WAVES Magazine Volume II Final by Waves Magazine

Staff. Kyle Somersall director

Iman Bright art director

Kevin Brisco art director

Korinne Davis editor

Zach Scheinfeld editor

Jay Sharma

Sydney Lowe photo director

Michael Lyn

Taylor Harbison

Ryan Moye

Djibril Sall

Reta Gasser

Sarah Burkett spiritual guide

Derek Sturman

Penny Snyder

Malik Adan

Stephanie Loui

Muji Shakur

Nicole Okai

Aissa Gueye

Not Photographed: Derrick Holman 1

McKenzii Webster senior editor

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C O N T E N T S Note From The Director

What Waves Is Listening To

The Medicinal Properties of Modest Mouse

Music & Public Life

Cardinal Studios Preview

The Graduate: Senior Class of 2013

DMX to Mykki Blanco

Freshleyan X Waves

Hallyu

Spoken Word & Rap

The Case for Hoodie Allen and Bro-Rap

Wes Events

Why You Should Be Excited for Spring Fling

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Hanna Elion performing with Fossils @ Brochella Photo by Zach Sheinfeld

Flatbush Zombies performing @ “Ujamaa Presents: The Hip-Hop Show” @ Psi Upsilon Photo by Taylor Harbison

Note From The Director Since our last release, WAVES has grown to be a closer group with a broader understanding of how we can document Wesleyanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s music scene. We have considered additional ways that music influences self-expression, such as through fashion or through dance. We have also thought about concerts we would love to host, thrown around ideas about slogans and pondered prospective playlists, among other things. Much of our renewed energy to develop WAVES and publish this second issue is a product of the warm reception that our first issue got, so thank you for acknowledging and appreciating our efforts. This second issue of WAVES Magazine features twelve musically involved members of the class of 2013. It was a challenge to select the twelve artists because of the large number of musicians in the class of 2013. Although these 12 artists came to mind when we deliberated about the selection, we acknowledge that there are a number of other seniors that deserve to be recognized for their contribution to Wesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; music scene. We enjoyed interacting with the seniors throughout the process of making this issue. They were filled with great energy during the photo shoot and their individual interviews. We had some characters among the group, and it made for an amusing and creative environment. The time has come for me to pass on a project that has been a prominent feature to my senior year and something that I will look back on with great content when I think about my time at Wesleyan. I could not be more confident in the potential of the remaining WAVES members. Their dedication was salient over the year, and we can expect great things from them in the future. McKenzii and I will venture out into the real world, and they will carry on the tradition. Thank you for reading. Enjoy the issue,

Kyle Somersall

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Shabazz Palaces performing @ Eclectic Photo by Kyle Somersall

What Waves is Listening To Foxygen We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic Chance The Rapper 10 Day Just recently got on a mixtape and thought I might give it a share for all of our readers who haven’t heard it yet. This one is a debut project from the Chicago-bred artist Chance the Rapper, who conveys a fascinating narrative through extremely genuine lyrics and a unique flow.

rated to modify Chance’s melodies, which present a truly raw and personal style to the entire album. The story itself is an awesome reflection of just how shitty high school can be when functioning at its lowest. Give it a listen!!!!

The tape is entittled “10 Day,” which signifies Chance’s ten day suspension from Jones College Prep School in downtown Chicago. I think this album is most notable for its very authentic approach to all aspects of production. Very little auto tuning was incorpo-

Juice 14,400 minutes Prom Night Family Brain Cells

Notable tracks include:

--Zach Scheinfeld

Waves Magazine

Foxygen, a psych-rock duo hailing from LA, call themselves the 21st century ambassadors of peace and magic. Their recently released album certainly is a throw-back to the peace and love of the sixties. With calming beats, classic sixties guitar lines reminiscent of the Beatles, organs and the occasional harmonica, Foxygen transports the listener to another time. The album opens with a pop prelude, horns and an abstract applause. “San Francisco” is a stand-out track, with lyrical nods to the classic, “I left my heart in San Francisco.” Flutes and the whimsical xylophone cou-

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pled with sweet whispery female vocals give the track a Belle & Sebastian vibe. The album is at its trippiest at the track, “We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors”, with echoing yelled vocals. But Foxygen never lose footing, relying on organs and guitar to drive the song along. All in all, Foxygen live up to their self-proclaimed moniker, and this album is definitely worth a spin for its sweet sixties pop style. --Penny Snyder

Cane” where Powers croons “This dimension and thenext/ The living and the dead/ The wave into the corpse.” Though filled with such melancholy, existential lyrics, Wondrous Bughouse does not take on the tone of a depressing album about death, dreams, and demons. The album, rather, creates for the listener a psychedelic sonic journey through the realms of dreams and discontent.

Youth Lagoon Wondrous Bughouse Wondrous Bughouse is a dreamy yet sometimes aurally challenging journey. In early March of this year, Youth Lagoon released his second album, Wondrous Bughouse, which showcases greater musical complexity and more exploratory lyrics and sounds than his first album, The Year of Hibernation. Youth Lagoon, originally Trevor Powers’ complete solo project, takes on a fuller sound in Wondrous Bughouse as Powers enlists the support of a full backing band. Power’s ethereal, high-pitched vocals, and contemplative lyrics remain untouched by the addition of other instrumentalists and demonstrate his creative control over his creation, Youth Lagoon. Power’s pairing with producer Ben H. Allen, who has worked with the likes of Animal Collective, Deerhunter, Washed Out, and Matt & Kim, incidentally makes for grander sound than his first album, First Hibernation. Going a more experimental, electronic route, less reliant

on the catchy keyboard melodies of his first album, Powers takes a risk in Wondrous Bughouse that pays off grandiosely. His first track, accurately titled “Through Mind and Back”, sets the stage for the auditory journey with dreamy yet jarring almost-melodic experimental noises. The song clears the listener’s mind and drops them into a space where they can properly enjoy and understand Power’s message and tone in the album. In an interview with Exclaim! Powers communicates, “I guess I’ve always been interested in having one foot in reality, or things that sound familiar in a sense, and one foot in something that seems completely unfamiliar.” Powers communicates this sentiment through the steady tension woven throughout his album and with the eerie piano riff backing many of the songs. He toys with the listener’s capacity to passively enjoy the music by alternating fragments of easy listening with more aurally jarring pieces to inject the album with an eleWaves Magazine

ment of challenge for the listener. The challenge, however, is not insurmountable which makes Wondrous Bughouse a technically impeccable, aurally enjoyable musical piece. The songs on his album are best enjoyed in sequence as they effortlessly and appropriately transition into one another, properly guiding the listener through the emotional and metaphysical journey of the album. The idea behind Trevor Power’s sophomore album stems from him “becoming more fascinated with the human psyche and where the spiritual meets the physical world.” This form of musical introspection can be heard throughout the album, woven as a common thread tying all the songs together. Stripping away the resounding drum beats and clanging guitar and keyboards reveals somber lyrics in songs from the childish, dreamlike beats of “Mute” where Powers muses, “The devil tries to take my mind/ but I can’t quite get inside” to the nostalgic piano of “Raspberry Volume II

Wonderful and comprehensive, Wondrous Bughouse, acts as a medium for Trevor Power’s to communicate his thoughts and mental discoveries. Though none of the thoughts could be considered groundbreaking or necessarily profound, the album still allows for Powers to unload his mental baggage through productive means. I, as a listener, certainly enjoyed what Powers had to say and how he chose to say it. --Reta Gasser

What Waves is Listening To Starfucker Miracle Mile On February 19th 2013, STRFKR, née Starfucker, released their latest album: Miracle Mile. Employing the use of a synthesizer in addition to the bands normal (rock band) instruments and mellow vocals, the group forms a chill, sometimes pop-ish but mostly rock, ambience. Personally, I think the group was attempting to take the listener of a symbolic journey through the music, hence the album name: Miracle Mile. When I was listening to it, it felt as though the album began at daybreak, the energy of the first song, “While I’m Alive”, symbolizing a burst of sunlight at dawn. As you travel through the album, that energy fluctuates between songs like “Isea” which are a lot calmer, and songs like “Atlantis” which are more energetic; ultimately keeping with the journey theme by representing the highs and lows

James Blake Overgrown of the journey. The album proceeds to instill a feeling of closure in the last coupe of songs, representing dusk, and finally the end of the journey with a “Nite Ride” and a heartfelt goodbye. The vocal style of Josh Hodges verge on shoegazing at times, sounding very mellow and sometimes echoing in the background adding to this ambient feeling the album has. Instrumentally, the album tends to switch between songs with a more classic indie rock sounds and songs with a heavy synth sound to them. The album is pretty great, while admittedly very long with a track list of 15 songs. Honestly, the album deserves a good listen through to really appreciate it. I would definitely recommend this one. --Ryan Moye

It’s not common that an artist can so effortlessly entice you. James Blake dropped Overgrown, his sophomore album, April 13th 2013. After listening to the first single, Retrograde, I had high expectations, and after reading phenomenal reviews and listening to the first few tracks, I can say that he’s surpassed them. If you’ve never listened before, I can only compare his sound to the likes of Mount Kimbie, The xx, Bonobo, and Bon Iver, but that does him no justice. His debut into the music world with his self-titled album blew me away, and scores an all time high on my sad music playlist. Surprisingly enough, it didn’t sell so well in the US, but received several nominations. His sound is described as nu-R&B and gospel-folk, mixing post-dubstep synths with his signature piano melodies. Though the intricate, angelic vocals, poetic lyricism and composition remain, this album has a different tone. More bass, more traditional synth sounds, and a faster pace (with exceptions, of course).

London), unparalleled style, and masterful ability to intertwine such obscure sounds into something that sounds so aesthetically pleasing. He’s got a few collaboration tracks with Wu-Tang’s RZA and Brian Eno. My favorites: Retrograde, Life Round Here, Overgrown, Digital Lion, Every Day I Ran (Bonus Track) Aside from his musical ability, he’s also really charming and seems to be completely absent from the social-networking world. Thankfully, he’s finally beginning to frequent the US. Catch him on tour this spring. Fun fact: James came to Chance The Rapper’s show at SXSW and had the pleasure of meeting him. That blew my mind! Savemoney! --Korinne Davis

Unless you’re well into the post-dubstep scene, this is probably something you haven’t heard before. What distinguishes Blake from a lot of his contemporaries is his classical training (Goldsmiths, Waves Magazine

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On The

MEDICINAL PROPERTIES OF

MODEST MOUSE

“I know that anyone would grow wiser if they sat down, listened to [Modest Mouse’s] music, and meditated on their passionate exploration of perception, nature, and the human condition.” by: Jay Sharma

hen asked in a 1997 interview about his thoughts on Modest Mouse, Chris Takino, founder of Up Records, replied, “The thing I like about them most is that they’re smart”. People always ask me what kind of music I listen to, and to that question I give my canned but telling response—I like smart music. By “smart” I mean thoughtful and perceptive music, coming from place of honest insight. Bob Dylan, for example, made music that was entirely honest about the way he saw the world, and that honesty—with all its subtle observations about morality, inequality, war, and purpose—resonated with an entire generation grappling with life in the same way he was. Because of his honesty, Bob Dylan was great, and his music is full of wisdom that we can all learn something from. Modest Mouse is smart— they make more sense to me than almost any other band I know. I know that anyone would grow wiser if they sat down, listened to their music, and meditated on their passionate exploration of perception, nature, and the human condition. I am speaking from personal experience; Modest Mouse has guided me through some of the more confusing times of my life, and a lot of the insights that constitute my philosophy were only realized with the help of their music. I’ll expand on this later, but first I’ll give you some background on the band. Modest Mouse was born in Issaquah, Washington in the early 90’s when longtime friends Isaac Brock (vocals, lyrics, and guitar),

Jeremiah Green (drums), and Eric Judy (bass) began making rock music together. From the beginning, their music has been characterized by youthful, drunken energy, eccentric guitar riffs, and angry, drawn-out jams punctuated by slow moments of tranquility. Above all else, the real defining aspects of MM’s music are Isaac Brock’s lyrics and vocals. Each track is filled with profoundly insightful lines that leave you in an introspective, reflective state of mind. Isaac can scream angry cynicisms about god, whisper hush lines of hopelessness, or sing pretty truths about nature, but however they come, the words will leave you thinking for days. These lines have been the launch pad for my existential questioning and realization ever since the sixth grade. At the end of elementary school, my parents thought it would be good for me to transfer to private school, but I was hostile to the idea of leaving my friends. After countless screaming matches with my parents, I reluctantly joined the school for sixth grade, and for most of that year I felt utterly alone and frustrated. At home, I retreated into solitude and rarely spoke to my parents with a smile—our relationship was strained because I blamed them for my unhappiness. The song “Edit the Sad Parts”, from MM’s 1996 EP, Interstate 8, opens with the lines, “Sometimes all I really want to feel is love/ sometimes I’m angry that I feel so angry/ sometimes my feelings get in the way

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of what I really feel I needed to say.” This song helped me realize what I was feeling—I wasn’t mad at my parents, I was just frustrated with my own negative attitude towards school. I was angry that I felt so angry, and my anger was getting in the way of my relationship with my parents, so I slowly realized that the problem was not with them, but with me. Later in the song, Isaac sings, “If you sit in a circle, then you all have a back to bite”. I came to understand that if I bit the back of the person in front of me, or blamed them for my own problems, it would come full circle and bite me in the back. I

learned at 11 years old that if I had a problem with the way my life was going, blaming it on others was of no help—I was ultimately accountable for my own feelings and thus, responsible for dealing with them. When I arrived at Wesleyan last fall, I had been listening to MM’s 1996 album, This is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About, and this album lent a helpful hand in coming to terms with all the things one must come to terms with as a freshman at college. After arriving on campus last fall, I began to realize how different college is from high school. Initially, people on campus seemed so sure of themselves— everyone had some passion or the other, some characteristic that they could define themselves by. I was no exception; I came here thinking that I was defined as a musician. Immediately, I met people who had far more knowledge about music than I did, people who had been studying music longer than I had been able to ride a bike. With all these musical peers, I couldn’t help but compare myself to them, and this induced a sort of identity crisis. Could I even consider myself a musician? One lyric from the song “Make Everybody Happy/Me-

chanical Birds” off of This Is a Long Drive really resonated with me during this time—“I’m not sure who I am, but I know who I’ve been”. I couldn’t put it any straighter than that. All I am sure of is who I have been, and trying to define the limits of who I am has only disillusioned me. This line allowed my ego to dissolve, and I realized that the real importance of being a musician isn’t about saying you’re a musician, it is about creating music and nothing else. I was so eager to talk up my identity, but the only point of that was to compare myself to others. After this enlightening egodeath, I began to realize the deeper meaning of why I make music; I create songs for their own sake, not so that others will be impressed. This realization left me contented—calm, like how Isaac sounds when he sings the lines I mentioned. These kinds of two-liners are MM’s gold nuggets of wisdom that we can all learn something from. If you are someone who could benefit from some spiritual and philosophical realization, I recommend listening to Modest Mouse’s 1997 album, The Lonesome Crowded West. The record is choc-full of these brilliant two-liners and, in my opinion, it is the group’s most powerful album. The album contains some of MM’s wildest moments as well as their most peaceful ones. The songs, many of which feel very Bob Dylan influenced, deal with themes such as the existence or non-existence of god, aimlessness, and the exploitation of nature. Everyone can learn something about themselves and the world around them by way of this album, so I’ll leave you with a few of Modest Mouse’s signature bits of insight, and if you find yourself in deep thought, I recommend diving further down the rabbit mouse hole.

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“We kiss on the mouth but still cough down our sleeves”

--Dramamine, This is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About

“If you could compact your conscience…if you could bottle and sell it…you know you might have to use it” --Teeth like God’s

Shoeshine, The Lonesome Crowded West

“Language is the liquid that we’re all dissolved in, great for solving problems after it creates a problem.”

--Blame it on the Tetons, Good News For People Who Love Bad News

“I’m on a road shaped like a figure 8, I’m going nowhere but I’m guaranteed to be late”

--Interstate 8, Building Nothing Out of Something

PrecisionTroupe “Ghost Riders” Show @ Psi Upsilon Photo by Mike Nakhla

M & PL An interview with Aletta Brady on Wesleyan University’s new project, Music and Public Life: a year long campus and community-wide exploration and MiddletownRemix by: Iman Bright So, I’m just going to jump in. What exactly is Music and Public Life? Music and Public Life is an initiative that initially came from President Roth’s office. Roth wanted to have something on campus that intertwined music and the arts with more academic things. So kinda pulling from the idea of classic disciplinary studies. It started with the Mash at the beginning of this year. There have been a bunch of lectures and series. Now, it has turned into a collaborative project to bring music and the arts into the public sphere. Making it less of a performance, Music and Public Life incorporates music and the arts into our daily lives. Who’s the head of Music and Public Life? So, the project is through the CFA. Erinn Roos-Brown, who is my supervisor, is in charge of it. She is the creative campus director so she’s also in charge of Feet To the Fire...which is actually not just a one time thing… it goes throughout the year. Haha! A lot of people don’t know that. They think it’s one event. But, since she has a lot on her plate right now a lot of the responsibility has fallen on me. Can you tell me more about MiddletownRemix and how it’s related to M&PL?

they live and exist in through sound. It’s a project where people record sounds anywhere in their community, upload them to the website and then remix those sounds. Most of these projects end with some sort of festival or dance party using these sounds. As people are celebrating, they’re listening to sounds of their daily life such as kids at the park or people at school walking down the street. The project tries to get people to re-envision their community in a new way. It’s been done in Milwaukee, NYC, and a lot of other places in the country. Middletown is the longest project so far. Most of them have only been a few weeks or a few months but this project is a whole year. In the fall, students around the Middletown Community recorded sounds from all over their neighborhood. You can find tens of thousands of sounds on http://urbanremix.gatech.edu/content/middletown Who is going to remix them and put them all together? Anyone can remix them. It’s a feature found on the website. You can go through, choose sounds, remix them and add beats. The festival on May 11th is a culmination of this project. It’s going to be located in North End, an area that Middletown is trying to claim as the Arts District of Middletown.

MiddletownRemix is apart of Music and Public Life. That’s the part that I’m mostly working on. It’s a sound based identity project that was created at Georgia Tech as an idea of trying to get people to reinvent the places that

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I like this idea. Plus the fact that this festival will happen directly on Main Street where everyone commutes on a daily basis is really great. Yeah it’s really exciting. We finally found a student choreographer to teach a group of Middletown students, as well as a group of Wesleyan students to perform to these sounds. There are going to be interactive spaces where you can remix the sounds. We are also commissioning student DJs from Wesleyan as well as DJs from the Middletown community to mix these sounds. I think this is an awesome way to engage young people from both communities that live in the same place and exist around the same sounds and movements. So do you think this M&PL has already impacted the Middletown and Wesleyan community? Has it been successful? The Music and Public Life initiative has been successful at Wesleyan. I wish that there had been a way to incorporate students who wanted to contribute to the project. We have a lot of awesome events signed up, but I’ve had a lot of students come up to me and ask, “How do I become apart of this?” or “How do I get my group or this artist involved with this?”. We didn’t realize this was something people would want to engage with on that level. It wasn’t really set up for people to add to and collaborate with the project. Have Middletown residents actively engaged with the Waves Magazine

project? With MiddletownRemix, although there hasn’t been much publicity done on campus, there’s been a lot of engagement within the Middletown community. Last semester was really focused on getting community members, the CHC (Community Health Center), people at the hospital, and people at high schools to know about MiddletownRemix and to upload sounds. So that’s where the majority of the contributions of sounds on the website have come from. What was your favorite event? Haha… I’m kinda busy. There was an event in Middletown that was pretty cool. There was a band that played at Iguanas Ranas and it was like you got a ticket, you got food and then you got to see this concert. That’s the one that I wanted to go to. I heard it was awesome. So M&PL is only supposed to last for a year right? Do you see it continuing? Yeah, hopefully! Though if this is something that continues on into the future, allowing students to participate more would be a great way to improve it. Any last words? Shout outs? Everyone come to the festival on May 11th!

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CARDINAL STUDIOS PREVIEW Attention: All budding songwriters, music producers, sound engineers and artists

revolutionary change in Wes’ music facilities is coming Fall 2013. After countless months of planning and communication between students and administration, new student-run recording studios are opening up next year. No longer will you, the talented, up and coming Wesleyan musician have your recording potential stifled by shoddy dorm room acoustics and noisy inebriated hall mates. You won’t need to take certain courses to use these upcoming facilities, nor will you have to be a declared music major. As long as you’re a Wes student who’s passionate about your project, you will have your music pro-

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fessionally recorded. While exact locations and programs have yet to be finalized, any and all students interested in acquiring jobs as engineers and producers should prepare resumes over the summer – as soon as next school year comes around, things are going to get poppin’ very quickly. If you’d like to help prepare these recording spaces, send and email to Derek Sturman at dsturman@wes, Rashad “Izzy” Coleman at icoleman@wes or Ron Jacobs at rajacobs@wes. Stay tuned for just a little bit longer…

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by: Derek S

turman

The Graduate: Featured Musicians from the Class of 2013 Photos by Sydney Lowe

Adrien Defontain

When did you start playing music? I am a classically trained pianist. I started playing when I was five. I hated it. My mother made me do it. She promised I would thank her later. I just wanted go out and play with my friends and throw dirt. Is that what kids do to stay entertained? Yeah that’s what we do in Jersey! Have you thanked your mom? Thank you so much mom! Seriously, it was very, very, very important for me. And if you’re mad about my career choice…it’s kinda your fault. What Projects have you been involved with on campus? List .Every. Single. One. Top 40 Cover band, Blink 182, Sublime, Say Anything cover band, The Japanese, Linus, Static Stamina, Tonsil Hockey, Throw back 50’s 60’s rock n roll cover band without a name, and a 90’s Brit Rock Cover Band. Which of these projects do you see as your project? Adrien musically. Definitely the Japanese. It’s me, Dan, and Neo. We all bring in music and play on each other’s ideas and then record. It’s ours. How would you describe the Japanese musically? Definitely a rock band. Some elements of progresive rock. As far as influences go: Radiohead, The Dismemberment Plan. We have a song that sounds like My Bloody Valentine, we’re kicking around all sorts of things So who are your biggest overarching musical influences? As a guitar player who also writes music, I would have to say the Smiths; Morrissey and Johnny Marr. Johnny Marr is the most creative guitarist out there, and Morrissey, and only he can get away with the lyrics he writes. Also Trent Reznor, I love Nine Inch Nails to pieces. The guy wrote all the songs, played all the parts, and produced some great stuff. It worked well for my teen angst. Haha, potential title for the article, “Teen Angst With Adrien” Sure, whatever, I had A LOT of it. What was your first Wes show? Sexual Healing cover at freshman open mic outside of Usdan. It was dedicated to my RA. What was your best Wes show? Gotta be Japanese’s Battle of the Bands sophmore year. We practiced everyday for multiple hours. Once it was over, we were like ‘that was the Best Show we’ve played’. Although we didn’t win (Flora and Fauna won) it was a

by: Kevin Brisco

good show. What was the first album you bought? All the Small Things single, and Santana Supernatural. I wanted to get the album Enemy of the State, but I talked it over with my parents and they weren’t too comfortable with the “parental advisory” sticker. I got the album a few weeks later but that day it was just the two. How do you feel about John Mayer? Haha, Thank you, let’s drive into my worst musical phase. My high school didn’t have any drummers. I couldn’t really form bands so I was doing a lot of singer songwriter stuff. So that’s what I started listening to sort of late junior year of high school. It got bad. Like I have a favorite Jason MRAZ song. Never got into Jack Johnson, but I could have gotten behind it. What’s a Wes act you wanna colab with that you haven’t collaborated with yet? Grand Cousin. I think they’re a great “rock” band; we don’t have many of them on campus these days. Please rate your erection for the following items Fleetwood Mac Raging. John Mayer These days it’s soft, sorry John Holding conversations in Weshop? Chubbs. Jersey Hospital. Guitar Raging. So what are your plans post Wes? The goal is to get a recording job in the next months, and play with bands. I want to be making music no matter where I am. Got any music advice for the young faces around campus? Do it. Play shows. It’s literally that easy. People will come, your friends like you and (hopefully) they’ll show up. My thing is I never say no when people ask to play music with me and it’s worked thus far. I’ve gotten to participate in some fun projects.

Emma Daniels

by: Mckenzii Webster

Let’s start off with your name, major, where you're from, and 2 of your favorite artists right now. My name is Emma Daniels. I am a College of Letters major. I spend my days studying the alphabet. I make that joke and sometimes people laugh and sometimes they don’t. But I’m a senior, and I’m from the lovely town of Hingham, MA. My two favorite artists … Can they be fluid? Yes! When I’m happy or sad, I always go back to Andrew Lloyd Webber [Broadway]. I’m a sucker for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s music, and then Beyoncé. ‘Cause who’s better than Jesus? Baby Beyoncé…Bejesus So, how did you get started singing? I got started singing, because I talk too much and my mom and dad use to tell me to stop talking. So, I started singing. No, I just think I’m really vain and like the sound of my own voice and so I was like, “Oh God I can make it louder?” And that was what singing was. What bands are you involved with or have been involved with on campus? I started singing with the Wesleyan ensemble singers and I also sing with Ebony Singers. I sang with Wesleyan ensemble, which is classical, choral music and is like an actual class, for three years every Fall. Then, Ebony Singers last Spring and this Spring, which is like my favorite thing on campus. I sang with Josh Smith – Wordsmith and the Concert Gs - and Mad Wow until the end of my sophomore year. I sang with the Blooming Youth, which was kind of a folk duo that Alex Lough and I worked on last year and this year kind of like we would sing at any concerts we could. That was kind of more casual. People probably see me most doing on campus is sing with the Top 40 band. I do Top 40 and this new project, which is called Pretty Girl Swag, which no one knows about. But it’s awesome! Top 40 and Pretty Girl Swag are very similar [very similar people in the band call it for short, I am writing all the music. How did you all come up with the name for Pretty Girl Swag? I’m the only girl in the band, and we kind of have this joke that kind of follows along the lines that I’m pretty boring in real life. The only time you will see me at a party is if I’m singing at the party. That’s where all my swag comes from. Like I have no swag unless I’m on stage. It’s like Justin Bieber. [LAUGHTER] So, Girl Swag kind of came from that – the fact that the band is all men. Although they would argue it was because they love women. So that’s where it comes from. What has been your favorite concert to perform in

while at Wesleyan? My favorite concert to perform in… That’s such a tough question. I love the Top 40, but they’re dark and they’re also in frats and you can’t exactly see the audience. It’s just lots of people sweating and moving. Two concerts I sang in, first is the tent party my Sophomore year and that was just a huge crowd – 2,000 people – and unless I get famous, that’s probably the biggest crowd I’m ever going to sing for. So, that was really cool and I could see the audience. I could see people singing and dancing. I got to open it and sing “Respect”, which is that song that no White girl should ever sing. That was really fun! And then secondly, the Ebony Concert last Spring. It was really cool because my mom came. She is one of those people who sits in audiences and she’ll clap really nicely but I never see her get out of her seat and dance. She was wiggling’ around and getting that shimmy in. I was like “you’re killing it!” What is your favorite concert that you have attended while at Wesleyan? All of them! The one that Eclectic has every year that’s for bands… Battle of the Bands… where bands who have never played together have to play. I like the concept of like going back and forth between two rooms. I think that that and seeing different bands play together … I was blown away by how many different genres of music are represented. That was definitely a huge highlight. That was last Spring. Then, I love any concert in the Chapel. I’ve been to a couple of classic concerts there which were just beautiful. Have you ever had to choose between music and something else love or vice versa? Explain?

Story of my life! I came to Wesleyan as Lacrosse recruit and played for my first two years. Then, I played up until last year. I do a lot of musicals on campus too. I was in Urinetown last Spring, and I did Rent my sophomore year. All through high school my parents were like, “you’re going to have to pick at some point”, and I was like “no, no I won’t. I can do everything. Who needs sleep?” I had gotten mono my sophomore year because I was running around like crazy and not sleeping well due to the rehearsals being from 10pm-2am. I quit playing Lacrosse because I realized that unless, I get famous, which I probably won’t, I can’t picture myself being 30 or 40 and rocking out at frats. That’s something I really wanted to be able to do. Do you see yourself continuing to be plugged into music postwes? I think I’ll probably be like one of those 60 year old women who think they are the best alto in the choir. When I’m 70 I’ll sing at all the Christmas concerts at my community theater. I’ll probably be that

delusions of granduer lady, who’s like “no, the Christmas carol goes this way!” I would love to, while I’m still youthful, go to concerts. I don’t have any time between work and my own stuff to go to a lot of concerts. I think I went to an Avril Lavigne concert and a Gavin Degraw concert when I was little. And the Eagles. Do what you will with that! I think going to a lot of concerts and seeing my friends perform karaoke. Karaoke is a great way to stay plugged in to music. How would you describe the Wesleyan's Music scene in one word? Why? Cooperative … I think that word is multifaceted in that people help each other out in the music scene. I think my Freshmen year I was blown away by the fact that if I needed a microphone or a PA for something, I could email the music co-op and be like “hey I need this at this place” and kids who were involved in that are so helpful and I didn’t know how to plug a microphone into a PA. I learned a lot from people who like are willing to teach you. There are some phenomenal musicians who are willing to help you. I have a

friend who has his senior thesis – he’s a music major, and he is awful at writing lyrics. He is another one of the seniors you all are profiling, so I won’t say his name. But I am helping him write lyrics. In terms of the fact that we’re a really small community with 2,800 undergrads, the amount of kids who then play music is a big proportion of Wesleyan’s community, but we’re still not a ton of people. I think that everyone is really cooperative in terms of participating in other people’s stuff and in also teaching each other and helping each other out, which is cool. Any last words? Keep singing!

Evan Okun How has growing up in Washington Heights influenced your music? A huge influence. The first thing that pops into my head is “In the Heights”, the play that was written and pretty much started by Lin-Manuel. I saw that off Broadway because my dad was taking care of one of the main actors (he’s a pediatrician), and it blew my mind that you could do a huge hip-hop project on just your neighborhood. Honestly, the reason I love hip-hop is because I’m from Washington Heights. I would freestyle with kids in front of my house; in the baseball league I was in, I was one of the only white kids, but they accepted me because every time we won, I would spit a bullshit rap verse about how I was the greatest because… and then say some simile or something. Also, I honestly love writing about where I’m from. I really love that. One of the things people really love about your performances here is that you always bring up friends and other musicians on stage. Talk a bit about the role of collaboration in your music.

by: Zach Scheinfeld Probably the biggest value of music to me is potential collaboration. When you write a song with someone, you can talk to them about a certain subject matter and then come at it from different angles, and arrive at some meaning that wouldn’t have existed if you did it individually. I think it’s ill that the truth lies somewhere in-between the way you both see the world. I also can’t sing, and I love listening to singers… I love that, and this school has remarkable talent. When I first met you [Zach] on Foss hill, I was free styling with David Stouck and Izzy Coleman. I was in a band with them for over a year and that was really ill. I think the best way to get better at something is to surround yourself with people that are way better than you. Izzy is the illest freestyler, his flow is crazy, and David is just like rhyme style off the top… unreal. Also, Mel Hsu and Sam Freidman. Collaborating with them has pushed me in terms of ‘what does it mean to improvise?’ They’ve been telling me I don’t need to rhyme as much, and that I don’t need to flow. Like what happens if I’m on rhythm and then come off… and back on,

and off, and back on, and then create a rhythm in that oscillation? They are just so forward thinking it’s really amazing.

ating the individual in these stories. I’m hoping that it goes in that direction and leaves Rick Ross in the dust.

I heard you’ve been involved with teaching Hip-Hop classes to middle town residents. Tell me a little about that. Word, I teach two classes. One of them is an afterschool program at Green Street Arts Center. I teach middle schoolers. Its called the Poetics of Rap, and it’s about how can they learn from the rap songs they hear to produce artistic content. The other class I teach is at the Juvenile detention center, which is three blocks away. Those aren’t just Middletown residents; they are anyone from Connecticut statewide. It’s an all male juvenile detention center, and I teach kids generally between the ages of fifteen to eighteen. The class is called Culturally Critical HipHop. I was allowed to construct the syllabus, so we learn about societal inequality through Hip-Hop, and try to engage in critical discussions about the mass incarceration system and education inequality. We kind of spark that conversation off by listening to Dead Prez songs about education or by listening to Kendrick Lamar and his songs about the prison system.

How has your education influenced your music? My freshman year I took Introduction to Buddhism, which is an ill class. Since then, so many things I do have been about letting go the egos. That’s what I’m talking about, not rapping about me rapping. But then more so, I’v found so much relief in the things that I’ve learned, like when I learn about societal inequality it allows me to feel direction in my life. Then, I write about those things that I’m directed towards. Right now I’m actually getting a class credit for this joint study that’s in the religion department and music department. The final project is me doing an album, and then doing a final show with Sam and Mel. It’s all about Buddhist ideas without using the word Buddhism or any word that’s involved in Buddhist context. It’s all situated in Washington heights, using information that I learned about like prison system or poking fun at the education system and how its clearly not going to achieve equality.

Has this changed the way you view the role of music and its function in people’s lives? Yes. Definitely. Once I started teaching I realized that I just got sick of rap that only talked about the rapper, or even rap that talked about rap itself. That can be good, and I love it when J electronica breaks down the rap game, but when people just talk about themselves it gets so stuck in a box. There are so many issues… for instance, the detention center system in America is so messed up, and so if that’s going on, and there’s global starvation, and your in a booth talking about yourself in a booth, or yourself rapping, or the money you’ve made, it just gets like, ‘are you serious?’ There is so much to get done. I think it’s made me direct all my efforts to not rapping about me rapping. So where do you think mainstream rap and artists like Drake are directing the progression of the game? I have no idea. I hope that Kendrick Lamar represents a change and a shift away. He has a song where he’s like: “rap about life not rap.” Good Kid m.A.A.d city is an unbelievable concept album about like… oh god its just so forward thinking… about societal inequality, but situ-

Talk about the billionaire video That was ill. That was in big part thanks to Taylor Harbison who just kind of came through last minute. The billionaire song and video are a testament to what you can do at Wesleyan. Every single thing about that project is Wesleyan. It started sophomore year, when I had written a remix and tried to rhyme with the original verse but have the opposite content. The original verse is like “yea ill get money and ill give it to my family.” But its like dude, there are way more people out there than just you and your family. He doesn’t talk about really bigger issues and so I tried to do that. And I was like oh this is hot, but I don’t want to just rap it over the original beat. And then I contacted Mel Hsu, and then Garth Taylor, who was still here at Wes at the time. He’s an ill singer. We created a remix, and two years later we got Sam Freidman to perform with us. We recorded it with this guy Jared Paul, who is a Wesleyan graduate. He mastered the whole thing… he’s incredible. The video was Taylor Harbison, who is my year at Wesleyan. He was just down, and so we went on the subway. The whole video is just like, who can we play for that will show us love, that we will also show love to, in a weirder context? So we chose the New York City subway system. Waves Magazine

Volume II

Who have you been listening to lately? Kendrick Lamar. I’m drawn to him because I think he can do things that no one else can do in terms of like content, flow, and sound. What was it like to bring Dead Prez here? Bringing Dead Prez here was like a dream I’ve had since I was a freshman. They are what started me realizing that rap doesn’t have to be all about yourself. They have incredible content, and bringing them here was such a privilege. It was extremely hard, but it was worth it because it’s a good example of a synthesis between education and music. During the day they ran a panel on the education system, which is something I’m really interested in, and getting a certificate in. I’m also studying sociology about how the education system works in general. Dead Prez thinks so much about that… they are brilliant about it. The fact that you could have an MC who could rip a concert at Psi-U with hundreds of hundreds of kids, and then also pack to capacity the intellectual discussion before about the education system, was an honor. Where are you headed next? I just spent the past two or three weeks working really hard on this concept album. I’m hoping to record it with Jared Paul, who is a Wesleyan alum. Hopefully, I’m going to get that done in the next few months. I’m honestly looking to perform it here in a recital. I’m also interested in how else performances could be done. I love performing at Psi U, and like I love opeining for like for Joey Bada$$ or Dead Prez… but I could tell that they couldn’t hear me too well. Like when you’re rapping to the crowd and they react to some lines, but then they cant here the next line because of the reaction. I’m interested performing in spaces where every word is heard. I work hard on the words and I want them to be heard in the context of the music, and not drowned out by these booming speakers.

Dylan Bostick

by: Kyle Somersall

So yeah, you can introduce yourself and talk about where you’re from. I’m Dylan Bostick. I’m a senior from Los Angeles. I’ve done a lot of different music at Wesleyan. Started out in a band called Friendsome, which became Linus, which became Lioness. That’s probably the longest running band that I’ve been in, although we haven’t played at all this year because our drummer graduated. I produce beats under the name Boss. I’ve been doing that since I was 16. I also started producing under the name DreamHost, which was an 80s electronic project influenced by my semester in Bologna, Italy. Was also in a band called Miami Heat sophomore year, which was just a punk band where we mostly got drunk and fell over. Last year, I played in two bands: Protein Stains and thirsty—both of those I drummed in, which was a first for me because I’m primarily a guitarist, sometimes piano. Last year I also played in a band called peace museum—I played bass. I have a new chicago juke/ footwork project called Juke Wherry and we just won awesomefest last week. Yeah that’s what I’ve been doing at Wesleyan so far. That’s a lot of music. So which one of those musical endeavors has been your favorite? It kind of depends. Also as my song writing skills have improved over the last couple years, my ideas about what kind of music I am listening to, what kind of music I want to be making has all changed. The acts that I’ve been in have been so diverse and all over the place I think they represent my scattered taste in music. So if I’m really listening to one type of music I’m going to start writing music like that probably. So I think that definitely what I’ve been exposed to in terms of music, musical ideas, and collaborating with friends has definitely influenced my different writing styles. Nice. So who are you listening to right now? Right now there are a lot of bands. This band Merchandice—I saw them once at South by Southwest and once in L.A. They’re this awesome band from Florida. This dude Autre Ne Veut. He kind of sounds like Prince—I saw him also at South by Southwest. Also I’ve been listening to a lot of Prince. I always have been listening to a lot of Prince but especially this last whole year has definitely been a Prince phase for me. I had a weird Billy Idol phase a couple months ago. Listening to a lot of 80s, power Pop. My roommate Adrien has a Jeep wrangler and we’re planning on taking the roof off and then driving around Wesleyan playing 80s, power Pop as loud as possible. The new My Bloody Valentine I’ve been listening to that a lot. That came out when it was really dark in Connecticut and I really connected to it. You said that you have two production names. So is there any particular reason why you have those two names? Yeah they’re both so different. Boss I started in high school. It comes from my last name, Bostick. And in high school I remember the girl who drove my carpool would play three CDs, which were Animal Collective, Madvillany and Battles, and I never heard anything like those three acts. When I heard Madvillany that just blew my mind. I never knew that rap could be something like that. I was so inspired and started making beats. I also got introduced to J Dilla six months after that—that probably changed my life. I think he’s probably the greatest producer ever. When I got my first car I put donuts in and it’s never left my car. And then with DreamHost, It was sophomore year. Around then was the time when all these Chillwave bands were coming out and I thought Chillwave was pretty stupid and I found out that this one song, Feel It All Around, where I found out that the guy just slowed it down and added vocals over it and added some reverb. And I was like ‘this guy is such bullshit. This is hilarious if he is getting famous for slowing down an obscure 80s song and singing over it then I can do that too’. So then that’s exactly what I did. I found all these obscure 80s song, I slowed them down and added vocals to them. So that was the first release and then when I went to Italy I picked up some weird 45s in various spots. Most of the clubs played shitty American Pop music, but some random places would be playing “Italo Disco” from the 80s, which is an awesome genre. It’s kind of similar to the 80s new wave. Kind of electronic like right when people got synthesizers and drum machines and didn’t know what they were doing. And so I got some of those records and found some online and then I slowed those down and added vocals and reverb. The second release is called In Italia. Has Italy had a big influence on your music you’d say? I guess finding some obscure and funny records definitely did. I wouldn’t say it influenced how I

approach music but it’s definitely influenced my life. I feel like I came back a slightly different, more independent, mature person and I think that maybe has influenced how I might be interested in different ideas or more open to different songs or music. You mentioned your approach. Do you have any specific approach or do you just wing it? I have a couple. Basically when I was 17 I made beats there were these massive sample packs you can buy or download for free online that are like the Dr. Dre drums, the Kanye drums, the Pete Rock drums, the Dilla drums, etc. So I downloaded like a million of these and each one has like 50 different sounds for a snare drum, a kick drum, a high hat, the bongo, whatever. So I went through a thousand little clips, picked out my favorite ones and then I created these patches. So I have my 25 favorite kick drum sounds, my 25 favorite snares etcetera. From that I’ve created this sample bank for my drums. In terms of approaching making a beat, I hear a sample, I hear a song. When I’m listening I can identify a bar or a little phrase and I’m like ‘that’s it’. I hear it, I don’t know how to explain it better than that but you get it, you feel it. Then I’ll chop it up, process it a little bit. Maybe slow it down or speed it up depending on the bpm or maybe I’ll just create the beat. Usually my drums will match the rhythmic feel of the original sample, maybe add in some other stuff but my approach to making beats is more like making a song. I want the drums to fit, I don’t want them to stand out. Now I think in a lot of rap the drums will be a separate. So its like the drums are the main force of the song and the sample comes in and drops a couple times throughout the chorus or the verse. I kind of wanted to make more whole songs where you can’t really tell what’s being sampled or what I added. And you also play instruments so you want to talk a little bit about that? I’ve been playing guitar since I was ten; I’ve been playing piano since I was six; I’ve been playing drums since I was 12. My best friend from home is a drummer and the summer when we were 12 I taught him guitar and he taught me drums. Do you record live instruments in addition to the computerized stuff? Yeah sometimes. It depends on each song. For sure. So do you have a standout concert that you’ve done at Wes? I think last spring Lioness played at Eclectic. That was one of the most fun shows I think we played. Me and Ethan, who’s the bassist, were working the door at one point, while the band before us was playing. These kids came in and they were like has Lioness started yet. And we looked at eachother and we were like ‘no, not yet’. That was a really funny, cute, I feel like I’m a rockstar moment. This semester I played one show as DreamHost. I was asked to open for Sin Kane and I didn’t really know how to perform this music live because it’s always just been me on my computer making beats and recording some stuff but it was never supposed to be performed in a live setting. So I spent a week figuring out. Has the Wes music scene influenced your music at all? Yeah it has. Everything I hear influences me. Every year something has definitely stood out to me. When I was a freshman this band Duchampion was an awesome senior band... I thought, ‘if people can do that by their senior year, I gotta be doing something like that by senior year’…That was also something at Wesleyan. If you are focused and write all this music and get people excited and promote your show well, you can throw a huge show. That definitely influenced me. Also it helps you learn how to plan, promote and execute a show really well seeing upperclassment do it. Definitely hearing more experimental stuff has infleunced my writing. And also taking music classes here. I’m in laptop ensemble right now, which may sound like a silly class but being exposed to experimental music here definitely opened me up to what is sonically possible. What is sound, what is music. Looking forward, is there any specific type of music that you’re really into now that you’re trying to make more of? I don’t know. I’m playing in a punk band in L.A. We started over the summer. We played a show at The Smell over winter break, and I play guitar in that. And I definitely think 2012 was a big year for guitar albums. Cloud Nothings, Japandroids, Tame Impala. All three of those were huge for me and that resurgence of guitar rock, I hadn’t heard music like that in a bit. And that influenced my style where I was writing more guitar songs, making fewer beats. But I don’t know what’s happening next. Do you plan to continue making music? Absolutely, I don’t think I could ever stop. Hopefully I’m going go be composing music for film after school. I’ve been doing a lot of short films and commercials. I most recently scored two Snapchat commercials. I’ve done a Panasonic commercial, a Revlon commercial, and a Village Voice commercial. I’m also doing two senior theses scores so I definitely hope that that’s something that I can continue doing even if it’s just on the side.

Where are you from and how has that influenced your music? I grew up in the South Bronx, born and raised South Bronx, Hunts Point area. Many artists have come from there, it’s known as the home of hip-hop. Most recently, French Montana. I believe French Montana is the newest artist out of the South Bronx. He influenced my music because its sort of a cultural thing. You go to Cuba and the music they listen to is Salsa. You go to places in South America and they have their own forms of music. In the Bronx, it’s hiphop. And everybody grows up listening to hip-hop and partaking in the aspects of hip-hop. That’s one of the things that’s going on there culturally, so that’s how I got involved at a very young age. I used to write poetry, but being in the environment, I ended up getting into the rap aspect as well. So it’s something that I’ve been doing for about 14 years. What impact did Wesleyan have on your music? It opened up my mind. Part of the reason I came to Wesleyan was because it was an open music community and there are so many people involved. I came here and I was introduced to music that I wouldn’t have been introduced to elsewhere. Wesleyan has definitely benefited my music and has helped me grow. Where do you think you want to take your music in terms of content, style, and your life in general? My music is very introspective and it’s always going to be that way. I’m always going to make music about myself and how I feel. I’d also like to make fun music. So I do plan to broaden my horizons in the future. In terms of where I want to take it. You know obviously I would love to make it a career. It’s a tough market, it’s tough to get involved in, but I think that with enough

Patrick Salazar

by: Taylor Harbison

Talk about all your rap names. That’s just embarrassing. My first rap name ever was Ebonic Lifestyle. I used to rap on forums online. My name was Ebonic Lifestyle because to me it sort of represented, I thought, the lifestyle I saw growing up in the hood. I felt I had to represent that lifestyle. Ebonics is like slang pretty much in the hood and Big L has a song called Ebonics. So my name was Ebonic Lifestyle, and then I thought that was wack so I changed it to Ebonics. And that was still wack so I changed it to Spoken Phor. There’s one more before Spoken Phor. It’s a color. It’s a color? It’s a deli. It’s a deli?!

hard work and dedication that I’ll be able to make it a reality. If I don’t make it big, I’m still gonna do it. I’ll have kids and be 50, 60 years old rapping in my basement. That’s fine. I have no issue with that. It’s a form of expression and me venting at the end of the day anyway. How about giving us your top 3 artists, whether it’s because they inspire, entertain you, etc.? Three artists… the first artist I ever listened to was Ja Rule. Back when he first came out, he had this song called “Holla Holla”. That was the first rap song I ever listened to. And I really liked it, and you know everybody loves Ja Rule, our whole generation listened to him. I think he definitely influenced me to some extent especially because he was the first artist I listened to. After that, Nas. Nas was the second artist I listened to. I think the song One Mic really inspired me to do music professionally and take on the introspective aspect to my music. And then beyond that, I think in my younger years, Big L was definitely a huge influence. I used to go on Kazaa or whatever that thing was called and would try and find all of Big L’s music. So I was listening to a lot of his old stuff, trying to imitate his flow and stuff like that. It shows now, some of the music that I do, the little things that people may not see are influences from Big L.

Neon, Mr. Neon... (Laughs) That wasn’t actually a rap name! I made a song in high school called Mr. Neon. It’s like “Hey Mr. Neon, Hey Mr. Mr. Neon, Don’t you smell that money, don’t you, don’t you smell that money?” And so everybody in high school called me Mr. Neon. But I didn’t like that. (Laughs) So I’m not Mr. Neon, do not call me Mr. Neon, if you see me. My name is Patrick, call me Patrick. If you wanna call me by my artist name, call me Spoken Phor. Shout out to Olabisi Thompson, a good friend of mine from high school, she gave me the idea behind it so I ran with it. What does Spoken Phor mean? When you’re in a relationship, you say you’re spoken for, if you’re married or something like that. So Spoken Phor is supposed to mean my relationship with hip-hip, with music, and with myself. How has music affected you as you were growing up? It has allowed me to see into myself and figure out who I am. Music has been my means of expression, a lot of the things I’ve gone through. You know growing up in a tough neighborhood, you’re not really supposed to express yourself and show your emotions. You’re supposed to keep a tough face, stone cold. It was a way I was able to express my emotions and have people understand what I was going through, support what I was going through, and help me figure out who I was, what my issues were, how to fix them, and the person that I wanted to be.

Dema Paxton Fofang

by: Kyle Somersall

Where are you from and what are you involved in musically on campus or in general? I’m from New York City, although I moved around a lot when I was a little kid. On campus, I’ve been in a band called Lioness, although we’re not really playing anymore because some of them graduated. Currently, I’m in a band called Treasure Island with my roommate Jason, Faith Harding and Tobias Butler. I have my kind of goofy solo project called Bamenda. It’s mostly electronic. Awesome. So as far as the bands you’re in, I assume you play an instrument and how long have you been playing that instrument? Yeah, I started out playing bass in high school- electric bass. I still play that but a lot less. In college, I played way more guitar. I had classic guitar lessons when I was younger, but those kind of petered out when I got more into rock music. I mostly sing and play guitar in bands in college So you mentioned that you started listening to rock music, so what are you listening to on your ipod right now? Right now, it’s kind of all over the place. A lot of this band called Twin Sister, Ice Age, I’ve been listening to the Beach Boys off and on for the past 10 years, basically. The new Starfucker album came out. That was pretty tight. I have playlists for each month of the year and at the end of every year I make one big year playlist. So right now my March playlist has a Rhye song that just came out. That album is really good. A song by Phoenix from their last album. I’m going through a huge no doubt phase. Listening to tragic kingdom and return to Saturn You said you also have your own solo stuff. So what’s your approach when you’re making your solo stuff? Usually a lot of it comes out of my tinkering in Ableton and using VSTs. And not really having that much of a command of the program. So a song will start of with me trying to figure out how to use a new synthesizer or a new synth tone. Usually it starts off with a key board melody and then kind of develops from there It seems like you listen to a lot of music so who’s influenced you? I don’t have crazy influences but a huge band for me was RadioHead in high school, although my music doesn’t really sound that much like them anymore. The Strokes were another huge influence, Interpol, were huge, the Pixies, the Beach Boys, probably pet sounds is my desert island album of choice, if I had to choose anyone to only listen to. I was a huge beach house fan. A lot of my guitar playing is ripped of this guitarist—I forget his name—in the band Stone Roses. He has a lot of pretty arpeggios. The Stone Roses guitarist and Graham Coxon from Blur are my two biggest people steal from. So since you have multiple acts do you also have multiple stage names? No it’s all just Dema. I’ve always had a hard time doing the whole stage performance, charisma side of things. I’m just focusing on not fucking up playing the songs usually. Since you’re from new York, do you think that’s influenced your music at all? Yeah definitely. Just being able to go to a lot of concerts and see a lot of bands play. It’s always a different experience hearing a band on an album versus seeing a band live. And a lot of times I’ll like a band live way more than they sound or their recorded tracks or vice versa. So being in New York City and being able to go to a ton of concerts really shaped the type of music I listen to. Just being able to go to a lot of free

shows allows you to hear bands that are under the radar. Have you ever performed in new York? Yeah I had a band in high schools that was semi serious. It was kind of amateurish basically. It was a lot of me trying to be a song writer for the first time and there were hits and misses for sure. We played at a couple real venues. We played at this venue called Arlene’s Grocery. We played at a venue called don hills which is pretty popular. There was a battle of the bands in the knitting factory. Not on their main stage, but on their café stage, which we played one time. It was fun to get some real experience playing shows in the city. Do you have a stand out show that you did at Wesleyan? The big one for a long time was when Lioness played spring fling our freshman year. I was such a huge dirty projectors fan at the time and loved Big Boi album, was obsessed with the Black Lips. Every band that was playing that same day were bands that were really current for me. The show was really fun. I had a bad cold that day so my vocals we kind of off but that didn’t affect how much I enjoyed that experience. That’s dope man. Is there any big difference from when you perform as a part of a band as opposed to as a solo artist? Totally, yeah. It sounds so obvious but you feel very alone when you perform as a solo artist. Although it’s because it’s mostly just singing and I’m moving around a lot more and interacting with people a lot more, it’s a lot easier on some level. I don’t have to play an instrument. I don’t have to be in time with my band or listening to other musicians. At the same time it’s more nerve racking because it’s just you and people are just looking at you so if you aren’t being entertaining—you and your lonesome self on stage then it’s just a bad show. So that’s a little bit nerve racking but it’s more freeing in that you are just kind of improvising the whole performance aspect and not really worrying about the sounds as much. So has Wes influenced your music at all? Definitely. Just meeting a ton of people here with disparate music tastes has been a huge factor in my growth as a musician as someone who likes music, as a listener. I think a huge part is just going to Wesleyan and hearing their thoughts and tastes. I would’ve never dabbled in production as much had I not been here. I have a lot of friends who are better DJs and producers than I am but they encouraged and got me started on trying to produce music on my own, which lead me to score my thesis and wouldn’t have been able to do that. Adrien Defontaine actually produced the tracks but I recorded them and I don’t think I would’ve been able to do that had I not had some real support from people a year or two ago. Is there anything that you want to experiment with in your music, or where do you see your music going? That’s hard to say. I definitely want to get better as a producer. I want to be better at mastering things and not being so trial and error based in my producing but know a tone I want or know a drum sound I want or know a synth sound I want and really be able to purposefully pick and choose. That’s one general goal. I don’t really think about what my next song is going to sound like. I tend to just write it and naturally things evolve. For sure, so can we expect more stuff from you soon Yeah I’m trying to prep another bamenda release by the end of the year. Lioness is tentatively planning to play again during reunion and commencement week and we’re really excited to play the old songs and hang out with john, our drummer for a bit. I think Treasure Island might play a couple more shows, have some more songs coming out. Any last things you want to say about how music has influenced or impacted you or about your growth with music? Music has been kind of this omnipresent hobby in my life and my family is pretty musical and it’s just been a huge pressure release valve and something that I do consistently for fun and for my psychological well-being. It’s just a very rewarding hobby to have. It’s something that I can see myself doing for the rest of my life in some form or another. You’re always learning something and developing something, working on something.

OK, I’m going to jump right in…Why the cello? I started on the violin in Kindergarten. At the time my mom didn’t like the cello teacher at my music school so I started on violin just to start getting on my ear training. My sister played the violin as well. She is a boss at the violin. She just kills it. Because my mom didn’t want us to compete, she moved me over to the cello. I want to have a story that says “This is the instrument for me!” But in recollection, it just sort of happened. So were you classically trained in the cello? I was classically trained… but right now, any classical cellist could kick my ass. I came to school playing only classical music and wanted to branch out and learn new pieces within jazz, folk and r and b genre. The cliché is that on a journey you will leave, find the stretches of the world and end up where you came from realizing that is exactly what you needed. Right now, I’m at a really cool part where I’m able to stop and reevaluate all of the influences that have shaped me throughout my life. I can stop and make music that is true to me. My first instinct is to go back to classical music and try and find a way to infuse those rhythms, chords and colors that I learned before coming to Wes. I’m at a place where I have come to a much, much deeper appreciation of the music because of the different ways I have been able to approach music. So you have seen it, have that taste, and come back? Yesterday, I woke up and I was like, “What’s something at Wesleyan that I have always wanted to do but have never had time to do? I went to Scores and Recordings on the third floor of Olin and just spent hours listening to my favorite recordings. I took out the music and looked at the scores, reading it like literature… reading the literature that I had been read to me when I was little. I found myself sitting in Scores and Recording and just crying. I finally understood how the composers mind works. This is just something I’ve personally been thinking about. How do you feel about the expansion of classical wooden instruments to electrical devices? I think many people have the secret desire to be in a loud band that is rocking out. For the longest time, playing an electric cello was like, “Aw Yeah! That would be so bad ass!” They are definitely cool but for me personally, you loose a lot of the sound. The cello is the closest instrument to the

human voice. With the electric cello, you loose that warm, growly, honey sound. At the same time, I totally feel the frustration of being in a jam session with drums, an electric guitar and electric bass and not being able to be heard. That is frustrating. Luckily, I bought a pick up to plug into an amp to remedy that situation. Is your family musical? Do your parents play any instruments? Mmmm. My family is definitely a huge part of my musical upbringing. My grandmother, on my mother’s side, is 82 and an opera singer. She is just a powerhouse. When she was really young, she begged her father to take her to piano lessons because she wanted to start training. At the time, the war in Taiwan broke out so things were interrupted. She didn’t officially take piano lessons until the age of 60. My mother took a little bit of music lessons in her years. I think there has been an affect where music within my family has grown over time. My mother gave me and my sister the chance to learn and immerse ourselves in music. My dad has also always been a major support. Recently, he has come out of the closet as a secret harmonica player and has been secretly practicing harmonica in his room for years. My family is a very nurturing artistic community in itself. Any concrete plans for the future? Is this truly what you want to do with your life? I need more courage to be able to be real with myself about the fact that, yes, I would love a life of continuing to collaborate and play with other people. It’s scary because we live in a country where the skill and work that goes into art in general isn’t highly appreciated. It’s not going to get you 6 digits any time soon. But, if I didn’t grow up in this era, it would have been so much harder. The Internet has definitely made the ability to share my work infinitely easier. Yes, the Internet has definitely changed the game for fame in general. I think everything is equalizing. Now you can have cats that are YouTube sensations. It seems as though you don’t need the same amount of prestigious background to start making a path for yourself and that’s a blessing. Do you get a chance to perform outside of Middletown? I don’t perform a lot out of Middletown. I feel very spoiled by the music scene at Wesleyan but I guess I’m going to have to

wean myself away from it. Is that your plan? To move to New York? No, I don’t have enough money for New York. I just feel salted every time I go there. A lot of my collaborators are in N.Y., which are mostly Wes alums Would you want to join a record label at any point in the future? At this point in the music industry, I don’t know what that would exactly mean. I would be honored if someone asked me. Jared Paul, who graduated 2 years ago, is a brilliant sound engineer. It’s sort of on the down low but we are in the process of releasing 2 albums, one that will be released some time at the end of the semester and the other next fall. He and I are in a really tight partnership where we’re both growing together to create really high quality albums. At this point, I wouldn’t want to work with anyone else. I’m such a naïve baby when it comes to what it takes to be a sustainable musician. Can you tell me a bit more about the first album you made? What gave you the idea for the title? That album will always be really sacred to me. The process of recording “This Living Room” was similar to falling in love for the first time. Retrospectively, there were aspects of it that were raw and naive, but it had a simplicity and courageousness that I think I have become too self-conscious to achieve again. The first time, I put my all into it and had no expectations for what the experience or repercussions would feel like. My sound and my recording process have definitely grown since that first album, but I think I’ve become too careful. It’s still such an important piece of work to me because it archives exactly where I was my first two years of school. OK we’re on the last question. If you were to collab with any artist, who would it be? Awww, can I have three? Sure. Well, some of them are not that creative but they are the ones that I am super inspired by. Yo Yo. He is someone who just goes out of his classical realm all the time. He’s amazing. Esperanza Spalding. The last one that comes to mind is Justin Vernon. He creates texture and color like no one else I know. Anything else? Well I was going to ask you, what your favorite chocolate? Dark chocolate all the way.

Mel Hsu by: Iman Bright

Will Feinstein by: Kevin Brisco What’s your name? My name is Will Feinstein, aka, Senior Top 40, aka, Mr. Static Stamina (that was a thing maybe), aka, the former baritone voice of Avid American, aka, CHANTS!, aka, William of Adrien featuring William fame, it’s on! How would you describe your music? All of it at once. My music is self-aware and irreverent. I try not to take myself seriously but I take not taking my self seriously, seriously. When did the rap game call you? In eight grade I wrote a rap over get low by Lil Jon and the Eastside Boys. It was a Jewish rap that spawned my first project Lil Will and the Lower Eastside Boys. It spawned two singles, the get low rap, and its follow up Just Snip It. First rap song you heard and vibed to. I don’t know if Linkin Park counts. In the End was my first favorite song in the 5th grade. I also got into Eminem in the 5th grade. The singles, not the albums. Couldn’t get past that parental advisory, First Wes performance A very early incarnation of Static Stamina freshman year. We were not ready to perform. We showed up at WestCo open mike assuming there would be a drum set and of course there wasn’t one. Right as we were about to call it quits, Josh Smith, of Wordsmith offers to beat-box for us. He had no idea what to expect or what we were about. We went into a couple slow renditions of our songs, we played this really offensive Nicole wrote. It’s satirical but… I think we got booed. That was pretty discouraging, but we revamped and came back for battle of the bands and started to have fun. Worst show Had this band called Ovid American. It was a parody band of The National, used to be called The Nationwill. The band itself never clicked quite right and it got serious. We never really put any effort into putting our stuff out or getting it recorded, but it got good and we couldn’t take that next step. So we opened for Yeomen’s Omen, and there were maybe like five people at our set. I was putting on some sort of character and at the very end of the show I was like “thank you so much you were a very respectful audience.” Then the band loses it. That band never had a good show. Best Show Top 40 has always been good. Especially at DKE. One show I remember all of the sweat evaporating, then hitting the ceiling and by the end of the set it was raining down on the crowd. We created our own little water cycle.

First Album you owned Third grade I got a Walkman CD player, and the Arthur Soundtrack. It was great. It had the Binky song. Also my uncle got me Sgt. Peppers, and I got Les Miserables, because... you have to own that. What Wes act would you like to collab with? There’s a lot of Wesleyan DJ’s making music right now that I want to rap over. I’m working with Brewster (IGBEE) on his thesis, Kilbourne and those people are great I’d love to work with them. Top 5 rappers Kendrick Lamar, obviously, best person rapping right now. Chief Keef, because its raw,its raw as shit. Wakka Flocka, because I love energy, he can make you yell the most complicated of phrases with him, Kanye West, he’s a genius, like David Bowie in his use of personas, and Earl Sweatshirt. Gotta throw a shout out to Lil’ B the based god he definitely represents a lot of what I like in rap music and music in general. Not taking yourself too seriously. Top 5 Bands Bomb the Music Industry, Pulp, Pulp is good, Arcade Fire, David Bowie, I’m on a huge Bowie kick lately. And ummm yeah, Pulp, we’ll just go with Pulp. Biggest influences I’d have to say Ska was pretty integral to my original music taste. Not so much in sound as it was in attitude. I know everything about Ska there is to know. It doesn’t take it’s self too seriously and I like that. What’s Hartford’s #1 for Hip Hop and RnB? HOT 93.7! Shout outs! I wanna shout out to my housemates (Background: Shout out the PU$$Y PALACE!) I’m not shouting that out. Shout out to everyone who’s helped out and allowed me to work on these projects. And anyone who’s ever come to a show (Background: Too Serious!!) I don’t know! That’s genuine! I can get sincere about all these great people that I’m happy to work with. So, yeah, thank you and thank you for putting up with me.

Mark Bennett

Where are you from? What type of music are you into? I’m from Oakland, California. I’ve gone through musical phases. I grew up listening to generic rock whatever was on radio, which morphed into more like punk and sky bands. I was really into that up through high school and then in high school I started getting more into jazzy hip-hop type stuff. At Wesleyan I’ve been exposed to more world music. I’ve pulled from a lot of different areas.

by: Kyle Somersall

Who are you listening to on your ipod right now? Right now, like what I was listening to two minutes before I came here, Hiatus Kaiyote, which is this band that I just got put onto—they’re really dope.

What musical acts are you a part of at Wesleyan? I do a lot of different stuff. For singing I sing in the new group a coed a capella group. Then I also do some singing for senior theses. And I did a graduate senior thesis this year for Brian Park’s thesis so that was awesome. For drumming, I’ve been drumming since freshman year in bones complex. That was my first band and we still play. Since then and a little more recently I joined the taste, which is a punk soul band on campus. And I’ve also drummed with the freestyle collective And I’ve also taken west African drumming as a class here. What do you enjoy most while performing. Singing or the drums? To be honest I feel more comfortable performing on drums. I grew up as a singer but I never did singing in a serious way, especially in any band lead singer or solo type of way. I was in choirs and things like that. Singing was more something I did in church growing up and something I just did for fun. So in terms of performing in front of groups of people who are there to watch you I’m more comfortable drumming but I definitely enjoy both Do you have a favorite type of music you like to drum? I love playing funk. Straight-head-funklike-soul is a lot of fun in terms of playing with others and performing. That’s what a lot of my projects entail. I’ve been improving on playing more reggae oriented stuff. Bones Complex did some reggae [pieces]. Andrew Pfeiffer writes a lot of our tunes and he’s a big reggae influence, so he’s been an influence on me in terms of my drumming and learning to play in that style. I definitely started learning drums playing straight head rock like green day and other Bay area bands that do rock-oriented stuff. Are there any big drummers that influence you or any types of drumming that you want to experiement with in the future There are so many amazing drummers. It’s like a little musical cult in terms of being a part of the drumming world. Biggest influence right now I think would be my drum teacher, Bill Carbone. I take lessons with him on campus. I’ve been taking lessons with him since sophomore year. In terms of more famous guys, Chris Dave plays in the Robert Glasper experiement and a bunch of other jazz/hip-hop oriented groups, he’s definitely one of the guys I watch the most.

Do you play any other instruments or are there any instruments you wish you played? There’s so many instruments I wish I played. I don’t consider myself performance ready on any other instruments if that’s the bar we want to use. But I always wish I played a more melodic instrument--saxaphone or something like that. But drumming and singing I stick with those for the most part. Have you ever thought about making your own solo stuff? I had never really done anything like that until this year when I did my senior project and I just did that at the end of March— earlier in the semester. And that was the first time I had written for a group of other musicians and taken a band leader approach. Prior to that it had always been collaborative—everyone sitting in the same room and piecing things together. It was definitely a good experience to write for others, and it’s something I don’t consider myself having a knack for, but it’s something I want to improve on because if nothing else it helps you learn how speak to other musicians. You’re apart of a lot of musical acts. Do you have a stage name that you go by? No. Mark Bennett. You didn’t live in the bay your whole life, right? Well, I was born there and lived there my whole life except for 2 years when I lived in Middletown, Colorodo. So I left for two years to go to Colorodo and then I came back Did either of those two places have an influence on your music? I would say Colorodo not so much. I dodn’t really do much music wise there. I was only 7 so I hadn’t started playing drums yet. Definietely the Bay area had a huge influence musically. Growing up through elemenatary and middle school and listening to what people were into locally. There’s a pretty prominenet local music scence in terms of going to see live shows of kids that were my age. We had a great venue nearby of kids that were in middle school and high school who could play at a pretty legit venue. Any artists in particular? The Matches were a big artist for me in elementary school. They’re not around anymore. They were like an antsy rock Waves Magazine

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band that I was really into in elementary school. Two of the members went to my elementary school and then they were from the local high school...I didn’t really start performing seriously until I got here, so I think benefitted from just listening and playing really informally with those people that I admired a lot. Are there any performances that you’ve done at Wes that have stood out to you? It’s hard. I’ve done a lot. I think early on when I was playing with Bones freshman year. Josh Smith’s band, concert G’s, we opened for them a couple times. Playing with them was awesome because all of the musicians in that band were incredible and they were great about supporting us. I think very fondly of those shows. Were you nervous? Oh yeah, I’m always nervous Even now? Yeah. I mean I guess less so now but I’ve become comfortable playing around wes a little more. I think as soon as I go an play anywhere else I get those same nerves back. Has wes influenced your music at all? Absolutely. Definitely from a world music perspective. I started learning drum set in 8th grade and then throughout high school. I really didn’t do much outside of jazz and straighhead rock. Coming here, there’s such a huge world music influence from the music program. Being a music major I’m exposed to those types of musics. I was able to explore bringing African rythms and latin rhythms and drumming from all different parts of the world onto a set. And just in terms of the different type of people that are at Wes. The different music that they’re into and a lot of more progressive, indie and hip hop oriented stuff that I had never done before. Can we expect anything from you music wise in the future or is there anything that you want to experiement with? I definitely want to keep music in my life. I don’t think at this point it’s going to be what I rely on to feed myself. Hopefully that’ll keep the stress factor low and keep the fun aspect of it up. But yeah I definitely want to be a drummer and a singer for the rest of my life, so hopefully postWes I’ll continue to expand and meet new people that I want to play with.

Danny Sullivan

by: Kyle Somersall

Where are you from and what music are you involved in on campus? I’m from Brooklyn, New York. I’m involved in a couple bands on campus. I’m involved in the top 40 cover band, Static stamina and then various other little projects. Mostly playing guitar and bass and then I’d a lot of solo production stuff and electronic music, music for films. Kind of whatever I feel like doing Really cool. Do you prefer any of those over others and are you looking to do more of something? I really like playing in bands. I think it’s really fun. I don’t know if I plan on playing in bands anymore after college. I think right now I plan on focusing more on doing film music stuff. Maybe making generic film music and there are websites where you can post that and then people purchase it. You mentioned that you played some instruments. You want to talk a little about those instruments? If you also want you can specify what instruments you play in your different bands. In play bass in the top 40 cover band formerly guitar. I play guitar in static stamina, which is just a ridiculous, silly band I started with a couple other people freshman year. I tend to prefer to play rhythm guitar because when I’m playing live I like to kind of play in the moment and not really have to worry much about what I’m playing So if I’m just stringing chords and not playing anything too precise. At top 40 shows I used to sort of be just a supplemental guitarist I didn’t always need to be playing so there were songs where I could just put my guitar down and party with the audience so that’s super fun I like having that kind of flexibility in my playing So you’re also making movie scores So what’s your approach to making one of those? I’m kind of figuring that out now. I’m doing the score for 2 different senior thesis films and for both of those It’s been a process of sitting down with the director a bunch and just figuring out professional movie scores we like and then trying to imitate that but also trying to do something new with it. One thing I’ve been doing is my current ambient, electronic music thing. It’s called StairF. I like to write these vague ambient things that could be used as a soundtrack to something. So actually dan nas and peter skeli were seniors that just made a series over the summer where they filmed various crafts people and they contacted me asking if they could use one of my songs as a soundtrack to a video. So I’m kind of hoping that sort of thing happens—where I make songs that could be sountracks and then people want to use them as soundtracks. Are there any particular artists that influence you with your guitar stuff or your movies scores? Pretty much all of the music I write is very similar to whatever I’m listening to at the time. I have a tendency to get obsessed with an artist and then try an imitate them as much as possible. Right now I’m really into the flaming lips and I’ve been kind of writing stuff along those lines. But then also I’m listening to a lot of trap music right now and trying to figure out how to make dance tracks. So it changes a lot. I know that you also produce for a couple of your friends so is that process any different than making the movie scores? Yeah it’s slightly different. I work a lot with the same people so I get really used to working with them in particular. But the rock music that I’ve made—the bands I’m in that have original music—I’ve always produced and I was interested in rock production, recording rock bands, before I was interested in electronic music so it kind of transition out of that. I got used to the idea of being the person that does the recording and mixing so when I switched to mostly doing electronic stuff I just kept doing that. Has being from Brooklyn influenced your music at all? Less than I think it should’ve. I didn’t go to shows all that often in high school. I didn’t really experience the Brooklyn music scene all that much. But now, after having been at Wesleyan for a while, I’ve been going to shows in Brooklyn a lot more over breaks. It’s a little weird that I came from Brooklyn but only started checking out the Brooklyn music scene after going to Wesleyan. It is really cool to have all of these shows around all the time.

I think that’s one of the cool things about Brooklyn specifically. There are all of these really cool small venues that people play at. I feel that in the city you have to have much more of following to play shows. My 17 year old brother, who is in a Punk band, plays shows in Brooklyn all the time. Have you guys collabed on anything? Not yet. I’m sure it’s coming at some point. He wanted to do this whole thing himself. He’s getting into recording his stuff as well so I’m all in favor of that—he wants to learn. Has Wes Influenced your music at all? Absolutely. I think my music tastes have changed a lot since coming to Wesleyan. I have always tried to get into as many different kinds of music as possible being here in particular really expanded my music tastes and gave me a lot more things I wanted to try to make. And also being around so many other musicians it was never hard for me to put together a band here. There are just so many other people that play instruements and want to be involved. So that’s the great thing I think about Wesleyan’s music scene Are there any shows that’s are highlight for you? Yeah, we had a top 40 cover band show on my birthday this year. I’d never stage dived before and so at some point during the show the whole band stopped and made me stage dive because it was my birthday so that was pretty fun. All of those shows we usually play at dke and it ends up really hot and sweaty and crazy and fun. Freshman and Sophomore year we played a bunch of shows at music house, which is a really tiny room. Those were memorable because the crowd was always too big for the room and nobody could move, so the crowd was always getting pushed back and falling over the drum kit but it was definitely an experience Is there anything that you want to experiement with musically? Any direction you’re thinking about taking your music? Yeah, I want to keep doing ambient stuff. Like I mentioned before I want to get into doing trap music and things like that. One thing that I like doing is figuring out how to make various kinds of music. I really like imitating things. I do want to keep doing that. I’m sure I’ll get into some genre of music that I haven’t heard yet and want to do that too. I do plan on moving away from rock music and moving more into electronic stuff for the time being. You mentioned one band but are there any other artists on your ipod right now that you’re listening to a lot? I’ve been listening to a lot of Purity Ring recently. Also Ultra Novoire makes really cool solo stuff. That’s all I can think of off the top of my head. Do you have any music plans after wes? Anything that you want to do any people that you want to collab with? I figure I’ll keep occasionally collaborating with the same people that I collaborated with here. There’s a singer-songwriter I know in New York who I’ve been planning on working with for a while. Having a producer and vocalist duo I think would be pretty cool and that’s something I haven’t really done before. I plan on working a job that isn’t music for now and just doing music in my free time. Letting it be a hobby for now and see where that goes. Is there any last thing you want to say about the development of your music or how music has impacted you? I just think music has been such a big part of what I’ve loved about Wesleyan. I think it’s such a nurturing music scene. I haven’t been as involved in the last two years, but when I first started here it was so easy to get involved and get shows and I imagine it still is.

Bobby Burvant by: Jay Sharma

Tell me a little bit about your thesis. Well, it’s sort of a two-part thing. There’s a paper portion and a recital portion. The recital is more or less music that I’ve written in the last year—rock music, blues music, jazz music, a few cover songs. The paper is a music theory analysis of Eliot Smith’s music and what it means to me as a song writer. The concert is going up the weekend after spring break and it’s with quite a few other really talented musicians. And you’re playing guitar? That’s right. You mentioned Eliot Smith. Would you say he’s a big influence on your music? Yes. I didn’t get into his music until I was a freshman here at Wesleyan, but I sort of assumed—and I get into this more in my paper—that a lot of the hype surrounding him is based on, well, his suicide, his lyrics, and just his genre of singer/songwriter weepy music. What struck me was how original his chord changes were, just his song structures really blew my mind—his production style, all these things that I didn’t associate with him before I listened to him just hit me over the head and made me realize that this was a really special, transcendent songwriter. Who would you say some of your other big influences are? Aw man, I hate talking about this, but you know, as a grade school guitarist it was definitely Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, and Eric Clapton. More recently, it’s been songwriters like Beck, and producers like Flying Lotus, Daedelus, even Brian Eno. I’d have to say the band King Crimson has always been a huge influence on my music. Also, other wacky, progressive people like Frank Zappa have always guided the direction I’ve tried to go musically. Lets see, there’s a big influence of King Crimson, who kind of moved forward this idea of interlocking guitars, rhythmic displacement with guitars, trying to make guitars sound like a Gamelan (traditional Indonesian Orchestra) basically. There’s a big influence of the classical music I’ve been into recently. Particularly with the vocals and the guitars, I’ve tried to go for this sort of counterpoint between two singers and two guitars at the same time, so that there’s this sort of rhythmic interlocking, even within these soulful, bluesy melodies. It has almost a spiritual tinge to it that I would compare to eastern styles.

So when did you start making music? I started playing guitar when I was twelve years old, and I started making music when I was fourteen. I was displaced from New Orleans for a few months because of Hurricane Katrina, and one of the only things I took with me aside from a few days worth of clothes was a guitar. During the few months I was out of New Orleans, I wrote so many shitty little melodies and chords progressions, and I started to realize that I could write music and could definitely express what I was feeling through music. And it certainly was always a good way to pass the time. So, from that time until now, do you think your music style has changed drastically? Drastically, yeah. In what direction? I mean, I’ve definitely become a much better guitarist, but I’ve also started listening to more and more music that doesn’t have guitar in it. I think that’s really important. I love classical music, solo piano music, jazz music that doesn’t have guitar in it, and electronic music that’s written with a synthesizer and a computer. Getting into indie music, particularly bands like Radiohead, made me realize that you don’t need a guitar to make great rock music, or great pop music, or original music, even if a guitar is your instrument. Being able to think outside of that is very liberating. Do you plan to continue making music and releasing albums after graduating? Yeah, I plan to start releasing albums, more like it. All I want to do after school is make music and do what I want. I’ll have a lot more free time after this, and I want to be prolific with it. So before this we were talking about the music scene at Wesleyan right now. How would you say the music scene here and the other musicians here have influenced you? Again with the not needing to play guitar. I was really turned off at first at how much goes into the scene here that is not performative, in my case, like playing guitar in front of a bunch of people. But I was really happy to learn all the things that can be done outside of just playing and making music, whether it was joining the sound co-op and learning how to make a live show work, or trying to book shows— just the whole process. I think the future for independent artists is going to be about having this well rounded ability to see the politics of making shows happen. It’s not just politics, saying that would be to downplay it. It’s so important to know how to deal with all of the logistics of the musical process, and I think Wesleyan does a great job of preparing students for that. Yeah, totally. For one, students have to book all of the shows. That’s a very cool thing about this place. For my last question, what advice do you have for an aspiring musician that still has three years left at this school? “Play whatever you want here. Don’t worry about what the music scene here is like, just get way into what you’re happy with, and that is what will make other people happy. I think the happier you are with what your producing, the happier people will be with it. Be prolific. Try everything out. Play some shitty tunes, and then play some great tunes.”

Brewster Lee by: Michael Lyn So, where are you from originally? I’m from Boston, I was born in Newton. I went to boarding school, which sucked, so I haven’t really lived at home for a while. I don’t know. I don’t know what else. So like, you get less caught up in trends? You kind of do your own thing? I’m mainly focusing on finding my own, I don’t know, not sound, since there’s a lot of stuff like mine, but working on stuff that I feel comfortable with. I used to not really listen to dance music at all, but at first I was super into Ratatat, Pretty lights, the Go team, shit like that. I guess that stuff helped because it was removed from the dance sphere. I guess that was more about the “song” as a “song”, less about the beat. People here are more interested with techno synths, dance songs, and that like really opened me up into a whole new side of music, which really helped. I feel like dubstep has run its course, especially post-Skrillex winning a Grammy. I guess that’s how it goes with music, people get bored very quickly. I feel like there’s only a certain length that these trends can last because someone else is just gonna come up with something new. What’s the next new thing then? I don’t know. Some R&B shit? Slower stuff. I feel like dubstep was the climax of intense. Trap was the head nodding thing. I’d love to see this trend blossom. This slower stuff. When did you get you started with music and what got you started? I don’t know. My parents were always into it. They don’t actually play music, but they’ve always been into it. My mom really liked soul shit, Talking heads, Earth Wind & Fire. I’ve been listening to it forever. It wasn’t until I came to Wesleyan that I realized you could actually, like, really study it. It wasn’t just like a child prodigy thing. It’s not the easy way out for me. I wasn’t making shit before Wesleyan. I guess the summer before I got here I started experimenting with logic and whatever. The spring of my senior year me and my friends played “DJ” at a party. Just as like a joke, nothing serious. It wasn’t until Wesleyan that I realized people really take this seriously. I guess since I’ve gotten here it’s really taken over for me. For me it’s been a steep and quick uprising. There’s a really good scene here too- I remember going to a couple raves my fresh year and I watched this kid, Sam Lyons ( ’12, Cybergiga), and it wasn’t the standard dance show, some people were off put by it but a lot of people really liked it too, and I don’t know, seeing people down with that I got excited. So I bought Ableton. I learned from people who had already been using it. Trial and error status, haha. So what happened to Paradise Stomp? That was your old name, right? Yeah uh. I don’t really know what happened. I guess it was just like a transition. Paradise stomp was long, people would fuck it up. Even my parents would get it wrong. Like my aunt would say “Oh man, I love Paradise Stream!” But that name comes from the homie Chris Lee (‘13), we worked on a ranch in Paradise, Montana. This small bread and breakfast thing. That’s

where it came from. But Paradise Stomp was more like making remixes of really popular songs, playing frat parties and stuff. I think IGBEE is more like, me being like, you know, lets get a little more serious. Spend less time playing some frat show, spend more time making music. Making my little niche, making stuff I like to make. Just getting more serious. So then what’s IGBEE? Just a random name? It’s a reference to Igby Goes Down (movie). It has a great soundtrack, you should check it out. Two reasons it’s with two Es- one, the name was already taken on bandcamp. So there was that. Two, I have this thing about people messing up my name. Like they would say, “Ig- bye?”. But I guess with IGBEE it’s something different. Bottom line, the name change was like, out with the old paradise stomp. And with changing your name, I guess it’s also easier to introduce a new sound. That coupled with people calling it paradise stream, storm. People always got paradise right though…

I’m loving the evolution. So do you have any upcoming projects? You talked a little bit about the Holloway EP. Yeah the next one is to just come out at some point. It was planned to come out before SYGYZY was even an idea. I don’t know if it will ever even come to fruition. Hopefully I put some of it out. It might not be the same as what I thought of though. The next projects will just be like, the Holloway EP of course, and I’m trying to work with Cybergiga. There’s also this rapper, Evan Okun (’13) and Eric Wilson(’15), I sent them 9 hip-hop instrumentals I made a week ago. I’m doing the same with this guy named kid SOLO. He asked me if I wanted to produce some stuff for him. I think it’s cool. His mantra is like “raps about buying cannabis, smoking cannabis, selling cannabis, and fucking your mom”. Also this girl named, Ryan Diaz-toppen (’14, taking a semester off). She’s the creator of this collective that I put my stuff out with. There’s two other dudes, Murals, and OBEYcity, I thought it was pronounced obey-city but it’s pronounced obesity- so sick, and Murals is from Berklee college of music, and this dude Chaz-van queen, this rap dude, he has a track with Kool A.D., he’s das-racist esque, I don’t know. I can play it… Dope. Yeah so, nothing concrete. Just trying to make as much as I can. A single song, another mini-EP, who knows? Oh, and I’m also working with my roommate, Alex Lough (’13), we’re gonna have something with like electronics with a processed guitar, maybe vocals, I don’t know. All right dude, it was great talking to you. Have any closing shout outs? Um… Shouts out to Guy U. Shouts out to everyone at Wesleyan. Closing thoughts… I don’t know. Like…uh… Live and just fuckin’’… take advantage to all the cool stuff going on. A lot of kids are doing cool shit. It doesn’t have to be artistic, or music, or anything. Go to shows; listen to this dude G Jones. Super Cool.

From DMX to Mykki Blanco by: Djibril Sall

rowing up in a area dominated by the Hip Hop culture, I often heard the word faggot dropped in rhymes from booming stereos. The neighborhood boys, in bright sneakers, would congregate around neon orange cars with spinners and booming bass and they would nod their heads to homophobic lyrics, unaware to the influences of the rap they were listening to. Hip Hop is a contradictory subculture. It is a culture of hyper masculinity, yet it derives its core from fringe elements that eschew heteronormativity–House, Bounce, and Disco are all genres that were seen as radical and underground during their early stages because they blur the line between gender roles. The nascent Gay Movement mirrored the rise of Hip Hop within the USA and both included defiance to authority and relentless questioning of entrenched, mainstream values as defining characteristics. However, the paradox of Hip Hop consists of its excess homophobia despite the obvious influences of queer culture on its development. For years, gay slamming and derogatory usage of the F-word has been and still is an accepted practice within Hip Hop. Even as the LGBTQIA movement has become more mainstream, Hip Hop has been slow to change as evidenced by the rise of “No Homo” and “Pause”, terms used to dispel homosexual connotations when something “gay” is said. So, the default reaction of the Hip Hop heads to rappers that embrace the queer culture is, “this is so weird and new” when people should be saying, “fucking finally”. Rappers acknowledging the influence of queer culture on their work is very new to a plurality of the public. Until recently, there really hasn’t been any overt endorsement of the LGBTQIA community and there certainly hasn’t been any catering towards them. However, a new breed of rappers, predominately originat-

Even as the LGBTQIA movement has become more mainstream, Hip Hop has been slow to change as evidenced by the rise of “No Homo” and “Pause”, terms used to dispel homosexual connotations when something “gay” is said.

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ing from New York City, have emerged as cultural pillars to a new generation of queer youth. Take the soundscape of Azealia Banks. It is filled with raucous House influ-

ences in perfect harmony with the traditional heavy bass of Hip Hop. She makes no secret that a large chunk of her fanbase are young gay males and she has been hailed as a high fashion goddess, an industry that is constantly at odds with heteronormative values. Her track, “Fierce”, is obviously influenced by drag culture as she features a “fierce” drag queen to drop sassy lines and to perform the hook and bridge of the song. Another track, “Ima Read”, is a remix of Zebra Katz’s “Ima Read”, a song that pays homage to voguing and the 1990 documentary on ball culture, “Paris is Burning”. Katz’s video for “Ima Read” itself embodies characteristics of the emerging queer rap in that it demands stylistic expression independent of mainstream culture while still being very enjoyable for the average person to listen to. And to add to our list, our own Wes Alum, Le1f, has produced House infused beats for Hip Hop act Das Racist’s most famous song, “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell”. Le1f has ventured into rapping, releasing his own viral hit, “Wut”, a song that leaves no listener guessing what his sexual orientation is and features him dancing on the lap of another man. He, just like many of the queer/queer friendly rappers here, produces a sound in his mixtape, Dark York, that is very much ahead of the stylistic curve. In that, Le1f demands artistic recognition. However, as progressive as all three fore mentioned artists are, the pinnacle of Hip Hop’s contradiction is trans rapper Mykki Blanco. I don’t even know whether to refer to Mykki as he, she, or ze—she (I will refer to Waves Magazine

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her with the feminine pronoun for the sake of coherence) seems like an amalgamation of genders in her music, channeling her feminine sexuality while still exuding the masculinity demanded by Rap culture. At times it can seem like two different people are rapping on the same track but their similarities are close enough that a cohesive personality is formed. Armed with a fierce tongue and a high fashion entourage, Mykki has taken the NYC cypher circuit by storm and is being noticed while simultaneously enthralling music heads across the country with her recent mixtape, Cosmic Angel: The Illuminati Prince/ss. There has always been the question of whether Hip Hop will ever have queer rappers. Well here they are and at this point, it’s not a matter of whether Hip Hop is ready for them, but a matter of whether Hip Hop can adapt to them. Times are changing; the new generation of neighborhood boys are rocking skinny jeans as well as progressive outlooks, and the old homophobic sentiment is beginning to fade. These rappers are making waves, and the power of the internet has amplified their power to create and influence.

FRESHLEYAN WAVES

by: Stephanie Loui photos by: Sydney Lowe

Style and genre, self-expression, spectacle, innovation. All of these become interchangeable when applied to the creativity that drives both music and fashion forward. With both industries striving to thrive, it is thus unsurprising that the two inevitably collide, converse, and create. Music and fashion have a longstanding marriage that has produced such mutant offspring as the conical bra, the knee-high platform, and hammer pants to name a few. More importantly though, the relationship signifies the ever-evolving climate of creative inspiration and the ways in which we internalize and synthesize the world around us. In collaboration with Freshleyan, a student-run fashion and photography blog, we asked students to show us how music and fashion come together in their everyday styles. Through a series of interviews and photoshoots, we present to you the first (hopefully of many) FRESHLEYAN X WAVES collaboration.

Camila Recalde

hours anyways when you head to bed. I’m attuned to the feel of fabric though. Contrasting textures are my favorite things to play around with. Influences and Inspiration (Fashion wise): Traveling influences me the most. Art and history too, though. You can get wildly creative when you’re limited to the random clothing packed in a suitcase. I’m also pretty fascinated in the endless ways people choose to cover up their nudity around the globe. You gotta present yourself to please yourself. I spend a lot of time in the Caribbean and Mexico, so I see that directing the majority of my preferences. The hues and patterns in those cultures are just jammed with this pulsing vibrancy. I love it. But my inspirations are always shifting. After I came back from collecting Hopi folktales in the southwest last year, all I wore was crocodile-skin cowboy boots and suede vests. Everything’s just a phase. I’m always down in jewelry. The majority of it is handmade from the people I’ve met when traveling, so I can remember stories on my fingers and around my neck. I’ve been making and selling tons of jewelry around the country for years, so I also wear a lot if these days. I literally never take my jewelry off. They’re basically extensions of my body by now.

Favorite Artist: (I don’t have one, but currently digging Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside) Genre: Rock & Roll/ Rockabilly Album: Dirty Radio Song: I Swear How you describe your style: printed layering/ western/ comfy/ awkwardly noisy jewelry/ just tryna do that animal pattern/ semi-polished/ leathery. I have a preference patterns/colors that run complicated scales on the optic nerve. That’s due to my aversion to minimalism. Sometimes I’ll just be pleased if I end up resembling a walking optical illusion. I tend to wait till the last minute and grab things in a panic before I have to leave. It’s nice not to think a lot about it. It’s all coming off in a few

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Who do you think is a trendsetter in the music industry: Jesse Boykins III. He’s not just dipping himself in music but extending into some interdisciplinary abyss. Boykins is attempting to spearhead the Romantic Movement, which is a collective of New York-centric poets, rappers, musicians and singers who assemble together over a philosophy centered on the importance of natural romance carried through music. He’s got this resonant and assuasive voice that tries to translate a pure notion of love’s universality. Zulu Guru, his newest album, is shaped by his appreciation for both East Asian and South African ancient cultural practices. On top of music, he’s also shooting a documentary on women and what to learn from them. He’s done global trotting, interviewing women from the ages of 18-64. His style is great. I’ve got a massive crush on him. Who you follow both or either, as an artist and fashion icon/influence/inspiration: Fatima Robinson, the choreographer, just always looks so fly. Frida Kahlo doing her thing/ Clint Eastwood in spaghetti westerns. Volume II

Derick Beresford

Blaise Krebs

Favorite Musical Artist(s): My favorite musical artists right now are Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake, and Drake. I really respect their approach to music and they rarely fall short of expectations when it comes to albums.

Favorite Musical Artist: Dr. Dog or The Smiths

Genre: Hip Hop/ Rap Album: Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool. I’m a big Lupe fan, but his label issues has hurt his creativity a lil in my opinion.

Song: can’t pick

Song(s): With the amount of music available today and all the different genres, its basically impossible to just pick one. To answer this question, I have to go with the top plays on the iPod and those are “Say Something” - Drake, “Heard Em Say” - Kanye West and “Money Trees” - Kendrick Lamar. Ask me another day and it will be completely different lol. How would you describe your style in two words: Perfectly Weird! Influences and Inspiration: Kanye West and Pharrell Williams Who do you think is a trendsetter in the music industry: Definitely the two guys I just mentioned and more recently A$AP Rocky has been a trendsetter in the music industry fashion scene. Waves Magazine

Genre: Indie (Alternative)/Punk/Hip-Hop/witch house Album: Easy Beat by Dr. Dog

How you describe your style: I’ve never described my style before but I’ll list some words that come to mind. Post-punk, hipster, grunge, glam. Your influences and inspiration (Fashion wise): Lizzy Maguire, Gwen Stefani, Brooke Candy, Alice Glass, Claire Boucher, Kurt Cobain, and Anthony Keidis. Who do you think is a trendsetter in the music industry: Brooke Candy, MIA, Grimes. Who do you follow both or either as a musician; artist and fashion icon/influence/inspiration: All of the women listed above plus my friend Eve Kendall ‘16.

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Derrick Holman and your story and still make your mark on the world, and that’s why I have always had great respect for him as an artist and a person. Album: In My Mind by Pharrel Williams. Classic. Oh, and the Black Album. Song(s): Right now, I’ve had “Horchata” off Contra by Vampire Weekend and “Juice” by Chance the Rapper on repeat. Of all time, “Public Service Announcement” by Shawn Carter. How you describe your style: My style is very eclectic and bi-coastal - if that makes sense. I used to try to wear really baggy clothes in like sixth grade because all the rappers were wearing baggy jeans and fitted hats and Bape gear so that was basically what I emulated (huuuge mistake, haha). Then my mom moved to California, and I got into skating pretty heavily and the skaters out there were wearing skinny jeans and vans, basically the complete opposite, so I got into that for a while. In high school I started to get more into fashion and going to fashion week in New York and reading fashion magazines and blogs which influenced me a lot too. I’d say now my style is just a mixture of all those different influences, and I grew up by no means poor, but definitely not wealthy either so people that know me know I’m a huge thrift shopper. Macklemore kind of ruined that for me though, haha. Favorite Genre: I’m from the South Bronx, so I grew up surrounded by hip-hop influences as a kid, and though I love music and I like to experiment with new genres and be open to a lot of different things, I’ll always be a hiphop enthusiast at heart. I honestly believe hip-hop is so much more than just music. It’s such a unique culture and has done so much to influence society and bring cultures together regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, you name it. A lot of people pigeonhole hip-hop and rap music as a representation of ignorance and the “ghetto” or “street” mentality--that does admittedl--exist but there is also a culture that address many of the dynamic and important issues of our time and serves as a cultural outlet for creative expression and intellectual analysis. Favorite Artist(s): The first musical artist I ever fell in love with was Jay-Z, and I don’t say love frivolously. As a young black kid that came from the projects selling crack to eventually becoming a multi-millionaire recording artist and businessman, Jay-Z to me captures and embodies that quintessential “rags to riches” American Dream narrative in a way that very few people have ever done, period. Besides having an affinity for his music, I saw him from an early age as living proof that you can stay true to yourself

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Who do you think is a trendsetter in the music industry: Obviously, the first name that comes to mind just from a hip-hop stand point would be Kanye West, strictly because he is responsible for bringing a lot of trends to the mainstream. From following trends in the fashion world and looking at blogs, you’ll see a bunch of bloggers and fashion pioneers wearing styles long before he does, but he definitely brings them to the public eye and puts his own spin on trends, which I definitely respect. I’d still say the way he transcends styles so effortlessly makes him one of the best dressed men out there because not many can do it. Your influences and inspirations (fashion/music wise): Pharrell Williams taught me how to dress. The guy can pull off anything. Literally anything. I also respect Andre 3000, Kid Cudi, Elvis Costello, Justin Timberlake, and Theophilus London for their respective styles. Anything you want to add or I forgot to ask: Big ups to Waves Mag and Freshleyan for the profile pictures, my facebook was getting stale, haha.

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Zammuto performing @ Eclectic Photo by Nicole Okai

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GANGNAM STYLE AND THE K O R E A N W A V E:

THE EVOLUTION OF KOREAN POP MUSIC by: Ryan Moye

ecently, I decided to go Roller Skating with my friends in Middletown. While on the rink, fumbling my way around the oval of skating teens and children, I was completely surprised to hear “Gangnam Style” start playing on the sound system, right after “We Are Never Getting Back Together” by Taylor Swift, and before “The Cha Cha Slide” by Willie Perry. It’s pretty astounding, when you look at how Korean Music has permeated not only the United States, but also the entire world. This phenomenon, commonly referred to as “The Korean Wave” or Hallyu, has become a big topic on many music programs and talk shows, especially after the mainstream success of Psy’s “Gangnam Style”. The reason why this trend is so interesting is because, usually, western musicians, predominantly those

from the United States, are known to become internationally best selling artists and permeate the music cultures of other nations. The fact that Korean Music has become so much more popular and ubiquitous in the United States is impressive. Korean Pop music as we know it today began to form in the late 19th century, as Christian missionaries came to Korea, bringing hymns which introduced the native people to western music styles that would later become very important to the development of popular Korean music throughout the 20th century. During Japanese colonial rule in Korea from 1910-1945, music styles that were notably Korean and promoted Korean nationalism were highly controlled by the colonial Japanese government and more western and Japanese influWaves Magazine

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enced styles became more prevalent. Trot was a product of this era. Trot or t’urot’u stems from the shortening of the name “foxtrot” and is widely refereed to as the first style of Korean pop music. The western influences in Korean music are quite apparent when comparing traditional, heterophonic Korean folk music to the lilting, melodic sounds of Trot. Artists, such as Lee Nan-Young were very popular during this time. As Japanese colonial power in Korea slowly waned and then was removed from Japan after World War II, the Yuhaengga or “fashionable music” style in Korea also evolved. After Japanese colonial power left, America, as per usual, saw an open niche and claimed it, thusly starting an American colonial power in Korea. Koreans, in an attempt to appeal to American

tastes, started to adopt more western styles of music, and performed for American troops on military bases. One product of this new style, which was heavily influenced by 60’s “rock-and-roll,” is The Kim Sisters who are also the daughters of Lee Nan-Young. The Kim Sisters, who styled themselves after other popular American female groups, such as The McGuire Sisters, made one of their biggest international breaks in America when they made an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. In the wake of mainstream artists such as The Kim Sisters, other performers, such as the Korean rock (ROK) Legend Shin JoongHyun and folk rocker Hahn DaeSoo, who took great influence from Western Music, became successful in the 70’s and late 80’s. It wasn’t long until the 90’s, when popular act: Seo Taiji & The Boys introduced Rap and Hip-Hop to mainstream Korean Music, that K-Pop started to the massive enterprise we are familiar with today. Promoting youth empowerment and youth talent, he became a herald of the “New Generation,” which became very important to the development of contemporary idol pop music in Korea. Simultaneously, this new generation began embracing a “nouveau riche” lifestyle in places like Gangnam District, where artists like Psy are from. Clearly, we see this reflected in Psy’s music styles through popular songs like “Gangnam Style.” In the mid to late 90’s, huge record labels started to arise, beginning with SM Entertainment. These huge companies became the foundation for producing the idol K-pop we are familiar with today. Earlier idol groups and solo acts, such as H.O.T., Rain, NRG and 6kies. These new idol groups started to grab not only the attention of younger audiences, but foreign audiences, such as Japan, China, Europe, Ireland and Africa. Leading into the 20th century, “idol” K-pop started to solidify itself into a widely marketed Korean export and artists, such as Girls’ Generation and DBSK (TVXQ) started to cross the pacific ocean into America, appearing on talk shows and programs, in the late

2010’s. Mainstream western success of Korean music is due, by a large degree, to the Korean industries ability to create a product that is easy to digest and relatively simple to market in the U.S. with catchy hooks and themes of love that are easily digest, even when the lyrics are in Korean. Their style is actually not so different from the style of artists like Justin Beiber, where each single isn’t too different from the last, yet they are just catchy enough and just different enough to keep the audience entertained. It is also important to note that the image of the artist is just as important, if not more important than the music itself, and is a huge part of the artist or group’s success. Most recently, due to the breakout success of Psy’s “Gangnam Style” just last year, Korean pop music became a household name. Now, it’s practically impossible to go anywhere or listen to a popular radio station without hearing “Gangnam Style” at least once. I think it’s safe to say that Korean music is going to have a greater western audience from now on, so don’t be surprised if you see big acts like SHINee or B2ST (BEAST) headlining tours at Madison Square Garden and the Staples Center. Recently, groups such JYJ have been seen collaborating with artists, such as Kanye West on songs, and have been getting a lot more attention from western mainstream artist. How could we forget last New Years Eve, when Psy was a featured act of NYC’s Ball Drop, or his appearance on the 2013 Grammy’s. The miraculous journey of Korean popular music out of the ashes of colonialism and into the spotlight of mainstream media has resulted in this completely novel and welcome dynamic in international music in the states.

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Volume II

SPOKEN WORD RAP

nyone who knows me knows that the two greatest loves in my life are Spoken Word and Rap/Hip Hop music. So you can imagine the joy I felt when I began to notice that music and Spoken Word have started to intermingle more and more in the past few years. For anyone who is unfamiliar with Spoken Word, it is a form of performance poetry that developed as it is performed today in black communities in the 1960s and has its origins in the poetry and Blues music of the Harlem Renaissance. Slam Poetry, the form of Spoken Word that people are the most familiar with, has been used as a platform by artists to discuss relevant social issues. One of the more popular topics of discussion in recent years has been what some see as the steady decline of “good music;” namely, music that has more to offer than a good beat and catchy but meaningless lyrics. One of the more popular pieces about the decline of hip hop was written by Strivers Row member, Jasmine Mans, about two years ago. Her poem “Nicki Minaj” discusses the rapper’s

Waves Magazine

Volume II

by: Mujaahida Shakur

lyrical content and public image and how her contributions to music fall short of the expectations Mans has for the young lyricist. “Good Music” written by Kai Davis and Jamarr Hall, members of the Philly Youth Poetry Movement performing on behalf of the Philly team at the Brave New Voices Finals, soon followed, also discussing the decline of what they classify as “good music” since the 1990s, a time hailed by many as one of the best times for rap and hip hop. A year later Joshua Bennett came out with a piece titled “Dear Stevie” in which he talks about the influence Stevie Wonder had on his life and music interests. Late last year he came out with another piece titled simply “Hip Hop” in which he discusses the downfall of Hip Hop music and the faults he sees in the genre and what it tells young men about masculinity. With so many pieces devoted to the discussion of music as a topic, it is only natural that some artists decided to actually incorporate music into their pieces. The poem titled “Waiting,” written by Alysia Harris and Jasmine Mans

features fellow Strivers Row member Jennah Bell as singer and guitarist. Another piece entitled “Post-Partum,” written and performed by Kai Davis, Sinnea Douglas, and Safi Niara, three members of the Philly Youth Poetry Movement, uses song to add emphasis as they discuss the effects of post-partum depression. And these are just the tip of the iceberg; there are many more artists who are writing pieces that discuss and incorporate music. More recently, Spoken Word has insinuated itself into the rap world. Rap artist Wale has taken to using short Spoken Word pieces as promotions, introductions and interludes for his albums and mixtapes. On his sixth mixtape “More About Nothing,” Wale uses a piece entitled “Ambitious Girl” as a transition piece. He has also recently released a video for his new single “Bad” which features Tiara Thomas that begins with a

short Spoken Word piece which promotes his new album and sets the tone for the song. He usually uses these little snippets of Spoken Word to introduce songs that feature more socially aware content or discuss issues that he thinks are important to his listeners. Although Wale is one of the only musicians doing this on a large scale and so popularly, I am hopeful that more people will follow suit and start including some Spoken Word in their work. As a long-time fan of both Spoken Word and Rap music, I really look forward to a more intimate relationship between the two.

Wesleyan Slam Team Not photographed: Cherkira Lashley ‘15 Wesleyan Slam Poetry Team

Waves Magazine

Volume II

DJ KenziiKenz on the 1s & 2s @ “Ujamaa Presents: The Hip-Hop Show” @ Psi Upsilon Photo by Taylor Harbison

Gabe Beaudoin of Sound Co-op

RESPONSE TO

THE

case

“BRO-RAP”

FOR

HOODIE ALLEN

CRITICISM

and

“BRO-RAP” by: Zach Scheinfeld

write this article as a saddened proponent of several artists associated with the hip-hop sub genre, “bro-rap.” Several weeks ago I came across an editorial on cypherleague.com analyzing what is described as the recent emergence of upper-middle class white kids making music “virtually always about how awesome they are and how crazy their parties are.” The piece suggests that the increasing popularity of bro rap amongst white northeast college students is a sign of growing racial division in HipHop, and is detrimental to the healthy progression of the genre. I speak of my sadness because a majority of the work dedicated its argument to criticizing one of my favorite artists and the apparent face of “bro-rap,” Hoodie Allen. As an avid listener to all types of Hip-Hip, I strongly believe that such a criticism is unjust, and carries implications contradictory to many of Hip-Hop’s fundamental values. I would like to begin by defining “bro-rap” through a set of factual guidelines, rather than distinguishing the genre based on a stereotype. As

implied by the article, critics of bro-rap often identify Hoodie Allen, Sammy Adams, and Chris Webby as the three major musicians of the sub-genre. This association is partially accurate, but serves as an insufficient indication of the genre without noting other musically similar artists (not just the three white ones). What I think these rappers have in common is that they incorporate samples from more electronic based/EDM (electronic dance music) instrumentals to create experimental sounds that differ from a lot of modern hip/hop. It is true that they write a fair amount about partying and women, but they also discuss other more personal subject matter, mostly in the songs that weren’t created to attract attention and sell records. Notable artists that I would consider co-practitioners of Hoodie Allen are Chidddy Bang, Yonas, OCD Moosh and Twist, Skizzy Mars, OnCue, and many other extremely talented and dedicated artists who I’m sure wouldn’t appreciate someone calling their work a digressive movement of “baby-faced young white boys.” To do so would be a digressive Waves Magazine

Volume II

movement in itself. Here is a quote from Yonas, an African American Queensbased artist who raps almost entirely over techno samples, in his recent remix of Eli Goulding’s Lights: Through my audio I help my audience see the light I’m that bridge I’m that bridge If you think there’s still a gap Between that hardcore EDM And this Hip-Hop thing called rap The two primary complaints of bro-rap critics as mentioned in the article are the absence of collaboration with “real rappers,” and the genre’s failure to discuss struggle. The first complaint portrays such rappers as selfish and overly confident artists who are unwilling to assimilate with the larger hip-hop community. This is extremely inaccurate. A small glimpse at the track lists from any of Hoodie’s projects reveals a diverse network of features and guest producers from all facets of modern hip-hop. Some notable past collaborations include work

from Chance the Rapper, Shwayze, Chiddy Bang, Tayyib Ali, and Hoodie’s close friend and rapper/producer Jared Evan. Hoodie even admitted in an interview with Fuse TV that the title of his most recent mix-tape, “Crew Cuts,” signifies collaboration as the focal point of the album. The second complaint appears to hold slightly more truth, and is sadly much harder to refute. The argument stated that Hoodie and the rest of the bro rap faction represent a digression in hip-hop because they don’t outwardly discuss struggle. In support of his argument, the author summarized his concept of hip-hop, “It’s about that struggle to climb to the pinnacle of class and social status, and about how nice it feels when one finally gets there.” Everyone loves listening to rappers talk about their triumph over adversity on to fame, fortune, and Super Nintendo Sega Genesis. Lack of such content in any form of music or art is a logical justification for criticism, and in some ways points out a major flaw in works by a variety of recent hiphop artists. However, it is important to note that socioeconomic struggle is not the only type of struggle an artist can face, and that plenty of rappers have successfully made albums solely about emotional, political, or personal difficulties. Kid CuDi’s “Man on the Moon” focused on his internal emotional battles more than anything else, and still

achieved phenomenal critical acclaim. To understand Hoodie’s internal struggle and message as an artist, it is important to examine his history and transition into music. Steven Markowitz grew up in a Jewish upper-middle class household on Plainview Long Island. His musical career began during his senior year of high school at Old Bethpage JFK High School, where he acquainted his first producer, Matthew Doan. He later attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he gained acceptance to The Wharton School to study business and finance, and continued to make music under his new stage name, Hoodie Allen. Upon graduation, he accepted a job with Google as an AdWords associate in their Standardized AdWords Reseller Training program, where annual entry employee compensation averages around $75,000. During his time at Google, Hoodie continued working on his music and building a relationship with his fan base and other contemporary musicians. Eventually, the stress of committing to practically two full-time jobs prompted Hoodie to quit his job at Google and pursue a career in HipHop, where he has built an extremely successful resume consisting of a #1 debut album on iTunes, and over 42 million views on Youtube. To me, the fact that Hoodie was willing to give up a lucrative position at Google to enter an extremely risky in-

dustry, and a hip-hop culture where he would undoubtedly elicit hateful reception due to his background, brands him as an artist willing to make sacrifices and take criticism--all for the sake of doing what he loves. This message is prevalent in his music and in the music of many of his contemporaries who have faced similar challenges. Although rap has gradually developed acceptance for white rappers, the frequency of ivy-league educated Long Island Jews in today’s game is not very high. Defying a stereotype is not easy, and I think that the hip-hop community should embrace this new sub-genre as an opportunity to achieve expansion and artistic progression, especially considering hip-hop’s history of instituting change in music and revolutionizing culture. I want to be clear that the expansion I am referring to is not only opening up Hip-Hop for use by privileged white people. That would be ridiculous. I am trying to say that rap is a universal form of expression that should be valued for its inherent musical beauty and contribution to society, and not for the racial/religious/or socioeconomic backgrounds of the people that are making it.

YONAS In His Recent Video: “Fall Back” Waves Magazine

Volume II

Flatbush Zombies performing @Psi Upsilon Photo by Taylor Harbison

Flatbush Zombies pre-performance @ Psi Upsilon Photo by Kevin Brisco

WesEvents

Zammuto @ Eclectic Zammuto’s first full-length record, released April 2012, showcased a more electronically vibrant, and instrumentally focused take than Nick Zammuto’s previous project as part of the Books duo. Though equally as experimental in sound and composition, Zammuto’s music proves more accessible due to the prominent electric guitar and resounding drum presence in many of the tunes. In the March 30th show at Eclectic, Wesleyan got a taste (or more accurately a large mouthful) of the Zammuto experience. Before being plunged into the sounds of Zammuto, however, the crowd was treated with the sweet, melodic tunes of Snowblink, which featured Wes alum Daniela Gesundheit on lead vocals. Antlers protruding from the top of her guitar, Daniela reminisced with the crowd about her time at Wes and attempted to make connections with any music majors in the audience about her favorite Wes professors. Her cover “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” proved to be a crowd (and personal) favorite

and a lovely transition into Zammuto’s set. Preceding their performance with a two-minute countdown, Zammuto, either ironically or purposefully, channeled larger electronic acts such as Pretty Lights or Justice who similarly begin their performances with lengthier countdowns. As the band began their first song, the screen showed graphics of cars traveling down country roads, as a metaphorical representation of the musical and visual journey through which the crowd was to embark. And take us on a journey, they did. Each song was a surprise with tones ranging from eerie, to dance-y, to unsettling. As a whole, however, Zammuto does maintain some musical consistency in his dedication to the feeling of organized musical chaos with heavily altered vocals.

artists’ work. In that regard, Zammuto’s live show was not just a musical performance but also a sensory experience. From images of fingers riding tech deck skateboards, to images of zebra butts, to pained people clenching their injuries, to someone grinding a sausage, to what appeared to be Nick Zammuto’s home videos, the whole visual ensemble seemed to coincide absurdly yet accurately with the music. Though hypnotic, at times the visuals felt forced and overly focused on shock value; but overall Zammuto cannot be faulted for bringing its unique, crowd-pleasing show to Wes. --Reta Gasser

Delicate Steve @ Eclectic On Thursday February 21st, Delicate Steve—guitarist Steve Marion—and his fellow band mates took a packed Eclectic crowd to a space filled with joy and spirit. With few vocals, the predominantly instrumental collaborations created an energetic and blissful ambience. There was a moment when Delicate Steve urged the crowd to think about being on a beach, another where he asked the crowd to make the sound of the ocean, and also a request that everyone sit in unison for the beginning of one song. It was clear that Delicate Steve wanted to evoke certain emotions with his wheezy, melodic, futuristic and at times beautifully rambunctious musical blends. --Kyle Somersall

I was pleasantly surprised at how their new record seamlessly translated into an engaging live performance. Listening to the album and hearing the band live were equally appealing experiences, a sentiment not always evoked by an electronic Waves Magazine

Volume II

Why You Should be Excited

Kendrick Lamar is Headlining

Spring Fling I

by: Kyle Somersall

n 2009, Kendrick Lamar described himself as “just a good kid from Compton that wanna rap. I don’t represent no colors, I represent my lil’ sisters and brothers—I’m the oldest”. This quote is taken from the track “Wanna Be Heard” off Kendrick’s self-titled EP, Kendrick Lamar, which was released in 2009—one year before his break-out mixtape and three years before his debut studio album. Fast forward 4 years, Kendrick has certainly achieved his goal of being heard. MTV declared him the “Hottest MC in the Game”, he was a headliner at the 2013 South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, and he’ll be the main act at Wesleyan’s Spring Fling. Maybe more important than his recent fame is the respect that he has gained from his peers and hip-hop fans. Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and The Game passed him the crown as the new king of West Coast hip-hop, Pusha T decided to push his album back and record new material after hearing Kendrick’s debut, and fans showed their appreciation by making his debut album, good kid, m.A.A.d, city certified gold. Kendrick Lamar once went by the Moniker K-Dot, and although the talent was still salient, the K-Dot era presented an artist that was a complete 180 to Kendrick Lamar. K-Dot conformed to hip-hop norms, he embellished the gangster persona

and much of his content was superficial and braggadocios. Kendrick’s decision to drop the stage name, K. Dot, and use his birth name symbolized his transition to a more sincere artist that strived to break hip-hop normalities. On the track “Let Me Be Me” off the Kendrick Lamar EP, Kendrick speaks about his musical transition from K-Dot to Kendrick Lamar. “Almost lost my life to the industry/ had to look through a photo book to remember me/ these label heads ain’t nothing but bullshit/ have you with professional killers, chasing hits/ lying to yourself, all over an image/ making records they want, that was wrecking my brilliance/ my mama said, ‘boy, that don’t sound like you/ ’I said, ‘This is the sound though’, My only excuse… you heard my hip-hop when I was 16 years old/ well that was me then, now I’m an adult... I wanna be the highest/ on top of all the bullshit, the negative you bring, the stress, the violence/ the capital punishment, the loud police sirens”

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Volume II

I wanna be the highest/ on top of all the bullshit, the negative you bring, the stress, the violence/ the capital punishment, the loud police sirens

On “Let Me Be Me”, Kendrick also expresses concern that the “radio” would not care about his music as a more honest artist, before dismissing that thought and acknowledging that his talent could not be overlooked. After the release of his follow up mixtape, O.verly D.edicated (2010), it was proven true that Kendrick’s talent could not go unnoticed as he received cosigns from Dr. Dre, Lil Wayne and The Game, as well as significant growth in his fan base. O.verly D.edicated was the tipping point for Kendrick. He followed up O.D. with an independent album, Section.80 (2011), that was exclusively released through iTunes. Section.80 ranked as one of the top digital releases of the year and was considered by many as the best hip-hop compilation of 2011. Kendrick Lamar amassed a large following through Section.80, as the world started to recognize his exceptional talent. Although considered conscious, Kendrick is never preachy. His songs also sonically appeal to listeners that do not prioritize lyrical dexterity or conscious content as important elements in music they enjoy. Kendrick has the ability to maintain a musical edge, while cleverly crafting rhymes, telling stories and introducing profound subject-matter. It is awe-inspiring the way he effortlessly switches flows, changes voices, manipulates rhyme schemes and inserts

Waves Magazine

puns all in an effort to transfer certain images and thoughts to listeners. Kendrick Lamar is special. Kendrick relieved all doubt that he could not garner mainstream success with the release of his debut studio album, good kid, m.A.A.d city (2012). His debut is the narrative of a short film. With remarkable composition, Kendrick illustrates his experience growing up in Compton, California. He seemed to have little regard for what songs could achieve mainstream success. Instead of conceding to mainstream norms, the mainstream was forced to come to him. The radio cares, MTV cares and so should you when he graces Andrus Field on May 9th.

Volume II

JUICE!

New WAVES leaders: Iman Bright, Jay Sharma & Sarah Burkett

http://weswavesmagazine.com/