Decorated Youth Magazine #4

DECORATED YOUTH ISSUE #4

LIVE PHOTOS: TOUCHE AMORE / AFI / FUN. / T.A.C / JIMMY EAT WORLD / THE PAPER KITES / CITY AND COLOUR

TOKYO POLICE CLUB SARAH BARLOW INTO IT. OVER IT. SOUNDCLOUD SSLYBY REAL FRIENDS MEL BARLOW DAYTROTTER

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SKATE 4 CANCER

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This issue’s contributors: Words: The Ally Coalition/ fun. – Allie Dearie

SITES: www.decoratedyouth.com

Photos: Skate 4 Cancer - Adam Elmakias Real Friends - Jered Scott The Ally Coalition / fun. - Allie Dearie SSLYBY - Durall Photography Mel Barlow - Kate Diago / Mel Barlow Sarah Barlow - Sarah Barlow Daytrotter - Johnnie Cluney SoundCloud - provided Into It. Over It. - Mitchell Wojcik Tokyo Police Club - Andrew Strapp / Mom + Pop

ISSUE 4

DECORATED YOUTH

STAFF: Heather Hawke Founder | Editor & Writer | Layout & Design | Photographer

Facebook: facebook.com/DecoratedYouth Twitter: @decoratedyouth EMAIL: General Info@decoratedyouth.com Press heather@decoratedyouth.com

THANK YOU Rob Dyer, Natasha Glatz, Adam Elmakias, Dan Lambton, Kyle Fasel , Jered Scott, Zack Zarrillo, Evangelia Livanos, Allie Dearie, Will Knauer, Arron Durall, Brooke Black, Mel Barlow, Kate Diago, Sarah Barlow, Sean Moeller, Johnnie Cluney, Phil Pracht, Alexander Ljung, Luke Geoghegan, Evan Weiss, Mitchell Wojcik, Chris Vinyard, Graham Wright, Jen Cymek, Andrew Strapp, and to all the readers. We couldn’t do this without all your support!

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EDITOR’S NOTE Since this issue was five months in the making, we felt the pressure within ourselves to release this as quickly as possible yet still have quality content. One of the features in this issue gave us a little inspiration stating “there's no good time to release a bad album, and there's no bad time to release a good album.” We kept that quote in mind as we tried to make this issue as great as possible.

All together we have nine interviews, and six live photo features including one that focuses on LGBTQ rights.

As with every issue, we try and put as much heart into it as we can, even if it means pushing back the release date. So without further ado here’s the fourth issue.

contents cover

Jimmy Eat World

4

Touché Amoré

6

AFI

8

The Paper Kites

10

City and Colour

12

fun. / The Ally Coalition

14

interviews

Skate 4 Cancer

74

live photos

18

Real Friends

26

Mel Barlow

36

Into It. Over It.

40

Daytrotter

46

Tokyo Police Club

54

SoundCloud

60

Sarah Barlow

68

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin

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JIMMY EAT WORLD Sept. 25, House Of Blues Mandalay Bay Hotel (Las Vegas) // ALL PHOTOS BY HEATHER HAWKE

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TOUCHE AMORE Oct. 29, The Knitting Factory (Reno,NV) // PHOTO BY HEATHER HAWKE

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AFI

OCT. 29, The Knitting Factory (Reno, NV) //ALL PHOTOS BY HEATHER HAWKE

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THE PAPER KITES OCT. 18, Fox Theater (Oakland) // ALL PHOTOS BY HEATHER HAWKE

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CITY AND COLOUR OCT. 18, Fox Theater (OAKLAND) // ALL PHOTOS BY HEATHER HAWKE

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WHAT THEY STAND FOR fun. and The Ally Coalition take equality on tour PHOTOS & WORDS: ALLIE DEARIE

ON A WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON IN Raleigh, North Carolina, ten volunteers in t-shirts emblazoned with “ALLY” swarmed around three tents, hanging up posters with information like “3 out of 4 LGBTQ kids are bullied” and “LGBTQ youth are 4 times more likely to attempt suicide than their straight peers.” They set up a photo backdrop, learned how to use custom software for crowd sourced social media, and as the 7,000 person crowd started to stream into the amphitheater for fun.’s sold-out show, they invited concertgoers into the tents to share their reasons for hope and equality.

They were volunteering with The Ally Coalition, and they were ready to make a difference.

TAC fights against discrimination with three tactics: education, awareness, and advocacy.

Fun. brought TAC with them for all of the Most Nights tour, and in turn TAC invited a local LGBTQ nonprofit or community center to each tour date.

This provided them with a table in the Equality Village, and a larger platform to share their message and educate people about local goals and resources.

Although I had shot fun. before, in both tiny bars and huge sold out venues, this had to be my favorite experience at a fun. show so far. Seeing the dedication that Mike White, the coordinator for TAC on tour, and all the other volunteers had for such an important cause was truly inspiring. On the Most Nights tour the music was fantastic, the lights shone brightly, and fans were inspired to speak out in support of equality for all.

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The Ally Coalition (TAC) was founded by fun.’s guitarist Jack Antonoff and his sister, fashion designer Rachel Antonoff. Jack and the other members of fun. have always been passionate advocates for equality, and in 2012 they founded TAC to inspire others in the music, fashion, and entertainment communities to take action.

Fans are invited to participate. Today, $1 from each ticket was donated to LGBTQ organizations, and another $1 for each fan photo taken in the Village.

They filled out a name card with different options like “I will not accept ___” and “I will stand up for ___.”

Then their photo was taken and uploaded to an album on TAC’s Facebook page.

They had the option to join the TAC email list, and to tweet their photo to local congresspeople to provide safe schools for LGBTQ youth.

20-40% of all homeless youth in the United States identify as LGBTQ. 75% of LGBTQ high school students report feeling unsafe in school because of their sexual orientation.

Only 16 states currently have safe school laws protecting LGBTQ youth.

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real friends

Interview with vocalist, Dan Lambtom and bassist, Kyle Fasel

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________ sites http://realfriendsband.com/ facebook.com/realfriendsband @realfriendsband

________ photos Jered Scott // http://www.severalguys.com/ @jeredscott ________ words Heather Hawke

Since the time of the very first conversation about what this band would become, the members of Real Friends knew they wanted this band to be different.

Now, the fact that they can write music that means something to them and an abundance of listeners can somehow relate to their lyrics has been incredibly rewarding.

It all started in the fall of 2010 when Kyle Fasel (bassist) called up Dave Knox (guitarist), and before they ever even wrote any music they talked about what they wanted to get out of this band- the goals, the sound they were going for. When they started putting lyrics down on paper the wheels began to turn, it didn’t take long before they had three or four songs made of the guitar, bass parts and programmed drums. Although they didn’t have intention of starting a band, they wanted to put vocals on the songs. Dave knew, Dan Lambton (vocalist) and when Dan got invited to do the vocals for their songs he thought why not. Once again after Dan got involved, the band discussed the bare basics of the bands motives and goals.

After playing around twelve shows with those songs, (‘This is Honesty’ EP) they decided that the sound they had created really wasn’t really feeling right.

It was after a long talk in which they decided to scrape everything from before and start out with a clean slate.

Around this time Brian Blake (drummer) saw a post on Twitter that the band needed a drummer. He emailed Kyle, who at the time never had met Brian, asking about the position. The band had Brian come and try out and, even though Brian was the only one who inquired about the drummer position, it just felt right.

They had various fill ins for the second guitarist when they played shows, but never had an official second guitarist until Eric Haines (guitarist) came into the picture.

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Over the next couple months they acquired a rapid increase of listeners, which also transferred to the audience size at their live shows.

Kyle actually asked Eric, when they first started the band, if he wanted to be a part of it, but since he had other priorities at the time he declined the offer.

When Eric was offered the position again, a year later, he took it After this new sound and band lineup started to take shape and they all knew they had something special, they started to write their second EP ‘Everyone That Dragged You Here.’

They walked away with five songs that they were all happy with, but no one could have expected how big of a reaction they would get from their audience.

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Without losing any of that momentum they’ve since; released two more EP’s ‘Three Songs About The Past Year of My Life’ and ‘Put Yourself Back Together,’ toured on the first three weeks on the American Warped Tour, did one day of the UK Warped Tour, played at Riot Fest, completed their first U.S. tour, did a couple headlining tours. All of this dedication has seen them sign to Fearless Records.

On February 1st, 2014 they headed into the studio to record what will become their debut LP. Proceeding that they will head out on a North American tour with The Wonder Years with support by Fireworks, Citizen, and Modern Baseball in March- April, a U.K. headlining tour with You Blew It! and Modern Baseball in May and then the entire Vans Warped Tour 2014.

As months went by they knew they had to get out and tour, they also knew that they didn’t want to rush the process.

They had many of their listeners reach out to them by social media to tell them to come to the east coast, but they knew of the many bands who make the mistake of touring too early in their careers so they wanted to wait to make sure that they didn’t play to an empty room.

When they eventually started touring, nearly every show had kids packed into the tiny room they had and were singing their lyrics word for word.

First off how did those November shows you played over in the UK go?

“The shows in the UK were amazing. It was a great opportunity for us to go over there for the first time. We can't thank The Wonder Years enough for bringing us over.”

(Kyle Fasel)

You were out on Warped Tour last summer, what do you think the pros and cons are for bands at festivals? Do you think festivals are more for the bands to gain as much exposure as possible, or for the fans to see as many bands as possible?

“The pros: you make a lot friends and you get to expose your band to a lot of people that wouldn't normally listen to you.”

I know you guys played a headlining tour for the second half of last summer, and you recently did another one. How does it feel to be headlining tours now?

“It feels great to have kids actually want to see us for more than a half hour. It's really humbling. Headlining is great in that sense. We get to really showcase more songs for all the kids.” (Kyle Fasel)

“I asked them if we could write our own song instead of covering one and Fearless Records was cool with it. I felt a whole lot better about it then. I think the song turned out great.” (Kyle Fasel)

How do you think talking about being in a band and what you all want to accomplish before ever even writing, now impacts the band?

“It's always good to have goals in mind. I mean, we all knew we wanted to take this band a little bit more seriously than previous ones, but we never thought half this shit would happen. You just start off easy, like before the band even plays a show you have a good/decent quality CD recorded and one shirt design available at the first show.

Communication is everything, everyone has to be on the same page and it will be a smooth ride.” (Dan Lambton)

“Cons: it's so fucking hot and a lot of work moving equipment and merch back and forth. It all pays off though and it was a great time. The thing I really like about Warped is that you can find a lot of new bands (or at least ones you haven't gotten around to listening to yet). It's like $40 and you have the options to see a ton of bands.

New bands can play for new audiences and kids can see a lot of bands. There's something for everyone.” (Dan Lambton)

You released a song called ‘I Had A Heart’ for the Punk Goes Christmas compilation. How did that fall into place? How was the experience?

“We were asked to be on the Punk Goes Christmas Comp awhile back. I felt a little uneasy about the whole thing really….

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The east coast seems more prominent with the alternative scene at the moment, how would you describe the music scene on the east coast?

“I mean, it's the best and I'm pretty sure it always will be. Any time we pass through the northeast and play with local bands, kids will come out super early and watch every band, and there are a lot of good local acts. They are definitely dedicated to their scene. That's something we're slowly getting back into in the Midwest.” (Dan Lambton)

Since there are so many artists out there right now and it’s changing so much quicker than it used to, there’s less chance for longevity unless you really keep pushing. How are you dealing with this aspect of the industry?

“I mean, we're still a relatively new band compares to a lot of others out there. I think what really helped us was constantly releasing music. We put out about four EPs within the span of a little over a year, which definitely helped to keep us on the radar while we prepare for our album.” (Dan Lambton) “I don't really think about that side of things. This band surpassed my expectations a long time ago, so anything that happens from here on out is good to us. But as long as we write honest music I hope that people will recognize that and stick with us over the years.” (Kyle Fasel)

Kyle, I read that Thursday’s album ‘Full Collapse’ was the album that made you want to be in a band.

What was it about that record specifically that made you want to be in a band?

“I think that album was just the first album I heard that really had a lot of emotion. Before that I didn't listen to much music that seemed to have a lot of meaning and emotion.” (Kyle Fasel)

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What was the writing process like for the ‘Put Yourself Back Together’ EP? Was it an individual thing that comes together over time, or is it a group effort?

“Definitely group effort. Dave, Eric, and Kyle will get together and write music, Kyle will write the lyrics and send them to me where I edit them and put melodies to the music. Everyone has a piece of the pie.” (Dan Lambton) “We wrote it in two months while we were all working jobs. So it got a little stressful trying to juggle schedules and such, but we did it. When it comes to the writing process, it's really a collective effort between everyone. We really tried to pull more influence from stuff we listened to while growing up on that EP. Like Brand New, The Starting Line, Taking Back Sunday etc.” (Kyle Fasel)

Where do the lyrics come from? Where were you at physically, mentally when you wrote them? Was there an event or a specific timeframe where a large chunk of the lyricism came out?

“Well lyrics are a long process for me. I am always writing lyrics, even when we aren't writing new music. So a lot of the lyrics were even older in a sense. But I mainly write lyrics sitting in my car, smoking too many cigarettes, and listening to sad midwest emo music.” (Kyle Fasel)

“I just write honest stuff. I am twenty five now and have been through a lot of emotional weird times in my life. I will go through them now. And I just write from all of that. Most situations I write about are the same situations that our listeners probably go through.” (Kyle Fasel)

Do the lyrics go through a lot of revisions?

During the whole creations process of your releases what do you do to make sure that you don’t wear yourselves out?

“Sometimes they do so they fit the music in the songs better. I am constantly always changing the lyrics though before we put them to music.” (Kyle Fasel) “There have been instances where I will rewrite a part to help it flow better, but otherwise I just rearrange things to accommodate my ideas but to where they still make sense next to each other.”

(Dan Lambton)

Are there any interesting backstories in how the songs came to be?

“Not really, we just sat around in our rooms and basements and cars with each other putting it all together.” (Dan Lambton)

“If we need a break, we take it. You can't force everything out. Some nights they might write a whole song while others they only get one part, same goes for me. We make sure to pace ourselves.”

(Dan Lambton)

What song or songs would you say represent your band the most?

“We put out all of our music for a reason. I think everything as a whole represents our band and what we've gone through to put these songs out there.

Every song is a stepping stone in the band's "career" as far as I'm concerned.” (Dan Lambton)

Now that you have done touring since the release of your new EP what would you say is the song that most fans what to know the meaning behind?

“Well we haven't been able to play too many songs off of Put Yourself Back Together (we are changing that on this upcoming tour), but we always give some sort of insight on the song. A lot of people like "I've Given Up on You," so I'm sure we'll be going over the meaning of that a lot.” (Dan Lambton) ‘Late Nights In My Car.’ “The song is just about looking back and realizing that all the messed up shit you've been through made you stronger. It also has a small hint of nostalgia and growing up mixed in there. We are all growing up and it sucks.” (Kyle Fasel)

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Now that Real Friends is in the spotlight do you feel pressure to keep active on the bands and your personal social media sites and to have a consent connection to your listeners?

Since you all have released the vinyl of both your 2012 debut EP ‘Everyone That Dragged You Here’ along with your "Put Yourself Back Together" EP, do any/all of you collect vinyl?

“Yes! Eric, Dave, and I do. I have a decent collection of about 60 or so records. I love the format and how the art can come together to make the packaging way better than any CD could offer. If done right, vinyl can be even more fucking awesome than it already is.” (Dan Lambton)

I know you guys are in the process of writing a full length.

How’s that going?

“It's going great. I am so stoked for everyone to hear our new music. I feel like it has so much more dynamic and depth.” (Kyle Fasel)

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How has meeting your fans and learning about the affect your music has had on their lives, changed your lives / way of thinking?

“It's ridiculous (in the best way possible). We never really went into this thinking that kind of stuff would happen, we just kind of wrote songs that we liked. People come up to us from time to time to let us know that we've helped them out of certain issues at home, school, work, or what have you and it's very humbling to see that we can help people just like our favorite bands have done for us in the past.” (Dan Lambton)

“I don't really feel pressure necessarily but we do typically stay active on all social networks. I think social networks are great tools for bands. If you don't utilize them correctly I think it can get messy. You never want to be annoying or look like you are selling something all the time.

It's best to use the social networks to showcase who your band really is.” (Kyle Fasel)

I read that you all get some pretty intense and personal emails/ letters from your listeners. How has meeting your fans and learning about the affect your music has had on their lives, changed your lives / way of thinking?

“The impact on kids has become my motivation to keep going.

Things can get really stressful at times, but knowing that I can connect with a kid through something I write, makes it all worth it. I want every kid going through struggles to know that they're not alone.” (Kyle Fasel)

At the beginning of 2013 you all released a mini Real Friends documentary. Since you’re a relatively new band what made you all decide to do a documentary?

“I thought it was a good way to showcase a more inside look of how our band works. I always wonder about details like that with my favorite bands. So I wanted to show our fans those details about our band. I love the way it turned out. It was a great experience.” (Kyle Fasel)

As a music listener, when I hear songs I get sometimes get swept back into a specific timeframe from when I was regularly listening to that song/album. As a musician do you ever have that with your own songs while playing them on stage?

“Yeah I do. I try to reflect at times when we are on stage. I feel like it adds more meaning and emotion to the song for me and the fans.” (Kyle Fasel)

When bands start to tour they get a better scene of what they can and can’t handle. What would you say is the biggest hurdle you’ve all, as a band, have had to overcome?

“You just have to realize that everyone is different and sometimes we need our space.

We're stuck with each other every waking moment for a month straight, so you don't really want to piss anyone off...

We've been lucky enough to not have any huge issues with each other, but it was definitely important for us to realize this.”

(Dan Lambton)

I know you all collaborate with Gary from Creation Factory for all of your graphic design work.

How important is it to you for the art that accompanies your music to represent the sound and the lyrics? Do you aim for a conversation between the two, or are you more interested in an aesthetically cool package?

Do you contribute ideas or remain hands-off?

“Gary and I are best friends. We have been in bands together in the past, so it's a deep working relationship for sure. Our art direction is very important. I try to always keep our artwork kind of low key so our music is what speaks for us.” (Kyle Fasel) “Kyle is usually with Gary while he's taking care of the designs so it's very hands on. It's definitely very important to have the art represent the music. Kids look at it and know it’s a Real Friends CD. We try to make it our own and we try to do a little bit of everything. We have the shirts with intricate designs that are more aesthetically pleasing, we have really stupid and sarcastic shirts, we have ones that incorporate lyrics and a related picture.”

(Dan Lambton)

What is your perspective on how you want to be represented throughout your band’s press photographs, as well as when you two take photos and post them on social media sites?

“We aren't some fancy band.

I'm not going to "dress to impress" for anyone. We're in a scene where that doesn't and shouldn't matter. My mom and people at school would always tell me that people will look at how I dress and think that they know enough about me solely based on that, which I think is a boatload of bullshit. We fuck around a lot, sometimes we don't take things as seriously as some people think we should.

We like to have a good time. If we were just doing this as a job you wouldn't see us posting stupid up close pictures of each other's faces or some creepy clown doll we keep in the back of our van. We're very honest about that.” (Dan Lambton)

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________ sites

Mel

www.melbarlowandco.com/ @melbarlow

________ photos Portrait of Mel: Kate Diago // http://www.katediago.com/ All other photos: Mel Barlow

Barlow

It was when she took large format 4x5 classes where she really got inspired to take things to another level. Once she fully understood the technical aspect of photography she took on one of the best ways to learn, the role of teaching others.

She learned the core photography skills from her professors, but she gained even more valuable knowledge outside of school. “Stephen Hill, a commercial photographer in Indianapolis, Indiana at the time taught me what I needed to know about client interaction, he was always just himself, which impressed me and also insisted I use his studio and gear whenever I needed. When I moved to California for 4 years, Josef Isayo, an amazing wedding photographer taught me how to approach weddings in a different way.”

The biggest thing Josef Isayo taught her was she didn’t have to approach shooting weddings a certain way, that there is no one right way and it doesn’t have to be a cliché thing. “Once I realized that, it was just like everything was a go. I realized there’s no rule. I don’t have to shoot a wedding in a certain way. There’s a lot of wedding cliché stuff, and I didn’t want to do that. I thought I was going to have to, but realized I had the freedom to shoot how I wanted. I was shooting Nikon at the time, and he was shooting Canon with prime lenses, and that switch was another big kicker for me. “

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________ words Heather Hawke

After she had plenty of experience under her belt she felt it was the right time to expand and rebrand her company to – Mel Barlow & Co. “I didn’t have enough hands before I rebranded. I was getting a bunch of work at different price points that I could just pass on to people that I trusted or try to keep the jobs in house if I expanded.

There were a few key people, Allan Zepeda, Kate Diago and Judith Rae who I’d been working with for quite some time, these guys were why I even considered working as a group. We were a strong team.”

Mel Barlow was raised in the Midwest and studied Art therapy while in college in Indiana. She chose to study Art therapy (which consisted of a double major in Art and Psychology) because although she found herself drawn to art she never thought of herself as being good enough to have a career in it. When it was time to choose some art elective classes she just happened to take a photo class and realizing her love of the field, she ended up switching her major. Although this move caused some critiquing by her family asking what she was going to do with a photography degree, and just as unsure herself, she kept at it.

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Allan, Kate and Judith were also doing their own art, but were all excited to be a part of a team and Mel trusted them to get the jobs done. “Allan was a photo machine. He was sort of my right hand man for a while, shooting a ton and really pushing hard to form relationships and get to know the wedding industry. The funny thing is after I expanded, things got too big, and I started to miss my smaller more intimate company.”

Since she got to the point where it seemed she would just go in and photograph her clients and then leave, she felt it imperative to get back to the basics.

“I missed the personal connection I had before and getting to know my clients. For me, I need to feel connected to my subjects, that’s important to me.”

This last year or so has seen her get back to the basics, handling post production and client interaction, which she loves.

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The personal connection doesn’t take long to form between Mel and her subjects, the initial meeting consists of Mel getting a feel for what they like in her work. “For most of my clients, it’s an hour long meeting, and the next step is a casual portrait shoot, I don’t feel I need to photograph a couple before their wedding to feel comfortable but it is nice to be able to see what style of shooting makes them react well.” She says she doesn’t have to know a lot about what the client wants because they’re the ones coming to her so they already know what to expect.

She feels that the people who really like her work will hire her so she doesn’t have to try that hard to convince them to trust in her creative input. “There’s a trust that’s already there, which is great. I definitely can’t stand that feeling of high client direction and not trusting me, thankfully that’s rare.”

The perks of having done this for a while now is that she has a sort of intuition of what the outcome will turn out to be and who’s going to be a good fit while still in the first meeting. “If I leave a meeting and I don’t really think that we had a great connection for whatever reason, I’m not super disappointed whereas in the beginning of my career, I just wanted to get every job, but now it’s more important that I feel a connection with them before we work together.”

“I don’t say “This is the way that I shoot, and this is what you’re going to get.” I try to let it take on its own life and I’m just there capturing it.” She’s very conscience of the environment in the photos, which make it a little bit less photojournalistic. “I love a simple background so I’ll just go photograph the bride against a white wall or something textured, it doesn’t take much. I like doing that because then I know I can get a really beautiful portrait of her in addition to all of the candids.”

Although some clients tend to want more creative control than others, which can cause her missing all the good stuff because she’s stressed about checking off all their shots, she’s open to their inspirationwhat imagery people are drawn to. “This can help me deliver a more curated product that I know they will love.”

The fact that she photographs a very significant day in people’s lives does add some pressure to the job, but as long as she’s prepared for those key moments she’s good. “You have to know your gear and be able to anticipate moments before they happen. For example, you can’t be on your last 5 frames just before the bride walks down the aisle with her father, or the ceremony kiss.”

When the big wedding day rolls around, beyond the core shots, she doesn’t have any real specific shots she tries to get, she tends to gravitate towards capturing those timeless creative portraits of the clients. “Connecting with them and also paying attention to the environmental aspect is key. I can bust out a photo session super-fast when I have to, but I also like to take my time and get the right expression or pose from the client. I can tell right away when its right and I will keep trying until I get what I want if something isn't working.”

She mentions that she doesn’t try to do anything out of the ordinary or trendy when photographing weddings. “I just feel out the clients and see how they act. I don’t push a specific style of shooting on clients just because it worked once. The quirky client is much different than the shy client. If I can’t read those signals, I will not have a successful shoot.”

Not only is it important to get photos of the wedding activities, but it’s also as important to get photos of the décor and environment. The client is always number one, but there’s also a lot of pressure from other vendors. “Reason being is that in addition to client referrals, in the luxury wedding industry a lot of business comes from Planner and Venue relationships. Those vendors will refer you if they are also getting amazing imagery from you that can sell their businesses. I don't consider it something that takes away from a wedding but ends up contributing to the whole story of the day.”

The biggest misconception about being a wedding photographer Mel says is that you just show up, take some photos and are done. “Compared to other photo jobs I take, weddings are the most time consuming of them all. For every hour I'm out shooting a wedding there is about 5 hours behind the scenes with post production, book making, client calls, etc.”

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Besides photographing local and national weddings she also travels internationally to photograph destination weddings, which make the job very memorable. She’s had the opportunity to photograph weddings in Morocco, Marrakesh, Ireland, and Greece. While she loves the experience and the opportunity to get paid to travel and do what she loves, one of the most important parts to her is having the chance to experience the local culture.

Photographing destination weddings isn’t all fun and games though.

You’re in new territory, with a very limited timeframe, which means you’ve got to make the best out of all the obstacles thrown your way. “I find myself dumped into these crazy locations, and I’ve got to make it work. I’ve got to scout. I’ve got to have everything I need with me. I’ve got to know where I’m at and how much time I have and all the logistical things that make it work, and that’s why I think hiring a seasoned photographer like a destination photographer is important on those kinds of jobs. Most people don’t realize what it takes.”

She recalls a story of when her and her assistant flew all the way to Athens, Greece to photograph a wedding and when they got there they realized that all but a few of the CF cards were missing. “We flew to Athens. We took a six hour boat ride to Santorini where we were to stay one night before yet another boat transfer to a smaller island where the wedding was to take place. We didn’t realize they were missing until we checked into our little place and started to get our gear out. All of the CF cards except for three were gone and we needed around 25. We were on an island with only local shops and where an ATV was our mode of transportation. The blood rushed out of our bodies. It was like oh my God, what are we going to do? We didn’t know if they were stolen or if the card case had been left behind, either way, I started to reach out to local photographers because I knew there were some in Greece that I had seen online.”

She ended up finding a camera store six hours away in Athens. She called up that camera store and told them that she had an emergency and asked them how fast they could get gear to Santorini. “They said “If you make this order right now, we can get it on a boat overnight, and you can have them in the morning.” I ordered all the cards they had in stock, which was 18 or something. A miracle. Then in the morning, my assistant and I got on the ATV and went down to the little shipping dock and hoped that it actually made it on the boat, and it did.” A year and a half later she can tell the story and laugh, but it still makes her palms sweat thinking about how close they came to a real disaster.

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She is drawn to weddings for the emotional story and the archiving life aspect, but she also likes photographing many other subjects ranging from; documentary, food, and people. “I like the visual narrative aspect so much, I like that people connect with photos in their own way, and each so differently. I like anything that reminds me of my adventurous upbringing. I enjoy documenting the process of things, how things and experiences are created. I like delivering a product that inspires people to connect with themselves or with others.

Good or bad, photos make you feel something. They preserve memories, make you cry or dream. Like smelling a familiar smell, it’s a powerful thing.”

What she connects with most are the photography subjects that remind her of her childhood. Since her family owns a farm in Indiana with a lot of property, there was a lot of running around, antiquing, and camping. This factor has led her to getting excited about clients pitching unique outdoor wedding ideas or traveling to remote locations.

For instance, one of her favorite weddings took place in Northern California where 75 guests stayed in cabins around a private lake with canoes and activities galore. “It’s when I’m traveling, doing a road trip, cooking, or camping in the woods, that I feel connected with something in my core that inspires me to create.”

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If you take a glance at her wedding photography vs. her personal work and the nature inspired subjects you’ll be able to notice the difference in color tones.

A lot of the wedding work is warmer, while a lot of her personal work is just generally on the cooler side. “I did a project for many years on my greatgrandmother who passed away early 2013. She was 98, but I had been capturing this narrative of her that was a moody portrayal of her last years, quite different than my bright wedding work.”

Speaking of the technical aspects of images, two of the big name camera brands Nikon and Canon come up. She started out using Nikon, but after having the opportunity to work with Josef Isayo (who was a Canon and prime lens user) found that she preferred Canon and mostly primes better.

“I remember Josef getting on my case when I’d deliver my files, he’d say “I love your work Mel, but your files are crap, I have to turn everything you shoot to black and white!” Digital has come a long way.”

She mentions loving the dreamy quality of the Canon prime lenses. “I’m not afraid to shoot wide open whereas I think a lot of photographers who start out are afraid of the depth of field, so they’ll shoot with a medium to small aperture, playing it safe. It’s okay to take some risks, shoot the 85mm/50mm 1.2 wide open and see what you can do. You will actually begin to memorize how the shutter sounds and feels and if you’ve pushed yourself too far or if you nailed it.

The gear she has on her for most jobs is her Canon Mark III along with her prime lenses. “You will often find me with the 50mm 1.2, 85mm 1.2 and the 24mm 1.4. I also love the 28mm 2.8 Zeiss. Give me any 4x5 camera and you will lose me until the light goes.”

She’s recently been studying the creative process, tintypes. “It’s a process that was invented in the late 1800s and was popular at carnivals. The photos are printed on thin pieces of metal in a matter of minutes.” She bought all the chemicals for the process and has dove into experimenting, she wants to find a way to shoot them at weddings. “The only other hiccup right now for me is I’m trying to design a portable darkroom in order to do anything off site.

Because it’s wet plate, you actually pour the chemicals on, expose the plate right there, and then you have to develop it immediately, so you have to have a place where you can go that’s sealed from the light.” If you are handy you can build a box with your chemical baths and washes equipped with dark cloth covers that are portable.”

As someone who grew up using film cameras it’s been very interesting for Mel to see everything shift into digital. Although she loves both methods, she’s found that digital is a better medium for her for weddings. “The process works better for me. I have the workflow down. I’ve developed a style where people aren’t quite sure if I’m a film or digital shooter which amuses me and in a nutshell comes from shooting wide open and not over processing my images.”

Even some of her photography friends who shoot film exclusively, will refer her to clients who are looking mainly for film photographers “My film shooter friends get more calls for film only, and they say, “You should check out Mel’s work because I can’t even tell if she’s shooting film or digital. I suppose if you can’t tell, then who cares? I don’t think people should spend so much time trying to determine which is better, film vs digital, but rather focusing on a photographer’s style, quality of work, and handling of post-production.”

She’s been drawn to the 4x5 ever since she took a product photography course and then had a chance to teach it to others. It was after that class and teaching it that she started to really understand the technical side.

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What’s interesting to her is because digital photography is so in your face with camera phones, more people are doing it and are labeling themselves photographers. Which although she finds cool, she also knows that there’s a lot that you have to do to make a living as a professional photographer. “There’s a lot that sets somebody apart from just running around shooting what they feel like verses really diving in and forming relationships and getting jobs that interest you, that’s not always easy.”

She’s also noticed a shift in which more people are open to the idea of doing wedding photography. She thinks that people are now seeing what she was seeing eight, ten years ago; in which she didn’t feel like she wanted to do it the cliché way. “I think a lot of people are interested because they’re seeing all kinds of work that’s awesome, wedding photography that is creative and that is really beautiful. I think that probably inspires people to want to pursue a career in it and interests photographers who are doing other types of work because it is good money and a solid market. I’m sure that with the potential earnings, digital ease and creative options available those are good reasons for people to want to pursue it.”

For the people who have recently got the itch to pick up a camera and are hesitant on whether they should learn the technical things first before going out and experimenting she says do a little bit of both. Sometimes just having a love for the art or having an eye for it can outweigh the technical side because you can slowly learn from experience. “I think you can train your eye, and that you can become a better shooter, but I think that if you are an artist of any kind you probably have an advantage… I’ve worked with several people who now shoot with me or are photographers now because they had an interest in what I was doing and wanted to travel, but they took to it more naturally because they were also artists themselves.”

One of her friends, Kate Diago, a painter and illustrator started doing photography professionally after shooting with Mel for fun, she already had an eye for it, just needed some technical tips.

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“I think that definitely makes a difference. If you have a good teacher, that’s really great. In college, when I started to dive deeper into the visual and technical aspects of photography, I took on that role of teaching and helping other students because I didn’t have that role model for myself. It is so important to understand the camera not because you have to know everything to shoot it, but once you understand it, then you can be free to just create.”

Her advice for people wanting to pursue photography is to basically go out and do it. She mentions that it’s a wonderful, lucrative business and in the photography industry you can sort of fit yourself where you feel comfortable. “If you want to shoot for artists or musicians, editorial, or if you want to work in the luxury wedding world you can work toward those things. There is quite a range.

You can show the work that you love and in turn attract the type of clients you want. That’s pretty cool. You can also get into the destination event niche and get paid to travel the world, pretty good option now that magazines that aren't sending as many travel photographers out on assignment anymore.”

She fills us in on how the wedding industry can be insane at times. “Ideas and imagery are coming at you from all different angles telling you what to do, what’s right, how to shoot, how to blog, how to be the best with social media.” She had to walk away from getting too deep into those things because it just ended up taking away from her work and made her feel unhappy. “Once I let it all go and focused on my work and what made me happy, I was able to develop my own style and now I feel super connected to my clients. If you can connect with your subject, your work will shine.”

As for her shining moment she claims that she hasn’t gotten there yet. “I’m constantly inspired and constantly trying to do new things, so I never totally feel settled in. It makes me nervous if I feel really settled and super content. I’m always wanting to push for something interesting or something new.

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Into it.

Over it.

Interview with Evan Weiss

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Evan Weiss has been writing and recording music in bands for years with bands such as The Progress, Damiera, Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start, Their / They're / There, amongst others. Last September saw him release his newest LP under the moniker Into It. Over It called ‘Intersections’ via Triple Crown Records.

While in his twenties Evan tried living in the normal working world and just played music on the side, but in 2007 felling like he had to break free from a musical rut he started to write songs under the Into It. Over it. name.

He soon began his 52 weeks project, where he recorded and released one new song every week for an entire year - 09/27/2007 to 09/27/2008.

The project is available (remixed and mastered) on 2xCD released by No Sleep Records.

________ sites http://intoitoverit.com/ www.facebook.com/intoitoverit @intoitoverit

________ photo Mitchell Wojcik // www.mitchellwojcik.com/ @mitchellwojcik

________ words Heather Hawke

After he came back home from a European tour in 2009 and found his job went out of business he had to choose whether to find a new job or go back out on tour. He chose music.

This choice led him to go on and release a steady string of 7”, splits, cassettes, and LP’s while touring the world non-stop, both as solo artist and with a full band including tours with such acts as Frank Turner, The Wonder Years, Where’s My Band Tour (w/ Matt Pryor, Dustin Kensrue, Chris Conley), Owen and KOJI (with whom he recorded a split with).

When it came to his third LP “Proper’ (2011) Evan began to feel the pressure of having to write and record his first studio album that had a deadline. The album was written over the course of two single monthlong periods between tours and recorded over a 15 day stretch of ten hour days at Black Lodge Studios with producer Ed Rose (Touche Amore, Coalesce). The condensed timeframe for the creation process took a mental and physical toll on Evan.

To make sure that didn’t happen this time around for his fourth studio LP ‘Intersections’ Evan made sure not to use that same process they used for Proper. Being prepared and knowing how to decipher priorities helped a lot too.

‘Intersections’ was recorded at Soma Electronic Music Studios by producer Brian Deck (Modest Mouse, Iron & Wine). To celebrate the release, Into It. Over It. toured as support with Saves The Day last fall, and after did their own headlining tour. Into It. Over It. has just finished up a tour with The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die and A Great Big Pile of Leaves.

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During the time of writing and recording ’52 weeks’ (where you released a new song for free every week for the entire year) were you scared at any point that you would be rushed for that deadline and not be entirely focused on the quality of the songs?

“Sure. But that's also the point of the project. It all plays into what you can do that week. You can hear weeks where things may have been harder to schedule. Where things may be more stripped down. It's a complete audio autobiography right down to the tone of the songs. That nervous creative energy is what made it so fun to do.”

Since there are so many artists out there right now and it’s changing so much quicker than it used to, there’s less chance for longevity unless you really keep pushing. How are you dealing with this aspect of the industry?

“I have a hard time looking at music like that. The only thing that has still seemed dependable is knowing that hard work pays off. I don't get true satisfaction out of anything like I do playing/writing music. If it "fails" by industry standards, who cares. I gotta do what keeps me happy.”

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The creation of Proper marked the first time you had ever attempted to write a cohesive LP on some sort of deadline.

Written over the course of two single month-long periods between tours and recorded over a 15 day stretch of ten hour days at Black Lodge Studios with producer Ed Rose (Touche Amore, Coalesce), the intensity of operating with such a condensed creative process took a mental and physical toll on you. This time around, during the whole creations process of Intersections, what did you do to make sure that you didn’t wear yourselves out?

Where do the lyrics from ‘Intersections’ come from?

Where were you at physically, mentally when you wrote them? Was there an event or a specific timeframe where a large chunk of the lyricism came out?

“Not use the same process we used making Proper! Nick and I were much more prepared. I knew what pieces of the puzzle were more important. I knew how to budget my time properly. I kept my mental stability in check. This was a way more fun record to make and you can hear it in the songs.”

Is there any interesting backstory in how the songs came to be?

In an interview in late 2011, you stated that for you ‘Proper’ was the most personal record you’ve ever written, do you still feel the same even after writing this new album ‘Intersections’?

“No, Intersections takes the cake. I'd be willing to say that all future records will get progressively more and more personal.”

“They are all updates from previous IIOI songs. My headspace was in a way more organized and concise place. It was much easier to clearly tell the stories I wanted to tell this time around. To write lyrics I am really proud of all I need is a good story to tell. Then it's easy.”

“Well, with every record, I'll sit down and write the first song.

From there, that first song will dictate the vibe of the record.

That might be the most interesting thing. I have been trying to give each record it's own style and identity. You tell me if it's working.”

As a music listener, when I hear songs I get sometimes get swept back into a specific timeframe from when I was regularly listening to that song/album. As a musician do you ever have that with your own songs while playing them on stage?

“When I play shows in Philadelphia, playing some 52 Weeks songs will really strike a chord sometimes. Then there are things like playing a song like Augusta, GA. It seems to mean more when the band is playing in Atlanta. I know what you mean. Depends where I am, I guess.”

This past year has led you to do a couple dozen shows as a full band, how has it been for you to finally perform the IIOI songs as you intended them to be?

“It's a sweaty good time. My voice hurts and it feels great.”

I have yet to see your live performance, but I’ve heard that you do a little bit of storytelling between songs during your sets. Since you’re a solo performer I can imagine that it’s hard enough to be alone on a stage for your performance, and to then add successful stage banter / storytelling to the mix must be very difficult. Do you think you’ve finally perfected your approach with the storytelling?

“Since we have been playing full band support slots, the storytelling has taken a backseat. This kinda thing happens more if it's a headlining show or if I am playing solo. Essentially though, I just get up there and act the same way I would if we were simply having a conversation. I say and do whatever I want. I'd like to think there is some sort of plan, but for the most part it's just a free for all. It's tough for solo performers to resonate sometimes. I am just trying to relate.”

Some artists balance their set with 50% songs with 50% stage banter, while others do 80% songs with 20% banter. What percentage do you try to do? What are the pros and cons to playing more songs with less stage banter vs. more stage banter and playing fewer songs?

“It changes every night. I'm just trying to amuse myself.”

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ALTERNATE VERSIONS OF OLD SONGS interview with Daytrotter founder, sean moeller In between writing for the local paper (The Quad City Times) and doing a bunch of freelance writing for magazines and alt weeklies, Sean Moeller found himself thinking about an interesting idea and decided to pursue it.

The idea was Daytrotter.

When Daytrotter launch in 2006, the internet music scene was vastly different than it is today. Although there was radio sessions before them, marrying the internet with a studio session wasn’t yet a substantial art form.

There have been comparisons that Daytrotter is similar to the John Peel Sessions, and although Sean knew of the name, he didn’t know how he did things until researching. One thing that he found out was something that hit close to home. John Peel only worked with people that he loved and it didn’t matter if someone else thought they were good or not, he took the leap with them. When Sean found out this piece of research he realized that, the comparison, was a huge compliment that he’d take many times over. In that quality Sean and John are very similar.

Sean doesn’t care about what publication or the media is saying about certain bands, who is signed to whatever label, if he receives a link from someone and he likes it, you’ll get invited. It’s that easy, and it’s that hard.

Daytrotter gives chances to people who maybe don’t get chances that often. ________

________

________

sites

illustrations

words

http://www.daytrotter.com/ @daytrotter @realdaytrotter

Johnnie Cluney // @johnniecluney

Heather Hawke

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Although he gets to work with all these musicians that he personally loves he’s never been the kind of person to get giddy over it. “It's not hard separating being a fan and being professional. I've never been that giddy fan being. With Daytrotter especially, we're working together with artists to create something beautiful, new and lasting. It's a mutually beneficial endeavor which I think puts everything on a really nice even footing. There's a shared respect.”

Even though Daytrotter and the Peel Sessions have some similar qualities they are still a bit different. For most of John Peel’s sessions he was essentially making elaborate albums that would take all day, Daytrotter are more of what Sean likes to call snapshots.

Daytrotter sees how many music and entertainment websites scramble to find the next big act to present to the world, just to wind up copying each other. Daytrotter isn’t attempting to be the first one that tells you about a new artists, they want to contribute to the musical landscape, not just reuse something that has been done before.

Daytrotter gives you something that you truly have never heard.

They aren’t going to give you songs from an artist that you love’s record album. They’re going to give you exclusive, reworked, alternate versions of old songs and unreleased tracks by some of your favorite bands and some by your favorite bands to be.

How it works is that performers are invited to visit the Rock Island studio, called the Horse Shack, for a two-hour recording session block that are recorded straight to tape with no overdubs. They perform with their touring members, using borrowed instruments, to simply record a handful of songs of their choice, however they choose. Whatever the band wants to do, they get to do. The team at Daytrotter studios don't dictate anything.

The sessions are ultimately transferred to a computer and digitized and that’s what appears on the Daytrotter site.

When these sessions are posted online you’ll see that they come with introspective articles and instead of photographs they come with illustrations of the said band by in-house illustrator Johnnie Cluney, that are drawn based off of photographs that they take the day of the sessions. The choice to use illustrations rather than photographs came from wanting their site to be something that you don’t see everywhere. “Johnnie has been a bud for a long, long time and I always loved his style. I couldn't think of anything better than having his look be the Daytrotter look.”

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Along with the music and illustrations there are interesting biographies and write-ups that accompany each session. The writings take inspiration from the music, life, and whatever is going on at the time. “I try to get into the nuts and bolts of the lyrics and make a little something of them. My essays are all over the place.”

As for how long it takes Sean to write them he says it can vary.

“Some days are better than others. Always has been that way. I usually do these in the same way Johnnie does the illustrations.”

With over 3,000 sessions completed, all with his writings, he says that some days he feels like he’s gotten to be a better writer, where other times he can feel a little burnt out. “I'll go a while struggling and then I'll have a great day where everything clicks. I think it's the same for anyone who works with words. You get disgusted and frustrated a lot. It's hard not to feel like a fucking hack 90-percent of the time.”

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Since the recordings are done very quickly it allows the Daytrotter team to release the sessions more frequently - often recording and posting 17 sessions a week. Even with the great quantity of sessions they do Sean knows he’s not jeopardizing the quality of them. “There are SO MANY great artists out there working. If we can just give as many of them the exposure we're able to give them, hopefully it leads them to other opportunities -- people buying records, coming to shows, paying attention to them -- we're doing a great thing.”

Although they record the sessions quickly the turnaround time for them are totally arbitrary. “Some people want the session up right away and others want us to hold it for months.”

The Horseshack Recording Studios is the main analog Daytrotter studio, but they also have a few others around the world.

In order to accommodate more artists, studio locations have expanded to include facilities in San Francisco, Nashville, Austin, and London. With the same methodology at every location. “For some of the auxiliary spots we use, it’s nice being in a certain city for a while and then swapping it out with a different city and studio. There's so much great stuff happening everywhere that it's nice -- within the scope of what we want to present on the site -- to spread things around and get as broad of a picture/representation as possible.”

Speaking on working with the people at Communion to get the studio set up in London Sean says that it was fairly easy.

“Ben Lovett, Kev Jones and Ian Grimble were fans of what we were doing and so I flew over and had some pints with them and we got it going. They've been absolutely fantastic to work on this project with.”

In addition to the sessions that you record there in Rock Island, Daytrotter also puts on highly acclaimed tours called Barnstormer, where the musicians play in random barns.

“I grew up on a farm and I really just always loved barns. When we decided we wanted to do some shows, I gravitated toward the idea of putting them on in barns in tiny places.

They're pretty magical tours. If I do say so myself.”

The process of finding the barns where the owners are willing to lend out for a rock show can come from friends and the Daytrotter listeners themselves.

“It's kind of amazing some of the people and places we've stumbled upon with a simple ask.”

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Although Daytrotter started out as a free platform where you could download however many songs you wanted, it’s since transformed into a membership model. The team at Daytrotter knew that it wasn’t much of a decision to transition over, because if they didn’t they’d have to shut down the site. “We were just losing huge amounts of money monthly and it was either see if our fans would support us or call it a day.”

They have actually seen a great increase in the daily viewers now than they did with the advertising-based/free model.

With this membership model the Daytrotter team has now been able to expand their operations. Member’s now receive up to seven new session’s every day, plus the ability to listen in on sessions as they’re being taped – part of the Live Sessions program. Besides having mp3 of these songs Daytrotter also presses select sessions to vinyl, in limited quantity. They offer the vinyl FREE to any new members of Daytrotter or any existing members who pay for a new membership for someone else. Also if you’re a member you get 25% off of their online store, which includes the vinyl and posters, t-shirts along with other merch.

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While the Daytrotter studio is in a somewhat remote location and it may seem like it would be an odd destination to attract some of the premier and most exciting up and coming acts in the country, the fact that they have very realistic goals of reaching 4,000 recorded sessions by March is proof that the remote location isn’t holding them back.

Besides when he was going to college at the University of Iowa for five years, the Quad cities area is all Sean has really known. It wasn’t until recently Sean noticed how it’s directly shaped his creatively. “I think more than how it's impacted my creativity is how it's impacted my work ethic. I've always been very quick to immerse myself.

When I get into something I REALLY get into it and make it an obsession.”

“I grew up on a farm and I think seeing dad get up early and get out the door working early -when there was no one telling him he had to, no one to answer to but himself -- and working til it was dark and then doing it all over again must have made an impression. I think it's that work ethic that has led to my creativity. The work always comes first. And on top of that, with time, I've really come to understand what an amazing place I live in is. I've never wanted to live anywhere else.”

Sean doesn’t feel like Daytrotter has exceeded his expectations because there’s so much he wants to accomplish with it.

“It's been spectacular. We've had some wonderful years, but I think we're doing something that the entire land of music lovers needs to know about.”

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The Newmarket, Ontario quartet Tokyo Police Club is made of members David Monks (vocals, bass), Graham Wright (keys/percussion), Josh Hook (guitar) and Greg Alsop (drums).

If you were to take a look at Tokyo Police Club’s debut release ‘A Lesson In Crime’ EP (2006) which features seven songs with only sixteen minutes of music and their epic eight and a half minute lead track ‘Argentina (Parts I, II, III)’ you would instantly know that they have greatly evolved.

They mastered their distinct sound very early on, but they like most bands always face the pressures of taking the music somewhere new. For their new album ‘Forcefield’ they ultimately blocked all of that out and trusted their gut. They feel that doing so has lead them to be more direct and honest in their songs.

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INTERVIEW WITH GRAHAM WRIGHT

________ sites tokyopoliceclub.tumblr.com/ facebook.com/tokyopoliceclub @TokyoPoliceClub ________ words Heather Hawke

________ photos Group photo in the theater: Andrew Strapp // www.andrewstrapp.com/ Other photos: provided by Mom + Pop

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After the release of their debut EP in 2006 they released another EP (‘Smith’), a digital-only single (“Your English Is Good”), did a couple world tours, and followed up by releasing their debut LP ‘Elephant Shell’ in April 2008.

This debut LP guided them to their TV screen appearances on The Late Show With David Letterman, The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson and, Desperate Housewives along with multiple sold out shows in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Toronto. After touring on ‘Elephant Shell’ for approximately a year and a half it was time to head back into the studio.

The writing process for what would become their second LP ‘Champ’ started very early on. For instance their song ’Breakneck Speed’ had been written right after they finished mixing ‘Elephant Shell;’ witting became very gradual after that point.

When it came time to enter the studio, in the summer of 2009, they realized they already had eight or nine songs; which in the long run help build the momentum to finish out the album that November.

There was a time when there were working on their song material in which Dave and Graham decided to have a frivolous songwriting challenge that was never intended to yield music for the LP. They put together a song every morning and send it to the other, the only rule being that it had to be entirely spontaneous.

What came out of this competition was their song ‘Gone’ in which after Dave had sent it off to Graham, Graham liked it so much he brought it to the band’s attention. Although, it wasn’t until Greg came in with a beat he put together that made all of it fall into place.

June 8, 2010 then saw the release of ‘Champ,’ their first release for the Mom+ Pop label.

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The label in 2011 came up with an idea for them to do a project titled 10x10x10 in which they recorded and released a new cover song from one of the last ten years, going in order from 2001 to 2010, in the span of ten consecutive days. They did covers by artists The Strokes, Miley Cyrus, Queens of the Stone Age, Phoenix, LCD Soundsystem, M83, Jimmy Eat World, Moby (ft Gwen Stefani), and Kelly Clarkson.

The writing process for ‘Forcefield’ started around that same time in mid-2011. Since they saw every kind of trend and wave come and go during their writing process it left them a feeling of wanting to make something that would be timeless.

They mastered their distinct sound very early on, but they like most bands always face the pressures of taking the music somewhere new. Ultimately they blocked all of that out and trusted their gut. They feel that doing so has lead them to be more direct and honest in their songs.

They recorded ‘Forcefield’ at a handful of Toronto studios with producer Doug Boehm (who also helped out during the Champ sessions), and mixed by Mark Needham.

With the release of ‘Forcefield’ quickly approaching they are offering up a special pre- order method for their album. They turned to a crowd sourcing site in which the people who pre-order it are automatically entered to win some special prices. The prices include; 1 Original Song for you from Dave, 1 TPC Remix from Greg, 1 Hockey Game (ice or road) with the band and a lesson from Josh, 10 ‘Have Dinner with the Band In Your City’, 10 “You + 9” on their guest list with a M&G!, 10 ‘Come on stage and learn a song with them at sound check’ (and if you don’t play music you can pick dinner or guest list).

‘Forcefield’ will be released March 25 via Mom + Pop Music (and 24 March in Europe via Memphis Industries).

So, I want to start asking about what's the story behind the title Forcefield?

“What is the story behind the title Forcefield? It was around for a long time. I feel like when we named our other records it was after the actual last minute when someone emailed us and was like, "You guys have to have the album named yesterday."

We were like, "Yeah, okay ‘Champ’,” and this time I remember Dave invoking the phrase force field a lot of times, and I think it started out as a phrase that seemed sticky, that felt right, and as we worked on the record, it made more and more sense.”

Speaking of stress do you guys ever put pressure on yourself like people put pressure on you to release stuff more frequently?

“Oh, Definitely! It's just a fact of the business that there's a lot of music out there, and people have really short attention spans, and the longer you're not getting their attention actively, the more likely it is that they are going to forget about you. Out of sight, out of mind, it's just the way of the world. It's always better to have something out. Ideally you'd constantly be releasing something. We did that thing with the ten covers a few years ago, and even that was sort of an effort to have something out, but it's just not realistic.”

“You feel the pressure just from logic. You understand you're sort of doing yourself a disservice as far as your business goes, but there comes a point where you just have to say at some point we have to make a new record. It's better to make a new record that you've spent time making really good, even if you have to remind people of yourself a bit than it is to just release something half-assed for that sake of being that.”

“One of the earliest things someone told us when we started in the music industry was “there's no good time to release a bad album, and there's no bad time to release a good album,” and I hope that's true.”

“It was always bandied about as a perspective album title. By the time the record was finished it just had settled. We never felt like we needed to decide on it.

It was decided on itself.”

I bet that was a really good feeling then to know that.

“It's always nice to not have to stress over something, yes. It's rare in our line of work, but it does happen from time to time.”

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That ten covers thing was so awesome. I love covers in general, but you guys made a whole new spin on every single cover, and I thought that was really, really cool.

“That was a perfect example of the way that there is this pressure, and it's increasing. Now more than ever there's this pressure to always have new content, such as it is to always be putting something out there.

That's an example of using that pressure and turning it into an opportunity to do something creative.”

“That was the record label's idea, and if they hadn't felt like we needed to do something to keep our profile up, we couldn’t have done that, but because we did that sort of mercenary business move, we ended up creating something that was fun and unique. It taught us a lot. I think it really helped in the process of making the new record. It was the best thing we could have done at that time, and it entirely came out of just trying to be good business people. There's an upside to everything.”

The song "Gone" off of Champ was the result of a song writing challenge between you and Dave. Was there anything like a song writing challenge this time around, any methods like that?

“There was no song writing challenge, but Dave and I are constantly in communication with bits, and bobs, and demos, and things. The only one on this record that made it to the record, certain things just floated around and never got used, the last song on the record is called "Feel the Effect," and it has this weird instrumental loop that's the basis of it. It's the riff of the song.”

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“I sent Dave a folder of a bunch of thin sketches I just made on my computer, just for shits, just to see what he thought about them. He cut up a bunch of them, and did different stuff, so the riff on "Feel the Effect" is one tiny portion of one tiny sketch that I did, but it is born out of a similar impulse to the "Gone" thing.”

I can't wait to hear it.

“It's a cool song. I think it's my favorite on the record right now.”

What songsare you excited to start playing live? Do you have one yet?

“Yeah, we’e been playing most of them live on the last tour we did. There’s one in particular called “Gonna Be Ready” I think its track 4 on the record that we didn’t play. It’s just like a really pounding rock and roll song that we don’t really have anything quite like it in our repertoire right now and I get to play guitar on it, so I look forward to busting that one out.”

That’s really cool. What was your favorite part about the whole album creation process?

“That’s a good question. It was such a long process that it’s hard to remember one favorite part. For every 10 hour day that went really well, there was a 10 hour day that went really sucky. Often they were right up against each other, but looking back on it now the recording process was really fun this time for the most part. It was the lowest stress recording process we’ve ever had because we were so prepared. “ “We spent so long writing the songs and demoing the songs that by the time we went into the studio, we knew what we were doing. There was no eleventh hour sort of zigzag or left turn. There was no rejigging of songs or emergencies that we didn’t foresee. Everything went according to plan and because of that it meant that we could sit back a bit and enjoy hanging out in the recording studio with our friends, which is always really good to do that every once in a while and there’s a novelty to it that makes it really fun.”

That sounds like fun. I watched an interview and you said that when you play festivals and tours like when you play with Foster the People that, that’s healthy for you guys because you know the audience came to see them and you have to work to win the audience over. Are there any of those healthy nerves right before you release this new album when you start to play one of the new songs that you haven’t really shown yet?

“Yeah, with all the new songs it’s a challenge. It differs from night to night. If people are really big fans of the band then they will be excited about hearing new music, but if people are casual fans and if they don’t even really know the old records and maybe just know the singles then they are hearing so much new music to them.”

“Every deep cut from an album is the same to them as every brand new song even if it is 6 years old to us. At those shows it can be a challenge because that’s just the nature of how people listen to music.

It is hard to get enthusiastic about a bunch of stuff you’ve never heard before all in a row.”

“You do try and compensate for that a bit by trying to make show a little more on stage or be a little more mobile or entertaining. It’s hard to really put it into words because it’s really just a feeling you have.”

“I think as a performer you’re always aware on some level on how the audience is responding and you’re responding to that and modulating your performance based on the feedback that you’re getting. Even though it is all kind of going on, you’re not thinking about it. It’s just kind of happening, it is like a reflex, it’s what you learn to do when you play live a lot. Certainly with the new songs there’s probably a little bit more of that, but that’s just the nature of familiarity.”

For the album design of Forcefield how did you interact with the designer? Did you contribute ideas or kind of remain in the process?

“Not really. Dave knew him, and we liked his work so why don’t we ask him what ideas he has. We had good luck with that on the last record. We worked with a British design company, and again you give them a few “maybe something like this” or “maybe something like that.” They’re the designers and you kind of let them run with it and hope that they come back with their own contribution and in both cases it really worked out.”

“Our contribution to this one was really limited to going back and forth with what colors of light were getting used. There’re a lot of different ones in my email versions of my album cover with different color schemes but this one that won out was totally Trevor’s doing.”

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What’s your perspective on how you want to be represented through your band’s press photograph?

“Ah, interesting question. It’s something that we did not put a great deal of thought into until recently.

Doing photos is weird and stupid and hard. It’s a bizarre thing to be an important part of your job.

We’re going to stand here and we’re going to take a lot of pictures of you and then they will be everywhere. It’s like when you get your passport photo taken.”

“This is what I’ll look like now for the next 5 years, every time I travel. It’s a similar sort of thing, albeit with better photographers. I think in the past we let our discomfort about it dictate how it went and then we ended up with very casual shots. Here we are walking on the street, not doing anything that’s candid, or here we are jumping on each other’s back or hanging out with a dog or doing anything we can to sort of get over the fact that what we’re doing is vastly and profoundly bizarre. This time we were more intentional about it.”

“When you look at successful bands and all the bands that we like, and in their pictures they look like something. They look like a band. They look cool.

When I was a teenager I had all those magazine pictures pinned up on my bedroom wall and I worshipped to that altar and part of it was the fact that these bands looked really unified. They looked like cool bands and I tried so hard to dress like them and act like them and I failed miserably the entire time, but I really went for it, and that was a real part of how I related to those bands.”

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“It wasn’t just about the music. It was about the personalities. I think we had to if not make peace with that, at least make peace with the fact that it is a smart thing to do is be a little intentional and try to suck it up that it is weird and puff your chest out a bit and play the part a little bit and feel okay about that. In the past, there’s a tendency to feel icky.”

“There’s a tendency that you don’t want people to think that you’re trying too hard, or you think that you’re all that or you’re full of yourself or whatever.

Then you think what the hell? I play music for a living. Why don’t I act like I’m cool in front of a camera for an afternoon? The people that know me aren’t going to be fooled by it, but the people who don’t know me that’s going to help them get into the music and you realize that every single thing you hit people with matters.”

“When someone sees a picture of the band, that’s going to stick in their head, and when someone reads an interview of the band that’s going to influence their opinion of the entire thing in some small way, and everything you put out there is sometimes tiny waves, sometimes big waves but everything is affecting people’s perception of the music and the band as a brand, which it inevitably is.”

“That’s important and you spend so much time working on the songs to make people feel a certain way. Why would you then phone it in when it comes to everything else? We decided with everything: the artwork, the photo shoot, the music videos, with Twitter, you name it, from the ground up, we’re like, let’s make sure this is saying what we want to say because otherwise what’s the point?”

What do you think about live photographs of Tokyo Police Club when photographers go there and shoot? Do you have any thoughts on that?

“Yeah I think they’re useless. I have friends who shoot shows and they do a wonderful job of it.

There’s no denying the cover of London Calling is an amazing live music photograph. It’s certainly possible to create art out of that as much as it is out of anything but at the same time, go on Flicker and search for Tokyo Police Club and you’re going to find 1,500 pictures of the same thing. Here’s Dave playing base, here’s Josh playing guitar, and some of them are shitty and some of them are great, but what’s the point? What good are they? I don’t understand what they’re for. I find that they are all in that little thing. The first thing you see when you look out at the crowd is nine guys with DSLRs. Then you go to the show and someone elbows you in the head because like, “Oh, I got to get through with my camera.” This is like now the outliers but we’ve had people that stroll into the middle of the stage and start taking pictures like this is the most important thing in the world.”

“We don’t need you to do this. Go, get away. I have a chip on my shoulder about it as you can tell and I just don’t understand it. I get that this is people’s passion and that’s important and fantastic and a lot of people are very good at it, and they do have something to contribute. Because it is every single person’s passion, for them it’s like the most important thing in the world that they get their pictures, but if you multiply that by 12 people every night, and it starts to get wearying when you are the subject of the pictures.”

“Sometimes there’s a weird sense of entitlement where people start to feel like it’s more important to them that they get their picture of the show than that the show happened. Sometimes they’d be more pleased if we would just pose obligingly for 30 minutes as though we were playing and then get off the stage.”

What do you think about, because I see some bands, they have behind the scenes, like documentary pictures? Do you feel the same way towards that or is that totally different?

“Well, we’ve never done that but I think that could be cool. I think that’s something unique and that’s something that you, the band, bring someone to do that and that means that there’s only one version of that story being told with those pictures. I know when I was a kid, when I was into bands, pictures like that really excited me because of course you want to hang out on tour. You want to be there back stage, and if you can’t be, then looking at really cool pictures of it is sort of the next best thing you can do.”

“I think I would also dig it because it’s our job. I love doing it but it’s also like going to work and when you go to work every day your first impulse isn’t to like take a bunch of pictures and document it. While it’s happening it doesn’t feel that special. When you are on tour, you are doing basically the same thing every day. It’s easy to get caught up in the grind of it.”

“I think that someday I would like to have pictures.

Someday it’s going to make a good photo album to show my grandkids because this is something that I won’t get to do forever, and it is something unique, weird and special, and I think I would love to have some pictures of it for my own archive. It appeals to me in that sense as well.”

The last question is what song would you say represents Tokyo Police Club and do you think that’s going to change when Forcefield is released?

“Probably, I hope so anyway. You always hope that the new thing you put out comes to define you the most. To certain people, nothing will ever top “Your English Is Good” or nothing will ever top “In a Cave” or nothing will ever top “Bambi,” but if someone said, ‘Hey, I’ve never heard your band before, Graham, what song should I Google?’ I feel like ‘Argentina’ is kind of the … It’s cheating a little bit because it’s three songs in one and it’s eight minutes long, but everything we do is in that song somewhere so that’s the useful one to put in people’s hands.”

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UNMUTING THE WEB

Interview with SoundCloud Founder & CEO, Alex Ljung

Alex Ljung (Founder/ CEO) along with Eric Wahlforss (co-founder/ CTO) pursed various projects throughout their time at college. One of which was interviewing social web pioneers for a book about online sociology. While doing this they came to the conclusion that there was something was missing online. That something was how sound was shared.

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________

________

________

sites

photos

words

https://soundcloud.com/

Provided by Soundcloud

Heather Hawke

@SoundCloud

SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform based in Berlin, Germany that enables its users to upload, record, promote and share their originally-created sounds.

As a teenager Alex Ljung became interested in technology and music dreaming to someday become a sound engineer. After producing an album in his bedroom he got offered a job at a post-production studio right out of high school.

Knowing of his bigger ambitions he enrolled in a university to study human-computer interaction with the intention of becoming a researcher. His dream took another turn when he met another student Eric Wahlforss at the UNIX lab.

They noticed that doing simple collaborations with people on music was difficult. What they wanted was to send tracks to other people in a private setting, get feedback from them, and be able to have a conversation about that piece of music. They ultimately wanted a platform for sound like Flickr is for photos, and Vimeo is for videos.

They felt a sort of obligation to create that platform that was focused on sound and music as the means of expression with intentions to un-mute the future. They then took inspiration from sites like Flickr and WordPress who made it easy for everyone to be a creator.

Although SoundCloud was started in Stockholm, Sweden it became established in Berlin, Germany in August of 2007.

When the site started out is was meant for musicians to share recordings with each other, but later transformed into a full publishing tool which also allowed musicians to distribute their music tracks.

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It was only after a couple months in operation where they began to challenge the most dominating platform for musicians to get heard at the time, Myspace. They did so by allowing recording artists to interact more nimbly with their fans.

Unlike Myspace, SoundCloud let artists upload their music with a distinctive URL and the ability to allow sound files to be embedded anywhere; which when combined with social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook an artist’s audience reach is nearly limitless. They also offered up a no file-size limit, the ability to let fans comment on specific parts of a recording, and to allow bands to share songs publicly or only with certain contacts — which we’ve become accustomed to on platforms like Flickr and Facebook.

A short two years and nine months later in May of 2010, SoundCloud made the announcement of having one million subscribers. By the following month the subscriber count was up to five million; with this came investments from Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary's A-Grade Fund.

As the subscriber count kept rising, up to 10 million users by January 2012, the need to evolve grew too. In that December they rolled out a new layout which had features such as the ability to continue playback of a track whilst navigating around the site, and the ability to read comments without them obscuring the waveform.

They even have more features for the users with paid subscriptions such as more hosting space and the ability to distribute their tracks or recordings to more groups and users, create sets of recordings, and more thoroughly track the statistics for each of their tracks which vary on what subscription the user has chosen.

Alex Ljung (CEO) and Eric Wahlforss (CTO) have made big accomplishments with this company, but no one could have prepared them for what was to come. Taking it into space.

While up in pace for six months in late 2012 spring 2013 (three of which he served as the Commander of the International Space Station) Canadian astronaut Colonel Chris Hadfield used SoundCloud to share the sounds of the International Space Station to connect with everyone back on Earth. He recorded the sounds of his daily life; things like Spacewalk Pressure Equalization, Spacesuit Bleed and Shutdown, and many of the ambient noises from inside the space station.

Almost seven years after the launch the team is going strong and is rapidly expanding. They now have SoundCloud offices in Bulgaria, London and San Francisco and thoughts of adding an office in NYC.

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How long was the time period from when you and other co-founder Eric Wahlforss thought up the idea of SoundCloud to when you actually had the site up and running?

“When Eric and I first met we were both still studying in Stockholm, and that’s where we started to throw around ideas about what a new kind of web platform focused on sound might look like. We founded the company in 2007, and launched a year later. It’s incredible to think that today our platform reaches over 200 million people, and that we will shortly celebrate our fifth year online.”

Do you feel as though you and Eric sort of had an obligation to start SoundCloud because you knew the internet was missing something?

“Before SoundCloud, I was working in sound engineering and Eric was taking his next steps in music production. After experiencing first hand just how frustrating sharing audio elements between artists and professionals was at that time, we started to believe that there could be a better way. We also took a lot of inspiration from the social web, which was starting to emerge around us. That helped shape our ideas around commenting on the waveform directly, private sharing, and gaining feedback within groups. We actually had so many ideas before launch that we debated long and hard over what to include, but in the end we went for a very ‘pure’ offering; just people, their original sounds, and a socially enabled web player that can be embedded anywhere online.”

During SoundCloud’s startup how did you and Eric try and balance out the rapid user growth vs. hiring staff?

“Growing quickly is a challenge for any startup, but our hiring policy has always been to take on the best people and keep them happy by giving them freedom to express their own talents.”

“We were fortunate enough to take on some extremely talented people in the early days, the core of which are still with us, and they have all left their mark on SoundCloud as it is today.”

When Canadian astronaut Colonel Chris Hadfield was up at the International Space Station , he used SoundCloud to share the sounds of the International Space Station and connect with everyone back on Earth. When you first created this, were your intentions for it to be used professionally by the public or for it to be a sort of fun site?

“Our intentions for the site at launch were essentially the same as they are now; to build the world’s largest community of music and audio creators. With ‘unmuting the web’ as our continued ambition, we allow everyone to discover original music and audio, connect with each other, and share sounds with the world. We had a lot of initial support from the music community when we first launched, but today you will find audio content from places as diverse as The White House, radio stations, podcasters, record labels, and just regular people sharing personal moments like their children’s first words. I believe Colonel Hadfield is our first extraterrestrial user.”

How was it for you when SoundCloud started to compete with Myspace? Which was at the time the best online platform for musicians?

“We’ve always felt SoundCloud has its own space in the online landscape; a platform for creators to share their original music and audio creations with the world and grow their own audiences. There are plenty of other services out there today which have some overlapping capabilities, just as there were when we launched, but we maintain that our offering is unique in the social web.”

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Although there are more than 30 different nationalities of people that work for SoundCloud, does each different office location bring in their own culture and atmosphere?

“We have over 200 staff now from all corners of the globe working at one of our four offices locations around the world: Berlin (HQ), London, San Francisco, and Sofia, in Bulgaria. We work very hard to maintain a company-wide culture across all of our office locations. That said, each office certainly has its own feel, and we do encourage staff to travel to our other places of work as regularly as possible to experience how the company works in different parts of the world. We run a quarterly program called ‘Global Exchange’, where members of staff can swap locations for a longer period of time and become embedded in a different office culture for a few months.”

You have your SoundCloud headquarters in Berlin, Germany but you also have offices in Bulgaria, London and San Francisco. What made you choose those three locations the other offices are located at?

“London is a city with a strong musical and artistic heritage, as well as a blossoming tech scene not unlike Berlin. Our music content team is largely based there, giving them access to record labels and other facets of the music industry. Our San Francisco office gives us that vital presence in the Valley that any global tech company needs to take on the US market seriously. The office in Sofia was part of an acquisition a few years ago of a company who work on some of our internal tech. Most recently, we’ve installed a few people in New York City which opens up numerous opportunities from partnerships to hiring remarkable talent.”

I hear NYC is going to be the next location for a SoundCloud office, why did you decide to make office in San Francisco before NYC?

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“The San Francisco office gives us a direct presence in Silicon Valley, which has been a big part of our growth in the USA, and globally as a result. With our platform team based there, it’s allowed us to establish key relationships with Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc. New York City has a thriving tech scene, and in many respects is similar to Berlin, in as far as New York is not trying to replicate the Valley.

It balances a strong tech scene with a robust market for commerce, media, fashion, and publishing, along with being home to a very active creative community.”

How has your professional background as a sound designer shaped the development of SoundCloud?

“Both Eric and I have a history working in sound production, and ultimately it is that experience that helped us shape SoundCloud into what it is today.

We were left frustrated by the paucity of options available at the time for creatives working with audio, and we were inspired by services like Flickr, who served photographic creatives with a platform designed to cater to their needs. Our medium is sound, so we set about designing something that would be useful for people as interested in audio as we are. We were lucky enough to have huge support from the music and audio creative community from the early days, and they remain a core component of our own community today.”

In this digital age, what do you think the importance of audio is?

“Audio is unique as it is the only form of media that can be consumed in parallel with other activities. We listen to the radio while driving to work, listen to music while preparing food, use personal music players while working out. In that respect, audio will always have a place in the public consciousness as it is so flexible. We still feel the Web is generally a quiet place, which is why our continued ambition is to ‘unmute the Web’; to allow everyone to discover original music and audio, connect with each other, and share sounds with the world.”

You and your team at SoundCloud must always be thinking of ways to improve and to evolve to stay ahead of the game. Do you feel pressure or inspired with all the other music/audio platforms out there?

“Community is at the heart of SoundCloud. At the core, our company brings people with a shared interest together into the context of a sound.

Creators on SoundCloud post over 12 hours of music and audio every minute so there is a ton of creation happening all the time. The quality and volume of fantastic services out there today is nothing short of inspiring, but we spend most of our time ensuring our own offering is as strong and forward thinking as it can be so that it has the greatest impact for our users. Of course, we pay close attention to the tech and music ecosystems evolving around us, both in Europe and the US.”

Especially with the cell phone usage these days everyone wants all the latest and greatest apps.

Are you splitting your time 50/50 with the mobile app/site as you are the desktop version?

“We’ve assembled a very strong mobile team here, and although I can't reveal too much at the moment, I can tell you we are working on some very special projects in the mobile space. The advancements in handsets have opened up all sorts of possibilities for us, not just in streaming audio, but in location services and connectivity between users.”

Listening to as much music as you do, have you started listening to a genre of music you never thought you would end up liking?

“Our Explore page, which we introduced with our new design last year, is a useful barometer when it comes to discovering what is popular on the platform at the moment. Over the years I’ve developed quite a broad taste in music, and there are countless genres seemingly emerging each year on our platform alone.”

What do you see happening for the future of music streaming/discovery platforms?

“Consumer purchasing of traditional formats such as CD’s has been in decline for some time now, and digital access through the cloud is going a long way to replacing physical ownership. I see both of these trends continuing apace, as well as traditional formats like the album playing an increasingly smaller role as we move to continuous distribution through social media. Effective leveraging of consumer data will also play a bigger role in both discovery and management of new talent. Through various collaborative ventures such as tour sponsorship, celebrity endorsement, and exclusive deals, I would expect brands to also play a bigger role in music as a promotional tool.”

When it comes to SoundCloud, what is it that you’re most excited about right now?

Is there a moment that sticks out in your head that made you realize that this is the perfect job for you?

“There have been a few. Getting the White House on board felt like a significant milestone, as we continued at the time to branch out and represent audio across its many forms. The first post from them was a weekly address from President Obama, just ahead of the 10th anniversary of 9/11.”

“I can’t tell you what projects I’m most excited about unfortunately, as we’re not quite ready to reveal them to the world at the moment. What does excite me day-to-day is the inspirational ways in which our ever growing community makes use of the platform, from podcasts like The Bugle and This American Life, not for profits like West African Democracy Radio, publishers such as Penguin Books, and centers for learning like Columbia University and London School of Economics.”

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Sarah Barlow is a fashion and music photographer based out of Nashville, Tennessee.

From the age of fourteen she became interested in creating stories through photography and would frequently style shoots with her sister while using their mother’s camera.

Through the years people would tell her she had a good eye and that she could probably have a career in the field, so by the time she was seventeen she knew she had to become more serious about it. “I was planning on architecture. I had no real intention of doing photography as a career. I more so fell into it, because people kept asking me to shoot different projects. I was still in high school at that point and decided to switch over my focuses from design to this new photography world I was discovering. I was home-schooled at the time which allowed me to focus more & graduate a year early to fully dive into business.”

She jumped right into interning for a renowned portrait artist for a year and a half and then proceed to photograph weddings for the next five.

After relocating to Nashville from Chicago she felt her work heading into a different direction.

________ sites http://sarahbarlow.com/ @sarahbarlow

________ photos Sarah Barlow

________ words Heather Hawke

Eventually she met her now art director, Stephen Schofield. “He has more of an eye for fashion. He saw my work, and he was like, “I think your eye in photography could really blend well with fashion."

After Sarah took some photos for his portfolio he helped her network with some of the people from his agency. “We just started collaborating together, and I told him, "You would be an amazing art director." I wasn't even intending for him to be my art director or anything. I told him, "You could go to New York and make a lot of a great career of that." I thought he had such a good eye. He goes, "Actually, I would just love to work with you." I told him that unless he wanted to art-direct a wedding I didn’t know how I could help him with that!”

They soon joined forces, left wedding photography behind and focused all of their energy on a collaboration together in the fashion world. “We started out with editorial style shoots but living in Nashville opened the door to more music photography. We eventually started finding our niche between the two and how perfectly they could flow together.”

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From Sarah’s background of doing photojournalistic wedding photography, she was able to then tie an emotional part into it so it was more connecting broad and real. “It became this cool collaboration of all of those together. It was weird when all of a sudden people actually started noticing the change and commenting on it, "Okay, this is so new and different." I was shooting so often that I wasn't noticing the change as much, until people really were saying a lot about it. I was getting excited about it, and it revs you up even more to keep evolving. That was about three years ago that everything switched over, and we have been shooting non-stop since.”

The past three years have seen their relationship grow into a very rewarding partnership that has seen them taking on some amazing opportunities. His critical eye, that has steered a lot of their style and direction, and her passion for bringing forth natural moments in the subjects have led them to become this dynamic team they’re known for.

One of the rewarding experiences was when they got to photograph Taylor Swift in 2012 for her album ‘Red.’ With this shoot Taylor, and her team, let Sarah and Stephen have a lot of creative freedom. “It was her and I collaborating on that together originally, so I didn't feel a lot of pressure. It was exciting, because she was switching up her style so much. I felt a lot of freedom to be able to do whatever. We shot for three days. We did about fourteen different looks.

With that comes a lot of freedom to ... if you end up not liking a look, you just switch it up and do something different.”

“It was one of the chillest shoots I've ever done, because all the details were really taken care of.

Everything flowed so smoothly, because we had such a great team.”

Recalling it now, this was one of Sarah’s most memorable album cover shoots. “Taylor's has been one of my favorites, just because it was so magical how the cover came about, we all knew the minute it was put up on the screen on the 3rd day it had to be it.”

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Most times covers for the entire album and covers for the singles are done in one process. An exception was when Sarah was asked to have the single cover for an artist before the album shoot even happened.

“We knew what the album was going to look like.

We were pulling inspiration from that to then do a really simple single cover that still tied in.” What usually happens is they will do one big shoot and then they will pull single covers from throughout that shoot.

For Sarah, it’s fun for her to listen to the music and see what images come to mind and then see how it all ties in together. Since she’s surrounded by musicians all the time, being able to sit there and hear the music through pictures is really cool for her.

“I don't try to over-conceptualize either. I think emotion in itself is the concept, and the person is the concept, rather than "Oh, they said this word in the song, so we're going to put that in it." I think sometimes that can get overly cheesy and not very timeless.”

Contrary to what some people think it’s actually less pressure to work with close friends that need photographs done. For instance their close friend, and musician, Chelsea Lankes needed photos for her album artwork so she called in Sarah to help. “We actually ended up doing two shoots, because we did one that was way more conceptual. Some of the photos we didn't end up loving up as much, and so one morning, she did her makeup and just dressed into her normal stuff. We just ran around town and chilled, and ended up coming up with some of the best photos, so actually, it was zero pressure at all.”

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When she does photo shoots for clients it is a mixture of them coming to her with directions on what to shoot and also her going to them with ideas. Sometimes there are clients who know the exact shot, down to a T, of what they want and other times they give her more creative freedom.

“I love being able to create, so if the person's like, "I love your overall style–, I want you to just document this," that's when I feel like I have the most freedom and the most ability to flow and get the best stuff is when people are like, "I just love your work, and I trust you." It's pretty cool for them to have an overall vibe. We can flow so well that way.”

They use some time in between finding out what the vibe of the shoot will be and when the shoot will take place to scout for locations. Sarah and Stephen will go location scouting in areas that they can picture to fit the specific vibe. “Once we know what the vibe is we'll scout around Nashville or wherever we would be at the time, whether it's L.A. or Chicago or New York. We spend a lot of time location-scouting. We drive in the car, turn some good music on, and make a day out of it. It ends up being really fun.” She mentions that some of the location-scouting days are the most fun days that she’s had, because they’ve discovered new places and new people. They’ve had some days where they’ve been scouting and maybe they’d spot a farm, and they’d get to go pick fresh strawberries, or they got to ride around in a go-kart and location-scout back in the woods.

Besides mapping it out they don’t necessarily have a routine for scouting.

“It's more so like we sit down and map it out, and then see where we could go look and what we could just do on Google maps, too. We decided recently that we just need a helicopter to be able to do that. I think it would be a lot easier (laughs).”

Right now though, in between her photo shoots, she’s taking on the role of teaching internships. These internships, now, can vary between solo interns and up to twelve interns and one day up to four days long. The year she first started, she had interns in which they just came to hang out with no set agenda. After that people kept telling her that she was onto something and telling her that she can turn this into a program. So she did. She didn’t have any intuition of what it would become.

The following year she opened it up to eight interns for four different weeks, for two weeks. It was when it booked out in a day she realized the need for it. “After that, it was so, so successful and so much fun and brought out a whole other side of ... "Oh, I really would love to do this. I think I'm going to continue to."

The year after, she took the internship to Nashville and opened it up to twenty-five different interns in groups of 4-5 for 8 days at a time she kept doing it to the point that she had to take a couple years off from doing that. “Everyone was living with me, basically, for the eight days. I would set up air mattresses along the wall. It was like summer camp.”

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One of her primary goals for the internships are to take it to other cities. “Maybe like L.A., New York.

Have it in different places that are influential. We focus more on musicians in Nashville, but maybe do more of an acting one in L.A., more of a fashion one in New York. I would love to grow it beyond just music-focused.”

With a lot of future hopes surrounding these internships it’s always morphing and changing and more people are joining as a result of it. She would love to see it grow, for it to reach out to become a bigger collaboration. With companies and different artists.

It was this past year in which she and Stephen completely revamped the internship and made four days and twelve people at a time. “It was such a good time. We rented out a big mansion, and we switched over from teaching ... I was teaching wedding photography in the past, and portraits, and then this time, we were teaching about music photography and fashion photography, so it was a great transition into it. The people are all still communicating all the time. It was just such a good time. It's definitely transitioned over the years. I've been doing internships for 7 years now. I've had almost eighty-five interns so far. It's been amazing, such a good experience, because it just brings out a whole other side of me and makes me continue to learn and grow.”

With every field of interest there are obstacles, and this one is no exception. When shoots don’t flow as easily as possible, or a location falls through, or an artist looks tired, or whatever it is, those are all things that you can’t predict will happen until they do. She says the key to overcoming any obstacle is that you have to learn to improvise throughout the whole thing. “I think that's where maybe a background in wedding photography has really helped, because you have to actually just go into the whole thing not knowing any details of it– not knowing where you're going to be shooting, usually never having been to the venue before. You have to shoot a million different funny situations. You have to deal with a million different things that are thrown at you throughout the nine hours of shooting this wedding.”

As for how Sarah and Stephen decide what the internship will cover Sarah states that at the beginning of each program she will ask the interns what they are hoping to get out of it and then that's how she knows what to focus more so on. “Then I individually work with them as well sometimes on smaller things. For the most part, I really focus so much on the emotion of photography and the person's interaction with the subject and how to break down walls between the subject and you, because it is such an intimate thing. I really try to focus on that, sometimes even more so than actual camera settings or ways to shoot, but we also focus on technical stuff.”

Knowing this has prepared her for shoots that end up having obstacles such as the weather being horrible and they can’t shoot at the original location like they wanted to and now have to find an indoor location. “Now, how are we going to make that look the same way as outside? I think having to get over those hurdles where you have to quickly act on your feet ...We had a shoot happen where almost every single location fell through last minute and we just had to improvise. You just make it up as you go along, because it will work out. Sometimes, actually, different things work out even better, because you then are pushing creatively and come up with something totally new.”

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________

________

________

sites

photos

words

http://sslyby.com/ www.facebook.com/sslyby @sslyby

Durall Photography// http://durallphotography.com/

Heather Hawke

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INTERVIEW WITH WILL KNAUER

someone still loves you boris yeltsin In 1999 when Phil Dickey was in high school, it never occurred to him or the other band members (guitarist Will Knauer and bassist/drummer Jonathan James) that naming their band Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin was going to work out in their favor. Little did they know, the people that run the Boris Yeltsin Foundation had been watching them through internet searches after their 2005 debut LP release ‘Broom.’

In early 2013 they were invited by the foundation for a cultural exchange trip to Russia where they got to visit Yeltsin’s hometown of Yekaterinburg, which included a tour of the Boris Yeltsin Museum, a performance at a local festival and the chance to spend time with elementary-school children. The Missouri trio documented this trip in the film “Discussions With Russians,” which currently has no set release date.

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The film tells the story of them and how a group of teenagers could randomly name their band after an international political figure and somehow eventually be contacted by his library that is in charge of his legacy. At this point they are sort of part of his story. Although Boris Yeltsin has been deceased for a while now they are somewhat the only people out there for his legacy and they don’t even have anything to do with his politics, no endorsement whatsoever. It’s a weird connection that although there’s nothing political about their band, that’s what brought them to Russia.

For them the trip was a dream come true. Some bands aspire to play festivals like Lollapalooza, SXSW, and Pitchfork, but to the members of SSLYBY they wouldn’t have traded this trip and being able to play at a school for anything.

Once they got back to Missouri, they headed straight back into the studio so they could embrace the energy they still felt. Although the trip didn’t directly influence the lyrics. When they got back into the studio the songs that had just been ideas before, rapidly took on a life of their own.

They recorded ‘Fly BY Wire’ in Will’s attic, the same place where ‘Broom’ was recorded. Their label (Polyvinyl) would’ve helped them get into a studio, but for the members they preferred to record in really familiar environments (i.e., the place that they practiced when they were teenagers). A sterile studio to them isn’t very inspiring, because that’s not where people listen to music. People listen to music in bedrooms, in cars, and in familiar places, so that’s where they wanted to make this record.

Just about 30 minutes from their hometown of Springfield, Missouri lays a town called Branson, which was the inspiration for their “Nightwater Girlfriend" music video and song. The members have all been long time fans of the town’s quaint entertainment so they knew they had to celebrate it.

The video itself features Branson water park, and clips seeks to celebrate the glory of the Branson strip, from the Titanic Museum to the God And Country Theatre.

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You all recorded “Fly By Wire” in Will’s attic (where you started the whole band and where you did Broom) because you have always wondered what it would have sounded like if you’d done the followup to Broom in the attic. Even though you never did it, is this what you imagined it sounding like?

“I don't think we ever wondered what it would have sounded like to do a follow up to Broom in the attic.

In fact the reason we did the next 2 albums other places was because we wanted to see what other ways our music could sound like. We only went back to the attic because we had no money and no more practice space.”

What did not having an outside producer feel like?

Was it freeing? Was it tough not having somebody to say “no” to you? Was there a danger that you’re going to run almost too wild?

“We only had a producer one time so it wasn't too strange. We are pretty good at being our own boss now. Sometimes I stand in the mirror and practice saying "no" to myself over and over.”

You all said in an interview that Harrison Ford was the song title you discussed the most. How much time usually goes into picking out song titles?

“Typically none. I think the fact that we discussed this one at all is the only reason it was the longest. I can't even remember discussing any other ones.”

Since you have five albums (including the Bsides/Rarities album ‘Tape Club’), what goes into preparing the set list? How often do you change it?

“Usually we only practice the day before we leave for tour so we just try to rehearse as many songs as we think we need to. We want to play a full show with even diversity from all of our albums. It's nice to please everyone so we always take into consideration what songs get a good reaction, but also to throw in some oddballs to appeal to the people who like some of our other songs. It's nice to bring back a song that we haven't played in a few years. We get lots of requests from the audience for random songs during the shows so we might take that into consideration for the next tour.”

What’s the writing process like and how has it evolved over the years? Is it an individual thing that comes together over time, or is it a group effort?

“It's an individual thing that turns into a group thing.

The idea starts somewhere and then everyone adds to it and it evolves either very quickly or very slowly, or shrivels up and dies in a sad writhing mess on a cold concrete floor and drifts from all memory.”

You went back into the studio after you trip to Russia this year. Did your trip to Russia have any influence on the lyrics?

“The trip didn't have a whole lot of influence on the lyrics. Maybe a line or two. The artwork for the album however I think was shaped directly from the trip. There's a minor similarity on the cover that almost sort of resembles a building in Russia I think.”

Before that trip, did you have any songs that you were working on that when you returned home took a whole new shape to it?

“Most of the songs were just ideas before the trip.

When we got back they all evolved at a frightening pace into adults. Maybe too fast.”

Where were you at physically, mentally when you wrote the lyrics for ‘Fly By Wire’?

“I was either up in the attic or on my sofa at home.

Mentally I would say dimension x.

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Did the lyrics go through much revision? Is that normal?

“Some songs had a lot of revision. I worked on the lyrics for Lucky Young a few times. I still don't know what they mean though.”

Are there any interesting back stories in how the songs came to be?

“Fly By Wire is pretty interesting. That song went through multiple demos and styles. It wasn't until I discovered an obscure recording on an old cassette tape that we were able to see the whole picture. It was an old demo Phil had done and we decided to turn it into the chorus of the song. But the tempo was vastly different than the verse so we had to figure out how to transition the parts.

We ended up just melting them together as they trail off and fade into to one another.”

With your albums artwork, how did you interact with the artist/designer? Did you contribute ideas or remain hands-off? Was there a revision process?

“Mostly we had lots of gmail conversations. It was very hands on for both us and him. We could turn over new ideas very quickly. We had many revisions.”

How important is it to you for the art that accompanies your music to represent the sound and the lyrics? Do you aim for a conversation between the two, or are you more interested in an aesthetically cool package?

“I think it's important to have art that is memorable and does accompany the music in some way. A lot of times now people never really see the art because so much of the music is digital now. The vinyl should look especially nice because people love to have it as an artifact, and it will most likely be up on a wall or set out somewhere to be seen. It's almost like a stand alone piece of art now, and the music is on the computer.”

What is your perspective on how you want to be represented throughout your band’s press photographs?

“We want to look super cool and damn sexy.”

What’s your favorite band merch item that (their band name) has sold, and why?

“The free stickers cause they make people happy.”

Which tracks from the new album are you guys playing live right now? Are you finding new in those songs as you play them live that you didn’t hear in them in the studio?

What song or songs would you say represent your band the most? Do you think that has change since the release of ‘Fly By Wire’?

“We are playing Harrison Ford, Young Presidents, Lucky Young, Ms Dot, Unearth, Nightwater Girlfriend, and Fly By Wire. We played Cover All Sides and Loretta a few times but haven't taken them on tour yet. The songs live are much more energetic.”

Last question, has there been a specific night a show really sticks out in your memory?

“Oregon Girl has always felt like an extension of my thoughts.”

“All the nights!”

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Pushing Onward

Interview with Skate 4 Cancer Rob states that Skate 4 Cancer officially started in Founder, Rob Dyer the senior year of high school, but the idea of it began in freshman year. “From the beginning of high school in grade 9 the idea was piecing itself together through experiences I had with people in my life that had cancer, along my passion for skateboarding. The organization came to be in my exit year of high school when I was 18 years old.�

For as long as Rob could remember, his mom had been suffering from skin cancer. With this, and the struggles of being a teenager, skateboarding became a way to get through the harsh times and the best times of life. It was like his punching bag.

About a year before Skate4Cancer started, his mother was diagnosed with brain cancer. Rob was only 18, and of course, things became really hard for him. As he became even more immersed in skateboarding, together with his mother and some friends, they worked on one final idea. With his inspiration Terry Fox in mind, he played with the idea of taking his skateboard and riding straight across America. From California, through the southern states, and up the east coast, ending back home in Newmarket.

Just four months prior to his skate, Rob lost his paternal grandmother to stomach cancer. Before he knew it, his maternal grandmother died from brain cancer. After losing two of the most important women in his life, his world was turned upside down when he lost his mother, Wendy, to brain cancer.

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Although the world as he had known it had been completely shattered, he knew that he had to be strong and turn the grand idea of the LANewmarket skate from just a dream to a pursuit. It was a way to keep his love for his mom alive. Their last project.

Just as he was gearing up for the skate, he lost his best friend to stomach cancer. With his determination at an all-time high, five months after his mother passed away, he started his skate.

Fate has played a huge and obvious part in Rob Dyers life.

Although calling the major misfortunes that have happened to him “blessings in disguises” may be a little harsh, it’s because of those terrible times that he’s had the strength to push forward and turn those negative things into positives.

________ sites http://dreamlovecure.org/ http://s4cshop.com/ facebook.com/skate4cancer @Skate4cancer @RobDyerS4C

________ photos Adam Elmakias // http://adamelmakias.com/ @elmakias

________ words Heather Hawke

In 2004, Dyer skated from LA, California to Newmarket, Ontario. It was when they were in Phoenix, AZ where Rob developed a stress fracture in his ankle. Not thinking much of it he took some Tylenol and continued on. After Phoenix, Rob called friend/ Tour Manager (Josh Measures) and told him that the bus that was sponsoring the skate was not getting the press they wanted so they dropped out.

Knowing that his mission wasn’t done he kept on skating and he along with his team finished the skate in 5 months.

Although they finished the skate, Rob felt, in his head and in his heart that the first skate was a failure because even though they finished the kilometers they didn’t finish the line, the straight from point A to point B. It was then that Rob put Skate 4 Cancer into the back of his mind.

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During the proceeding half a year- year he and his roommate (Fiona) had some long conversations in which Rob realized that because S4C helped him transform the negative things that happened to him into positives he wanted to see what else they could do with the company.

When S4C started back up they decided to put on a concert, figuring that going the music route would help connect people to the organization. They were right.

For the concert they invited the musicians; City and Colour, Moneen, Billy Talent, Shad, and Silverstein.

During this concert, this being the first time they could communicate on a one-on- one level with the supporters, the team found it mind-blowing at the number of people who actually came up and shared their personal stories.

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It was during this time that Rob saw the impact of the organization grow over Myspace. He began to see more and more of the organization’s supporters put S4C in their Myspace username; which in turn got other people who also had S4C in their username to start communicating with each other about their personal stories.

One day in 2007 when Rob was talking to a good friend about the American skate and how he felt it was a failure the friend basically told him he needed to go back out and do another one. That’s when the Canadian skate started to materialized.

In 2008, on go skateboarding day, Rob left Vancouver, BC and set out for Halifax, NS. They were so well prepared for the skate because of what happened on the first one that they ever broke their own kilometers records. When they finally got to Halifax they felt like they were finishing something that was five years in the making.

It was around this time that the S4C team started to talk about having a physical place that the supporters could go to so they could talk to one another and to get help from councilors if they wanted it. When they got a call about a contest going on where the winner would receive funding for a community project they wanted to do, they entered the S4C Centre into it.

Although they didn’t win they feel as though it was a blessing.

Rob recalls, “I think not winning helped us re-evaluated our situation - like why was it voted number 1 by supporters but number 2-11 were all given awards. It helped us focus more on opening door and providing these services then being caught up in a number or a contest.”

In early 2010, with no stable plans or places to stay, they flew down to New Zealand and Australia to skate both countries. Rob had all the motivation to finish those skates and that’s all it took for people to catch onto the idea.

They had people, strangers, open up their own homes so they could stay the night and eat.

It was after they finished the trek across New Zealand and were halfway through the Australian skate the idea for the physical S4C Centre began to really come to light and make sense for what exactly it would be. The idea was for a physical drop in centre where kids could come in and get the support from councilors after being affected by cancer, whether it being indirectly or directly.

The trip then took a turn for the worse as they were approaching Adelaide. Rob was side swiped by a car while skating and immediately called his team to come pick him up. When they got to the local doctor to get it checked out the doctor told him the injury would take around four to six weeks to heal.

Although the decision process was very hard for Rob he knew it was best for him to return to Canada to heal.

Back in Canada he swung right into the planning process for what the Dream. Love. Cure.

Centre would be. From the very start of Skate 4 Cancer (eight years prior at the time) they always had a difficult time conveying to people what exactly S4C does or is, but with the idea of the Dream. Love.

Cure. Centre they finally knew where they could make the biggest impact. Through that idea of a physical S4C Centre they finally realized their purpose as an organization.

Unlike most organizations Skate 4 Cancer started out focusing on raising knowledge instead of money, but even though S4C avoided fundraising for the first eight years, they knew that in order for the company to grow they had to branch out. On the topic of deciding to start fundraising Rob says this, “It was definitely extremely hard, but I guess that’s a testament to what we believe in. You can change your focus on something that you’ve been doing for 8 years, if it’s for better in the big picture. We believed in supporting youth and when we learned about Wellspring and the programs they carry, it just made sense to fund them as they develop the same programs that we wanted to see take place in the DLC Centre.”

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Skate 4 Cancer introduces the programs that Wellspring offers to kids that are in search of professional support, but don’t know where to go to find it. After kids go through a traumatic ordeal, whether directly or indirectly, going back to the hospitals and mental health offices can sometimes feel intimidating.

Skate 4 Cancer wants kids to know that they can always go into a S4C pop up shop if it’s open, or meet them at a booth during a show and talk about what’s on their hearts and minds in a nonthreatening way. If kids want something a bit more professional the S4C team would be more than happy to link them up with the professionals at Wellspring who lead these awesome programs and support groups.

2011 brought the team heading over to France to do their fifth cross country skate. They did have some hardships on the skate, the primary ones being the fact that this was a new place they never been to and the second was Rob’s previous ankle problem from the first skate in 2004 was severely acting up.

Although with the previous skates he had problems with his ankle acting up, it was never as severe as during the France skate. It became an everyday issue, to the point that it was hard for him to even walk, but no matter how much pain he was in he kept on skating. The skate was completed on July 18, 2011.

The mental effects for him knowing that he had all this pressure to complete these skate’s while in physical pain was hard on him, but he says that he got through it by taking it one day at a time.

“Whenever that’s been a problem or a situation on a skate, whether it’s a nagging injury, or the road not being paved properly - anything out of your control is the most frustrating part. The only you can do it take it one day at a time, prepare yourself the best you can, and stay positive. “Another mental effect of doing these cross country skates is trying to affect the lives of people in various places that are dealing with cancer in their lives.

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“I think the two most important things is to love what you’re doing but also be passionate about what you’re doing it for, and hopefully have a positive impact on the world and others around you.

I love skateboarding, but I don’t think that alone would have felt like enough of a human contribution to the world - I wanted to put a cause behind it especially one so important to what I was going through.”

Since this cause means so much to Rob and the team, they have put in countless hours building up this company which in turn has lead them see Skate 4 Cancer transition from a side project to a full time endeavor over these past couple of years. “It changed from it being a part time thing when 12 months of the year we had something going on, whether it was a skate, a music tour, or a shop.

Eventually it just became a constant thing!”

They had both a pop up shop (that was located in downtown Toronto) and an online shop going on until December 29, 2013. When asked what it was like to have their own pop up S4C shop in Toronto Rob states that it was very exciting because it was a childhood dream come true. “I’ve always loved street fashion so being able to combine that with S4C and take the cause out to the streets has been an amazing experience.” Skate 4 Cancer has since taken all the money raised from both their pop up shop and online shop and put it into Wellspring.

Rob knows this is the perfect job for him because of the various job activities that this company focuses on, “whether it being skates, music tours, or a popup shop it stimulates different parts of creativity all with an underlying cause that I’m so passionate about.”

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Since Skate 4 Cancer was started by transitioning something negative into something positive. Rob speaks out about another organization that’s done the same thing - TWLOHA. “To Write Love On Her Arms (TWLOHA) takes the story of being in a dark place in your life and turning it into a story of recovery. It’s one of the most important things for us as humans to share our stories and help shed light at the end of the tunnel to guide somebody through what you have already been through. That’s why young people going through cancer relate so much to S4C and that’s definitely something our organizations share. Hope in a time of darkness.”

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Since starting a business is a huge commitment, Rob knew he had to surround himself with a community of good people so for Rob the fact that he lives in Toronto around other young entrepreneurs is a huge plus. “The most amazing thing about living in a city in Toronto that full of young entrepreneurs that are trying to create something and help this city take shape. It’s easy to find inspiration from all your close peers - especially Andrew Morrison of the Escape Movement who I am working with now. I’ve learned so much about the process of putting together a well-constructed piece of clothing rather than just a screen print on a shirt.”

Along with having a well-constructed piece of clothing, having a well-constructed logo is also key.

That’s why eight years ago Rob reached out to designer Justin Broadbent to create the official Skate 4 Cancer logo. He recalls, “I’ve always been a big fan of Justin work - whether it be an installation or web design. As a fan I wrote Justin an e-mail asking if he would be interested in working on something together. It took about 5 or 6 months for the logo to be completed - but it was a very relaxed process. We just liked hanging out!”

Rob originally thought Skate 4 Cancer would be sort of a one year/ onetime thing with one skate, but after getting involved with music events it opened a whole new avenue to promote their mission and cause. “A lot had to do with the first skate feeling a little like a failure at the time and not complete. It pushed us to keep it going and complete it.”

Although he thought S4C would be a onetime thing he says that he never had a backup plan if it didn’t succeed. “I think for the most part, whenever you’re doing something in life you should put everything into something. That way you don’t look back and regret not giving it your all. “ With Skate 4 Cancer being over a decade old now Rob jokes that although he feels old, he admits it’s a pretty awesome accomplishment. “To be able to stick around for 10 years must mean someone is listening or paying attention. The one thing I always measure is during the first skate Myspace was just being born. As the platforms have changed over all those years S4C is still going and still relevant!”

Sticking around for ten years, with skateboarding being your main mode of transportation across countries, must get pretty rough. So the preparation from the first trek to the last one has drastically evolved. “It used to be very simply for me when I was younger. When your 18 years old, your naturally very active. Whereas now, working at the shop all day there isn’t as much time for constant physical activity. I basically have to skateboard everywhere.

Getting my body used to the motions and constant activity.”

Another thing that requires constant activity is the social media platforms they use. From watching the company’s YouTube channel, and “following” the company on social media it seems like they are doing a good job in staying active now, but for their very first skate (2004) social media was barely around. In Rob’s eyes the fact that they stay so active on social media plays a huge part in the company’s success.

“We enjoy knowing what our supporters are thinking and we want their input. We are so appreciative of their support for so long that it’s almost become a way to sustain a friendship with them. We’ve used social media to evolve by keeping our pages and accounts as current as possible. Especially with the shop, it’s been a great way to give our supporters essentially up to the minute updates and answer their questions immediately.”

Beside up to the minute updates and responses to the supporters Skate 4 Cancer now uses various social media platforms as sort of a classroom about educating the youth on cancer prevention. It all started when (in between all of the cross country skates) the S4C team started to focus on throwing free events like skate companions and concerts that were always all ages so that everyone could participate. The events were organized and executed by volunteers who were dedicated to the cause.

Fundraising was never an official goal, so any money that came along was always re-directed to various hospitals in the area.

From Rob’s perspective, being an organization that is trying to raise the awareness of cancer is very underrated. “We live in an age where money is overvalued as a measure of success in making a difference. If we can change the way people think or view something I think that has a more long term effect.”

As these events grew more and more popular and the organization saw how many kids were eager to join the fight against cancer, Rob and his team decided that just raising awareness was not enough.

So they decided to start educating the youth on how they could prevent cancer themselves. And that is how the Cure is Knowledge program was born.

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The Cure is Knowledge is a branch of Skate4Cancer that strives to encourage healthy living and an active lifestyle in order to prevent cancer. After learning that 80% of all cancers are preventable, Rob was determined to make others realize the importance of understanding that knowledge is currently the only cure for cancer.

To promote these ideas and educate the youth other than on the internet, Rob joins musicians and bands on tour and sets up a booth at each show to pass out flyers, talk to kids about cancer and how to prevent it, and encourage healthy discussions about personal experiences with cancer.

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The music scene he most frequents is the alternative “Warped Tour” scene. Within the scene it seems there are a lot of nonprofits and clothing brands that really try to support the musicians and vice versa.

Talking about the impact of acting as a community he states, “Artists in general have always been in touch with issues and a good amount of the time their art reflects issues and causes that may be surrounding them or affecting the world. These influencers are standing in front of a crowd, and if they can talk about an organization or a cause that means a lot to them personally, they have that audience truly listening. These kids take it past the concert and check it out at home - that’s huge for us.”

With the topic of nonprofits comes the supporters of them and because most of Skate 4 Cancer’s support system is female, Rob thought it would be great to team up with another organization that’s male friendly- Movember; where in the month of November males are urged to grow moustaches to participate in the cancer awareness method. He also thought this could help turn cancer awareness to a year round thing. “No one has ever spoken to men in the way Movember has and they’ve been one of the first organizations to give men a chance to do something of their very own. We really like what they’ve done so we partner up with their organization during the month of November.

For Rob, the music he listens to while at home vs. while on the cross country skates is a drastic difference, “The music I listen to at home vs. the music I listen to on a skate is very embarrassing! On the Canadian skate Kylie Minogue was a staple! So was the newest Madonna album at the time. I like to listen to really happy up-beat music. Mainly pop and hip hop music. Anything too emotional is out of the question! I save that for home.”

As we being to wrap up the interview Rob’s says a few last words of advice for people who would like to start a nonprofit organization. “I think anyone starting their own non-profit should go for it! It’s been one of the best ways to meet people who are equally as passionate about a cause and are willing to lend a hand without any recognition in return. It’s all about coming together to give back.”

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84 | Decorated Youth Magazine

ISSUE 4