story/ Ilyse Kaplan
photographer/ Gregoire Alexandre

On April 3, 2012 Los Angeles’ El Rey theatre was packed with dancing bodies trying to get to the front of the stage, or at least stand up tall enough to catch a glimpse of Metronomy. It is rare in 2012, to see so many empty hands waving in the air at a concert. Usually the hands are filled with electronic devices capturing the moment as the owner of the device cheapens the moment with their lack of interest in the song and urgency to Instagram the band. Not Metronomy fans, their phones were kept securely in their pockets as they danced and sang every word. Though Joseph Mount, the man behind Metronomy, might not believe it, his fans were coming to see their favorite band, not “the next big thing” (though they very well may be). Having been out for a year, the band’s third record, “The English Riviera” is attracting new fans everyday.

I caught up with Mr. Mount before his sold out performance at the El Rey. Taking a night between opening for Coldplay at the Hollywood Bowl to play a show for his own fans, the modest Mount was excited to be back where he felt he belonged.

What was it like to play the Hollywood Bowl?

We did the second night last night so we were getting slightly more used to it. I guess, as always, it’s not like we’re playing the Hollywood Bowl, Coldplay was playing the Hollywood Bowl. It’s just a really incredible place, there’s no place like it. I’m not sure we’d ever be able to play it on our own terms so it’s just incredible. Its one of those places, a bit like the older [venues] in London that the Beatles have played, but they’re still kind of small and there’s nothing now that was built like that.

What was it like playing for the Coldplay crowd? I can imagine it’s not quite your crowd.

I’m not really a fan of Coldplay but when you start touring with a band you can’t help but wake up with their songs going around in your head. The thing with Coldplay fans is they’re not real scenester types, they’re just normal people. I think when we’re playing [for Coldplay fans] we’re splitting the opinion of the crowd quite a bit. It feels like the people have really warmed to us.

I can imagine it’s a lot of Dads.

Yeah! It’s a lot of Dads and a lot of kids. A lot of kids are there because maybe it’s their Dad’s favorite band so they grew up on that stuff, it’s just bizarre.

So I’m sure tonight it will be nice going back to your own crowd?

When you’re on tour with another band sometimes you forget what it’s like to play a show where people actually want to see you. So I’m really looking forward to tonight it’s going to be fun.

How was it to play Coachella for the first time?

Before we were doing it everyone was like “oh, you’re playing Coachella, it’s such an amazing festival” and our first experience of it was not great, it was raining and no one on the site was very helpful as to where we were supposed to go to do press. Then, we spent hours driving around the gated communities trying to find radio station houses and we were like “what were people talking about? This festival is horrible” Then after being in Canada for a week, I was very excited to get back down to the festival and the second weekend was a lot of fun.

As a band that played the fest, what were your feelings on holding the festival for two weekends?

I know some people here take issue with it, I think it’s better than making it bigger which is what happens with a lot of English festivals.

Did you get to see any of the other acts playing the fest?

We stayed late the day we played to see Dr. Dre so we watched a bit of Justice as well, and accidently saw a bit of At the Drive In while we waited for Dr. Dre. The impression I get from Coachella is it’s not the type of place that you go to actually discover a band. I know some people might have discovered us but it’s such a big bill that you don’t have time to see everyone. It was so fucking hot too so we just stayed in the tent.

You’ve done a lot of remixes people might not expect from hearing your albums, such as Lady Gaga’s “You and I,” are you in to a lot of guilty pleasure pop music?

Because of the way I form my opinions now, the idea of having a guilty pleasure doesn’t really exist anymore, I just decided to embrace everything that I like. For a while I would say that my guilty pleasure was that song “Stars are Blind” by Paris Hilton but it’s actually a really good song so I’m not embarrassed by it. I think pop music is pop music and it’s a lot more interesting than the latest band, so no guilty pleasures apart from Paris Hilton but I show no guilt.

What are some pop songs you’ve liked lately?

I heard that “Climax” by Usher, that’s very good. We (Metronomy) were all going crazy for the Britney record but that’s kind of old now. We’ve been touring for six weeks with Coldplay, so I’ve really just been listening to Coldplay, but I definitely like that Usher track, I’m interested to see what the rest of the album is like.

What role did music play for you growing up?

I grew up in rural England so there wasn’t really a music scene in the way there was for some of the bigger towns in England. The only kind of shows I could go to were bands that were big enough to come down [to the rural areas]. At school I met a few people that I formed bands with. There was a group of five or six people who really liked music, I latched on to them and then we’d take turns going to each others’ houses and hang out in the bedroom together listening to records. Someone’s parents might go away and you’d go over, have some beers, and listen to music because there weren’t any clubs to go to. It was really important and it’s funny because now I realize that everyone who was in that group is doing something with music today. For all that time we spent saying “I wish something would go on,” we didn’t realize that we were making stuff go on.

It’s been a year since you released “The English Riviera,” how has it been touring with those songs for the past year?

The thing is, we’ve been touring with it longer because we were touring with it building up to the record, and it’s been great. I think now, in America, people are just beginning to pick up on [our music] but in Europe it’s been a very exciting year for us. Now, people in America are picking up the record who didn’t hear it before. I’ve seen success happen to friends of ours but to have it happen to you is just enjoyable because it might not happen again.

How did the progression of going from straight dance records like “Nights Out” and “Pip Paine” to more of a thematic record like “The English Riviera” occur?

It’s funny because nowadays, the way you get in to music, you might start with a band like The Beatles and immediately you’ve got a huge amount of records to listen to. You can just listen through them and hear the progression happening between then and whenever you decide to listen to the next record though you’ve got no sense at the time of the physical gap between the records. The way I’ve been making music is from listening to stuff like that, to me it seems completely normal that you should want to change and push yourself a bit. I guess I wouldn’t have been happy to keep doing instrumental dance music and if you listen to a lot of musicians that do [electronic music], they kind of hit this wall after 3 albums. The thing is, it’s still a hobby for me, I just love making music. I still do it as much for myself as anyone else. When I started to sing, it was like “oh well this is kind of funny.” My records are experiments and they seem to go all right.

Did you get a little more comfortable singing on “The English Riviera”?

I think I had to, really. It’s very weird because I started playing drums and always dreamed I would be in a band playing shows, but imagined I would be drumming at the back. You always see people who want to be the front person, that’s not me but I’m realizing you have to, not force yourself, but appreciate the situation you’re in. When I first started singing, I did it in a very plain way so people can’t take the piss out of you, then after a while you realize, why not try harder?

Do you write with the other band members now that they are in the band, or continue to do everything on your own?

That’s the thing that ties everything together—or the way I like people to see it—is you can see what I’ve learned through having all the music be my own. On the last record, the other members played on the songs, but what makes Metronomy Metronomy is that it’s quite a direct relationship between the songs and me. If there were too many people that got involved in the song writing it might loose its essence.

When you added the other members for your live performances, how was it to go from performing mainly electronic to live instrumentals?

It was amazing because before that, there were three of us in the group and we were using a computer, it almost felt like we were cheating. I’ve been in bands before and it feels very natural to have four people on stage. When it came to having the others join, we decided we weren’t going to replicate everything exactly because you may as well be using a backing track. We wanted to get the spirit of the music and do what we can with the four of us. The trick is, it wasn’t hard because we didn’t try really hard. It was more like we did what we could because people were coming to watch a show, not to listen to a record. Compared to how it was when it was three of us with a laptop, it feels more proper. It’s so much easier to do it with the four of us because the show is genuinely different every night.

How do you end up writing somber lyrics with upbeat instrumentals that make you want to dance?

It’s not a conscious thing, I suppose if you’re going to write lyrics you should write them about stuff you have experience with. For the music side of it, you work on instinct. For me, it’s more whatever happens happens. I think because I used to play the drums I like to have nice and rhythmic instrumentals.

Have you been working on new music lately?

Because we’ve been away so much it’s hard, there’s nothing recorded but I’ve got demos on my computer that I listen to all the time. I’m really excited about starting the next record. Especially because this time around there are all these new people who didn’t care before, there are new people who are excited to hear new music.

What do you think the progression will be from “British Riviera” to the record you’ve been writing demos for?

The first two records were home productions, the third album was a studio production and it was such an exciting thing to do. Last time around I was new to recording in the studio and there was a whole lot of stuff I wanted to do that was maybe self-indulgent. Why not go ahead and take it to the next step? For the next record, the role will be to bring everything from the first three records together. To me it makes perfect sense with the three records and the way that they’ve changed, but I still feel like it confuses a lot of people and I don’t want it to, so I’d like to do something for the next album to show what was going on in my head.

What do you hope people get out of your music?

I don’t know. I suppose just what I put in to it. I’m not the kind of person that is doing it to be crazy rich. I try to make the music sound interesting so I hope that people find it interesting. I’ve spoken to people and certain songs have been important to them in particular situations, it’s incredible that that can happen, that it can mean something to someone.

story / Meghan L. O’Connor

photographs / Shervin Lainez

When one first witnesses Swedish native Theresa Andersson wooing a crowd of adoring fans (for me, this first moment was in the perfect setting, an intimate club in Sweden with some of her most loyal fans), one cannot help being struck dumb by her presence. As a one-woman act, Andersson not only plays every instrument from drums to violin to guitar, but she plays them at once. Her act involves recording each instrument as she plays and laying them over one another as she sings, often layering recordings of her voice as well. Andersson’s stage presence however, adds an altogether effortless aura to every step of the process.  Andersson’s stage layout is simple; she stands barefoot on a small white shag rug on stage, surrounded by dozens of pedals and various instruments. A Smokey Johnson vinyl displays itself lovingly to her left. She converses with her audience (at the Swedish concert, in soft-spoken Swedish) then begins to pound a beat. The simple layout is soon contrasted with her complicated technique, as her feet tap on a wooden step. Adding to the tap, she begins a tune on the violin, then quickly blends the tune into open-lunged shouts.

Before the audience knows, the violin is switched to an acoustic guitar riff, then a beat on the drums. Every instrument is paired with an irrepressible energy pouring from her voice, her motions, and her constant smile. “New Orleans makes me sing,” she croons, and the soul influence of the city is palpable in her jazzy style.  Raised in Sweden but moving to New Orleans at 18, Andersson’s style is altogether unique: a mix of soft folk with jazzy soul, and a distinctly Andersson use of multiple instruments and arrangements to create an overwhelmingly complex one woman show. “Stockholm is nice, Paris at night. New York’s the coolest thing,” she murmurs while softly prancing about the stage. Later, she plucks at her violin as if she holds a ukulele on some private beach, and the crowd is in love. By the show’s end, each and every audience member feels a bit lost without her presence to gaze after and her soft song to hear. Luckily we have new album Street Parade to console our weary hearts. This experience of her live performance is an important element of her music, as every time you listen to the album, you feel as though you are in the very club which I described. You are sitting at a candlelit table in some small Swedish town, and Theresa is singing just for you. Theresa, you can serenade us any time.

In order to celebrate the ratchet anthem of 2012, I Don’t Like (remix) Chief Keef featuring Kanye West, Pusha T, Jadakiss and Big Sean we decided to play a self righteous lady version of Kayne West and think of things we hate as well. We sent some of our staff out this morning and told them to come back with a list of things they hated.  Word to Chief Keef.

Just  walking through the city and I see a few things I hate…..

I hate sandals with lace socks.

I hate leggings with runs in them.

I hate chipped nail polish.

I hate dudes who walk their cats.

I hate kitten heels.

I hate socks, pantyhose and sneakers together.

I hate overhearing conversations about what someone is going to instagram….before they instagram it.

I hate corny ass bitches.

Pop stars driving round the city dictating things they hate.

I hate sport coats with button up shirts, jeans and dress shoes.

story + interview / LOGAN BRENDT

photos: SHAWN BRACKBILL

As self proclaimed “dark nerds”, Baltimore band Lower Dens makes music that warrants attentive listening. The subtleties of krautrock are mixed in with their electronic sound on their current album, Nootropics, which was just released on May 1st.

Jana Hunter, the hauntingly deep voiced singer and guitarist for Lower Dens, generates vocal melodies that are reminiscent of Siouxsie and the Banshees. This adds to the beautiful mysteriousness of the album. Jana is also behind the creation of the songs as well. These songs expand beyond the musical realm, as they have purposeful lyrics that are a look inside humanity.

As for the album title Nootropics, it is one of the many references to the band’s interest in transhumanism. Since nootropics are a drug that is used to enhance memory and other cognitive functions, it relates to the emerging technologies which are being studied and used to overcome human limitations, known as transhumanism.

To meet the growing fascination over the unique individuality and sound of Lower Dens, they have been currently touring in support of Nootropics. Soon touring Europe, they will be back to the States to round out the summer.

Before leaving for Europe, Jana spent some time talking with Ladygunn about the idiosyncrasies of her music, songwriting, and her distinct rich vocals.

Since your album just came out, you’re now on tour in support of it. Any place you’re specifically excited to see, whether in Europe or here in the US?

We’re excited about the show in our hometown of Baltimore. Pretty excited to go to Europe in general. I’m looking forward to playing Primavera [music festival in Barcelona, Spain] for the first time. Then immediately following that, Forbidden Fruit Festival in Dublin, which is always a fun place for us to be.

Your music is beautiful and mysterious, however its rhythmic and hypnotic sound evoke the subtleties of krautrock. Do you draw from that style of music?

I’ve long been a fan of Kraftwerk and Neu! in particular, and some of the associated bands from the same country and same period of time. I just happened to be listening quite a bit to the Kraftwerk Radio-Activity record, kind of really digesting it in further depths than I had previously while writing some of the songs for the record. So I’m sure that had a pretty direct influence to some of the songs.

How do you feel that you framed your own originality into the style?

I have a very strong impulse when writing and I don’t tend to turn to other band’s music for much inspiration during the writing process. I have enough of my own drive that I can rely on it, typically. It’s hard for me to characterize it, other than saying it’s my own.

The vocals on the album seem intentionally obscured. Is that a correct assessment?

I didn’t intentionally obscure them. We worked with a producer on this record and the mixes were his design. I had very little to do with the overall aesthetic of the mix. But for me, the vocals are maybe more present than most of the other works that I’ve done. It wasn’t even something I really noticed until people started pointing it out. I think the fact that we put out “Brains” first and it has the most obscured vocals— those vocals maybe are intentionally obscured because the emotional content required that it be a little bit varied under the den of the music and the intention of that song. I think that’s maybe given people an undue impression for the record as a whole. There’s definitely some other songs where I think the vocals are incredibly prominent and I’d be surprised if people couldn’t make out the lyrics in terms of their audibility. It might have something to do with the way that I sing. I tend to vocalize more as a means of instrumentation, but it’s not to obscure the lyrics. I want them to be understood.

Without getting too personal, what type of mental state are you in when you’re most effectively creative?

Kind of like a trance like focus. I like to be isolated from daily life as much as possible. I like to remove myself from any auxiliary concerns and focus as much as possible on exploration of ideas that I’m curious about musically and dramatically. I just try to be as mentally and physically removed as possible from daily life.

How did you arrive at your interest in transhumanism? Was it part of a personal interest in self improvement, or do you feel it’s a sort of necessity for society to engage in?

It’s more that I’m interested in people’s relationships to transhumanism. I’m not particularly a proponent, but I think it’s a really interesting movement to observe. It says a lot about our society as a whole that that is something that so many people seem to be really passionately involved in. What I prefer to focus on is the observation of that happening in other people’s lives.

Do you feel technology will inevitably hinder us in the end?

No, I think we’re very much at a crossroads. I think that if we can steer the infrastructure and building of our technology based society, then we have the potential to make it work to our benefit. But it’s very much up in the air right now. We have a very consumer based approach to the incorporation of technology and that I think if we allow to continue to be the main drive in how we build our society around technology, then I think that will work to our detriment.

Is there any cinematic or visual art that you’ve recently encountered that you can recommend to our readers?

I really enjoyed the movie, We Need to Talk About Kevin. It had a fascinating approach and the cinematography was incredible. Another one that I liked was Hanna.

Now that you’ve been playing a lot of shows, what have your experiences been like being a woman in that scene?

It can seem at times something of a boys club. But I don’t feel like that in my band and amongst a lot of my peers that I play music with. It’s something I encounter just as much as I do in any other area of life. Given that it’s not something I have to deal with constantly, I find it surprising when I do encounter the willfully ignorant impression of women’s participation in society. In modern society, it’s very subtle. It’s the tendency for maybe men to be consulted with questions before women are. It seems like something so small to bring up to confront someone about. But, if you were to confront someone about something like that, I would think that they would probably be unaware that they were doing that.

Since you have a deep, rich voice, what singers did you gravitate towards or find influential in finding your own voice?

When I was a teenager, I really liked Ella Fitzgerald. I tried to sing like her, even though it didn’t really work, but I tried. Also, [Lena Karlsson] from the band Komeda. They’re from Sweden. She has a really incredible voice. There was a time when I wanted to be able to sing like her. David Bowie is another major inspiration. There’s something about trying to sing along to this record that hasn’t so much made me sound like them, but it’s made me learn to pay attention to peculiarities in my voice that will allow me to control it better and to make it my own. That’s what those singers accomplished, I think. I have never really thought about it, but most of the female singers I like do have lower voices and the men have higher voices. It’s something about the androgyny of it.

In what ways do you think your album Nootropics will enlighten the listener?

I think it depends. I think there’s a lot in the music for the casual listener all the way to the musician listener. [Laughs.] It’s very richly layered. A lot of members. A lot of people playing different instruments. I can’t say whether it would enlighten anyone, but it is an intentionally, densely packed record.

On Nootropics, what song or lyric do you feel is the perfect statement for the entire album?

Maybe the chorus from “Brains”. The second one which is, “Don’t be afraid, everything will change.” It’s just the notion that we are in a time of great transition and rather than face it with fear, we should embrace it.

We Went To Coachella So You Didn’t Have To.

by Anne Walls and Kelly Hannon

Look, you guys. Coachella is basically the hottest, most crowdedest (that’s a word now), hippest, insanest, most grueling concert festival experience in the entirety of the world. It’s like if you got in a time machine and went back to Woodstock, but only Woodstock was on the surface OF THE SUN and also filled with tragic hipsters and creepy parents who decided a drug-and-booze-soaked festival atmosphere would be the best place to bring their six-year-old. Yay!

To save you the heartache, cirrhosis, and financial drainage (not to mention long-term hearing loss) of such an event, we have compiled a succinct yet totally important list of Coachella observations for your beautiful unblistered eyeballs. Enjoy!

On Face Paint:

Anne: Cutesy Urban Outfitter girls with stars/hearts/etc. on their cheeks: fine. Hippy girl with tribal-y white stripes all over her face: grey area. Greasy haired guy wearing all black in 100° weather with half-sweated off Joker makeup: NO. Why so horrifying?

Kelly: Let’s go back to the hippy girl with the tribal stripes. I remember this moment. We were at Radiohead. For some reason we were having a very in-depth conversation with the gentlemen around us on what the difference between a “taint” and a “chode” is. (Don’t worry; we got some Oxford Dictionary-grade definitions). And apparently we were making a lot of people laugh, including hippie-dippy heroin girl (no surprise there). I think I would have been fine with her about-facing me for a half hour, staring into the depths of my soul, and telling me I reminded her of Whitney Cummings, had she not been covered in such freakish white paint. (I was *slightly, just slightly mom if you’re reading this* under the influence of drugs myself, so yeah, her extreme face varnish put me a little over the edge). The moral of my story is – hey guys, other people have to look at you.

On Body Paint (of the permanent variety):

Anne: This picture (and our friend Jason’s facial expression) articulate our feelings on the bad tattoos that abounded on the festival grounds better than we ever, ever could. Please enjoy/barf:

Kelly: I can’t respond. Because I’m dead.

On Fuzzy Photos:

Anne: It is nearly impossible to get a clear photo once the sun goes down. Surprisingly, this is not because you’re still wearing your sweat-covered sunglasses or because your phone camera lens is smudged from being sandwiched between you and that couple re-enacting MTV’s The Grind at the David Guetta show. Nope, it’s because of the weed. You’re basically in a biodome of smoke, so getting a sharp picture is virtually impossible. Unless you want an Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes picture, but they haven’t played since 2010.

Kelly: I just uploaded 8,000 of those photos. And I know this is crazy, but my computer actually smells like weed now.

On Costumes:

Anne: Look, Coachella is not Halloween. It is WAY too hot to be wearing all sorts of IRON MAN and PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN costumes, though I swear I saw a guy with Jack Sparrow hair beads. Yet somehow, some people find ways to sneak costumes into the festival and wear them with panache and grace. And by some people, I mean the three Australian dudes who were (inexplicably) wearing chef hats and aprons. I’m not sure if they had clothing on underneath, but they definitely weren’t wearing shirts. I think they also were waving wooden spoons and whisks around as they jammed to Grouplove. But there was so much smoke in the tent, I can’t really be sure.

Kelly: Holy shiznit, whenever I saw the d-bags in the full-fledged Native American headdresses, I began to fully understand why geriatrics despise teens so much. I could hear the grandma loud and clear in my head. “These god damn kids and their disrespect! They’re weird and I hate ‘em! Somebody get me a cigarette!” But SERIOUSLY – you are a Caucasian male from the Cape who’s probably never so much as stepped foot on an Indian reservation, except for that one time in college you got lost driving home drunk after spending all your money from Daddy at the casino up north. I hope you get your ass kicked. That aside, if you have a charming accent, you can wear whatever the eff you want. And if those Australian men are looking for a place to stay next year, I’d have no problem making room for them in the backseat of my car.

On Pasties (See first picture):

Anne: So women – or more accurately, GIRLS – who aren’t porn stars – or at least do not LOOK like porn stars – are wearing pasties now? As shirts? In public? Because they want flower/heart/star shaped sunburns around their nipples? Please explain.

Kelly: Much like crop circles, I think it’s simply unexplainable.  But here’s my imitation of the thought process: “Ohmigod, I look HOT AS HELL in this crop top. Um, ohmigod, what if I took my bra off, just to like, make it a little more ‘dirty ho in the desert.’ [GASP] OHMIGOD what if I took the TOP OFF, and just wore body art pasties over my nips?! Aggggh I’m gonna tweet at my friend Roxie right now to see where she buys the ones she wears at Boobie Bungalow!!! I’m SO getting banged at this thing!!!!!” I don’t know – this may not be accurate. Either way, next year I’m bringing a tote bag full of long sleeve T-shirts to dole out to these harlots that read, “I went to Coachella and all I got was this lousy venereal disease.”

On Captain’s Hats:

Anne: So here is the sad truth about captain’s hats. I thought I was the only person who was hilarious and ironic enough to buy one – on Catalina no less! An ISLAND! How much more captainish could I GET? Well, evidently everyone and their mother got the memo about these crucial pieces of headwear and the polo fields were INUNDATED with them. I mean, like 1 out of 10 asshats – sorry, FESTIVAL GOERS – were wearing one. So I kept mine at the condo and only broke it out for Hangover Pool Party time. I was the ONLY captain at the pool, I’m happy to report. Though the Weird Ex-Playmate Stoner Grandma from the condo downstairs who told us the story about her son drinking Coors Light and “dancing around the living room until he fell down” might as WELL have been wearing a captain’s hat, for how absolutely BALLER she was.

Kelly: Okay, I know I’ve been digressing a lot, but we need to talk more about Stoner Grandma because she was possibly my most fave character at this whole shebang. I made the superb choice of accepting the invitation to use her extra pool float, and we soon became the best of friends! If she were still fertile, our periods totally would have synched up. She told me amazing tales, ranging from her life as a nudist to how she’s been affected by the economic crisis. If anything, she taught me that aging can be amazing! It’s ironic, really. I went to Coachella to kill brain cells, but ended up gaining insight. But then she allowed her grandson to splash me, so you know what, fuck her actually.

On Fanny Packs:

Anne: Sure, this has been a list of mostly hostile observations and outright mockery, but one thing we do NOT mock is convenience and also wearing things around your waist. HENCE: Fanny Packs. They are AMAZERS. You can store ALL of your shit in them, the security people barely if EVER look in them for the blatant drugs you are mule-ing right through the two – count it, TWO – security/body cavity search checkpoints, and did we mention how CONVENIENT they are? Hands free! No strap around your neck/shoulders! No back sweat (okay, not THAT much back sweat). Basically, fanny packs are like the Grey Ford Taurus of drug carting. Cops NEVER see them. They rock.

Kelly: So I’m the wanker who brought 3 small, awkwardly-shaped crossbody bags for my 3 different outfits, and I could not have regretted that decision more. Here’s why: 1) Porta-potties: not a cute situation. We actually saw one with poo splattered on just about every inch of the walls. Do you really want your fabulous new purse to accidentally graze any part of that radioactive disaster?? Of course not. You’ve got to take the bag off, hand it to your dude friend, hope he’s not too blitzed to hang onto it, then put it back on for another few hours of back sweating. 2) Raving: how am I supposed to get super crunk in the At the Drive-In mosh pit when I’ve got a purse loaded up with hand sanitizer and baby wipes hitting me in the ass? It ain’t easy, folks. Anne Walls has set a Coachella precedent with the fanny pack, which must never be strayed from. Clutch move. Pun intended.

The Bottom Line, from Anne and Kelly: Like a mirage in the middle of a sweltering desert, there are good times to be found at the writhing mass of humanity known as Coachella. As long as you have a fanny pack…and some of Stoner Grandma’s weed.

Interview / LOGAN BRENDT

Photos / CHARLENE BAGCAL

Stylist / JENNI HENSLER

Dress, Malgorzata Dudek. Ring ,Hollow Dancer.

Chelsea Wolfe, the witchy goth music princess is quickly rising to success with her second album Apokalypsis, and a current European tour. Though she stands out as unique on her own, she’s often categorized into the same genre that includes complimentary comparisons to Zola Jesus, Grimes, and Lykke Li. She has the natural formula to be as successful, as she is convincingly dark and majestic with her classical sounding voice and solemn melodic music. She embodies mournful intelligence and beautiful darkness, including her lyrics that can stand alone as poetry.

Who has inspired you musically, over the years? Selda Bağcan, Vladimir Vysotsky, Erik Satie, Vashti Bunyan, Black Sabbath, Lindsey Buckingham, Nick Cave, Antony and the Johnsons, and Patti Smith.

What draws you to the occult? I like that sort of dark 60′s & 70′s occult aesthetic: Jean Rollin’s Fascination, Fellini, Kwaidan. I mean, that’s what I think of when I hear the word “occult”— a sort of visual style I’m attracted to, but I’m not interested in cults. I was a part of one in junior high and some of high school and it wasn’t for me. It really taught me the importance of finding your own vision and path.

You’re going on your first European tour. What city are you most looking forward to seeing? My first full band tour, yes. I haven’t been to Prague or Rome, or London actually. I’ve heard beautiful things of all those cities. I look forward to going back to Oslo, Stockholm and Helsinki as well. I love being that far north.

Do you have anything planned in-between shows, like sightseeing? We don’t have much time off, but I do hope to visit a Weekday store and find some other interesting clothing shops or showrooms to browse! I love visiting old cathedrals and churches in Europe. My friend Jude took me to the Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière in Lyon last time I was on tour and I want to take my band there. It’s incredible and the view from that hill is unreal.

Because your music and aesthetic both embodies beautiful darkness, what would be something people would find surprisingly “light” about you? I don’t believe that you have to live a dark or unhappy life in order to create art that embodies darkness. I try to live a simple, positive life, but I take the world at large as well as the world around me as inspiration and there are plenty of dark thoughts that come from reality. I also recognize the contrasts though, and I see the beautiful and the horrific juxtaposed everywhere.

Do you listen to pop music? Do you have a guilty pleasure when it comes to pop music? I don’t know what really is pop music. Catchy music? I loved t.A.T.u.

You’re very much a visual artist as you are a music artist. Who are your favorite visual artists? I am obsessed with Jan Saudek at the moment. My first love was Egon Schiele, when I was younger. Maison Martin Margiela has always inspired and impressed me. I have a wide range of visual art that I adore, which can be confusing— from minimal to lush. My good friend Steve Vanoni is a great folk artist and taught me a lot about life and art. I also love Nan Goldin, and the films of Lars von Trier, John Waters and Werner Herzog.

How much of a perfectionist are you when it comes to writing and making music? “Perfectionist” probably isn’t the right word because what I like isn’t really what others would consider “perfect.” That said, I am a bit OCD about certain sounds in a song and in that way am not always very fun to be around in the mixing stage of making an album. Certain tones and hidden sounds resonate with me and become necessary.

What do you enjoy more: The beginnings of a song, when you first start writing and putting melodies together, or when you’ve finished the song, and get to perform it live? I like recording better than performing live. Sometimes when I record I’m writing as I record, and sometimes the song is already finished, so it’s different every time. I only really like performing a song once I’ve performed it for a while and I become comfortable with it.

What saddens you greatly in this world? The way people treat each other, the way people treat animals, the way that resources like water and fossil fuels are stolen and then sold back to us by corporations. There’s an immense disrespect and disregard for life or nature. The cycle of poverty is really bad. People get pushed off their lands; pushed into poverty and have no way out. Evil breeds evil and the cycle causes people to do things for money or food that are deeply saddening.

What makes you the most happy? It’s strange or, difficult, to answer this question after that last one. But, I am at a point in my life when I am working with great people, able to play more and more shows, and I’m excited about the new music I’ll be recording this summer, so I feel lucky and happy.

Dress, Luis Cascante. Jewelry, Bevel NYC.

STORY / LOGAN BRENDT
PHOTOGRAPHS / CYBELE MALINOWSKI

Belgian-born Wally De Backer otherwise known as, Gotye, has attracted much deserved international success through his hit song off his third album, Making Mirrors, and its accompanying video, “Somebody That I Used To Know,” which features New Zealander singer-songwriter Kimbra. With over one hundred million Youtube views, this song has become an international break-up anthem.

De Backer is currently touring the US for the first time and has upcoming performances at Coachella, and Saturday Night Live. With all the success he has achieved in his music career thus far and with the breakthrough of this song to the mainstream, he is taking the whirlwind transformation of his career in stride, as fame isn’t nearly as important to him as making good music and being happy doing it.

Though he admits to me that he gets a little nervous before a big TV appearance, not wanting the nerves to affect the way he sings, I find it hard to believe anything can ruffle him. He’s confident, intelligent, and brilliant just like his song making. It only makes sense that he would have found success in such a humble, integrity-maintaining way.

As a resident of Australia for the bulk of his adolescent and adult life, Gotye’s charming accent is easy to listen to as we discuss the music industry, our mutual love for Depeche Mode and his artistic influences.

Performing in general comes naturally to him as is tangible in all video documentation of his work, including the most recent for his song, “Easy Way Out”. He is a true artist who embodies music itself. Gotye’s passion is undeniable.

You’re by no means a new artist, because you’ve been known in Australia for quite a while. But, you’ve recently seen tremendous international success with the song, “Somebody That I Used To Know”. Did it sort of feel like, “Finally!”?

Not really. I was disappointed that I couldn’t find a way to even release my second record, Like Drawing Blood on a label in the United States. So I had to set it up on iTunes and kind of do a very low key— not really promoted release. It was disappointing that I couldn’t make it properly available.

I’ve kind of always been lucky enough to feel like there’s been momentum that’s been upwards with my music, and that I’ve felt successful. The main thing is that you’re happy with how hard you’re working, and you’re challenging yourself and finding new things and ways to be excited about the music you’re making. Commercial success is always nice when it comes along—and I guess it’s been a gradual building thing for me. With this song breaking through in the UK and in the States, it’s exciting. But I haven’t been holding out like, “I need to be a massive pop star, otherwise I’ve failed”.

Has the music business jaded you at all?

I just try to focus on doing interesting, creative things, things that will bring me joy and hopefully that will help me stay as close as possible to the initial spark that has made music and making records my passion since I was a teenager. I’m much more inclined to be someone who is reclusive, or introverted and would prefer to make music and put it out there with as much control, and little hype and razzle dazzle as possible, and let people make up their owns minds about it.

More distractions come with a certain level of fame and commercial success, like the promo trailer and the public expectations. I know I’ve done interviews where somebody called me first thing in the morning, and I’ve just been so not interested to talk about myself or answer the same questions with pretty much the same answers, or even felt like I had the energy to try. Or I might have had 20 interviews that day, and the first one’s a complete dud where I’ve just been totally tired and kind of bratty. Afterwards I feel kind of embarrassed, like, “Oh, I didn’t have to be an idiot to that person.” I’ve had my moments where it’s overwhelming. [Sometimes] nice conversations develop and things digress to weird and strange places, which I do enjoy.

To read more about Gotye and his interesting obsession with Depeche Mode, and his thoughts on the comparisons to Sting and Peter Gabriel, read the feature on Gotye in LADYGUNN’s “Obsession + Confession” issue, due out in May.

…You’re so relevant because you have a brilliant way of creating music that is catchy without being infectiously obnoxious.

That’s very flattering, because some sort of balance that I’m trying to strike is—I have grown up loving a lot of pop music, mostly loving the less leading alternative pop music that is very catchy and often very tightly arranged and has a real element of exploration and idiosyncrasy—you could listen to it in 20-30 years time, and it would still make sense. It has some element of universality, or just a special-ness about it that doesn’t sound like, “Oh that was 1991, and now it just sounds so horrible.”

Your songs tell interesting stories. The lyrics seem to really touch people in a way where they try to figure out what they’re all about. Are these lyrics personal experiences or are they observations?

Mostly both. It’s what happens when you decide to marry words to melody and harmony. That’s the magic I really look for in music. Some of the songs I love the most, if I were to read the lyrics on their own might not necessarily even [make sense] and would be far short of being considered great poetry as pure lyrics and pure words. But combined with that particular vocalist, or inflection, or melody, and production aesthetic, they create a meaning that’s almost beyond language.

It’s flattering. Some people read some of my lyrics and find them poetic on their own terms. I’m kind of looking for that space when that peculiar confluence of certain words and melody and harmony, [and] texture of the sounds that you use— feels like it creates its own world. Maybe you can’t quite put your finger on what it is, but it makes you feel sometimes confusing, maybe conflicting feelings and emotions and responses. It’s very different from other types of pop music [where] the lyrics are pure fluff, or there’s a very clear intention—”I’m here to sell this track, a certain production aesthetic, get many people dancing as possible, in the quickest way possible, sell as many singles and build the particular image of this artist as clearly and unequivocally as possible, and not bring into any question the artist as the great singer.”

In regards to “Somebody That I Used To Know”, have you ever had someone that you’ve dated, call you up and say, “Hey, was that about me?”

One [ex-girlfriend] was concerned that she had heard a bit of gossip that the song was about her, and was like, “Is that true? Should I be worried?” I’m like, “No, it’s not about you, and that’s just gossip.”

Have you ever been driving, and heard your song come on the radio, or heard it in a store?

I’ve walked into a restaurant and sat down, realized the song’s playing, somebody recognizes me, and they recognize the song’s playing at the opposite table, or things like that. It can be kind of weird, sometimes awkward.

I know that you also play the drums. Is this another passion of yours?

It’s what I focus on the most other than my voice or the studio. It’s the main instrument in which I can engage physically. I love playing percussion and drums—what you can do with two hands, two feet, or any part of your body, and sticks is incredible. It’s a very direct, visceral relationship you have with hitting things, making rhythms.

I [also] love opening my mouth and singing. There’s a very physical thing that happens there when you sort of really feel that opening up in your chest. I tend to feel it more when I’m in an acoustic space. But I still love playing drums. I don’t get to do much of it at the moment, because I spend a lot of time producing records, and sampling things, trying to learn how to use synthesizers and stuff like that.

Is there anyone that you have admired that has shown appreciation for your music?

A producer Matthew [Herbert] who worked with Bjork. He’s an intellectual powerhouse in terms of his approach to producing and music sampling. That’s what’s flattering—when someone like that who’s working at such a high level, is into what I’m doing.

However there’s been a bunch of artists—the Jonas Brothers and Chad Kroeger from Nickelback. Laughs. I’m kind of like, “Wow these people are fans of mine.” It’s too funny. It’s nice that it seems like musicians and producers from lots of different fields are responding to what I’m doing. I think it’s cool. Maybe it means I’ve found a peculiar balance that’s somewhere between pop and catchy…and unique in its own way.