.

How would you describe your sound?

We tend to label our music as pop, but not because it is ‘mainstream music.’ We more mean that our music is fun and speaks to a diverse audience from many different age groups, countries, and professions. So our music can be described as all of those things, but more importantly, music for all to enjoy.

stantly influencing us at all times, it’s hard to just say its musical!

On January 21, the band released Tropical Remixed featuring remixes from Tropical.

It must feel like quite an honor to have your songs remixed by other artists. What are your favorite remixes that other artists have created of your songs?

We all really love the Fred Falke, and the fans seem to as well! It got a lot of plays on the Hype Machine, the most ever for one of our songs. The Psychemagik and Dominic Pierce ones too... they really brought an unexpected touch to the tracks.

You have a new EP coming out later this year. Has your sound evolved further?

What should fans expect of your new music?

They will be a bit surprised, but it’s still Pompeya. The sound is always evolvWith a sound that ranges everywhere ing, we could say into a bit ‘darker’ direcfrom indie rock to disco, your musical in- tion. But some of the songs are also happy fluences must be rather eclectic. Name and more tropical. some of your musical influences.

In the band, we all tend to be more in- What does the future hold for Pompeya? fluenced by older generations, that of the A lot! We have a big tour after SXSW 70s and 80s. Our biggest inspriations are starting in April, a new music video, a new definitely Duran Duran, Tears for Fears, EP, new live show, and then an LP later in and Talk Talk. But so many things are con- the Fall. A lot to keep up with.

www.pompeyamoscow.com ISSUE ELEVEN

| www.fourculture.com 17

2/28 Miami, FL Bardot

3/30 Salt Lake City, UT Urban Lounge

4/15 Birmingham, AL Bottletree

3/13 Austin, TX Karma (SXSW Official Showcase, no tickets)

4/5 Pamona, CA The Blue Room at Glass House

4/16 Atlanta, GA 529

3/15 Austin, TX Speakeasy Kabaret (SXSW Official Showcase, no tickets) 3/20 Los Angeles, CA Los Globos

4/6 San Francisco, CA Brick & Mortar Music Hall 4/13 Houston, TX Warehouse Live

4/17 Indianapolis, IN Do317 Lounge 4/23 Toronto, Canada The Drake Hotel 4/25 New York, NY DROM

Jaani Peuhu absolutely no regrets

by K athy Creighton

F

innish alt-rocker, Jaani Peuhu is currently working on his first completely solo album. He recently released a video for the single “No Regrets.” From the earliest time, beginning with exploring his musician father’s studio, Peuhu has been the sole creator of his music. For his first record deal, A&R had one condition; he had to put together a band. At the time, it made sense. He needed to mold his songs for live stage performance. Although most of the music for his most recent and best known project, Iconcrash, is still mostly Peuhu’s brain-child, he writes it with the band in mind. As he set to work writing what they thought would be their fourth album, the band all agreed that it didn’t have that Iconcrash sound. Jaani believes that every album should have its own “world” and each should bring something new to the table, but there is also a thread that runs through them all that says “this is Iconcrash.” The new songs are all electronic. There are no electric guitars, bass guitars or real drum sounds. The band just didn’t fit into this new production and so Jaani decided that this time out it would be a completely solo work.

This interview was conducted via Skype and Jaani was in Helsinki at the time. Any worry about language barriers was quickly erased as Peuhu’s English is very good.

Jaani describes the “world” of the new album and the songs on it as a journey; both in actual travel and one of the heart.

Peuhu has been recorded for this project in Italy, England, Mexico, the U.S. and in Finland. He feels like he’s been searching for something; “The album is writing itself as I travel.

Each place I stop inspires something in my

writing. The songs are like diary entries. I started writing this album after a break-up.

It’s a story about the broken heart. All the stages you go through. The anger, the sadness. About my real life, every word. Each happens in a place and I take myself to that place in my head and heart. For example ‘No Regrets’ takes place in a hotel room in London. The song happens there. I paint the whole landscape for the song then I go back there in the writing process. Sometimes it’s really difficult, especially if I was feeling happy and then go to one of those

ISSUE ELEVEN

| www.fourculture.com 23

places. It makes the song longer to write.

Happiness is my arch enemy when I’m writing music. Doing soul searching in real life.

With Iconcrash’s Enochian Devices, it was all about the spirit world. Now I’ve been traveling around the world and writing it all down.”

Jaani is the offspring of jazz musician Kari Peuhu, and grew up playing an impressive range of instruments. “I started piano but it wasn’t noisy enough so I switched to drums.” When asked about formal musical training, he let out a chuckle and responded, “I took piano lessons when I was seven and I hated it. I took drum lessons for a few years and hated that too. I can’t enjoy playing patterns and notes. We started our first band when I was thirteen, that’s when I started practicing. I would rehearse eight hours a day when it was my own music.

Music is not about instrument skills, it’s about melodies and feelings. I really suck at guitar even though I’ve been playing it on stage for years. I play it my own way. I rehearse songs but not technique.”

More passion and interest came when Jaani began exploring the actual recording and engineering processes. “My father had a home studio and I started doing stuff with his multi-track recording systems at a pretty early age. I wanted to make music and not just play instruments, then I realized that one instrument wasn’t enough for me. I started learning all the instruments I could ever grab. When I went back into my father’s studio I understood that I could record all these instruments and do programming and doing the whole thing myself.”

Being signed and dealing with the commercial side of music can be challenging; how much influence and control do they have over Peuhu’s creations?

“The label doesn’t have direct control, but they do have a pressure about singles.

Putting out albums is a business and the label expects to get hits and lots of radio play. They are investing lot of money into album production, so of course they expect that they will sell a lot of albums and the songs. There is some pressure passed to the artist to create something commercial.

That’s the tricky thing, to try to create your own art while at the same time you’re thinking about time. For example, you look at the clock and see that you’re at the chorus. Because this will be played on the radio, you decide to skip the bridge to stay in that play time constraint. I’ve done a lot of compromises with Iconcrash albums. I can’t make all these compromises and be honest with myself and my music. I’ve always had good labels and A&Rs so the pressure was more internal. I wanted to make everybody happy but at the same time I wanted to make myself happy. That’s part of the reason 24 www.fourculture.com | ISSUE ELEVEN

“I’m not asking anyone about anything, I’m just doing music.

And it’s making me happy.”

why I am making this solo album. I’m not asking anyone about anything, I’m just doing music. And it’s making me happy. After the video for ‘No Regrets’ was released, the feedback was so overwhelming that I think that people do kind of feel that it’s straight from the heart. It’s more honest”.

So, is this album an emotional purge?

“It is. A song is hard to listen to after it’s done because it takes me back to the place I was when I was writing the song. I had two heroes, my grandmother and grandfather, and on every album I’ve been writing a song or two about them. On the first album it was about how they were when I was writing. They were beginning to fear that they would not be here any more. On the next album, that fear had grown and I felt that something was going to happen.

They both passed while I was recording the third album. I was supposed to spend that

Christmas with them. Instead, I spent it in the studio with my manager in the middle of nowhere. I wrote two songs for them — one for each of them and I was meant to sing them at their funerals, but I couldn’t.

Even now whenever I perform these songs on stage they make me cry. It’s crazy emotional. The stage becomes a graveyard. On this album, I’m dreaming about how amazing they were. They were my idols.”

Jaani continued to reminisce about his grandparents. “I remember when my grandfather died... I felt his presence in their house while my grandmother was still alive.

After a few weeks, she died and I went to their house and slept in their bed to feel both their presences, but I didn’t feel anything. The house was empty. It was beautiful to feel that emptiness because I knew that they had both passed over. Grandpa had waited for my granny, his true love, so

they could cross over together.”

Spirituality plays an important role in Jaani’s life and that includes other arts that he gravitates to. “I collect all kinds of weird art — religious icons and statues and stuff like that. I’m a really spiritual so religious art speaks to me.”

Other arts that he enjoys dabbling in include photography and videography; “My mother and my sister are photographers. I have ADD so it’s hard to focus on technical things. However, with music that has never been a problem. I always find a solution because I follow my heart. I’ve never read any manuals about any equipment. I just learn. But with cameras it doesn’t go like that. I should really study them. They are really complicated when you get to a certain level...that’s a problem for me. But at some point it is something I want to take more time for; art.”

To learn more about Jaani Peuhu and the upcoming album visit

www.jaanipeuhu.com ISSUE ELEVEN

| www.fourculture.com 25

by M arguerite O’Connell

I

t’s still early, but Parade of Lights is making it clear that it belongs on a list of “Bands to Watch in 2014.” A band on the move, Parade of Lights shows no signs of slowing down any time soon.

In fact, anyone trying to keep up with the band in the coming months needs to have a good pair of running shoes.

Seriously, I got tired from just hearing about their schedule.

The band started out this year playing a series of select headline shows in California and then on February 22, joined Royal Teeth and Chappo to play a number of tour dates.

In March, Parade of Lights will head down to Texas for its SXSW debut shows and is then set to open for X Ambassadors on their April 2014 tour. In addition, the band’s upcoming EP, Golden, is set to drop on March 25th. It is the band’s first EP since signing a recording contract with Astralwerks last August and the plan is to heavily promote it. Oh, and the group also plans to find time to write some new music for their first full-length album.

A Los Angeles-based quartet with a selfdescribed “dirty alt-electro meets shoegaze rock” sound, the members of Parade of Lights are Ryan Daly (lead vocals/guitar), Anthony Improgo (drums) Randy Schulte (bass/backing vocals) and Michelle Ashley (keys/backing vocals). The band made huge waves with its self-released single, “We’re the Kids” in June 2013. The track got radio airplay, a very rare thing for an unsigned band. It is also one of the singles on the upcoming EP, Golden.

The second single off the EP, is the title track, “Golden.” This song was featured in NBC’s Winter Olympics TV campaign. The song has garnered a lot of unsolicited and very positive attention for the band, but was not specifically written for the Olympics. Rather, Ryan and Anthony wrote the song around that idea of just letting your self shine.

Parade of Lights is a band with a big altelectro-anthem-rock sound and a ‘handsin-the-air’ dance vibe. Though the band’s vibe may scream ‘Party!’ — the individuals who create that vibe are seriously talented, creative, persistent, smart, seemingly indefatigable and hard-working artists…who just happen to like whiskey. He was in Las Vegas recently making tour preparations, but Ryan took a break to talk to me about how the band got where it is today and what its plans are for the future.

To give our readers a sense of who you are and how you got where you are today, tell me a little bit about where you were born and where you grew up?

Okay. So I was born in Long Beach, California and I pretty much grew up on the coast and I love it there. It kind of filters into our music and the artwork because we incorporate a lot of coastal imagery into what we do as far as the visual stuff goes. Any time we head out anywhere else, that’s the place that feels like home. It’s easy to take it for granted when you live there because you don’t realize how beautiful it really is.

But when people come to visit and can’t believe I live there, it just feels normal to me.

and high school and things just went from there.

Now I know that you and Anthony met around 2006, and that you just clicked.

But how did you meet each other? What actually brought you together?

It’s kind of weird how it happened. I was playing in a band with a friend and we were going through some line up changes and he had stumbled across Anthony’s band. This friend told me, “This drummer’s really cool. Let’s play with them.” So we went to a rehearsal to try to jam with Ant’s band. And for some reason this friend and Anthony didn’t click, but Anthony and I were outside talking and we clicked immediately.

We shared very similar musical tastes and both loved this band called Failure that was sort of under the radar in the ‘90’s – they had a minor radio hit, but it is kind of rare to come across some one who says, “This is one of my favorite bands.” After that we just stayed in touch while playing in separate bands. It was funny because my band dissolved and I stumbled across Ant’s band online and thought, “I want to play for this band.” I had just posted some demo songs on MySpace when I contacted Anthony about playing with his band. He listened to those demos, quit his band and told me, “Let’s just work on this stuff (my demos).”

That’s when we decided to move forward with writing our own music and starting something from scratch. We started a band called Polus with Randy Schulte, who is our current bass player. We did that for about one year until I dislocated my knee while we were playing a sold out show at the Troubadour in LA.

When did your interest in playing music develop?

My family is very, very musical. My dad, my Mom and my mom’s four sisters were actually in a band together before they were married. Music has just been in my family forever. After my parents got married and I was born, my dad had a piano in the house.

He is a songwriter and I just grew up around him writing songs and working on music.

He has also written a play. Although my parents got divorced when I was 4 years old, I split my time between the two of them and my mom was always singing, and my dad was always writing songs and so I grew up literally immersed in song writing and music.

We’d eat dinner and my dad would put on music. There are photos of me at 18 months sitting at the piano and banging on it. Music is just something that I’ve been around my entire life and have always been interested in. But it really started coming to fruition when I was around 9 years old and I asked my dad if he would buy me a guitar. When How does a guitarist dislocate his knee he did, it was ‘Go Time.’ while playing a gig? When I think about Did you always want to perform? There the job hazards of musicians that’s not are some people who are musical, but really at the top of the list. [laughs] How have horrible stage fright and no inter- did it happen? est in performing. Did you always want Well, it’s not what you would think. I to be up on stage? wasn’t running around like a mad man.

It was one of those things where I was My IT band on my thigh fused with my apprehensive at first. When I was young I leg. It was sort of a random thing that hapwouldn’t just jump up on stage myself, but pened. It’s an injury that runners get, but my mom was always pushing me to do it. I’m not a runner. I don’t know why it hapWe would do Karaoke and my mom would pened, but I just twisted it the wrong way tell me, “Just go do it.” She actually tells and it just popped off – which is just really this really great story about one time when weird. That put us on hiatus and we each we were singing in this little choir thing at took individual touring gigs for a few years. school. There were all these kids in front of But our paths kept crossing while we were me and so I just slowly tried to inch my way on these tours and then one time when Ant to the front of the crowd while singing. And and I were both in Australia, of all places, that was the first time where she thought, we just sat down and said, “Let’s just do this “Oh, this makes sense.” [laughs] It was thing. We’re not happy doing what we’re doalso around this time that I started getting ing. Let’s just start playing again.” That was self-confident. By the time I reached mid- about 2010. So we re-grouped with Randy, dle school, I was all about starting bands. went through a couple line-up changes until I played in a ton of bands in middle school we met with Michelle in June 2013, and we 30 www.fourculture.com || ISSUE ISSUEELEVEN ELEVEN

have been playing as a unit with Michelle since then.

In the past you have talked about perfecting your line up and your live show, which are obviously key things for any band. Having gone through what sounds like kind of a long process, is there any advice you would give to other bands that are just starting out and trying to find the right people?

That’s a good question. It’s hard. It’s like having a relationship with three people, or however many people are in your band.

You have to be patient and you have to assess what people do well; whether they are providing value to the band; whether they

are doing something that you can’t do; or doing something that really enhances the band or the project in general, that’s how you know it is the right person. I think once someone starts making things counterproductive and you spend more time either arguing or trying to decide on things, then it’s just a waste of time. You have to find people that believe in what you are doing and who understand what the goals are – everyone has to be working towards a common goal. You know with entertainment there is always going to be egos, but people have to be in it for the band. They can’t just be in it for themselves. That being said, obviously everyone has to benefit from it in the long term. But you have to be willing

to make sacrifices and really work towards at what she does.” She had an awesome the goals. look. So I reached out to her online. She told me that she loved the music but was I have to ask, just out of curiosity, did really committed to the band she was in, so you actually “stalk” Michelle to get her unfortunately couldn’t do it at that moment.

She also told me to keep her posted on to play in the band? [laughs] That’s the rumor. [laughs] No, I said that what we were doing. So I would reach out one time and now it haunts me. Basically, to her every few months, but she remained what happened was I was at an outdoor committed to her band. This, in turn, made mall, of all places, and there was a band us want her to play for us more because of playing. Michelle was playing keyboards her dedication. Eventually a mutual friend for that band. We had been going through of ours went to see Michelle play and in some line up changes and didn’t have a conversation Michelle said she was growkeyboard player at the time. We thought it ing tired of what she was doing. She had would be great to have a girl playing key- been with them around 6 years and she was boards and Michelle caught my eye while ready to do something new. Our friend told I was there. I thought, “Wow, she’s great her that we still wanted her to play – in fact, I ISSUE ISSUEELEVEN ELEVEN

| www.fourculture.com 31

had told her from the start that the door was always open — and she reached out, told me she wanted to play and my response was, “Great!” Our first show with Michelle was opening for Fitz & the Tantrums at the Wiltern Theater in front of about 3,000 people. It was a good way for her to kick it off.

When Parade of Lights was getting ready to work on its second EP, Born to Live, Born to Love, you’ve said in the past that it was important to you that it sound the way you wanted. Can you tell me what was going on at the time that made you and Anthony decide, “We’re just going to disregard the pressure we are getting from the industry and labels and just do our own thing.”?

We were just sick of people sort of dictating what we should and shouldn’t be doing. When you write music and you are a musician, you’re doing it because you love it and it is something that you want to be doing. And if people respond to your music, then that’s great, but you are in it because it’s what you love.

It basically got to the point where we were doing the opposite of that. We were trying to make people respond to it (the music). We were trying to force people into what we were doing. We were writing things that we felt like catered to people in general and we thought, “What are we doing? This is ridiculous.” We weren’t happy with what we were doing and we didn’t like the music. So we sat back and decided to just write what we wanted to write, what we wanted to hear and just write stuff that we would listen to.

It’s so funny. As soon as we did that, that’s when people started responding. It was like, “Oh my gosh. We should have been doing this all along.” [laughs] That’s such a great story. I’m trying to teach my kids that they should do what they love and not just what they think will make them rich; because running after money is the best way to end up miserable. I may have to borrow this story next time the topic comes up. My mantra is: “Do your best at what you love and you will succeed.”

Exactly. And that’s the only way you are going to be unique as well. If you’re trying to copy something else, you’re going to be just another clone and fall through the cracks.

You aren’t going to make any waves like that. If you do something special, that’s when you’re going to make waves and get noticed.

I’m not saying Born to Live, Born to Love was the most special thing, but we felt like we were starting to crack the code of what our sound was.

32 www.fourculture.com || ISSUE ISSUEELEVEN ELEVEN

“it’s the unit that creates all of this. It’s about assembling the right team, having the right people on board who are all providing value and doing something that the others can’t. ” Is creative control important to Parade of Lights?

Yeah. Once we embraced doing what we wanted to do and doing it our way, we realized how strict a vision we have, but also that we know what we want in every area.

For instance, Anthony is a graphic designer and he is great with typography and I take a lot of photos. We have a very strong idea of what we want the music to sound like and on Born to Live, Born to Love, produced all of that EP, except for one song, ourselves.

And now on the new EP Golden, we decided to go fully in house with the production, with the art, with everything.

Now, that I want to ask you more about.

When you decide to take it all in-house, literally, where do you take it? Because most people don’t have a home studio and there are pictures of you playing tribal drums in what looked like a fairly large space. So I am wondering if you are renting studio space or did you bring equipment into an empty space and build your own studio? How did you take production in-house?

Well, especially nowadays with technology, laptops and recording software you don’t need a huge studio any more. Most of Golden was done on a laptop with an Mbox, which you can buy for $200.00, and a microphone – along with our guitars, drums, effects and whatnot. The only time we used a big studio was to record drums. We have a good friend who is an instructor and head of the studio department at a school here in Las Vegas. He gave us a really cheap rate to rent out that studio by the day. We just did a few days of drums there and knocked it all out. The rest of the Golden EP was done in a 9’ by 9’ in North Hollywood, CA. Wow. I’ve been able to preview Golden and love it. What you are saying is that the production on Golden is something you did yourself – in order to have creative control over your sound - and the result is this highly polished EP? ISSUE ISSUEELEVEN ELEVEN

| www.fourculture.com 33

Thanks. And yeah, I don’t even know how to explain it. We are just obsessed with music. We are constantly listening to music, all the while taking mental notes and applying the parts we love – taken from all of our musical tastes — and trying to pull a bit from each of them to build something new out of it. The Golden EP is essentially that; it’s just a big stew of what we love.

On Golden we really tried to establish our sound, so it’s more a statement of who we are as a band than a collection of songs.

It took a long time for us to really hone in on what we wanted to sound like. “Golden” sounds like us and we’re really excited to put it out there and see what people think.

As far as technology and us knowing how to use all that stuff – well, it wasn’t over night, that’s for sure. It’s been years and years of writing, playing and recording and we are just now starting to get to the point where we can say, “OK, this sounds pretty good.

Anthony handles the majority of the design and I handle the majority of the audios. So while it’s easy to get frustrated when you think you don’t possess all these talents, you have to realize we don’t possess all of those talents either. It’s the unit that creates all of this. It’s about assembling the right team, having the right people on board who are all providing value and doing something that the others can’t. That’s how you get a really strong team.

How does the songwriting process work between you and Anthony? Is it a collaborative process or do you each have a separate role?

It’s more a collaboration, I think. Everything starts in the studio pretty much. It starts out as an electronic song most of the time and then we add drums and stuff later.

So usually I tinker around in the studio, come up with an idea or a basic bed for a song and a melody, and then I’ll send it to Anthony.

As he’s in Las Vegas and I’m in LA, we do a lot of file sharing. He’ll add something to it and send it back and we’ll just bounce it back and forth to each other. Then when it gets closer to the end we will both get together in the same studio to track vocals and we’ll just keep bouncing ideas back and forth and produce it until it gets done.

At some point in the process do you still have to send the tracks out to be finished or did you do that for yourselves, too?

Yes, we send it out. Basically how it works is that we write, record, edit and produce everything. Then we send it off to a mixer who essentially goes through all of the tracks and really polishes them, makes everything sound great, does levels, and makes sure the EP sounds huge. When the You’ve toured and played shows with mixer is done he sends it out to the person some awesome artists – Imagine Dragwho will master it, which is the final stage. ons, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Panic! At the Disco, The Neighbourhood — Can I’ve seen the term “360-degree design” you share a favorite memory or an amazused by the band. Now when I hear it I ing moment from one of those shows? might be tempted to think of you as the Well, Vegas feels like home to the kind of people that regular folks like me band as much as LA does because we’re – who do not possess of all these talents pretty evenly split between the two cities.

– like to hate [laughs] I’m totally kidding! So, opening for Thirty Seconds to Mars at But really, the members of the band are a sold out show in Vegas with something musically inclined, artistically inclined, like 4,000 people there was probably one of you do photography and draw, Antho- the most memorable shows for us so far. It ny does graphic design and digital art, was one of the first times we’ve been able and now it sounds like you’ve mastered to debut a lot of new material and it was a computers … great feeling to see people respond to the [laughs] Well, Anthony kind of coined songs, live. It was one of our first shows the phrase. It’s like his mantra: “You have after we had finished Golden and it was reto be a 360-degree artist.” It’s so true nowa- ally cool to see all this hard work that we’d days, especially with the Internet, because done resonate with people. So I think that people have immediate access to stuff. It’s show was really important to us and it was really hard to control what’s out there. But a really great show. if you are a 360-degree artist, then you are the one creating all of the content. Because Do you have a favorite type of venue it’s very easy for stuff to get out when some- to play? Do you like the larger shows one is doing things for you – for instance, where you can feed off the energy of a if you don’t like something that they sent large crowd or would you prefer smaller over by e-mail and you email it back, some- more intimate venues? thing can happen in the process and it gets I think the band definitely better fits out. But this way we control everything. larger venues, with 2,000-4,000 seats, just

www.paradeoflightsmusic.com 34 www.fourculture.com || ISSUE ISSUEELEVEN ELEVEN

because we have more of an arena type sound and our sound translates better in a big room. We are a big sounding band and we are able to get our message across best in that type of venue.

I was going to ask cat person or dog person, but your Instagram kind of answered that question already. So you’re a cat person, huh? [laughs] I love all animals. We are all suckers for animals. We all have pets — everyone has dogs except me. I have 3 cats. I’m a bit of a cat lady. People are always saying, “I like dogs because dogs are more personable and stuff.” But to me that means they’ve never owned a cat or they had a mangy feline. I feel like if you have cats and you spend a lot of time with them when you are home, you let them hang out with you and they are not just out door cats.

They can develop really cool personalities.

I love the picture of one of your cats sitting at the laptop. Mine love my laptop, too.

That’s every day. I wake up in the middle of the night and he’s wrapped around my head, sleeping. It’s too funny. Cats are so quirky.

What bands or artists are currently on your “favorites” playlist?

I’ve been listening to a lot of Nine Inch Nails; a ton of Nine Inch Nails, who I really like. I’ve also been listening to Tycho, an IDM artist. A guy we take a lot of inspiration from actually, he’s a graphic designer and a musician. His artwork is fantastic. He does a lot of graphic art and visual art and he incorporates that into his music. He’s definitely someone you should check out.

He’s sort of mellow and electronic. He’s out of San Francisco.

If you described your band mates and yourself as a mixed drink – what drink would you all be?

Wow. That’s a good question. What’s a party drink? [laughs] Well, then again we all like whiskey. We will all take a shot of whiskey occasionally. So I’m going to say whiskey, maybe like a Jack and Coke. I think that will work.

Finally, Fourculture wants to know: What are your four favorite things or the four things that you couldn’t (or just don’t want to) live without?

My computer. Music. The beach. Art. Because life without art would be kind of bland.

Parade of Lights hits the road with Royal Teeth & Chappo in February as well as dates with X Ambassadors in April & appearances at SXSW

WEDNESDAY, 26 FEBRUARY Triple Rock Social Club Minneapolis, MN, US

WEDNESDAY, 5 MARCH 20th Century Theatre Cincinnati, OH, US

SATURDAY, 12 APRIL Milkboy Philly Philadelphia, PA, US

THURSDAY, 27 FEBRUARY Mad Planet Milwaukee, WI, US

THURSDAY, 6 MARCH The Demo St Louis, MO, US

SUNDAY, 13 APRIL Brillobox Pittsburgh, PA, US

FRIDAY, 28 FEBRUARY Bottom Lounge Chicago, IL, US

TUESDAY, 8 APRIL Bug Jar Rochester, NY, US

TUESDAY, 15 APRIL Skully's Music Diner Columbus, OH, US

MONDAY, 3 MARCH Pike Room at the Crofoot Pontiac, MI, US

WEDNESDAY, 9 APRIL Great Scott Allston, MA, US

WEDNESDAY, 16 APRIL Schuba's Tavern Chicago, IL, US

TUESDAY, 4 MARCH The Basement Columbus, OH, US

THURSDAY, 10 APRIL The Space Hamden, CT, US

THURSDAY, 17 APRIL Wild Bull / Entertainment District Kalamazoo, MI, US

FRIDAY, 11 APRIL The Bowery Ballroom New York, NY, US

THE ART OF JOHN PARK BY kathy creighton

John Park’s journey began in Seoul, South Korea, continued to Columbus, OH at age 4, on to Rhode Island for college, and finally to Los Angeles. The result is a unique style of painting and sculpture that he attributes more to classical European influences than to his Korean heritage; any nod to that, John says, is purely subconscious. Today, he is an LA street artist whose work can be seen on Venice Beach, in Seoul Sausage restaurant and on their food truck, “Big Mama” and atop Cosmo Lofts in Hollywood.

P

ark is a formally trained artist.

After high school, he attended college at Rhode Island School of Design and graduated in 1996.

Initially, he considered staying in New England but quickly discovered that, despite the educational and life experience his semester in Rome had been, it had taken him away from the U.S. and school at an unfortunate time. While his classmates back in RI were putting together resumes, doing internships and applying for jobs in the second half of their senior years, John was absorbing all the great works of Italian artists; he returned to the States just in time to walk at commencement. He wandered around Providence for eight months trying to get his bearings and find employment. Thankfully, Park was able to head west and move in with his brother, a third year law student at UCLA. By the end of his first year in Los Angeles John accepted a position as an art teacher at a private school in Santa Mon-

38 www.fourculture.com | ISSUE ELEVEN

ica. He spent thirteen years helping high schoolers hone their craft, and he loved it. When the school finally closed, John says it was perfect timing. The job had stopped being fun due to bureaucratic shifts and growing conflicts with administrators. John was ready to create art full time.

John gravitated to “live art”, which, in the beginning, required a lot of sweat equity. There were not many live painters in the area so Park did most of his work for no compensation. The investment paid off. Today, he has a regular Thursday gig that is in its fifth year. He was approached by DJ LC of ThinkSpace Gallery who was experimenting with mixes of art and music. That idea became another weekly spot at the Canal Club for Venice Beats. These gigs are a source of regular income and provide the chance to share art and make it more accessible to people who might not experience it otherwise.

On October 6, 2012, John Park pulled another artistic card from his deck. At the first Cardboard Challenge event at Cain’s Arcade in East LA, Park took on the challenge of creating with cardboard with his old crew from the DoLab family. They all went to the Arcade to share their work. He was one of the artists who did his project at home and brought the completed pieces to the event.

He and his girlfriend, Julie Hunter, showed up sporting 3D helmet style masks. John’s gorilla mask also paid homage to Shogun headgear while Julie’s wore a three-foot tall plus giraffe. Both the event and the project inspired John to dig deeper into the gorilla theme. He produced paintings and more masks that were featured in his “Gorilla Warfare” show at C.A.V.E. gallery.

What was John’s previous experience with sculpture? His introduction to the genre came in his freshman year in college. The students were given a 4’ x 8’ piece of cardboard and told to build a chair that could support their weight. In his junior year, he took a toymaking class that included a corrugated assignment. Fifteen years later when the invitation to Caine’s Arcade came, John enthusiastically accepted; “With sculpture I can figure it out. It comes naturally. Painting is an abstract practice — taking a concrete idea with a narrative or an emotion and making a facsimile by manipulating colors. It’s an illusion because it is actually this flat thing that you create to give the illusion of three dimensionality. Whereas sculpture is solid, concrete. You can rotate it in your hands.

There is something about that hands-on quality to it...I guess ultimately I feel calm because it’s not just an idea. It can’t be wiped away. It exists in a space with me. When I’m presented with a challenge in sculpture, it doesn’t make me sweat the way a painting will. I sweat a lot when I paint. There’s a lot of mental effort. I don’t panic with a sculpture.

It doesn’t make me cringe”. The gorillas have gotten a lot of attention and continue to evolve. John was commissioned by Activision to create gorillas for their office in Santa Monica. The finished sculptures feature fully articulated jaws and moving tongues.

The gorillas have kind of run their course at this time and now Park is focusing on rhinoceroses. He’s also venturing outside the cardboard box (pardon the pun) and has been producing some work in wire. The rhino debuted as part of John’s “Billy” submission to the 5 Year Anniversary show of Blamo Toys. His wooden rabbit sported a wire frame rhino head. Following his muse of trophy heads, John has now produced an almost life-sized cardboard rhino head with a cool tech-mech paint job.

Discussion of the building process brought on the question of whether or not John ever considered a career in engineer40 www.fourculture.com | ISSUE ELEVEN

ISSUE ELEVEN

| www.fourculture.com 41

ing. “I feel like I have an engineer’s mind but don’t have the math skills. I got easy A’s in geometry, though. I think now that if taught correctly, my life might have gone that way. I went to a great public school system but, like most, had an indoctrinating way of teaching. All subjects are geared to prep for college. Like every other student, I had to take all math classes — some I had no business being in. If they had been put in with physics and calculus it would have made more sense.” It’s pretty apparent and easy to agree with this when you look at the photos of John designing all his cardboard creations. The tables are covered with gridded mats. There are rulers and protractors.

This is one of the many reasons why the

42 www.fourculture.com | ISSUE ELEVEN

fight to keep the arts in our schools needs to not only continue but be ramped up as more districts are convinced to remove them.

We continued with the education topic and its evolution in the U.S. As the country entered the mechanical age, it was no longer a matter of educating mind, body and imagination as the ancient Greeks believed, but it became a system of indoctrination.

Education today is not designed to optimize people’s skill and intelligence. Instead, it is designed to get young people used to authority and obeying signals. Social strata is created and enforced within a student body.

It has become all about blind obedience, turning out bean counters, analysts, etc.

This is why efforts are being strengthened

by those manipulating American society to remove the arts from the schools. On the surface, they make it look like athletics produce revenue so they should be allowed to continue but the truth is, the arts promote critical thinking. To create, one looks inward and outward, shares ideas and experiments. Team athletics are just a continuation of the blind obedience being taught in the classroom.

As one would expect, the discourse had gotten very passionate by this point which sparked “art without passion.” This was a bone that Park went for ravenously. “Art without passion is commercial art. A lot of it is skillfully done. Corporations hire the most skilled artists who will create good work

44 www.fourculture.com | ISSUE ELEVEN

without passion. It is surprising when you find a piece of commercial art that is done passionately. People will respond to that as opposed to lifeless work. A professional level of execution combined with raw passion is what you expect from a piece art.” When asked for examples of “true” art sneaking into the commercial world: “There were Volkswagen commercials 10-15 years ago for the Cabriolet. The people in the car were going to a party.

The soundtrack was Nick Drake’s “Pink Moon”. It was a stunning short film and it felt very genuine. It evoked a lot of emotion. I thought this is exceptional.” He also mentioned the artwork of Alphonse Mucha, an art nouveau pen and ink artist who created many advertising posters at the turn of the century. In some of the advertisements there was genuine art, but most of his best work was done outside of the commerce-sphere. Park says that even if it’s beautiful art, in the end it’s still advertising. “You can see right away how soulless commercial art is. Some is very slick and very pretty but it lacks the soul that brings emotion and that’s what’s expected. Flash to get attention to sell them something. At its heart it has the ulterior motive to sell you something. No matter how good an illustrator you are, what you did for an advertisement is not going to be viewed as art.”

Advertising is the primary part of any marketing department. Park had something to say about that, too. He equates marketing to a metastasizing cancer, an unhealthy outgrowth of industry. “The purpose of marketing is to convince an otherwise reasonable person to make an unreasonable decision.” And now with ever progressing technology this field gains a sharper edge every day. It can pinpoint a demographic and go in for the kill. “In the past 10 years with the growth of technology, advertisers and marketers have really sharpened their fangs. Now there are algorithms that can cross-reference and predict preferences.

Our Facebook feeds know what we have clicked on over the last three days and then return ads based on those clicks.”

John and I agreed that every day George Orwell’s 1984 is becoming more of a reality. He read the book at least fifteen times in college and is sincerely scared to see what is happening today, most prominently in the US and UK. Even in art outside of advertising, we are being brainwashed to accept cheap, second rate creations as art. It is no accident that people think that the works of such “artists” Jeff Koon and Damien Hirst are worth the millions “collectors” are paying for them, yet people like Park, Hans Haveron and others are fighting for a couple of hundred dollars for theirs. It’s a pretty sure bet that those ISSUE ELEVEN

| www.fourculture.com 45

with large amounts of disposable income are not found frequenting gallery shows of those who speak out against the status quo, shine lights on the lies and encourage people to think and feel. We are all guilty of falling for the brainwashing if we believe that oversized balloon animals and sharks suspended in formaldehyde are art.

Taking things back to a more positive note, we talked about the person who first introduced me to John’s art and is one of his favorite collaborators, Hans Haveron. “I met Hans in 2006 at Burning Man. We worked together the first time in ‘08 at Zero One Gallery which used to be one of the oldest galleries in Los Angeles. It shut down shortly after the mortgage crisis. It was terrible timing for our show because the crisis hit in November ‘08 and our show was in December. Every single person who had been buying art was hemorrhaging money through all kinds of schemes orchestrated by Wall Street on consumers and investors. I sold one piece in that show but it did get Hans and I working together and it was also the first time we collaborated.” I asked if he feels like he and Hans have a yin and yang kind of relationship. “Yes. The final results of what we do harmonizes really well but we take almost opposite approaches, not only artistically but also with our personalities.

That’s why we work so well together because there is no overlap. I’ve done collabs with other artists where we end up doing something similar. There are things I don’t have to do in a project because they’ve already gotten done. When Hans and I work together we end up never being redundant. Nothing he does is something I would have done and vice versa. We are great friends and can also work together.”

We closed with my signature questions: What other arts do you create in?

“The only other artistic things I do that aren’t visual are fire spinning and playing the didgeridoo...although I don’t really seem to find much time for either.”

What arts do you go to for inspiration or solace?

“When I’m not painting, I try to read as much as I can. Everything from fiction to history to science, and definitely a lot of political and financial current news.”

What is the one art you suck at that you wish you didn’t?

“The one art that I wish I could do is play the piano.”

www.bluecanvas.com/secretasianman www.artbattles.com/artists/john-park

ISSUE ELEVEN

| www.fourculture.com 47

BY PRO DUCER M A R K PH OTOG R A PH Y BY blackjack photography

50 www.fourculture.com || ISSUE ISSUEELEVEN ELEVEN

Based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, The Secret Post define themselves as an expression of dark emotion. Established in early 2004, lead singer and front man Zachariah Wiser formed the band as the foundation for his songs and to create a sonic experience influenced by The Cure, Joy Division, Interpol, The Sound and other dark, 80’s goth rock and darkwave bands. Their post-punk music is a unique blend of various styles and themes, but nevertheless their sound is thoroughly modern, wrapping the listener into a dark and atmospheric journey through sex, death, love and despair.

Joined by Nicoli on drums, M on bass guitar and Tim on synths, this tight knit group are very much a family with a loyal international fan base. Their brand of “SexWave” reaches far beyond their local stomping grounds. Attention to detail and time invested with all who take interest in who they are and what they produce is key to their success. Simply becoming a fan of their music is borderline impossible without finding yourself adopted as a brother or sister to the Secret Family.

The Secret Post started life many moons ago with Zach performing live with WiseMan and the release of Vampire Down, a seven track album released in 2005. A move back home to Oklahoma from California in 2006 started the story of The Secret Post. It was a transition for Zach from the WiseMan days to a fresh start with a new line-up.

In 2014, The Secret Post is ready to release their first full length album entitled From Train to Station. This album not only brings new tracks to eager fans, but it also brings the input of some highly experienced ears from someone even the lads themselves wouldn’t have believed if you had told them. I had the opportunity to speak with Zach about the band’s journey to From Train to Station.

ISSUE ISSUEELEVEN ELEVEN

| www.fourculture.com 51

WiseMan has strong links to The Secret Post with what feels like a much heavier sound compared to that of The Post’s tracks. From the self-titled album WiseMan and the Hands Demos, the band seemed more guitar oriented and more post-punk than The Secret Post.

Yes, WiseMan was definitely more guitar oriented. We had a couple songs that had synths, but mostly it was a two guitar attack. We were early in our songwriting ventures as well and we liked it to be a loud, dark wall of sound. I’ve always had the same influences but they tend to come out differently between the two bands. We never considered WiseMan to be post-punk.

It was just dark rock and roll. Towards the end, I managed to slide into the more postpunk sounding songs, and by that time the other guys trusted my judgement and songwriting enough not to question them at all.

I always say “try everything once”. I will, however, veto an idea if I don’t believe it helps the song. On that note, I hardly ever have to veto anything! We are a close and tightly knit band. We know what we like, and the guys know what I like. They do a splendid job of flavoring the foundation, and making me happy at the same time.

Here is how it goes: “M, here are the root notes, or here is this bass line I came up with. Now do something cool with it!” I usually follow it up with, “that’s your job!”

To Nicoli, I say what I’m thinking and give him random mouth noises that are supposed to resemble drum beats and he is the only person on the planet that can decipher said sounds. Then he makes it bad ass.

Then it’s “Tim, try this...stack this...do something high right there...these are the root notes” and then I add “do your job!” It is a pretty lax formula we use.

There have been a few members of The Secret Post family over the years.

Do you find that band member changes and have had an effect on the music?

There have definitely been some member changes...at one point, a journalist said that I loved The Cure so much that I mimicked Robert Smith’s love for line-up changes! The members that have come and gone have definitely put their stamp on the band…but no, The Post has always had the sound we carry with us today.

We have so many sides to the band and I refuse to limit myself to a certain “sound.” If it’s a quiet pop oriented number, then so be it. If it’s a suicide soundtrack, so be it. Life is so varied and contrasts many moods and many feelings, even on a daily basis. I try to take all those experiences and write all I can. You never know when your last song is going to be written.

The current line up has been playing together for a couple of years now, even though your close ties have been there for a lot longer than that. How would you best introduce your bandmates?

M — he has really come quite a long way since his induction into The Post, taking shape in the last year, and really stepping up to the level of bass playing I require.

I am very proud of him. He is my right hand man.

Nicoli — my brother’s playing has come so far since the last EP. We picked up a drum set in California from WiseMan’s lead guitarist Robert Bowman who made us a deal we couldn’t refuse. With more options with a bigger set, Nicoli has really stepped it up. His beats on this new record are, by far, some of my favorite drumming from ANY drummer. I’m really proud that he is my drummer, and even more proud that he’s my brother.

Tim — Mr. Synth is a drummer by trade.

He had enough determination to be in The Post so he learned a whole new instrument.

He has come so far in this last year and does a fantastic job. He’s even been called out for his abilities by a keyboardist we respect. I’m so proud of him and his attitude towards the band is second to none. I love my Tim Synth.

The dark overtones that transgress from WiseMan into The Secret Post remain, but how free are other members to contribute to the songwriting process and the sound of the songs?

The songs are written by The Secret Post. I write songs and I take these songs to our rehearsals. Each member gets a foundation to build on to make it their own and I don’t necessarily limit anyone on anything.

“This record, for me, is the payoff of a long, hard journey through many band members and changes. It’s a coming of age for The Secret Post, if you will.”

52 www.fourculture.com || ISSUE ISSUEELEVEN ELEVEN

excited about at the time, and those songs belong together. The EP represented a certain side of us quite well, but as I’ve said before, we have many, many sides. I love that EP and always will. It definitely brought us attention from avenues we hadn’t had it from yet. Greece was the first to catch on.

Then it was France where a certain Clemence Grassi spread our music like wildfire.

We even have a fan site now that’s run by Cha Cha in France. There is also DJ named Eva Sam, who I credit most of our discovery to. I truly believe that many of you may not have heard of us had she not pushed to get that EP out there. DJ Bynar, Producer Mark, Kostas with Indie Tapes, Brainpunch Radio, StarDust Radio, DJ Mac, Electro Niki and Destiny Dying Supernova were all huge catalysts for our music. We will always love each of you a little extra for that.

There is a softer side to The Secret Post on certain tracks. There’s more focus on melody and lyrics than from your past.

Is old age catching up with Zach, or is this due to the input of Nicoli, M and Tim and playing with them?

It very well could be old age! Seriously, some of the softest songs came from when I was in my 20’s, so it’s just how I’m feeling at the moment. The guys always surprise me. I think sometimes, “I’m gonna show this to them, and they’re gonna roll their eyes…” but then I show them, and one of them comments, “that is really pretty.” When my metal 54 www.fourculture.com || ISSUE ISSUEELEVEN ELEVEN

loving brother Nicoli says it, I know I’ve got something good. We all like fast and loud.

We all like dance oriented and poppy and we all like sad and gorgeous melodies. It works out that we don’t have a set sound all the time.

The release in 2012 of the Fields of Fire EP was the first to come from The Secret Post. Do you feel it represents a good cross section of what the band is about?

Field’s of Fire is a great EP but I don’t think it represents us very well. It was basically five new songs that we were very

In 2014, The Secret Post releases its first full length album. As of this press time, From Train to Station is currently in the final mixing and mastering stages and getting closer to release. How long has this album taken to write?

From Train to Station has something old and something new. I wanted to properly release some tracks that have consistently stayed on our setlists throughout the years.

I also wrote several tracks that I felt were some of our best yet. I am very proud of this record and the songs on it. If you liked Fields of Fire, you will be blown away.

As for time, it honestly doesn’t take a lot of time for me to write...an idea usually hits me, and within 3 to 4 minutes I’ll have a melody and lyrics. Then I go home, get out my trusty acoustic guitar and write to that.

After I take it to the guys, it’s ready within 1 or 2 rehearsals. The songs sometime take shape in the weeks that follow, but they’re normally pretty true to their original idea.

If I was to be commissioned to write by a record company, (hint hint, haha!) I don’t think it would be very long before I could hand in a good twelve song record. Life is a constant inspiration, so my head is always running with ideas.

With the mixing and mastering in mind, rumour has it that there are some very experienced hands playing with the production…

Ah, yes...I believe it is time to spill the beans! I somehow got a hero of mine involved with this record. I just cold emailed him and simply asked. I had no idea I’d even get a response back, let alone have him work on the record. It is definitely a dream come true and even just talking to this man is surreal. The man, you ask? It’s John Ashton of Psychedelic Furs fame. Yes, I

ISSUE ISSUEELEVEN ELEVEN

| www.fourculture.com 55

56 www.fourculture.com || ISSUE ISSUEELEVEN ELEVEN

know. It fucking rules! He has a new project called Satellite Paradiso that I became quite interested in and that is how this all began.

You should definitely check it out. He has a great band with an all-star line up — Fred Schreck and Frank Coleman, who are just awesome guys.

I asked John if he would be interested in mixing our record and he asked me to send him two songs. “Two songs…” I thought.

And then I threw up on myself! I sent him the title track From Train to Station and “World in View” and a day or two later, he sent a message informing me that he would be interesting in working on this record.

Again, I threw up on myself. As two songs were mixed, I could feel John wanting to put in more input, so I just asked him if he would be interested in co-producing the record to which he replied, “I’d love to!” I just let him do his thing, took his suggestions, and here we are! John Ashton is mixing and coproducing our record…absolutely surreal. I was absolutely floored that John, a guy who I’d been listening to for 25 years, was going to work on the record. The rest, my friend, is as they say “history.”

This is what John Ashton had to say about The Secret Post sound: “That’s always a tough one because it’s subjective. I would say that The Secret Post falls somewhere between early U2 and The Mission U.K. Obviously, that’s an off-the cuff statement, but I think it points to a particular feeling that’s evocative of that time more than anything else. I don’t think of their sound as being stuck in that era, it’s more of a case of taking those influences, and turning them into something fresh and new.”

John Ashton also had words regarding the From Train to Station album: “Well, I like it obviously. Apart from that, I find the songs to be interesting, well, but not overplayed, and the instrumentation to be well thought out and purposeful in intention. The bass and drums lock in to form a solid foundation to hang your guitar riffs on.

The guitars, in general, evoke feelings of the glory days of 1980’s new wave without sounding like they’re stuck in any particular era. The keys are sparse yet dutiful in in-

tention, and once in a while they’re allowed to soar, holding court while allowing others to ‘play nicely’ together. The vocals are, at times, majestic but not pompous, melancholy but never sad, and the lyrics are purposeful. They hint at irony and hold the listener’s attention brilliantly...I see only good things. Working with The Secret Post has been a pleasure, and I only wish I had been in at the start of this record.”

Having not released anything for quite some time, From Train to Station is a much anticipated album. Are there any tracks in the works that you feel would be single material?

Yes, we are all very excited! It has been over a year and we are ready to unleash this thing! It sounds so good...John did a great job, and my guys did a great job. From Train to Station is kind of my baby. Everyone knew that from the start and they made me very proud. This record, for me, is the payoff of a long, hard journey through many band members and changes. It’s a coming of age for The Secret Post, if you will. It’s the reason for the title, From Train to Station — the long and hard road travelled and finally arriving at where I feel The Post is at our strongest and best line-up yet. Don’t get me wrong, I love all the past members, especially Tap, who moved to California to be in WiseMan, and moved back to Oklahoma to be in The Secret Post.

As far as singles go, well, that is an ongoing debate! What I picked for the lead single has all the elements of a great single and M, Nick, and Tim agree with me. John has chosen “Glass Fascination| which I didn’t even think he’d like, but he said his wife and kids agree! Fred Schreck (Crush, The Ancients, Satellite Paradiso) has picked “Magazine Article Lover”, saying “this sounds fucking great! That’s the hit so far, in my humble opinion.” Fred immediately followed this up with, “John has had more hits than we have, so maybe you should listen to him!” [laughs] Basically, it is all up in the air…what would you choose, Mark? I’m going to guess it’s “Eyelashes” [laughs] I honestly think this record has 10 singles on it. It’s that good. We are putting it out on vinyl as well, and the only time you’ll have to get up and move the needle, is for side 2. My opinion, of course.

According to your social media pages, it seems Europe can finally expect some tour dates to promote From Train To Station. Do you have confirmed dates and locations for these events?

Ooh! Sore subject! We had planned on coming in June, which was thwarted by “the man.” We now are in the process of rescheduling for October! Our original destinations were London, France (Nancy, Paris, Lyon), Italy (Milan), and Greece (Patra, Athens, Thessaloniki), but we may add more now that we have more time to do so. It will also give us more time for our record to make a wider reach.. with some help from people like YOU, Mark! If you like the record, and aren’t on our travel list, SPREAD THE WORD! Let us know we have fans, we will come and see you!

Looking back over the life of The Secret Post, do you have high expectations for the future?

I most definitely have high expectations.

I know there is something in the works for us. I’d love to see people go crazy over this new record and give the industry a reason to take notice. We are very close to our fans. If you message us or post to us, we love to interact. The fans are the reason we love doing this so much. I think we have a fun future ahead of us and I can’t wait to see exactly what that is. I’d like to meet each person that supports The Post.

If you could put together a wish list for what The Post, would like to achieve following the release of the album? What would be at the top?

My goals for us this year: Open for Satellite Paradiso Open for Interpol Open for White Lies Come to Europe and kill it...leave with Europe loving us.

Play more shows with some of the great bands we have met this year For this record to blow you all away like I feel it is going to.

To have a pint or 12 with YOU Mark!

Thank you for having us. We love YOU ALL.

www.thesecretpost.net ISSUE ISSUEELEVEN ELEVEN

| www.fourculture.com 57

M Y

P E R S O N A

L

M U R D E R E R

the complexity of human nature

by M arguerite O’connell PhotographY by Olia Pischanska

60 www.fourculture.com | ISSUE ELEVEN

The idea that people are the product of their environment is subject to serious debate. The complexity of human nature seems to argue against the adequacy of a single theory to explain the whole of human development. But that which is unknown does not stop the Ukrainian band, My Personal Murderer from exploring deeper questions about life’s meaning. Such questions are at the heart of the band’s music — a melancholic fusion of post-punk, atmospheric and depressive rock. My Personal Murderer is Yevgen Chebotarenko on lead vocals and guitar, Yuriy Kononov on drums and Maxim (Max) Kovalchyk on bass; they are a band known for haunting melodies and brooding lyrics that use individual experience as metaphor for universal struggles and highlight the uncertainty of life in a postindustrial urban world. In the end we are left to ponder the bigger questions for ourselves, but the music of My Personal Murderer makes a compelling argument for Art that is the product of the artist’s environment; it seems clear that this band and their music have been shaped by their surroundings.

Y

evgen Chebotarenko was seventeen when he picked the name My Personal Murderer for a studio project simply because he liked it. “It is very flexible and has an existential vibe. We can always feed it with new meanings,” he explains. Between 2009 and 2011, the group recorded two well-received studio albums that garnered the attention of critics and fans alike.

But Yevgen wanted to take My Personal Murderer out of the studio and make it “a real live band.” While he was focused on perfecting the band’s line up and live show, Yevgen played a few live shows with Yuriy, and met Max while attending local gigs. In May 2013, Yuriy and Max joined My Personal Murderer as permanent members and the band finally coalesced around their ISSUE ELEVEN

| www.fourculture.com 61

shared vision of the band’s future.

Settling the band’s line up was monumental, says Yevgen; it meant that My Personal Murderer was “not a one-man-band anymore and every one of us will have a huge influence on the music.” Yuriy and Max both agree, with Yuriy adding, “I feel that we all really give birth to new [songs] after almost every regular rehearsal” and don’t just settle for playing “something already composed earlier.” The band is putting their stamp on the My Personal Murderer back catalogue as well, making the band’s earlier songs sound new.

Collaborating on songwriting and the band’s live show led to a refinement and maturity of the band’s already distinctive sound — described in the past as having a “sculpted, elegant darkwave” vibe. By the middle of 2013, the success of the new collaboration was quickly becoming apparent when the band gave a stunning, live, semiacoustic performance in their native city of Odessa, Ukraine. The band then released a new single, “Singing for a Doomed Youth,” their first live performance video, premiered the official music video for the new single, and released a new live album, Near the Black Sea. “Singing For a Doomed Youth”, is a guitar driven dark rock song about a father’s incestuous feelings for his daughter, and a reflection on the collective idea of ‘doomed youth’; born into circumstances not of their choosing that nonetheless doom them to a life of struggle. “For us, a doomed youth is what we are — people who grew up in the former Soviet Union. From our very birth we are doomed to fight for our interests and our views,” explains Yevgen.

Listening to the live album, Near the Black Sea reveals a newfound maturity and nowhere is that more apparent than on the stripped back and achingly gorgeous track, “She’s Dead.” This is a band that recognizes its strength, the emotional, yearning restraint of Yevgen’s vocals, and has the confidence to use it. This track focuses on its compelling lyrics and wrenching vocals, using a simple guitar melody, strong bass line and engaging percussion to slowly build to an emotional, swirling instrumental ending. This track is a perfect example of how My Personal Murderer conveys raw, powerful emotion without the trappings of excessive production. Others have tried and failed to tackle the same dark topics, only to produce tracks steeped in adolescent angst and/or shrill over-production.

The secret to My Personal Murderer’s success lies in the elegant sophistication of its melancholy. Yevgen has the unique vocal ability to deliver emotion with restraint, contemplative as opposed to loud and harsh, providing a solemnity to their songs that seems to evade others.

62 www.fourculture.com | ISSUE ELEVEN

In the past you have talked about the influence that living in Odessa, Ukraine had on your music. How has living in a city on the shore of the Black Sea influenced your music?

YEVGEN: Odessa is like a city stuck in time. The city is a bit rusty. It has a lot of rusty citizens. I think these facts have some notable influence on our music.

YURIY: There are certain places in this city that always remind me about stillness. It’s because they really don’t change over the years or even decades. Somehow this fact makes me think about being more creative under certain limits. For example, there are pieces in our music where I’m supposed to play really quiet. And I find myself being more creative while composing drums to such pieces instead of having a huge variety of selections and being blinded by choice.

MAX: It’s about the sea…the sea gives me the feeling of a wave, the atmosphere and the nonhuman nature of calm; like an indifference between one thing and another.

When writing music, do you usually write lyrics first or do words only come after the music is written?

YEVGEN: It depends. Often lyrics are the last thing I do in the songwriting pro-

64 www.fourculture.com | ISSUE ELEVEN

cess. But sometimes words can be born before melodies. I used to write almost all the arrangements for our previous records, but today it’s different. Today all of us have an equal influence on the band’s music. Our new album will reflect not only my experience but also, the experience of every musician in the band, and I like this fact. This is why I said that as a band, My Personal Murderer was born in 2013, and as a project in 2009.

MAX: I just push up my inner imagination, and soon I can hear the music. Then all I need is to play it.

only three though.

MAX: Today I listen to classic opera as well as Led Zeppelin, CAN, and James Blake.

The band is presently working on a new album titled, The Art of Constant Waiting.

How is this album going to be different from your previous albums? When can fans expect the album to be released?

YEVGEN: We are in the songwriting stage. We are playing the new songs live. I like how people react to them. This album will be a big change for My Personal Murderer.

YURIY: We are eager to take the oldschool ‘live’ approach in making a record.

What three words would you use to deMAX: Making this album shall be a great scribe your music to someone who has journey never heard it?

YEVGEN: Harmony. Melody. Rhythm. Finally, Fourculture wants to know: What are your four favorite things – the YURIY: Haunting. Warm. Subtle.

MAX: Melancholy. Delicate. Intelligent. four things you couldn’t (or just don’t want to) live without?

YEVGEN: I am a chameleon and not Name three bands or artists that have a romantic person. If you take something had the most influence on you or three away from me, I’ll learn fast to live without it. that you listen to today.

YURIY: Drumming, this one is almost YEVGEN: Today they are: The Cure, religious to me. Cooking. Drawing. Video Bohren & der Club of Gore, and David Bow- games.

MAX: Live gigs. My sphynx cat, Kir. ie. These are true artists.

YURIY: Porcupine Tree, Massive At- Delicious food and drink. Love. tack, and Kevin Moore. It’s hard to mention

66 www.fourculture.com | ISSUE ELEVEN

By A aron Wallace

Tom J. Eggert was struggling to write music when he started; as soon as he would finish something, it already seemed stale . He sought out other musicians to help him, and was introduced to Joseph Thiang, who was filling in for another friend’s band at the time. Through Joe, Tom met Robbie Hellberg and they formed a group: MTNS. Think of the Alps, the Himalayas, the Cascades; mountains are awesome and inspiring. Like a great mountain, this band has a sound that inspires and energizes. They are rising quickly in both talent and popularity. Sharp lyrics polished by synths, guitars, and drums blend inspiration into a tremendous package which rises as it takes on shape, ultimately engulfing the listener.

MTNS demonstrate the pure love they have for both the music they create and the inspirations from which they derive it. This love is evident in the passion placed behind the lyrics and sounds created by their instruments. Each song begins in a dark place, but empowers us until we find ourselves on a journey toward a beautiful and rich landscape.

They evolve each piece of their musical selves into an abundantly motivating shape; a love as deep as an ocean seen from a mountain peak.

Everything can be an inspiration. A word, when it tugs at your mind, can form a phrase and in turn, a song, which begins a whirlwind of musical expansion. The band’s album, Salvage, reflects a journey through different moments in life; happy, sad, difficult or easy, but all pulling together toward a destination. While Tom J hopes that every person listening is able to take their own message from their music, the message he received through the experience is at the heart of the musical journey.

MTNS showcases a wide variety of talent in the small group of three and has seen reaction from their fan base as well. Where life encourages us to sit still and watch, this album encourages the listener to step out, start walking toward your dreams, and speak up.

MTNS fulfills their name; an awesome presence standing to inspire and build. It’s not surprising that this band is quickly building an audience internationally with their heartfelt lyrics and layered ambient tones. Australian tastemaker Radio Triple J named the band ‘’a band to watch” for 2014 and there is no question of why. This band is sure to take the world by force, living true to the name they have chosen.

I was fortunate to catch up with Tom J., the lead of the band, and ask him a few questions. His answers truly inspired me and redefined the love I already had for this amazing musical experience.

How did you start making music together?

Originally I was writing music by myself which can get boring pretty quickly! I was first introduced to Joe (drums) when he was filling in for a friend’s band. Joe and I started jamming together and after a while he suggested we get Robbie (synths) on board. Next thing…MTNS. What would you say are your biggest inspirations for the music you create?

Musically speaking, other musicians are a big influence. The more I watch different bands play and work with other musicians, the more I’m inspired to go home and start working on music.

How about personal inspirations?

Everything around me! Particularly my friends and family. Sometimes I might hear a word I really like and write a song around it.

What were your favorite moments while recording your EP? Midway through last year we decided to take all our gear to the coast to put finishing touches on all the songs. Everything before this point was done in my room so getting away to a new environment was really great.

68 www.fourculture.com | ISSUE ELEVEN

How you feel that this experience has changed you, individually as well as a group?

It was really the first time we got to spend more than one day working on music together. We’re all busy during the week and can only afford nights to work on music, which usually means we are all tired. Personally it was nice to stay in the same headspace for a few days straight. During the week it’s easy to get distracted.

How did you arrive at your name, MTNS? Originally we were called ‘Mountains’ because mountains are so awesome. If you’ve ever stood in front of one you’ll know what I’m talking about. However, when people tried to find us online they would only find information and pictures about different mountains.

So we changed it to ‘MTNS’ so people could find us a little easier.

Can you describe your creative process? What makes a MTNS song?

I don’t really have a specific process. Mostly I plug in a synth or guitar and just get started. I work on the skeleton of the song and once I feel an idea is developed enough, I bring it to the guys and we work on it together. Usually I record demos and send them around to the guys. We find working on the computer to be really beneficial for us. I guess you could say we write and record at the same time.

What do you feel is the most important message this EP relays?

I hope everyone that listens can take their own message from the music. For me personally it reflects a small journey through different moments in life.

What advice would you give to aspiring musicians who are trying to get their sounds heard?

Don’t be afraid to collaborate with other musicians--they have lots of different skills and ideas to offer. Keep working hard at your instrument!

Salvage has gathered a lot of attention, both in Australia and the rest of the world. Did you expect that kind of reaction?

What are your goals for this release?

To give people something they can listen to and love, the way other bands have done for us. I think that’s one of the best gifts you can give someone.

What interesting fan experiences have you encountered?

It’s really nice when people send us messages letting us know they like what we’re doing. Sometimes people go to the effort of creating some art – it’s really cool. One person even made a full video clip for our song ‘Salvage’.

How do you plan to use the fame and fortune this EP will surely open you up for?

We just love writing music and creating together. So if we can keep doing that it would be amazing. Also we'd love to help inspire other people and musicians the way they inspire us.

If you could tell the world anything, what would it be?

Something someone has already said: “Do ordinary things with extraordinary love.” – Mother Teresa

ISSUE ELEVEN

| www.fourculture.com 69

by A dam D

Do you remember the first 12” you bought? Mine was ‘Don’t Tell me’ by Blancmange. It took the song and stretched it out. Accentuating all the rhythms and synth parts that were more hidden in the short version.

It made it truly epic. You had to play the damn thing as loud as possible. The intro swirls into life, with some stabbing synth parts, as if they’re testing to see if everything is switched on. Then the insatiable rhythm joins in. The tablas pounding and bass kicking. Then, well, then the song plays. It occasionally drops out to a simple bass or drum section.

Snippets of vocals drifting in and out. But it’s unmistakably the song you would expect to hear.

Ah yes. You never forget your first. What’s that? You’ve never bought a 12”? You had to look it up on the internet? Oh, so you’re a CD slash download generation baby. Poor you. All those bewildering remixes that don’t even sound like the original. In some cases, they don’t even contain any of the original. And all squashed onto the CD. You get 5” of pleasure. You can keep it. I got 12. Size matters.

I’m looking into a radio show for Fourculture. A show on which I only play the 12” version of songs. All the way through. P Diddy once released an album claiming ‘We Invented The Remix’. I beg to differ, Mr. Diddy, but you most definitely did not. Back in 1975, a certain Georgio Moroder was asked to add some spark to Donna Summers’ ‘Love To Love You Baby’ so that people could dance to it. What he did was to recognise what made the song ‘groove’ and stretched it out over 16 glorious minutes. Donna Summer was recorded moaning and groaning on the sofa in the studio. Rumour has it Ms. Summer ‘simulated’ 23 orgasms throughout the song. It was a marriage made in heaven. It also accentuated the sexual nature of the dance song, and pushed the boundaries that you had to respect on the humble 7” single.

That song opened the door to thousands more superb, sexy,

tight corner so that you can polish something with your bum, it’s still ‘dancing’. So I’m not going to suggest that the 12” is limited to attempts to turn the Sex Pistols into disco. For some, it’s a chance for the lead guitarist to have a few extra bars to ‘rock out’ (man).

That said, I think it is interesting how many acts did give it the full ‘let’s throw on a beat they can dance to’ treatment. Perhaps one of the most iconic 12” of the 1990s (in the UK at least), was Fools Gold by The Stone Roses. Here was a band who were writing ‘jingly jangly’ pop/rock songs. It wasn’t that there was no ‘groove’, but it was all a bit of a muffled shuffle. Fools Gold grabbed hold of a sampled drum loop (Bobby Byrd’s ‘Hot Pants – I’m Coming, I’m Coming’) and pumped the song with an irresistible, head nodding, toe tapping beat. Less than a minute in and I defy anyone listening to be sitting still. At the very least, you’ll be a ‘bobble-head Jesus’.

The 7” version of the song also has the same beat but the 12” is where the groove is released. It’s also the 12” version that is on the album. This suggests they only released a shorter version when they knew just what a monster they had created.

Now, I’m no expert (if you’ve read anything I’ve written before you’ll know this is not false modesty), but when the band chose to put the time of the song on the 12” cover, they wanted you to know just how epic this was. There it is, on the front of the sleeve: “Fools Gold 9.53”. ‘Go on, we dare you’, they said. ‘Buy this and submit to 9 minutes and 53 seconds of awesome’. Many, many people did, of course. It was an invitation not to be missed.

What started to happen a lot more in the 1990s, and really took off in the noughties was the actual ‘remix’. This wasn’t just an extended version of the song. It was a completely different beast. Different producers and DJs, or other acts, were invited to reinterpret the original song. Some made more of the same, perhaps drawing out the bass line, or adding a different rhythm to accentuate the danceability of the song. Others tore the song to pieces, so that it was unrecognisable. When this works, it works really well. But I think there’s something a little ‘tricky’ about this. You no longer know what you’re going to hear when you press play. Will it contain any vocals? Will it contain any elements of the original? If I played you Underworld’s mix of ‘Barrel Of A Gun’, without telling you what it was, I would suspect that you would have very little chance of identifying the songs’ original artist, let alone which song it was!

Of course, I’m not going to sit here and poo-poo the idea of the remix outright. There are many, many examples of simply brilliant remixes. Some of these do stray almost entirely from the original.

Good old Depeche Mode (and I know I am beginning to sound like a stuck record myself) liked the Jacques Lu Cont remix of ‘A Pain That I’m Used To’ so much they integrated it into their live set for their ‘Delta Machine’ tour. It just happens to be one of my favourite mixes of all time.

I could write a whole magazine’s worth of lists of 12” and remixes that you simply have to listen to. I’m not going to (be allowed to) thankfully. Besides, you will all have your own favourites. Arguing about which is best is pointless. I don’t want to do that. I just want to make sure you’re aware of the beauty, the glory, the sweat, the wall-to-wall grin, the sex, and the ecstasy that the 12” can bring you.

So if you’ve never done it before, I want you to head out to your nearest vinyl-selling record store. Thumb through the 12”s and pick something out. Splash the cash, and then do something outrageous. You could be sitting there with your mp3, gently nodding your head with the other downloaders, all with their tiny gadgets packed with technology, safely tucked away in pockets. But this is a time for boldness. Strut around town, showing off your 12” to the world. Let it swing from your hip. Keep whipping it out in front of strangers. Fondle it between your fingers on public transport. Then go home, head upstairs, lock the bedroom door, and play with that sucka til you can’t stand up. Size matters people, and it’s within everyone’s grasp.

Who wants a measly 3 and a half minutes of ‘Left To My Own Devices’ when you can have 8 minutes and 17 seconds’ worth?

slinky, sinuous, ssssssssssomething else beginning with s, versions of songs. All released on a glorious 12” slab of vinyl and waiting to be snapped up (not literally, although occasionally that could happen) and whisked to the club (or the bedroom) to be placed onto turntables and spun over and over. Donna Summer didn’t wait long before her next 12” experience. ‘I Feel Loved’ is another supercharged, synth-driven sexual encounter. It pounds on the door and you have to let it in. There are no ‘blurred lines’ here. This is consensual. This is ecstasy long before you could buy it in a pill.

Fast forward to the mid 1980s, and I could be found spending almost all of my pocket money on going into York and buying up the entire 12” back-catalogue of Depeche Mode singles. Each one contained a great extended version of the original song. Instantly recognisable yet lovingly extended. You simply got more of what you wanted. Extra rhythm. Extra synth. Extra dancing time. You could even flip it over and get either an extended version of the bside, or sometimes the mythical ‘dub’ version of the a-side.

Dub is obviously a style of music all on its own. Sly and Robbie and the like playing ultra-deep pounding reggae-tinged rhythms.

Tons of echo and reverb. Very little in the way of vocals. So had the oh so european synth acts turned to reggae? No. The ‘dub’ referred to here was, essentially, the song without any vocal. Occasionally you got random sections of the vocal. New Order were perhaps the kings of this style. Many of their 12” b-sides contained the a-side as an instrumental, re-named in some clever-clever way. So ‘Sub Culture’ became ‘Dub Culture’, and ‘Confusion’ got the Arthur Baker electro treatment to become ‘Confused’.

There was something rewarding about finding that missing 12” in a record shop. Yes, a ‘Record Shop’. I obviously appreciate the download, the cd, and the ease with which you can get and share songs. But let’s be honest, the thrill of the chase is all important here. If you really want to get true listening pleasure, spend a few hours trawling through the treasure troves of record shops, seeking out that elusive 12” version of the song you love so much.

When my sister moved to London in the mid-80’s, I confess I didn’t go down to visit her that much. I went down to visit all the record shops and dig around for I Start Counting 12”s. Here was a band on Mute Records (home to Depeche at the time), with about half a dozen singles released. All perfect pop. All largely ignored by the record-buying public. Yet you knew that if you found one of their 12”, you would get about 6 minutes of unadulterated, eyes closed, synth-washed happiness. Even the moment the needle hit the groove and you got that crackle. Ohhhhh that crackle. Sure, if it ended up making the track actually skip, or repeat a bar over and over again until you nudged the needle, then it could be frustrating.

None more so than if you were recording it onto a ‘cassette’ so you could carry it around with you on your ‘Walkman’. If you don’t know what one of those is, or you’ve never had the dubious pleasure of using a pencil to wind the eaten, mangled tape back into the cassette housing, then frankly, there’s no hope for you.

Another act in the 1980s who really recognized the power of the 12” was the Pet Shop Boys. Shortly after their first album, they released a ‘companion’ album. ‘Disco’ featured 6 tracks, all remixed and extended into a 12” length. They reversed this process for their 1988 release ‘Introspective’. Here, the duo recorded extended versions of songs, which were later ‘condensed’ into shorter versions for single release. The album is their second-highest selling, so it appears that a band at perhaps their peak were able to draw people in to get more of what they wanted to hear. Who wants a measly 3 and a half minutes of ‘Left To My Own Devices’ when you can have 8 minutes and 17 seconds’ worth?

The 12” doesn’t even need to be a ‘dance’ track, which in itself is a strange concept, given that, generally, if you like a song enough, you’ll probably dance to it. Whether that dance is headbanging, pogoing, pushing each other around or trying to reverse into a very

72 www.fourculture.com | ISSUE ELEVEN

THE UNBEARABLE RIGHTNESS OF BEING...KIND North Americano Ca単ero, Juan Carlos Noria: Cleans Up Our Garbage, Takes Out The Trash by sylvie hill

ISSUE ELEVEN

| www.fourculture.com 73

He used to skate for Disney on Ice. Now he dumpster dives.

Venezulan-born Canadian visual artist, Juan Carlos Noria, is a shit-disturbing hippy. Some guys pick up a guitar to change the world, and to get laid. Juan grabs at pens, brushes and spray-paint cans and his scooter to paint the town, back alleys and galleries with red-hot art. His “seemingly ridiculous ideas that inspire a better future”, as he calls them, stimulate us back into being from the unconscious states we humans suffer at the hands of a modern society that sedates not unlike a date-rape drug, confusing our senses and brains about what’s actually happening to our body, soul and mind.

He is a simple-living, environmentally friendly, frugal human on a mission.

He provokes with two distinctive artistic styles. The ‘dixon’ brand is “a sort of oddly-shaped pop art style,” he explains.

Then there’s Royal, which he describes as “an illustrative style that welds on paper, simple caricatures of those who feel they have been chosen to be the chosen ones.” The artist also sees ‘Royal’ as a bandied term in North America – a superficial, commercial tactic to sell fast food, face creams, gelatin, paint. The name was perfect because it was meaningless. “It helps me solve the never-ending corruption and present, slow and painful descent into despotism,” he adds.

FourCulture caught up with Juan at his breezy Spanish seaside low-rent home and workspace to talk about moving on from a career of ice dancing in the Canadian National Figure Skating Championships in the 90s, and as a Disney employee, toward the life of full-time artist. Where many adventurers escape society in their ‘follow your bliss’ quest, FourCulture reveals how Juan Carlos Noria is a man with a social conscience who faces it to help reconstruct and facelift it, answering his inherent calling to share.

74 www.fourculture.com || ISSUE ISSUEELEVEN ELEVEN

Philosopher Joseph Campbell once said If you really want to help this world, what you have to teach is how to live in it. Can you relate?

Before starting, I'd like to thank you guys for offering me an opportunity like this. An event that offers an excuse to work things out in my mind, project those solutions and encapsulate them with words in this interesting transition period I'm going through.

When I read the quote by Joseph Campbell, I tend to think of my own life: If someone had taught me the rules on how "to live in it," perhaps I'd have less anxiety.

I may have resisted less when my heart told me that something was not to my liking. I may have all the first-world medals of honour, a credit card, a home in the subs, a couple of cars, a silk-tie noose and a 14day vacation to the same place every year.

I don't have those things, so I'm kind of glad no one showed me the rule book.

I suppose that having a mentor to guide you through the important dilemmas in life would be ideal, and helpful, but if you're like me, doing a daily balancing act on your intuition, no amount of teaching will facilitate your journey. Here's a quote to make my point: It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society (Jiddu Krishmurti) Are you documenting the human condition unique to Spain where you now live, or are your observations of “sick society,” global? What are you trying to do with your art?

A friend of mine recently called me "Cañero" (trouble maker, agitator). It was unexpected, yet, he made me feel proud in a strange way. I've become very aware of the antisocial actions many tend to harvest for money, for fame, due to insecurities or a need to quench their anxieties. The botoxed face of the globalized system hides what look like superficial cracks and wrinkles, but upon closer inspection, they are not unlike rotting lacerations so deep they need amputation.

And, the puzzling contradiction of being able to smell the significant spoilage but not seeing where it hides – things that are kept secret like the TTP (Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement) out of the reach of our vote.

What I've been painting for years is taking a toll on me. I'm adjusting my levels so it's all a little softer but still, Cañero! Not only to make sure I conserve my sanity, but more importantly, evading the description of "one-trick pony." I'm going through a time of transformation. I will always paint, but I need to try new things to push me to another level.

I am aware that Artists and Intellectuals have a duty, to sow seeds of alternative thought and inspiration. I've been looking around and my peeps seem to be caught in that dangerous sleep mode that dismisses

all the incredibly corrupt and deeply troubling things that are going on around us. I feel it's careless, selfish and dangerous, to dismiss the power to communicate, inspire alternative thought, important change and constructive action.

I wish to be present and serve mine and other generations to think for themselves, analyze with clarity and be empowered in the face of despotism. My art is my voice, my feelings and thoughts. Art holds a certain sort of power and it's well described in this quote

by David Cronenberg: "Entertainment wants to give you what you want. Art wants to give you what you don't know you want."

This urge and need to expose the lies around us, does it come at a cost?

Would it be easier to shut up?

Painting in my workspace is, and has always been therapeutic. I don't need to see a specialist simply because I tend to work things out while working. With musical accompaniment, paint, brushes and some sort of surface to paint on, I have the ideal "corrective" set up. Painting this unconventional sort of pop, allows for me to use images from the hyper realistic to the more simple lines of cartoon illustrations. The way I bring them all together to make a canvas tell a story is by reaching into the chronological records that matter to me. Stories of sexism, fascism, cruelty, corruption, injustice and greed and work them out with some sort of humour or exaggeration. My work stands on the endless stream of popular imagery being churned out and of the equal amount of waywardness I see around me.

I know that I'm wired to create some sort of change, big, small or minuscule. Remaining quiet will not facilitate that change. I am ISSUE ISSUEELEVEN ELEVEN

| www.fourculture.com 75

alive, I have a voice. I want to play a role in going on vacation and that I'd be back very remastering the human experience...I can't soon. It turns out I never saw them again.

We arrived in Moncton, New Brunswick shut up. It's beyond me. (laughs heartily!) where the championship was. We visited You were born in Caracas, Venuzuela Ottawa before heading back and, well, we and introduced to Canada at 7 years old stayed. When that decision was made, we through your father, who was an athlete had to produce sacrifices. In time, with our touring with a national badminton team savings running out, my father returned to in Canada. Your parents moved the fam- Venezuela. He'd send money every month ily to Ottawa, Ontario. What was your re- for a long time. Looking back, we seemed to integrate very well to northern society. I lationship to Canada’s capital?

We had lived in Caracas, so Canada's went to public school where I learned EngCapital was a safe haven for us. If you've lish and French. Took on sports and made been to Caracas, even when we left in 1976, good on my creativity. I always had a bicyyou'd know that it was densely populated, cle by my side.

As ice skating became more important polluted and, unforgiving. Ottawa was the absolute opposite. We arrived as tourists in my life, I renounced myself to living at with no intention of staying. At least I think home. Let's face it: figure skating is not a so because I'd told my friends that we were sport for the poor so we had to make sac-

76 www.fourculture.com || ISSUE ISSUEELEVEN ELEVEN

rifices. My mother is a fantastically talented seamstress and I found myself wearing hand-crafted garments. Our home was a model for the do-it-your-selfer. It's a mindset that drives me. In time, I ended up traveling a lot with the skating teams. Lived in Toronto and Montreal but Ottawa was always my home. Still is, though I live in Spain.

When and why did you leave Ottawa for Spain, and describe “home” now.

In 2004, after Bush Junior was re-elected, after a break-up with my girlfriend at the time [image: “Left a Mess”], a couple of hard winters and wanting to distance myself from family, I sold all my belongings and jumped on a plane to Barcelona.

It's the place where Carolina and I met and where my daughter Alba was born.

DERAILED Recently, we’ve moved south to a small seaside town called Benicassim. It's not Barcelona and for that we're grateful.

I'm blessed to have a large workspace at home. Something that was impossible in the big city. It's where I've been trying my hand at welding steel-frame push scooters. Human powered vehicles have always interested me. The diminution in rent has given us wings, so to speak. It's allowed for us to dream and put into action projects that I/we've been wanting to do.

Living by the sea and closer to nature has offered us a different look at the world.

Our proximity to nature, its power and beauty is healing and humbling. It's a great platform of basic knowledge for Alba to build her future on. Joie de vivre is a fantastic infection to have. And I don't get writers block. When I can't paint anymore, I pick up a brush, pen or, I'll go paint murals on walls of the abandoned farm houses in the fields out back of our place.

How is your experience of skating and creating art related?

Moving through the ranks in ice skating was an interesting experience for me. I learned important life skills. I know my body and its limits. I also learned how to focus on projects and take them to their end. But reaching the senior ranks is when all the "crazy" started. It was bigger than life. Unrealistic: Advertising, television, interviews.

I had become a product.

The business people turned something fun and amazing into some crazy abstract product that I was very uncomfortable taking part in. Backroom deals and corruption, fake shit-eating smiles, selfish, egocentric, narcissistic and demented. Not my kind of place to spend endless hours perfecting product. I'd much rather be in my workspace.

In art I see similar examples of the skating dementia but it has large ergonomic, soft handles. I feel I have plenty control over it.

Control, over my message and who I work

for. When I paint, I'm free to paint what I feel but as a wish to share. People with savings, as well as those who don't, can take a piece and feel what is true to me. home. I would love for people to "get it" but You once used the expression “ego sal- it's not the most important issue in my life. I ad” and “lies” in reference to art galleries. cherish the fact that we are all wired directly Have you become selective as to which and can respond in different ways when put in the same situation. galleries you’ll let show your work?

At the moment, I'm blessed to be able Yeah, that's right. I did say that. It's part to sell art to younger people who are interof the transformation I'm going through. ested in art and the artists that make it. Just I'm interested in working with good people, not just for money. I'm tired of working with the other day, I received an email from a crazy, coke-snorting money-makers who young guy from Melbourne. He wrote me never pay. I want to be able to share my life a great and humble message in hopes of with the gallery owners and allow them to "picking my brain" and I gladly offered as much as I could. I've never questioned the truly understand where I stand, who I am.

It's important to me that the business fact that dreams are the only true currency. mind doesn't overlook the fact that I'm a fa- I'm a big fan of trying to help people realize ther and an artist. I'm not a money-making them when I can. machine. I'm not a guy who makes product.

I'm not an art robot. I feel, I evolve but most A lot of your art features scrumptious importantly, I decide. I'm in charge....not to large penises penetrating luscious vasay that I'm a capitalist asshole but, I am ginas. With "Spanish Style," which was directive, and things won't run without my painted for the Weart Festival in Barceconsent when it comes to selling my art. lona (2012), my first thought was: “That’s Not on my watch. At the moment I'm work- someone getting it up the ass!”

Yeah, exactly. You get it. The painting ing with some really nice people who treat me with respect and that's all I ever wanted. illustrates a chaotic event. Little people extend for as far as the eye can see; they are Has the world become your preferred “art all in the street running from the ass fucking. gallery?” What kind of response do you A large woman and man that tower over inspire and how do you hear about these? the city doing their thing indiscriminately, Sylvie, for a long time I was guided by publicly. If you look closer, she or, we, are the thought that I had to reach out on the dressed for the occasion. Sexy panties crehigh-end experience. That it was the only ate a sense of consent and within that conway to pay my bills with art. Cairo embraced sent we were taken advantage of. That is me, I tried my hand at SanFran, tried for LA, the situation in Spain right now.

We bought what they sold us without London and Paris but only a few galleries in the cities of Cairo and Stow-on-the-Wold, reading the fine print and now, we need to England, offered me the sort of gallery-artist suffer the consequences. But the painting relationship experience I've been looking for. that hasn't been painted and comes swiftly Some of the shows I paint are complex, after, is one that tells the story of people gettime consuming, taxing events to paint. ting organized. Who won't roll over in the face Those are often painted on more uniform of a despotic oligarchy. Who fight to keep corsurfaces that galleries value.

Good quality, different formats, stretched canvas. For other shows, I expand my creativity by painting on found objects. Rusted cans, cardboard and glass bottles. The less uniform, more fragile surfaces demand proper framing and costly custom containment of some sort.

Personally, I love to show these in a less formal hanging style. Less mathematics, more chaotic. Almost like the way I found them in the fields around Benicassim. I've become a big fan of rust and dust and broken things discolored by the sun.

Those pieces cost less but have much more charm.

It's important to me to reach out to as many people as possible. Not as a business strategy ISSUE ISSUEELEVEN ELEVEN | www.fourculture.com SPANISH STYLE

77

78 www.fourculture.com || ISSUE ISSUEELEVEN ELEVEN

ISSUE ISSUEELEVEN ELEVEN

| www.fourculture.com 79

80 www.fourculture.com | ISSUE ELEVEN

ISSUE ELEVEN

| www.fourculture.com 81

porate control out of their lives and homes. I'll keep you posted on that piece. (laughs) What’s next for you?

As of late I'm trying to take this knowledge further with the help of a Tom Sachs movie series named Working to Code. One of those films, 10 Bullets, is my favorite. It's too rigid for my liking and lifestyle but I know that I need to implement some of those "codes" in my workspace. It's already transformed my technical set up for painting.

For example, my painting pallet is smaller, my work area is more compact so I don't waste time reaching for things and in general, more efficient so I can paint longer, faster and better. As a father, working from home forces you to cherish the time you have and make the most of it.

I hope to one day work like Stefan Thompson. He works with homemade paints. Using pigments, mediums and solvent that are non-toxic. Paper and textiles that are recycled. Beeswax is a strong component of the work. I'm interested in solving my techniques and communicative style, certainly before I expire.

Which painting are you most like?

I am “Beeline.” The colourful vitality that makes the man who he is condenses as it leaves his body though his chest and in his last breaths, he mocks those who made his life miserable with a daring, popular hand gesture.

Sylvie. I love people. I need my time away from folks but I believe in humanity. I trust individuals I've never met. I don't want to live my life fearing people. I've been called a child because of it.... Juan is like a little lost kid, but I resist being turned into an unforgiving, self-centered, selfish, firstworld person.

But there are those who are “olympicly singular” and see people as objects to be used and thrown away, tested my patience, pushing me to question this cherished ability I consider important. I'm 46 now and time has taught me how to be who I am without having to suffer at the hands of those who are like sharks.

If I can help someone get to where they want and I have the "lubricants" at hand to do so, I won't hesitate. Sharing is important to me because life without it wouldn't make sense.

Current gallery showings include Greenlight Gallery in Montreal, Quebec and at Railbender Tattoo & Art Studio in Ottawa, Ontario (Canada).

82 www.fourculture.com | ISSUE ELEVEN

BEELINE

ISSUE ELEVEN

| www.fourculture.com 83

Are you listening?

Indie and Alternative music from the 80s, 90s and today as well as new and unsigned artists making their way into the alternative mainstream world

SUNDAY NOISY SUNDAY SUNDAY | 4 PM EST

THE FABULOUS D SHOW SUNDAY | 7 PM EST

FC PRESENTS WEDNESDAY | 8 PM EST

WORLD IN MY EYES THURSDAY | 8 PM EST

Sunday Noisy Sunday is a one hour musical journey, from noise to neo-classical, from wild rock to warm electronic music. This show is curated by Grégoire Fray (THOT).

With interesting guests and commentary, The Artist D tries desperately to display the realty of the moment. The Fabulous D Show is for anyone with a brain in their head. New shows every Sunday!

Previous episodes are revisited each Tuesday at 9 PM EST.

Join The Artist D and various Fourculture artists as they unveil their new creations on a selected Wednesday of each month.

Tune in for infectious sound stimulations from Paul from VODSEL as he presents the music that has inspired the VODSEL sound & more . . . It’s 60 minutes of treasures from the 80s, 90s, 00s and today.

GRAND + group OPENING

art show

FEATURING dixon mat dubÉ Stephen Frew Paul sharp marc adornato daniel martelock jocelyne langis helder mendonca stefan thompson andrea stokes ron caddigan KEVIn GaY komi olaf alex nÉron

SATURDAY

FEBRUARY 15 to

WEDNESDAY

MARCH 12

R ailbender TATTOO STUDIO & ART GALLERY

www.railbenderstudio.com

D

by darya teese w ell

uring a time of crisis in my life, I worked at a store in The Valley that catered to the crossdressing and drag community. It was a venerable edifice dating back to the 1960’s and named after a woman who opened the shop to support her crossdressing husband. It was later sold to another couple, with the same arrangement, that I met when I took my first tentative steps into the night in a pair of sling-backs. It has now been sold again to yet another couple with exactly the same dynamic. The store was a cash cow; locker space rented at $65 per month to closeted cross-dressers who could dress in private, store their wigs and heels, and clean up before going home to Mom, Buddy, and Sis. They brought down several thousand a month with little cost to them. It’s a great business model.

I came to them after an abortive attempt to abandon my career in the film business. I took state-subsidized classes from a computer school and had a worthless networking certificate just as the IT industry discovered Bangalore. My wife had gotten severely ill in the interim and I was now a serially unemployed, depressed, recovering alcoholic with a raging case of gender dysphoria who needed a gig. The new owners of the store offered me a job building their website and I jumped at it.

They would pay me in cash and I’d work in one of the rooms of the U-shaped private office complex they dominated just off Ventura Blvd in Sherman Oaks.

The entire operatic tale of the downfall of a great cross-dressing institution deserves a longer telling, but here’s the short version. The newest couple had met in recovery from their addictions, which I considered a plus for me. Happy sober friends and business partners who spoke my language. My young sobriety was excessively optimistic. By the time I quit, the husband was spun on crack cocaine, his wife was shooting heroin, and I wondered when the LA city DA’s office was going to show up and question some of the husband’s business practices.

If asked to choose which personality was easier to deal with, I’ll take the heroin addict any day. She disappeared into the empty office they were squatting in after nine at night, but would be back in the morning clear eyed, well rested, and capable of making rational business decisions. Welcoming a crack addict back from a three day run is like having someone decide to use a lawn mower indoors: plan for damage.

My original job description had drifted from web mistress to shop girl to grossly underpaid enabler. My job, however, was never dull. I’d often open the place up, try

to get the burnt chemical smell of crack out of the air, and then offer the public my adorably made-up face. This was a period when I was a chubby girl experimenting with colors and looks that ultimately didn’t work for me, but nonetheless I had some style. New customers showed daily up to buy clothing and rent lockers based on the 20-plus year reputation of the place and my aggressive web presence.

An extremely tall, ordinarily nice looking middle-aged man showed up in a suit and tie one day. He greeted me cordially and looked around at the now somewhat shabby wares we offered because crack addiction really messes with the budget for inventory.

He asked my name and said his name was Jim. We discussed the basic logistical needs of feminine emulation. “You know, Darya, I’ve just always wanted to do this” he confided. He came back a few days later and I sold him three pairs of patent leather twoinch pumps in women’s size 17, a shoulderlength straight black wig, a bra, a pair of panties or two, and a few rudimentary makeup items. He seemed like dozens of other cross-dressers who came through, liberated by the freedom to express themselves every so often, but aware of their responsibilities while trying hard to balance them. He rented a locker, of course, and I showed him around the modest locker room that I cleaned and vacuumed on a regular basis.

An uneventful day or two later, his femme version entered my life around 10 a.m. on a weekday. There she was: 6’7” in shiny black heels, white pantyhose, and wearing what looked like a huge, shapeless woman’s sleep dress with an airbrushed rainbow and cloud design on it.

“HI!” she squealed. Her vocal register was somewhere between Minnie Mouse and Bette Davis playing Baby Jane. She pranced in and walked around the shop with a somewhat manic smile on her face. I was focused on the fact that she had missed that part of the makeup lesson where we put on foundation, and by that I mean beard cover. If anyone needed it, she did. She was wearing pink lipstick and her mascara was a smeary mess that I could barely make out behind her glasses; the same frames she always wore.

The overall effect was “I’m a reluctant participant in a male beauty pageant for my wife’s charity,” but she was as serious as a heart attack. As a trans person, even those of us who enjoy dressing for effect on occasion, try and avoid having that effect being vocalized as “What in God’s name is THAT?!” I was already learning to make gentle suggestions and offer help to the new girls among us. I certainly needed that when I began and even afterward if it was offered sans thrown shade or hidden claw.

Another tenant nicely dressed for a day of shopping walked in to pay her monthly

While the Latina and Philippine working girls showed their moves, Suzy undulated like a

malfunctioning wind turbine; flailing her

arms and occasionally losing a foam breast, which would bounce off the floor like a tiny, misshapen beach ball.

locker bill. I complimented her nail color.

“HI! I’m Suzy!!” said the extremely tall, gangly woman in the shapeless sleep dress as she clomped over to greet the startled tenant. She now had a name.

“I’m in room 103. What room are you in?”

“I’m in 104.” A silent “Thank God” was obvious.

“What’s your name? I’m Suzy!”

The tenant looked desperately toward me. I silently indicated our business was complete.

“I’m Jackie. Nice to meet you. See you later, Darya.”

“BYYYYE!!” Suzy trilled.

“Holy crap” I said, sotto voce.

Suzy was my first lesson in the reality that the desire to switch genders could, on extremely rare occasion, be a symptom of something else going on in a person’s life.

I’ve never met a single trans woman or man who would tell you that switching genders made their lives easier. Happier, authentic, and fulfilled: Yes. No stable person, however, would look at another difficulty in their life and say, “Hey, I know. I’ll just switch genders. Problem solved!!”

As the weeks wore on, I saw a lot of Suzy. From tidbits of what she told me, her life was unspooling. At one point she wanted me to go to some black-tie dinner with her to show the guys in the financial industry boiler room where she worked that trans people were okay. I demurred. I had the feeling from our conversations that her newly expressed gender freedom was creating concern where she worked and was troubling her wife to the point of being distraught. She said she had gone to her local 24- hour fitness and worked out dressed as she was. I’m sure that made a few people look up from the treadmill.

She had decorated Room 103 as if it was her own apartment and I know she slept there a few nights. She couldn’t afford good silicone breast forms, so she bought some cheap old foam ones we were selling. I later saw she had drawn nipples on them with a red permanent marker. Not the greatest look for a see-through bra.

While this was going on, I had to navigate the complexities of never having too much cash around while the crack addict half of the owner duo was present. His wife and I had a cash-stashing system to make sure that they could keep the lights on and pay my weekly pittance in cash. If a big fish walked in and spent money while the husband was there, there was nothing I could do especially if they paid in cash. He’d grab a few hundreds and go out to meet his man.

I worked six days a week. I always opened and most often closed the place.

Saturday nights I’d go to the local trans bar, the Lodge, to see my friends and cut things loose a little. I’d drink diet cokes, smoke cigarettes, dance, flirt with boys, and talk trash.

Suzy began to show up dressed exactly the way she did around the store. I saw her on the dance floor more than once. While the Latina and Philippine working girls showed their moves, Suzy undulated like a malfunctioning wind turbine; flailing her arms and occasionally losing a foam breast, which would bounce off the floor like a tiny, misshapen beach ball.

Outside in the cool spring night over a cigarette, one of my best friends told me that Suzy was offering blowjobs to any and all who were so inclined: consummated in front or back seats, the alley, or used car lot next door. I’d seen girls get swept up in the life, but I was now convinced we were dealing with someone who needed more than beard cover advice and some rose hips tea.

A few days later, I noticed her absence.

She wasn’t around and her locker in 103 was wide open. One of the owners told me that she had passed out in the empty parking and gone into convulsions late one night. The paramedics came and took her away. Later, word filtered back that she apparently had a brain tumor; hence the distraught wife.

We never heard from her again.

www.divadarya.com ISSUE ISSUEELEVEN ELEVEN

| www.fourculture.com 87

The Fabulous D Show Opinion. Surrealism. Extraterrestrialism.

From the Underground w w w. t h e f a b u l o u s d s h o w. c o m

By Frank Cotolo

ISSUE ISSUEELEVEN ELEVEN

| www.fourculture.com 89

” may be r e h t a f d o “The G n e e s s a iminal h r c o h d n w u e o r n g Anyo t under a h t n o i osa s C s , e r a p fi a m i M e e e as th under th r o l n i n w (kno horse’s d s e n r o i e t v a e z s i organ r using a o v a f ) sing b u o f e M r e e h l t p r o o e Nostra, ves of p i l e h t n o ome an eat c r e h t b a s a s h a s head em. Thi h t f o d e novel k s e a h t s i f t o a y h t to do w populari e h t o t e du ’s head e d s r n o e h g e l a , n t urba , in fac n e h w e used i v g o n i m n r c i a s w s a d and cl ed-hea r e v e s y l ugh s o u r o h i T c i . v s n e o n i anizat g is only o r o l a n i m i docud cr n n e u e o r b g e r v e a d by un cases h r e h t o ea y n m a o c m e , b s e s d a a the dec f what h o r i a e h t clear o t d e t n e m ard. d n a t s d e t e misinterpr

I

n 1954, a Jewish butcher in The Bronx was told he should purchase pork from sources sanctioned by a certain family in the neighborhood. The butcher had refused to sell pork at all, a religious choice, when a small man with a crooked nose who identified himself as Lou The Butcher demanded pork be sold in the shop. The night the Jewish butcher turned the deal down, a severed pig’s head was found on the side of the bed where his late wife, Sylvia, had slept for 30 years undisturbed. The next day the Jewish butcher opened an account with Lou The Butcher who showed his smiling face only once a month to collect the pork bill in cash.

In 1960, an effort was made to scare the bejeezus out of a witness that could identify the member of a certain family indicted for throwing an honest accountant out of a 15-story window. The witness was delivered the severed head of a mountain zebra. He found it under the covers in his bed when he awoke the day before he was to give testimony. At first, the accountant did not understand the reference. He researched the animal that morning before cleaning the mess it made and discovered there were only 5,000 of the species left on the planet before this one had been killed. He assumed it was a sign that the human population on the planet would decrease when he was killed, so the accountant changed his testimony and the accused went free.

Because some warnings must be given to people living in small residences, heads of many animals are simply too large to use. This is why a certain man threatened in Chicago, circa 1961, was given the severed head of an otter. The aquatic mammal was placed between the legs of a sleeping taxi driver that was

90 www.fourculture.com || ISSUE ISSUEELEVEN ELEVEN

the remaining witness of a Mob boss’s assassination. When the taxi driver found the messy head he was confused if it was a weasel, badger, wolverine, or polecat since those are subfamilies of the otter species. It took him too long to make a decision on the breed so as to get the message because he was shot dead a few days later in his cab while giving change to a fare wearing khakis, boots, and a pith helmet.

It is important to explain that around 1970 an underground crime family, which will remain nameless for the sake of this author’s well being, decided to take a thematic approach to the severed-head message process. Surveillance tapes offered the following transcription: The Don: “People are becomin’ smawter so we gotta cut off heads dat got symbolic meanin’ to ‘em. Go getta guy who studies animals. Dat’s who we need here.”

One family soldier: “What kinda guy does dat?”

The Don: “An animalajist, dat’s who.”

Another family soldier: “Excuse me, gawdfodder, but I tink dis kinda guy is called a Zoologist.”

The Don: “But we don’t just wanna cut heads from zoo animals.”

One family soldier: “Dat’s just a term. A Zoologist knows all da different animals and what dey mean in books and stuff.”

The Don: “How da you know all dis, anyway? You ain’t never even liked animals.”

Another family soldier: “Yeah, but my brudder was a Herpitologist and I gotta cousin whoosa Mammalogist and a sister-in-law whoosa Icthiologist.”

The Don: “Awright already, den just go get da right guy and let’s get ‘em on da payroll so’s he can find animals dat got symbolic meanin’ to ‘em and we can cut their heads off.”

--End transcript According to FBI records unavailable to anyone, this particular family employed the services of a veteran Zoologist that was willing to enhance his retirement fund by six digits working full time for the aforementioned anonymous crime family’s money-laundering businesses in order to supply the Don with intellectual material.

Within days of taking the job, the Zoologist—whom I will call Delaney—offered suggestions to the Don. More surveillance tapes offered the following transcription: The Don: “So what do you got, Delaney?”

Delaney: A camel’s head. It stinks like hell, but it makes a strong point. As a beast of burden, a camel has a nasty disposition and usually represents arrogance while it symbolizes a certain tenacity and obedience.”

The Don: “I like dat obeediance part. We gotta message to make soon dat would be poyfect for a camel head. Tawk to Louie about it. Now what utter animals you got?”

Delaney: “A chimpanzee, which represents immaturity. A crocodile for phony expression . . .”

The Don: “Yeah, like crocodile tears.”

Delaney: “Exactly. Also, I recommend a Doberman Pincher head for a law-abiding person, a Hedgehog for a miserly person, and a Kangaroo for someone who just refuses to die since the breed represents endurance.”

The Don: “Oh yeah, these are preshious. You make a list of all the animal heads we can sever and their meanings, okay. I gotta go put my grandson to bed.”

--End transcript Soon after that meeting, a number of animal head-severed cases surfaced around North America including heads matching those suggested in the surveillance transcript. Aside from the recording, there was no evidence that the crime family in question was guilty and the planted microphone was no longer working.

Delaney had gone underground and disappeared. It was speculated that he got plastic surgery, new fingerprints, and changed his phone number so he could not be tracked down. Meanwhile, a stream of severed animal head cases appeared almost at random.

“It was as if the criminals were delivering these animal heads just for the fun of it,” said an anonymous FBI source that could not be confirmed. “There was no pattern, just a flow of incidents involving the severed heads from every species imaginable.”

Then with the release of the novel, “The Godfather,” the severed-head movement ended due to the part in the book about a severed-head message, which, of course, was further emphasized when it was graphically illustrated in 1972’s film version of the novel. From ’72 through the start of the new millennium, the so-called Mafia has lost much of its power, no less its romance in America. However, its history is rich with influence to the global crime organizations.

This is evident from a case in Argentina. The Grupo de Hombres Muy Malos (Group of Very Bad Men), a notorious Argentine underground crime organization, is thought to be responsible for the most remarkable severed-head message ever sent.

In 2011, Carlos Morocco, a jockey at the Hipodromo Argentino de Palmero racecourse in Buenos Aires, was approached to help orchestrate a major wagering scam that was aimed at stealing billions from the sport. All Morocco had to do was agree to finish last on every horse he rode in specific races. Even though the Grupo promised him far more than what he would make as a jockey, Morocco refused, saying it could hurt his career if he finished last with all of his rides. The Grupo was not impressed with his integrity, so it reportedly took steps to scare Morocco.

The jockey awoke one morning surrounded by a full field of 12 thoroughbred horses’ heads stuffed under his covers. He recognized some of the horses as champions of Argentina’s best stock.

Mortified but stubborn, Morocco tried to ignore the warning, carefully disposing all of the severed heads into his apartment’s garbage dump.

A week passed and on the following Monday, Morocco awoke to find the heads of 10 fellow jockeys stuffed under his covers; the same sheets he had meticulously cleaned to hide the stains of the horses’ heads put on them from the week before. Morocco went to the Buenos Aires Police Department to report both severedheads incidents, but he had not supposed that the Grupo de Hombres Muy Malos had allegedly placed the heads of certain Buenos Aires politicians in the bed of the Chief of Police as a warning to ignore Morocco. Morocco disappeared. It is speculated that he got plastic surgery, new fingerprints, and changed his phone number so he could not be located.

Interpol is said to be on guard globally for any and all possible appearances of severed-head incidents. They commented simply by saying, “The morbid practice may never come to a head.”

http://cotolochronicles.blogspot.com/ ISSUE ISSUEELEVEN ELEVEN

| www.fourculture.com 91

for the human race

by Paula Frank Photography by Doug Seymour

We recognize only one race…

The human race. Those are powerful words and ones that describe the history of The Divine Lorraine Hotel, both its past and its future.

Standing resolutely on the corner of Broad Street and Fairmont Avenue in the city of brotherly love, The Divine Lorraine is one of Philadelphia’s most recognizable landmarks. It was built from 1892-1894 by architect Willis G. Hale and was known as the Lorraine Apartments, a place for the aristocracy to display their new wealth in the wake of the Industrial Revolution. It’s luxurious architecture and majestic design would be a testament to their riches, for a time anyway. The future would have different plans.

In 1948, the property was bought by Father Divine, the leader of the Universal Peace Mission Movement and he renamed it The Divine Lorraine Hotel. The rules were clear; no smoking, no drinking, no profanity, and no undue mixing of the sexes. Modesty was required and in keeping with Father Divine’s beliefs, ALL people were treated equally.

“We recognize only one race, the human race,” was written directly into the hotel policy and at a time when the civil rights movement had only begun to spark, Father Divine blazed a fiery path of equality and human respect that was unmatched. Opening up many parts of the building for public use, Father Divine showed the world what social welfare and equality meant.

The Divine Lorraine was closed in 1999 and left to become an empty shell of itself, gutted and desolate, its rooms home to whoever wandered in off the street and its walls a display of graffiti. But once again, the future has taken a hold of the Divine Lorraine and changed its course. Purchased by EB Realty Mgmt and with plans for renovation and renewal of the entire area, the Divine Lorraine will once again rise with hope and vision to shine on the city of Philadelphia.

Doug Seymour, whose work you know from several musicians featured within Fourculture’s pages, is also the official photographer for The Divine Lorraine Hotel and the entire North Broad Street project.

When speaking to both Doug and Bob Gollwitzer (Director of Marketing with EB Realty Mgmt.), it was obvious that these two make a passionate and heartfelt team in their efforts to bring the Divine Lorraine back to life with its history and heritage both honored and expanded. What you see in this feature are the images of history, words of love for the sacredness of what the Divine Lorraine was, and the hopes and dreams for what it is to become.

ISSUE ELEVEN

| www.fourculture.com 95

Bob, you are working for EB Realty Mgmt. and this is part of your job to be promoting your activities with The Divine Lorraine, but it seems like for all of you it is so much more than just a job. Can you speak to that a bit, about your heart for the place?

Bob: Sure! First off, Eric Blumenfeld, who is the owner of EB Realty Mgmt. and what “EB” stands for, goes back about 25 years or so with me. Through action sports, he helped facilitate some sights here in Philadelphia back in the late 80’s, early 90’s when I was doing extreme sports for ESPN. He is one of the top 3 or 4 developers in the city of Philadelphia and what he’s done is purchased 7 buildings on the North Broad Street corridor as we like to call it. In Philadelphia there are 2 delineations. South of city hall is what’s called the Avenue of the Arcs and that’s had probably half a billion dollars or more dumped into it with the theatres and restaurants, etc. It’s now a very vibrant area. North Broad Street has been neglected for years and when I first came to Philadelphia 27 years ago from Los Angeles I actually moved into the area sort of adjacent to it in the Fairmont district.

Fairmont leads right to the Divine Lorraine Hotel, which is at the intersection of Fairmont and Broad. It’s this iconic landmark, this behemoth with these gigantic signs and I was

always amazed by it. I love old buildings. I think I’m built to be an antique picker.

I first got involved about 2 years ago with Eric. He knew my background in marketing and my passion is filmmaking and producing documentaries so what I’m trying to do is twofold. One is to produce a very longterm documentary that would encompass the next 3-7 years of the transformation of the North Broad Street corridor while simultaneously acting in the position of project manager and overseeing these buildings and allowing artists like Doug Seymour to come in. It’s a really exciting project. People say Eric is crazy with the vision he has for the North Broad Street corridor but what’s even crazier is taking on the documentary filmmaking of this project. Imagine when this is all transformed and changed and people will ask, “Did you get it before?” and we will have it! I think Philadelphia has room for some really progressive change and I want to be part of that and play a role in that in some capacity.

What do you think the renovation of The Divine Lorraine Hotel and the area as a whole means for the city of Philadelphia?

Bob: The transformation of the North Broad Street corridor could be the biggest bridge to Temple University, which is located just around 4 blocks north of where we’re

working. They’ve poured billions of dollars into their campus and making it a safe area, so this development IS happening as we speak. What it means is a more vibrant city that has more points of destinations where people don’t just come to the city as a commuter and then leave, but they actually stay because there’s restaurants and there’s entertainment and places to go. There’s art and there’s culture and cabaret and music.

What we’re hoping is that it becomes a city like New York that gives people a reason to stay! Right now, it’s a very small population that live in the city and the rest commute in.

What we’d like to see and what we’re seeing even now is an exodus of people moving into the city of Philadelphia.

It sounds like quite an undertaking but one that would be so fulfilling in the end to make that happen.

Bob: Yes, and not only that but to make an archive of photography, images, moments in time when people get involved.

As the mayor comes in or different celebrities, we can capture that and have it and document it as momentum builds. In the end, then we can look back and say we did what everyone thought was impossible.

The legacy of that is that you can change things if you want it bad enough and work hard enough.

ISSUE ELEVEN

| www.fourculture.com 97

Speaking of bringing people in, last fall you brought in the Philadelphia Eagles and painted the logo on the roof. Can you tell us a bit more about that and others you’ve worked with as you partner with the city and others?

Bob: The Eagles came to us and they wanted to put their logo on several buildings in the area for the home opener. We agreed to let them emblazon the top of The Divine Lorraine with the Eagles logo so we got graffiti artists up there with harnesses and ropes and had them hanging up there for 7 hours painting.

We’ve worked with Temple University and the Center for Performing Arts staging events in front of the Common Threads mural which is the most famous mural in Philadelphia on the side of the Thaddeus Stevens School of Practice building we also own. I’ve been working with the Philadelphia Mural Arts program, the University of the Arts, every single cultural and artistic group I can think of. I don’t think there’s one I haven’t talked to about how we can work together. Everything we have is going into redevelopment so we don’t have a huge budget for marketing and promoting.

Instead, we try to do a lot of guerilla marketing and finding out how we can help each other with these groups. In doing so, you have a connection with people who are genuinely interested in doing something and having change take place.

How are you bringing education into the redevelopment of the area?

Bob: If you ask people what is the worst curse of Philadelphia, 99.5% of the time they will say public education. I watch Ben Franklin High school let out and there’s 4 patrol cars sitting there and fights breaking out every day. We ask what we can do to make this better. They’re given these school and they’re very sterile. What if we were to build a campus like Bloomberg did in New York City with IBM and build a 400 million dollar campus where these schools like Masterman, Ben Franklin, Parkway, and Franklin Learning Center all come together on the same campus, would have their own individual buildings, but would have shared technology and we could involve some of the famous Philadelphia restaurateurs and have them teaching culinary arts to these kids in high school and really bring a vibrancy to public education. I think that we do ourselves a disservice because we don’t provide the kids with what they need and we don’t know how to teach them. We’d like to change the face of public education in the city. When you dream like that, people will think you’re crazy, but someone’s got to dream!

98 www.fourculture.com | ISSUE ELEVEN

Touching specifically on The Divine Lorraine again, are there hopes to keep a lot of the original Willis G. Hale architecture intact and stick to that vision for the building that he originally created?

Bob: The structure has really been stripped and scrapped down to concrete and structural beams. The structural integrity of the building will remain intact, especially the lobby when you first walk in which will be returned to its historic look of 1894.

We’re planning on commercial restaurants on the first and lower levels and a café/restaurant with a cabaret in the annex building below. From the 7th through the 10th floors would be 136 apartments, but leaving open beams and open ceilings. We’re keeping the outside exactly the way it is and just cleaning and fixing it. We’ve already gotten estimates on restoring the hotel sign to it’s original look. If you look at costs of restoring each segment, it can get overwhelming, but it’s going to be one of those places that once it’s restored, everyone is going to want to live there. We’ve already had 300 calls from people wanting to reserve an apartment in The Divine Lorraine. This building sits with the only 360 degree view to the city and no other high rises surrounding it. When you’re on the 10th floor, there is nothing that impedes your vision to looking 50 miles away to Limerick, down to the ballparks, etc. It will be a truly unique facility.

I want to speak about some of the graffiti art that’s on the building! There’ve been some really major graffiti artists who have come to tag the building!

Bob: Yes! There have been! We even had guys fly from in from Norway and the UK who are the head of the largest graffiti conference in the world. They came to the Divine, shot like 3 or 4 thousand photos , and said we have this building with almost every major graffiti artist has tagged. They wanted to take the roof and walls! Of course we can’t give them the walls, but the roof has to be redone anyway so I think parts of that will be cut out. We do want to work with the mural arts program and the artists to create a bridge, again, between the cultural worlds and the graffiti that is there, but of course we can’t keep all of it. There’s just too much of it. I think there’s going to be a fine line of how we handle that whole situation I think.

Another rich part of the history to the building is Father Divine and creating the Divine Lorraine. Are you hoping to keep his heritage to the building intact as well and honoring what his hopes for the building were as well?

Bob: Absolutely! That’s one of our biggest missions here on the North Broad ISSUE ELEVEN

| www.fourculture.com 101

Street corridor. We’re looking at involvement in the community, building bridges between the existing people that live there and the new developers. Jon Bon Jovi just did a similar project right across from the Divine that is nearly open. For 20 years, his mission has been to eradicate homelessness in Philadelphia. He invested personal money to build a large apartment building, not necessarily just as “affordable housing” but for people who have been clean 3 years, held a job 3 years, and who couldn’t afford high level housing in that area probably, but deserving of individuals who have proven themselves. He’s a great example to us. We’re going to have more affordable housing in our annex building which is behind the Divine so there’s a bridge between the communities and it’s not just for the rich.

We don’t want to create a type of atmosphere or environment that the aristocracy had back when the hotel was first built for the rich. What we want to do is work with the men and women, people like Pastor Lusk and Sister Mary Scullion, who have quietly given of themselves to change the face of the city for the last 30 years.

I don’t want my legacy to be one of Ferraris and fancy homes. I don’t care about that stuff. I care about changing lives and changing my world. Where’s your world?

Get out there and change it. Touch your community. What happens is all of a sudden you get to live vicariously through the people you are trying to change and you end up changed yourself. I hope what happens is that people are exposed to what it’s like to be underprivileged and it breaks their heart. Once you have someone’s heart and soul, then you can really cause action and the only way to do that is to be passionate and true.

You touched on it a little bit, but if you could go into a little more of how you got Doug Seymour and his work involved?

Bob: I’m kind of the go-to guy for Eric so I think he passed along Doug’s email about wanting to photograph The Divine Lorraine.

I actually follow up with everything as you never know when an opportunity will come up to build a new relationship. Doug and I talked on the phone and we made plans to meet and take a walk through. We started this relationship that soon grew into a friend-

ship and it was like wow, this is really cool. I found a guy who has a lot of passion and a marketing background too, so we have a lot in common. We found ourselves tied both philosophically and spiritually I think and so we fell into working with each other easily. I gave him exclusive rights to the photos and said we could really do some great things together. He has such a great love for the building and a real passion that is difficult to always find in people. So when I do find that, I try not to let it slip away. That was the beginning about a year ago or longer and we did some websites together for another company down in Washington and we just stayed in contact. He’s needed locations for some music shoots for the covers of Paste or whatever music publications he’s shooting for and I happen to have the buildings. I love to see the potential in people and help them advance in their own dreams. I see Doug as having amazing talent and so we have built this incredible relationship. I’m looking forward to what the next years hold for that relationship!

So Doug, you are mostly known for your photography of musicians.What attracted you to switching gears to photograph the Divine Lorraine? How has the attraction grown as you’ve gotten to experience new and different areas of the building?

DOUG:The majority of the photography I’ve done over the past decade has been in the music industry. I work with various artists, labels and publicity firms, doing photo shoots for CD covers, magazine covers, tour posters and merchandise. But I also have an appreciation for architecture and find myself taking photos of different buildings in my spare time.

The Divine Lorraine Hotel is a historic landmark in Philadelphia. There are two signs on the north and south side of the roof and are a recognizable part of the city skyline. Several years ago I started taking photos of the building from the street level.

The building has been closed for a long time and I always wondered what the inside looked like. I started doing research about the building out of curiosity and discovered it was the first racially integrated hotel in the United States around 1948. The historic significance of the Divine fueled my desire

“The third time Bob powered up the generator so I could go down into the basement. I put my headphones on full volume, listening to Bauhaus. It seemed to fit the mood, which added to the experience.”

102 www.fourculture.com | ISSUE ELEVEN

ISSUE ELEVEN

| www.fourculture.com 103

even further to see the inside. I contacted EB Realty Mgmt. to see if that was possible.

Bob and I hit it off immediately when we first met and over time I started doing archival photography for the company. I was inside the Divine four times in 2013, capturing different parts of the building. Each time I felt a little more connected to the Divine. Hopefully that comes through in my photos.

Sort of on that same note, in working with the musicians you have worked with, you’ve developed a real relationship with them that shines through in their photos.How do you get into that mindset and “bring to life” your photography when you are by yourself in an abandoned building?

DOUG: A big part of photographing individuals is connecting with them. The more comfortable subjects are, the better the results. That is something you don’t have to worry about photographing inanimate objects. I had several things in mind entering the building. I wanted to capture it’s beauty and age, but also wanted to convey how I felt being inside for the first time. I believe all the contents were removed including the interior walls in 2007; therefore I was capturing the structures empty shell. The idea of finally having the opportunity to go inside gave me an adrenaline rush. I remember thinking I would only have one opportunity to take photos. I never imaged I would be going back inside three more times that year.

What were some of your favorite places or things to photograph in the building?

Was there anything that affected you more than others? Why? DOUG: My favorite part of the building is the rooftop. To finally take photos behind the Divine Lorraine Hotel signs was pretty special experience. The view of Philadelphia from that vantage point is breath taking.

The third time Bob powered up the generator so I could go down into the basement. I put my headphones on full volume, listening to Bauhaus. It seemed to fit the mood, which added to the experience. There are three artists I listen to while I’m taking photos inside the building — Bauhaus (Peter Murphy), Scott Kid & Tricky. I have done photo shoots with all three of these artists.

Peter and I have done many shoots together. He is one of my favorite artists to work with. His song ‘Bela Lugosi’ was playing as I started my descent down the stairs into the basement. I embraced the moment and the music seemed to enhance the rush I was experiencing. Once you get inside the building the front door has to be locked behind you so people don’t wander in from off the street. Also, the windows and doors on first three levels are sealed off with cinder 104 www.fourculture.com | ISSUE ELEVEN

106 www.fourculture.com | ISSUE ELEVEN

blocks to keep people out. You have to use a flashlight to navigate through those three stories because it’s pitch black. As you can imagine, it’s a spine tingling experience trying to navigate around in the dark.

Father Divine’s policy for the Divine Lorraine stated “We recognize only one race, the human race.” How did that impact you as you documented the building? How will you go about spreading that message as you move forward in your involvement of recording the changes to the Divine Lorraine as the project continues?

DOUG: I was fortunate to get a copy of the official Divine Lorraine Hotel rules & regulations from a friend while doing research about the building. The line that stood out the most was “We recognize only one race, the human race”. When you think about the time frame the statement was made (late 40’s), it’s pretty profound. It was the first racially integrated hotel in the United States. Father Divine made this statement before the height of the civil rights movement in the 1960’s.

It’s probably one of the best statements I’ve ever heard and it rings true with my beliefs as a person.

You have become rather an official photographer for the entire North Broad Street project. How has your relationship grown and developed as you’ve worked more with EB Realty Mgmt Company with the project?

DOUG: It’s been an honor to work with EB Realty Mgmt, documenting all of the historic properties they currently own in addition to the Divine. I feel fortunate for the opportunity to work with such an amazing company. Their vision to bring the North Broad area back to life, while carefully keeping these historic landmarks intact, is remarkable. Plus from what Bob mentioned, their efforts focus on community, education and beyond.

It’s pretty commendable and I’m honored to be a part of what they are planning to achieve. It’s really wonderful when a company understands the importance of a cities history, while at the same time giving back to the community.

Who, as a whole, has been the greatest influence on what you have done in your photography?

DOUG: My greatest influence is legendary photographer Herman Leonard.

He photographed most of the jazz greats during the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. We were friends for four years before his passing in 2010. He gave me wonderful advice ISSUE ELEVEN

| www.fourculture.com 107

that I incorporate into every photo shoot I do. Herman sent me a print of his work that I cherish so much. It’s a photo of Billie Holiday he took at her home in NYC (1949).She is in the kitchen cooking a steak for her dog. Herman included a handwritten note with the print describing his experience photographing her. I am grateful for the friendship I shared with Herman. He was truly a great human being and incredible photographer.Take a look at Herman’s work here: www.hermanleonard.com How has the experience of photographing the Divine Lorraine changed you? Both as a photographer and as a person?

DOUG: I feel lucky to have the opportunity documenting a moment in Divine Lorraine Hotel’s history. It will be interesting to take more photos as EB Realty Mgmt moves forward with their plans. I feel honored to be associated with this company and the vision they are putting in motion. It’s another chapter in the history of Philadelphia. It feels like EB Realty Mgmt. is carrying out Father Divine’s vision by making the city an even better place to live.

Anything else you need to let people know about the project? bob: Just that it is going to be a long haul and these types of ventures aren’t for the weak-hearted. You have to realize it’s going to be a lot of struggles and roller coaster rides. It’s not going to be done immediately or even in the next 3 years.

I love the struggle. Like I tell my children, hug and embrace every day because it could be your last. That way at the end of your life you won’t have any regrets You won’t think about the cars you had, but you will think about the lives you’ve touched, the legacy you’ve left and how you’ve helped others. That will be how you truly build your treasures.

The legacy of The Divine Lorraine will certainly carry on in the hearts of not only Bob and Doug, but all who have been touched by its great history. Its rooftop sign still stands, looking over Philadelphia with pride in its past and hope for what‘s to come.

Will it see a day when we accept each other and work together as one race? Only the future knows.

108 www.fourculture.com | ISSUE ELEVEN

SOUNDS | VISIONS | WORDS | VOICES