BLEEP Magazine 502

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what’s

n i p e e bl inside: 10

ONE TO WATCH: BULROG

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ON THE SCENE AT BERLINALE

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5 QUESTIONS WITH JOHNNY ORTIZ

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AND THE STREEP GOES TO...

If music is the universal language, electronic artist know as Bulrog is making a statement everyone can understand. Making music purely because he loves it, he makes it available and accessible to anyone who wants to listen.

We are on the scene at one of the biggest film festivals in the world - talking to the directors who are steering the next wave of cinema.

Johnny Ortiz has a busy 2015 ahead of him. Within two weeks, he opens the film “McFarland USA” and his show on ABC, “American Crime,” debuts. We talk with Ortiz about why he wanted to become an actor and why both his show and his movie are especially important in today’s culture.

We love awards shows just as much as everyone else and this is our annual review of the best and most poignant moments of the season.

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JOSHUA FARRIS

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LEE DEWYZE

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V BOZEMAN

We talked with the newly crowned bronze medalist about his skating inspirations, integrating artfulness into his technical routines and life outside the ice.

24 million people saw him crowned an Idol, but since then, Lee DeWyze has been carving his own musical path, one that led him to another runaway hit show, “The Walking Dead.”

The star-on-the-rise talks the Fox mega-hit Empire, new music & being a part of a television revolution.

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TM

BILLY GILMAN

The country crooner talks about growing up in the spotlight, his new single and being truly happy.

BLEEP OUR. TEAM. RYAN BRINSON Editor-in-Chief

SARAH ROTKER Business & Audience Development Manager PABLO SALINAS Social Media Associate

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ANIKA LARSEN Tony nominated actress Anika Larsen has conquered the Broadway stage. Now, on the cusp of a completely different type of adventure, she talks about her new album, “Sing You To Sleep.”

BLAKE LEWIS Blake Lewis brought beat boxing into living rooms during the height of “American Idol’s” popularity.

Since then, he’s been anything but a manufactured pop act. We talk with him about his most recent album, singing with Postmodern Jukebox and not making cookie-cutter pop music.

THE COOL KIDS KIDS, the indie-rock band from Fort Lauderdale, Florida formed by long time best-friends. With their new album “Rich Coast,” these musicians are just trying to have fun.

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COVER PHOTOGRAPHER: Courtesy Photo FEATURE EDITORS: Nathan Robins CONTRIBUTORS: Caleb Bollenbacher Rachael Mariboho Hatley Moore Laura Seitter Alex Wright FEATURE CONTRIBUTORS: Florian Hubertus WEB CONTENT: Sheena Wagaman All articles and photos are the property of the writers and artists. All rights reserved.

From the Editor FOX had been promoting “Empire” for months. It seemed like every commercial break included teasers for the upcoming show about a hip-hop mogul and his family. I remember watching that first teaser and thinking, “this show seems like it straddles the line between camp and drama,” and that is exactly what has made it such a runaway hit.

I spoke with V Bozeman, one of the fresh faces that are finding a huge new platform because of the show, ultimately by doing exactly what they’ve been doing for a long time. In the pilot, she stunned viewers with her powerful performance of “What Is Love” and what I found so amazing about it is that she did so in under a minute. The snippet of the song performed on the show became a standout moment in the already strong pilot. Not only can we expect to see more of her on “Empire,” but she is on the verge of unleashing not one, but two albums of new music.

I love that there is a wealth of new talent spilling out of this show. The first season of “Glee” gave us some truly magnificent arrangements of music, but it also introduced the public to a slew of powerful voices, some of which have gone on to star on Broadway and be in films. I truly hope “Empire” does the same thing for these new faces. Mostly because, much like the cast of “Glee,” they aren’t new faces at all. Some of these are artists who have been working for years on their craft and are finally seeing a large-scale payoff for that work.

In a television landscape where anything seems not only possible, but possible to execute with excellence, I hope we continue to see directors like Lee Daniels who will step in and create shows that showcase more than just a salacious story line or GIF-worthy moments. We want to see artists shine, and these folks on “Empire” are doing just that.

Ryan Brinson Editor-in-Chief BLEEP 5

BLEEPblips

Ryan Skyy feat.

Niki Darling “Done”

A great beat, a powerful voice, some classic club-kid looks what’s not to like about Ryan Skyy’s video for “Done?” Check out the collaboration of the DJ with Niki Darling and just try to not dance at your office. Darling’s voice is powerful and bold, the beats are totally on trend with both what’s happening in clubs and on the radio, and the video is sexy and fun. We’ve become fans.

You will too.

The roots of the world’s largest film franchise MARVEL is everywhere. What began with comic books exploded into every medium of entertainment from television to blockbuster films. Now, before the newest installment in the film mega-franchise is slated to hit theaters, “The Avenger’s Vault” brings the heroes from the Avengers series into focus with a retrospective on their stories, the different incarnations of their characters through the years and more. For fans of the original comics, the book is a cool look at

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the history of the characters, including clips from comic books through the years and showing the evolution of the art behind it. For new fans who may have discovered these heroes via the films, this is an excellent crash course in the rich history of the MARVEL characters. It’s a gorgeous book that truly highlights the incredible artistry involved with these comics. With all kinds of added extras, this is the book any comic book fan needs to add to their collection.

When a “fan-made” short film turned absolutely Mighty This isn’t your typical fan-made trailer.

A week ago, celebrated director Joseph Kahn unleashed a 14 minute short called Power/Ranger. Imagine Mighty Morphin Power Rangers meets The Dark Knight. His vision of what the Rangers’ story would look like in a dark, nearapocalyptic world took the internet by storm as fans went crazy for the film. The film, of course, is not the precursor to a reboot of the same dark timbre (though most wish it was). Saban, the company that owns the Power Rangers franchise (and is also the company rebooting it for a 2016 return to the big screen) stepped in and has pulled the video off all sites that it was posted on, claiming copyright infringement.

Kahn, disappointed with what Saban did, told Deadline.com “I hope they come to an awareness of how modern pop culture works. The audience will pay for the franchise, but they want to play with it as well. You can’t just dictate that these are the things you are going to watch in the way we want you to watch it. That’s not the way society works anymore. If you want the support of the modern fandom, you need to let them participate.”

It’s the internet and the film will find a way to resurface, everything always does, we just hope it happens sooner rather than later. Actually, we hope Saban is shaking in their boots that this short is better than their planned remake and it forces them to make some creative decisions now that they know an audience not only exists for the Rangers still, but what they want is something decidedly darker and more interesting than the 1993 technicolored TV show.

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REEL LIFE

by Alex Wright

Diving in I threw up so hard. It was 2:00 in the morning, and I was sick in the Costa Rican rainforest. Food poisoning does not care that you are on vacation with your new boyfriend. Food poisoning does not care that you have scheduled a hike to a volcano the next morning. Food poisoning does not care that you are embarrassed—and slightly impressed—with the primal sounds your retching summons forth, waking up your slumbering and adorable boyfriend in the next room. He quietly knocked, “Sweetie, are you okay?” I managed to scream out, “Don’t come in!” between waves of sickness. Once it had subsided, I brushed my teeth and checked myself out in the mirror. Any chance I don’t look as horrible as I feel? All the blood vessels in my face had popped around my eyes, due to the sheer violence of this food poisoning. Yeah, I was the face of beauty at that moment.

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We had booked this trip after only two months of dating, each of us silently hoping that we wouldn’t have to cancel this trip once the other one turned out to be a psychopath.

Six months into our still pubescent relationship, we were going strong, but we embarked on our week-long trip to Costa Rica with the knowledge that you learn a lot about someone by traveling together. Would we drive each other crazy by spending all that one-on-one time together? Would we have enough to talk about when we didn’t have technology to comfortably fill in the dead spaces? Would he still like me? That thought raced through my mind as I hugged the rainforest toilet. Yep, he’s learning a lot about me in this moment.

No doubt about it that we dove headfirst into this relationship. Not even a month into us dating, I was going on a week long lake vacation with him and his family. They got to

know me pretty well on that vacation, too, after I dove off a cliff and landed face first in the still water, 30 feet below. I got a lovely concussion, and spent the rest of the day staring off into space in awkward confusion.

I felt brave, though. Brave—and arguably stupid—for diving off the cliff, and brave— and arguably naïve—for diving so quickly into a relationship. And now, in Costa Rica, I felt brave again. I had never traveled outside the country before with a boyfriend, and as I hugged my new toilet friend and heard my boyfriend quietly knock on the other side of the bathroom door, I knew that I had made a brave—and smart—choice in traveling with him.

Diving into a relationship is a lot like diving into a character. The biggest, and often times scariest, realization that we all have to make is that each person, each character, is deep and complex. We can spend our whole lives diving deeper into their complexities and never fully know their true selves. And the beautiful thing about acting is that even though, as the artist, you get to create all that complexity, there are other actors out there who create their own complexity for that same character. The character is never fully your own. The character belongs to every actor who will pick up that script or play, every actor who will speak that character’s truth. The same goes for relationships—I am proud to say I’m with my boyfriend, but I am also with every other boy who I’ve loved and who has loved me. It’s a beautiful part of my past that I would never exchange, and it’s a part of me that my boyfriend will never really know. Even though he knows a lot about me, concussion and food poisoning and all, he will never know the tender moments I have shared with past loves, or the deep hurts I’ve caused in others, or the aching wounds that I try to hide from sight; and even though it makes my stomach turn, I know it’s the same for him, as well. Some things are best kept secret. Some you have to be brave, dive into, and hope you won’t get hurt.

AND IN LONDON THIS MONTH!

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one to watch If music is the universal language, electronic artist know as Bulrog is making a statement everyone can understand. Making music purely because he loves it, he makes it available and accessible to anyone who wants to listen.

He is certainly one to watch.

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Photos by Will Von Bolton

Where did you grow up and where do you live now?

I was born in Geneva and stayed in a small French village close to Switzerland until my twenties. Then, I decided I needed more energy and decided to move to Paris to finish my studies. I’ve never left that beautiful city, I still live there.

Where did your interest in music come from?

To be truly honest, it’s a coincidence. I had a nice meeting with a talented music producer. One day he asked me to sing on one of his productions and we ended up spending 4 years working together on the name of RedRog. I have learned a lot from him.

When we decided to split, I had the feeling I didn’t want to stop singing so I began to produce my own songs. It was hard at the beginning, and it’s still not easy, but the process of creation is so intense, it gives me a lot of good energy.

What is your artistic process like when you’re creating songs?

I always start a new production with a rhythm and a bass. Then, I don’t know, it’s just like magic. No words can really explain it. I try different sounds and different melodies until I get something I like. The next step is the voice melody, my favorite part. Sometimes I can spend two hours listening to the same instrumental loop and just singing what comes to my mind. Little by little, I create something and record it.

Images come into my mind when I sing so the subject of the song is easy to find. It takes some time to find the right words to express my feelings, and to find the good rhymes, but writing the lyrics is an important part of the process.

Sometimes it’s inspired by an important personal event, sometimes I just imagine a weird situation and create a character and a story. I feel like I can write what I want, it’s true freedom.

Why make music?

That’s a very good question. I don’t do it for the money because I still don’t sell it. Maybe one day.

I think I need it to escape from everyday life. I’m an IT project manager working for a big French commercial website. I think I miss a part of creation in that work.

I want to show to people that I can create something more artistic, and something that people can easily understand and like. I’m trying to show and offer a part of me, share some secret of my personal life with people in music.

I also love photography and I think it’s important today to add imagery to the music. This is why I try to work my album covers with great artists. I already did some music videos for RedRog and I hope I will soon do it again with my own songs.

What inspires you?

I think everything is an inspiration. Sometimes I get inspired by what’s happening in my life, a feeling I have about myself or what I see around me: my friends, a movie, a TV show, etc. Sometimes I can be inspired by terrible things like serial killers or death. I think my favorite subjects are death and sex.

Where can we hear your music?

My music is posted on my Soundcloud page, www.soundcloud.com/bulrog and I always allow people to download it for free. You can also follow me on Facebook www.facebook.com/bulrog and on Instagram : @BULROG

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the intersection by

caleb bollenbacher

Send in the Clown The mask, which had been held in place for so long, finally started to slip.

Its owner put the façade back in place, only for a moment, before pulling it away entirely.

Hints gave way to hysterics, and without further ado an old foe grinned at the audience from behind a new face.

I’ve been wanting to talk about “Gotham” for a while now. It’s an intriguing premise with a great cast, and has, for reasons I can’t fully explain, been one of the most enjoyable hours of my TV week since its premiere. Something about spending time in Batman’s home city seems right. Sure, the show runners absolutely nail the feel of the city, distinguishing their take from previous interpretations while staying true to the essence of the source material.

The leads are all engaging, and the slow-burn storytelling leaves me excited to see what direction the show has in store. But there was never anything that just blew me away with its urgency.

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Until this month.

“Gotham” finally bit the bullet and gave us what we’ve all been waiting for: The Joker. It was quick, it was ruined by abhorrent spoilerheavy marketing, and it may have been a total red herring (more on that later), but it was a total knock-your-socks-off moment, and it left me wanting more.

What’s exciting for me about this show is what many had voiced hesitancies about: we know the ending. We know it ends with Batman and the familiar mythology that accompanies him. We know that no matter what Jim Gordon does, the Gotham Police Department will continue its descent into corruption. We know that a whole mess of super villains will rise up to join and overshadow the mob bosses who dominate the criminal underground. It’s all hurtling towards an inevitable conclusion.

But that doesn’t make it any less exciting.

Quite the contrary. This is “Gotham’s” charm:

that we know point B and now point A, but what happens in between is anyone’s guess.

It’s a long, winding journey to see how the characters that we all know and love, or love to hate, came to be, and the unpredictability in navigating that course is entrancing. The breakout star from the first season of “Gotham” has been Robin Lord Taylor, whose pitch perfect portrayal of the oddball Penguin takes a character who doesn’t traditionally offer that much excitement and turns him into must-see TV. Every scene he’s in is full of unpredictable promise. The way Taylor navigates the constant plotting and occasional psychopathy of the Penguin is grade-A entertainment…but in Cameron Monaghan’s Jerome, he finally has a peer.

When Monaghan first showed up on screen I felt he would be important, though the character he seemed to play gave me no reason for this thought (I had the benefit of watching this episode without having seen the spoiler-heavy promos for it). It was just a hunch. Something about him made me want to watch, in spite of his character’s seemingly vanilla nature. The big twist in the case, which revealed him as his mother’s murderer, wasn’t all that exciting on its own either…but it was at that point when I started to project my hopes onto him. I hoped that maybe he could be a villain, and I secretly rooted for him to be THE villain.

Monaghan’s big reveal as the man who may be the Joker is absolutely captivating, and what makes it so brilliant is the deft blending of portrayals past. At first it’s just a whisper.

Monaghan shifts ever so slightly away from the previously sniveling Jerome, to something a little steadier, something less childish, and in doing so ever so slightly recalls the voice of a young Mark Hamill (who in addition to playing Luke Skywalker, has famously voiced The Joker in cartoons and video games for over two decades). It’s subtle; for a second you can hear young Luke Skywalker pleading with his uncle, or rejecting the notion that Darth Vader is his father. Then the subtlety gives way to laughter, and the question of Jerome’s identity starts to become more of an answer. The chuckle becomes a laugh, and then the Hamill voice becomes a more fully-fledged echo of the iconic Joker voice. It’s full steam ahead from

there, as Monaghan latches onto the voice with vigor, effortlessly balancing between menace and manic with the grace of a natural.

And then there are the trappings: the Heath Ledger body tics and the piercing glare of Jack Nicholson. Jerome doesn’t leave his chair throughout this entire scene, but Monaghan runs the gamut between nearly every great Joker performance, borrowing seamlessly to create something entirely his own, while doing enough hat tips to show the audience what they should expect.

Unfortunately, the slow burn nature of Gotham, coupled with its relative success worries me in this case. Given its positive reception and solid ratings, there is no need for it to jump the shark and introduce its greatest villain so early. And if they were to do so, wouldn’t they want it to be more of a surprise? It doesn’t make sense to me that they would so heavily promote this mid-season episode in a way that ruins all the suspense, unless it was all a bait-and-switch.

As a result, I half expect Jerome to be dead by the time this issue is posted, but the cleverness I just described is why I think that would be a crime. If Cameron Monaghan is the eventual heir to the Joker mantle – and make no mistake, it should be a slow, eventual build to that point – then his introduction as Jerome is brilliant.

The way he embodied the intersection of past performances so masterfully establishes him as someone who is beyond capable of portraying such a key character. If he’s not, then it’s too much of a coincidence to be anything but cruel.

The key to this crucial character is mirrored perfectly by Monaghan’s frantic borrowing act: his very nature is something familiar – in Joker’s case, a clown – that has been made so erratic as to become a point of fear. We know that we recognize what we see, but it’s too fluid to have the comfort that should come with familiarity.

That’s delightful characterization. In a show that is all about the journey of becoming Batman, it makes sense that a character so vital to his mythos be present. Obviously the Clown Prince of Crime will show up, so why not have him be perfect? Monaghan’s introduction as the maybe-Joker proved that perfection is within reach, and if he turns out to be merely a red-haired herring then the joke’s on us.

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on your plate by lisandra caraballo

Sea Salt Caramel Apple Streusel Bars

@LittleHippyChef on Twitter & if you’d like to place any orders or have her come and host a dinner party, shoot her an email at LittleHippieChef@yahoo.com

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Love making apple pie? Hate waiting forever? These take quicker than you think & they are delicious at any time of day! Trust me.

Ingredients:

1 shallow aluminum pan Shortbread crust: 1/2 cup unsalted melted butter 1/4 cup granulated sugar 2 tsp vanilla extract 1/2 tsp salt 1 cup all purpose flour Apple Filling: 2 large apples- peeled & thinly sliced ^ ( I like to use two different kinds to get a mixture of sweet and tangy apples) 2 tbls all purpose flour 2 tbls granulated sugar 2 tsp ground cinnamon 1/8 tsp ground all spice Streusel: 1/2 cup old fashioned oats 1/3 cup light or dark brown sugar 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 1/4 cup all purpose flour 1/4 cup unsalted cold & cubed butter *Sea salt *Caramel Sauce Preheat the oven to 300 degrees

The Crust: Stir together the melted butter, vanilla, sugar, & salt in a medium bowl. Add the flour & stir until all is combined. Press the mixture together evenly into the greased pan. Bake for 15 minutes while you prepare the streusel and apple filling!

Apple Filling: Mix apple slices with flour, cinnamon, sugar, and allspice together in a large bowl until all apples are evenly coated with mixture. Set aside.

Streusel: Mix together the brown sugar, oats, cinnamon & flour together in a medium bowl. Then mix in the cold butter with your hands to make course crumbs. Set aside.

Remove crust after 15 minutes of baking, turn oven to 350 degrees.

Evenly layer the apples on top of the warm shortbread crust.

Layer them tightly and press them down. Sprinkle the apple layer with your streusel topping and baking for 30-35 minutes until golden brown on top.

Remove from oven, eat hot out the pan with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or refrigerate the bars up to 2 hours and then cut & drizzle with sea salt & caramel sauce! A warm winters treat to indulge in on a snowy cold day, enjoy fellow foodies & readers!

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Take Too

by Hatley Moore

Analyze This The Academy Awards are a strange phenomenon in our culture. Let’s just simply look at it this way: once a year, everyone in America goes wild and regardless of whether they actually love movies or not, watch the most boring of all of the award shows, the Oscars!

Isn’t that odd when you look at it for what it is?

Our culture is heavily invested in this awards show, breaks the internet over what color a dress is (black and blue), and loses their mind over llamas being pursued by humans (which was awesome).

Now, I have watched the Oscars my entire life. It was just something my parents loved to watch each year and that probably had a major impact on me receiving a bachelor’s degree in Film and Digital Media. This year really illustrated some major pros and cons of the Oscars that have always been floating around in the air, but really came to light this year.

The pros are the simple things that we all notice, and that’s why I’m not going to devote much time to them. I thought Neil Patrick Harris was fantastic; he owned the stage and

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some of his greatest moments were the ones that weren’t scripted. The tributes, artwork, and video montages were all on point and wonderfully executed, making the show an excellent homage to filmmaking and honoring those that had major influence in the cinematic world.

However, this year’s Oscars showed the politics of the Academy more than in recent years. Let’s jump right in with “Selma,” and all of the controversy that came with it. I saw “Selma,” along with all of the Best Picture nominees, and a majority of the films nominated in all categories. I’ve spent years learning how to pick apart movies, and view these films as works of art to be analyzed and studied. It’s my opinion that “Selma” was extremely overrated, and solely caused controversy by being a politically charged film.

The Academy Awards are meant to honor the best work of the year in every category, and minus Best Picture typically, the nominations should be chosen regardless of the subject matter of the film. The nominations, in their various categories, should be chosen based

on outstanding performance or the nominee’s achievement in excellence. Some people attempt to skew the foundation of the Academy Awards by trying to make a political point, and in this case it was causing a major “all white” outrage when nominations were dropped.

The true problem in their eyes was that “Selma” didn’t get a Best Director or Best Actor nomination. This is why the Academy didn’t nominate them, and I want to make this as clear as possible: they didn’t do a better job than those nominated. David Oyelowo gave an amazing performance as MLK, don’t get me wrong, and I think if he had received a nomination it would have been well deserved, although I do think Miles Teller should have been nominated over him in place of Steve Carell.

However, Ava DuVerney, director of “Selma,” is the reason this movie was really good, and not great. She intentionally denied historical facts to create an ‘art-piece,’ not a historically accurate retelling of the events in “Selma,” something that if done properly and accurately would have been a masterpiece. But she chose to make the biopic historically inaccurate, with direction that relied on mostly long monologues, with a few beautiful moments, and I think that hurt her in the end. Clearly, I got upset when the “all white” Oscars thing was going around for a couple reasons, mainly the fact she didn’t deserve the nomination, and I honestly think she should have received more ridicule than she did.

Of course racism is still very real in America, but just because your movie got nominated for Best Picture, and not Best Actor and Best Director, does not mean the entire Academy, and America, are all racist.

Bigotry and ignorance cause so much drama and strife in this country, and it needs to end.

I’m about to hop off that soapbox and continue, but I’ll just throw out there that “12 Years a Slave” won best picture last year, well deserved by the way, it was the best film that year. So yeah, “all white” Oscars.

Moving forward, let’s talk about why the Oscars are painfully boring at times. Most people watching the Oscars don’t give a damn about categories like “Best Hair and Makeup,” rightfully so. I mean, I don’t care about those categories and I work in the industry. I think the important thing to remember at those times, is that this is a show honoring those that bring the cinema to life, and it’s not about the viewers. Yet, to keep viewership, they have to try and keep the audience watching through

the more boring categories. It’s truly a catch 22.

I spent time sitting there thinking about how they could make it less bland at times.

Obviously, they throw in the “Best Song” nominations throughout this period of the show to try and keep viewership, and I think that’s great. But at the end of the day, I realized that this isn’t a show for me, or you. This is a ceremony honoring them, the filmmakers, and the extraordinary talent they all possess. It’d be like if we shot a high school award show, and broadcasted it. That’s a leap of a simile, but you get the idea. It’s not about us in the end, it’s about them.

I want to close with the Best Picture race, that in the end was really more of a race between “Birdman” and “Boyhood,” with “Grand Budapest Hotel” being a dark horse. Just to put this out there, “Birdman” and “Whiplash” were my favorite movies from this year. Overall, the movies this year were pretty meh, but I think that’s mainly because last year was so amazing in overall filmmaking.

But these the three movies in the true running (and “Whiplash” in my eyes), were truly amazing films.

That being said, “Boyhood” should have won best picture, without a doubt in my mind. “Birdman” did successfully accomplish an extremely difficult challenge of emulating a single take, and was done so in a way that at the end of the day I do believe Alejandro Iñárritu deserved Best Director. It really could have gone to either Richard Linklater or Iñárritu and I would have been happy. Both were very deserving, even if I would have given it to Linklater for his incredible accomplishment.

And because of that incredible accomplishment, “Boyhood” should have won Best Picture. Creating twelve short films, one a year, and combining it into an all-around film documenting a boy’s growth through the most impressionable years of his life is an incredible feat that only someone like Linklater could have accomplished. This film made history and will forever be so influential to filmmaking, and while it may not be the most exciting and engaging movie of the year, it was such an important art-piece to filmmaking. It should have gone in the history books as the greatest, and in my opinion, the most important, film of 2014.

I’m not even going to go into the BS snub that is “The Lego Movie,” I’m getting riled up just thinking about it.

See you next year folks.

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on the scene at

Berlinale This year saw the 65th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival (or Berlinale) and in some ways, the festival seems to be the elderly dame who has developed her own set of habits and stopped being shy about them. Her age brings her the needed respect to get away with them. She just does not care anymore. With this allegory in mind, it might be easier to excuse the questionable step of having the international premiere of “Fifty Shades of Grey.”

This highly anticipated screen adaptation of one of the most successful books of the last few years has its right to exist, of course, but the question remains: Does an A-List festival need to give this kind of movie a forum? We all know it will be a box office success anyway. It does not need a push by being selected and invited by a festival jury. Hence the main reaction to this decision was shaking heads and lots of gossip behind hands.

Festival Director Peter Kosslick commented on the move before the festival, stating that this is the biggest audience festival in the world and that you should pay respect to that by also including such big, commercial productions. While this one movie could generate a big debate about the

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by Florian Hubertus responsibilities of a film festival and international film marketing, we don’t want to fall into that trap and neglect all the other exciting things that happened during the 5th and 15th of February.

Sometimes the old lady surprises us with something unexpected. What people in their 60’s like to do, especially after freshly entering retirement, is adopt a new hobby. What the Berlinale did, was add the format of TV series to its program. In recent years, serial formats have evolved quite impressively and won the favor of audiences around the globe. Story development and production conditions for these series are no longer inferior to those for classic film productions. Indeed, serial narratives have become an essential component of audiovisual culture. The serial market is booming and drama series are now an especially popular genre. This year, the Berlinale gave this narrative form more scope and attention in its official program as well as in the European Film Market and Berlinale CoProduction Market. To pay respect to this format is quite exceptional for a film festival and very refreshing. This was underlined with having the creator of the TV success “Madmen,” Matthew

Weiner, in the official jury. It was good to see that the movie industry is starting to abandon the self-perception of being superior and looking down on television as cinema’s baby brother. Weiner jokingly commented on that, saying that his presence had “clearly lowered the status” of the festival.

Again, the festival’s intensive interaction with a public audience made this a good forum to implement such as step. And in juxtaposition with “Fifty Shades of Grey,” it becomes clear that such a reputation works both ways.

On other end, the festival is at the forefront of innovation too and are aware of the rapidly changing conditions regular cinemas have to struggle with. On the technical side, it is worth mentioning that almost all of the screenings are not only digital, but streamed from a central server into the cinemas through glass fibre cables. No other festival of this size is as technically advanced. It foreshadows the future of cinemas, where projectionists are obsolete and programming is an automated process.

In terms of sound, the Berlinale Palace (the festival’s prestige cinema) was exclusively equipped with Dolby Atmos. This technology is a multidimensional sound experience, where over 100 speakers within the cinema can receive individual signals. This gives the audience an even deeper impression of being “in” the movie.

This innovation was also used for this year’s opening film, “Nadie Quiere La Noche” (Nobody Wants the Night) from Isabel Coixet, who was a jury member of the festival herself in 2009. This year, she faced jury president Darren Aronofsky and other members, among which were names such as Daniel Brühl, Audrey Tautou, Martha de Laurentis and Bong Joon Ho. The opening film competed with 18 other films to win the Golden Bear. The selection was diverse and some of the winners were true surprises. Andrew Haigh’s “45 Years” brought main actors Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay both the Silver Bear for best acting. The Chilean contribution “El Botón de Nácar” (The Pearl Button) not only was one of many Latin American entries in all of the festival’s

“Taxi”

sections, but also won a bear for best script. Win Wenders, who also received this year’s honorary bear for his life achievement experimented with 3D in a “conventional” narrative, “Everything Will Be Fine” starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and workaholic James Franco, who was at the festival with three other movies. Wunderkind Terrence Malick enchanted with the world premiere of “Knight of Cups” and showed us once more that his style is still unique.

In the end the Golden Bear for best feature film went to a movie with which it is hard to see it separated from the political circumstances it was made under: “Taxi” by Iranian director Jafar Panahi. In his 2013 film “Closed Curtains,” he avoided his employment ban by shooting the whole movie in his house, where he was held under arrest. This time he makes a 180 degree turn and uses the public space as a setting. A yellow taxi in Teheran is the stage and clueless people from the street are his actors. Panahi drives the taxi himself and has conversations with his guests. Those are at times political, at times simply amusing and create a vibrant kaleidoscope of the Iranian capital. By letting the people speak he avoids accusations of having made yet another regime critical movie. During the ceremony, he was absent, of course. Since his arrest in 2010 (he was on his way to the Berlinale), Panahi is not allowed to leave the country. This also explains the tight bond between this festival and the Iranian director. He was part of the jury in 2011, yet physically absent. The media echo created by this put his case on a global map and generated huge solidarity all over the world.

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While the general audience will most likely hear about most of the films in the Berlinale Competition, there are around 400 more movies running in the different sections of the festival.

The number is immense and it is not easy to choose the few films that you will be eventually be able to watch. A common thread seems to be a new found realism. Cinema has always been used to document and portray reality. It is the perfect medium to do so. But after bloated, over-dramatized, big budget productions, there seems to be a new take for young filmmakers to abandon many of the tools modern film making provides to them. Foremost, the use of music, probably the strongest trigger of emotional reactions, has disappeared completely in some of the recent films of independent cinema.

In Jorge Forero’s “Violencia,” for example, the only music comes from a radio playing at some point in the movie.

The rest of the film is dominated by silence and blackness. Forero is brave by leaving the screen pitch dark for minutes, but the effect is even more staggering.

Tackling the issue of violence in his home country Colombia, he ever explicitly shows the name giving force, but sheds light on it from three different perspectives. Omitting gore and blood leaves the audience with their own imagination.

The psychological torment while watching the three stories unfold is captured in beautiful images that take their time. The devaluation of human life is portrayed with such casualness that is not easy to comprehend but according to the director part of the Colombian trauma.

“In our whole history we only had ten years in which we were not at war” he said. “This violence is so normal for us. I am not sure how a Colombian audience will react to this movie.

Independent cinema has a difficult time in my country. Colombians prefer easy blockbusters from America popcorn cinema. I am not sure if they will like to be forced to look into the mirror.”

A similar, reduced touch has Joshua Gil’s film “La Maldad” (Evilness). No music and shots that

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make you wonder if this is a documentary or a fiction film. It traces two old men, one being sick and one with high ambitions, and only reveals at the very end what exactly the evilness is.

Stylistically, this rawness is a red thread. Story wise, it seems to be the search for identity, the search for ones place in this complicated world.

In the news you often hear that we live in critical times and that the old orders are about to change.

The cards are about to be reshuffled. Maybe it is this uncertainty that drives filmmakers to explore the topics of identity so intensely, on an individual and a cultural level. The mechanisms of the systems we live in are dissected and questioned.

A country that shows this very obviously is Spain.

The recent collapse of the country’s economy now finds its repercussions in the films. In their form they are not only very low budget (probably out of necessity as cultural funds are usually the first to be cut when a state runs out of money), but they chose to work in a very direct, almost guerrilla kind of “Violencia” way. Juan Rodrigáñez’ adaptation of the German 1916 novel “Der Geldkomplex” (The Money Complex), picking on the bourgeoisie of its time, was shot with “amateur” actors and very minimum means. Yet it does not lack the power to convey its message: We are all under the spell of this invisible force called money. In this ensemble piece which comes along almost like a chamber play, the protagonists sit around in a finca in southern Spain, drink, have conversation and do not seem to have a worry in the world. It is in the gaps where Rodrigáñez lays focus on the cracks in the picture. The pressure of the money complex is implicit.

Similar in its style, yet very different in its topic is another Spanish movie, “Sueñan los Androides” (Androids Dream). Here we have a take on Philip K. Dick’s science fiction classic “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” that already serves as the inspiration for the movie “Blade Runner.” Director Ion de Sosa takes this story and loosely adapts it into a Mediterranean touristic

environment. The city of Benidorm serves as a blueprint of a future put to life by the means of a 70s B-movie. Shot on 16mm, the timeless feel gives the story its relevance and connection to recent Spanish history. This is an aesthetic many viewers might only know from Tarantino’s movies.

By choosing a center of tourism and construction (the city is cramped with skyscrapers, like a small version of Dubai or Hong Kong), de Sosa aims at the heart of the Spanish economy. Both were the main pillars of the economy and one of them, construction, imploded and pushed the country to almost bankruptcy. Long shots of abandoned half-finished buildings capture a current state Spain but also foreshadow a gloomy future. The streets are empty, life happens mostly indoors.

By portraying the actors in their real life work environments, de Sosa subtlety implements current affairs with this work of fiction. It all interweaves into a trashy retro-future film that nicely plays with the shifting borders of reality and time.

Everybody who enjoys this free play with form and content, cannot miss the short films of the festival. They are an extreme array of what film can do. For the audience this means to be thrown from one end of the scope to the other within the time of a regular feature film.

This is very intentionally, as short film curator Maike Mia Höhne explains: “Yes, I want to show with our selection all the extreme ends of film.

One is an installation, one can be animation and the next one quite conventional. It is about shedding light to the many possibilities of film.”

This year’s short film program consisted of five separate reels of approximately 90 minutes length. It included everything, from beautiful animation using wood cuttings (“Däwit”), grainy black and white landscapes á la Ansel Adams recreating old Hollywood locations (“Shadowland”), over documentaries tackling the boundaries of its own genre in a Lebanese refugee camp (“El Juego de Escondite”) to a boy with healing powers that are not welcomed in his environment (“Hosana”). The latter comes from Korea and won the Golden

Bear for best short film. It is director Young-Kil Na’s take on the ridiculousness of the promise of salvation. In an almost monochrome, desolate setting a boy without a name can heal people and raise the dead while being treated like scum.

“My father is a priest. I come from a very religious background and I wanted to show that salvation is an illusion. It is my personal confrontation with that topic”, Young-Kil Na said.

Being mistreated for being different is also the topic of another beautiful short film, “San Cristobál.” There, two young men meet in a village in the south of Chile. They instantly fall in love but the village rebels against their bond. In a fragment of time, we follow their struggle and their decision for love with a deadline. In very direct, yet tender and heartfelt picture, young director Omar Zuñiga Hidalgo narrates with great sympathy for his characters. He creates an immediate bond between them and the audience and that is the strong point of that little treasure. In its simplicity, it convinces by laying focus on universal feelings we all can connect to. This brought him the Teddy Award for best short movie. The Teddy is the LGBT film prize of Berlinale and the oldest of its kind in the world.

It is another detail that makes the Berlinale a whimsical old Lady.

But despite all her flaws she still manages to entertain us. She tells great stories, in a way only old ladies can do, and even though she drives us mad sometimes, it is such fun to sit on her lap and listen to her.

“San Cristobál”

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Photo by Russel Baer

five questions with

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Johnny Ortiz star of “American Crime” on ABC

Johnny Ortiz has a busy 2015 ahead of him. Within two weeks, he opens the film “McFarland USA” and his show on ABC, “American Crime,” debuts. We talk with Ortiz about why he wanted to become an actor and why both his show and his movie are especially important in today’s culture.

Why did you become an actor?

I never had a plan to become an actor. I remember watching “Spy Kids” and seeing those two kids acting. It made me want to inspire other kids. I want to do this so I can inspire people. For me, I want to show people that it’s possible to be an actor even when you don’t come from a rich family or fancy upbringing.

“McFarland USA” touches on issues that are very relevant with what’s happening in America at the moment. Were you aware of that when you were filming it?

I didn’t really know in the moment, but it’s important to get stories like this out there. The movie is so great and it’s so inspirational. It’s about how a group of people start in poverty and come out of it as State Champion runners.

It’s about what really can happen and it’s about showing people we can do it.

“American Crime” is another story that could be ripped from today’s headlines. How is this show different than other shows on TV? I love this show because it’s not like other shows. We have 11 episodes to tell a whole story. I play Tony, a teenage boy who lives with his single father. He makes a bad decision and it ultimately makes him a suspect in a murder case.

John [Ridley] really shows faith, family and the human spirit in “American Crime.”

Other shows are focused on the detectives and are all about catching the victim. This show isn’t about that. This show gives voices to everyone; it doesn’t matter what the color of our skin is. It’s about reality. It shows the reality of what’s going on in America.

What do you hope people will take away from these projects

“McFarland USA.”

you’re a part of this spring?

Both of these projects are showing reality and possibility. I hope they open people’s eyes.

Latinos are becoming more successful and these projects show that. It’s showing what’s really happening in the world and that the sky’s the limit.

What’s next for you?

I have a few things lined up but for now, I’ve been doing press for these projects and for “Strike One,” an independent film I did with Danny Trejo that is making the rounds on the festival circuit. I’m just going to keep going and motivating myself.

“McFarland USA” opened in theaters February 20 and “American Crime” premieres March 5 on ABC. For more on Johnny, follow him at www.twitter.com/MrJohnnyOrtiz

“American Crime”

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the

AWARDS

The idea for the awards for award shows list was born out of the mutual love of award shows that I share with Bleep’s illustrious editor. The list gives me an excuse to watch (and re-watch) award shows in the name of research and for the honor of bestowing our award, the magnificent and aptly named Streep, on those who created funny, moving, and standout moments from the roughly dozen music, television, theatre, and film award shows that air on television each year.

While award shows—honoring mostly overpaid, over exposed, overly self-important celebrities—may seem like strange fodder to expend energy writing about, there is something quite exciting and even beautiful about the unexpected moments of genuine joy, humor, surprise, and delight that emerge at award ceremonies. These are the moments that inspire us to dream, move us to tears, fill us with laughter, and remind us of the importance of art. So in honor of these moments, we humbly offer our fourth annual recipients of BLEEP’s Streep awards.

Our thanks again to artist Kristen Graham who created a likeness of the great Meryl Streep to “hand out” to our winners.

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BEST DANCE – KRISTIN WIIG DANCING WITH MADDIE ZIEGLER AT THE GRAMMYS

What made Kristin Wiig’s interpretation of Sia’s “Chandelier” so great, beside that fact that it was a complete surprise, was that it made perfect sense. No other non-dance trained actress has the body movement and comedic gravitas to pull off an entire contemporary dance routine and make it believable, beautiful, and with just enough subversive humor to work.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A DUO – SETH MEYERS AND BILLY EICHNER AT THE EMMY’S

In a pre-recorded bit, these two took to the streets to offer people a dollar if they agreed with Billy’s points about the Emmy’s. Hilarity ensued when those they approached on the street did not recognize Meyers, did not know what an Emmy was, and when Eichner mistakenly asked a woman if as a lesbian she watched “Orange is the New Black.”

Her deadpan response, “I do, but I am not a lesbian,” was one of the funniest moments of the night.

BEST RUNNING JOKE – J.K. SIMMONS & HIS “ABOVE AVERAGE CHILDREN”

Along with Julianne Moore, J.K. Simmons was a sure bet for best supporting actor at every award show. One thing we learned about this man is that he loves his family and he wants us to all call our parents. We also learned that he has “above average children,” a fact he mentioned in almost every acceptance speech. When he finally received his Oscar, the entire audience was in on the joke and applauded appreciatively when he mentioned a final time.

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BEST GAME – WHO WOULD YOU RATHER? GOLDEN GLOBES

In celebration of their last time hosting the Golden Globes, and their decades-long friendship, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler played a hilarious game of “Who Would You Rather” at the Golden Globes. They riffed on the Colin’s (Farrell and Firth) the Hulk’s (Norton and Ruffalo) and directing styles of Alejandro González Iñárritu and Richard Linklater.

BEST JOKE – TINA FEY AND AMY POEHLER AT THE GOLDEN GLOBES Fey and Poehler’s dig at George Clooney for receiving a Lifetime Achievement award for “acting” after he married an internationally renowned human rights lawyer was delivered with the pitch perfect timing these two are known for and got one of the biggest laughs of the evening.

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BEST SPEECH – HFPA PRESIDENT THEO KINGMA AT THE GOLDEN GLOBES

Politics often makes its way into the speeches at award shows. Sometimes they work and sometimes they come across the condescending rants of over-privileged, spoiled stars. But in the wake of the Charlie Hedbo shootings, Theo Kingma, President of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, delivered an eloquent and moving speech about the importance of artistic freedom of expression and the journalist oath to protect freedom of speech, from “North Korea to Paris.” It seems fitting that he received the most rousing standing ovation of the night.

BEST FACIAL EXPRESSIONS – OPRAH AT THE OSCARS

Part of the joy of the Oscars was watching Oprah’s facial expressions, because she is not woman who can hide what she feels. She look surprised when Neil Patrick Harris informed her she was wealthy, annoyed when he made an “Annie” joke, moved to great heights of feeling when Common and John Legend sang, and gave us the “Oprah’s Favorite Things” look when “Glory” won best song.

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BEST AUDIENCE MEMBERS – MERYL STREEP AND JENNIFER LOPEZ AT THE OSCARS

Just the fact that these two were sitting next to each other at the Oscars was cool, and their equally excited standing ovation after Lady Gaga’s performance was fun to watch. But the standout moment from these two megastars was at the end Patricia Arquette’s best supporting actress speech. As Arquette pleaded for other marginalized groups to lend their support towards equal wages and treatment of women, Streep and Lopez, not to be overly dramatic, lost their minds. Their enthusiastic cheering set the tone for audience reaction for the rest of the night. These are the two I want in the audience if I ever win an Oscar.

BEST OPENING – INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS

Celebrating 30 Years of the Independent Spirit Awards is no small task, but hosts Fred Armisen and Kristen Bell managed to make to it both cool and funny by playing scenes from films like “Birdman” and “Whiplash,” referencing TV shows “Portlandia” and SNL, and adding the talents of Adam Scott, Miles Teller, and Bill Hader. It was clever, succinct and made for the most creative opening of any award show this year.

BEST OVERALL AWARD SHOW MVP – MICHAEL KEATON From his heartfelt speech at the Golden Globes to his un-ironic mention of Narcissus at the Independent Spirit Awards, Michael Keaton’s reemergence into the national film consciousness this season was nothing short of spectacular. There is no narrative that will ever read more beautifully or profoundly as that of the overlooked and somewhat forgotten former superhero playing a washed-up superhero looking for a comeback. “Birdman” worked because Michael Keaton provided the context and backstory needed to make this trippy and ambitious film. The narrative fell a bit short when he did not win the Oscar, but his acknowledgement after the film won best picture that “it is great to be here, who am I kidding,” reminded all of us that a comeback this good is in and of itself a victory.

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BEST AWARD SHOW MOMENT OF THE ENTIRE SEASON – LADY GAGA AT THE OSCARS

Perhaps it is because “The Sound of Music” is one of those universally beloved films that we all feel a sense of nostalgia about it, so the idea of celebrating its 50th anniversary made sense. What did not make sense, until she started singing, was why Lady Gaga was chosen to sing a medley of the film’s music.

And then she reminded us that she is a classically trained singer who can do more than just over-thetop, high art performances.

Pitch perfect vocals, an elegant, understated setting, and the perfect blend of showmanship and subtly made this the best moment of any award show this season.

Bonus points for Julie Andrews appearing at the end of the performance to applaud and hug Lady Gaga.

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TM

BLEEP CREATIVITY. UNCENSORED.

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Photo by Leah Adams

fj

fjfjfj

Among the competitors at the 2015 U.S. National Figure Skating Championships were some names you knew (Olympians Gracie Gold and Ashley Wagner) and a handful of newcomers. Among those names you may not have known was an unassuming Joshua Farris. Though not new to winning championships, he’s the 2013 World Junior Champion, he was a newcomer to the podium on the big stage. We talked with the newly crowned bronze medalist about his skating inspirations, integrating artfulness into his technical routines and life outside the ice.

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At what point did you decide you wanted to skate competitively?

When I first started skating honestly. As a kid, I watched the Olympics and decided I wanted to do this. I was watching Timothy Goebel and Alexei Yagudin because their jumps were the biggest and as a young boy, that’s what I wanted to do.

Today there’s a talented field of men skating in the U.S., one of which is you. How do you feel you are different than the rest of the pack?

I’m not sure. That’s the one thing I’ve been struggling with. For the past few years, I’ve been discovering who I am as a person and the more I am myself as a person, the better I will be on the ice. I want my personality to come through on the ice and that will be the difference between me and the other guys.

How do you integrate artfulness into your technical routines?

In my opinion, figure skating started out as an art, a dance, as a performance art. Over time, it’s become more athletic and technical, which is great. But in my opinion, I want to keep the origins of skating in my routines. The jumps and the technicalities are very important obviously, but I want to create art.

NBC played a clip of you singing when you weren’t on the ice this year during the U.S. National Championships.

That was the first time I’d performed for anyone outside of my friends and family. I didn’t

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know that was going to be on NBC, but I’ve been taking guitar and voice lessons for the past five months.

With all of your skating training, why take on more training with voice and guitar?

For me, it’s an escape and a way to express myself outside of the ice. The peak of my career hasn’t come yet, but skating can only last so long. I’d been thinking about what happens after skating is over and I was almost fearful, but when I began to take these lessons, that fear went away.

What do you want the audience to take away from your performance?

I want my interpretation to be an extension of the music. I want the music to remain the focus.

This year, I’m skating to Ed Sheeran, who I’ve been a fan of since his first album. He’s a music idol for me and this year, since we are allowed to skate to songs with words, I knew I wanted to skate to any one of his songs.

How does your training change now that you are preparing for the World Championships?

It won’t change a lot. I’ve been working my butt off and I’ve been training smarter and harder than ever before. The only real change is my mental attack and my self confidence at Worlds.

For more on Joshua, head over to www.twitter.com/joshdfarris

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Photo by Leah Adams

EMAIL US FOR DETAILS THEBLEEPMAG@GMAIL.COM

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billygilman

all grown up The country crooner talks about growing up in the spotlight, his new single and being truly happy.

You came up so young in entertainment. Did it feel like a business when you started or was it just fun to sing for people?

It was never a pushed situation where my parents wanted this for me or something, it was always within me. When I was in elementary school, I would bring in my music stuff for show-and-tell.

When I got that industry break, I treated it like a game. I always loved it and I knew there were things I had to do for the business, but even when I was sick and puking my guts out off stage, the game would be how I was going to sing these high notes without letting anyone know I was sick. It was always fun, no matter what, because I was doing what I loved.

Your “One Voice” went 2x Platinum while “Dare To Dream” and “Classic Christmas” both went

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Gold; no small feat for a 12-year-old boy. Did that period of time feel like a whirlwind?

The process of making records was so different. They tracked the band two weeks before you arrived and then you bang out the vocals in a week, so the process alone is a whirlwind. I’d take a few weeks to listen to songs to see if I liked them and they [the label] would let me pick songs I liked that were appropriate for a kid to sing.

Young stars have a reputation for going wild as they get older. How did you avoid the pratfalls of young stardom?

I don’t know. I love to have fun but I don’t like to go crazy. I get nervous. I’ve seen so many of my friends fall so I got nervous for myself.

I always hated the concept of disappointing someone, I’ve always felt that way, so the

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thought of disappointing my parents or even my record label is something I wasn’t comfortable with.

You made a YouTube video recently, discussing your sexuality. Why was that personally important for you to do publicly?

That video was in the works for a while - I fought and fought for about two months. If I was a pop singer, a Broadway star, a jazz singer, or a TV star - it wouldn’t matter. But I’m a country artist.

Around mid-May, I met my boyfriend and a couple months later, we were at an outdoor festival. I was there doing interviews for a song I’d released, and we wanted to take a picture.

A guy was holding a professional camera and I asked him to take our picture. He recognized me and I realized I wanted to be at the helm of this situation rather than hearing about it from others or from people talking about me.

I’m a private person, and this may tick some people off, but people think they should know everything about an artist’s life. I give you my music and I give you certain aspects of myself, but other than that - I keep to myself.

It took me a good while to get the confidence up to make the video. Another country artist came out that day as well, and I didn’t know that he was going to do that. I didn’t want to do it on a talk show and look like I was using this as a medium to sell a project. The response was overwhelming from the fans.

How has the country music community responded?

It’s actually been more supportive than I thought. It’s been kinda quiet which is fine.

Country Weekly did a spread about it and I thought that was huge. They tend to be conservative and they wanted to talk about it.

In the end, my lifestyle is hugely accepted and while there are hang-ups, it’s totally different than it was ten years ago. Because of social media, my name is out there, I started my own label and you can market your own way.

I’m a singer and a songwriter and I’m happy.

When you’ve got this lingering thing in the back of your head, you can’t focus on the things that matter. Now that it’s not there - I can totally focus.

Coming from a conservative type of music,

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you have to take baby steps. There must be so many young adults who are my age who are going through the same thing. I’m 26 now and the flood of emails showed me that there’s that many people out there who are struggling with this.

I first and foremost want to be “Billy Gilman: the singer.” It’s not “Tim McGraw: Faith Hill’s husband,” he’s known on his own merit. That’s what I want first is to be recognized as the same old person, now I’m just happy.

Talk about “Say You Will.” What’s it all about, what are you hoping will come from it?

Melodies tend to come into my mind when I’m driving and such, but this chorus came to me out of a deep sleep. I woke up and just knew it.

The next day, I went to the song writing room with my co-writers Dan and Phil and I sang them this melody. It’s one of my favorite songs I’ve ever recorded. Now we’ve actually remixed it and while I did one music video for the song, I wasn’t happy with it. I’ve redone and it will be out in a few weeks. It’s the first song I’ve released that’s been co-written by me so it’s cool.

It’s a new world for me. It’s fun.

Do you sing any of your old songs now that you’re in a new phase of your career?

I bring out all of the old songs. I had a mezzosoprano voice and I went down to alto/tenor, so I can sing all of my sings just in a slightly lower key. Fans have been saying they really like them better now actually. I didn’t sing teeny bopper songs when I first started so I can still sing those songs today and they are still relevant, which is great.

Reba, Kenny Rogers, LeAnn Rimes, Kellie Pickler, Keith Urban, Wynonna Judd, Amy Grant, Vince Gill and Randy Travis all lent their voices to a song you wrote, “The Choice.” How did that happen?

As I gained confidence writing music, I had written a song with my co-writers and it didn’t really fit the theme of what I was working on.

This song was more of an anthem and was less mainstream. I thought, what if I asked a couple country artists to sing on it with me and we gave the proceeds to a charity? Why not just start with the people I toured with? So I asked

LeAnn, Keith and Reba and they all said yes.

Then it went from two artists to 18. Then we had to figure out which charity and we decided on Soles4Souls. They are based out of Nashville and they put shoes on people’s feet. Over half of the world population doesn’t have shoes.

They can’t go to school or find a job without them, so my mission was to raise half a million shoes. The song has a lot of great country artists on it and 100 percent of the proceeds to go to Soles4Souls. Coincidentally, the amount it costs to put shoes on a child is the same amount of a song on iTunes.

Shoes are so simple, I have tons of them, but so many people don’t have any. Something as simple as footwear can’t be obtained in some parts of the world and even in America, so

that’s why this will be a journey for me for a long time.

What’s next?

It’s been pretty crazy since November. I signed to a new agent and I’ve got a bunch of concerts coming up. There’s quite a bit going on and it’s really going to be about what I see happening in my career. I’m a country singer first, I grew up watching the Grand Ole Opry and hopefully my fans will be proud of the music. I’m keeping my eyes open to all avenues.

For more on Billy, head over to www.billygilman.net and for more on Soles4Souls, check out www.soles4souls.org

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When did you know you wanted to make music your career, as opposed to your hobby?

In my college years, I started to think about what was going to come next, as most college students do. I was studying music at the time, but somehow the reality of calling music my career was not a decision that I thought to consciously sit down and make. At some point it dawned on me that I wasn’t going to do anything else. Doing anything else would mean not giving my whole heart to the pursuit and success of my music.

You’ve said your inspirations range from 90’s pop to Motown. What artists inspired you and how?

Old soul artists like Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, The Supremes-- those were artists I grew up with. My dad was a huge fan, so it was always playing in the car.

It was some of the first music I really fell in love with. It taught me about the relationship between emotion and song. As a singer, I think 90’s pop was an influence because of all of the vocal powerhouses that came to light during that time--from Whitney Houston to Mariah Carey to Celine Dion. These solo female acts seemed to be taking over the industry, and that was an extremely exciting idea to me.

Talk about “To Street & Transfer.” What inspired the EP? This EP was inspired by a lot of things, New York City being a large factor. My time in this city has helped to shape my musical style, and I think the growth I’ve experienced can be heard in the music of “To Street & Transfer.”

Lyrically, I like to write from personal experience, mostly about things that I don’t

completely understand. All the feelings and thoughts that are wrapped around a situation you can’t fully comprehend can make for pretty intense song writing material.

What surprised you most about the process of creating the EP? My talented band never ceases to amaze and surprise me. They go into the studio, knock it out, go home, and have a beer. It’s unbelievably refreshing for me.

If someone hasn’t heard your music, describe your sound in 5 words.

Passionate, Earnest, Percussive, Soulful, Organic What separates you from other artists producing music today?

I know I’ve said this before, but I do think that classical training and technique is so important when a singer is building his or her foundation. I’m grateful for my musical education, and it’s not something you find in all singer/songwriters. I like the fact that I’m still sitting down with an instrument and producing an organic product; I think some contemporary music is missing the human element. Maybe it moves your body, but it doesn’t move your soul.

What’s next?

Lots of shows coming up, mostly in New York City, but still looking to expand throughout the East Coast. I’m also hoping to get back in the studio soon with new material, but at the very core, I just want to tour and play my music for as many people as possible. Check out www.rachellynnsings.com for show dates!

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the songstress talks new music, live shows & music from the 90’s

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24 million people saw him crowned an Idol, but since then, Lee DeWyze has been carving his own musical path, one that led him to another runaway hit show, “The Walking Dead.”

What was the epicenter of your love of music?

Growing up, to be honest, it’s been my love and my passion. My dad and I used to listen to all kinds of records, but particularly Cat Stevens and Paul Simon. When I used to listen to those records, I would get lost in them. I fell in love with it in that sense.

You went from independent album releases to the biggest stage in America, to major record deals. How has your music changed?

I think mainly, the older I’m getting and the more experience I have, I feel more free.

My song writing has matured over the years and it’s become more personal. I think in the beginning, you start writing songs for others and I think I’m more connected to the music I’m writing than ever before. I’m writing for myself.

On March 9, 2014, your track “Blackbird Song” was used in the TV series “The Walking Dead” and was the second most viral song on Spotify in the United States that week. What was it like being a part of such a huge show?

That was a crazy experience. I was inspired by the show, I wrote the song and that’s what happened. It was pretty wild. I was sitting at

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home watching the show with my wife one night and I decided I wanted to write a song in that place and that mind set. What would I be feeling, what would I be writing if I was in that place with these characters? I picked up my guitar and started writing. It’s a dark song for me and it makes it more personal. I think that’s really the direction my music has moved in more personal.

What should fans expect with your tour?

Mainly, I’m playing new music which is fun.

We will be on the road with The Tragic Thrills and it will be a lot of fun. People hear acoustic and they think “a man in a chair with a guitar,” but it’s really more stompy than that and it’s fun to engage with the fans in that way.

When people hear the name Lee DeWyze, what do you want to come to mind?

I think I want to be known for writing lyrics that mean something.

I don’t know if people would say “he’s a singer/songwriter.” Maybe they’d say “American Idol winner,” or maybe they’d say “he sang that ‘Walking Dead’ song.” There are so many stages my career has gone through. The truth is: I’m a singer/songwriter. That term is used too loosely today, but if nothing else, I want people to want to come see me live. Not only would they have a good time at the show, but they would also see the real me.

What’s next for you?

Writing, of course. I’m working on a new album, and I’m really excited to play that for people. It really is a good representation of what I’m doing now. When people hear it, they will be pleasantly surprised. I’m always in the studio writing.

e z y eW For more on Lee, head over to www.leedewyzeofficial.com

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Tony nominated actress Anika Larsen has conquered the Broadway stage. Now, on the cusp of a completely different type of adventure, she talks about her new album, “Sing You To Sleep.”

nika Lars n In the liner notes for your new album, “Sing You To Sleep,” you say you hope people fall asleep to the album. What exactly does that mean to you?

Well, for children listening, I hope this album provides their parents with a little help getting them to calm down and go more happily and easily to sleep. I’ve had a few videos sent to me of snoring little ones at home or in the car listening to the album, so I’m optimistic it works.

And I hope as kids drift off, these songs become subconsciously some of their favorites for life, as I think they are some of the prettiest out there.

As for the adults I’d like to be listening, I hope they find the album pleasurable like a warm bath, that they appreciate the musicianship behind it, the arrangements, and the discovery

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of new lovely songs or the rediscovery of ones they already knew. And if they fall asleep while listening, so be it. As long as they’re not driving. I think grown-ups can use a little lulling sometimes—I know I can.

What was the impetus for this album?

At first I said “Absolutely not” to the offer from Dan Watt to produce an album of just me. As one of ten children, I have a neurotic relationship with attention: I desperately want it, but too much of it makes me deeply uneasy.

So an album with the sole purpose of people listening to only Anika felt self-indulgent and uncomfortable. But a few weeks later I was singing lullabies to some of my nieces and nephews and I thought, “An album of lullabies, now that I could get behind. That has a

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Photos by Jenny Anderson

purpose, a desire to serve others, a reason for being out there in the vast catalog of albums that exist.”

How did you go about choosing these specific songs?

I’ve never sung many actual lullabies to the children I’ve babysat, nannied for or been related to. I prefer to sing to them songs with melodies I think are beautiful, fun to sing, and like butter on their ears. And then I take into account what lyrics would make for happy imagery to close your eyes and fall asleep to. So choosing the songs for the album was basically sifting through the songs in my repertoire and picking an array that felt like a nice mix of styles and flavors.

I wanted the album to get slower and slower as it went along, a trick from my babysitting days, so I didn’t even have to rule out the songs I like with slightly brighter tempos.

Musical for which you were nominated for a Tony Award! What has each one of them taught you about your craft and about yourself?

I would say that every show I’ve ever been in, not just the Broadway ones, has been like a class, and the directors (and really everyone involved) have been like teachers. I auditioned for theatre graduate programs and didn’t get into any of them, something for which I am now grateful, because I got out there into the world sooner and learned on the job.

"Sometimes backstage I’ll get overwhelmed at watching how this finely oiled machine of people work so well together to put on a show."

Tony Award winner Jessie Mueller sings with you on the song “You Can Close Your Eyes.” How important is collaboration to you when it comes to your art?

Again, I grew up in a family of ten kids, so collaboration is the only way art feels good to me. It’s no surprise I do musical theater, which is as collaborative as art gets. It’s collaborative throughout the creative process, when the producers, creative team, design team and cast all have input, and then it’s collaborative every show 8 times a week, when the thing couldn’t be done without every single member of the cast, crew, stage management, box office and front of house teams. Sometimes backstage I’ll get overwhelmed at watching how this finely oiled machine of people work so well together to put on a show.

You’ve been in five very different shows on Broadway. Rent, All Shook Up, Xanadu, Avenue Q and most recently, Beautiful: The Carole King

What keeps you inspired?

These days my new husband and the baby in my belly keep me inspired!

The trumpet player on my album, Freddie Maxwell, and I conceived a child while we were recording this album (well, not literally), and last week he and I went down to the town clerk’s office and got hitched. I’m almost 6 months along and am told that the baby can hear at this point, so I’m very aware of the singing I do for it, and what music I play for it. Freddie plays concerts for the baby several times a week, and it’s already made its Broadway debut riding along with me in Beautiful, so we’ve decided if the kid’s not musical we’re sending it back.

What’s next for you?

I have a week and a half left at Beautiful before I go on maternity leave, then to return to the show sometime in the fall. The wardrobe department is starting to lose their battle to keep me from looking pregnant on stage.

March 23rd I’m doing an album release concert for the album at Birdland, which I’m really looking forward to. Then I’m due end of June and it will be all baby, all the time. I’m certain there will be times I will be too tired to sing myself, and I will be pressing play on “Sing You to Sleep” to do the work for me.

For more on Anika, check out www.anikalarsen.biz

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V BOZEMAN on the Fox mega-hit Empire, new music & being a part of a television revolution

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FOX’s “Empire” took TV by storm this spring, breaking ratings records and cementing itself as the buzziest show this side of “Scandal.” One of the breakout stars is V Bozeman, who, in less than a minute on screen, proved she is a talent to be reckoned with.

You’ve been making music and working for a while - but over the course of a minute and a half on “Empire,” you had a real moment. How did you become involved with the show?

I’m signed to Timbaland’s Mosley Music Group and Epic records and while we were working on our project, I showed him this piece I did, “Race Jones,” and he showed it to Lee Daniels. Lee brought me in and that’s how I became a part of the show.

“Empire” is the buzziest new show on TV, and viewership has increased each week.

Why do you think that is?

Lee Daniels and Danny Strong really came out guns blazing. To have Academy Award nominees as your star actors and producers along with new faces to be presented to the world is incredible. People really are excited about seeing a close look at the industry and what it’s like. It’s filled with drama and Lee Daniels has no filter. He gives you the raw real deal. He brought those things to 54 BLEEP

“Empire” and it translates really well to the public.

The three top dramas on network television, “Empire,” “Scandal” and “How To Get Away With Murder” happen to all feature AfricanAmerican lead characters along with casts that exemplify diversity. How does it feel to be a part of something that’s making such an important wave in Hollywood?

It’s an amazing feeling and a proud feeling. Being on this platform with these shows proves African American actors and actresses can be successful in prime time TV and can be marketed the same as anyone else. There are so many talented actors who would kill for a chance to be on a platform like this. I’m so thankful they created this platform for us and we are giving it our all. I thank God for Lee Daniels and to Fox for giving us this platform.

The video for your song, “What Is Love” has well over a million views on YouTube. How does it feel to be discovered by a whole new set of fans?

This is something artists in my position dream of. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime to be presented to such a big audience, something I couldn’t have done by myself.

To be on prime time and doing what I do best, I think that’s just something artists dream of. The fans and supporters have shown so much love and are diving into other things I’ve done in the past. I’m really seizing the moment and I’ve got more appearances on the show where we will do the same thing and make more videos.

You have two project coming up. The first is “Opera Noire,” a duet project with Timbaland and then your own album, “Music Is My Boyfriend.” What can we expect?

The collaborative album is such an amazing album. It’s something I feel like the industry needs and I feel it’s going to be ground breaking. The first single is called “Smile” and it’s a big huge song. It’s the first time Timbaland’s really going to be singing and I know his audience isn’t used to him as a vocalist so that’s exciting. When we started working, the vibe was so strong and meshed so well. We ended up doing the whole project together.

My album is coming out this summer and it’s a mix of old and new together.

It was birthed from this Timbaland collaboration.

He’s an innovator and knows how to balance all of the elements of the music.

You’re working with the biggest names in music. Is that shaping the new music you’re making?

Absolutely. We should be learning every day. I’ve been in the thick of it. From working with these actors to working with musical creative geniuses, it’s just an exciting and amazing time for me.

What else will we see from you?

I just want to a brand queen as far as what I’m doing. Modeling, acting, singing - I feel like artists can’t be one dimensional anymore - we need to have different faces. I’m really just want to explore everything and all of the opportunities. We should, as artists, take a stab at everything. And of course, there’s more “Empire” coming.

Who is V? V is a universal, worldly artist that wants to touch the hearts and the soul of the people.

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blake lewis an artistic force

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Blake Lewis brought beat boxing into living rooms during the height of “American Idol’s” popularity. Since then, he’s been anything but a manufactured pop act.

We talk with him about his most recent album, singing with Postmodern Jukebox and not making cookie-cutter pop music.

You’ve gone from beat boxing to 30 million people seeing you each week to making your own albums. How has your music changed and evolved?

It changes with the times. I’m a sponge when it comes to music and sound design.

As a beat boxer, when I hear a drum beat, I just want to learn the pattern to be able to do it myself. I’ve always been a mimic, so when it comes to music, it’s the same way.

You don’t make cookie-cutter pop music.

What’s your process like when you create?

I come up with melodies and cool sound ideas - that’s how it usually starts. It’s never the lyrics first. I may have an idea for a song or one little phrase that gets me going.

This album was more of an introspective, personal look into my melody making. Since I was producing it myself, I really worked night and day on editing and seeing what I could do. It was half that and half working with Matt Lange - he’s a sound designer and he can make the sounds I’m thinking about actually happen.

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My whole album concept had to have a foundation of beat box but all the sounds can be broken down to just a guitar. It’s an album of electronic music with all the bells and whistles, but you can also sit down at the piano and sing it. I wanted to make it a raw album.

What made your most recent album, “Portrait of a Chameleon,” different than your previous albums?

It’s definitely rooted in the human voice.

I made a full on vocal sample library for it and used that to create the album. My taste in music is eclectic. I don’t use presets on a keyboard, I go in and make the sounds myself so my sample library was a big step in making this album. I had an engineer and a co-producer, and we spent a year and a couple months on this album. The first album was a crazy big label album, the second was more of a personal dance album which is a crazy pairing - melodic dance music. This one is just a blend of the two. I sing about my depression I had, I talk about my best friend, about alcohol and drug abuse. Each album has to be personal.

Postmodern Jukebox has exploded on YouTube and you’ve become a part of that.

How did that collaboration come into being?

I stopped in one night when they were playing at Hyde in Hollywood. My friend Shoshana was singing with them, I walked in and it was amazing. I’ve known about them through their videos online and I actually free-styled “Summertime” with them that night. That week, we arranged “Radioactive” and then he asked me to go on tour with them. Within a week, we met, arranged two songs and the next week I was on a West Coast tour with them. When they get back from Europe, we will do some more shows and videos. It’s a really fun gig for me.

What keeps you inspired?

Music. Any kind of art in general. Visual,

audible - that feeling of something new - I soak up everything and it comes out on stage. It may not come out on the record but it does on stage. That’s what I live for.

The unexpected.

How did voiceover work become a part of your career?

I always listen pretty closely and can call out actors voices on TV. The key to music is listening and it’s the same thing with voice acting. I was that kid who would close my eyes and hear the inflection and the tonality of the voice as I heard it. Even before singing, I was infatuated with cartoons.

It was always my dream to do voice over.

At this point, I have a niche, and there aren’t that many people out there who do

what I do, so putting myself out there was important.

What’s next for you?

I just got asked back to join the cast of “Durarara!!,” reprising my role in the animé show that’s really popular in Japan. I’ve got some more work with Post Modern Jukebox; we’ve filmed some videos and those will be out soon. I’m also working on my live show to be more of a visual experience. There might also be some remixes from my album, and possibly some B-sides. I’m always open to new ideas and channeling more of myself.

For more on Blake, head over to www.blakelewisofficial.com BLEEP 59

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KIDS, the indie-rock band from Fort Lauderdale, Florida formed by long time best-friends Josiah Sampson, Joshua Diaz, Matthew Barrios and Christian Gonzalez.

With their new album “Rich Coast,” these musicians are just trying to have fun.

What sets Kids apart from other bands on the market right now?

If there’s anything that sets us apart from other indie rock bands, it’s that we aren’t “trying;” we aren’t “trying” to be different, we aren’t “trying” to be the same, we aren’t “trying” to stand out, we aren’t “trying” to be more indie, more hipster, more vibey, more fashionable, or even more successful than other bands. Rather, were just trying to have fun! We’re searching inwardly. We just want to be as happy as we were as adolescents walking to the ball field with our baseball gloves. Not interested in throwing the

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ball farther than the kids in the other field, but just obsessed with the ball itself; and having someone to play with.

Talk about “Rich Coast.” How did this album come together?

Our biggest inspiration for this record, is definitely ourselves; what we’ve all gone through; and how we plan to approach the future.

But more literally, to write this record, we set out on an adventure. We took time off of our jobs to hike and camp the Appalachian Trail, and follow-up our adventures there in a log cabin in Chattanooga TN, where we converted the entire living room into a writing studio. We played old spaghetti westerns and Kung Fu movies on silent (films we watched as a kid) as we documented musically, the feelings of

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the adventures we just had, paired with lyrics inspired over the last few years of our lives Why Spaghetti Western and Kung-Fu classics?

What did that do for you?

Well, as a kid, I grew up on these films. We set out on this trip designing every moment to bring us back to our childhood in some way.

Furthermore, on a daily basis, we work at a media studio. I myself compose music to film as my job, so the tone a certain picture sets surely adds to the final product of its sound. There are a few songs on the record we believe this influence was evident. Plus they’re just cool.

What are you trying to say with this album that’s different from your “Sink or Swim” EP? Rich Coast has no rules. We decided that it wouldn’t before we recorded a single note.

We wouldn’t hold back any obscure ideas. We would see them all through, and try everything. I believe “Sink Or Swim” was a record we needed to make, to introduce our identity. But “Rich Coast” is the record that tells our personality.

feeling sound like?” And then express those feelings through our fingertips.

Imagery almost always inspires music, and vice versa. What painter doesn’t blast his/her favorite album while painting their masterpiece?

Describe your sound in five words.

Adventure, Adolescent, Idealism, Hope, Fun.

What’s next for the band?

Be on the lookout for way more film, videos and media content. We are working all year on making some fun content with these songs.

We will also likely be printing a limited run of vinyl in the near future. So be sure you get your hands on one.

Also, be on the lookout for us on tour. We are definitely hitting the road shortly, and we want to go everywhere. Visit www.thebandkids.com and sign up on our mailing list to stay informed.

Talk about the integration of imagery and music? How is that important to what you’re creating?

As I mentioned earlier, on a daily basis, I get to sit in front of an image on a screen and ask, “What does this image sound like?” As we were writing this record, we had adventures every day, and followed them by sitting down in the writing room, closing our eyes to picture what we were doing earlier and ask, “What does that

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