S I L V I A NO.3
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COVER PHOTO BY MARIJA KOVAC
SILVIA
c o n t e n t s
HANNAH RAGLAND
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KAYLA DAY MARIJA KOVAC
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ZACHARY AYOTTE
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INES JAKOVLJEVIC
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HOLYCHILD
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editor’s letter
This is the most legit issue yet, featuring some of the most legit people ever.
BLANCHE MINOZA EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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allmymetaphors.tumblr.com
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kayla day
halfbunny.com
ed gein i want to be buried wearing the same dress i was born in i want to be carried to the altar that isn t there & i want everyone to stop crying i want to smile at them even when i am dead i want them to talk to me i want to be kept in your living room with your other antique things i want you to dress me pull my hair touch my eyelids, kiss them when they look lonely know that they aren t, that you are enough for me to pretend to see, & god s heaven sounds like a glass cabinet that i never wanted to enter or have to escape from, where what is kept is kept forever & never given away i don t want to be that permanent i want to be your human buttery want you to sigh into my skin until something takes me away i want to be warm in a place that no one can visit unless you let them
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MARIJA KOVAC If you had to throw away all your cameras but one, which would it be? “It would be my first camera — a Minolta.” What was the first photograph you took that you fell in love with? “It’s a photograph of rain that I took from my grandma’s balcony.” What song and/or film do you recommend? “Tennis – ‘Seafarer.’ Synecdoche, New York.”
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ZACHARY AYOTTE
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If you had to throw away all your cameras but one, which would it be? “My Contax N1. I haven't had it for very long and it is a bit big but I am pretty in love with it right now. Or maybe my G2.” What would your rapper name be? “DJ White Noize” Recommend a book: “I was just rereading Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. I love it. It makes me laugh every time.” …a musician: “I'm having a retro love affair with PJ Harvey right now. And I spent about two weeks listening to Feist's ‘A Commotion’ on repeat.” …and a movie: “I was just reminded of how much I like Children of Men. I think it is such a good movie and knows exactly what story it is telling. It is so concise. I feel like so many movies these days lose track of the story they are trying to tell. Oh, and Deathproof. I'm a medium Quentin Tarantino but I love this movie. The ending is the best thing ever.”
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INES JAKOV LJEVIĆ flickr.com/artcreature art-creature.tumblr.com
“Sad Dream”
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“Flower Bathing”
“Water Creatures”
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“Mushroom Mind”
“Keep Growing”
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holychil INTERVIEWED BY TAMARA RUNNICLES. WRITTEN BY BLANCHE MINOZA. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JANCARLO BECK.
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It's a hotter-than-usual September night as my computer sings the tune of an incoming Skype call. Immediately, we're face-to-face with the welcoming smiles of holychild's Louie Diller and Liz Nistico, who is carving away at scoops of ice cream for dessert in her computer chair. It's almost strange to see them so sedentary, considering how much energy and movement is usually involved in their music, as can be seen in the video for their single "Best Friends," a lively montage of a tightknit group jamming at abandoned yards and moshing at the beach. Some time after taking a year off college to tour with his band, Dizzy Balloon, Diller met Nistico while he played the drums and piano in her dance class during the time they both attended George Washington University in D.C. "I always sang when I was growing up, but I was primarily a dancer," Nistico says, which is evident to anyone who has ever seen holychild perform live. "That's what I thought I was gonna do when I graduated [college]." On the other hand, Diller had always known he would move to either New York City or
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Los Angeles to pursue music after college. At the point when the musical project, holychild, was just beginning to launch, the two had already written several songs together that they had been sitting on for a couple years. "It started informally," Diller says. Holychild's music had not yet been formally recorded until it was the subject of his senior thesis project. "I thought about what I'd wanna make of this thesis project, and I always liked these songs, and I'd always go back and listen to them, and they just always were more exciting than anything else I was involved in at the time. So then I guess we kind of took it up a notch in terms of commitment." This commitment included moving across the country to focus their work in LA, where they are currently and have been based for almost exactly a year today. To live in this mecca for musicians has made it very easy to collaborate with other artists–something they really enjoy doing. However, other cities steal their hearts when they tour. Diller reminisces about the show they played at Rickshaw Stop in San Francisco last March. "I forgot how much fun that was. San Francisco
“I always liked these songs, and they just always were more exciting...”
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has such a nice audience. They're so receptive and supportive." Nistico adds, "In LA, people see music everyday, so they're just kind of jaded. It's so weird–you'll play a show in LA and people will kind of be like"–she shrugs–"and then after people will say, 'Oh my God, I loved your set!' and you think, 'Really?'" "Like it's not cool to respond during a set," Diller notices. "You only respond after, when you're talking to the person." "Yeah, so we played LA first then we played at Rickshaw Stop and it was just like, 'Oh my God, this is amazing.'" Diller did however enjoy an LA show they later played at The Echo. Being from the East Coast, they also reserve a special
place for their shows in D.C. and NYC. "That was like our homecoming, more or less." They had, after all, spawned holychild in the basements of D.C., particularly one located under their university. The underground unit would be freezing, and Nistico usually wore the same thing to keep her comfortable and warm: a sweatshirt she had been given "that was kind of absurd" with the name Holy Child on the back. "Whenever I thought about writing songs with Liz, I always associated it the Holy Child sweatshirt," Diller says. After realizing they needed a unique and creative identifier, Nistico casually suggests holychild, and as fate would have it, they became
“...than anything else I was involved in at the time.”
holychild. They mourn the loss of the beloved sweatshirt since it had been worn on then tossed off stage, and never seen again. Holychild are also artists beyond the realm of music. They also appreciate a proper visual aesthetic, whether it's for a music video they're filming, a photo they're taking, or an outfit they're wearing. Nistico confesses holychild has been an outlet to more freely express herself through clothing. "What you wear is such an expression, so I put a lot of time into it–maybe not that much time–but I'll throw something together and I'll feel really
comfortable, like it's myself being reflected." Again we refer back to the show at Rickshaw Stop and what she had worn that night: a knit hat, a leotard, and a floor-length skirt, white with golden waves all along the bottom rim, undulating about the surface of the stage as she danced. Diller, right beside her, was dancing as well amidst the many instruments he was playing, and we wonder how he manages them all at once. "Drums are my first instrument, so I learned how to move all four of my limbs at different times from an early age,"
Diller explains. "It's not that difficult for me as it might be for other people. There's one hand of it I definitely feel is kind of like showing off, but on the other hand, I don't care, because they're parts written in the songs, and I literally just have to do everything, so I'm happy with it. It's more fun to do that than just be straight up keyboard man. I like to play different instruments, so it's nice to do them simultaneously." When creating a new song, work is split pretty evenly. For example, while lyrics are mainly Nistico's creation, Diller contributes and reviews them to
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“I think it’s a little pretentious when you’re listening to music that is so abstract that it isolates an audience.”
make sure they mesh well with the melodies. "I feel like that's where I compliment your words," he tells her. "Even though I will fight you on lyrics sometimes." "Sometimes I get a little too weird," Nistico says, "and he'll tell me, 'This doesn't make sense' or 'I don't understand this at all.'" Perhaps the essence of “too weird” is a product of their multifarious sources of inspiration, which range from literary idols such as F. Scott Fitzgerald to musical idols such as Dirty Projectors, TV On The Radio, and Battles, just to name a few. A spot in the crowd for Paul McCartney at Outside Lands Music Festival last August was also “such a validation experience,” declares Diller. Artists who today might be considered blasts from the past remain strong models for the two. “Honestly, Outkast is a huge influence from a rhythm standpoint,” he adds. Though their influences stem from all over the board, they all each manage to make their way into holychild’s music. Nistico states, “We
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are into so many different bands. I feel like I can appreciate anything and get down to literally anything–like country, even though everyone hates country.” Considering the vastness of their influences, holychild’s genre becomes harder to pinpoint. “Our goal is to be right in between experimental and pop, so that people who like experimental music can say, ‘Oh, this is kind of pop-y, but I’m into this other aspect of their songs,’ and same with pop,” says Nistico. “I think the reason we’re into doing that is because, personally–I can totally appreciate it, but–I think it’s a little pretentious when you’re listening to music that is so abstract that it isolates an audience. I don’t want to make anything that I play in front of a room of people and only two people get it. I want to make people think a little bit.” “We’re really not into spoonfeeding people, like, cotton candy. I’d rather give someone a little denser, more complex, or more sophisticated entertainment than fluff,” Diller notes. “We were told alt-pop–alternative
pop–the other day. I kind of dig that term: alt-pop. I get it and I feel like it applies to us. Experimental pop kind of seems like an oxymoron in some ways. It’s one of those if you needed to categorize our sound.” Their upcoming EP is a much more cohesive collection of songs, unlike the singles they have previously released, Nistico tells us. These six new songs in particular center around the theme of the role of the woman in American culture, depicting their roles portrayed in the media from different angles. Mind Speak, scheduled to release this fall, is only the beginning for the two. “Holychild is still so new, that hopefully we have at least five more years,” Nistico predicts. “Ideally, it’d be for infinity,” says Diller. “It’s nice to have holychild as a medium to make a statement. The intention is not to become famous. Hopefully we can just connect with a lot of people to inspire them to be better to each other. Even though it sounds kind of cliché to say, I mean it.”
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