march 2014
XO EDIT No. 1
TAYLOR MOMSEN
Contents THE USUALS EDITOR’S LETTER 4 EDITOR’S PICKS 5
MUSIC SOUNDCHECK 6 XO LISTEN 14 MARCH PLAYLIST 15
EDITORIAL GARY CARR 30 DUM DUM GIRLS 36 ROCK THIS WORLD: TAYLOR MOMSEN 42
FASHION LABELS OF LOVE 16 TOM BOY 22 A CULT INSIDE OF ME 38
ART VALERIE HAGARTY 46
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EDITOR’S XO E DI T NO 1
LETTER
Welcome to the first ever issue of XO Edit! You guys loved the newsletter so much we’ve decided to expand it to smaller, monthly mini issues which will come out the first week of the month - ready to read and share! You can subscribe over at xomagazineonline.com so that you never miss an issue! Our cover star this issue is the fierce, fearless and overall bombshell Taylor Momsen - front woman of The Pretty Reckless. Their sophomore album Going To Hell drops this month (the 18th to be exact!) and we are super excited! Inside we chat with Taylor about her new album, creative process and touring the world! Inside you’ll also find our favourite lookbook of the month, amazing art by Valerie Hegarty and new music (hello, Dum Dum Girls!) to get you all through March! Also, don’t forget to follow us on instagram and twitter at @we_are_xo and let us know what you think of the first issue! Thanks for reading!
Le’Keisha Sims Editor in Chief XO Magazine
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EDITOR’S
PICK
1. Hactivist Issue No.2 - http://www.archaia.com/archaia-titles/hacktivist/ 2. Pokemon: Indigo League http://netflix.com 3. Ann Sofie Madsen AW 14 http://annesofiemadsen.com 4. Just Like You EP - Liz http://maddecent.com 5. Angel Quartz Swimsuit by Crystal Movement http://iamvibes.co.uk
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SOUNDCHECK
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SOUNDCHECK PHOTOGRAPHY BY NATALIE CAMPBELL
Aaron Gillespie of The Almost January 22, 2013 Mr. Smalls, Pittsburgh, PA
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Brendon Urie of Panic! At The Disco “Too Weird Tour” February 12, 2014 Emo’s, Austin TX
SOUNDCHECK
Telle Smith of The Word Alive South By So What?! Fall 2013 October 26, 2013 Grand Prairie, TX
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Craig Mabbit of Escape The Fate South By So What?! 2013 March 16, 2013 Grand Prairie, TX
SOUNDCHECK
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Craig Owens of Chiodos South By So What?! 2013 March 16, 2013 Grand Prairie, TX
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SOUNDCHECK
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XOLISTEN Voices - Phantogram
Going to Hell - The Pretty Reckless
Manhattan - Skaters
St Vincent - Birth in Reverse
Joyland - TRUST
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Issues - Issues
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march 2014 playlist
MARCH 2014PLAYLIST 1. I Wanna Rob - Sizzy Rocket 3.
5.
2. Rancid Girl - Sky Ferreira
Bones Exposed - Of Mice & Men
4. Make a Shadow - Meg Myers
Miss Teen Massachusetts - Skaters
6. 7.
Black Out Days - Phantogram
Rambaud Eyes - Dum Dum Girls
8. Fancy - Iggy Azalea feat Charli XCX
9. Fight For You - Clams Casino feat. Pia Mia and Chance the Rapper 10.
Super Party Cups - Jean Jacket
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LABEL OF LOVE THIS SEASON THE LAZY OAF GIRL LITERALLY GETS “LOST IN TRANSLATION” WITH THEIR NEW MAYOIMASHITA COLLECTION. MAYOIMASHITA MEANING “LOST” IN JAPANESE, IS THE PERFECT TITLE FOR THE COLLECTION WHICH WAS SHOT WITH BEAUTY APRIL JOHNSON, EXPLORING AND EMERSING HERSELF IN THE WORLD OF FLASHING NEON LIGHTS, ROBOT DINOSAURS AND KILLER VIEWS. LAZY OAF SS 14 IS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE RIGHT NOW ON HTTP://LAZYOAF.COM
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label of love: lazy oaf ss 2014
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label of love: lazy oaf ss 2014
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noir
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tom boy PHOTOGRAPHER: PAT BOMBARD STYLIST : LISBETH CERVANTES HAIR/MUA: VICTOR NOBLE MODEL: NEJILKA ARIAS
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tom boy
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JACKET: CAROLINA SARRIA SHORTS: CAROLINA SARRIA BUSTIER: ASSALI SHOES: SOL SANA EARRINGS: PUSH BY PUSH MATAAHA
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COAT: MANDARIN & GENERAL TIGHTS: ASSALI SHOES: SOL SANA
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SHIRT: MANDARIN & GENERAL JACKET: MANDARIN & GENERAL
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JACKET: CAROLINA SARRIA SKIRT: MANDARIN & GENERAL SHIRT: CAROLINE SARRIA SHOES: SOL SANA CLUTCH: STYISTS OWN EARRINGS: PUSH BY PUSHMATAAH
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JACKET: SUZANNE RAE SUSPENDERS: STYLISTS OWN SHIRT: WHO CARES? NYC PANTS: ASSALI
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Gary Carr PHOTOGRAPHER: NATALIE J WATTS FASHION DIRECTOR: RACHEL HOLLAND GROOMING: LUCY PEARSON @ WAHL ARTISTS USING MAC STYLING ASSISTANT: DARIA MOS LOCATION: MERCURE LONDON BRIDGE
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WORDS BY: OLIVIA PINNOCK Actor, scriptwriter, director, musician, lyricist, charity co-founder… it’s no wonder Gary Carr has a packed diary. As we meet in a London hotel lobby, he’s furiously sending a work-related email and apologising profusely. He may be a busy guy, but Gary still has time for manners. In fact, he’s utterly charming the whole time I’m with him: jumping to his feet to order me another of the green teas he is sipping as I arrive, holding open doors and thanking me sincerely at the end of the interview. He smirks shyly when I read out some of the swooning tweets he received following his appearance as Jack Ross, Downton Abbey’s all-American, smooth talking jazz singer. “Yeah, people are sweet,” he giggles as I quote a fan saying “@iamgarycarr He can service me any day!”
The attention is understandable if you’re familiar with the character’s suave charms, snappy dress sense and silky smooth jazz vocals. He got the call to audition for the part whilst filming series 3 of BBC cop drama Death in Paradise, which returns in January, in the Caribbean. He filmed his audition in a friendly local’s back garden surrounded by dogs and chickens, not your typical Downton backdrop, but it seemed to work its magic on the producers. In person, 26-year-old Gary is incredibly modest about his part in ITV’s worldwide-sensation period drama and it’s quite clear that it is just a stepping stone for the many other projects under his belt.
As our conversation moves on to Gary’s music (his first love), the short film which he wrote and directed called Freedom Serenity and setting up his charity The Beautiful World Foundation, his passion for creating really comes through. It is this which inspires him to take on more and more work: “I’m a massive fan of ambitious people who go out and just want to make things happen… I think creativity and vision are my pulling factors [for working on a job].”
“Make it happen!” is a phrase that keeps popping up in conversation with Gary and it’s also his Twitter bio. He explains that it has
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BLAZER: UNIFORMS FOR THE DEDICATED SHIRT: SCOTH & SODA
gary carr
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SHIRT: SAMSOE & SAMSOE TIE: DUCHAMP BLAZER: BEN SHERMAN
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GLASSES: CAZAL TROUSERS: BIKE REPAIR SHOP T SHIRT: HUNTER GATHER JACKET: HUNTER GATHER
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become his attitude to his career: “Me and my friends realised that we have so much ambition and we’d say, ‘we want to do this, we want to do that, how do we do it?’ and I just thought, you know what, fuck it, let’s make it happen and stop talking about it.” Nowadays, he’s more likely to be in need of a mantra to give himself a break every once in a while than to get up and go. He admits that earlier this year he exhausted himself and had to take a break. “I need to stop trying to be Superman,” he sighs, clearly frustrated by the limitations of being a human being that needs sleep and rest.
When he does get any free time to himself, he’s doing what he enjoys most… more film and music. Filling his mind with inspiration by going to gigs, his own music – which, although he lists endless genres he’s a fan of, he assures me is very different from his jazz singing in Downton -- is being worked on song by song. He’s not in a rush to push out an album, instead waiting for “when we feel it’s right” and focussing on creating a short film to accompany one of his songs. He’s reluctant to call it a music video, giving a nod to Gary’s expansive creative ideas outside of normal expectations. He’s also aware that his is an industry which is built on collaborations. Among his list of dream people to work with are some big names. For example, “I’d love to work with Guy Pearce; he’s ridiculously good, it’s stupid how good he is. I love Kendrick Lamar, he’s doing great stuff right now and Lana Del Ray, I’m a big fan of hers,” and some lesser-known creatives who he is equally as much a fan of. “I love Woodkid, he’s a fantastic director and a great musician,” he said. He’s also passionate about collaborating with the world’s poorest communities as part of his charity. Gary explains that The Beautiful World Foundation aims to help the most
impoverished places in the world by understanding the culture, history and needs of the people who live in them and collaborating with the local people to create a self-sustaining infrastructure. It was all inspired by a trip Gary took to Kenya three years ago where he was teaching children suffering from HIV and aids. “It was a good experience but at the same time, because I’m not a teacher, I really didn’t feel like I was giving them anything. I wanted to do something more hands on and take action.” And with his desire to ‘make it happen,’ Gary and his friends have a well thought-out structure to a charity. They want to live in the places that they want to help for a period of time to truly understand how they can help. They also want to share a picture of Africa that is rarely seen in charity campaigns through a documentary series: “We really want to shoot it in that Planet Earth, BBC style because I think the photography in that show is amazing. It’s such a great showcase for the world. If you look at Africa, which always gets negative media, and the Middle East, they actually have really amazing landscapes. If we can highlight that, I think it will really inspire people to travel more, know more about the world and interact with other people in it more.” The charity’s concept is far more than giving to the needy; it’s also about understanding what we can take from exploring these countries too. This idea is rather neatly wrapped up in The Beautiful World Foundation’s tagline “To educate and be educated. To inspire and be inspired.” Gary himself is a very inspiring person to be around. To the tabloids, he may just be “the first black cast member of Downton Abbey” in order to make attention-grabbing headlines, but there’s much more to this young, creative philanthropist. He’s got a lot going for him too: talent, good looks, intelligence and a huge amount passion. In fact, the only thing standing in Gary’s way is not enough hours in the day to do it all.
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To Good, Too True
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Dee Dee talks of the Dum Dum Girl’s third album, her self propelled career and the reality of starting off by yourself words: moeima dukuly It all sounds really, really great. Self produce, self publish. Forget waiting for a ‘big break’. Be independent. Call your own shots. It’s a reality that hinges on fantasy. There are two sides to this coin: on one side lives fantasy and the pursuit of a dream realized, on the other lives reality and the hard truth that creation is a small step in terms of exposure, longevity and a successful career. “You can do it.” says Dee Dee Penny (real name, Kristin Welchez) lead singer of Dum Dum Girls when speaking on actualizing your dreams, creating a body of artistic work and the long road musicians (and by extension artists) face, “It’s really just a matter of realizing that you can do it. For me it was a huge divide between this calling I felt and just not understanding that all it takes to do something is to actually do it. The learning curve is huge and you fail for a long time, but all of those failures…if you can learn from them in a positive way you’ll be a lot better off than someone who just cakewalks. It makes you a richer person.” Dee Dee would know. Being in the music business for roughly seven years now, she’s run the gamut on the indie scene: joining bands, leaving bands, starting her own label Zoo Music and subsequently releasing her own material, grabbing the attention of powerhouse indie label SubPop and joining their roster, along with having members of Dum Dum
Girls come and go, to coming full circle and now releasing a third studio album, Too True. Too True is ten tracks of a noticeably less lo-fi sound than previous albums in its presentation; this time around sounding reminiscent of 80’s work by Siouxsie and the Banshees, Pat Benatar with a dash of a-ha especially on tracks like “Are You Okay?” and “In the Wake of You”. When it comes to creative dominance and control, rest assure that work produced by Dum Dum Girls, has been carefully assembled and edited by Dee Dee. “Yeah…I still write and record everything for the most part myself. It’s just too personal a thing. I already bring on my producers and incorporate some of their ideas and their input, which is very vital but I just can’t, for Dum Dum Girls at least, take a stance that doesn’t involve it [production] being 100% dominated by me.” Dee Dee bares her soul with confidence and simplicity and her honesty is refreshing. Openly admitting that music is one of the only things that “speaks to her” she gives it everything she has and encourages fans, especially young women saying: “If you can figure it out and find something to fulfill you, you should do everything your power to pursue it. Whether it’s just casually as a hobby or something more serious... it’s obviously a difficult road to choose but…there’s no alternative, you know?”
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DUM DUM GIRLS
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TOP: TOPSHOP SKIRT: TOPSHOP BOOTS: JUJU
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a cult inside of me
a cult inside of me PHOTOGRAPHER: RYAN HANDY STYLIST: NATALIE HEWISON MAKE UP: GRACE COOLE-GREEN HAIR: SEAANE CHIN-HOYTE MODEL: AMANDA HENDRICK @ SELECT
JUMPER: ZDDZ SKIRT: TOPSHOP BOOTS: JUJU ROLL NECK & NECKLACE: STYLISTS OWN
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XO Magazine catches with The Pretty Reckless frontwoman, Taylor Momsen right before heading on tour to promote her band’s newest album Going To Hell, touching on everything from her creative process, album setbacks and touring the world. Taylor is back, and back with a vengeance TPR are louder and more raw than ever and we can’t get enough.
There were a few setbacks that happened while creating this album, the biggest one probably being your studio being flooded, did you guys end up re-recording some of the old material or start again from scratch? I’m not sure how much re-recording we did. We really lost the whole studio which meant a whole sound change and getting all our instruments back together, it was a process. In the end there wasn’t much to salvage, we lost mostly everything. “Going to Hell” and “Fucked Up World” both came after Sandy though, so you could say that from tragedy came some light for us.
How did the concept for the album ‘Going to Hell’ come about? Did you guys set out to create a specific vibe this go around? We just wrote songs and recorded the one’s we liked.
always a theme to a record, it’s always where the band was in their own heads at that specific time. That’s what makes records cool, it’s not just, “in for a day-create a single,“ it’s a whole period of your life that you get to record with music.
After a while a theme started to
become apparent, there’s always a
theme to a record, it’s always where the band was in their own heads at that
specific time. That’s what makes records cool, it’s not just, “in for a day-create
What is your song writing/recording process like? Working on ideas until a good one comes and hits you in the face, it’s amazing and grueling, but it’s the best
a single,“ it’s a whole period of your
life that you get to record with music After a while a theme started to become apparent, there’s
What were some of the things that inspired the songs on this album? Everything inspired these songs. Inspiration comes in many forms and from everything around us. It’s always lucky when you catch it.
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part of the job. It’s worth it for that 40 seconds of happiness when you’ve finished something of quality. Do you have a favorite track off the album? I love them all like children and can’t really choose a favorite. I have favorites by moment and by day, but overall, we wrote honest, raw songs and I’m proud of all of them. You guys were also on tour for about two years and have played all around the world which you’ve mentioned has changed how you view the world, has that affected the album or subject matter of the album in anyway? Yea, we saw a lot of shit over the course of touring. It definitely affects you. All the shit in the world is shoved right in your face, whether you’re on the street or looking at it from a plane. It just looks like we might be on the wrong path to creating a healthy living environment for everyone. You don’t see a lot of equality…actually you don’t meet a lot of people who
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actually believe in equality as a core value and we need mutual respect to live together in peace. And violence is so awful, but it’s just a reaction to a lifestyle. How did you guys come up with the idea for Hell Mondays? That was actually our friend, Johnny Stratton’s idea - he gets all the credit.
We let the song guide
us and they represent where we were at a certain time The songs so far off this album have a more raw sound to them that really translate well in your live shows, when creating these songs did you keep your live performances in mind? We let the song guide us and they represent where we were at a certain time. We also have to think that we can play them tomorrow or 5 years down the line and like them just as much as the first time, but the
song leads the way and the performance follows You guys have toured extensively these last few years do you have any favorite venues or cities you like to play? Paris, London, Tokyo, Berlin, Amsterdam, Sao Paulo, the list goes on. Each city is great for a different reason. Shepard’s Bush Empire was one of my favorite sounding venues. This album has a pretty strong theme with great accompanying visuals - do you create music with specific visuals in mind (like how songs will translate in music videos and album art) or does that come later for you? It all comes when it comes, sometimes right away, sometimes later, it’s unpredictable What’s next for you guys in the upcoming months? Touring the world, making videos and other things to compliment “Going to Hell”
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Valerie Hagarty We are in love with NYC based artist Valerie Hegarty’s artwork. Her work features a super close attention to detail and often looks like the haunting remains of an art exhibit gone awry. The cracked walls, melted canvases and frames and decomposing elements are all elements of Hegarty’s artwork that make her collection of works truly captivating. Working with delicate materials such as paper,foamcore, paint and glue, she creates an air of familiarity - capturing familiar items from various parts of history and twists and corrupts them with devices often connected to the overall historical significance the work is conveying. You can check out more of Hagarty’s work over at http://valeriehegarty.com/
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N01 march 2014 xo edit issue
April 2013 issue out April 5th! subscribe to XO Edit online for free at xomagazineonline.com!