#2016 festival artists

[zef-zef]

SEC_ (Mimmo Napolitano) Experimental Intermedia Festival, New York, December 14, 2016

source: downtownmusic.net 📸: Peter Gannushkin

[possible-streetwear]

M.I.A  at Clockenflap festival Hong Kong 2016

[seilon]

I feel the need to acknowledge that hitchhiking holds a very special place in my heart completely regardless of whether or not it’s my favorite on the mcou albums. because it was the first song to play at swc5 and now every time i hear it i suddenly revert back to being 16 and feeling my soul leave my body in the 9th row of the shrine theatre in LA

[oceanpulls]

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have a plan to soundtrack everything

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross – best friends and Nine Inch Nails bandmates – found unlikely creative fulfilment (and a couple of Oscars) by reassessing what they had to offer as musicians. Now they’re thinking even bigger, and imagining an artistic empire of their own making

By Zach Baron

Photography by Danielle Levitt

Every weekday, Trent Reznor makes his way from his house, a cottagey sprawl behind a white wall in a canyon on Los Angeles’s Westside, to a studio he’s built in his backyard. There he meets his best friend, bandmate, and business partner, Atticus Ross, and they get to work. Reznor and Ross observe the same hours, Monday to Friday, 11am to 7pm. “We show up,” Reznor told me. “We’re not late. We’re not coming in to start to fuck around.” It’s a methodical, orderly existence that Reznor could not have foreseen in the ’90s, when he was fronting Nine Inch Nails and struggling with a drug-and-alcohol problem that was his answer to success. “I would do anything to avoid writing a song,” Reznor said. “I’d rewire the studio 50 times.”

Now Reznor has a wife, Mariqueen Maandig, five children, and multiple jobs. He is sober. Since 2010, when the director David Fincher asked Reznor and Ross to score The Social Network, for which Reznor and Ross won an Oscar, the two men have had steady employment composing for film. This year, Reznor and Ross are also starting a yet-to-be-named company, built around storytelling in multiple disciplines: film production, fashion, a music festival, and a venture with Epic Games.

And then, of course, there is the oldest and perhaps still the most complicated of Reznor’s jobs: being the frontman of Nine Inch Nails. In 1988 Reznor formed what was then a one-man band; the first two full-length records Nine Inch Nails released, Pretty Hate Machine(1989) and The Downward Spiral (1994), have sold more than eight million copies. (Over subsequent years and subsequent albums, the band has since crossed the 20 million mark in sales.) In the ’90s, for a time, Nine Inch Nails were ubiquitous: a phenomenon on the level of Nirvana or Dr Dre. During that decade, the success of the band nearly killed Reznor. “I didn’t feel prepared to process how disorientating that was,” he said. “How much it can distort your personality.”

These days, Nine Inch Nails, which Ross joined as a full-time member in 2016, present a different problem – how do you make something old, something so already well-defined, new again? There are years when Reznor feels like he has the answers and years when he’s less certain. He has put the band on hiatus more than once; after the last Nine Inch Nails tour, in 2022, Reznor deliberately took a break from playing shows as well. “For the first time in a long time I wasn’t sure: what’s the tour going to say?” Reznor told me. “What do I have to say right now? We can still play those songs real good. Maybe we can come up with a new production. But it wasn’t screaming at me: this is what to do right now.”

But he and Ross still come to work, daily, in search of transcendence. “We sit in here every day,” Reznor said. “And a portion of the time organically becomes us just figuring out who we are as people and processing life and a kind of therapy session. And in those endless hours it’s come up: why do we want to do this? And the reason is because we both feel the most in touch with God and fulfilled.”

It is easy to make things when you are a teenager growing up in rural Pennsylvania, near the Ohio border, as Reznor was, and you have nothing to lose and everything to gain; it is considerably harder, once you’ve got older, and found a way to make things that people like, to keep going. It’s an old story: the act of creation can lift you up, but those sharp gifts can also destroy you, and if you make it past that, the sheer blissful regularity of life with money and a family can even you out so thoroughly that there is no friction left to work with. You look inside the cupboard and the cupboard is bare, or it’s a mansion and living inside of it is a person you’re bored of, and so you stop looking. But Reznor and Ross have never stopped looking, and the search for that magical feeling of finding something – that feeling of, in Reznor’s words, “I don’t know where it came from. I don’t know how I just did what I did, but I’ve channelled it into something that worked” – is still the thing that organises their days and their moods.

We were talking in their studio, which was low-lit and cold and full of synthesizers’ blinking lights. Reznor was on a sofa and Ross sat in a chair nearby. The two men first met in the ’90s, when Reznor signed Ross’s band, 12 Rounds, to Reznor’s Nothing Records. Soon after, they became friends, and then musical collaborators. “I was just getting sober,” Reznor said, “and I was in a pretty fragile transitional phase. And I just hit it off with Atticus right off the bat. And part of it was, he was someone who was on much firmer ground, in a mentor-y kind of way, than I was.”

Ross is two years younger than Reznor, but when they met, he’d already been through certain things Reznor was just getting around to. “I got clean when I was very young,” Ross told me. “So I had a bit more experience than him. Put it like this: I knew you could have fun without being high.”

Their friendship has been a constant in both their lives since. “I don’t know if parts of us are broken and we don’t feel good enough,” Reznor said, staring at the ceiling of the studio, “but we know if we work as hard as we can and do the best work we can, it fixes something. At the core of it, that’s what unites us creatively. On top of that, I think his take on the world and role in life helps me understand my place and not feel as detached in some ways.”

Reznor often jokes, or simply explains, that he is a “quart low” on whatever it is that makes people happy. “I think we can both, on our own devices, run below zero as a baseline,” Reznor said. “I don’t mean manic depression, I just mean we don’t take compliments well. It’s like when we won the Oscar, it was the day after: ‘Let’s take today guilt-free, kind of say fuck yeah.’ And tomorrow we’ll have settled back down to a few feet below sea level.”

In their years of collaborating with each other, both men have found some mutual reassurance – a little lift. Reznor gestured at Ross.

“I remember something he said to me – I don’t know if you want me to say this or not – in one of our talks years ago: ‘Here’s what I want today.’”

“I see what’s coming,” Ross said, nervously.

“I just want to feel OK,” Reznor said, quoting his friend. “I want to feel like I’m OK.”

One day this winter, Reznor greeted me at the door of their studio – in the course of reporting this story, I never saw him anywhere else – wearing a black hoodie made by the synthesizer company Moog, black jeans, and black running shoes. At 58, Reznor still retains the angular intensity and jet-black hair of his youth, but time and fatherhood seem to have made him quicker to smile. He looks a little like a college professor now, or an unusually-well-cared-for software engineer. He led me back, past walls of unused gear and several black-clad mannequins, all of which startled me, to their primary workspace, where Ross – a tall west Londoner (he grew up in Ladbroke Grove) with a stern face and a pleasantly reedy voice – sat at a computer, also all in black. (Once, I asked the two men whether their upcoming clothing line would feature any colour. “No,” Reznor said, incredulously. “Of course not.”)

They were on deadline for two films at the moment, including Luca Guadagnino’s forthcoming Queer. “But we’re trying not to work,” Reznor said, drily. Leaned up against one wall was a photo of the two in tuxedos, accepting the Academy Award for best original score for their work on The Social Network. Reznor had contributed to soundtracks before, in the ’90s, but he’d never formally scored a film until The Social Network.

But Reznor and Ross quickly realised that the work, in some ways, wasn’t so different from songwriting. “What do we do when we write a song?” Reznor asked. “We’re trying to emotionally connect with somebody.” Take the Mark Zuckerberg character in The Social Network:“Here’s somebody who thinks this idea is so important that it’s worth kind of fucking your friends over for it. And then realising maybe it wasn’t worth it, or I didn’t realise how I’d feel if I got what I wanted at the price of this. I can relate to that in my own language. Suddenly there’s music.”

“I’m grateful not to be as angry and frustrated and desperate as I have felt in the past,” Reznor said. “I couldn’t have predicted that I would feel this level of fulfilment.”

And Reznor found that he enjoyed the exercise of solving someone else’s problems instead of his own. “There’s something about not being the boss and working again in service to something that I initially felt guilty for feeling kind of fulfilled by in a weird way.”

Reznor said that on another Fincher film, Mank, the director suggested: “What if it sounded like maybe inspired by Bernard Herrmann and as if it were recorded in 1935 and this film canister sat on the shelf for 60 years?” OK, interesting. (Ross and Reznor were nominated for that one too.)

On the first film the two men scored for Guadagnino, Bones and All, “we got a cut of that that was nearly four hours long with no music and we kind of thought, Oh, fuck,” Reznor said. “Four hours we sat without a pee break, transfixed. It didn’t need music. And when you watch that you approach it differently.” Then Guadagnino brought them Challengers, due for worldwide release in April. Reznor said, “He started us down a path, saying, ‘What if it was very loud techno music through the whole film?’” (This is exactly what it turned out to be.)

“I wish I had his notes,” Ross said of Guadagnino. “His notes were so fucking funny on what each piece was meant to do.”

“Oh, yeah,” Reznor said. “‘Unending homoerotic desire.’ It was all a variation on those three words.”

They liked the challenge of scoring, they found, and that feeling of not being in control. They also liked the way it made them crave being in control again: “It makes you more inspired to work on other stuff when we’re finished,” Reznor said. “Even if it’s just, Thank God it’s done now and we can appreciate the freedom we had before we gave it up.”

These days, Reznor and Ross also like having jobs that let them be at home, around their families. Both men had tumultuous or lonely lives when they were younger; both men have found that fatherhood soothes certain unresolved aspects of their pasts. Ross has three kids, and “probably the greatest reward is how balanced and happy they all are compared to – certainly my growing up was an unusual sort of scenario. It was a fairly chaotic youth.” Ross comes from a notable English family, but his immediate lineage was more unstable. “My dad had a club called Flipper’s Roller Boogie Palace in LA in the ’70s,” Ross told me. “He went bankrupt in England and had a judgment passed against him where he couldn’t talk to a bank manager for 15 years. So he moved here and opened this sort of Studio 54 on roller skates on La Cienega and Santa Monica.” Ross held up a coffee-table book full of photos of the club. “You don’t need to look at it, but it was just a mad life. So I grew up in some madness.”

It is particularly endearing to see Reznor, who at a distance was a fierce and terrifying figure in his 20s and 30s, find domestic bliss. I am old enough that my adolescence coincided neatly with the S&M-flavoured, I wanna fuck you like an animal era of Nine Inch Nails; when I was leaving Reznor’s house one day, I noted with some amusement the cheerful mundanity of a basketball hoop in the backyard. “I’m grateful not to be as angry and frustrated and desperate as I have felt in the past,” Reznor told me. “I couldn’t have predicted that there was a world where I would have a sizeable family with kids and feel the level of fulfilment and comfort and be able to live in that.”

Was that something you were consciously seeking before you found it?

“I think I had some abandonment issues from my parents splitting up, or feeling I never fit in, and I’d gotten accustomed to being on my own. And largely due to my own, I think, inability to really be intimate with people, or share or be open or know how to be a friend or a partner to somebody… Trying that out and doing it with pure and full immersion has led to an unexpectedly great outcome.”

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The other film project Reznor and Ross were on deadline for was Scott Derrickson’s The Gorge, a science-fiction thriller starring Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy. They were working on a lengthy, music-dependent scene that they’d already mostly scored. But, Ross said, “the director wants it to be a bit more, I can’t think of a better word than just a bit more scary and intense.” They weren’t sure what that directive meant, exactly, but they were content – they were happy – to try to figure it out: to enter the room once again, carrying nothing, and to try to leave it with something that didn’t exist before.

Ross called up the scene on a monitor at the centre of a long mixing board: Teller and Taylor-Joy in an evil-looking spiky forest. Reznor and Ross have somewhat fluid roles in their collaboration, but today the plan was for Reznor to improvise some music while Ross edited and manipulated it in real time. “Atticus’ superpower,” Reznor said, “is that I can come up with a melody and a chord change, and he can make that sit on the scene in a way that is meticulous, and mind-numbingly boring to watch him do.”

A studio assistant, also in all black, presented himself to help Reznor set up a microphone and a cello next to a keyboard that sat underneath another computer monitor. Ross hit play on the footage and what they’d already completed of the score, a kind of haunted, chanting murmur. “It’s basically atmosphere at the moment,” Ross said. Next to him was a synthesizer whose make and model he asked me not to print and which the two men use as a kind of sound ecosystem to feed stuff into.

Reznor began by pushing down on the piano’s keyboard, while with his other hand he manipulated the sound with a flat synthesizer on the desk in front of him. It began as a kind of mellow pan flute thing, and then, with a push of a few buttons, became more of a sad, Social Network-ish plonk. Ross stood up and started tapping the synthesizer to his left, and the sounds Reznor made began to loop and accumulate – little melodic figures that plunged in and out of feedback. Reznor moved from the piano to the microphone, where he sang a few soft passages in a baritone falsetto, more sad than spooky, and then to the cello, which he played slowly and choppily. Ross moved between the computer and the synthesizer, trying to harness it all as it built to a loud, echoing crescendo.

After about 20 minutes, Reznor sat back in his chair, and Ross soon followed suit. Everything got quiet again. “It’s going fishing,” Reznor said to me, shrugging. “Sometimes something happens.”

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Or, sometimes, everything happens. One of the first things you see when you arrive at Reznor’s home studio are two original paintings by the Yorkshire artist Russell Mills – on the left, a razor against a rusty red background; on the right, a decaying yellow-and-black collage – that ultimately became the insert and the cover art for Nine Inch Nails’ The Downward Spiral. This is the record with “Hurt” and “Closer” on it. It’s an album Reznor nearly didn’t survive.

Why do I bring this up? Well. If I may, for a moment, sound like the ageing dude in a black T-shirt leaning against the back wall of a bar where you’re just trying to be young and free of recitations of what the year 1994 felt like, there was a different quality to the way things would happen in music. Bands would labour for years, unknown, and then just get struck by lightning, is the best way I can put it: one day, you’re just a guy, and then one radio station plays your song, and then every radio station plays your song, and everyone is listening to those radio stations, because there is nothing else to do, and then MTV loops your video, and everyone watches it because, again, there is nothing else to do, and all of a sudden you are known by millions of bored people in a way that doesn’t quite happen now. This is a gross oversimplification, of course, but here Reznor is, one of the very few people who have experienced the thing I’m describing. I thought: let’s just ask him what that was like.

Reznor said, OK, he could tell me exactly what it felt like. He gave me a single moment: Woodstock ’94, which Nine Inch Nails almost didn’t play – “it seemed like it was going to be gross, to be honest with you” – but ultimately did. “And when we got there, it was terrifying,” Reznor said. “It was way bigger than I pictured in my head and walking on stage. But this is the point of the story: I knew. You could feel like you were in the right place at the right time.”

In retrospect, how did you handle success?

“Had a drink. That’s what sent me down the path. I wasn’t the guy that, you know, at 12 years old cracked a beer. That wasn’t it at all. Just, I feel anxious around people. I’m not sure how to act, especially now that you’re someone that’s supposed to act a certain way. There’s a projection. It feels uncomfortable to walk down the street and people are looking at you because they recognise you. That’s weird. Suddenly everybody wants to be your friend and you’re the coolest. Everyone wants to date you and shit like that.” Reznor said he found it was “easier to have a beer before I go in that room, and then a couple of beers before I go in that room. And pretty soon over a period of time, wait a minute, things start to get out of control. And you know how the story goes.”

Here’s how the story went: Reznor began to wonder if Trent Reznor could ever live up to the Nine Inch Nails guy that people had in their heads. “The reason I was having to drink was to fix that problem, my own insecurity. But the net result is: I’m not really who I am because now I’ve got drugs or alcohol in my system and I’m not thinking as who I really am. And that comes into focus once one gets sober and has time to reflect and kind of think about what got you there and shit you did.”

Eventually, Reznor got sober, and built himself back up. Today he’s happy to talk about all of it, obviously, but he and Ross have done a lot together since – 10 albums’ worth of Nine Inch Nails (Ross was an official member of the band for five of them), among other things – and Reznor is, by nature, not one to dwell too much on the past of a band that he’s still very much trying to figure out. “We’re not fans of resting on our laurels. We’ve been afraid of thinking about nostalgia. That’s a whole other conversation, but the reality is we’re getting older and our fans are getting older and that’s a fact. And I think, say, during the pandemic, not that you asked this question, but as I’m sure everybody was, I was pretty genuinely freaked out and very clearly came into focus: I’ve got to protect my family.”

He was consumed by fear, by terror of what might happen, of what he might do about it. “I can’t even fit all my kids in a car,” Reznor said. “But in the midst of that anxiety, sitting alone in here, I found comfort in nostalgia. I found comfort looking back at things from my youth that I’ve been afraid to even allow myself to glimpse at because it meant artistic death. Because one has to look forward. One can’t be self-referential. I was so afraid growing up in a little shitty town. I could see people that thought the highlight of their life is junior in high school catching the football. You know what I mean? That’s it. That was the peak. I don’t want to fucking be that person. I could see my fate if I stayed in that town.”

In those moments sitting by yourself, what were you getting nostalgic for?

“I miss parts of living in Pennsylvania. I miss a simpler life that I grew up with. I really loved the first INXS album in 1983. I was a senior in high school, and when I listen to it now I could almost start crying because it fucking reminds me of driving in a shitty fucking car in the summer in Pennsylvania. You know what I mean? Man. I allowed myself to kind of immerse myself in who I was at that time, and what it felt like.”

Reznor had been trying to remake himself ever since he left where he grew up, and now here he is in Los Angeles, over 40 years later. “And I kind of went on a deep dive for a while and allowed myself to realise: I am who I am. And the things that made me weren’t the cool things. I’d always been ashamed of: I came from a shitty town; I didn’t have an exotic upbringing; shitty education, you know what I mean? That’s who I am. I’m not sure what the point of all that confession was.”

Well, except: “It plays into where I’m at now.”

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The last time I saw Reznor and Ross, it was once again in their studio. They were sitting very still. Had they been working before I got there?

“We were for a little bit,” Ross said. “And then nervously thinking about you arriving.”

Really? It’s OK if that’s the truth.

“That’s the truth,” Reznor said. They’d just been in this room for the past weeks, months – years, really, he said. Head down. Working. He gestured at me. “It’s a different mindset.”

And “I was thinking about something you said the other day,” Reznor said. That was on a Friday. I’d asked a somewhat rude question about their soundtrack work, which was: why would Reznor or Ross work for anyone else when they didn’t have to?

Now it was Monday. “I thought about that over the weekend,” Reznor said. “It’s like, Why are we doing this? The idea comes from what we think is a good place of ‘Let’s break it up. Let’s get sent down the rabbit hole on certain things and feel like we’ve got tasks being assigned to us rather than us just blindly seeing what happens creatively.’ ”

But, he said, “I think coming out of a stretch of a number of films in a row, I want some time of seeing where the wind blows versus: there’s a looming date on a calendar coming up and we’d better get our shit together. And certainly in the last few weeks I’ve been itching to do what we often do, which is just come in and let’s start something that we’re not even sure what it’s for.”

Some of that energy, he and Ross said, would probably become the next Nine Inch Nails album. Doing soundtrack work, Reznor said, had “managed to make Nine Inch Nails feel way more exciting than it had been in the past few years. I’d kind of let it atrophy a bit in my mind for a variety of reasons.”

But now, “I do feel excited about starting on the next record,” Ross said. “I think we’re in a place now where we kind of have an idea.”

And then there was the company, which Reznor and Ross spent the last two years putting together, piece by piece, with the help of John Crawford, their longtime art director, and the producer Jonathan Pavesi. The idea was, what could they do that they hadn’t already done around storytelling? Some of that might take the form of examining Nine Inch Nails from yet another angle – “we’ve been working on homegrown IP around Nine Inch Nails, stories we could tell, and we’re working on developing those in a way that are not what you think they’d be.” (As in: not a biopic.) They also have a show in development with Christopher Storer, the creator of The Bear, they said, and a film with the veteran horror director Mike Flanagan.

Reznor put on a pair of black-rimmed glasses so that he could examine a piece of paper next to him. “We just wrote some notes because I knew I’d forget what the fuck I’m about to say.” There was a short film coming with the artist Susanne Deeken. There was a clothing venture, a T-shirt line made in collaboration with a notable designer whose name they’d like to keep secret for now, which will arrive this summer. There was a music festival that they were currently planning, “where we’re going to debut as performing as composers along with a roster of other interesting people,” and a record label, both scheduled to launch around the same time.

And for two years they’ve been working with Epic Games on something that is not exactly a video game, in the UEFN ecosystem Epic has built around Fortnite – “It’s what Zuckerberg was trying to bullshit us into calling the metaverse,” Reznor said. “You can’t say that word any more, but in terms of the tool kit, thinking about it through the lens of what could be possible for artists and experiences, we thought that would be an interesting way to tell a story through that.”

They were nervously contemplating the prospect of having day jobs again, of being responsible for more than just themselves. Early on, as they contemplated launching the company, they’d sat down with David Fincher to ask him about movie production: how does it work? “And he’s like, oh, you’re fucked,” Reznor said. “I can distil a two-hour conversation into that. Because, he said, ‘I know you guys, and no one’s going to care more than you do, and you will not be able to let it go.’”

Reznor has actually had this experience before, of being sucked into a project bigger than Nine Inch Nails and having it take over his entire life. Years ago he worked as an executive, first for Beats and then for Apple, building a streaming-music service.

“Trent was very clear when we started,” Ross said. “We cannot let this get into Apple terrain.”

Reznor laughed. “What I mean by that is – I will make this brief; I’m trying to think through what I’m about to talk shit on. Just to self-censor for a second.”

Reznor paused for a moment and then explained. For years, he said, he’d wondered: what would make a good streaming service? This was before the advent of Spotify in the US or Apple Music. Jimmy Iovine, Reznor’s old label boss – later, Iovine would also become Ross’s brother-in-law, after he married Ross’s sister, Liberty, in 2016 – was launching a music service at Beats, which was then acquired by Apple, and Iovine said to Reznor: come try to make this thing a reality. And Reznor surprised himself by saying yes.

“It was a unique opportunity to work at the biggest company in the world at a high level,” Reznor said. “And it was interesting, the scale of the people that you reach through those platforms, just the global amount of influence those platforms can have was exciting. The political situation I was dropped into was not as exciting.”

Reznor enjoyed working with Apple’s design team and its engineering team. “But it made me realise how much I want to be an artist first and foremost.” Reznor also became discouraged with the possibility of fixing the problem that he was trying to solve. “I think the terrible payout of streaming services has mortally wounded a whole tier of artists that make being an artist unsustainable. And it’s great if you’re Drake, and it’s not great if you’re Grizzly Bear. And the reality is: take a look around. We’ve had enough time for the whole ‘All the boats rise’ argument to see they don’t all rise. Those boats rise. These boats don’t. They can’t make money in any means. And I think that’s bad for art. And I thought maybe at Apple there could be influence to pay in a more fair or significant way, because a lot of these services are just a rounding error compared to what comes in elsewhere, unlike Spotify where their whole business is that. But that’s tied to a lot of other political things and label issues, and everyone’s trying to hold onto their little piece of the pie and it is what it is. I also realise, I think that people just want to turn the faucet on and have music come in. They’re not really concerned about all the romantic shit I thought mattered.”

Anyway, Reznor said, turning to Ross, “That was a long-winded way of saying, when we talked about this company, I just said, ‘Be aware of what success might look like because it will turn into something that eats up lots of cycles and time and attention and energy.’ ”

But, Ross said, taking on new responsibilities was, paradoxically, also a way to stay a little younger. “I know we’ve all been talking about being dads and being adults and all that,” Ross said, “and there is a part of me that thinks: it’s important to keep the kid alive.” Meaning the child inside yourself, rather than the one you’re responsible for.

He told a story about him and Reznor visiting the director David Lynch at his house to work with him on the 2017 revival of Twin Peaks. “And I don’t know how old he was at the time,” Ross said, “but he was older. But just walking in there, and he had the room set up and there’s a screen there, there’s some chairs here and there’s some musical instruments there and he’s smoking a cigarette. There’s nothing old about that dude. You know what I mean?”

Lynch showed them some Lynchian footage. It was incredible, even if they didn’t quite know what they were looking at. Lynch was probably 70 or 71 at the time. “But it’s that thing of it doesn’t matter how old he is,” Ross said. “He is alive. It’s that bit of it all that one doesn’t want to lose with age.”

The point was, Reznor said: “Let’s try some stuff. We’re bored. We are. You know what I mean? We’re grateful. We enjoy doing films. We can write a better Nine Inch Nails record, I think. We can put on a cooler tour. We are aimed to do that. But man, what if we try to do that?” Meaning, the company. “What if we could take what we’re good at, like we did with film? We identified something I think we’re good at and we figured out how to apply it to something else. What if we take that theory and try it on some other things? And that’s led us into: we’re not beaten down completely yet. And it feels exciting. That’s what matters to us right now.”

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Styled by Mobolaji Dawodu Grooming by Johnny Stuntz using Dior Capture Totale Hyalushot SFX Makeup by Malina Stearns Grills by Alligator Jesus Tailoring by Yelena Travkina Set design by Lizzie Lang at 11th House Agency Produced by Emily O’Meara at JN Production

[homosexuhauls]

Can you imagine if a white lesbian public figure brutally murdered two trans women in an interracial relationship and their black son? The headlines, the think-pieces, op-eds...we would never hear the end of it. It would be blamed on lesbian communities as a whole and the transmisogyny and white supremacy we obviously perpetuate on a daily basis just by existing. Cotton ceiling discourse would be back with a vengeance. There would be rallies and vigils, there would be calls to "Stand by your trans", there would be "#LWithTheT" marches. There would be a community in mourning, full of fury and hurt and self-righteous rage at the nasty lesbian aggressors who clearly caused this anti-trans hate crime. There would be no room for nuance and all lesbians would be painted with the "evil cis white dykes want us dead" brush. All of this would be seen as a completely acceptable and understandable response to a brutal act of anti-trans violence by a lesbian perpetrator.

So where is the noise? Where is the clamouring? Where is the sound and fury, when a famous white trans activist murders an interracial lesbian couple and their black son? I don't expect (or want) it to spark a radfem revolution, but why is the silence around the Dana Rivers murder case so deafening? Why does no one in the so-called LGBTQ+ community care enough to loudly and proudly mourn and celebrate these women and their son? Charlotte, Patricia and Benny deserve to be remembered. They deserve our sound and fury. Even if it's difficult, even if the optics don't suit your world views, we cannot ignore some injustices and claim to fight against others. The cowardly LGBT+ media organisations and charities covering their eyes and pretending that this act of violence never happened, they will happily call on lesbians for solidarity this pride month, despite showing no solidarity for a lesbian family slaughtered by an apparent member of our own "community". How can we call this anything other than a cover-up, or at the very least, deliberate and contrived ignorance?

Patricia Wright. Charlotte Reed. Benny Toto Diambu-Wright. Their lives were stolen from them on November 11th 2016. I can find no obituarities, and minimal mainstream media coverage of their murders. For many years, it felt almost as if their suffering had been forgotten. It has taken six and a half years for their murderer to be convicted and sentenced to life without parole, a sentence which Rivers will spend in a women's prison. Is this justice, or a pale imitation of such? Either way, I hope this family may finally rest in peace and power, and that their loved ones may begin to move forwards.

Pat and Char, as they were known to friends and family, are survived by two children. Patricia worked as a school teacher and deaf interpreter for schools, while Charlotte worked in a salon known locally for being trans-inclusive. Patricia was also an artist and talented actor, having considered a career in performing arts after high school. Charlotte had previously been a member of an all-female motorcycle club, which Rivers was also involved in. Both Charlotte and Patricia were also former regular attendees of MichFest, a feminist music festival which was closed down in 2015, following years of protests by trans women including Dana Rivers. 19-year-old Benny had just graduated high school and, according to his brother, hoped to become a nurse.

A victim impact statement was read out by Richard Wright, Patricia's younger brother, during Rivers' sentencing. I can't find the full text but much of the statement can be found in the Berkeley Scanner article below. Wright describes the impact of finding out that his sister and her family had been "assassinated in their own home" and the traumatising experience of searching for important paperwork at the bloodied crime scene that was once their home. According to Richard, Dana Rivers "chose her [sic] entitlement and narcissism over basic human decency" and "chose violence, cruelty, sadism and entitlement — over and over and over again." This is in reference to the length of court proceedings due to Rivers' changing pleas, as well as the brutality of the crime itself, which was carried out using guns, knives and arson. According to the judge, the murders of Patricia, Charlotte and Benny were "the most depraved crime that I’ve handled in the criminal justice field in 33 years."

No one but Rivers is responsible for these heinous crime, but all of us are responsible for ensuring history is not forgotten, and that the stories of those taken from us continue to be told. And when we tell their stories, in sound and in fury, we must ensure they do not fall on deaf ears.

"They were real people, not collateral damage...They deserve to be seen."

- Richard Wright's victim impact statement

For more information, see below:

[vyl3tpwny]

You inspired me to get back into Bangarang era Skrillex without shame in my heart and to embrace the (harmless) cringe in my soul. As well as seek out other lesser known artists who keep up that sound. So, thanks!

real talk i have been making music for almost two decades now. when i first heard skrillex's music i instantly knew it was amazing. but i couldn't really express why. as i've gotten older, spent lots and lots of time making music and learning about music and researching, a lot of things i used to adore don't impress me like when i first heard them. but even all this time later, skrillex's music — past and present — is incredible and untouchable. i think a lot of casual listeners do not realize just how flawless, complex, and perfectly executed his sound design and ideas are across the board. the best thing you can do when listening to skrillex's music is just pick out ONE single sound and ask yourself "how did he create this sound? how do you go about creating this sound from scratch". the casual listener rarely considers a question like this, but when you ask this about nearly anything skrillex makes, even if you can fathom an answer it's still the most mindblowing thing in the world.

but sound design is not everything either. i got sucked into the soundcloud community around 2016 or so. to any of my soundcloud classmates, peers, and alumni, hey how are you doing <3 but the soundcloud scene of 2016-2019 was a VERY specific beast. a lot of the music that emerged during the scene's height was this idea that sound design is always more important than anything else. so you would have tons and tons and tons of songs that came out that had crazy sound design ... but not much else. this goes back to skrillex's music. skrillex's sound design isn't just complex, but it's also executed with amazing songwriting. it isn't just a tech fest, he's making amazing songs, perfectly accessible, with incredible sound design as the foundation rather than the only thing the music has to offer. for a while i think i had been so swept up by the soundcloud scene that i rlly ignored songwriting in favour of sound design, like i had to choose.

that is to say, skrillex's music has been and will always be a pinnacle of what "festival EDM" should be evaluated as in standard. i've already done my share of criticizing skrillex for how he butchered "dubstep", and i'm not going to ever pretend that such criticism does not exist. but regardless, EDM is an extremely saturated genre which has caused lots of people to hate or misunderstand it. i think if people focused more on making strong songs and not tunnelvisioning on one aspect of the music, EDM would be more compelling to more people, beyond just 'sounding good' or 'being a banger'.

scary monsters and nice sprites, the song, is a really good song. it has a pretty standard arrangement and flow, but moment to moment it's always interesting and full. the production is so ridiculously clean and dynamic but does not skimp out on making shit sound beefy and deep as well. but what a lot of people don't realize is that the sound design on that song is so incredible, that in a lot of music spaces, it's considered a holy grail to whoever fully reverse engineers the growls in scary monsters. for over 10 years now, there have been dedicated skype groups, discord servers, youtube streams, and forum threads on people literally dedicating portions of their music making lives to trying to understand JUST the scary monsters growls alone. what makes it so elusive is that it's likely done with the FM8 synth and trying to reverse engineer more than 2-3 operators on an FM synth is literally a death sentence. skrillex himself probably couldn't remake it from scratch, only create something similar doing the moves he would do in FM8. but the scary monsters growls are literally a holy grail and people are STILL working in small community pockets to figure out how it was done, 14 years after the album came out.

[girlygguk]

fame - jjk (two)

pairing ; idol!jk x idol!oc.

synopsis ; aera; the main dancer in one of the biggest k-pop groups in the world, Siren. debuting in 2014, it was nothing but immense hard work and perseverance (and being on the absolute verge of disbandment), but she and the four girls that grew to become her sisters pulled through. they did it. now they're performing at some of the most significant arenas and stadiums worldwide. meeting a cheeky, flirtatious and annoyingly gorgeous fellow idol that threatens to break down every wall of protection she's built around herself was not part of the plan. her career has always come first, having sacrificed and jeopardised many relationships and friendships in her journey to debut. so why does this time feel different?

story warnings ; smut, explicit language, violent & possibly triggering scenes.

chapter warnings ; explicit language

word count ; 2200+

a/n: genuinely can't explain what their as i told you performance did to me. life. changing.

previous parts ; prologue | one | two | drabble1 | three | four | ...

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

♫ siren's performance song♬

☽ aera's stage outfit ☾

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

📅 MARCH 2016

📍MBC Gayo Daejejeon 2016

The members of Siren were huddled backstage, the audience's screams for the current artists performing blared in their eardrums. A bottle of water is being passed around their semi-circle, the girls clambering for a final spout of hydration as the time to infiltrate the stage nears. Aera fixed the microphone taped to her left cheek, a smile gracing her lips as she stared at their maknae that was currently jumping on the spot. "I'm so nervous," Ha-Joon cried out, her jumping in place developing into a stationary jog.

Moving towards the youngest, Aera began to copy her actions and jogged lazily in circles around her. They both couldn't stop giggling, and it wasn't until Nali bumped them softly with her elbow to gain their attention that they pulled to a halt. A stage director hurriedly worked towards them, ushering them with sweeping motions. "Let's go, girls; you're next!" He hollered, and they all but began sprinting in his direction.

The automatic stage door illuminated with their group's signature colour, and Aera's brow raised in surprise as she tried not to be shocked. Their company director barely splurged on stage decoration when they performed, usually apologetic to the girls as they often had to settle with the default decoration given to all groups. She brushed it off, figuring the music festival organisers had taken pity on them and given them some pretty lights or something.

The MC's voice blared over the speaker, announcing their group's name, and smiles covered the girl's faces when they heard sparse cheers in the crowd. Then, finally, the doors opened, and the lights dimmed slightly as they walked onto the stage. The intro to the song played over the speakers, and the adlibs they had recorded in their own voices echoed throughout the atmosphere. The audience clapped while they migrated into position and surrounded Hanna for the opening verse.

"Nunan neomu yeppeoseo. Namjadeuri gaman an dwo." Han-na sang sultrily, the movements of her members enveloping her as they revolved around their leader during her line. The girls floated around the stage as they sang, taking their moment in the limelight as they each stood forward while singing their parts.

Nali belted the last line of the pre-chorus, and Aera moved from the outer edge of their formation to the centre, their footwork aligning. The crowd erupted into high-pitched screams as her hand fell into her pocket according to the choreography, hips swaying with the beat, her other hand moving in figure eights around her waist. "Replay, replay, replay", Aera sang, their adaptation of the choreography not going unnoticed by the audience as they burst into cheers.

Aera's head snapped swiftly towards Grace as they transitioned into the next verse, and they both swapped positions, the rest of Siren dancing in unison as Grace moved to the centre and serenaded the crowd.

Joon had finished her line in the second chorus, and the girls had reached the bridge. The crowd was still going wild, cheering at their performance in glee, and it didn't help Aera's pounding heart as she sang her adlibs over Hanna's line. Her dance break was in the final chorus. Aera prided herself on not getting nervous when performing. She didn't break a sweat during their debut stages. She didn't even bat an eyelid during the final stages of their trainee debut elimination. Yet, she couldn't shake the feeling that this stage was different, that this performance of theirs could make or break their career. Siren had acquired a few, very, very few, dedicated fans that they could always count on to support them over the past almost two years since their debut. They just didn't know if they'd get another chance to perform at a place like this again, and she didn't want to be the reason they kissed that chance goodbye.

"—maeumeul badeul su eomneunji",Nali sang the final note of the bridge, and the lights flickered; the other members of Siren maneuvering backwards as Aera sprung to the front. The instrumental remix blared through the speakers surrounding the stage, and the audience erupted into the loudest screams the girls had ever heard. The enhanced instrumental that Han-na had spent an entire day perfecting bounced off the walls as their main dancer fell to her knees in part of the choreography. Gripping her hair, she hit the ground on the beat, and her fellow members fell to their knees in unison. Feeling the vibration of the music through the stage, Aera lifted her upper body and rattled with every beat. The audience chanted on every offbeat, and Aera made sure to jolt her hips in motion with their screams.

Hanna slammed into the chorus at the instrumental break's end, and the supporting girls stood as she sang. Aera leaned back, her thighs flat against her calf, positioning her feet on the ground and lifting upright without using her hands. The crowd was going ballistic, and she almost let her smile peek through but refused as to keep her stage persona active. The five girls twirled into a line, leaning over each other as they harmonised on the last chorus, Ha-Joon leading it vocally.

Moving into a triangular formation, the members of Siren started to shuffle back and forth while they hummed the outro, a tribute to the original Replay choreography, and they relished in the cries of the crowd as they spotted the familiar moves. "Jinsildoen sarangui maeumeul", Aera sang the song's final line as the members fell into their ending pose.

Loud cries flared from the crowd as the last syllable left her lips, submerging the noise of her and her sisters' heavy breathing. Aera's chest heaved as she looked around the audience while they jumped and applauded. A few moments passed, and Hanna was the one to snap the girls out of their daze, standing straight and grasping the hand of Nali, who was on her left. The rest of the members followed suit and conjoined hands, giving the audience a bow and big gummy smiles before yelling back thankyous as they jogged backstage.

Han-na held the curtain once the members had made it down the stairs to exit the stage, and they barrelled through, jumping up and down in exuberance. Aera and Ha-Joon were caught in a playful punch-up, trying to exert some of the exhilaration coursing through their bodies after performing.

Five heads turned to the left, vision fixating on the same stage director from earlier approaching them. He had just finished ushering another act onto the stage that Siren had just dismounted, and it wasn't long before he reached them. "Amazing job, girls, you killed it! This way, we need to get you seated." He praised, clipboard in hand as he used it to wave them toward the stools perched along the edge of the stage. A unanimous cloud of shock blew throughout the members, not realising they were organised to watch the rest of the acts perform tonight.

Han-na recovered first, nodding in gratitude and leading the flock as she followed the man clad in black attire, the rest of her members following hastily behind. They looped through the equipment and workers backstage until they reached a side door leading to an area with seats set up in bunches parallel to the stage. Aera's eyes widened a fraction of an inch as she spotted so many familiar and famous idols already seated, whose gazes were transfixed on the artists' mounting the stage.

The director was in front, leading them past the rest of the groups to get to their assigned seats. The members of Siren were in awe, bowing to every single person as they passed, receiving cheesy smiles and bows in return. "Well done!", "Hwaiting!" and various other soft praises filled their ears as they migrated through the walkway, making Aera suddenly worried about not choosing the water-proof version of her mascara.

They reached the brightly coloured seats and chimed a chorus of "gamsahabnida" to the stage director as they situated themselves. Aera swore she heard a subtle "cute" being muttered to her right, and as she turned, her breath caught in her throat. There, sat confidently on her right, were the five members of Shinee, their godly features causing the saliva in her mouth to dissipate. Losing all her ability and sense of sound, she could only continuously bow in her chair with wide eyes and raised brows. The laugh of Taemin caught the attention of the rest of Siren, and when their focus turned to the right, Nali's loud gasp echoed throughout the tiny shared space. Following their leading dancer, the girls looked like lunatics bowing in unison, elatedly greeting their seonbaenims.

"You guys were awesome. Better than the original." Taemin cheesed, the rest of his group nodding in delight as they watched the gob-smacked women furiously shake their heads.

"Never. Never." Ha-Joon croaked, still taken aback that a group that she and her sisters idolised were even attempting to converse with them, let alone compliment them.

"We're honoured that you chose to cover one of our songs. You girls are so talented, truly. Hwaiting", their leader spoke with sincerity and a breathtaking smile, and that was the knot on the noose for Aera. The spotlights in the stadium started to flicker green, blue and white slides spreading over the stage screens, and it took the ear-piercing screams of the audience to shake Aera out of her daze.

Making a mental note to profusely thank the gorgeous men to her right and maybe wail a long speech about how she idolises them and loves them dearly later; her focus is now on the stage in front of them as the following group piles on. The audience, and even many idols, were going crazy before the act had even sung a word, and it didn't take long for Aera to realise why—watching as the six men instantly took over the entire room. Her eyes scattered around them, confused about who to focus on. She did not have control over her vision when they fell to their knees. She couldn't stop staring at the guy in the middle, the large orange J on his sweatshirt blinking back at her.

She knew of BTS; of course, she did. All her sisters and, without a doubt, everybody in this room knew BTS. Aera was a dancer, and J-Hope and Jimin were some of the greatest dancers in their industry. She fucking knew who they were. She admired their journey, struggle and story, knowing they worked extremely hard to get where they are now and deserve every loud, god-awful screech in this stadium.

Her eyes fixated on J-Hope; watching his seamless and perfected movement on stage satiated her inner-dance self. She tried not to lose focus, but her eyes trailed to the stupid orange J again and again. She watched as the scruffy brunette serenaded the crowd, earning himself cheers and cries that weren't helping her fixation whatsoever. He slid across the stage, executing every line and every move with confidence like he knew he had the gaze of everybody in the room.

Jimin moved to the centre, his blonde hair swaying as he grooved along to the music, the rest of his members following suit after a beat. Aera exhaled as she focused on the blonde in the middle, dancing along to the song in her seat with her sisters. The dance break was sultry and addicting, and the girls clapped along with the crowd chanting 'BTS' wholesomely.

It was when Aera finally settled and could watch the other members for once when orange J looped through to the centre. She cursed as her eyes focused back on him like they had been waiting for it all along. "—nan hangsang jejarie", Jungkook polished their performance with a final note before spinning and dropping to his knees.

The crowd went absolutely insane, Aera almost lifting her hands to her ears before deciding against it and standing with her sisters. They cheered for the six members as they held their pose, claps and whistles floating throughout the stadium. She watched as they thanked the audience with big, humble grins before dismounting the stage. Aera's gaze never left orange J as she saw him glance towards the right, where she and the other idols were situated, but not letting his eyes reach the direction fully. Climbing to his knees, he joined his hyungs as they scattered backstage in glee.

"They just had to fucking go after us?" Asami snivelled, still clapping as she watched them disappear. Her members cackled, Han-na delivering a soft wack to her arm before sighing and nodding in agreement.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

[kissofsena]

⤻ ♡ . BASIC INFORMATION

name : moon sena (문세나)

nicknames: star, star girl, moon, nana

birthday : august 2, 1999

zodiac sign : leo

nationality : american

family : aunt, parents, older brother

languages : english (native), korean (95%), japanese (75%), thai (54%)

⤻ ♡ . PHYSCIAL INFORMATION

height : 160 cm (5'3)

body modification : earlobe and upper lobe piercings on both ears

vocal claim : belle from kiss of life

dance claim : seulgi from red velvet

⤻ ♡ . CAREER INFORMATION

stage name : sena

agency : kq entertainment (2017 - present), sour grapes media (2013 - 2016)

group : ateez (2018 - present), cupid's rejects (2014 - 2016)

debut date : october 24, 2018

positions : vocal, performer

individual fandom : sailor-pies

representative emoji : 🌱 / 🦔

mic color : lilac

signature :

⤻ ♡ . BACKGROUND

Sena Moon was born in North Bend, South Carolina on August 2, 1999 to office worker parents. She has an older brother, but not much is known about him. From a young age, Sena had always been in love with music and would always sing, dance, and even do small performances in her bedroom. She had taken a liking to artist like Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, and Girls Generation especially as her reason for wanting to be a performer. However, her parents were very against her being a singer as they didn't see it as a "real career" as they would tell her.

In 2012, Sena would get the chance to go to South Korea for the summer to stay with her aunt who was a musical actress. Sena would go with her aunt to her practices and performances and would fall even deeper in love with music. By the end of summer, Sena would beg her aunt to let her stay with her and go to school in Korea. Sena's aunt would actual gain custody of Sena during this time which allowed her to stay with her aunt in Korea. Sena would struggle with adapting to living in a new country and culture for the first few months, before she was able to begin to fit in. Through her middle school years, Sena would begin to perform at school festivals and talent shows whether by herself or with other girls and this quickly helped become scouted by different companies.

In 2013, Sena would be scouted by Sour Grapes Media and would become a trainee with her aunt's approval. During this time at Sour Grapes, Sena would seen as one of their most popular trainees mainly due to her singing and dancing. This would eventually help Sena make the lineup of the company's newest girl group Cupid's Rejects, and would debut as their Main Vocalist and Face of the Group in 2014. Sena would remain with the group until 2016 when she was removed from the group due to having used "violent language and misuse of power towards staff." this statement would eventually be proven false by her group members and staff that have worked with Sena. This would lead into a legal battle with Sena and her aunt suing the company and winning.

After this scandal, Sena would become an independent idol for several months, appearing on several popular variety shows and even releasing a few solo projects. This would last until she is approached by someone from KQ Entertainment who wanted to recruit her to their company. Sena would agree and become a trainee under the company around mid-2016. Sena would become a trainee again and rumors would spread about her debuting a soloist. Nothing officially ever came from these rumors. KQ would later announced in 2017 that Sena along with her fellow trainees would all be auditioning for MixNine and while she passed the audition she would end up ranking 14th.

After this in 2018, Sena would announced to joining the company's trainee project KQ Fellaz. Sena would finish her training and in October of 2018, she would debut in the idol group ATEEZ as a Vocalist and Performer of the group.

[nso-csi]

240401 TAEMIN’s profile on BPM’s website

Awards— 2023 Super Sound Festival 2023 Male Solo Performance of the Year Daesang 2020 15th A-Awards Solo Artist Category 2020 Mnet Asia Music Awards Favorite Dance Perfomance Male Solo 2018 27th Seoul Music Awards Popularity Award 2017 31st Golden Disk Awards Album Division Bonsang 2017 BOF Awards Performance Star Award Bonsang 2017 Mnet Asia Music Awards Best Dance Perfomance Male Solo 2017 Mnet Asia Music Awards Best Dance Perfomance Male Solo 2016 Mnet Asia Music Awards Best Dance Perfomance Male Solo 2015 29th Golden Disk Awards Album Division Popularity Awards 2015 29th Golden Disk Awards Album Division Bonsang 2015 24th Seoul Music Festival Popularity Award 2013 MBC Entertainment Awards ☆ of the Year Awards

[tarasmithshifts]

𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐃 & 𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑 𝐃𝐑

ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ᴍᴇ ɪɴ ᴛʜɪꜱ ᴅʀ: my name is tara smith, but i'm known as 'azrael'. in 2016 with my friends, kitty and jj formed a band we called 'utopia' and we started on youtube and soundcloud by doing covers, and when we got more popular, we made our first original song. it was called "SOS" (yup it's this one from ABBA but let's pretend yk) and it went viral on soundcloud and very popular on youtube. we got recognision, and it opened the door to music industry.

ᴍʏ ꜰʀɪᴇɴᴅꜱ ɪɴ ᴛʜɪꜱ ᴅʀ: kitty (lily buckley), jj (jack hart), billie eilish, willow smith, conan grey, harry styles and a lot of more!

ꜱ/ᴏ: billie eilish

ᴅɪꜱᴄᴏɢʀᴀᴘʜʏ: we debuted with an ep called "CANNIBAL" as we watched "the show"Hannibal" while writing and it was a huge inspo for this ep. it was also a success, we went on small tour in venues. first in america, then in europe.

⍣ ೋ we went super popular after we released our first single from our first album called "LOST IN OUR PAST" (2019). it was a huge success. album was full of 70s beats, vocals, etc. we were nominated for multiple awards and won all of them. we became one of the most successful artist of the year, and later even in decade. Our tour sold out in few minutes, and so that's how we did our first world tour. we performed at grammys, the biggest festivals like coachella etc. we won grammys for best album, best group, best group performance, best single & song of the year. we weren't ready for this kind of success, critics after all called this album a "renaissance of 70s music" we became pioneers of group music then, we mixed modern pop, 70s & 80s. we did covers of old songs, and on our tour performed with multiple artists, like tears for fears, fleetwood mac (which was crazy!!!!). at the time me and kitty got together.

⍣ ೋ after the success, we had multiple fights in the band, but we were still making music together. I started to make solo music, but only for fun. we got to work with conan grey, and we made a song "killing me" (yupp also this one but let's pretend!!!) in 2021 our bands needed to split up, as jj decided to left.

⍣ ೋ it was a huge case, fans protested, wanted to know what happened, but we decided to stay quiet. everything was clear, jj wanted something else from life. he started to work as a "ghost writer"

⍣ ೋ after band has split up, i called my managment that i want to release solo music. i didn't want to give up on music because of this situation. week after official announcement from band, i posted info about my first single of my solo album "GLOBAL DRUGS"

it was a huge success, i didn't think that i would go on world tour and sing in stadiums again. i brought kitty with me.

some of fans favourites

⍣ ೋ in december 2022 after i finished tour and came back to u.s., my agent called me that he wants to meet me and kitty. we met 2 days later in new york, in a studio we recorded first ep as "utopia". when we came in, first thing we saw was jj talking to some people in the studio. well, we were so back.

⍣ ೋ in march 2023 out of nowhere we dropped our second album called "WE ARE STILL HERE" and people went CRAZYYY. we had no idea how this album is gonna shake the whole internet and critics. it was completely new - it was jazz, 70s, soul, r&b. something that people claimed we didn't fit. but here we are :)))

⍣ ೋ in may 2023 i attended my first ever met gala, and there, in an interview i confirmed that this was the last project of ‘utopia’ for now. i said “we disappeared out of nowhere and left you all without any information. this is something like a goodbye, but we do not confirm that it will last forever. it depends on our feelings.” i also confirmed that i will release music as solo artist and that kitty will join me as a drummer

⍣ ೋ in may 2023 a week after met gala, i showed the world my summer tour, and except the festivals of course, there were 4 stadium concerts, “bonus” ones, only in europe. Paris, Barcelona, Berlin and final one in London. that’s the time when me and kitty broke up, after, as media called it “London accident”. (there will be another post about it, but basically kitty got herself into alcohol and drugs, and during the London show for almost 2 hours we couldn’t find her, and when my team finally found her, she was completely not contacting with the world around her, and it was not the first time.she couldn’t perform and i didn’t want to cancel the show)

⍣ ೋ in september 2023 i started dating harry styles, but only to january 2024 - we realised that we would love be each other besties than lovers 🤭 (bc in this dr he is a little younger and one direction split up later than in cr, his album “Fine Line” was released in 2024, and “Harry’s House” in late 2025)

⍣ ೋ in january 2024 i confirmed my second solo album, that will release 15/03 🫶

⍣ ೋ after release of this album, me and billie were spotted in public, spreading dating rumours, which we confirmed some months later

"ᴏɴᴄᴇ ᴀɢᴀɪɴ, ᴜᴛᴏᴘɪᴀ" - pinterest board

[eurovision-facts]

Eurovision Fact #549:

After her win at Sanremo, Angelina Mango will be representing Italy at Eurovision this May with her song "La Noia." She is a highly successful artist with "4 platinum records, two gold records, a completely sold-out tour, appearances at the top of the sales charts and some of the most played songs on the radio..."

She is the first female artist to win Sanremo and represent Italy at Eurovision in 10 years.

The last female artist to win Sanremo was Arisa in 2014, but she did not go to Eurovision, instead the singer Emma went in her place. Additionally, Francesca Michielin represented Italy in 2016, but she came second in Sanremo.

[Sources]

"Angelina Mango triumphs in Italy: 'La Noia' is the winner of 'Sanremo' 2024," Eurovision.tv.

Participants of Copenhagen 2014: Emma, Eurovision.tv.

Participants of Stockholm 2016: Francesca Michielin, Eurovision.tv.

Sanremo Music Festival 2014, Wikipedia.org.

[jokeroutsubs]

ART BOX portal interview with Joker Out’s Bojan Cvjetićanin and Kris Guštin

“NEW WAVE: JOKER OUT – A NEW GENERATION OF THE OLD SOUND”

Interviewed by: Sara Stojev

The Slovenian band Joker Out performed for the first time in Belgrade, at this year's Beer Fest. Joker Out was formed in 2016 and has been present on the Slovenian and Balkan scene for seven years. They have two successful albums Umazane misli and Demoni. At this year's Eurovision Song Contest, the band represented Slovenia with the song Carpe Diem. They took 21st place in the final, but the band achieved significant success after the Eurovision. In addition to the previously planned Balkan tour, Joker Out is performing throughout Europe this summer. While they performed in Ireland in June, they have a scheduled Great Britain tour in July, and in September they are expected to tour the countries of Scandinavia: Finland, Sweden, and Norway (T/N: Finland is not a part of Scandinavia).

Joker Out. Photo: Ursa Premik

Joker Out attracted a lot of public attention in Serbia as well. At the Beer Fest, they performed in front of a large audience and created a phenomenal atmosphere. This band is proof that Slovenia has a music scene that can conquer the Balkans and achieve the success that the Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian music scenes achieved. The band consists of singer Bojan Cvjetićanin, guitarist Kris Guštin, guitarist Jan Peteh, drummer Jure Maček and bassist Nace Jordan.

We spoke with frontman Bojan and guitarist Kris ahead of their performance at Beer Fest.

Your music is a fusion of different genres. You stated that you do not define the band through one specific genre. How would you describe that fusion?

Bojan: All the members of the band listened to different music while growing up, but we all met in some English indie rock. Each instrumentalist expresses his own musical taste. For example, Jan prefers a mix of metal and hip-hop, while Kris is a big fan of the Beatles, Fleetwood Mac and Dire Straits, i.e. classic rock. I grew up with ex-YU rock. We all listened to some Slovenian bands such as Siddhartha, Big Foot Mama, and Dan D.

Kris: We actually have a definition of our sound, which is Shagadelic Rock n' Roll. We took Shagadelic from Austin Powers, and we think that phrase describes us the best.

Music is a broad concept in itself. We can conditionally divide it into pop music and the cultural-artistic scene. Your music certainly belongs to the cultural-artistic scene. How do you perceive such scene in Slovenia and in the Balkans in general? How does Joker Out fit into it?

Bojan: After talking with colleagues from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, we can conclude that the Slovenian rock and roll scene is currently the most active and receives the most attention. There are many bands in Slovenia that perform at gigs and festivals and also have the possibility of doing independent concerts. Those bands cover a wide range of generations who are fans of such music. In this spirit, a large number of fashion designers and graphic designers, for example, have appeared in the last five to seven years. Slovenia currently has a very positive view of the music scene and culture in general.

Kris: At the same time, we don't have a pop scene like there is in Serbia.

Bojan: That kind of music and the raft and club culture does not exist in Slovenia in the same way. Folk music is certainly played, but it often happens that these performers perform in the same place where some rock and roll bands perform, for example.

Joker Out, Belgrade. Photo: Vida Orahek

The band was formed in your teenage years. What were those beginnings like?

Bojan: We formed the band in high school. Joker Out was the product of a larger goal. Before Joker Out, I founded the band Apokalipsa in 2012. Kris and Jan formed their band Buržuazija a little later. We achieved minimal but significant success with Apokalipsa in a smaller circle in Ljubljana. Kids used to come to our gigs. Kris and Jan used to come, too. Everything was at the beginner level. Our wish was to raise it to a higher level. I went to a concert where I heard Kris and Jan play, I liked it and that's why I invited them to form a new band. Thus, in 2016, Joker Out was born.

What moment do you consider crucial for the transition from an amateur band to the successful band that you are today?

Kris: There are a few moments like that. The first is when we won the Špil League in 2017, the biggest band competition in Slovenia. Our second single Omamljeno telo was released after that, which achieved the first major success. We released the single Gola in 2019. The song was quickly picked up by major and commercial radio stations. We already knew then that we are going to do something big. I think that our decision to perform at Eurovision was also crucial because it happened at the right moment.

You have two albums behind you, Umazane misli and Demoni. How are they different and how are they similar? What is authentically Joker Out about them?

Bojan: We see more similarities than differences. We wanted them to be different, but it didn't happen to the extent we expected. Both albums are quite melodic. I think the first album had a slightly lighter tone, both thematically and sonically, and I would say a little less experimentation. The first album was the result of two years of making music, some singles developed into an album, so I wouldn't say it has a thread. Demoni had that, it was made as an album and we worked on it actively for five months. We stepped out of our comfort zone for the first time and went to other studios where we had not played before. I would say the second album is more coherent.

What will you change on the next album compared to the previous two?

Kris: We don't have any plans for the third album yet, but we want it to be a bit more thick, like the songs A Sem Ti Povedal on the first and Katrina on the second album. Also, we want it to have songs in other languages as well. In addition to Slovenian, we hope that there will be songs in Serbian, Croatian, English, Spanish and French.

Joker Out, Belgrade. Photo: Vida Orahek

This year you represented Slovenia at the Eurovision Song Contest. What was the experience like for you? How do you explain the success you achieved after Eurovision?

Bojan: Eurovision was a very positive experience for us. Everything we hoped for in our careers has happened after Eurovision. Our goal at the Eurovision itself was to remember the year 2023 as a year where the Slovenian national team was good, as well as to see if we could gain fans outside of Slovenia, which turned out to be possible. Eurovision is one of the biggest spectacles in the world. There certainly are big and powerful players there, it was the same this year. Although we didn't get the best place, we think we did a great job. The success we achieved is much more important to us than winning without anything happening in our career after the competition.

You are now doing a summer tour that will last until the end of September. What can we expect after the tour?

Kris: There will be new music for sure. We are planning a new single at the end of summer. The tour covers Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in our area. In addition, we will be touring the UK and Scandinavia. After the tour, we will hold our biggest concert to date at Arena Stožice in Slovenia on October 6th, which is already sold out. We will have two performances in Zagreb in November. We are performing in Novi Sad in October. We are planning more European and Balkan tours after all these events, as well as new music.

Collaborator of the Art Box portal with the band Joker Out in Belgrade. Photo: from a private archive

As Kris and Bojan mentioned, Joker Out returns to Serbia on June 28, with a performance at Arsenal Fest in Kragujevac. The band announced this week they will also be performing at SKCNS, at Fabrika.

Article translation by: Teo @/yiboego on Twitter DO NOT REPOST!

[suzuran777]

Revisiting Gakuen Handsome: Backstory + short review

I think every BL fan has seen something related to Gakuen Handsome at some point in their lives, it's a parody BL visual novel with quite the legacy. It was originally released in 2010 by Team YokkyuFuman and it also got its own OVA and anime adaptation in 2015 & 2016. The protagonist, who is an unnamed seventeen year old boy, moves back to the city after a seven year absence. He enrolls into Baramon High School, a prestigious all-boys school which takes pride in being the best of its prefecture. From now on, his life will be changed forever...

First of all, the developer team's backstory is probably one of the most unique ones. In 2008, eight film students from the Tohoku University of Art and Design formed Team YokkyuFuman (チーム欲求腐満). Their blog mentions that a year later, they attempted to submit the Gakuen Handsome opening movie to the 9th edition of the Niconico Film Festival (their submission was completely ignored). After that, the opening movie was uploaded on NicoNico Douga, where it was quite well received. The description of the video mentions “to be released in 20009”, as they originally probably had no intention to create a full game.

After it became a hot topic on NicoNico Douga, their university gave them permission to organize an official exhibition: Gakuen Handsome Matsuri (or just Gakuen Handsome Festival). Visitors could watch the opening movie, learn more about the characters and take pictures together with the life-sized cardboard cutouts. The exhibition also featured rare merch: A drama CD which would be released in "20009" and canned bread.

This exhibition was apparently not only held once, but many times according to their blog. The game was finally released in 2010 and many fans were happy to finally play it, supporting the team that created it. Togo Mito, who many of you know as the creator of (in)famous BL game Hadaka Shitsuji, also collaborated with them. These are some pictures I found on Togo Mito's old blog, Mizoguchi and Juro drawn by Togo Mito and the Hadaka Shitsuji cast drawn by Team YokkyuFuman.

Even after graduation, it seems like they would occasionally invite some of Gakuen Handsome's creators. In 2014, the university tweeted that they would not be able to host the exhibition that year due to renovations, but visitors could take pictures with the cardboard cutouts. There's also an interview from 2016 on the university's website, in which they talk about how things have been after graduation! I absolutely love how the university supported all of this.

Now about the game itself... Where to even start? You'll have to trust me, but the game is actually good. Many parody games can be quite a hit or miss, but this visual novel is something I still catch myself laughing at years later. The inconsistent art, pointy chins and strange jokes really create an experience unlike anything else. I don't think any commercial company would be able to create something like this, even if they tried. One detail that the anime adaptation doesn't really show is that many different artists worked on this, whose styles widely vary from each other, making absolutely no attempt to create one consistent artstyle. Most characters have at least 2 ~ 3 sprites that often look completely different from each other. For example, sometimes Saionji sensei looks like a clean-shaven teenager/young adult, but in the CGs he suddenly turn into an older looking man with a stubble.

Yes he's talking about eating paint in the screenshot above, why not. Anyway... the voice acting in this game is something else I wanted to talk about, because it adds so much to the game. Of course it's not professional, but I think that's what makes it amazing. You can sometimes hear the voice actors trying really hard not to laugh, and they will occasionally completely mess up their lines. Of course all of those lines are kept in the game and they didn't re-record them. I also loved it when they started swearing in English for seemingly no reason. Also, instead of just avoiding the name of the protagonist (who you can give any name you want) they pronounce it... by improvision. Just imagine how one would try to pronounce a "adfgdf" keysmash and you'll get an idea what it sounds like.

There are 6 characters in this game who you can romance. The protagonist's childhood friend Takuya, who is a bit obsessed with the protein bar Calorie Mate (which is censored in the new version of the game, so you just hear a BLEEP sound), outlaw teacher Saionji, school principal Juro who basically only functions as a save point, student council president Kagami, chuunibyou transfer student Shiga, and last but not least, the captain of the soccer team Mitsurugi, who also murders people with his chin sometimes. The protagonist's sister also has a (non-romantic) ending, which you need to play in order to unlock the extra scenario (which... is a ridiculous murder mystery story for some reason). I also could not find the guide I used a long time ago, so I just looked at some videos on NicoNico to see what others were doing and that worked pretty well...!

My favorite scene is probably still that one scene in Mitsurugi's route, in which he stabs people with his chin. It's also one of the scenes that gets referenced the most in fanart. The context makes it even more ridiculous, Mitsurugi gets really upset that some people like the chunky variant of red bean paste (tsubuan) and decides they should die. After stabbing his teammate and multiple other people he runs outside. The protagonist however, isn't safe either and also gets accused of being a "tsubuan supporter". If you survive though, you get a chance to marry Mitsurugi!

Honestly one of the reasons I wanted to write about this game is because many people only know the OVA and/or anime, but the game is so funny I think everyone should play it if they're interested. I also think the team behind it has such a funny backstory and I love seeing how supportive their university is. Right now the team is still active on their Twitter account and they sometimes create new content. Last year they released Gakuen Handsome Fighters, a short fighting game featuring the Gakuen Handsome characters.

If you are interested in purchasing it, I recommend getting the "Special" edition which can be purchased on DLsite! I couldn't find a working download link anymore of the older version, but I think the creators deserve the support, so I don't regret buying it (it was about 15 USD). It includes the original game and 5 shorter stories which were originally released as smartphone apps. While I think the original game is still the best one, it's fun to explore some of the extra scenarios as well. One of the shorter games takes place in an alternative universe in which the boys live in the Heian period, and for some reason some of the sprites are animated... yeah.

[pwlanier]

Kostsova Yulia Vladimirovna

"Horayovod"

Oil on canvas, 2014

Kostsova Yulia Vladimirovna was born in Yekaterinburg in 1983. From 1999 to 2004, she studied at the Yekaterinburg Art College named after I.D. Shadra (painting and pedagogical department). 2005-2011 - graduated from the St. Petersburg State Academic Institute named after I.E. Repina, workshop of monumental painting by S.N. Repina, studied with Professor A.A. Mylnikova. Defended with "distinction" diploma with the theme "Gulliver" (teachers I.M. Kravtsov, S. A.Pichakhchi, A.V. Chuvin). Scholarship holder of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, awarded the gold medal of the Russian Academy of Arts for success in studies. In the competition "400 Years of the House of Romanov" she was awarded the prize of the Russian Imperial House and the medal "Anniversary of the National Feat. 1613-2013". Multiple winner of the competitions "From Maryino to France" from the IEC "St. Petersburg Artist". Laureate of the prize "Art-Breakthrough 2016", "Special Prize-2018" of the competition of young artists "Muse must work" St. Petersburg. First prize in the competition-plein air "Couleurs de Normandie 2017" Normandy, France.

The painting "Flawless" was awarded by the jury at the international exhibition at Art Capital 2020 in Paris (annually held at the Grand Palace). Since 2012, he has been a member of the St. Petersburg Union of Artists, the Russian Geographical Society, the creative association AURORA. Active participant and author of regional, all-Russian and personal exhibitions, master classes, as well as creative competitions of international plein airs and exhibitions, youth festivals.

OPH Art

[thefrontofmymind]

Heyyyy, could you do a instagram blurb with matty healy and Ellie from Wolf Alice plssss? Love your work!! 💜

matty healy x musician!reader IG blurb

FC: Ellie Rowsell

a/n: sorry for getting to this so late!! i've had a busy couple months xx

yninstagram SUMMER SONICCC I LOVE YOUUUUUU

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ynfan1 mother looking so mother

ynfan2 the bEST festival i’ve ever been to!! xxx

ynfan3 Dirty Hit honestly has the best artists…

ynfan4 So excited to see you in october!!!

1975updates matty via yninstagram’s story!!

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1975fan1 its so nice that all the dh artists are buddies!!

1975fan2 MATTYYY RELEASE THE CURLSSS THEYRE SUFFOCATINGG

1975fan3 so fit

ynupdates old photo of YN with Matty Healy (and Alana Haim) from around 2016 i think??

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ynfan1 cute!!!

ynfan2 WHEN is the collab coming??? It would be FIRE

ynfan3 do i ship them?? Kind of

>ynfan4 me too bestie lowkey

yninstagram can someone walk my dog when i’m on tour? thanks xxx

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ynfan1 HOTTTT

ynfan2 step on me

ynfan3 WAIT WHO IS THAT???

>ynfan4 RIGHT?? 

yninstagram bye bye kitchen. i’ll miss u

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ynfan1 can’t wait to see you in Berlin!!

ynfan2 obsessed with this fit

trumanblack dw i’ll water the plants

>1975fan1 MATTY WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE

ynfan3 whats with the mirror in the kitchen

>yninstagram she’s a narcissist of a room, its for her health

yninstagram hello paris here we go

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ynfan1 so pretty!!

ynfan2 YN LIVING MY DREAM EATING CROISSANTS IN PARIS

ynfan3 when are lines starting for the paris show??

>ynfan4 the venue is letting us line up from 6am!!

yninstagram THANK YOU EUROPE! I cannot believe how amazing the past couple months have been for me, I could never dream of meeting so many of you wonderful people and playing my songs from the heart. I’m going to have a little rest but I promise something new is on the way, just be a little patient. Xx

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ynfan1 MISS YOUUU

ynfan2 so excited!! Get some rest!!

trumanblack fit.

>1975fan1 MATTY

yninstagram summer 22. love.

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ynfan1 LOOOVVVEEE

ynfan2 WHO is the guys voice in the second video??? Can’t tell

>ynfan3 it could literally be anyone, someone from her band or just a friend

charli_xcx looking gorg!!

>yninstagram thank you babyyyy

yninstagram happy halloween. if only i could find a romeo…

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ynfan1 I VOLUNTEER

ynfan2 how is someone so perfect???

trumanblack oh if only…

ynfan3 not me having the same costume this year…

yninstagram hotel rooms. the new EP out jan 13.

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ynfan1 NEW MUSIC YESSSS

ynfan2 already pre-saved!!!

charli_xcx you go babe!!

ynfan3 CANT WAIT THAT LONG

trumanblack it’ll be a killer.

>yninstagram ok mr producer if you say so

nme YN talks inspiration on new EP, tour life in a post-pandemic world and backstage rituals!

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ynfan1 hmmm i wonder who she was talking about with all the love songs on the ep??

>ynfan2 I KNOW!!! With all the talk of long distance,,,im intrigued

1975fan1 all the compliments of matty bc he worked on the album…lowkey ship it

yninstagram hotel rooms EP is out now. Thank you for all the love. Thank you Matty for helping make it happen. I couldn’t ask for a better collaborator. Xx 

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1975fan1 RIP trumanblack you would have loved a shoutout

ynfan1 I CRIEDDDD IT WAS SO SWEET

ynfan2 PLEASE TELL ME THERES A NEW ALBUM SOON

>yninstagram ;)

1975fan2 oh yeah she’s totally dating matty

yninstagram what did the easter bunny say when he was hopping around? hoppy easter!

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ynfan1 happy easter yn!!

charli_xcx pretty pretty pretty baby!!

>yninstagram no you!

ynupdates “I wrote this EP on the road, about how much you’re…not being yourself, not living your real life…I miss my real life…I miss my boyfriend…” -YN tonight in Japan. She seemed really upset, I hope she’s okay.

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ynfan1 poor yn :((

ynfan2 I was there, everyone was just so quiet i felt so bad for her…

ynfan3 glad this is her last show for a while so she can have a break.

1975updates tonight YN was in the crowd at the band’s show. She was in front of the barricade for most of it and during Robbers Matty went down to her and kissed her. If I’m honest I’m just in shock.

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1975fan1 omgomgomgomg i love them together!!!

1975fan2 WHEN will it be MY TURN

ynfan1 oooh this must’ve been what she was so upset about

[bcacstuff]

Sledge Christmas tree by Hello Wood

Hello Wood built their very first Christmas tree installation – the Sledge Tree – in 2013. The 11-metre-tall structure was made up of 365 sledges and was on display outside Müpa Budapest during the holiday season. It proved popular among visitors, who could view the uniquely designed wooden framework from the inside, and at night, marvel at its colorfully illuminated surface. Beyond its aesthetic value, however, the installation also conveyed a message of hospitality and community: after it was dismantled, the sledges were donated to the SOS Children’s Villages in Hungary.

Since then, they’ve designed and built variations of the original Sledge Tree in Lenzerheide, Vienna and London. The latter was an artistic collaboration between Hello Wood and Creatmosphere, a UK-based lighting design studio, and served as a teaser for the 2016 Lumiere London light festival. Like its Budapest counterpart, the installation at King’s Cross was made from 365 wooden sledges, and was brought to life with color changing lights and sound effects. The tree - named ‘Let is Snow’ - was also a symbolic reminder of the impact of climate change and the lack of snowfall in the UK’s capital, which has put an end to the age-old tradition of sledging on London’s hills in the wintertime.