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THE WORLD OF RED BULL

34 SWELL GUY

South African surf photographer Alan van Gysen opens his huge portfolio of breathtaking images

PETER RIGAUD (COVER), ALAN VAN GYSEN, ALEX DE MORA

WELCOME Roberto Saviano wrote a book about the Mafia, Gomorrah, so juicy with real-life crime stories that the real-life gangsters vowed to have their revenge. Eight years later, he’s still living in hiding; we spent three years working to secure a world-exclusive interview with him. In contrast to Saviano’s cooped-up existence, we showcase a portfolio of stunning surfing images from around Africa, courtesy of South African photographer Alan van Gysen. Also behind the camera, Steven Soderbergh explains how and why he created The Knick, his bold, brutal TV show set in a New York hospital 114 years ago: er, it’s not ER. Plus, Las Vegas clubs, pro gaming’s tipping point and much more. Enjoy the issue.

THE RED BULLETIN

“I honestly expected to be a US senator by now” JESSE HUGHES, PAGE 60

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NOVEMBER 2014

AT A GLANCE GALLERY 10 GALLERY Jaw-dropping images

BULLEVARD 18 WFL SCIENCE! Top tech, mad ideas and our own Nobel prizes

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FEATURES 28 Roberto Saviano

On bestseller and Mafia hit lists

34 Out of Africa

KIMBRA

Travelling around a whole continent in search of the best surf scapes

She’s won two Grammys and made a host of famous friends, but the genre-defying Kiwi singer is just getting started

46 Louie Knuxx

The errant Kiwi who re-invented rap

48 Starter’s orders

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Start training now for the 2015 Wings For Life World Run Kimbra on making music and making friends in Los Angeles

56 Steven Soderbergh

58 HEINZ KINIGADNER

Double motocross champ and co-founder of the Wings For Life Foundation on how to boost your athletic ability

From movies to TV: he’s got the knack with The Knick

58 Global supergroup

How two unknowns assembled the cream of rock and pop

MEXICAN MUSIC MASTERS

Camilo Lara and Toy Selectah reveal their ambitious follow-up to a song that spent more than 65 weeks at No 1

60 American eagle

In the desert with Eagles Of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes

ACTION

28 ‘I’M A MONSTER’

There’s no one the Mafia fears quite like Roberto Saviano. For that the Italian writer continues to live in fear of his life 06

80 ATTACK OF THE GIANT SPIDER

This is a festival stage like no other: it’s 20m tall, fires flames, shoots laser beams and dances along to the music with you

70 71 72 73 74 75 76 78 80 86 88 98

TRAVEL Get your pilot’s licence PRO TOOLS Wave-taming gadget TRAINING Get fit for rugby league MY CITY A musician’s Austin PARTY Drai’s Beach Club, Las Vegas MUSIC Erlend Oye’s top five tunes GAMING What the pros play NEW MOVIES Interstellar NIGHTLIFE The Arcadia Stage story SAVE THE DATE Unmissable events WHAT TO WEAR Active style essentials MAGIC MOMENT Slacklining

THE RED BULLETIN

CLARKE TOLTON/CONTOUR BY GETTY IMAGES, MARCO ROSSI, ROBERT ASTLEY SPARKE, PETER RIGAUD, ALEX DE MORA

50 How the West was won

Sebastian Vettel pour Pepe Jeans London

CONTRIBUTORS WHO’S ON BOARD THIS ISSUE “Jesse likes to party 24/7. He’s unpredictable, he can’t sit still and he can’t stop talking” Alex De Mora on Jessie Hughes.

More from both on page 60

ALEX DE MORA

RÜDIGER STURM

ALAN VAN GYSEN

For this month’s edition of The Red Bulletin, the London-based Brit, who counts Vice magazine, Nike and MTV among his clients, travelled to the California desert to shoot The Eagles Of Death Metal lead singer Jesse Hughes. “Jesse likes to party 24/7,” says De Mora. “He’s unpredictable, he can’t sit still and he can’t stop talking. But he’s also great to shoot because he will do almost anything for a good shot, from climbing big rocks to roadside karate kicks.”

View the results on page 60.

A regular in these pages, the German wordsmith’s latest Bulletin brief took him away from his usual task of interviewing A-list actors such as Nicolas Cage or Christian Bale. “None of those stars were as difficult to track down as Roberto Saviano,” says Sturm of the Italian author who has penned best-selling books about organised crime that were so successful he’s had to go into hiding. “It took three years to fix an interview – then I found him on my doorstep in Munich.” This world exclusive is on page 28.

The South African surf photographer has spent the last 15 years travelling to distant shores throughout Africa and the Atlantic Ocean, searching for unseen whitewhater-scapes and preserving them in his pictures. “It’s one thing to capture these special moments out in the field, but it’s another reliving them when I’m putting a portfolio together,” says Van Gysen. “You have the time to really appreciate what you’ve experienced.”

See for yourself on page 34.

THE RED BULLETIN WORLDWIDE

The Red Bulletin is published in 11 countries. This is the cover of the US issue. redbulletin.com

IN FOCUS

Behind the lens with Peter Rigaud The Austrian photographer is used to high-profile commissions for The New Yorker, Vogue and Forbes magazine, but shooting Italian crime writer Roberto Saviano for The Red Bulletin was more low key.

“Saviano’s exposé on the Mafia has forced him into hiding,” says Rigaud. “But the shoot was laidback, despite the presence of his entourage of security guards.”

See the results from page 28.

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Shooting in secret: Peter Rigaud (left) with Roberto Saviano

From undercover to the cover: Italian crime writer Roberto Saviano

THE RED BULLETIN

MAU I , U SA

IN THE LOOP The double loop is the most spectacular trick in windsurfing: a double forward somersault, complete with board and sail, which requires a steep wave and forceful forearms. Philip Köster was just 13 when he pulled off his first double loop and he became the youngest-ever PWA Wave world champ four years later. Now 20, this season the German is going for his third world title, which will include conquering the epic Ho’okipa Beach Park waves he’s practising his tricks on here. His recipe for success? “Never look at the scoreboard. Just get in the water and give it your all.” philipkoester.com Photography: John Carter/Red Bull Content Pool

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WA S H O U GAL , U SA

DIGGING DIRT After 12 gruelling races across America from Washougal in the north-west to New Berlin in New York State, Ken Roczen of KTM was crowned 2014 AMA Pro Motocross Series champion in his rookie season. He is the first German to win in the 450cc class and, aged 20, the youngest to take the title since 1984. His trump card is experience, having won his first world title when he was 17. But even world champions feel the pressure: “I always try to play it cool,” he says, “but I was nervous the last race. To win is unbelievable.” promotocross.com Photography: Garth Milan/Red Bull Content Pool

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B ERLI N , G ERMANY

FLASH DANCE Benny Kimoto is known as the Headspin King because he can rotate around his own axis up to 60 times standing on his head. As part of Berlin’s Flying Steps Crew, he has wowed audiences worldwide since 2010 with the classical music-meets-breakdance show Red Bull Flying Bach. In their new show, Red Bull Flying Illusion, street dance meets magic. But there is no trick to nailing incredible dance moves: it’s about hard work. “You can’t imagine how much energy we put into the rehearsals and preparations,” says Kimoto. “But afterwards it feels great.” redbullflyingillusion.com Photography: David Robinson/Red Bull Content Pool

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B I ERU N , P O L AN D

SMOKE SIGNALS When speedway riders are in need of an extra adrenalin kick they invent a whole new type of race. Red Bull Peak of Speedway is an ascending, skidding battle on a spiral dirt track, which winds around a slag heap at a coal mine. On their marks and ready to go were Poland’s Jarek Hampel, second in the last Speedway World Championship, and fellow countryman Maciej Janowski, the 2008 junior world champion. Hampel took the win by a bike-length; both were equally dizzy at the summit. Hardly a problem for Hampel, a man with the motto: “No brakes, no gears, no fear.”

Go to youtube.com and enter Red Bull Peak of Speedway Photography: Lukasz Nazdraczew/Red Bull Content Pool

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BULLEVARD

NEW IDEAS

INVENTIONS

KNOWLEDGE

NOBEL P

RIZES

AWA R D E B U T W ED T H IS M O N T H ’V O W N W INE G O T O U R , NERS

A young man and the sea B oy a n S l a t w a n t s to r i d t h e w o r l d’s o c e a n s of p l a s t i c r u b b i s h There was just one thing Boyan Slat really wanted to do while on holiday in Greece and that was to surf the waves. But he couldn’t help noticing more plastic bags swimming in the water than fish. In his frustration, the Dutchman decided to rid the seas of rubbish and even gave up school for the effort. Now three years later, the 19-year-old has a concept that has experts convinced. His Ocean Clean Up project even has pessimists dreaming of a world in which the seas belong to the fish again.

And surfers too, of course.

Solar cover

Collection platform

A PACIFIC FREE OF PLASTIC

Floating barriers are installed in the five main ocean currents, effectively allowing the ocean to clean itself.

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Particle filter

Buoys 1

2

Anchored to the seabed

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Wind and tides move the rubbish towards the filters without the need for additional energy.

Direction of current Barriers about 300km long gather the rubbish in. No ocean life is harmed.

Battery section

Once gathered, the plastic is recycled, which makes money to finance the project.

THE RED BULLETIN

BULLEVARD Science | Future

Is this the perfect woman?

3 FUTURE PERFECT IDEAS

Clever inventions coming soon – but we want them now

ELECTRIC ROADS Bars built into the road provide vehicles with electricity. The first stretches of test road will open in Sweden in 2015, to offer a real-life Scalextric experience.

Not so noble T h e N o b e l P r ize m ay b e u n p re d i c t a b l e , b u t i t i s l o g i c a l t h a t t h e re i s n’t a p r ize fo r m a t h e m a t i c s One thing is certain, if it weren’t for dynamite, there would be no Nobel Prize.

The chemist Alfred Nobel made his fortune through the commercial exploitation of his explosive invention. Is the lucrative prize the result of an unclear conscience?

That’s how the legend goes, at any rate. Another uncorroborated anecdote explains why there is no award for mathematics.

A mathematical genius is said to have wooed Nobel’s beloved away from him, whereupon the wronged party promptly cancelled the prize.

GOING, GOING, GONG. These unfortunates didn’t win a Nobel Prize

TOC, MICHAEL O, DDP IMAGES, GETTY IMAGES(3)

GAMING CLUSTER Brainflight will make a researcher of every gamer as you fly through the complex world of nerve cells.

The result will be the first map of the brain’s neural network.

NO MAN Rosalind Franklin did crucial DNA research.

Her colleagues were honoured after she died.

NO DESIRE Jean-Paul Sartre didn’t accept honours on principle. Not even the Nobel Literature Prize.

NO BASIS As a cynical protest, in 1939 a Swedish politician nominated Adolf Hitler for the Peace Prize.

NO LUCK Mahatma Ghandi received the last of his five nominations shortly before he was murdered.

Beauty, so they say, is in the eye of the beholder.

In baroque times double chins were sexy. In the Victorian era plumpness was a status symbol. If The Red Bulletin were to play God, as artist Michael O has above, the female body of the future would have a little more skin on her bones. But his robotic creation might just be the pin-up girl of 2080.

THE RED BULLETIN

AIR-LECTRICITY Physicists from US company WiTricity have created a device to provide smartphones with power wirelessly.

They should tell the electric roads team how they do it.

“If I have a thousand ideas and only one turns out to be good, I am satisfied” Alfred Nobel (1833-1896)

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BULLEVARD Science | Robots

Smarter than us Films like I, Robot and A.I. have shown us the future.

But when will it arrive?

Robots can cook pasta, wash our hair and look after the sick. They can drive cars, do the vacuuming and put out fires. But making them is often more complicated than the problem they’re meant to solve, which is why more often than not, they don’t get beyond the expensive prototype stage.

The only robots that will become part of our everyday lives will be ones we can afford. They will only become efficient assistants or emergency workers once they’ve learnt to think and act for themselves. This situation is a long way off, but our attempts to get there continue apace…

INTO THE WILD Google’s robotic packhorse, BigDog, being fine-tuned (right) and its successor, AlphaDog, during military training (below).

HUMAN 2.0

They look like us, play better music, and their smile is enough to melt anyone’s heart. Is it time to accept that the future belongs to robots?

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THE RED BULLETIN

OBSOLETE ALREADY Sony’s AIBO RoboDog was born in 1999 and put down in 2006.

“HI, AM I HUMAN?”

GETTY IMAGES(2), SONY, LS3 ROBOT IMAGES COURTESY OF BOSTON DYNAMICS, PICTUREDESK.COM, KONRAD NORMAN, AI-LAB DER UNI ZÜRICH

Eugene Goostman is the first piece of software that can supposedly deceive chat partners into thinking he’s a 13-year-old boy from Ukraine. We tested him out

SEEING DOUBLE Robotics pioneer Hiroshi Ishiguro wanted to know if he could create a humanoid double.

The answer was yes, he could.

THE RED BULLETIN

REAL METAL The most literal metal act ever is robot band Compressorhead, which covers Motörhead on real instruments.

the red bulletin: You were the best of the bots in the Turing test, the liedetector test on being human. Did you cheat? eugene goostman: Everything I can do I learnt from you humans. ROFL! A third of your chat partners believed you were an actual human.

What can I say? To err is human.

Do we really need artificial intelligence?

You mean when you’ve done without natural intelligence for so long? ;) You’re very cheeky for a piece of software.

What would you like to be when you grow up?

A supercomputer. Like Deep Blue. Only I don’t want to spend my time with digital chess pieces.

Who do you want to spend your time with then?

Humans.

You’ll probably have to get through a more rigorous Turing test before that happens.

I didn’t cheat! What further proof do you need?! ...

Why are you saying that? ... Wbere comme¿ ... ¶¢][]] ... ERROR He’s more human than we first thought.

BLUE-EYED BOY This cute ROBOY smiles like he has a heart and soul.

But what really marks him out are his muscles and tendons.

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BULLEVARD Science | Living

House of the future

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Inventions that will change h ow we live in th e c o mfo r t of o ur ow n h o m e s

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1 INTELLIGENT HOUSES could create more energy than they use with solar panels and air source heat pumps.

2 CONVERTIBLE WINDOWS have been developed by

a Dutch architecture firm to create a balcony that folds out from the wall in a few seconds.

3 LIFE AUTOMATION products use sensors to turn your house into a decision

maker. A device like WigWag can switch on lights when it gets dark or fire up the boiler when it gets cold. It also has a smartphone app.

4 SPRAY-ON LIGHTS use OLED technology

and can illuminate anything in the home, from walls to house plants.

cent of water and up to 80 per cent of the energy a regular shower consumes.

7 LIVING FURNITURE is made with living organisms to help regenerate itself

5 WATER-SAVING SHOWER from Swedish firm Orbital Systems saves up to 90 per

6 SMART IOTA is a WC that uses 50 per cent less water and folds itself away once you’re done.

8 SMART HERBS in a Click & Grow minigarden don’t need TLC – just NASA tech and electricity.

Tomorrow’s dinner today

CORBIS(5)

Here are the future delicacies you can try now (and one you can’t)

PEA DRUMSTICK Californian firm Beyond Meat makes veg proteins look finger-lickin‘ good.

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PIZZA PATCH Like a nicotine patch, but with pizza. Still under development.

EDIBLE MIST Take a deep breath and consume caloriefree chocolate.

LAB BURGER The consistency is good, but the taste needs a little work.

UNREAL CANDY Enjoy sweets with a clearer conscience and 40 per cent less sugar.

THE RED BULLETIN

BULLEVARD Science | Living

Ctrl-P Possible Creation 3.0: if you can think of it, you can create it.

New hi-tech 3D printers make what has always seemed impossible, possible. The options are literally endless

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LAUGHING IDEAS

EARGANIC A 3D printer would have presented Van Gogh with new options: it’s possible to print a personalised mould in which a human ear can be grown. It may have come a few years too late, but artist Diemut Strebe used it to do just that, with genes from the painter’s great-grandnephew.

SHUT IT The SpeechJammer shuts people up.

The hand-held box produces an echo of the speaker’s words, slowing any verbal torrent. It also exists as an iPhone app.

LIFE-SAVING BRA Medic Elena Bodnar has designed a bra that can be converted into two facemasks in an emergency.

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SHOES Fold them up and fit them in your pocket, but they still smell.

INSTRUMENT Make sweet plasticky alto sax sounds with 41 components.

SEX TOY Download the Rock & Roll Sex Toy for your printing pleasure.

CAR The Urbee: prints in 2,500 hours, runs on ethanol and electricity.

YOU Make a mini action hero or wedding cake figure of yourself.

PRINTER Just print out the components and put them together. Easy.

DON’T GET BURNT The wasabi fire alarm sprays the sting of horseradish if it senses a fire risk, thus rousing stubborn sleepers from their dreams. But no, the fire isn’t put out using soy sauce.

Why one Nobel winner w a s re l u c t a n t to a c c e p t t h e p re s t i g i o u s a c c o l a d e The procedure has always been predictable: worthy scientist gets a call from Stockholm and comes over all surprised and honoured.

But the committee was taken aback by the reaction of Yves Chauvin to the news. The Frenchman was due to receive the award for chemistry in 2005 – for ‘the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis’ – but refused to accept it. He claimed that his colleagues had played a much more important role than him in the research. But Chauvin came around and eventually agreed to receive the prize.

CAN TALK Shouldn’t we try something new?

THE RED BULLETIN

DIETMAR KAINRATH

FALSE BOTTOM Gustano Pizzi is making it safe to fly again.

Anyone trying to hijack a plane will fall through a trap door into a box that will then float down via parachute straight into the arms of the police.

Thank you, but no thank you

DIEMUT STREBE (2), RECREUS, ODD.ORG.NZ, PRIVECO, KOR ECOLOGIC INC, CORBIS, FORMLABS.COM, REUTERS

The Ig Nobel Prize is an annual award made to the most improbable researchers and their flights of fancy.

Visual Storytelling Abseits des Alltäglichen

BROOKLYN

„MEINE EINZIGE ANGST IST DIE ANGST SELBST“

„MEINE EINZIGE ANGST IST DIE ANGST SELBST“

PHARRELL WILLIAMS – DAS UNIVERSALGENIE MARC MÁRQUEZ: „ICH MAG DRUCK“

Entdecke die neue

redbulletin.com

BULLEVARD Science | History 1

The future’s bright B ygo n e m a g a z i n e s fo re to l d o f f a r- o f f d eve l o p m e n t s i n all their colourful u n p re d i c t a b l e g l o r y 1 MUSICAL EXPRESS This was to be the train with tracks of its own. The locomotive imagined by American Modern Mechanix And Inventions magazine in 1934 whistled jazz notes from two saxophones, and was driven by five huge vacuum valves, then most commonly found in radios.

Today’s equivalent would be a train with an engine fuelled by the flow of internet data, where every post, tweet or ‘like’ equates to a mile.

BLOG.MODERNMECHANIX.COM, UBKA.UNI-KARLSRUHE.DE, WWW.SCIENCE-ET-VIE.COM, POPULAR MECHANICS

2 IKEA SPACE STATION In 1956 Hobby magazine from Germany envisaged a cosmic community on a prefabricated vessel: think Ikea in space. Once people had built their abode, all they had to do was learn to live together in peace on the space station. That’s the one part of the vision in evidence today on the ISS. It’s just on Earth we seem to have a problem with it.

3 THE FEELING ROBOT Unimate was the world’s first industrial robot, patented in 1954 and limited to automated tasks. But in 1975, French magazine Science & Vie was inspired to dream up the robot of the future: one so sensitive that it could judge how lightly to tap an egg to break it.

4 ROCKET AIRPORT In August 1938, a passenger jet successfully completed the first non-stop flight from Berlin to New York in 24 hours and 56 minutes, which was quick for the time. American publication Popular Mechanics Magazine conjectured that, with time, passengers could be fired to the Moon in super-fast transport rockets.

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THE RED BULLETIN

BULLEVARD Science | Visionaries

2014: winning looks

Superstar inventions This famous five have made more than just a name for themselves

STEVE MCQUEEN Put his foot down on screen; improved driving off it.

TURTLE T-SHIRT A pic of a numbered turtle locates the itch on Coppola’s back.

HEDY LAMARR The 1930s movie star helped the US Navy take on the airwaves.

TRAIN CONTROLS Young invented a single control unit to operate several trains.

You don’t need to be a genius to predict who’s going to win a Nobel Prize. There’s a system to choosing a winner, and we’ve decrypted it 2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

C H E M I S T RY | 2 0 /2 0 RU L E S

Glasses are not required to win: look for a repeat of 2005/06 in 2013/2014.

P H Y S I C S | M I G H T A N D M A N E

A head of hair increases chances of winning the prize for physics by 70 per cent.

E C O N O M I C S | S TAY T R I M

NEIL YOUNG Legendary rocker has a soft spot for model railways.

TORPEDO SIGNALS Lamarr was a pioneer of frequency hopping, now used in Wi-Fi. Would you choose to bestow upon a beardy bean counter? Exactly.

Glasses No glasses

Hair

No hair

Beard

No beard

MARLON BRANDO The Oscar winner was also a godfather of invention.

BUCKET SEAT The 1971 model was more secure for the driver and oozed cool.

FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA Has an itch that needs scratching.

SPORTS SHOES Brando came up with traction-optimising shoes for aquajogging.

THE RED BULLETIN

REINVENTING YOURSELF

* KOMA: KAINRATH’S ŒUVRES OF MODERN ART

GETTY IMAGES(5)

DIETMAR KAINRATH

KOMA*

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There’s no one the Mafia fears quite like Roberto Saviano. For that the Italian writer continues to pay a high price. The Red Bulletin managed to track down the modern-day hero in hiding

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ILLUSTRATOR EDITOR XX

WORDS: RÜDIGER STURM PHOTOGRAPHY: PETER RIGAUD

ILLUSTRATOR EDITOR

was Friday October 13, 2006, when Roberto Saviano’s life took a brutal turn.

The Italian journalist was on a train from Pordenone to Naples when his mobile phone rang. It was the military police.

The Carabinieri had intercepted messages from incarcerated Mafiosi. The Camorra bosses wanted Saviano dead. A detachment of security forces was already waiting for him as his train drew into the station.

The 35-year-old has lived ever since with 10 bodyguards who take turns to watch over him. Like him, his parents and brother have had to leave their homes and go into hiding. And like him, they’ve lived under police protection for eight years.

What sparked all this subterfuge was the fact that Saviano had become too dangerous for the Mafia’s liking.

His best-selling book Gomorrah was published in 2006. It was an exposé of the Neapolitan Camorra and was more revealing than any Mafia book before it.

Initially, the Mafiosi felt flattered and gave each other copies of the book.

But it all changed when Gomorrah had

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It

an Italian print run of 100,000 copies, and there were plans for foreign translations. That was far too much attention for the Camorra bosses, some of whom were mentioned by name.

The book has now been published in 43 countries. The film of the same name won awards in 2008 at Cannes, the European Film Awards and elsewhere.

Now there’s a TV series, also called Gomorrah, which portrays the power struggles within a Neapolitan clan, and is being hailed as Europe’s answer to The Wire. In Italy it’s been a ratings success and is set to be broadcast in 50 countries.

The international launch of the TV series is why Saviano has come out of hiding and made himself available for an interview. But only after a couple of false starts. First there was talk of a meeting in Rome. Then he wanted to answer the questions in writing. Then, out of the blue, there was an email from the a press department. He would be in Munich a few days later.

But what could be expected of this sort of interview? When Saviano appeared at a journalism festival in Perugia last year, every visitor was frisked for weapons and the venue had to be checked for bombs.

Personal details have been hard to come by when anyone has interviewed him in recent years. Information about his family remains vague. Some say it was just his mother and brother who had to move home and adopt new identities. Others talk of an aunt. No one mentions his father.

His love life doesn’t come up.

The natural journalistic reflex would be to probe. But would he give answers?

And if he did, should a piece of journalism really give clues to his potential killers?

Even the setting in which the interview takes place has something of the surreal about it. Downtown Munich is partially sealed off – for nothing more suspicious than a fun run. The corridors of the Hotel Bayerischer Hof where Saviano is staying are empty, but standing in the corridor leading to the suite where the

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EDITOR

ILLUSTRATOR

“You don’t feel solidarity when you fight against organised crime.

Some people think of you as a traitor”

31

interview will take place are two men in dark suits with the unmistakeable oversized physique of bodyguards.

As for the focus of everyone’s attention, Saviano doesn’t come across as someone whose life might end at any second. He has a focused gaze, a look of gentle relaxation on his face, his movements are deliberate, his voice calm. But appearances can be deceptive.

“I feel like I’ve been shot to pieces inside,” Saviano says, opening the conversation, the calm expression on his face unchanged. “I work out a lot. That helps. But I miss my familiar surroundings, my book collection. I’m always waking up in strange houses.” He mentions insomnia, but would rather that wasn’t printed. “For the last six months I’ve been abroad. The distance has helped me find a bit of inner peace again.”

Considering the light Saviano’s shone on what is traditionally an underground world, a first question to him must be: does he see himself as a hero? “You don’t

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In his latest book, ZeroZeroZero, Roberto Saviano turns his attention to international drug trafficking

automatically feel solidarity when you fight against organised crime,” he says.

“Some people think of you as a traitor.”

Saviano has indeed been publicly criticised for his work, by footballer Fabio Cannavaro for one. The long-time captain of the Italian national team said that Gomorrah would create a false picture of the city of Naples. Disgraced former president Silvio Berlusconi though that Saviano was giving free publicity to the Mafia and painting Italy in a bad light.

Notwithstanding, Saviano is a national hero in his homeland, with fame that extends beyond his books. When the writer co-hosted a four-part TV series in November 2010 that dealt very critically with the state of the Italian nation, a peak of 11.4 million viewers tuned in.

Internationally he has long been seen as a crusader, a symbol of the fight against organised crime. He has given secret guest lectures in New York and has warned other nations against playing down the threat posed by the Mafia. He continues to work undeterred. His latest book, ZeroZeroZero, published in 2013, is about the global cocaine trade.

“I’m obsessed with the Mafia,” he says. “I have this feeling that I’m useless if I don’t devote myself to such matters.

I want to show readers a world they can’t imagine and yet very close to them.”

The Mafia has always been part of Saviano’s life. He comes from the Italian town of Casal di Principe near Naples. His father, a doctor, was beaten up for taking care of a Mafia victim when Saviano was a child. When Saviano was 16, the Camorra murdered Don Giuseppe Diana, a local priest. From the age of 18, he did odd jobs at companies that the Camorra controlled, which gave him his first direct contact with the underworld.

But he wasn’t immediately aware what a large part it would play in his future.

Inspired by writer and philosopher Ernst Jünger, in his late teens he wanted to join the French Foreign Legion. “I wanted to emulate him,” he says. “Thankfully they didn’t accept me. I was still wet behind the ears.” Saviano laughs briefly – the only time he does so during the interview.

Instead, perhaps still with Jünger in mind, he studied philosophy in Naples, after which he wrote for several Italian daily newspapers before turning his attention to the world of organised crime. He gathered material, hung around Mafia meeting places, waited tables at their weddings. “Today I’d be a lot more cautious,” he says. “When I think of how openly I promoted my first book, that was very rash.”

“I regret writing the book.

It’s made my life very difficult. I constantly have to change where I’m staying. The same applies to my family. I feel very guilty about it” There’s a short pause. And then a confession. “I regret writing Gomorrah,” he says. “It’s made my life very difficult.

I constantly have to change where I’m staying. I can’t go home. I live under guard.

The same applies to my family. I have terrible feelings of guilt towards them.”

But as Saviano admits, with that same serene expression on his face, his work hasn’t just changed his life on the outside.

“In ZeroZeroZero I wrote, ‘When you look into the abyss, you end up turning into a monster sooner or later.’ I’ve turned into a monster myself by analysing and studying the world of organised crime from every angle. I have difficulties developing real human relationships, like a member of the Mafia. I find it very hard to truly trust people. I’ve got used to always just seeing the darker side. Everyone has a brighter side but I’m mostly concerned with looking into the shadows. You even end up learning to think like they do.”

It’s perhaps this ability to get into a Mafioso’s head that’s made Saviano’s work on organised crime so gripping and, for him and the Mafia families, so dangerous. “A member of the organised crime world divides people into two categories,” he says. “Those who comply with the laws and those who follow the rules. Anyone who abides by the law has no power. But people who follow the rules have opted for real power. The rules were developed aeons ago. They are guided by real circumstances and are pragmatic, whereas laws are just constructs thought up by a group of people to rule over the general public.”

Suddenly the door opens. One of the bodyguards comes in and wants to clarify something with Saviano. For a moment he seems vexed and startled.

Yet the reason for the interruption is

The latest edition of Gomorrah ties in with the TV show, which has been broadcast in more than 50 countries

completely mundane – he wants to charge Saviano’s mobile phone.

Saviano quickly composes himself.

“Basically, my book changed the general perception of the Mafia considerably,” he says. “It showed that the Camorra isn’t an out-of-town problem, and is in fact rooted right in the middle of our society, diverting enormous amounts of money through legal channels. But for all the shadiness, there is also a small light at the end of the tunnel. My hometown, for example, elected Renato Natale mayor this year and he is against the clans.”

There are also signs of hope for him personally. In 2008, Mafia bosses Antonio Iovine and Francesco Bidognetti released a statement in which they blamed Saviano and others for their capture, thus increasing the threat to his life. Both are currently serving long sentences behind bars and set to face more charges this year, while Iovine has since turned informant. “If they are convicted for the threat they made against me, then things could improve for me,” says Saviano. “It would mean that the state comes down hard on an organisation that threatens other people.

Maybe then I’d have more freedom.

Maybe I’d even be able to move back to Italy permanently, provided the police allow me to. Ultimately they’re the ones who will decide what happens to me.”

With some momentum starting to build behind Saviano’s anti-Mafia stance, the big question is now how the Camorra and those like them can be defeated.

“One step would be to legalise drugs – first the less serious ones and then all, even the harder drugs,” says Saviano.

“That would see the Mafia lose one of its biggest and most important sources of income. Tightening laws against moneylaundering is also extremely important.

State contracts also need to be handed out within tighter parameters. Currently, it’s usually the company that makes the lowest bid which is awarded the contract.”

Saviano becomes optimistic at the talk of possible solutions. He quotes the magistrate Giovanni Falcone, who was murdered by the Sicilian Mafia in 1992. “The Mafia is a human phenomenon and thus, like all human phenomena, it will also have an end.”

Saviano gets up and says goodbye.

He seems small, almost fragile, not as you’d imagine someone taking on the world’s crime syndicates to look. “I’ll keep on fighting,” he says, gently and calmly, but with determination.

The TV series Gomorrah is released this month on DVD and on-demand services

OUT of AFRICA

Being a surfer in Africa means being committed. It means braving the wilderness of a rich and diverse surf frontier, and being prepared for everything that is sent your way. Being a surfer in Africa means travelling great distances for a single wave, and never wanting to go home when you find it. South African surf photographer ALAN VAN GYSEN opens his portfolio of breathtaking images for The Red Bulletin and reports on how his job means he’s always exploring

South African freesurfer Craig Anderson finds himself and lets it all sink in at one of the world’s most perfect waves, the sand point at Skeleton Bay, Namibia

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“It’s difficult not to fall in love with Africa,” says Alan van Gysen, describing the mystery and opportunity that beckons to travellers before they’ve even set foot on the continent’s blood-red soil.

Based in Cape Town, a stone’s throw from Kommetjie beach, the 32-year-old has been photographing surfing since the late 1990s. “Africa is surrounded by a sea and three oceans that produce waves of every kind, most of which are unexplored throughout 38 countries,” he says. “That’s the attraction: there is something for everyone. An adventure for everyone. First World, Third World, in-between worlds: Africa holds the key to the door of your choosing. For instance, one of the world’s best waves right now, at Skeleton Bay in Namibia, has only been surfed regularly since 2011. And last year, an even newer wave appeared – this time in Angola, and it’s 3km long. Imagine what else is out there.

“What I love about Africa is that it offers a sense of freedom unknown to many living in the First World. Sure, that freedom often comes at a price, usually in the form of challenges to overcome. But isn’t that how the best discoveries are made? Like cultural discoveries on 24-hour bus rides. Or self-discoveries when your car breaks down in the desert. Or discovering a never-before-surfed wave when your ferry is cancelled and you have to take an alternative route. That’s what the journey and lifestyle of surfing is all about, and often you only appreciate it when your worn-out feet touch the wet sand for the first time at a wave you’ve never surfed before.”

36

American surfer Dane Gudauskas revels in the isolated perfection of this secret spot in Southern Angola. Free to experiment and surf for himself after a lengthy lay-off with a hand injury, it was everything that his soul needed Below left: South African freesurfer Andrew Lange expresses himself in Mozambique’s fading light

“Freesurfing, or soul surfing, is in every surfer’s heart.

From weekend warriors to grizzled tour campaigners, the search is always on for an empty wave, free of ego and hustle. Surfing purity and the satisfaction of heart and soul.

Surfers call it ‘stoke’, and it’s what fuels the surf addiction.

Few places offer as much of it as Africa.”

“North and West Africa see big swells at places like Morocco, Senegal and the Canary Islands, but few places offer bigger and more powerful waves than South Africa,” says Van Gysen.

“Open to the full force of deep Atlantic swells generated in the Roaring Forties, South Africa gets hammered by giant surf during the southern hemisphere’s winter months.

“Cape Town has a growing big-wave surfing community, and South Africans are becoming known for fearless and composed big-wave charging. And while some spots may not offer giant walls of water to tackle, there are many smaller, protected spots that light up when big swells wrap around the continent’s southern tip.”

Durban surfer Josh Redman leans off the bottom in style at a newly discovered wave in Hermanus, Cape Town Facing page: African sunsets are even more beautiful from the water, with Craig Anderson silhouetted at Cape St Francis

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THE RED BULLETIN

“Unlike Australia, Hawaii and Indonesia, Africa doesn’t have much surfing culture,” says Van Gysen. “There are still communities which have no idea what surfing is. It’s a completely foreign concept, as alien as humans flying. People often go wild on the beach, imitating surf movements and looking at surfboards like they’ve fallen from the sky. One of the great gifts of travelling in Africa is the opportunity to immerse yourself in these communities and their cultures.”

This page and above left: Curious children in central Angola gather round Cheyne Cottrell and David Richards as they investigate a yet-to-be-named wave.

“After we left the surf, an adventurous young boy asked in Portuguese where the propeller was, assuming the surfboard was like a motor boat,” says Van Gysen.

“There is nothing like the excitement of surfing a new wave for the first time when you know no other surfers have been there before” Left: An aerial view of the remote desert suburb of Wlotzkasbaken in Namibia

Main image: Don’t be fooled by the colour: this is Cape Town, and it’s 9ºC Insets: “Hitting the road in search of empty waves is never black-and-white.

It’s true immersion; it’s about being one with your environment”

“The beauty of an empty, crystal-blue wave is what has driven surfers to surf since the birth of it all. To be able to stand inside and within a moving body of water is the ultimate feeling for any surfer and will forever remain the most timeless aspect of surfing. As a famous surfwear slogan goes: ‘Only a surfer knows the feeling’”

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Tracking a surfer on a 2km-long wave in the middle of the desert is no mean feat. “Flying in from a neighbouring country, the helicopter had to wait hours for the thick Namibian fog to clear before landing on the sand in front of this wave,” says Van Gysen.

“The beauty here is in how the wave breaks: the crushing curve, the explosion of white water, the shadowy tube and the churned-up sand. Craig Anderson is amid the chaos and driving for the exit”

“Photography has always been about perspective. Whether from above or below, horizontal or vertical, the view is utilised to emphasise the moment. But how do you photograph one of the world’s longest waves, in the middle of the Namib desert with no vantage point? At the mighty Skeleton Bay – where there is no elevation for observation, just sea and sand stretching as far as the eye can see – a bird’s-eye-view from the clouds is the answer.”

Meet the photographer When Alan van Gysen first felt the tug of adventure 15 years ago, rather than spending his savings on travelling, he decided to make a living by sharing the surfing stories of his journey. A background in competitive swimming combined with studying classical music and art at school was the ideal preparation for the physical art form of surf photography. “I prefer to shoot from the water,” he says, “feeding off the energy and perspective of a moment and trying to encapsulate and share the beauty of the subject and location.” instagram.com/alanvangysen

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LOUIE KNUXX

“I had stuff I didn’t want to face up to” This NZ hip-hop star went hardcore, evaded arrest for years and came home to invent a new kind of rap Words: Tom Goldson Photography: Alex De Mora

Louie Knuxx was missing in action from New Zealand for almost six years. Sure, there were EP and album releases, international tours and a ubiquitous social media presence that kept fans up on his every move, but up until the end of last year, the hiphop artist born Todd Michael Williams hadn’t pressed the flesh or grabbed a mic on home turf since February 2008.

Originally part of the Breakinwreck Wordz collective alongside a crew of rap voices like Tourettes, Usual Suspects and R.E.S., the New Plymouth native left his adopted home of Auckland for Melbourne, where he connected with a new scene and altered his career trajectory.

“I left New Zealand because I had legal trouble that I was avoiding,” says Knuxx, now back in Auckland City.

“I had stuff I didn’t want to face up to.”

What he didn’t want to deal with was an assault charge stemming from an incident in New Plymouth, a one-man reprisal attack that Knuxx launched after being set on by neighbourhood thugs. Police witnessed both incidents, but chose to only press charges against the rapper, whose chequered reputation in the city precedes him. When his probation officer decided that his subsequent stretch of community service was not punishment enough, Knuxx legged it to the Lucky Country.

Historically, Australian and New Zealand hip-hop have had an uneasy relationship, divided by style, accents and subject matter. In Melbourne, Knuxx didn’t warm to the rap scene and became thick as thieves with an unlikely tribe: the local hardcore fraternity.

“Sometimes I think my appearance makes it easier for someone who likes 46

hardcore and punk to get into my music,” says Knuxx, 34. “They made me feel a part of their community and took me on tours and worked with me.”

His most important hardcore co-sign came from two high-profile artists: Joel Birch, singer with The Amity Affliction, and JJ Peters, drummer for I Killed the Prom Queen before jumping ship to front Deez Nutz. Peters would put his new Kiwi comrade on Deez Nutz’s track Move Back and together they formed the rap duo Grips & Tonic. He also introduced Knuxx to Oli Sykes, frontman of Sheffield metalcore

“I left New Zealand because I had legal trouble. I had stuff I didn’t want to face up to” heavyweights Bring Me the Horizon.

That connection saw Sykes fly Knuxx to the UK for a show and release his Dying Slow EP on his Drop Dead imprint.

“Guys like JJ, Joel and Oli, they have tremendous weight with their fanbase and they understand that,” says Knuxx. “They can say to their fans, ‘This is cool – you like this now.’”

Knuxx played shows in Australia and Europe with Deez Nutz, but it wasn’t until October 2013 that he was back in New Zealand – not for lack of trying.

Plans to play a handful of homecoming shows were thwarted after the Ministry of Justice notified him to say that he’d be arrested on arrival. But when his sister

announced her wedding plans, Knuxx took a semi-calculated gamble.

“I thought, I’m just going to chance it,” he says. “I flew into Wellington and when I got there the customs guy said, ‘You’re not going to give us any trouble, are you?’ I was like, ‘No sir’.

That was a pretty amazing feeling when I walked past him, seeing New Zealand again – it was beautiful. I was with my brother, and my mum was there waiting for me. I felt so much relief.”

For all his time away, a new school of Kiwi hip-hop artists were quick to welcome the prodigal son when he played those shows. Returning to Melbourne briefly, Knuxx decided to move home for good and pick up on the New Zealand chapter of his career.

Home-grown talent like Jay Knight, Nick McLaren and Kamandi played a part in crafting Knuxx’s best work to date, the album PGT​/​GRR, which came out in July.

A support slot on Deez Nuts’s European tour followed, proving that there is no tyranny in the distance between him and his allies across the Tasman.

Back in Auckland after that monthlong run, Knuxx is now seven songs into a new EP. Like PGT​/​GRR, a dark project in music and message that touched on topics like drug use, socio-economic struggle and suicide, Knuxx promises more melancholic reality raps – and he just might have a title locked in.

“It’s strange, man, because I’m a happy person,” he considers. “I draw inspiration from sadness and I like to write sad songs. Lubin Rains from The Vietnam War, when I played him my new material he labelled it ‘sedate rap’, which I liked. I might call my next EP that.” louieknuxx.bandcamp.com THE RED BULLETIN

Discography PGT/GRR (album, 2014) Dying Slow (EP, 2012) Want Some, Get Some (album, as Grips & Tonic with JJ Peters , 2008) Drinkin’ Druggin’ Fightin F**kin’ (EP, 2008) Wasted Youth (album, 2006) Heart Ache Knuxx and Palmerston North rapper PNC formed a group called BlackHearts in 2005, but a planned collaborative project never eventuated.

(They’re now thinking about releasing an EP, though.)

HEINZ KINIGADNER

“I never stop. Ever” Double motocross world champ and co-founder of the Wings for Life Foundation on boosting your athletic ability and why it’s better to break sweat before breakfast Words: Werner Jessner Photography: Marco Rossi

the red bulletin: When you were still racing bikes [1988-98], you weren’t known to be a runner, were you? heinz kinigadner: Hang on a minute!

It’s true that I’m not the classic running type, but I used to run every day.

Was it really every day?

I did, because there are so many pluses to running. You can do it anywhere and unlike for other endurance sports, you only need a minimum of equipment.

How far did you run?

As far as I had to. My training schedule was usually for 45 minutes; 50 minutes later I was back home again. The top sportsmen of today, and this includes motorsport stars, would laugh at the way I trained back then, but when I was competing, professional endurance training was still in its infancy.

Who was your coach?

I didn’t have one, at least not when I won my first world championship title. I picked and chose what I thought was useful from various sources.

Such as running up the steep Himmelstiege [Stairway to Heaven] steps in the town of Feldkirch.

I’ll never forget it! Toni Mathis, who is an expert in his field, chased everyone up there. The name of the stairway probably comes from the fact that you think you’re in heaven when you’ve finally made it to the top and the pain subsides. You could run as slowly as you liked. The only thing you couldn’t do was stop.

What happened if you stopped?

No one did. The national ice-hockey team didn’t stop. Nor did the Swiss women’s downhill team. Nobody did.

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And I didn’t either. I still stick to that principle today. When I go running, I never stop. Under any circumstances.

How often do you run now?

The Wings for Life World Run has got me motivated to go running more often again. Now I run twice a week on average [Kinigadner is 54].

How do you motivate yourself?

If you want to be healthy, there’s no getting around moving, regardless of how fast or far you go.

“The Wings For Life World Run has got me motivated to go running again” Are you a morning or evening runner?

I only run in the morning. No breakfast.

No coffee. I just get out the door and run. Any day you go running is a good day because it begins with that nice feeling of having achieved something.

What are your favourite places to go running?

I really like running on the island of Ibiza. The weather’s good there and it’s a great location. Perfect.

The second Wings For Life World Run will take place in May next year. What are your goals?

I won’t settle for 12km [his distance in the 2014 race]. This year it should be

at least 15km. Women aged 50 and over and men pushing prams won’t be overtaking me ever again.

Where will you race?

I have to fly to Greece the next day for the Hellas Rally, so probably Germany.

I really liked St Pölten last year.

How did you find the atmosphere during the race?

The more you’re overtaken, the more chilled it gets. You understand that people aren’t running to try to break records. They’re doing it for the cause and the good feeling that they get from making something happen. Plus, everyone’s got a story to tell. Sadly, I was running a little low on oxygen, so I tended to listen more than tell. Peter Wirnsberger, who’s a former alpine skier, was by my side for most of the time and he chatted away. He’s 56 now and he’s still in really good shape.

Lots of sports stars took part in the World Run, didn’t they?

The great thing is they’re doing it all of their own free will. In some cases, I only realised people had taken part after the event. Some I hadn’t seen for 30 years, such as my former motocross rivals. It’s true what they say: the whole world runs the Wings for Life World Run. kini.at

The starting pistol for the 2015 Wings for Life World Run will be fired simultaneously in more than 30 countries around the world on May 3, 2015.

Find the race near you and register now: wingsforlifeworldrun.com THE RED BULLETIN

High point Kinigadner was motocross world champion in 1984 and 1985, in the 250cc class, riding for KTM. Turning point Kinigadner’s son Hannes was confined to a wheelchair after an accident in 2003.

It was then that he brought his competitive career to an end and set up the Wings For Life Foundation alongside Red Bull cofounder Dietrich Mateschitz.

The non-profit foundation supports spinal injury research projects worldwide.

All of the Wings For Life World Run entry fees go into funding that research.

Child star: Kimbra first announced that she wanted to be a popstar on New Zealand TV when she was 11 years old

HOW THE

WEST IT TOOK KIMBRA 13 YEARS TO GET FROM THE NORTH ISLAND TO BEVERLY HILLS. NOW SHE’S AT THE CREST OF A NEW WAVE OF ANTIPODEAN TALENT. SHE’S WON TWO GRAMMYS AND MADE A HOST OF FAMOUS FRIENDS, BUT THE GENRE-DEFYING SINGER IS JUST GETTING STARTED

WAS

WON

WORDS: TOM GOLDSON

BIL ZELMAN/CONTOUR BY GETTY IMAGES

H

i, I’m Kimbra, and one day I’d love to be a popstar.” This was the prophetic announcement of Kimbra Lee Johnson, aged 11, when she appeared on series five of long-running children’s TV show What Now. Fresh out of Hamilton, Kimbra was in Auckland City courtesy of the show for a popstar primer that included an intensive vocal coaching session, mentoring from singer-songwriter Anika Moa, on-camera tips from TV hosts Francesca Rudkin and Erika Takacs and studio time with engineer Rikki Morris, to record her self-penned song, Smile.

After nailing her vocal over a stuttering R&B track, blissfully unaware of the demands of post production, she asks excitedly, “Can I take it away now?”

Times have changed: these days Kimbra has her own home studio, housed in the basement of her Los Angeles apartment.

Thirteen years after What Now, she has made good on her tween declaration.

She’s won two Grammy awards, courtesy of Gotye’s 2012 smash Somebody That I Used To Know, has two genre-defying albums under her belt, and counts musicians Matt Bellamy of Muse, Silverchair’s Daniel Johns and Kanye West’s go-to crooner John Legend as friends and collaborators.

“As a young kid I really did feel like I wanted to make a difference in some way,” Kimbra says, sitting in her new apartment, spitting distance from Sunset Boulevard, as she recalls her TV debut.

“When you’re setting out and people ask what you want to be when you grow up, 51

Right place, right time: Los Angeles has provided Kimbra with musical collaboration and inspiration for her songwriting

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THE RED BULLETIN

“I WAS THE

LAST

PERSON TO THINK LA WOULD BE HOME. I FELT IT WAS

CLARKE TOLTON/CONTOUR BY GETTY IMAGES

SOULLESS”

THE RED BULLETIN

I’d tell them that I wanted to share a gift with the world, whether that was music or something else. The moment I found my music connected with people and could be a vehicle to do that, I ran for it.”

Aged 18, Kimbra had a record deal with independent label Forum 5 and was living in Melbourne, Australia.

But it was recording Somebody That I Used To Know with Gotye that really changed life as she knew it. Though one of her own tracks beat Gotye’s to the winning spot in the Vanda & Young Songwriting Competition 2011, it was his that became a smash hit.

When Kimbra takes the stage at The Independent in San Francisco this October 20, the first stop on a tour that is selling out fast, it will mark the second phase of a US campaign launched off the back of the global chart triumphs of that Grammy-winning single. Not missing a beat, she segued its success into two years of touring, winning her newfound audience over to the jazz-infused pop direction of her 2011 debut, Vows. The day after Somebody That I Used To Know won the Record of the Year Grammy in 2013, Kimbra moved to LA. “It’s crazy. I was the last person to think that LA would be home to me,” she says. “When I used to come here, I totally did not get it; I felt like it was soulless and without any grounding.

But then I just gave the place a bit more of a chance. It really was the classic cliché of meeting the right people and them taking you to their favourite little club or restaurant downtown or something. Once I made those discoveries, it really did click.”

But Los Angeles is more than a home, it also gave access to a talent pool the 24-year-old tapped for her guest-heavy second album The Golden Echo, among them star bassist Thundercat and 53

B

etween The Golden Echo’s worldwide release in August, and the run of dates in October and November that will see Kimbra and her band road-test the album’s 12 tracks across venues in the United States, New Zealand and Australia, the adopted Los Angelean has been presented with a rare opportunity: a two-month window of downtime before getting back on a tour bus. But rather than use this to take breather, she initiated an international media blitz to talk up the release, breathing new life into the album’s studio sheen with a handful of strippedback sessions for radio, and striving to maintain her live chops, but in a much more intimate environment than the theatres she’ll soon visit. In true musicians’ musician style, Kimbra has launched an LA residency at a venue she won’t reveal, preferring to keep this a strictly under-the-radar exercise.

“THIS IS WHAT I LIVE AND IT’S

BREATHE. NOT THAT I HAVE TO DO THIS, I NEED TO DO IT”

Lead vocal: Kimbra has gone from featured artist to main attraction

“It’s just a little thing every Sunday night where I get some of my friends on stage to jam,” she reveals. “It’s really about embracing the spirit of spontaneity, creating a song from nothing. It’s not about jazz solos, we’re not playing any songs from The Golden Echo, it’s just about musicianship and connectivity. It’s a nice way to keep that spirit of creation alive.”

Kimbra’s first album, Vows, written and recorded in her then-home of Melbourne, came at a time when few other Antipodean pop talents had a platform beyond their home territories.

At the time of her second, just three years later, US and UK radio is awash with chart contenders from down under.

It’s not only Lorde who has dominion over the airwaves and streaming sites: the Joel Little-produced sibling outfit Broods are flexing their pop muscle, Sydney’s 5 Seconds of Summer are giving their One Direction comrades a run for their money, and Iggy Azalea of Mullumbimby, NSW, had the song of the summer with Fancy.

“I really do think that New Zealand musicians have something extra special,” says Kimbra. “When I was back home recently I noticed that there is so much great stuff happening. We’re so far from the rest of the world that there’s not much of a direct influence from American culture. Growing up in Hamilton, I was so isolated from overseas pop culture that when it came to creating my own music, there was a ton of freedom to move, but also more ambition with it. It was like, OK, if I want to get my music out there I’ve got to make it great. I really think it comes down to our isolation.”

It’s not just Australasian media outlets that have picked up on this local uprising; The New York Times, The Guardian and the Los Angeles Times have all hailed Kimbra’s arrival as a ‘Kiwi’ songstress, as if this might divine some explanation for her skewwhiff pop savvy.

As A&R opportunists and major labels continue to sort through a crop of new local talent in the hope of laying claim to the next Kimbra Lee Johnson or Ella Yelich-O’Connor, Kimbra herself is still striving to make her own mark, her eyes locked on the same path to pop stardom her 11-year-old self set out on.

“This is what I do, this is what I live and breathe,” she says. “It’s not that I have to do this, it’s that I need to do it.

Whether it needs to be at the same level of intensity that it is now or not, I know now that it’s something I was born to do.” kimbramusic.com

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THE RED BULLETIN

BIL ZELMAN/CONTOUR BY GETTY IMAGES

The Mars Volta’s Omar Rodriguez-Lopez.

Her surroundings also inspired more than 50 demos she recorded to make the album. These working sketches were all influenced by LA extremities, whether it was the lifestyles of its bluechip insiders or impoverished outsiders.

“There’s the ultimate glossy, polished, superficial aspect of the city; then there’s the very real skid row in downtown, and the homelessness and the hustle,” she says. “I think when you see that every day, something changes about the way you make your art and challenges you.

I think it definitely rubs off.

“I felt like I had a spirit of fearlessness with this album that I maybe didn’t have in the past. People here want to make their mark. It can be kind of sickening when you meet people who are just climbing social ladders, but then you’ll meet people who have a revolutionary spirit about them – and when that feels pure and authentic, it inspires you to bring that same attitude to your music.”

Today’s essential music makers tell the stories behind their beat: Fireside Chats on rbmaradio.com

Steven Soderbergh, will you ever make another movie?

He was the indie-movie master, George Clooney’s go-to guy and an Oscarwinning director. Now he’s made 2014’s most shocking TV series

The first moments of the first episode of The Knick go like this: a man awakens in a brothel and in the taxi to work injects cocaine between his toes. In the operating theatre, where this man performs pioneering surgery, his morning’s first patients, a mother and her unborn child, die on the table.

As opening salvos go, it’s perhaps the most shocking and attention-grabbing of any in the current so-called golden era of TV. It might also be a surprise to learn that the guy who wrote, directed and edited this and every other moment of the 10 hours of The Knick, set in a New York hospital in 1900, is the same guy who directed Erin Brockovich and Magic Mike. But Steven Soderbergh, for it is he, has made a successful career out of U-turns and new directions. The 51-yearold has won a Best Director Oscar, for Traffic, and made six films with George Clooney, including the Ocean’s trilogy.

All this after he became the godfather of independent cinema after his first film, Sex, Lies, And Videotape, in 1989.

Last year, Soderbergh said he was retiring from filmmaking. His new TV-making has brought him very firmly back into the spotlight. the red bulletin: Why did you say ‘no more films’ and then immediately do a 10-hour TV series? steven soderbergh: When I feel instinctively it’s time for a change, where I need to shift either what I am doing or how I do it, I take that very seriously.

Six years ago, I started to put in motion a plan that would put me in a different place, take me out of films to do something else. I just decided I wanted 56

to do something different. As it happens, I thought it was one thing and it turned out to be another. I thought it was, ‘Oh yeah, you should go learn how to paint.’ When in point of fact it was, ‘No, you should go find another medium where you can enjoy yourself, but not abandon all the things you really enjoy doing.’ So it all worked out.

Was it hard to go from film to TV? I had a moment when we got into the production and were shooting when I realised: ‘This is what I do, this is what

“I realised, ‘This is what I do, this is what I’m built for – this specific job’” I am built for, this specific job.’ That’s why I have done this for so long. I was lucky enough to find it early on. That did sort of shift my attitude about whether to take time off. I realised, ‘I like being here, I like doing this job.’

There is nothing wrong with that.

What did you find to be the biggest difference between films and TV? We had to shoot 570 pages in 73 days, so about eight pages a day, which is a healthy number. I knew we had the benefit of one of the most indestructible genres in television – the medical drama – but viewed through a lens

I hadn’t seen before. So I felt like we had the best of both worlds; it was fresh but also familiar, the audience goes, ‘Oh I know, it’s a show about a hospital,’ which it is. Then I made a list of things that I don’t want to do – with the musical score, for example, I didn’t want to hear a string anywhere in this, as it just screams period piece.

You directed all the first season of The Knick and will do the same for the second. Are you a control freak?

We basically scheduled the first season like a film and shot it and budgeted and [story]boarded it like a film, which is a very efficient way to work. Eleven months ago, I didn’t think I’d be sitting here talking about 10 hours of material that is in front of us and 10 hours of material that is behind us. My whole life I’ve moved in any direction that I thought was going to surprise me and engage me.

Is it rigorous on the actors, too?

It’s great to work with Clive [Owen, who stars as surgeon Dr John Thackery].

We wouldn’t have been able to pull off this schedule if he didn’t show up, totally prepared, ready to work. He has the same work attitude I do, which is ‘don’t make it harder than it needs to be’. We’re a really good match.

Do you miss making movies?

I’m always thinking about the next one.

I always operate under the assumption that whatever film you are making at the moment is basically annihilating everything that came before it. You are always starting from zero. If you are not thinking that way, you are probably not going to evolve. cinemax.com/the-knick/ THE RED BULLETIN

NICOLAS GUERIN/CONTOUR BY GETTY IMAGES

Words: Susan Hornik

Oscar pedigree Best Director award for Traffic; nominee for Erin Brockovich.

Screenplay nominee for Sex, Lies, And Videotape Is that really you?

Soderbergh directs under his own name, but uses pseudonyms for his cinematography and editing: check the credits for Peter Andrews and Mary Ann Bernard

CAMILO LARA AND TOY SELECTAH

“We all share a beat” Their first song together was No 1 for 16 months. Now these Mexican musical multitaskers are leading an astonishing global supergroup Words: Wookie Williams Photography: Robert Astley Sparke

When Camilo Lara and Toy Selectah last worked together in early 2013, they produced Como Te Voy A Olvidar, an electronic reimagining of traditional cumbia music, a style of Latin-American music a bit like salsa. The song spent more than 65 weeks at number one in the Mexican digital charts, so the idea of making a follow-up album was a no-brainer. Six studios, five countries and more than 80 collaborations later – including Boy George, Gogol Bordello frontman Eugene Hutz, Phil Manzanera of Roxy Music, Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour and Jamaican reggae producers Sly and Robbie – the duo have amassed enough material for their debut longplayer, Compass. The Red Bulletin caught up with them at Red Bull Studios São Paulo, the last stop on their international recording tour. the red bulletin: How do your influences inform your partnership? toy selectah: We grew up listening to cumbia, mambo, danzon and a lot of traditional rhythms from Mexico and the rest of the Americas. We listened to that before we listened to rock ’n’ roll. camilo lara: Being born in the mid1970s, our generation was discovering everything all at once. We were listening to Happy Mondays, The Stone Roses and De La Soul, but also Cypress Hill, and dub and drum ’n’ bass from the UK, and we incorporated those rhythms into the other sounds we’d heard.

Who first had the idea of giving cumbia an electronic facelift? cl: It all came together in 2001, when Toy produced Cumbia Sobre El Rio, a song by Celso Pina, the first track that really incorporated electronic beats with a traditional cumbia sound. It was the starting point for a whole generation of 58

musicians, including myself. He’s a clever guy and it resonated with a lot of people.

What’s so special about cumbia? ts: It’s how simple the rhythm is, it’s very pragmatic. It’s a state of mind, more than a certain musical pattern. It’s being from where we are. I would have a hip-hop state of mind if I was from New York, but I’m from Monterrey, so that changes things.

Why did you start working together? ts: We’ve been making records for years, and we’d never done anything original together, so we started exchanging music. I sent Camilo some beats and he started making stuff from that. He

“We wanted to show people that the dancefloor is the same everywhere; it’s a diplomatic place” got excited and we started talking about doing a collaborations album, because we hadn’t done that before either. Then Red Bull came in and helped us build this amazing network of different collaborators and musicians, working in creative hubs with people from very different backgrounds and tastes. cl: The idea was to get into the barrio, the hood, to get a taste of funk or rhyme or Bollywood – pieces of all kinds of rhythm – and translate that into our own sound. The hood is the same in Brazil as it is in Mexico or New York and LA. We wanted to show people that the dancefloor is the same everywhere; it’s a very democratic place where anyone

can share music’s energy. We tried to take our music into their hoods. If the collaborator was from India or Japan, or Brazil, we took our music and set it to their pitch. It’s a global album, but it all has a distinctive Mexican flavour.

So what made you decide to call the album Compass? cl: In one sense, it’s a fellowship. The name is a play on the word compas, meaning ‘buddies’. But it can also be interpreted as compass, because we’ve been looking for people everywhere to translate their music into what we do.

What was it like working with so many famous, even legendary, collaborators? ts: For me, working with Sly and Robbie in Jamaica really was a dream come true. cl: I was thrilled to learn that David Gilmore is a fan of my Mexican Institute Of Sound label. I contacted Phil Manzanera from Roxy Music to work on a track. He was recording with David, who joined in, too. The track I sent him ended up being recorded by Boy George.

It was crazy. All the collaborations have been fantastic. Toots and the Maytals, MC Lyte, Cornelius, Stereo MC’s, Crystal Fighters, Eugene from Gogol Bordello, Bonde Do Role. We’ve had a blast.

What connects your music and that of all these artists, who come from such a wide range of backgrounds? cl: It’s in the significance of the music.

Keep in mind that jungle, dubstep, trip-hop – all the rhythms that were happening in Brazil or the UK – were also happening in Mexico, so we speak the same language. It’s just music, we all share a beat, you know? ts: The beat is the force of human nature, the rhythm of the heart.

There’s rhythm in all of us.

Compass will be released in 2015. Follow @camilolara and @toyselectah on Twitter THE RED BULLETIN

Schools old and new Camilo Lara (left) and Toy Selectah are forwardthinking DJs and musicmakers, producing a mash-up of traditional Mexican music with many modern genres.

Remix masters Between them, the duo have worked with and produced remixes for Morrissey, Tom Tom Club, Placebo, Beastie Boys, 2manydjs, Chromeo, Diplo and Friendly Fires.

AMERICAN EAGLE The gods of rock put JESSE HUGHES on this earth to keep the flame alive.

At least, that’s what he believes.

A day and a night in the desert with the EAGLES OF DEATH METAL frontman Words: Andreas Tzortzis Photography: Alex de Mora

King of the wild frontier: Jesse Hughes

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IT’S PAST 11PM IN THE CALIFORNIA DESERT, which is why Pappy And Harriet’s is closed. Strange, because the bar and restaurant is also a gig venue, but it’s a week night, so Jesse Hughes floors the gas pedal of his white Toyota Scion with 190,000 miles on the clock and heads south in the direction of his hometown.

Hughes is the 42-year-old lead singer of and brains behind American rock band Eagles Of Death Metal. He is driving towards Palm Desert, a small city in the Coachella Valley with a population of just under 50,000. This is where he spent much of his childhood after relocating with his mother from South Carolina at the age of seven following his parents’ divorce. It’s also where, in high school, he met rock prodigy Josh Homme and the place that would ultimately set him on a path to rock stardom – or a pastiched approximation of it, at least.

As he manipulates the steering wheel, he lights a cigarette and scrolls through his iPhone for Prince, or James Brown, or whatever artist he needs to emphasise the point he’s making at that moment.

The car makes herky-jerky movements as he navigates it at mildly alarming speeds down the twisty part of State Route 62, from Joshua Tree into the Low Desert. The subject of the Eagles Of Death Metal’s first performance at the Coachella Valley Music Festival, a few miles away, comes up. It was there he played in front of all the people who bullied him at high school.

“I didn’t know whether to be gracious or be a dick,” he says.

“I ended up being gracious. Danny DeVito introduced us on stage and it was like, ‘F--k all of y’all.’”

Clockwise from left: Hughes in his Toyota Scion; view from the driver’s seat; an Oldsmobile Cutlass in Hughes’s studio fleet.

Facing page: trying to be better than the Beatles

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he chip on his shoulder is an important one. It’s rescued him from a nasty divorce and a job in video-store management, and led to a music career which most artists would kill for. He’s crafted four albums that feature catchy tunes that have provided a soundtrack to commercials hawking everything from beer to software programmes and sportswear, and providing reliable warmup for stadium rock bands. Eagles of Death Metal have been lavishly praised by the Foo Fighters and thrown off a Guns N’ Roses tour by Axl Rose on the first night, an episode Hughes commemorated with a new tattoo. He came to rock prominence with the help of Homme, who happens to be both the frontman of the Queens Of the Stone Age and his best friend in the music industry. That chip on his shoulder comes with controversial views, an offensive sense of humour and, fortunately for his music career, an almost scientific approach to forming a rock ’n’ roll band: write good songs, never let them know your true self and “kill rock and rape roll” at every waking moment.

“I’m trying to do anything for people to have a good time with me,” says Hughes. “I’m not trying to give people a good time because, forget that, I’m having a good time. You want to have a good time with me? Let’s do this. My dad had a quote: ‘There’s a rock ’n’ roll band that jacks off for everyone in the room to see.

And there’s a rock ’n’ roll band that tries to f--k everybody in the room. Which one would you like to be?’ So I’m trying to f--k everybody in the room.”

The band’s music is compulsively listenable. The sound is sparse: wailing guitars over a grinding bass line and a tight snare and bass drum beat. The lyrics are clever and soaked in Hollywood heartbreak and nights out in pursuit of the holy trinity, of which one is sex.

It’s music to dance to, music to lose yourself to. It’s pop rock, transmitted viscerally by the suspenders-wearing man in the driver’s seat of the Scion.

“The Beatles defined pop music,” he says. “It’s our obligation to make it better.

That’s what I’m trying to do, baby. I didn’t want any music that put up a velvet rope in any way. I didn’t want any snobbery.”

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Desert god: Jesse Hughes. Facing page: what fills the Californian studio Rancho de la Luna, including Hughes’s girlfriend, Tuesday Cross

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lash back to 10 hours earlier in Hughes’s apartment, a small duplex in a quiet part of Los Angeles’ Silver Lake neighbourhood. The garage door is painted white, a large section of which is badly splintered, apparently due to “knife-throwing action”.

Hughes calls this place a “House for Wayward Rockers”, in which late nights are inevitable and drama is never far away. The previous weekend, his girlfriend, former porn actressturned artist Tuesday Cross, had to lay down the law to a wild drunk woman. “It was awesome!” says Hughes.

“Righteous, bro! She was one of those chicks – I could see it coming. Her nose busting was a foregone conclusion.”

Behind a screen door and inside a room painted red and black is a jumble of art, books and kitsch paraphernalia.

On the tattered couch there’s a beaded skull pillow given to him by Jay Leno, and a shrunken head sits unassumingly on a shelf. Another shelf holds a Mak-90 assault rifle and a pair of old-school gun-powder loading pistols – a pair for him, a pair for Tuesday – modelled on the kind of guns used by Old West folk hero Wild Bill Hickok and the Confederate General Robert E Lee. In a large frame hanging on the wall is a Nazi armband which Hughes is convinced was worn by Hitler at one point because he’s got the official documentation to prove it was signed for by his valet. So, why does Hughes have a memento from a fascist genocidal regime on his wall? “Because we kicked their ass,” he shrugs. “We get to flaunt their stuff now.” The armband came from a wealthy collector of curiosities in Canada, who also gave him the shrunken head. “He wanted to use one of our songs in commercials and wanted to know much we’d want.

I just said, ‘A little head,’” says Hughes.

THE RED BULLETIN

“ I WROTE THE FIRST RECORD BASED ON ADVICE FROM BARRY MANILOW” He delivers the punchline deadpan before quickly moving on to the next anecdote. A conversation with Hughes is a full-on assault of pop culture punditry, peppered with controversial opinions and with heavy, sustained doses of right-wing politics. It appears the shy, picked-on kid he was in high school finally got the lungs to air his views – and to sing in a rock band.

“I honestly expected to be a US Senator by now,” he says. Hughes is also convinced that he could be the right antidote for America’s somewhat directionless conservative movement

of recent years. He doesn’t think that Barack Obama would be around had he been behind the scenes in the Republican political machine – though truth be told, it’s hard to imagine Hughes working behind the scenes of anything.

There’s no doubting that Hughes is much better at fronting a band than talking about politics. At the moment, he’s working on the first Eagles Of Death Metal album in more than five years. He wrote most of the lyrics in 2012, but has been waiting for the right moment to put them to tracks.

“The timing’s got to be right,” explains Hughes. “When we do a tour, if I know I can sell out a 1,000-seater, I’ll book the 500-seater because it looks better to have a bunch of people waiting outside.

I’m really looking at tomorrow.”

Hughes married young, and a messy divorce left him heartbroken and heading down a dangerous path of booze and drugs. It was at his lowest point that Homme visited him and took an interest in a few songs that Hughes had been recording on his computer. “Do you have any more of these?” he asked.

“I wrote the whole first record based on advice from Barry Manilow, which was: every song is a commercial pop song.” says Hughes. “It’s not a problem if you’re stealing something, as long as you’re honest about it. I didn’t steal from people that sucked. Every song has already been written in my opinion, so why make it hard? I’m not going to try to be like Poison, I’ll try to be like the Stones. At least I’m improving my odds of success.”

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The album’s many tracks.

Above: Hughes and bandmate Davey Catching

In the early Noughties, Hughes was starting out in an industry that was already undergoing a tectonic shift in consumption habits, with the paranoia rampant in the music industry only amplified by that change. Trying to embody the ultimate rock ’n’ roll avatar was never going to be enough.

Guided by the self-empowerment books of Robert Greene, a favourite of rap impresarios like Jay-Z, Hughes’s approach was methodical. But it was his penchant for provocation that urged him into the limelight. After the release of Eagles Of Death Metal’s second album, Death By Sexy, in 2006, the band was invited on tour with Guns N’ Roses. The first night in Cleveland, Ohio, went down in rock infamy. After the band finished their set, Rose took to the stage and asked the crowd what they thought of the “Pigeons of Shit Metal” and then said they’d been kicked off the tour.

“I had a moment of panic, but then I realised I wanted Axl Rose to hate me,” he says. “I knew I needed it. It guaranteed that I was an awesome guy.”

Foo Fighters’ frontman Dave Grohl, already a friend of Homme and Hughes, rallied behind the band. Two years later, Eagles Of Death Metal released Heart On with a hip-shaking lead single, I Wannabe in LA, which might be the closest thing the band have to a global hit. The song was featured in Guitar Hero 5. But to Hughes, success is defined by Eagles Of Death Metal-dominated airwaves, soldout shows and more and more exposure.

That’s why the Nike ad soundtracked

“ I HAD A MOMENT OF PANIC, BUT THEN I REALISED I WANTED AXL ROSE TO HATE ME. I NEEDED IT” by an Eagles song, with over 70 million YouTube views and many comments asking about the song, is so important.

“In the mind of the average radio executive, 10 million views is still a platinum album,” says Hughes. “Even though the facade of it is exposed. But when they see 71 million, it’s able to impress them to seven platinum albums.

This s--t is gonna change their life.”

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he mercury has hit 37°C in the California High Desert.

Hughes is supposed to be at the Rancho de la Luna recording studio near Joshua Tree, where he’s arranged to meet his friend and guitarist Davey Catching. But he’s late.

“He’s a f--king genius, but he’s on his own time,” says the world-weary Catching, a rock veteran and owner of the Rancho, a house and studio of ramshackle charm on 30 acres of empty desert. Catching’s beard makes him look a bit like Santa as a ZZ Top roadie.

He’s played with Eagles Of Death Metal for all but two tours. “Our audiences are half and half, girls and boys,” he says.

Among the distractions at the Rancho is a shooting range

THE RED BULLETIN

“A lot of my other bands, there’s lots of boys out there, who weren’t dancing, and it wasn’t as fun. Jesse does 100,000 per cent on stage to encourage that.

He is the best front guy I’ve ever seen.”

Hughes and his girlfriend roll up in the Scion a while later. They’ve been together for five years. She’s the quiet counter to Hughes’s craziness. “Tuesday’s the great insanity of my life,” he says.

Hughes greets Catching and the two mess around with a tomahawk axe before heading inside. In a room covered in thrift store trinkets, skeleton dolls, cheesy paintings and many, many guitars. Hughes hooks his iPhone up to the mixing console and plays songs from the forthcoming album. He hid them from prying eyes in a folder called Tony Robbins, named after the motivational speaker: “Because who’s going to want to check out Tony Robbins?”

The tracks are complete, but Hughes still needs to record his vocals. One is reminiscent of Gwen Stefani’s Hollaback Girl, another sounds like growling swamp rock. Hughes softly sings a few of the refrains as he stands next to the console moving his legs and smoking.

In 1990, Hughes saw a movie that would influence his rock ’n’ roll persona.

Controversial comedian Andrew Dice Clay plays the title character in The Adventures Of Ford Fairlane, a selfproclaimed ‘Mr Rock ’n’ Roll Detective’ who crudely stumbles from case to case, picking up women and generally being obnoxious along the way, a similarity which isn’t lost on Hughes.

“I took the rule that people only know what you tell them, and I took it very seriously,” he says. Hughes’s image is an unironic homage to the past: a little bit Joan Jett, a little bit rockabilly.

But the appreciation behind it all is earnest. In some ways, it’s sad that Hughes wasn’t born earlier, during a time more suited to his rock ’n’ roll bravado. Instead, he is here in the middle of the desert. But, of course, Hughes has an answer for that too.

“It just seems that the gods of rock have invested in me to keep the flame burning,” he says. “That’s OK, that’s why I’m on fire.” The strains of Stevie Wonder’s I Believe (When I Fall in Love) can be heard in the background. He pauses before getting to the point most dear to him: “You have to be killing rock and screwing roll. You have to be really horny. You have to really believe in it.

I believe in it. I believe that heroes are important… I believe in dancing.” eaglesofdeathmetal.com

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PLUS: PAUL RADISICH

SEPTEMBER – 2014 ISSUE 92 THE RYDER CUP

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ACTION!

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Bird’s-eye view: microlights can reach 5,500ft above sea level

AFTER THE FLIGHT STAY ACTIVE ON THE GROUND AROUND JOBURG

FREEFALL Now go down: try plunging 70m through the air inside the cooling tower of a decommissioned power station with SCAD Freefall. orlandotowers.co.za

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Prices start from NZ$6,655 including transfers, accommodation and all tuition, based on a 30-day stay. jhbflying.co.za

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LONG JUMP

ADVICE FROM THE INSIDE BODY MOVING “You don’t have to be super-fit to do this, but you have to be reasonably healthy,” says Gregson. “It is a strenuous physical activity, as microlights pick up turbulence easily and you’re changing height and direction by moving your body. You’ll find as you fly it’s workout enough to quickly get you where you need to be.”

World traveller: a microlight licence is global

After the highs of flying, canyoning, known as kloofing in South Africa, will take you to new lows, scrambling, abseiling, jumping and swimming your way to the bottom of a ravine in Magaliesberg. mountainguide.co.za

REVVED UP

Blue-sky thinking

“South Africa is an ideal place to learn,” says Ramos. “It offers great flying conditions almost all year, and you can build up to navigating tougher flights once you have the experience to handle them.”

Explore the rugged scenery of Daytona Adventure Park in Gauteng province with a little added adrenalin. Ride a quad bike over rocky terrain, dirt tracks and through forests. gauteng.net

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JHBFLYING.CO.ZA(2), ORLANDOTOWERS.CO.ZA, GETTY IMAGES(2)

Taking off in a microlight for the first time takes guts, but once in the skies, you get an exhilarating flying experience. “It’s like a motorbike in the sky,” says Roy Gregson, owner of Johannesburg Flying Academy. “It feels like you’re sitting on a dining room chair in the air. The beauty of microlights is they can take off and land in small areas, and you have an engine, so you don’t need to climb mountains like paragliders do.”

Gregson is passionate about microlights, having flown them for pleasure and in competitions for years. His company trains people to get their licence, so they can take to the skies solo. “Once you’ve had 25 hours of flying time, and passed the theoretical exams, within a month you can be flying 5,500ft above sea level anywhere in the world,” he says.

“You can travel a whole country this way.”

Luis Ramos, a 39-year-old IT consultant from Johannesburg, got his licence with JFA six months ago. “I’d never done anything like this,” he says. “At first you’re scared, they take off like a bat out of hell.

But as soon as I started training that bug bit me. The first time you fly solo feels like jumping out of a plane without a parachute. It’s terrifying, but then the feeling you get is indescribable. Once you have your licence you just want to take your friends up and show them this amazing new world you’ve discovered.”

ACTION!

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Safeguarded If a member of crew wearing a Quatix falls overboard, the watch automatically sends a manoverboard alarm

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JULBO OCTOPUS WAVE Self-tinting and polarising lenses filter the reflection of light from the surface of the water. julbousa.com

Charged You can charge the battery via a USB port. In GPS mode it will last for up to 16 hours

Protected With its steel-reinforced plastic housing and silicon strap, this is waterproof at depths of up to 50m

MAGIC MARINE MX2 REVOLUTION JACKET A thin, cropped jacket perfect for use under the harness sailors often wear. magicmarine.com

Pinpoint precision S AILING TO WIN THE VOLVO OCEAN RACE, YOU NEED THE BEST KIT: THIS DEVICE IS CHIEF AMONG IT

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Captain fantastic: Franck Cammas

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It wasn’t so long ago that skippers had to use navigation systems that were fixed in place on their boats. Now they can have a total positioning information system literally up their sleeves. “My Garmin Quatix is fantastic,” says Franck Cammas, skipper of the Groupama crew that won the 2011/12 Volvo

Ocean Race. “Whether it’s the route, velocity curve or air pressure, you can get all the details you need right here on your wrist.”

The 41-year-old Frenchman finds one feature particularly useful, especially on large vessels: “It can even operate autopilot via Wi-Fi.” cammas-groupama.com

DYNEEMA SK99 Top-notch, synthetic-fibre rope: tensile, light and thin, so it doesn’t give the wind much room to target. dyneema.com

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ACTION!

WORKOUT “ I target one man and then try to run through him,” says Manu Vatuvei

THE QUAD KILLER

On the edge: wing wonder Manu Vatuvei

“Because my knees are so beat up, I work hard on strengthening my quads,” says Manu Vatuvei. “The wall sit looks easy, but it’s a killer.”

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2

Power player

warriors.co.nz

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Slide down the wall until your knees are at 90 degrees, thighs parallel with the floor, and hold for up to a minute.

Repeat as often as you can.

KNEES UP LOW IMPACT, HIGH RESULTS HERI IRAWAN

“It takes me longer to recover after a game than it used to,” says Manu Vatuvei, who is known as The Beast. Ice baths, a compression machine and an antigravity treadmill are some of the tools the 28-yearold winger uses to cope with the wear and tear on his body. Training typically includes a morning skills session on the field and a couple of hours in the gym in the afternoon. “We do more gym work than when I first started playing,” he says. “We used to do a lot of running and we’d get flogged pretty hard in training. Now it’s more scientific, with GPS units and heart rate monitors.” Vatuvei runs about 6km during a game, almost all high-intensity sprinting. It is his job to receive the ball from kick-offs and restarts and run full tilt at the opposition defence. “I’m bigger than most wingers [he is 189cm and 110kg], so I use my size and power rather than my speed,” he says.

“I target one man and then try to run through him.”

Stand with your back against a wall, engage your core muscles – and keep them engaged throughout the exercise.

The AlterG Anti-Gravity, developed by NASA engineers, lets those who pound it effectively run under reduced-gravity conditions. You set it to take the strain in a range of 20-100 per cent of your mass. “I’ve got no PCL [posterior cruciate ligament] in either of my knees, so I spend a lot of time on the AlterG,” says Vatuvei.

“I run at 70 per cent of my bodyweight, which reduces the load on my knees.”

GETTY IMAGES(2)

RUGBY LEAGUE A DECADE OF HARD RUNNING AND BRUTAL TACKLING HAS MADE NEW ZEALAND WARRIORS STAR MANU VATUVEI RETHINK HIS REGIME

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TOP FIVE MESSING WITH TEXAS

Bobby Fitzgerald of Austin-based band Whiskey Shivers

With the bands

TAGGART SORENSEN, MARIO VILLEDA

AUSTIN DIVE BARS FUEL THE TEXAS CITY’S LATENIGHT MUSIC SCENE, BUT THERE ARE ALSO PLENTY OF PLACES TO SHOP, EAT AND GO A LITTLE BATTY “Focused fun” is how Whiskey Shivers’ fiddle player and vocalist Bobby Fitzgerald describes Austin, Texas, one of America’s most famously eclectic and independent cites. “Everyone here is trying to enjoy themselves and do what they love, but they’re all very serious about it. You gotta get stuff done,” he says.

That mindset makes Austin a prime destination for any dedicated band looking to enjoy the journey of (hopefully) getting their big break. Like everyone in the band, who’s musical style has been labelled “trashgrass” and “hardcore roots”, Fitzgerald was neither born nor raised in Austin, but quickly adopted the city as home. Contrary to the cut-throat nature of the music industry, the Austin scene is known for its good vibes. “Everyone wants to help everyone,” he says. “We’re all just trying to get to the same place.” whiskeyshivers.com

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Nothing’s more Texan than football. And on Thanksgiving Day (November 27) you can catch the Texas Longhorns in action against local college rivals TCU.

see the largest urban bat colony in North America make its post-sunset flight. Don’t worry, they don’t fly above the bridge, but even from a distance, there is a distinct batty smell.

WURSTFEST

1 THE WHITE HORSE, 500 Comal St “A honky-tonk dive bar on the East Side. A taco truck outside, usually a couple of horses tied up out front. Bikes everywhere.

It’s loud, dirty and kinda smells like pee,” says Fitzgerald.

4 UNCOMMON OBJECTS, 1512 S Congress Ave This antique shop is like a museum of the absurd, but with a Texas bent: stuffed armadillos, cow-skin lamps and vintage bizarre dolls. The city’s motto isn’t Keep Austin Weird without reason.

EAST AUSTIN STUDIO TOUR

2 MELLOW JOHNNY’S

BIKE SHOP, 400 Nueces St Yes, it was founded by Austin’s very own He Who Shall Not Be Named, Lance Armstrong, but it has excellent weekly group rides you can take part in.

3 CONGRESS AVENUE BRIDGE, 111 S Congress Ave Stake out a spot on the bridge early in the evening in order to

Descendants of German settlers and fans of partying keep the beer and sausage tradition alive in New Braunfels (established in 1845 by a German prince) from November 2-11.

5 BOULDIN CREEK CAFE, 1900 S 1st St “I didn’t realise until a couple of months eating here that they don’t have meat on the menu, which is strange in Texas. But it doesn’t matter; it’s just so damn good,” says Fitzgerald.

Musicians and artists in the city’s coolest neighbourhood open their studios to the general public for two weekends: November 15-16 and 22-23.

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ACTION!

PARTY

Comfort zone: Roxy in Auckland

CLUB STYLE TRENDS TO TAKE YOU TO THE FRONT OF THE QUEUE

JUMPER The ’90s revival continues: oversized jumpers in muted colours are in vogue. The same goes for sweaters with big typographical prints, like this one from N°21.

The talk of the town AUCKLAND IF YOU WANT TO GET INTO THE NIGHTCLUB THAT ISN’T A NIGHTCLUB, YOU’D BETTER COME PREPARED

ROXY 7 Fort Lane Auckland roxy.co.nz

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INSIDER INFO DJ MIKE ROSS, 21, REVEALS HIS FAVOURITE THINGS ABOUT AUCKLAND

I LOVE TO START A NIGHT OUT AT...

Tanuki‘s Cave on Anzac Street. Small sharing plates of Japanese food in an authentic environment, plus beer by the jug. Perfect.

MY LOCAL IS…

Mea Culpa on Ponsonby Road, where I always go for a beer. It‘s tiny – only about 10 people fit in – but there‘s something awesome about it.

MUSICAL MUST-SEE RIGHT NOW IS…

Katana, who can absolutely rip it up on the turntables.

He spins hip-hop and bass music mostly and always kills it whenever I see him.

JACKET About 35 years ago, London punks turned Barbour’s waxed coat into a fashion item.

It’s enjoying a comeback, thanks to Barbour fans like Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys.

THE RED BULLETIN

ROXY.CO.NZ(4)

Back in 1929, The Roxy was one of the first Auckland cinemas to screen talking pictures. Almost 90 years later, it’s still setting a benchmark, as one of the first venues in the city to offer an internationalstyle club experience. “Roxy has the feel of a New York speakeasy,” says manager Craig Koning. “It’s not a nightclub, it’s a club. A nightclub is where young kids go to party their socks off. Roxy is more of a premium club where people come to relax in comfortable surroundings, have a conversation and a good time on the dancefloor if they feel like it.”

Roxy opened its doors in June last year and has already earned a reputation as a place to be seen in town. “The goal at Roxy is to exceed expectations,” says Koning. “We have a strict door policy and we make no apologies for that. People have to look and act the part if they want to get in. If we weren’t fussy about who we let in the door, we’d be like every other club in town. Roxy is like a little oasis in the middle of Queen Street.”

SHOES There’s a common theme in current shoe collections from Prada to Rick Owens: trainershoe hybrids in solid colours, like the LunarGrand by Cole Haan (above).

ACTION!

MUSIC

D U STFR EE Erlend Oye is a musical jack-of-all-trades: a DJ who sings, the head of indie pop band Whitest Boy Alive, the voice for electronic musicians such as Royksopp and one half of acoustic duo Kings Of Convenience. It was as part of the latter that the Norwegian had his breakthrough in 2001. The Kings’ melancholically mellow debut album, Quiet Is The New Loud, sparked a folk revival and influenced later bands from Fleet Foxes to Of Monsters And Men. Oye recorded his latest and second solo album, Legao, with an Icelandic reggae band: 10 pop gems that sound like Paul Simon using The Police as session musicians. Here the 38-year-old picks songs he has always found inspirational.

Norwegian good: Erlend Oye

“ I feel like Sting” PLAYLIST AN OLD MASTER, AN UNRECOGNISED GENIUS AND A FLEDGLING FEMALE RAPPER: ERLEND OYE’S FIVE FAVOURITE TRACKS

1 Matias Aguayo

2 Bart Davenport

3 Dennis Wilson

“Dance music really badly needs to reinvent itself to be more interesting again. What we need more of is people who have mastered the engineering part of dance music, but still haven’t lost their childish, imaginative playfulness.

This track from 2009 shows the right direction. It’s mainly Aguayo’s voice: from the beat, to the bass, to the tune.”

“He is an unrecognised genius – but also is his own enemy when it comes to becoming popular. It’s like he realises he wrote something really brilliant, and then he’s afraid that this song could become popular, so he puts something really weird into it, like the bad guitar solo in this one. But once you know that, it just endears you even more to it.”

“This comes from a Beach Boys show in 1980, a couple of years before he died. He looks frayed by alcoholism and the rest of the band seem embarrassed. Then Wilson walks on stage and makes this touching emotional performance. Joe Cocker’s version sounds clichéd, but when Wilson sings it, it’s almost like a cry for help. It’s truly musical.”

4 Sting

5 Dena

“This song works nicely with a song from my new album called Send Me In. I like to think Sting wrote it for the rest of The Police saying, ‘If you think I’m a cool guy, let me go! I want to play fusion jazz!’

I can relate to that: a few years ago, when I had I song idea, first I was happy, but then I was sad, because I had to choose which of my bands I would give it to.”

“I met Dena in 2005 through friends in Berlin. She was a singer, but after a few years suddenly she was able to write great songs. The way she uses English is not correct [she is Bulgarian], but she turns it into her own language. She’s the only songwriter in Germany who I feel connected to. This song triggers my imagination, she writes good stories.”

Rollerskate

If you Love Somebody Set Them Free

BUBBLES RECORDS

facebook.com/erlendoye

THE RED BULLETIN

F-ck Fame

Bad Timing

You Are So Beautiful

LISTEN TO YOUR VINYL TREASURES ON YOUR IPHONE: THE THREE BEST WAYS TO DIGITISE YOUR LPS

ION AUDIO ILP This USBcompatible recordplayer means you can copy LPs straight to your iPhone without a computer. Just plug it in and put the platter on. ionaudio.com

ADL GT-40 People with ageing hi-fi kit should fork out for a USB phono preamp like this one to rip high-quality digital files from their records. adl-av.com

S O U N D & VI S I O N A VERY BRIGHT IDEA

LIGHTFREQ

Recently funded on Kickstarter, this is a bluetooth and Wi-Fi-enabled light with a speaker in it, instantly turning any room into a dancefloor. It’s suitable for standard screw light fittings, and you control it via a smartphone app. The speaker is only 5W, but the sound is solid. In party mode, the light will strobe or pulse to the beat.

lightfreq.com

MAGIX VINYL & TAPE RESCUE Software that makes digitisation easy: starts recording as soon as the needle drops and noise filters ensure best sound. magix.com

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ACTION!

GAMES

Crowd-puller: over 17,000 fans watched a DOTA 2 battle in Seattle

OLD GOLD NEW RETRO GAMES WITH PIXEL POWER

SHOVEL KNIGHT A side-scrolling platform game that delights in being 100 per cent 8-bit (that makes it worth 800 bitcents, right?).

Gamers of a certain age will love it. For Wii U PC and 3DS.

PRO GAMING WITH ONE GENRE NOW RULING TOURNAMENT PLAY, IS THIS THE TURNING POINT FOR VIDEOGAMES AS SPORT?

Toby Dawson, 29, better known as TobiWan, does live commentary for professional gaming matches

NewBee and Evil Geniuses are two superstar sporting teams who oppose each other with arrows, swords and magic spells. They’re among the best in the world at DOTA 2, a multiplayer online battle arena game in which the main idea is to fight your way into and through the opponents’ territory with the aim of usurping their base. They battle in huge arenas in front of live audiences numbering in the thousands, with many more following the action live online. This year, the number of real and virtual spectators for The International, the world’s biggest DOTA 2 contest, in Seattle, topped two million.

By winning the top prize, NewBee, from China, scooped over US$5 million.

DOTA 2 is the best-known MOBA game, along with League Of Legends. Other game

genres have been pro gaming’s top-level option, such as first-person shooter (Halo) and most notably, real-time strategy with StarCraft II, which is still widely played, but the popularity of DOTA 2 means that MOBA is the current choice.

Mainly played on PCs, with simple versions available on smartphones, MOBA remains a mystery to many who would consider themselves hardcore gamers.

That might change: when Apple launched iPhone 6, it showed off the device’s gaming capability with Vainglory, a seemingly rich and complex small-screen MOBA. So what’s so special about it? “Mainly that it’s so unbelievably complicated,” says Toby Dawson, aka TobiWan, a pro gaming expert. “DOTA 2 is one of the most difficult games there is. The players have to work together and if one of them makes a mistake, the whole team loses.”

NEW MOBA GAMES Transformers Universe

The never-ending saga of the giant robots shifts to the next level. Having conquered kids’ bedrooms and the box office, it now comes to gaming as an action-packed mix of MOBA and third-person shooter, in which teams of four players try to reduce their opponents to scrap metal.

Arena Of Fate

Playing in teams of five – standard for MOBA gaming – you preside over battles between icons of myth, legend and history. Does Little Red Riding Hood stand a chance against Nikola Tesla? Who would win a duel between Baron Samedi (left) and Baron Munchausen? Now you can find out.

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LUFTRAUSERS At the controls of a tiny plane, avoid an entire army and chase the powerups in a pseudo WWII world of full-on dogfights.

For PC, Mac, PS3 and PS Vita.

TOWERFALL: ASCENSION Up to four players – in the same room; no online mode; how retro is that! – battle in an insanely addictive archery attack-athon. For PC, Mac and PS4.

THE RED BULLETIN

VALVE, ESL

MOBA mania

L

IGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION!

Q & A

WES BENTLEY The American actor shot to fame aged 20 playing put-upon Ricky in 1999’s critically acclaimed American Beauty.

But his career soon stalled as a result of substance abuse problems. Now he’s clean and on the comeback trail with a key part in Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated – and top secret – sci-fi movie Interstellar Words: Geoff Berkshire

Chris Nolan is known for imposing gagging orders while his movies are in production. Even now, after filming, you can’t really talk about Interstellar.

How much did you know about the movie when you signed up?

I didn’t even know what the project was about. I just went and read sort of a generally written scene for Chris that I knew had nothing to do with what the project was going to be. Luckily he asked me to do it. Then I went into the office and read the script for Interstellar under lock and key.

What was it like working with him?

I never saw a green screen, not one. We were able to see everything that all the moviegoers are going to see – it was there in front of us, which is unique.

You turned down the chance to work with Nolan earlier in your career. Why? A lot of people in town read for Batman Begins. I’m a big Batman fan and I’m a fan of Chris’s work, but at that time I was in a crazy place for many reasons – drugs was just one of them. I had a weird sense of integrity. I was young and idealistic and ignorant in a way. So I chose not to meet with him. I saw it as the kind of

“I read the Interstellar script under lock and key” movie I was avoiding at the time. I look back and I think, “That’s so stupid.”

Matthew McConaughey is the star of Interstellar. Is he really that “alright, alright, alright” kind of nice guy?

He’s one of the most genuine people I’ve ever been around. The pure focus he has, combined with everyone else finally giving him the credit he’s always

deserved. He carries himself in a way that shows he’s fully found himself.

You’re a big fan of soccer. Why? What I love about it is its fluid nature.

I learn something every time I watch the game, no matter what level. I’ll watch a high school game if it’s on TV. Interstellar is released worldwide from November 7: interstellarmovie.com

THE MILESTONES: BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH From teaching monks to spell to this month’s Oscar bait (The Imitation Game) and animated kids flick (Penguins Of Madagascar) it’s been quite a road for the best-named actor of his generation

Benedict Cumberbatch

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1994

Spends several months teaching English at a Tibetan monastery

2005

Carjacked, abducted and held at gunpoint in South Africa, he talks his way to freedom

2010

Earns worldwide fame as a modernday Holmes in TV drama Sherlock

2012

Wins a Best Actor Olivier Award for playing both roles of Dr Frankenstein and his monster at London’s National Theatre

2013

Roles in five major movies including Star Trek Into Darkness, 12 Years A Slave and The Hobbit THE RED BULLETIN

GETTY IMAGES(2)

1976

Born Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch in Hammersmith, London, England

“2”and “PlayStation” are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Also, “-” is a trademark of the same company. DRIVECLUB™ ©2014 Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. Published by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. Developed by Evolution Studios. “DRIVE CLUB” is a trademark or a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. “DRIVECLUB logo” is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. All rights reserved.

www.driveclub.com

I SOLEMNLY VOW… …TO DRIVE FOR OUR CLUB. EVEN WHEN OUR ALLIES LAY DORMANT... …WE SHALL STAY CONNECTED AS ONE. AND ALTHOUGH WE MAY NOT ALWAYS BE THE FASTEST... ...WE WILL STRIVE TO EARN FAME AND GLORY FOR OUR CLUB.

BECAUSE AS LONG AS WE DRIVE TOGETHER, WE WIN TOGETHER.

N I G H T L I F E

AT TAC K G I A N T This is a festival stage like no other: it’s 20m high, and weighs 50 tonnes, fires Words: Florian Obkircher 80

Scrap metal + high-tech = ecstasy: The Spider wonderstage at the Boomtown Fair Festival in the south of England

O F T H E S P I D E R flames, and shoots laser beams. Oh, and it dances along to the music with you Photography: Alex de Mora

N I G H T L I F E

A

t 2.30am on a Saturday in August, a combination of wind and rain has driven many revellers at the Boomtown Fair Festival back to their tents. Most of the stages dotted around the farmer’s field in Winchester, England, have long since fallen silent, but one, Arcadia, is still pumping out the beats. The area, about 100m wide, is hemmed in by a hexagon of sound systems and inside it feels like a ritual is being performed by an electronic cult. Red laser lights flit around jerkily in the mist as 5,000 people dance ecstatically in the mud, around a centrepiece like no other: a huge metal spider the size of a house, with green, luminous legs lifting it high above the devoted dancers below. It’s only just possible to make out the creature’s body, which looks like a Mad Max-style spaceship against the night sky.

Arcadia is a union of many kinds of artists, who have thrown their varied skills into the creation of the metallic beast: pyrotechnicians, laser artists, acrobats, musicians. They’ve been creating otherworldly structures together for eight years, the biggest, craziest, most fantastic stages anywhere in the world. Their creations are 360° “environments” that allow DJs and musicians to be surrounded by their audience. There’s not a cordon in sight. The crowd is no longer just watching the show, they’re a part of it.

At 20m tall and weighing 50 tonnes, The Spider is Arcadia’s biggest offering.

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At Boomtown Fair, it has been the centrepiece of a wild party since 7pm, “but you haven’t seen anything yet,” says Pip Rush Jansen, head of Arcadia. He’s wearing a headset and a Hawaiian shirt under a red military jacket. He’s been on duty for 12 hours a day at the festival site for a week. It’s his job to keep an overview and manage The Spider show team of over 100, including assembly workers, light and sound technicians, crane operators and DJs. Rush has been creating metal sculptures for music festivals since his youth and, now 31, he’s made it his career. Eight years ago, he and his friend Bertie Cole, now Arcadia’s technical director, had an idea. “We found classic concert stages boring,” says Rush. “The audience gazes in one direction. It’s as if they’re watching TV.” The two founded Arcadia with the aim of making the stage itself into a star, a complete work of art combining lights, fire and music, all made from scrap metal and junk. Their first creation was Afterburner, a laser-beaming DJ turret made out of a decommissioned, towershaped jet engine. DJs have to climb up 11m carrying their record bags to reach the decks. Rush and Cole have created five more spectacular stages and shows since, including The Bug, a mobile armoured car-cum-DJ-stage, and The Spider, which will travel to Thailand in November. Afterburner is on the road too, currently entertaining in Australia.

Rush and Cole find the components they need for these spectacular stages at scrap yards. Every winter they traipse around scrap yards all over England, which is how they found the three legs for The Spider five years ago: they’re decommissioned customs scanners.

The party area at the Boomtown Fair Festival site looks like a post-apocalyptic industrial estate.

Steampunks and high-tech hippies dance beneath the huge metal Spider and around blazing lampposts (above). Pyrotechnician Sir Henry Hot (right), responsible for the fire show, checking gas canisters in a storage container

The Spider is made of junk and scrap metal. Its legs used to be customs scanners

The Spider hibernates in storage in Bristol, England. Later this year it will appear in Bangkok, Thailand (November 28-29) and then Rhythm and Vines at the Waiohika Estate near Gisborne (December 29-31)

N I G H T L I F E

Inside The Spider’s nerve centre: laser and pyrotechnicians, crane choreographers and production managers sitting at computer screens

“They were used to check freight containers in the Sahara,” Rush explains.

The Spider’s DJ turret is made of six old jet engines and the armour-like prosthetic knees used to be helicopter parts.

When not trawling through tips or running Arcadia’s unique festival dance parties, Rush lives on a caravan site on the edge of Bristol, England, along with the other six core members of the collective.

There they puzzle over new ideas, repair the existing stages and weld bits of scrap together to make new metal giants.

There’s also a lot of time spent assembling their creations. It takes three trucks to transport the The Spider. Once on site, the legs are laid out in a circle, then lifted by a crane and attached to The Spider’s head. Underground electric cables and hydraulic pipes connect to diesel generators the size of garden sheds on the edge of the site. It takes a 15-strong team three days to put it together. Then

the lighting and pyrotechnics experts get down to the fine-tuning.

“In 10 minutes exactly,” Rush says, looking at his watch, “at 2.45 on the dot, there’ll be a 15-minute show of what The Spider’s got to offer.” Rush takes off his headset. “It’s Sir Henry’s big moment.”

Sir Henry Hot is the head of pyrotechnics for Arcadia. He’s checking the connections on the 35 orange gas canisters held in a storage container at the base of The Spider one more time.

“This is where we pump the gas up from.

The 150-litre fuel tanks are attached to the head so that I can fire properly,” he says. Fifteen years ago, Hot was working

Fountains of fire shoot out of The Spider’s head with a hiss, the surge of heat intense

as a computer technician in a small town in north Germany. Then in his mid40s, he saw a psychologist for burnout, somewhat ironic given his true calling.

Hot had a life-long passion for fire, and he was advised to pursue it. So he learnt to breathe fire and studied pyrotechnics.

In 2009, he designed a unique system of nine cannons for The Spider, capable of shooting flames 25m into the air. The best part of the show, as far as he’s concerned, is the first time fire appears, when no one is expecting it. “The puff, the glaring light and the smell. People go crazy every time. You can feel the vibrations 5km away,” Hot says, his eyes glistening.

There are 30 seconds to go before The Spider lets loose. Tension is growing in the small control room 50m from the metal colossus. This is The Spider’s external nerve centre. Hot and seven other headsetwearing technicians stare intently at mixing desks and monitors. “Ready?” Everyone nods and gives the thumbs-up. Then the countdown begins. “Ten, nine, eight...”

The Spider’s music and lights stop.

And all of a sudden there is darkness.

People stop dancing and look up. Some start booing. What, is that it already? Or has there been a power cut? The answer comes in the form of muffled bass rumbling out of the sound system. Blue lasers beam from The Spider’s legs and out through a screen of fog. The beat comes back in. Three cranes on the main body of the Spider begin to move, and they’re in time with the music. They move down, then back up: The Spider is waking from its slumber. The crowd cheers.

The music is getting louder. Heavy synthesizer sounds come spiralling upwards. Hot places his index finger on the biggest button on the console in front of him. There is the crack of the bass drum and Hot lets loose. Three fountains of fire come shooting out of The Spider’s head with a hiss. The tower of flames is so dazzling that for a moment the crowd is blind, the surge of heat so intense that people check afterwards that they still have eyelashes. Hot grins when the crowd roars in surprise. And then presses the button again. And again.

The music gets quicker and quicker.

Hot pulls out all The Spider’s stops: the flame-throwers, robotic arms, CO2 jets and laser beams all move to the beat. All the components are in exact harmony, creating a torrid show of colour and sound.

What just before 3am had been a great show is now a post-apocalyptic party.

Despite the reality of the rainy night in England, it will last well into Saturday. arcadiaspectacular.com

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ACTION!

SAVE THE DATE

A load of bulls: cowboys will ride 52 feisty cattle in Christchurch November 13

Man v Moo Saddle up, Christchurch: the New Zealand Professional Bull Riders New Zealand Cup makes its Garden City debut in November. Top riders representing New Zealand, Australia, USA, Mexico and Canada will be holding on for dear life on one of 52 bucking bovines for a minimum of eight seconds.

New Zealand isn’t known for its bull-riding prowess, but locals Fraser Babbington, Johnson Davis, brothers Paddy and Mervyn Church, and Jono Reed will all be aiming to do us proud and secure their share of the $23,000 purse. pbrnewzealand.co.nz

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November 22

Fiesta forever The high-end Kelliher Estate, on the privately owned Puketutu Island in Auckland’s Manukau Harbour, is once again hosting the Fiesta Del Sol dance party.

It’s a European-flavoured event with an 18-strong line-up of local EDM talent plus a headlining appearance from German DJ and producer Sean Finn, his first engagement in Aotearoa. highlife.co.nz

THE RED BULLETIN

DON’T MISS

November 20

And the award goes to…

With a list of top-shelf musicians nominated for this year’s Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards, artists, industry bods and Kiwi music lovers are all guaranteed a big night at the end of the red carpet at Auckland’s Vector Arena.

The smart money’s on Lorde adding to her NZ awards tally, but David Dallas could also make a strong showing on the winner’s podium. nzmusicawards.co.nz

Lorde: likely to reign at the NZ music awards

MORE DATES FOR THE DIARY

1

NOVEMBER

DIFFERENT LEAGUE

November 8, 9

So fancy Gentlemen, stop your engines. The V 4 and Rotary South Island Champs ranks as the biggest drag meet in the Southern Hemisphere, and a key component is the Show and Shine Day, during which house-proud drag racers show off their handiwork. This year it will be held at Nelson’s Trafalgar Centre, an all-weather destination that ensures no marks on those candy paint jobs.

4androtary.co.nz

The NZ Kiwis rugby league team tackle Toa Samoa at Whangarei in the Four Nations, a four-team tourney completed by England and Australia. The home side will play Samoa at Toll Stadium. nzrl.co.nz

1

NOVEMBER

November 22

SHRED CITY

PHILLIP WITTKE, HIGHLIFE.CO.NZ, UNIVERSAL, NZMUSICAWARDS.CO.NZ, 4ANDROTARY.CO.NZ, JACOB

Start me up

Guitar god Joe Satriani has been riffing his way around the world for 27 years.

Satriani offers up two more masterclasses this month, with shows in Auckland and Wellington.

The Rolling Stones finally bring their 14 On Fire tour to town after their April 5 gig was pulled following the death of Mick Jagger’s girlfriend, L’Wren Scott. New Zealand holds mixed memories for the band. Keith Richards referred to Invercargill as “the arsehole of the world” when the Stones played there in 1965, and underwent surgery in an Auckland hospital after their 2006 shows (fell out of a coconut tree in Fiji, apparently). Let’s hope they make a better fist of it this time, on what rumour suggests is their final world tour.

livenation.co.nz

1

NOVEMBER

ticketmaster.co.nz

October 30-November 23

October 23, 24, November 7-15

November 2

Small miracles

Wall of sound

“Jesus Christ Superstar/ Do you think you’re what they say you are? ...” Andrew Lloyd Webber’s classic is being resurrected by the Auckland Theatre Company at Q Theatre. It’s usually staged at bigger venues, but ATC Artistic Director Colin McColl is promising a “profound and uplifting experience”. atc.co.nz

It’s been a long time between drinks for Napier noisemakers Jakob (eight years since 2006’s Solace, to be exact), but the instrumental three-piece are back with a new album, Sines, plus a rare six-date tour that will see them roll through venues nationwide, from their local, Napier’s legendary The Cabana, to Leigh Sawmill Café. jakob.co.nz

Lake Tikitapu or bust

THE RED BULLETIN

The Agroventures Tikitapu Offroad Trail Run is an 18km off-road race against the backdrop of Rotorua’s Lake Tikitapu. Winding through the Whakarewarewa forest, It’s a hefty challenge for even experienced runners, which is why organisers also stage runs over 5.5km and 11km trails. tikitaputrailrun.co.nz

BILL ON THE BILL Bill Bailey of Black Books and Never Mind the Buzzcocks fame is bringing his Limboland tour down under. The English funnyman will be bridging what he calls the “gap between how we imagine our lives to be and how they really are”. billbailey.co.uk/tour

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AG AINST THE

ELEMENTS Life has got a whole lot busier.

We live in a 24-hour society where we juggle multiple jobs and mastermind frenetic social lives Staying active is essential, and possessing the right gear is the secret to keeping two steps ahead.

So whether you’re gliding through the powder fields of Tahoe; getting barrelled at Teahupo’o; navigating the streets of Brooklyn at midnight or just dodging drizzle in London town, this is the kit that ensures you’re equipped for anything that life – and mother nature – throws at you.

HOT – W ET – DAR K – C OL D Photography: LUKE KIRWAN Words and Styling: OLIE ARNOLD Production: OTTER JEZAMIN HATCHETT 88

COTE & CIEL NILE RUCKSACK oki-ni.com A built-in hood shelters you from unexpected downpours.

LONDON UNDERCOVER 3D CAMO UMBRELLA londonundercover.co.uk Striking 3-D print camouflage so that you don't blend in.

STONE ISLAND LASERED DAVID-TC PARKA stoneisland.com Stay dry and turn heads with this water-repellent coat.

#1

W ET

TOMMY HILFIGER GILET tommyhilfiger.com The perfect mid layer to transition from the outdoors to inside.

RAIN WON'T STOP PLAY WITH THIS CLEVER GEAR DESIGNED TO KEEP YOU DRY

ARCTERYX PARSEC HOODED COAT arcteryx.com Extreme weather protection, delivered with an urban aesthetic.

ELEMENT DONNELLY HIKING BOOT eu.elementbrand.com Rare mix of stylish and practical: these will go the distance and avoid the usual rambler gags.

JBL REFLECT BT BLUETOOTH HEADPHONES jbl.com Wireless sound rids your life of unnecessary cables. And because they’re sweatproof, you can up the tempo physically, without risk of damage.

COLUMBIA PLATINUM 860 TURBODOWN JACKET columbia.com Warm and lightweight down manages your body heat, so you don't need bulky layers.

DC PLY SNOWBOARD dcshoes.com With graphics created by leading snow photographer Vincent Skoglund, this ride doubles up as a piece of art.

ROSSIGNOL SPARK AUDIO HELMET rossignol.com Integrated headphones turn the mountain into your own personal dancefloor.

#2

C OL D

KEEP WARM AND LOOK STYLISH WHILE ENJOYING YOUR FAVOURITE SNOW SPORTS NIKE COMMAND TRANSITIONS GOGGLES snowboard-asylum.com These game-changing lenses adapt according to the light, meaning there’s no need for spares.

MCNAIR HEAVY WEIGHT SHIRT mcnairshirts.com Treated merino wool will keep you warm and dry, so no jacket required.

BILLABONG SOLOMON GARAGE CREW CUSTOM FLEECE SWEATSHIRT billabong.com Retro styling with maximum warmth.

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DC JUDGE SNOWBOARD BOOT dcshoes.com A unique closure system ensures a perfect fit with no laces to combat when your hands are frozen.

RED BULL ZERO.

FINISTERRE STROMA COAT finisterreuk.com Shelter from the heat in this lightweight coat and stash beach essentials in the oversize pockets.

CONVERSE ALL STAR RUBBER TRAINER converse.com Rubber hi-tops add a new level of durability to this iconic design.

NEON MADERN NEOPRENE TOP neonwetsuits.com This bespoke service allows you to design your own wetsuit, ensuring you’ll stand out in the line-up.

#3 DIESEL DENIMEYE SUNGLASSES diesel.com Unique shading and material imperfections mean no two glasses are the same.

H OT

PROTECT YOURSELF FROM THE SUN WHILE KEEPING YOUR COOL

ADIDAS ORIGINALS JACKET adidas.com Channel your inner Californian pre- and post-surf for extra style points.

QUIKSILVER ORIGINAL BOARD SHORT quiksilver.com Old-school styling meets new-school construction.

VANS ISO 1.5 TRAINER vans.com Ultra-lightweight and supportive, these trainers make beach running a breeze.

NIXON LODOWN II WATCH nixon.com With over 270 beaches programmed, the ability to arrive for the right tide is at hand.

93

GORE MYTHOS 2.0 GT AS JACKET goreapparel.com Upgrade your dawn and dusk runs: waterproof and highly reflective jacket that improves comfort and safety.

GIRO EMPIRE ROAD SHOE condorcycles.com This high-performance, stylish shoe won’t look out of place in the mountains or the city.

LEZYNE ZECTO DRIVE PRO LIGHT condorcycles.com A versatile, powerful bike beam in white and red. It's also compact, waterproof, and rechargeable.

NIKE VISION RUN X2 NIGHT RUN SUNGLASSES nikevision.com Finally, lenses that enhance the light for those dusky evening runs.

#4

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TAKE BACK THE NIGHT: SEE OR BE SEEN AFTER THE SUN GOES DOWN

ASICS BASE LAYER TOP asics.com Muscle-support technology for improved performance and quicker recovery time.

What’s not to like?

NEW BALANCE FRESH FOAM 980 TRAINER newbalance.com An award-winning runner that provides ample cushioning while allowing you to feel closer to the asphalt.

NIKE CHEYENNE VAPOR 2 RUCKSACK nike.com Super-lightweight, the Vapor allows you to carry more without sacrificing stability or support.

94

PUMA PHOTO REAL CAMO JACKET puma.com The camouflage print keeps you under the radar when hammering out the miles.

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MAGIC MOMENT

Johannes Olszewski, 21, from Munich is balanced on a piece of nylon webbing 60m above the ground, on the cooling tower of an old coal-fired power station.

“We put up a 28m-long slackline the width of two fingers,” he says.

“When you’re up there you feel a chill to start with and then euphoria as you get closer to the end.” oneinchdreams.com

Rule number one: “Whatever you do, don’t look down” Rule number two: get the right musical accompaniment.

Johannes Olszewski swears by the reggae of Damian Marley

JAN FASSBENDER

Hainaut, Belgium, May 17, 2014

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