Revista musiq web

where future and past meets

e d # 01

J o h n Lennon’s

stolen history recovery

Gambino’s America

MJ82 A 35 years old interview

rie son u La der r e An o &

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INDEX 4 6 7 8 14

Interview w/ Donald Glover’s choreographer Report about John Lennon’s stolen property Review about the Berlin Trylogy of David Bowie Especial interview with Michael Jackson in 1982 Review of the Voidz new album, Virtue

We are proud to present this month’s issue of musiq. magazine and it’s a nod to the past. we selected the material thinking about what we like in terms of music and arts with the hint of nostalgia. This issue has a vault interview with the one and only King of Pop, taken from the interview archive of 1982, which we consider the year of plenitude in Michael’s career, and the interview reveals some sides of him that aren’t so reconized by th public and gives us a hint of what might have been the routine, relationships and believes of this extraordinary artist.

This issue also contains a report about the objects that were stolen from Yoko Ono’s personal vault, that was once used by John Lennon and haven’t been found since the robery, in 2006. All of the objects have a unimaginable value

Our belief is that ordinary things turn into memorable and remarkable thing due time. This magazine is about memorable and remarkable things of any time.

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How choreographer Sherrie Silver made a masterpiece out of Donald Glover’s “This Is America” Sherrie Silver is in Istanbul, Turkey, answering questions for this interview while applying her makeup. It’s an hour before she’s due to perform, and less than 48 hours after the video she choreographed for Childish Gambino’s “This Is America” went viral.

Silver—who also dances in the video—was tasked with creating choreography that would elicit happiness and joy, in contrast to a background of chaos and destruction for a visual narrative that has already been dissected by watchers ad infinitum. “This Is America,” directed by Hiro Murai, is being viewed as an artistic comment on indifference, consumption, and incessant violence in the U.S. today.

around the world, perform with artists like Wizkid, act in films, or do philanthropy in various African countries. Though she was born in Rwanda, Silver moved to England when she was just five years old. As a teenager, she began filming, editing, and uploading her African dance (“Afro-dance”) videos to YouTube, while simultaneously earning a university degree in business marketing.

move that they liked, Gwara Gwara from South Africa, which we did in the video and also on SNL. I came up with different steps, taught the school kids and the choir, and helped Donald [Glover, a.k.a.

Childish Gambino] with his solos.

PASORI: What was the creative process between you, Donald Glover, and director Hiro Murai like?

SILVER: The whole team really knew what they wanted. The video is full of madness and reflects what’s going on in America and CEDAR PASORI: How did you get around the world right now. The kids and the choir are supposed involved in the “This Is America” to be the happy part of that, so music video and Saturday Night there are two different worlds at Live performance? the same time. Multiple parts of SHERRIE SILVER: Childish Gam- the video are meant to catch the Silver, who’s only 23 years old, says bino’s team reached out to me after viewer off-guard, with people smiling and enjoying themselves that she “lives on a plane,” typically seeing some of my dance videos before it goes dark. online. They saw one particular en route to teach dance classes

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Here, Silver describes what it was like working on “This Is America.”

When we were casting, it was good to see that some of the dancers had tried Afro-dance moves before. I would teach a few steps to see who could pick it up. It was also important to cast people who could exhibit the happiness we wanted to show in the video.

With the school kids, I was trying to reflect how we are back home— in Africa. No matter what troubles we have, kids are always dancing and smiling. We always dance and have music playing. The kids’ dancing shows their innocence, despite being unaware of what’s going on around them. The choir is also meant to be happy and unaware.

With Donald, I put together some choreography for him based on the concept and what I call Afro-dance. He has his own dancing style and had his own ideas for the solos. We definitely met in the middle. He had done ballet before, so there’s some of that in there, in addition to American dance references, like the “Shoot,” “Reverse,” and “Nae Nae” dances. He rehearsed at home with videos he found, too.

PASORI: At what point were you exposed to Gwara Gwara, and was it in South Africa? Why do you think it’s trending now?

“I don’t just do this for fun. I really do it because I want to give back.”

SILVER: Well, every six months there’s a new Afro-dance move that goes mainstream. For a while now, Gwara Gwara has been the dance that everyone wants to do and learn. It looks simple, but it’s actually difficult to do. I lived in South Africa for two months while filming a movie, so I became quite familiar with it. I also included the Shaku Shaku dance from Nigeria, the Alkayida from Ghana, the between Donald and the one girl Azonto from Ghana, and other dancer? moves that don’t have names, as well.

SILVER: I suggested some slightly PASORI: You also included Gwara younger girls that would bring something different to this perGwara during SNL. How did you choreograph the SNL performance formance. The girl who was in of “This Is America,” in particular? the SNL performance was chosen right away. She was actually a huge SILVER: The SNL performance in- fan of Donald and knew all the words to all his Childish Gambino cluded some aspects of the video, but it was still quite different cho- songs. Even though I choreograreography. We didn’t want it to be phed what she did, she danced her exactly the same, but it still needed heart out—put her whole heart into it. That was her first TV perto portray the same message. The formance, as well. When she got school kids were supposed to be happy and bring joy to the perfor- off the stage, she was crying tears of joy. All of the kids were just so mance. Donald was in and out of many characters. You can see that happy for the opportunity to be a part of this. one minute he’s smiling, and the next minute he’s not. The money spraying part mirrors the song lyrics and references the African tradition of spreading cash to show appreciation and celebrate.

We did a lot of rehearsals to pull off the hologram, and we made sure to carry it out in the safest way possible. That was the climax of the performance, a joyful moment, before we calmed it down with the little princess at the end.

PASORI: How did you and the team decide on that moment

PASORI: Now that it’s all out in the world, how do you feel?

SILVER: Being a part of the number one trending video means a lot. I don’t just do this for fun. I really do it because I want to give back. I travel and teach African dance from all over the continent.

I take the money I generate from teaching back to Rwanda, Uganda, and Nigeria to redevelop schools and help get homeless kids off the street. For me, it’s not just about dancing. It’s the actual outcome that matters most.

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John Lennon’S stollen property is recovered 11 years later We read the news today, oh boy: German police retrieved nearly 100 of John Lennon’s stolen personal items.

The property—including three diaries, handwritten sheet music, a 1965 Beatles concert recording, and two pairs of Lennon’s signature circular glasses—was taken from Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, in New York in 2006. According to the BBC, many of the items currently displayed at Berlin police headquarters were confiscated over the summer from an auction house in the German capital, prompting further investigation.

Police in Berlin also arrested an unidentified 58-year-old man yesterday on suspicion of fraud and handling stolen items. The second suspect in this ongoing investigation previously worked for Ono as a chauffeur, but has not yet been taken into custody.

Lennon altered the course of rock music history when he founded the Beatles with Paul McCartney—a songwriting partnership that would inspire crazed fandoms for years to come. In that vein, Beatles memorabilia generally fetches tens of thousands of dollars at auction, making Lennon’s estate a ripe target for fraud or thievery. It’s, unfortunately, just a day in the life.

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The Berlin Trilogy consists of three consecutively released studio albums

by English singer and songwriter David Bowie: Low (1977), “Heroes” (1977) and Lodger (1979). The albums were recorded after Bowie took up residence in West Berlin in late 1976, and saw him experiment with elements of electronic, krautrock, ambient, and world music in collaboration with American producer Tony Visconti and English musician Brian Eno. Bowie began referring to the three albums as a Berlin-centered trilogy during the promotion of Lodger, although “Heroes” was the only installment primarily recorded in the city. Each album reached the UK top five. Bowie would later call the music of the trilogy his “DNA”. Consequence of Sound characterized the trilogy as an “art rock trifecta”, while Rolling Stone wrote that “’[the] ‘Berlin Trilogy’ stands as some of the most innovative music in the artist’s influential canon”.

“For many years Berlin had appealed to me as a sort of sanctuary-like situation. It was one of the few cities where I could move around in virtual anonymity. I was going broke; it was cheap to live. For some reason, Berliners just didn’t care. Well, not about an English rock singer, anyway.”

- BOWIE, David

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Friday, August 20th 1982, 3:30 P.M. Somewhere in San Fernando Valley. Bob Colacello arrives at the condominium that Michael Jackson and his family are temporarily renting while their house nearby is being redecorated. Michael, who everyone remembers as the boy lead singer of the Jackson Five, has built a solid solo career for himself—his last album, Off the Wall, has sold over 5 million copies in the U.S. alone. Though he also still records with his brothers, now known as The Jacksons, Michael has branched out to work with such superstars as Paul McCartney, Quincy Jones, Diana Ross and Steven Spielberg, all of whom are close friends. While waiting for a phone call from Andy Warhol in New York, BC and MJ began chatting

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about another close friend, Jane vie to do?

JACKSON: Well, right now I’m just Fonda. finishing up the album [Thriller — MICHAEL JACKSON: The night Ed.] and concentrating on that. I’m that Henry Fonda died, I went over doing the other album as well, the there and I was with the family. E.T. album, at the same time. That They were talking and watching all album is a little new for me because the different news pieces. Although I’ve never narrated a story. her father died, Jane was still able to show an interest in my career, COLACELLO: What is the E.T. alasking me have I gotten the film yet, bum? and I thought that was very sweet. I think that they had been expecting JACKSON: It’s a storybook album, him to die for so long. Months and a double album and I’m narrating months and months ago she was the whole story and singing the talking as though it was going to song which we have to come up be any day. It happened and there with and write. We’ve been just were tears sometimes and laughter meeting and talking about it with Steven [Spielberg] for I don’t know sometimes and they ate a little. how long—getting together and BOB COLACELLO: So what are talking about making it the all-tiyou doing? Have you gotten a mo- me storybook album.

COLACELLO: The album you’re said, “Hey, that’s perfect for Diadoing, you’ve written everything na!” I didn’t have a tape recorder or anything so I had to suffer for like on it? three hours. Soon as I got home I JACKSON: I’ve written four or five whipped that baby on tape. songs.

COLACELLO: Do you care about COLACELLO: Steve [Rubell] told politics at all? me you’re doing something with JACKSON: I don’t like talking Paul McCartney? about it.

JACKSON: Yes. Paul was just here and a song I wrote called “The Girl COLACELLO: You don’t get into Is Mine,” we sing together on my that at all with Jane [Fonda]? album. We’re fighting over this girl in the song and it came out beauti- JACKSON: No, we do. She’s wonfully. For his album, we wrote and derful. She teaches me all kinds of sang two songs together, his Tug stuff. When I was on the Golden ‘O War Part II. But for mine it’s the Pond set I stayed with Jane in the song that I wrote. There’s a rap at cabin and we were all alone on the the end where we’re fighting over water and we’d just talk, talk, talk about everything. It was the greaher. It’s funny. test education for me—she’d learn COLACELLO: You’re very open to and I’d learn and we’d just play off working with other stars. Very of- of each other. We talked about all kinds of things, you name it: polititen people aren’t. cs, philosophers, racism, Vietnam, JACKSON: I’m not actually. Not at acting, all kinds of things. It was magic. all.

COLACELLO: You worked with COLACELLO: Where were you educated, because you were always Diana Ross… on the road?

JACKSON: Only very special people. I mean, Diana’s like a mo- JACKSON: Private schools or tuther-lover-friend to me. She’s won- tors. derful. I just wrote, produced, and COLACELLO: You come from edited her next single, “Muscles.”

Gary, Indiana? What was it like COLACELLO: Did you write the growing up there? lyrics, too?

JACKSON: Actually, I was so small JACKSON: Lyrics, music—I just I don’t remember. When I was five finished that and it should be co- I was touring, singing and dancing. ming out at the end of the month. Always gone, always out of school.

I just remember little things like COLACELLO: Where do you find the corner store or certain people the time to do all this writing? in the neighborhood. The high school behind us always had a big JACKSON: On airplanes. I was co- band with trumpets and tromboming back from England working nes and drums coming down the on Paul McCartney’s album, zoo- street—I used to love that—like a ming along on the Concorde, and parade. That’s all I remember. this song popped into my head. I

COLACELLO: Did you like performing as a child? Did you always love it?

JACKSON: Always did. I always enjoyed the feeling of being on stage—the magic that comes. When I hit the stage it’s like all of a sudden a magic from somewhere just comes and the spirit just hits you and you just lose control of yourself. I came on stage at Quincy’s [Jones] concert at the Rose Bowl and I did not want to go on stage. I was ducking and hiding and hoping he wouldn’t see me hiding behind people when he called me on. Then I went up there and I just went crazy.

I started climbing up the scaffold, the speakers, the light gear. The audience started getting into it and I started dancing and singing and that’s what happens.

COLACELLO: How do you compare acting to performing on the stage?

JACKSON: I love both. Acting is the cream of the crop. I love performing. It’s a phenomenal getaway. It you want to really let our everything you feel, that’s the time to do it. With acting, it’s like becoming another person. I think that’s neat, especially when you totally forget.

If you totally forget, which I love to do, that’s when it’s magic. I love to create magic—to put something together that’s so unusual, so unexpected that it blows people’s heads off. Something ahead of the times.

Five steps ahead of what people are thinking. So people see it and say, “Whoa. I wasn’t expecting that.” I love surprising people with a present of a gift or a stage performance or anything. I love John Travolta, who came off that Kotter show. Nobody knew he could dance or do all of those things. He is like—boom.

Before he knew it, he was the next big Brando or something.

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COLACELLO: He hasn’t done le shaky because you hear things much lately. about her—Jane filled me in. I was kind of scared. But right away she JACKSON: I know. I think he’s invited me to dinner that day. Ever choosing scripts and stuff. It’s alwa- since then we’ve been best friends. ys difficult for anyone trying to She came to our concert—the first compete against their past achieve- concert she’s ever been to—at the ments.

[Madison Square] Garden, and she just enjoyed herself. We call each COLACELLO: Tell me, who do other on the phone and she sends you think has made breakthrough me letters. She’s just wonderful. I in their work in any field? went to her house in New York and JACKSON: I love Steven Spielberg se showed me her Spencer Tracy’s so much. I just love James Brown. favorite chair and his private thinHe’s phenomenal. I’ve never seen gs in his closet, his little knick-knaa performer create electricity with cks. I think he’s just magic. an audience like James Brown.

COLACELLO: Are you a fan of old movies?

I always enjoyed the feeling of being on stage — the magic that comes.

He’s got everybody in his hands and whatever he wants to do with them, he does it. It’s amazing. I’ve always thought he was underrated.

I love Sammy Davis Jr., I love Fred Astaire. I love George Lucas. I’m crazy about Jane Fonda and Katharine Hepburn.

COLACELLO: I saw a picture of you with Katharine Hepburn on the set of On Golden Pond.JACKSON: I feel honored to know her because there are a lot of people she doesn’t like—she’ll tell you right away if she doesn’t like you.

When I first met her, I was a litt-

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JACKSON: Oh, yes. There was a lot of great art, great acting, great directing, great stories. When it comes to stuff like Captains Courageous or Boys’ Town, Father Flanagan, Woman of the Year—that stuff is unreal.

cy will always be young in Captain Courageous and I can learn and be stimulated by his performance. So much is lost in theater, so much.

Or Vvudeville. Do you know what I could have learned by watching all those entertainers? It would be unreal.

COLACELLO: Most plays are videotaped now, but not every night.

JACKSON: That’s the thing. The actor’s tense, he’s being taped and things are not falling naturally.

That’s what I hate about Boadway.

I feel like I’m giving a whole lot for nothing. I like to capture things and hold them there and share them with the whole world.

COLACELLO: It seems that what really motivates you is your desire to entertain people, to please people. What about fame and money?

Could you imagine not being famous or does being famous bother you?

COLACELLO: Why don’t you wriJACKSON: It never has bothered te a story of your own? me except sometimes when you JACKSON: That’s what we’re want peace. Like you go to the theworking on right now. We’re kind ater and you say, “Nobody’s botheof fooling with it, Quincy and Ste- ring me tonight, I’m wearing my ven and I—hopefully we’ll be able hat and glasses and I’m going to to do something with it. Steven wa- enjoy this film and that’s all there nts to do a musical.COLACELLO: is to it.” You get there and everybody’s watching and staring at you Would you like to do Broadway? and at the climax of the film someJACKSON: Not yet. I think it’s body taps you on the shoulder for good for sharpening your skills. an autograph. You just feel like you It’s the best for really reaching the can’t get away. zenith of your talent. You go so far and reach the peak of it and you say, COLACELLO: Is that why you live “Maybe this is the best performan- out here in the Valley as opposed ce I can do.” What’s so sad about the to Beverly Hills where all the other whole thing is that you don’t captu- stars live? re that moment. Look at how many great actors or entertainers have JACKSON: Yes, but it’s just as bad. been lost to the world because they Beverly Hills is worse because they did a performance one night and go there looking for them. that was it. With film, you capture that, it’s shown all over the world COLACELLO: You’re very close to and it’s there forever. Spencer Tra- your parents. Do they live out here

in L.A.?

JACKSON: I love it so much. It’s escape. It’s fun. It’s just neat to becoJACKSON: Yes. My mother’s ups- me another thing, another person.

Especially when you really believe tairs. My father’s at the office. it and it’s not like you’re acting. I COLACELLO: What’s your typical always hated the world “acting”— to say, “I’m an actor.” It should be day like? more like a believer.

JACKSON: Daydreaming most of the day. I get up early and get rea- COLACELLO: But isn’t that a littdy for whatever I’ve got to do, son- le frightening when you believe it gwriting or whatever it is. Planning totally? the future and stuff.

JACKSON: No, that’s what I love COLACELLO: Are you optimistic about it. I just like to really forget. about the future?

COLACELLO: Why do you want JACKSON: Yes. I always like to plan ahead of time and follow up.

COLACELLO: Liza Minnelli’s a friend of yours, isn’t she?

JACKSON: How could I forget her? I’m crazy about Liza. Add her to the list of my favorite people. I just love her to death. We get on the phone and we just gossip, gossip, gossip. What I like about Liza is that when we get together it’s all show talk. I show her my favorite steps and she shows me hers. She’s a show-stopping performer, too.

She has real charisma. In the future I’d like to record her. I think a person like her should be heard on the radio and accepted that whole thing. She’s magic on stage.

COLACELLO: Do you care about fashion much?

JACKSON: No. I care about what I wear on stage. You know what I love, though? I don’t care about everyday clothes. I love putting on an outfit or a costume and just looking at myself in the mirror. Baggy pants or some real funky shoes and a hat and just feeling the character of it. That’s fun to me.

to forget so much? Do you think life is really hard?

JACKSON: No, maybe it’s because I just like jumping in other people’s lives and exploring. Like Charlie Chaplin. I just love him to death.

The little tramp, the whole gear and everything, and his heart—everything he portrayed on the screen was a truism. It was his whole life.

He was born in London, and his father died an alcoholic when he was six. His mother was in an insane asylum. He roamed the streets of England, begging, poor, hungry.

All this reflects on the screen and

I always hated the world “acting” — to say, “I’m an actor.” It should be more like a believer.

COLACELLO: You like to act a lot just in everyday life?

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that’s what I like to do, to bring all of the truths out.

COLACELLO: Do you care about making money?

JACKSON: I care about being paid fairly for what I do. When I approach a project, I put my whole heart and soul into it. Because I really care about it, I put everything I’ve got into it and I want to be paid.

That guy who works should eat. It’s that simple.

COLACELLO: You follow your own business very closely then?

JACKSON: Oh, yes.

COLACELLO: How old are you?

JACKSON: Twenty-three.

COLACELLO: Do you sometimes feel as though you missed out on childhood because you’ve always been performing in the adult world?

JACKSON: Sometimes.

COLACELLO: But you like people older than yourself, experienced people.

JACKSON: I love experienced people. I love people who are phenomenally talented. I love people who’ve worked so hard and been so courageous and are the leaders in ther fields. For me to meet somebody like that and learn from them and share words with them—to me that’s magic. To work together. I’m crazy about Steven Spielberg. Another inspiration for me, and I don’t know where it came from, is children. If I’m down, I’ll take a book with children’s pictures and look at it and it will just lift me up. Being around children is magic.

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The Voidz Virtue

The second album from Julian Casablancas and his motley New York band is sludgy, psychedelic sesh that occasionally coheres into surprising moments of clarity and radiance.

Fifteen years ago, Julian Casablancas opened the Strokes’ feverishly anticipated second album by declaring, “I wanna be forgotten.” At the time, it seemed like an all-too-knowing response to the band’s sudden fame.

But everything Casablancas has done since—from the Strokes’ sporadic and scattered follow-up albums to his increasingly outré solo quests—suggests he wasn’t joking. Casablancas is the natural-born rock star whose essence was defined by his seeming indifference to rock stardom. But his blasé attitude always belied

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the Strokes’ airtight sense of craftsmanship. His current passion project, as lead singer for the Voidz, is what happens when Casablancas stops just looking like he doesn’t give a fuck and really starts acting like it.

In both look and sound, the Voidz are the Turkish Star Wars version of the Strokes: a proudly low-rent, audacious, bizarro-world transfiguration that’s equally admirable and repellent.

And for those Strokes fans who thought the Voidz’s messy 2014 debut, Tyranny (credited to Julian Casablancas+The Voidz), was a one-off blurt that the singer just had to get out of his system, Virtue doubles down on his commitment to obfuscation. For one, Casablancas has taken his name off the marquee, stripping the Voidz of their

lead singer’s star billing and whatever expectations may come with it. And while there’s no 11-minute hazing rituals like Tyranny’s progasaurus “Human Sadness” to be found here, Virtue’s hour-long, 15-track run-time still counts as a formidable endurance test, presenting a collage of ’80s ephemera—new wave, electro, hair metal, yacht rock—rendered in the snowy resolution of an overused VHS cassette. But like an old TV that only works when you position the antenna just so, the album’s scrambled signals do occasionally cohere into surprising moments of clarity and radiance.

On their later records, the Strokes sounded hamstrung about how to evolve, and their attempts to draw outside the lines felt forced and unnatural. But Virtue opener “Leave It in My Dreams” plays to Casablancas’ innate strengths while weirding things up in just the right ways: his bleary-eyed melancholy and just-rolled-outta-bed delivery give way to a disarming emotional payoff, as guitarists Amir Yaghmai and Jeramy Gritter spaz out over the song’s breezy strut. “Don’t overthink it,” Casablancas sings en route to the rousing chorus, and Virtue’s best moments emerge when he takes those words to heart. There’s the divine “Lazy Boy,” a gentle jangle-soul reverie upended by a military-drummed chorus, and the neon groove of “All Wordz Are Made Up,” which suggests an alternate ’00s where Casablancas didn’t have to shoulder the weight of saving rock’n’roll and instead disappeared into the Williamsburg electro-party circuit.

Casablancas and co. scatter these sort of pop reprieves across Virtue, wisely deploying them whenever it feels like the album is starting to crumble under the weight of its excesses. On Virtue, the murkiness is

the message—the obtuse agitprop of an anti-star who still wants to be forgotten.thought the Voidz’s messy 2014 debut, Tyranny (credited to Julian Casablancas+The Voidz), was a one-off blurt that the singer just had to get out of his system, Virtue doubles down on his commitment to obfuscation. For one, Casablancas has taken his name off the marquee, stripping the Voidz of their lead singer’s star billing and whatever expectations may come with it. And while there’s no 11-minute hazing rituals like Tyranny’s progasaurus “Human Sadness” to be found here, Virtue’s hour-long, 15-track run-time still counts as a formidable endurance test, presenting a collage of ’80s ephemera—new wave, electro, hair metal, yacht rock—rendered in the snowy resolution of an overused VHS cassette. But like an old TV that only works when you position the antenna just so, the album’s scrambled signals do occasionally cohere into surprising moments of clarity and radiance.

On their later records, the Strokes sounded hamstrung about how to evolve, and their attempts to draw outside the lines felt forced and unnatural. But Virtue opener “Leave It in My Dreams” plays to Casablancas’ innate strengths while weirding things up in just the right ways: his bleary-eyed melancholy and just-rolled-outta-bed delivery give way to a disarming emotional payoff, as guitarists Amir Yaghmai and Jeramy Gritter spaz out over the song’s breezy strut. “Don’t overthink it,” Casablancas sings en route to the rousing chorus, and Virtue’s best moments emerge when he takes those words to heart.

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