Orchee Sorker | December 23, 2021 X is a rising Queens-based Rapper, DJ, and producer whose work has been featured in blogs including Raver Magazine, VENTS Magazine, and Buzz Music. He has shared the stage with artists such as The Chainsmokers, Borgore, Meek Mill, French Montana, Adventure Club, Ansolo, and more. Read more about his upcoming release “All I” on December 24. Q: How did you get started with music? So, I started DJing around the age of 12. I got this little plastic controller as a Christmas gift. I started playing around with it and I was like this is pretty cool. So, I got to a point where I was good enough where I would start playing. At that time, I was 13. I would be playing bar mitzvahs, smaller corporate events, birthday parties, and things of that nature. I was 15 in 2015 and started playing in more clubs and venues. I know it didn't feel like enough. I was like, “All right, music’s cool, but I'd like to be able to play my stuff out to a crowd”. You know what I mean? So I started producing. I like producing because it's more of a creative outlet. It's different when it's somebody else's music because it's not really your creativity behind it. When you're able to play a song that you made to a crowd and it gets a good reception, it's a good feeling. When I started producing, everything I was making at first was terrible, but that's all right. Cause growth. When I was 17 or 18, I had been writing more seriously. I've been writing lyrics for rap since I was like 10. Obviously, they were bad, but as time went on, they got better. In 2017, I was in a session with an engineer because I didn't know how to engineer at that time either. We were mixing and mastering a dance track of mine and I dropped some bars. I dropped a freestyle. He's like, yo, you should record that. So I hopped in the booth, I recorded and I liked it. I spent the next like year or two, I would put out some tracks, but I was really just kind of defining my sound, um, you know, getting comfortable with my voice, figuring out how I wanted to present my voice. Um, And just getting a feel of the mic and being in the booth. At that time, I started learning how to mix more seriously, and now I got my first actual engineering job this year a couple of months ago. Thanks to Ro! I signed back in January 2020. 2020 was kind of a cluster. We got some cool radio placements, but not too many live shows. We weren't really able to get anything done. 2021 has been cool. I got my track used by the LA Dodgers, which is sick. We're working on another track with them for the spring. I’m doing more DJ sets. Musically, I'm just kind of trying to develop a sound that can be applied to any genre. I love all genres except Country. I like the versatility of jumping from one place to the other. Like my last track called “Bleach” was very, very aggressive, but then I also have smoother stuff like my next track “All I”. In regards to influences, Drake, Kanye, Timbaland, Travis, and Porter Robinson have always influenced me. I like New Wave. In regards to lyricism, Wu-Tang Clan influenced my rap. I try to play like a Snoop Dogg or Warren G kind of flow. I have a wide net of musical influences. Any Nintendo soundtrack is fire…especially like in the Mario games. ​ Q: What is your creative process for your upcoming “All I”? ​ It started as its own individual track. I watched this song called “Sentimental Sentimental Lady” by Bob Welch, an obscure singer in the 70s. It was very slow and almost had a yacht rock kind of vibe to it. The music video was smooth too. I was like ‘how can I modernize this?’ That's kind of where I got the instrumental to “All I”. Koi is a very frequent collaborator of mine. He’s a good friend, a great singer, and a rapper. Originally, I was just going to have him take the entire thing, but I wrote a little bit about it. I'm still very self-conscious about my voice. I recorded a little demo. He was like ‘oh bro, this is, yeah, this is fire’. So, I went with it. People will be able to see December 24th and hopefully will like it. ​ Q: Who is someone you would like to open for or collaborate with in the future? Drake. He’s my idol. His stuff from 2010 to 2018 was the best. Even though I don't like his music as much now, that would be cool. If I could work with Farrah production-wise, he's a genius. If I could work with Tyler, that'd be cool. Ski Mask the Slump God flows are ridiculous. ​ Q: What are your goals for 2022 In 2022, be social media-oriented. Social media is my biggest pitfall. If I wasn't an artist, I wouldn't have social media. So, that gets my social members. This year, I hit over 100K overall plays on Spotify. Last year, I ended up in 5K plays. It was a nice little jump. I'd like to double that up next year. I would like to do some more collaborations. Do more DJ sets. I'd love to stay in the city. I feed off the energy. I want to move into my place by the time I'm 23, which is August. So that's like a personal goal. ​ Q: If you could give one piece of advice to aspiring musicians, what would it be? All it takes is one song. All it takes is one song. That's something that's kept me going. Granted what you do with it afterward if you’re able to sustain that success is a different story. To get where you want to be, all it takes is one song. You just have to keep releasing more music. Cause the more music you release, the more fishing lines you have in the water. If you got the talent, one of them is going to hit at some point. That's kinda my mindset, the advice I would give to upcoming artists.

Orchee Sorker | December 9, 2021 Photo by: Orchee Sorker Based in Los Angeles, CANNONS trio consists of Michelle Joy [vocals], Ryan Clapham [lead guitar], and Paul Davis [drums, keys]. With their pop and dreamy melodies, the band has attracted many fans around the world. CANNONS talks about their tour journey, hit single “Fire for You” on Netflix television show Never Have I Ever, and latest release “Ruthless”. You all are about more than halfway done with the tour. You have 15 shows and have 11 shows to go. What has been your favorite memory from the tour so far? What does it feel like to open for lovelytheband? M: Well, we've been having a lot of fun since this is our first North American tour…um favorite moments. Do you guys have any? R: I think my favorite moment is just connecting with every audience that we've come across because we haven't had the opportunity yet to go from city to city. That’s something we've never experienced before…seeing how excited every fan base is and every city and how different they are. It's really great. Lovelytheband’s awesome. They're super professional and it's been fun touring with them. The latest song y’all released was “Ruthless”. What was the creative process behind that song? M: Well, first you started it with your… R: Yeah, I think it's almost like a little, a little demo from one of us. Then, MJ kind of took it. Michelle: Right. Yeah. They sent their first demo to me. I wrote all the lyrics in one night because I felt so inspired by it. It was not about a personal relationship for me, but for someone really close to me that I was feeling like, kind of upset for them or the way someone was treating them. They came pretty naturally and then sent it to Paul…as far as your process? P: I made it, I made it ready. R: I feel like MJ is like that when she's really inspired by something. Um, she acts quick on it, which is cool because we were listening to “Song Exploder”? If we were listening to “The Cranberries” one recently and they were talking about how if the lead singer of Cranberries was super inspired by it then she would work on it like all night long. In my head, I thought about MJ writing “Ruthless”. We sent her the demo, and the next day she had like this perfect hop and lyrics already ready for it. P: It makes our jobs a lot easier. The hit song “Fire For You” was on Mindy Kaling’s Netflix show Never Have I Ever. How was it like to find out Netflix was going to use that? Did you know they were going to use it for that scene? What was the creative process when making that song? M: We didn't know that it was going to be used in the show the way that it was used. I received a lot of messages on Instagram and tweets from people telling us that it was in the show and it was almost the entire song. So, we checked it out that night, and we were just blown away. We felt like it was almost a music video for the song. We were used to our songs being used in shows quietly in the background, but this was just forefront and the most important part of the show. We so grateful for that because right after we were #1 on Shazam. It was just really cool watching the numbers go up and all the fans that we gained from that experience. P: It started with just an email from the music advisors. They were like, “Yeah, we want to use your song.” What is one message you would like to give your fans? R: Thank you very much! P: Thank you for coming to all the shows! M: You’ve changed our lives. R: Yeah. Thank you for changing your life. M: Just as cheesy as this sounds: continue to pursue your dreams and be persistent and also be patient because that's something that took us a little bit of years to where we are now. P: I think you should believe in your art. R: It's wonderful to hear about the fans that reach out to us and see that we've changed their lives, but little, do they know how much they've changed our lives. Just a give and take situation going on. Super appreciate it!

Ezzah Rafique | October 7, 2021 Photo by: Joacim Fougner Q: "Hi! How have you been so far into the year? Tell us about yourself! What inspired you to pursue music? E: Hi! I’ve had an amazing year, thank you, despite a crazy scary pandemic, it’s probably been my favourite year ever! When I slowly found out that I had a great ability to convert feelings into melodies and words, I was like ‘Oh, damn, I guess I’m pretty good at this, AND it’s fun, maybe I should try it out!’ ​ Q: "You've said before that your music is for those who have been pushed in an 'uncomfortable extrovert way to view the world.' Has there ever been a time where you were put into one of those situations?" E: The music industry expects you to do so much more than just being good at singing and writing songs, and all this extra fluff has always terrified me; ‘Am I interesting enough to interview? Do I look interesting enough to take photos of? etc.’ But then I realized that it’s about the songs! If people are gonna be interested in me, it’s because my songs are great! That’s reassuring and gives me a lot of courage. If my songs are small great novels, I'm just the author, and I have to promote these books and put them in people's hands so they can read them. ​ Q: "What is the backstory to your most recent single, 'Killing It'?" E: I moved from Copenhagen to New York, which is sooo exciting and fun, but I’ve also been dealing with anxiety, insecurities, and loneliness. And I felt it clashed with all the courage I had gathered for my adventures ahead. Not knowing where you’re going is the epitome of being an artist. In ‘Killing It’ I’m just trying to put some of my worries aside. I’m ‘faking it till I’m killing it’. ​ Q: "For 'Killing It,' what was the process like for you when it came to creating the music video?" E: I wanted to emphasize the part of me that still feels like a tourist in this city that I’m trying to make my home. I talked to the amazing directors Sam Guest and Julia Baylis about wanting to ridicule myself a bit by wearing the iconic N.Y. touristy souvenirs, and we thought it would be perfect to use the chaotic busy New York as a setting for zooming in and out of my loneliness in this people crowded city. ​ Q: "What would you want fans to take away from the 'Killing It' music video?" ​ E: That it’s okay and normal to feel lonely no matter what you’re doing and where you are in the world! And sometimes it can be uplifting to look at your sadness, restlessness or loneliness from a humoristic perspective. ​ Q: "You have two other singles which released earlier this year as well, 'Favourite Lover' and 'All or Nothing'. How was the experience like for you as these are some of your first few songs you released?" E: It’s been nerve-wracking and exciting to get started! But I also feel like I’ve felt very confident in sharing these songs. I don’t take it personal[ly] if people don’t like my music, I don’t expect everyone to like me either! My most important job as a songwriter is just to write songs that hopefully some people can mirror themselves in. Q: "Between all three songs that you released this year, do you have one that resonates with you the most or one you enjoyed creating more?" E: I am really proud of how simply written and produced ‘Killing It’ is, just a few elements that all work perfectly together, to me it’s just old-school good songwriting with nothing to hide, haha! <3 ​ Q: "To someone who hasn't heard your music before, what do you hope they take away from it? What atmosphere are you trying to create with your music?" E: I want my music to feel like a therapy session, where we can talk about heavy subjects in a lighthearted way. I want my songs to be unpretentious and inviting, and I want people to feel less weird, introverted and alone when they don’t have the energy to be social. Q: "Every artist has a different method of making music, how do you tackle a project? What's your creative process like or how would you describe it as?" E: I write different songs when I’m alone than when I write with other people, so I enjoy doing both! It’s always fun, frustrating, and interesting to switch between guitar and piano and see what mood shapes the song of the day. Some of my favourite songs have started with one simple good melody, then I circle around it for weeks. I start loving that bit so much that I fear I will never find parts to match its superiority, but then I force myself to pair it with some other melodies and finally finish the song. Haha. It’s so weird when I come up with a good melody, I sometimes hit the break, maybe it’s because I know that if I finish the song and release it, it won’t be my precious secret anymore! That first meeting with a good melody is a drug. ​ Q: "Lastly, what can fans expect from you in regards to new music?" E: Expect a whole lot! This is gonna be a great decade for eee gee lovers!

Ezzah Rafique | September 11, 2021 E: Hi! Thanks for taking the time out to do this interview! The music video for your new single 'DON'T THINK ABOUT IT' was recently released a few days ago, how was the process like putting the video together? M: I met the cake god thejonnycakes on the internet and he does the craziest cake reveals. I’m really obsessed with questioning the binaries we grow up learning about and at first, I thought it would be funny to be a groomsman at a wedding but then see a cake and just steal it and run off into the sunset and ruin the wedding party. but I didn’t think it packed enough commentary into it. then I met with potential directors for the song and Neta was a new mother of a beautiful baby, and she had also been thinking about these same binaries and her idea was to do the gender reveal cake. I felt like there was something synchronistic about the cake journey and then it just became about finding a cast that would act distraught but then let loose and let us throw paint cannons in the air all day long. I’m so proud of what we made. E: What is the backstory to 'DON'T THINK ABOUT IT'?​ ​ M: The song came just as my relationship with my former label was ending. They wanted me to do and say things that just didn’t feel authentic to me and at the end of the day, I felt like they just needed me to be a puppet for their own enjoyment. I thought this song was going to start the whole journey but it ended up being what started volume 2 - and I love that it has entered me into this next chapter of my life. fully independent. getting to say and do what is really coming from me. it feels nice not to have to hide parts that I was told I needed to hide before.​ ​ E: For DON'T THINK ABOUT IT,' what was the process like for you when it came to writing and creating the song itself?​ ​ M: I met and wrote the song with Jen Decilveo on the same day. it was a thunderstorm of a session. kind of in and I think we maybe talked for 10 minutes before she started playing the bass line at the top of the song and it just poured out. I have a voice memo where she asks “do you usually write this fast". I kind of just let the song write itself.​ ​ E: What would you want fans to take away from the 'DON'T THINK ABOUT IT' music video?​ ​ M: Explore the binaries in your life. ask questions of the systems in place - ask if they are designed for everyone. question if the structures in place are helping or hindering growth. I almost don’t need to say how I feel about the gender binary - proof is in the cake :)​ ​ E: What's your favorite line from 'DON'T THINK ABOUT IT'?​ ​ M: "You make things wrong so you can still be right” — I think this is the best example of how people establish and maintain control of people. they make it seem like who they are is wrong and then proceed to demonstrate how they can find the right way. it’s a control tactic I’ve been trapped in before. and a society/relationship built on control is not where I want to be.​ ​ E: Your upcoming EP, 'MERIDIAN: vol 2' releases on October 22. How was the process like for you when it came to creating it?​ ​ M: Inherit in the name is change. I have been so afraid no one would hear this (listen to WONDER for the lyric reference) and volume 1 and 2 of MERIDIAN have kept me going creating something I am very proud of. especially in this pandemic but also independently building and growing this project. these songs were singing to me and I hope they reverberate for a long time.​ ​ E: Do you have a favorite song off of 'MERIDIAN: vol 2'? A song that possibly means the most to you or one that you're most excited to perform live?​ ​ M: I think that I have a favorite but it’s not the one I’m most excited to perform live. BURDEN was the last song I wrote in the last days of 2019. I was exhausted. I knew my life was about to shift but I didn’t realize how much it would change for the whole world. in the last hours of 2019, I wrote this song. I had a hunch that my friends in Now Now would know where to take it and I’m just so proud of that song and collaboration. ​ E: I know you're not currently with a label right now, how has that impacted you?​ ​ M: nothing has changed except I don’t have the same budgets to make things. hopefully, my fans see my heart and hear the love that went into it - and that’s what matters to me. E: Lastly, for those who were huge fans of 'MERIDIAN: vol 1,' what can we expect from 'MERIDIAN: vol 2'?​ ​ M: a resolution to some of the aching questions from volume 1 I think are within volume 2.​ ​

Ezzah Rafique | June 2, 2021 Maxwell Joseph and Connor Pledger masterfully blend bold, pop melodies with synth and optimistic hooks as Mob Rich. The alt-pop duo's new album 'Why No Why' includes a sonic spectrum of beats that calls out to free-spirited souls, the perfect album to listen to with the windows down in summer. Maxwell and Connor sit down with Ezzah Rafique from HAZZE MEDIA to talk about the creation of 'Why No Why', evolving as a duo, and open-mindedness in creating music. MOB RICH: Maxwell Joseph (left) and Connor Pledger (right) | Photo by: Jack Dytrych E: How has the release [of ‘Why No Why’] been for you guys? M: It's been good, I think I think any artist that released an album in the past year has felt the effects obviously of the pandemic and not being able to, like, immediately tour your album and kind of just, you know, obviously the effects of what's going on in the world. And so for us, it's exciting that we're releasing our album as it seems to be loosening up as this pandemic seems to be really kind of getting out of control. And we have like dates on the horizon. And we know, like, we’ll be able to play these songs live. But I think for us, we just really wanted to take time and celebrate the fact that we released an album like I texted Connor because we're terrible about planning stuff, and I texted him like I want to say, like three days before the album come out, I was like, dude, we have to, like, do something for the album, like celebrate with our friends. Like, just get some people together because otherwise, like, we're going to regret it, you know, like next year when everything's regular, we're going to be like, ‘man, I wish we took some time and just celebrated the fact that we released an album and it's out in the world. So but all in all, at least for me, it's been really nice. And I'm so glad that people have the songs in their lives now and be able to listen to them. C: Agreed M: I second that C: We went out and celebrated at a bar, and so if there's one thing I've noticed during that pandemic that using Uber and Lyft is awful right now, I don't know why. But like I was telling Maxwell I didn't go home until like 2 AM because, like, a) I stayed there until the bar closed. But that's beside the point. But I got go to get a Uber and they took like almost an hour two to show up, which is crazy. I'm like, what's going on? I was like, I guess it's just like either I guess people aren't going to drive or I don't blame them like I'm vaccinated so like I'm not like super stressed about it or as much as I was getting in an Uber. But like if I was a driver and especially if I wasn't vaccinated, I definitely would not want to be like driving around strangers during all this. M: I think that context, too, is that like in L.A. before the pandemic, because we're just such a dense city like it never took more than two minutes to get an Uber. Like there is always someone right around the corner to pick you up. And now it's like it's switched. E: Has Covid affected your process in the album or like in any way, shape or form the album itself? And Uber fits that. C: [laughs] Getting to and from the studio. M: Yeah, for sure. I mean just from the simple fact that, you know, like not being able to tour a record is not necessarily the most normal thing. Like usually when you release a record, you have dates lined up right away and you're like going to promote the record and you're hitting radio stations and all sorts of stuff. So not being able to do that is definitely been different. So much of like creating the actual record. I think the only thing that was maybe impacted was like our awareness that like, you know, you have to be careful and like, you know, not see too many people because we're going to see each other in the studio and like and just kind of keep our, I guess, our covid bubble small. But I mean that I mean, Connor you can talk about too but the creation of the record, I guess, in a lot of ways was the same as it's been for us creating all of our songs. We get demos together and then we take them to our boy, Nicky Adamson, who produced the record, and he helps us finish them and clean everything up. So but it definitely saved our mental [health] a little bit, I would say, because we finished the record during if you want to say like June and July during some pretty hectic, stressful times, so like being able to like go to the studio and like spend our days and like create music or finish music was definitely helpful because otherwise, we'd just been sitting in our apartments going stir crazy. Yeah. But I don't know if other than that, I can't tell if there are other major impacts. I mean, maybe in the sense of like maybe we would have done more things around the release, like in person, I don't know. Maybe we also have never released a record as a band. So we have nothing to contextualize it against. ​ C: And in all honesty, I don't think we're planning on like maybe we would have put a record out at this time, maybe. But like we weren't really planning for it to be now. We were planning to kind of continue the trajectory we had, which was like releasing singles, like doing opening, touring and stuff, and then eventually released record when like we felt we had hit critical mass as far as like what songs we had released. And there was like a moment where, like, alright we gotta put a record together and in the back of my head 'I'm like, we don't have enough songs'. And then we start looking at our songs were like, alright, 'we have too many songs' and we're just like we've so many songs. Like when you're an artist and you're inside your mind essentially, you know, like when you're staying in there, you forget kind of like all the art you created. And it was kind of a wonderful experience, like going back and listening to all these records that you've written since the beginning of the band. And like Maxwell & I talk about this all the time, we'll go back like, dude, I just listened to like I just listened to 'Two sides' the other day. Like, this is pretty much what happened. 'I just listened to two sides of it, such a good song'. I was like, 'is it let me go listen. Oh, wow. That's way good. OK, cool, put it on the record'. Like, that's pretty much what happened. And it was nice and kind of a reassuring moment in our careers, at least for me, I just felt like, yeah, this is what we're supposed to do. This feels right, feels good. And kind of seeing all the art next to each other in one package really helped me see us as a band, as like a body of work all sitting together. I'm like, 'oh, that's their sound'. When you listen to it altogether, it's like, oh, I get it. I see the image now and like whereas before it's like you're putting out singles, you're testing the water, you're trying to figure out what works and you're never quite playing the songs exactly back to back, especially not in the order that is curated in a way that's supposed to, like, feel good the whole time we're listening to it. So. That all being said, it's just really cool getting to put everything together, like make a record. E: Do you guys have a favorite song off of it, for me, I loved 'Funeral', but for you guys, I think your whole album was like this cool, like a groovy tune, like it has a sound to it. Do you guys have a favorite song off the album? ​ M: It changes, yeah. But as of recently, I would probably say that at least mine has been kind of, going back and forth between 'Buggin' and 'Dandy Liars' and 'Two Sides' like those three, I think it kind of sways back and forth between those. And they're all different, like 'Dandy Liars'is this just like a slow build that never gets the release, which is why it's a great first record song. It just like getting you primed for what's next. And then 'Buggin' is just like full force anthem all the way. And then 'Two sides' is like a soft slap. But I really like emotional songs and I think like 'Two Sides' is probably at least from like a songwriter's perspective, like one of the best like concepts, and just well put together and all the lyrics for me...all have different meanings to myself personally. C: I really like... after listening to the record over and over and out, like I think my favorite is probably 'Lips & Mouth', and I think I figured out why. I was listening to it the other day, I was like on the run listening, and I realized that the song reminds me of something there's a nostalgia to it, like there's a synth in it that reminds me of Mannheim Steamroller, very obscure reference. But they have like this Christmas album and it's like [mimics song]...they have this, like, synth sound on this Christmas album. And when you edit this, throw in a Mannheim Steamroller but there's something about it. There's a synth then I was like, 'Oh My God, that is Mannheim'. Like that is like the synth sound that reminds me of Christmas time. So there's like nostalgia in it for me now. And I, I think music, in general, is like I'm very like that's the shit that like drives me is the stuff that brings me into a place like or a point in time, like, like time traveling in a way. M: I don’t know who Mannheim Steamroller is but yea… Is it like an indie sound? I’ll listen to it. E: Do you [guys] use music from like other artists [or] that like maybe artists, you even grew up listening to that like you can reflect it in your music, do you see that? C: One hundred percent. One hundred percent. Yeah, definitely. Depending on the song, I think there's a point of reference in every song whether like whether we knew that we were doing it or not. There's something in there. M: There's a lot of like I think unintentional like more subconscious references that you end up [with]. I like to think that because me and Connor write most of the songs together it kind of has like this quirky lyrical feel to it a lot of times. And it's very introspective. But like, we really like to try to say things that have been said before, but in our own way. And so I like to think I don't necessarily hear are the lyricism and think of other people. But from a sonic standpoint, from a production standpoint, I definitely hear a lot of references. I mean, we love a lot of 90s bands like Third Eye Blind and Nirvana and a lot of like the chord progressions that we choose, I think. But yeah, I think one thing that I'm proud of us about is that I think that there's a lot of diversity in our songs, at least from the standpoint of like I think we like to try things and a lot of the songs are different than others. Like 'Buggin' for example, like the pre for 'Buggin' is like straight Third Eye Blind. It's especially from a newer version of it. But then like 'Lips & Mouth', for example, like the chord progression, is very unknown mortal orchestra, like it's very interesting and not like a regular chord progression that you would necessarily find in like an alt band. E: Do you guys have, like, a specific memory from the production of the album or release or something that, like you vividly remember from making the album? M: I personally remember a lot of the moments of writing the songs. So much of making a record- not to make it sound boring because it isn't and it's very rewarding- but like when you kind of work the way that we do, which is like you write a song, you make a demo yourself, and then you kind of like give those stems to the producer and go like, alright, let's clean this up. Right? So much of the time in the actual studio finishing is me and Connor sitting in the back of the studio on our phones while Nicky, our producer, is doing a bunch of minutia work. And so like so there are hours of the studio where we're just like chilling until he's like ready to, like, actually make some key decisions. And then we're like, 'OK, let's jump into it'. But writing the songs like I remember the date of the 'Two Sides', I remember the day we wrote 'Buggin' very vividly. And it's usually because on the good day, personally, I'll have a moment while writing a song when I kind of think to myself is a good song and it's kind of sticks in my mind either, like coming up with something or just something clicks and you're like, OK, we got that. We got the concept. So I have an easier time remembering those moments. C: Yeah, I have memories that are scattered all around. I mean, as far as production goes, like being a studio, I mean, I remember like being in Canada, finishing like 'Yoko Ono'... Like just random moments and even for songs that we never put out. But I remember the session. It's like some of that shit is more memorable. Like there's one time we had a session and we brought the tracks in and the guys is like, 'your drum sound cheap' and we're just like, 'fuck you, we're out'. Yeah. This isn't going to work. M: That's just stung. That's why that stuck with me. C: we were like ‘alright bro’. M: Very awkward session, very awkward session. C: But it’s memorable that’s what I’m saying M: We had a session one time where the guy was like trying to get us to write a concert about the Grinch. And he was like, 'what if we, like, made it like the Grinch, but like you're the Grinch, but like it's grunge' and I was just like, 'oh, this is not the guy' like, oohhh. C: But, we were like open-minded and we're like, 'yeah, let's see what happens'. But definitely, the initial reaction was like, 'oh! The Grinch, ok'. I mean, not to say that like like we like out of all the bands but like out of, you know, the few bands that I know in our circle like we would be the one that would say some shit like that. M: We like to go for it. But like I think that it's like going on a blind date sometimes because you get set up in sessions you never met the person before and you walk in and you just don't know if you guys are going to vibe. I think, like when it comes to the actual record, I think the fondest memories were like just the memories of, like, me and Connor writing the songs. I think that's where it all starts to begin. And for me, that's the whole reason that this project has worked for us personally and hopefully for other people, is that we have just always really enjoyed, even though we bicker constantly writing songs, you know, it's a constant like old couple like mentality where it's like, I hate that. No, I hate that. nd we're very open with each other, which is why I think it works. So you have lots of memories. It's just you kind of have to think about it for a moment or someone has to remind you of them and it comes rushing back. ​ C: There is one thing that I do miss about, earlier in music was like, there wasn't an infinite amount of people to listen to you. Right? It's like you go to the record store, you have what's there or whatever is locally sourced, you know, like whatever local bands you have in the region. And part of that, you had to buy a record, and if you bought the record, you listen to the whole thing, but you probably bought it because you heard one song. And now that band is now like a part of your life, whether or not it's like a record, you're going to listen to it forever. It now has an impact on you. Like what's the word like for that time in your life? Like there's a memory of it now. M: It's almost like if you were to relate to something, it's like having a very short moment of, like, interaction with someone or like going over to someone's house and seeing where they live and like seeing their friends. You either like I think and nowadays, like unless you take the time and dive into someone's whole catalog, you're just like picking and choosing songs out of everybody's portfolios to listen to. And to your point Connor, it's like when people used to buy records, whether you ended up loving the record or not, you still sat with their full body of work. You still sat with their decisions of like how to order the songs, and their productions, and their choices that they made as a band or an artist. So I think that whether you ended up liking it, you at least got the full view of what that artist was about. C: Yeah, and not to sound like an old piece of shit, but like I miss that. Like, I feel like there's a lot of positive to it, because like you're going to hear so many more artists and find new songs you never would have heard of. But I do just feel like there's like a missing element to the connection of these smaller bands and stuff and unless you're massive, which who knows how that happens, but unless you're just insanely famous, it's like people aren't... I don't know. M: And even when you're huge, I feel like the majority of people are still only going to listen to singles. And our attention span is so quick so if we don't like something we're just going to skip it. Whereas like if you put on a record on like a record player… C: That’s why I love vinyl because it forced it. M: It's great. I think like anything it is what it is we can talk all day about, like the positive and the negatives. We just are where we are and that's kind of the reality of it. But I am appreciative of the people that choose to listen to our full record. When someone says, like 'I listen front to back', you're like, 'thank you'. ​ C: Like ‘damn’. Like you went out of your way. Respect. E: There's a different level of connection with music [in that]. Both: Yes ​ C: Like the Third Eye Blind record that I had in my Prius, that was just stuck in there, like we would just listen to that all the time because it was the only record in there. But I also loved it, like every song had a memory when I listened to it. M: Also, just a fantastic record. C: And, by the way, if you don't know today, if you're listening or watching, they're pretty much the 1975. But from the 90s. Like, listen to the lyrics...it's like they're the same band, like just different productions. Like I wanna see Matty Healy cover a Third Eye Blind song or vice versa. Like I think that would be so sick. M: Yeah. I'd rather see Matty Healy cover Third Eye Blind. C: Absolutely. Absolutely. But they're both great. M: For sure E: So you guys are performing at Lollapalooza this year, which I saw earlier today, did you guys have like a song from the album that you're like most excited to perform or like any song in general? Both: ‘Buggin’ M: 'Funeral' too 'Dandy Liars', like I'm excited [about] things, like I'm super excited for like the sound at the beginning of 'Dandy Liars' to, like, open up our set and just be running on a loop until we come out. I'm excited to structure the setlist differently now that we have a lot more songs to choose from. But 'Buggin' is just going to be that that anthemic... Like when that second chorus hits and then the post-chorus, like I'm just going to step away from the mic and listen. C: That's where you take your mic and go 'you guys sing'. That's one of my favorite things about playing live. I was like you forget the words, do this. It looks cool and they'll remember the lyrics. E: Do you guys have a ritual or like a routine you do before you perform? C: We do like vocal warm-ups, like Maxwell has a recording that he listens to, and I just kind of piggyback off of him because I always forget about it. I'm like, 'oh yeah, vocal warm-ups'. We'll do like pretty much that. I try to jack myself up on caffeine or whatever. I just try to like get to a maximum. You can ask Maxwell, like every show, like your mental state is different every single time, but like it all depends [on] what did you eat that day, did you have too much caffeine, did you not have enough caffeine? Like did you interact with anybody? Were you sleeping on the van? Like, like what was the situation of that? How did you sleep last night? So on and so forth. Yeah, so this is like every day is different and we try to get to the same place because there's nothing better than feeling excited, getting on stage, performing well, feeling pumped about the performance. And just like that is what we live for. That feeling of like this is why we do it. This is like the whole reason and the purpose of music is bringing people together. And here it is a celebration of sound and it's fucking awesome, so much fun. M: I find myself trying to, like, center myself before shows because I feel like the nerves coming on, I feel like the nausea coming on. C: We're both very different. M: I just get a little like 'I don't know... I don't know if I want to go out'. I mean, of course I never am like 'I can't go out there' but I just get nervous. So I find myself sitting quietly and just trying to like.. just keep myself cool and collected till I get out there. And then I feel the energy and then I can get more into it. Because I feel sometimes if I get like too pumped up before the show, I'm going to like, fuck up. I'm like not going to like, remember the things I need to do. C: And I'm the opposite. Like, I want to get myself so pumped up that I forget that... I'm the first person to tell you, like I've like I have a hard time memorizing things or I think I do at least. And I think the big reason is because I'm thinking about it. So if I'm able to pump myself up so much that I'm like, 'I about to have a great time, this is going to be awesome no matter what'. And I get on stage and I forget about that. And it's like one of the greatest things, like being in a duo. It's like if I forget something for a split second, he fills in the blanks. I'm like, 'Oh yeah, that's right'. And then we're back on. So like we're never off for more than like half a second. M: But we also always have a moment before, where right before we go on stage, or us and our drummer, we like give a little pep talk and do a little like we used to say, 'Moby Rich on three' but it will now be 'Mob Rich on three'. And then our drummer usually goes out before us. And then Connor and I have a little moment to ourselves where we spank each other on the bottom a few times and say, hey, good luck out there, you know. ​ E: Do you guys have like an artist you want to perform with? Like anyone like it, like dead or alive, could be anyone. C: Does that make sense? Oh Led Zeppelin, or the Beatles. Or Rolling Stones. Any of those like the massive ones, you know, like any just legend, legendary band. M: I think Cage the Elephant would be one of mine because they're so good live. And I forget his name, the lead singer, I can't believe I'm forgetting his name right now, but he is such a he's such a presence on stage. And I think sharing the stage with him would be amazing. And apart from him, maybe someone like way outside, maybe like Tyler the Creator, like something like we left field like I would imagine ourselves performing with that would be dope. C: Or Beyonce. I just feel like the crowd would be insane. People would be going crazy. M: Or Bruno Mars or the Weeknd. C: Or Lizzo, Lizzo is just fun. M: Or Post Malone. I think Post Malone would be a good one. I feel like his, I feel like his crowds... You know whose crowds are insane actually? And I actually really wish our crowds were as hype as them? But he just has way hyper music is Travis Scott like his crowds are insane. They go insane like crazy. He's had some situations where it was like too out of control and they like cops showed up and all sorts of stuff anyways. E: Ok, and lastly, you guys have a specific creative process when it comes to making your music, or do you guys kind of go on the flow? M: I think it's changed by a couple of things, by the pandemic happening and just not being around each other as much and kind of like being forced to do a little bit more like on our own writing and production and then kind of sending ideas back and forth. And then I think it's also changed, too, because like I think when you write with any one person a lot, you know, wells dry up. And you need to experience things on your own and then come back together and you need to like flush ideas out. And there are things that, like Connor would write that we would never write together and the things that I would write that we would never write together. So I think that you kind of have to just evolve and go through all those things. But, the majority of the songs that we have released and are planning on releasing usually start with me and Connor or maybe one other person just writing a song and then starting the production and tinkering with ideas and stuff like that. C: Yea but every method is a different paintbrush or just a different part of creating the art. You never know walking into the room, what the day’s gonna have because we are two people. The energy and the emotions felt by both of us are completely separate. So we have to come in and figure out where do these two emotions meet in the middle. Where is the story you and I are both feeling? It pretty much always starts with a conversation. Like talking is a must. You can kind of go in and immediately start but you need some sort of catalyst or topic [to start from]. M: it’s different too because like there are times where one of us will be feeing- for whatever reason- super down, and you have to make the decision to either like ‘alright I’m going to get you out of this so we can write a different type of song or I’m just gonna meet you where you are’... C: And try to get what it is ​ M: And try to get whatever is going on in your life. Just try to talk about that and extract that. And then there are times where some of our best songs have been written where one of us will already have half a chorus or a melody or something that we’ve been messing around with. [And we’ll ask] ‘What do you think of this’ and if the other person is down with it. And I think a the beginning- which is a funny progression and just kind of like evolving as people too- at first when we started this project, we’ve been solo artists for so long I think both of us are very keen on like doing everything together. If it wasn’t a song that we both didn’t write together and both didn’t relate to every song, then we’d be like ‘I don’t wanna use it’. And I think now, we’re at a place just because we’ve evolved as people where there’s less ego about it all. It’s easier for someone to be like ‘hey, I did this thing’ and the other person just find their own way to relate to the song and extract meaning. Of course, there’s a threshold and there are songs that we send to each other and [one person says] ‘I’m not feeling it’. I think it’s cool we’re now at a place where we are able to do that and not feel like… I can only speak from my own experience but I remember being younger when we first started this band being like ‘I don’t wanna sing a song that I didn’t write’ or ‘I don’t wanna sing a song that I didn’t like contribute 50% to’. C: Yea now its more just like ‘I don’t wanna sing a song unless it slaps’. M: Yeah yeah. That’s the barometer C: If anything we’re expanding our paint selections because like what Maxwell said, in the beginning, we had very specific songs that only he and I could write together and now we are expanding outside of that. And it was important to do that too, because in the beginning of our bands we were trying to figure out our sounds. And I think no [that] no matter what we do, it will never sound more Mob Rich than when he and I come together to write the song together alone. Like that will be the most… like ‘Yoko One’ like all [of] those started us. [And in that], you’re gonna have the most potent version of us but now we’re getting on the fringes of what is us and it’s filling in all of the gaps. Hopefully one day, there can be a Mob Rich sphere of colors and you can go around and be like ‘what am I feeling today? We got happy, sad, introspective, uh just out-of-mind’, you know you can just find that song that kinda falls somewhere on the Mob Rich spectrum. M: When you think about all of these artists, a great example is like the Beatles, because there was so many... different people putting in different parts and portions [of the] stories like you know Paul and John didn’t let… what’s his name? C: Ringo M: Ringo contribute in. Like you just listen to bands and you realize that as you go through life and as you’re not just like a first-year band or a second-year band, and you’ve been doing this for six years, you kind of just to continue to feel inspired and continue to feel like you’re moving in a direction whether thats left or right or up or down, you kind of just have to take chances and just remove your own ego from the situation and be like ‘you know what, lets do that. Lets bring this other person in and see what they can contribute’. The worst thing that could happen is you don’t like the song and you don’t use it. But yea, I think some of the most exciting things to me is like when Connor and I work with other artists because other artists are so easy to work with a lot of the times, almost easier than writing with other songwriters or producers because they have their own identity and its almost just about merging those two identities together and figuring out how that works and what that looks like. Versus working with a songwriter who’s only trying to… ​ C: They’re trying to figure out who you are… M: Or they’ve heard your music and they’re just like ‘alright let's try to get something like that you know? Or they’re like ‘oh, I’ve heard their music and what they sound like so I’m going to suggest things like this or this’. And for an artist, there's nothing more, not annoying, but like it can be frustrating to [go into something and] be like ‘yea, we did that already’. C: It’s just uninspiring… Like it doesn’t lead you anywhere. It’s like ‘yeah, we’ve been there [so] let’s go elsewhere'. M: Let’s go down the road. That’s a long-winded answer but yes. E: No that’s a great answer! And thank you so much for taking the time out and talking too.

Camila C. | March 13, 2021 Sophie Sandberg created "Catcalls of New York City" and "Chalk Back" to advocate to stop gender-based harassment and violence along with combatting street harassment. Sophie talks with ORENDA MEDIA about not only what inspired her to create the two groups, but her aims to create a community in solidarity with those who are affected, growing the platforms, and her cyberstalking experience. What inspired you to start “Catcalls of New York City”? Growing up in New York City, I began facing street harassment in middle school. The comments about my appearance made me extremely self-conscious. I could never respond to the objectifying words which made me feel continually silenced. As I got older, I was struck by the connections between these words and larger issues: gender-based attitudes, safety, and comfort in public spaces. These experiences drastically affected my day-to-day life, and yet they were often belittled as “just words” or “no big deal.” After my first catcalling experience, my dad suggested I dress differently to avoid unwanted attention. My work is inspired by the feeling of helplessness that resulted from this situation. I want others facing harassment to take action, reclaim the streets, and not question for a second whether it was their fault. I believe that everyone deserves to walk down the street free from harassment. What is the best part about the platform and community you created? The best part of the platform and community I've created (both Catcalls of NYC locally and Chalk Back globally) is the sense of solidarity with girls, women, and gender minorities around the world. Catcalls of NYC is a team of more than 30 volunteers in NYC, chalking and advocating for those who face harassment. We receive hundreds of stories on the Instagram page, and so many people thank us for the work we do. It is amazing to be able to provide support and show up for people facing harassment. Globally, the young people who run catcalls pages around the world lift each other up and encourage each other to continue advocating for others. It is an extremely supportive and powerful community. What is your ultimate goal? The ultimate goal is to end street harassment and all forms of gender-based discrimination and gender-based violence. This is going to take a long time since it requires changing deeply rooted societal norms. The goals in the meantime are to change the culture of gender-based harassment that exists globally. We do this by raising awareness and educating many on the issue. We want people who don't face harassment to understand the scope of this problem. We want people who do face harassment to understand that it is not normal and not okay and give them a platform to speak up about it. How will you continue to grow your platform? Our platform continues to grow organically as more people find our chalk in public spaces and find us on Instagram. We will also continue to grow the platform by speaking to high school and middle school students about Catcalls of NYC and Chalk Back. I am also working with the Catcalls of NYC and Chalk Back team to grow our presence on other social media platforms like TikTok. Was there ever a time you wanted to give up on your platform? How did you overcome this? For almost the past 3 years when running Catcalls of NYC, I have been facing persistent cyberstalking from an individual who[m] I don't know. This behavior has made it hard to persevere at times. I have wanted to be less public on social media to protect myself from this person. However, at the end of the day, the fact that I have been dealing with this only makes me want to continue this project more and create a platform for more people to discuss the harassment and abuse they face on and offline. What is the process that goes into your chalk submissions? ​ We receive many DM submissions on Catcalls of NYC and put them into a spreadsheet based on where they happened. Then, they are distributed to the catcalls of NYC volunteers based on where they are able to chalk. We get to all the stories that are submitted to us as quickly and efficiently as possible. And we try to write them as close to where they happened as possible. What is some advice you’d like to give to young survivors who are ready to tell their stories? ​ Sharing your story is an extremely brave and valuable thing to do. Take your time with it and do it when you feel ready. But when you are ready, sharing your story will have an impact on many other people. It might inspire someone else to come forward with their own story. It might make someone feel less alone. Who is your creative inspiration? I have many creative inspirations, including the other young activists who run "Catcalls of" accounts in places around the world. I am also inspired by Tatyana Fazlalizadeh and her public art project Stop Telling Women to Smile. Do you have any other projects coming up in regards to advocacy? Within Catcalls of NYC and Chalk Back we are always planning more projects in regards to advocacy. For International Women's Day, we are going to share more about what we have accomplished in the last year and how we have continued to be resilient in our activism. For International Anti Street Harassment week in April, we are going to bring people together for a digital community event and cover more public spaces around the world with chalk. What is something you wish you knew before you started “Cat Calls Of New York City”? ​ I wish I knew it was okay to upset people. When I first started the project, I was so nervous that passersby would reprimand me for writing these words on the street, or claim that I was doing something wrong. Now, after running the project for almost 5 years, I am no longer worried about what people will think when I'm out chalking. Part of the point of the project is about people getting upset and being shocked by these words and experiences. I'm no longer afraid of upsetting people.

Ezzah Rafique | March 12, 2021 Red Bull Records' sad alex has a natural talent for creating emotion by beautifully incorporating pop beats with her dynamic lyrics, placing herself in a "sad indie-pop" genre of music. ​ The multi-faceted creative, Alex Saad- better known as sad alex- talks about the plight of the modern artist, utilizing your social resources, and her first single of 2021 "dating myself". Photo by: Raz Azaari E: Hi! How are you? A: "Hi! Good, how are you?" E: I’m great! How are you doing? How’s this year been for you? A "It’s been… it’s been good. It’s raining today. I’m just sitting here, actually by my piano, I was just chilling by the window playing it was nice. You know I like rainy days... But this year [has] been good. This year’s been productive and just kind of, I don’t know, going about the releases and content thing[s] kinda the way we have before." E: You’re an avid songwriter, right? How would you describe how you tackle a project and has Covid change anything of your process? It actually has I think, and my process has been changing a lot even over the last maybe four years or so. Everything, like back when I was starting to write and all that stuff, it was only purely based on personal experience and I couldn’t possibly imagine taking from outside that and I was always kinda going into every song blind and I wasn’t coming in with like a chorus idea or anything like that. I would just be free-flowing ideas and didn’t really know what I was doing. But that’s also a beautiful way to write and there [are] benefits to that style, but as I started writing more, I became a little bit more aware of coming up with concepts. And then when you’re writing with other artists for their project you kind of have to be- you always want to find a way to relate to something you’ve been through at the end of the day and you usually can- but you’re tryn[ing to] tell someone else’s story so that’s gonna be a little bit of a different approach than telling your own. So I’ve done every which way like I was working with another artist for the last two weeks for her project and I did come in with ideas that we would sometimes use. I would come up with an idea based on [how] she had gone on a tangent about something the day before about something then from there I would pick and choose and do my homework at the end of the night to come up with something based on something that she’d talked about. But then it could go every which way because I do want to make sure to not lose sight of [it]. As much as I love concept writing like for Covid too, once the life experience thing was kind of taken out of the equation, I got into more like reading and also watching TV and movies which I always deemed a while ago a complete waste of time- like why would I want to sit there and watch TV- but I actually get a lot of song ideas from watching a TV show and someone says something really powerful and I’ll be able to take th[at] and make a song out of it which I think has helped keep the gears turning. It doesn’t necessarily result in the best song of all time but at least get your mind to think of something because that’s almost functioning as watching a life experience in front of you and you can try to get something from there. So, I think the key to writing now, has been versatility and seeing what unique areas can you draw inspiration from that may or may not be [a] derivative from your own life experience but [also] how can you tie it in enough so it feels real to you singing it and all of that stuff. E: Do you pull like inspiration- asides from concepts- from like different artists or different musicians like style-wise too not just like lyrically? A: I think there is there's like ‘smart copycat’ and ‘stupid copycat’ stuff when it comes to.. like I don’t want to say the word stupid it's aggressive, but like it's great to listen, in my opinion, it's great to listen to old music you grew up on or stuff that hasn't been cycled into your ears in a long time. And maybe you can get a really cool chord progression idea from that. Or maybe you can be like, ‘wow, that that line is sort of like if maybe we flip now to be modernized’ or whatever it is. But a really easy way to spin your wheels is to go down the like trying to chase something that just came out like a week ago kind of approach. And I'm not saying that I've never done that. Everybody's been victim to that. And we've all been there when a massive song comes out and you're like, damn, I'm so mad I didn't write that. And even though, you know, you won't be able to recreate that magic that they've made, you'll find yourself trying to. And so you'll try to do it, but for the most part, that's like the Max Martin approach too is to like take things with old 70s hit and like flip it into like Backstreet Boys or whatever he was doing. So I think it's one hundred percent good to get inspiration. You just kind of have to be a little bit careful were, for me anyway, you have to be careful where you take it from because then you're at risk of doing something that doesn't feel completely authentic or genuine or you feel like you've taken someone's idea and that's not great. E: I love the way you worded that, I read that you also draw all of your artwork, which by the way, that's incredible. How important do you think it is to put yourself into your work? And do you plan on, like, drawing the rest of your artwork, like even in the long term? A: I think, well, it's funny because I was talking to my manager about th[at] this morning to we were kind of joking about the plight of the modern artist. With all of these platforms popping up on your worst days, you can look at it and get frustrated because like at the beginning, I signed up for this job to make music. That was my only goal, to make music, to perform it like that was it. And now it's like, oh, well, you have to be... it's better if you can do your own art. It's better [if you're- also feel like a comedian and an actress and you have to do all these things, all these like you have to be like a viral star on this thing or whatever. And I'm like, damn, I didn't sign up for all this stuff. This is a lot of responsibility. But you do have to kind of accept like we signed up for like an evolving, constantly evolving industry. So I try to look at it more pragmatically and I don't ever try to do something that's like I find the balance. So I don't feel like I'm completely losing sight of myself and why I got into this. But I will try to use the resources at hand to help my positioning or help me find additional outlets. And maybe it works, maybe it doesn't, but at least I'll give it a good old Girl Scouts try and so for the drawing stuff that was even more out of necessity than anything else. I was in a position where I was really struggling. I had just rebranded and previous to the rebranding of the name change and everything, I was struggling to find a visual direction at all. And you would often end up spending a few hundred dollars or more on graphic designer stuff that you don't even at the end of the day like and I'm not a big I don't like photoshoots. I don't like that kind of stuff. And I'm not a huge fan of a song that's called like ‘Heartbreak City’ and the artwork is just like some person, like in a pose that doesn't for me have anything to do with the song, not to bash that stuff. It's beautiful. Those are beautiful photos. But for me, it] made a lot more sense to try to find something that not only pertained to the song meaning a little bit more but also was just within my control to finish from point A to point Z. I don't have to depend on anyone else. I've had situations where I've had to procure artwork by the end of the day and I can do that when you're having to rely on someone else for it becomes a lot harder to be able to do things kind of on the fly. So that was both started and then and I didn't even really I could draw somewhat ok, I wasn't I'm not by any means a phenomenal artist, but I doing it over and over. You do get better at it too. So now it's become this thing that I'm drawing five art pieces for each thing I'm working on the ones for the next single right now and they're turning out to be a bit a lot more intricate than I'm used to so it’s taking some time. But it's fun. I think there's something I've actually got a lot of joy in putting on a good playlist and maybe smoking a little weed and drawing some cool art for my song. I think that's like fun [and] not the worst way to spend a night, you know? E: Yeah, sounds fun, definitely relaxing, especially in comparison to photoshoots. Like there's a lot of work that goes into that. A: And I've never been a fan of those. I mean, I have to do them, but I think I struggle with a lot of body image stuff growing up, and photoshoots used to give me and still give me a lot of anxiety because you're like, man, my body has to be right. My skin has to be right. Like all of this stuff and some of that's within your control. Some of it's not. And I'm not like the most photogenic camera... I'm not that girl that can really just know my angles and slay a photo shoot. And it's not something I just really, really enjoy that much. I've found I can work around it. At the end of the day, once I get good pictures from something like we just had a shoot for this last song, I was like, oh, these pictures are cool. Like, I'm glad I got this, but the process of doing them is not my favorite thing to do in the world. E: I totally understand that. If you were to create a playlist for your music, you know, how people give, like, oddly specific titles to playlists and curate them, like sometimes based on mood, sometimes based on situations. How would curate the music that you've made so far? If you were to give it a title like that? A: I would call it probably like ‘places I've been at least in my head’, you know, so like stuff that's happened to be whether in real life or in fantasy or in well everything that I've put out has been in some way or another based on life, but some are more personal than others. And this next song that's coming out after we haven't announced yet is maybe a little bit more whimsical. So it's more like... it's kind of like being a little bit more poetic. So obviously like that line might not have done in real life, but it's something that I've dreamt about or something like that. So everything has a through-line of either somewhere that I've been emotionally, physically, whatever, or somewhere that I've thought about being. E: I love that, that's so cool! You also released a collab song with gnash, 'i'm glad that you found someone' back in 2020. How was creating the song and releasing it like especially with Covid because you know where you're restricted to doing a lot of stuff with that? A: Well that had been in the works for a long time and I think we actually did the recording process and everything for that song before.. it was either before we at least wrote his verse together, before Covid started. It might have even been shortly before that hit. And then he sent the vocals over separately. If he recorded them, I can't remember. The process for getting the song together, we did end up shooting a video, which was a whole getting tested and the whole scenario to make sure it was like a safe shoot and all of that. But, yeah, I mean, the rest of the promo was a whole lot of like we did these TikTok campaign stuff, which the good thing about something like that is that it doesn't really require you to be in anywhere. But like you could do a Tiktok campaign from your bedroom. So we just filmed a couple of things that we posted and encouraged artists and people on there to, like, enter this third verse contest. And that helps generate a lot of attention to the song as well. And so I think there's like a lot to say, not to say that's always the most enjoyable approach, but there is something to be said about this whole situation, forcing you to get a little bit more creative in how you're going to get a song into people's ears. And that's not to say that I do it well every time. It's not easy to get songs in people's ears. You cannot at the end of the day, control if someone's going to like a song or not. But the easy approach before was well, I'm going to take a song I’m gonna tour it for the summer… I'm going to promote it, I'm going to get fans, and that's what's going to happen. But when that outlet’s taken away from you then and same thing, it's like the way you would make connections to whether it's on streaming platforms or radio connections, all these things like it's very hard to make those personal connections now and in a way to help get your song out there. So you have to think about what is within your control. Might require some spending, your time in some things that you're not used to. I'm always a big believer, and I don't think you have to do anything at the end of the day, like you can choose exactly how to spend your time or not spend your time, but... I'm not saying that you have to get on tiktok to be a famous artist or a songwriter for your songs to do well. But by choosing not to, you have to accept that there are certain i dont want to say consequences. But there are certain things that come with choosing to not utilize those resources. They might not be bad. It might just be a different landing point for your career at this moment or whatever it is. But you do have to like... there is a certain kind of cause and effect thing for me about that kind of stuff. And same thing with promoting your songs. It's like you can choose to not change anything that you've done and just doing it the same way that you did before. But you have to just understand that the results are not going to be what you're expecting maybe and be ok with that. E: Congrats on releasing her new single, ‘dating myself’. I love the message behind it and I love how it focuses on focusing on yourself and loving yourself, how is the creative process for that song like? A: That one, it was funny because I actually wrote it with my friend Noah... It was a complete joke. I mean, I walked in there and had that idea and we were just laughing and kind of I think I even said, but I was like, maybe we shouldn't do this. Like, this feels like a little bit too, like, jokey. And he was like, no, this is funny and this is fun, let's just do it. So we just had fun, wrote a ridiculous honey joking song, and finished it. And I didn't even think much of it. I was like, well, that was a really fun way to spend the session. And I'm glad that we got to have that moment together. And then fast forward like two years later, it just kind of happened to be like when we were trying to figure out how to roll things out this year, that one came into the picture and I was just like, oh, shit, we're actually going to this song. Like, ok, I'm so getting my head around. That was a bit interesting. But then I brought my friend Gazzo in to help them at the production. And we had a lot of fun, obviously, with the content around it. And that's what I think my content manager, Justin, came in with this [idea] about the dating show thing, and we're rolling all this episode with that. So I think that's where we really try to use our strengths and do what we can to get the song out there or at least have a good time with it, you know. E: That flows perfectly with my next question. I was going to say, like with putting the song out, you also put out a dating show, which I've watched all the episodes you've put out so far and it's so entertaining. How is that for you? And like, did you know that that was what you wanted to do or like how you wanted to promote it, especially with social media always like changing. You know, there's always different ways you can promote things. I love how you chose the dating show as a way to promote it. A: Thank you. It was really fun. And it was very genuinely like that show was… it was me getting punked, in a sense, by my friends. I thought that I was hosting this show with pairing off contestants together and ended up being like a complete flip of I am the contestant and one of my good friends, Ricky Wang, was the host. And I think that's where, like, I have a really good working relationship with [one of] my managers, Justin.... but for the content stuff, he is very good at those visual ideas. That's never been a strength for me. And so it was really important to me when we were last year, when we really started launching the project more seriously after signing with Red Bull and everything I really wanted, we wanted to have a system for like how to consistently make, you know, intriguing content for each song. And some are bigger than others. Some are really small, little kind of lyric-y video things and some or whatever. Some are more like unique and creative, and this one being one of them. And I think that's where we just try to set ourselves apart a little bit. That's not to say that it always generates massive views or moves the needle in the streaming numbers. But at least I can feel like we did something to try to do something different and had some fun in the process, because it can be a lot of times disheartening to put music out. So it's really hard to break through. It's really oversaturated. It can be difficult to get the results that you think you want. And so to do something to have a little bit of fun in the release process along the way. And maybe that helps the performance of the song. Maybe it doesn't, but at least it builds up. And so now we have a really good report of unique content for each release so they each get its kind of moment. It's a little world that the song lives in and that has been really fun to keep to keep up with. E: And lastly, like for any rising stars, people who really want to pursue music. What advice would you give them? Or similar to like how would you if you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself? A: I think the simple is stupid, but like following your gut is a big thing. And I know there have been a lot of choices that I've made that I made when I was younger trying to do things. And I knew in my gut that it wasn't the best choice, for whatever reason, whether it be working with someone that made me uncomfortable, whether it be pursuing an artist direction that didn't feel like it was it wasn't doing enough for me to, like, make me feel confident that maybe or if it was anything like a song or whatever, if your gut is telling you that something is not the thing. You're probably right. And so that you can use your gut to put you in something that makes you feel the most powerful, the most uniquely you, the most satisfied with what you're doing, and that'll be making a decision that not everyone else supports or working with someone that, like you didn't expect to be working with or whatever it is. It can kind of come to be in such a variety of ways. But I think there are so many choices that I made that I wish I could like do a little differently, but you have to learn from things. And for me, I find that a lot of times have to learn the hard way, but just like my life. But you can listen. Your body will let you know what it feels comfortable with and then you can, because at the end of the day, if you're doing this, you're going to be doing it for a minute. And it's really hard. And it's not like, you know, there's no right or wrong way or simple rule book to follow. So you might as well feel comfortable and happy while you're doing it. You know, that's the only thing that you can really control. E: Yeah, that's perfect! I think that's really well said too because I've heard a lot of people give different advice, but I think you put it like you put the words together really well when explaining that. A: Thank you. I feel like I've kind of babbled them, but I hope the point at least gets across. E: Yeah, that definitely did [make sense]. Especially with, like, you know, trends are always changing and you don't know what's like in style. Going in one day it changes the next and then trying to steer through all of that. Finding your gut instinct is like really important [especially when] trying to see what you're comfortable with. A: Well I get questions a lot like how do I write a song? How do I do this or whatever. And it's there is no there might be exceptions that I can be debunked in the comments about this. Some people have it easier than others, but I do truly believe there is no such thing as overnight successes. There's a lot of work that goes into that stuff. And for songwriters, that means you're writing a thousand songs before the song that you write makes you like is the thing. And for an artist, it's trying out how many names and putting out however many singles or EPS or albums until the song catches or you've been circulated through the industry until you finally landed with the team that was able to propel you whatever it is or you write a behind the scenes or so for this many years. And then finally you bring out as an artist and people are like, well, look at this overnight sensation. It's like, nah, Julia Michaels has been writing for people for a long time and she's been doing the thing. So there's always a story behind people. And I think it's more about like doing. I think that's the hardest thing. And the scariest thing is just doing the work. And that's not to put people down. I do the same thing. I procrastinate all day. I'm procrastinating like already today on like many things that... I would like to get done by the end of the day. And I've been spinning our wheels on some dumb shit. But at the end of the day, doing the work is what gets you to the next step. So it's really just about choosing to consciously buckle down and do it. Not to say that that thing is necessarily going to be the golden ticket that takes you to the next level. But, you know, it's at least you're on the right trail to get there. And it's a long, like, really winding trail, especially for me. So just keep your head down and walk the trail, you know? E: Yeah, that's perfect advice. Thank you so much. No problem for your new single that you're working on right now. Good luck with that. I'm really excited to hear that. ​ A: Thank you. I'm excited. It's one that I've been wanting to put out for a long time, so I'm really excited that it's all come and come together and gets to have its moment in the sun. ​ E: Absolutely. Thank you so much. ​ A: Well, it was a pleasure talking to you and I hope to see you soon.

Orchee Sorker | February 13, 2021 Photo by: Orchee Sorker Singer-songwriter Hunter was born and raised in the home of Rockabilly music, where everyone can tell you stories of seeing Carl Perkins hanging out at Cecil's Bandstand and eating burgers at the first Hard Rock Cafe in the States. The Hub City is his home. Situated just between Memphis, Nashville, and Muscle Shoals, being in the heart of the Music Triangle has been nothing short of incredible for him as a musician. His lyrics are heavily influenced by the beatnik movement of the late 50's and 60's in that he writes from experience. Sonically, he would describe his sound as a mix of Americana, Psych-Rock, and Modern Alternative. He loves to experiment and evolve as an artist. Hunter eats, sleeps, and breathes music. His grandfather and himself own the only brick-and-mortar record store between Memphis and Nashville, and preserving music history is something he is insanely passionate about. ​ Tell me about yourself ​ I was born outside of Jackson, Tennessee, but I've spent basically all my life in Jackson. It's obviously been good to me, but I've always felt that it has lacked in kind of the arts and celebration of its musical past. I've always wondered why, because it is so rich with Americana Blues, Rockabilly, and is the home of Carl Perkins. Music enthusiasts actually know who Carl Perkins is, which is kind of strange, you know, because he's kind of essential. George Harrison of the Beatles cites that Carl Perkins is the main reason for picking up the guitar, and Jackson is where Carl Perkins called home. So, it's just kind of strange. Not even the music, but like anything in the creative arts. It's a working class town and the most creative people kind of realize that, and they move. ​ If you weren't doing music, what would you be doing? Before I picked up the guitar, I had a camera that I was super enthusiastic about. I made little home movies, I'd write scripts and get my friends together and we would make short films. I think I most likely would have pursued filmmaking. Describe your music genre. Who are your musical influences? ​ If I had to basically give an elevator pitch, I would kind of sum it up to the kid brother of Cage the Elephant and Kings of Leon. I listened to Bob Dylan records as a kid, which basically puts me in Indie Pop-Indie Rock. How do you get inspired to write your songs? Do you write lyrics or create music/beats first? ​ In the beginning, it was pretty spontaneous and I would wait to be inspired. I quickly realized that you're not always inspired to write great music. Most of the time it is actual work. I have to sit down and think about writing. I typically start with a melody, a guitar melody that we call vamp over, which is why you would essentially, the music would come first. Then, you would basically come up with a nonsensical verse or chorus via mumbling, just kind of creating melody. Then you refine that by basing lyrics around that. I would say I write about three times a week. How would you describe your creative process? Is there anything you’ve done differently due to COVID? Yeah, I think I've gone super within. I've gone within a focus, more on songwriting and how to audio engineer myself. I'm teaching myself how to record on my own. I'm working on a solo LP, which I'm actually working with a pro engineer on, but this has given me time to lay down the foundation to do it myself one day. The most streamed song on YouTube is “Evil”. What was your initial reaction to the feedback that this song has been receiving and what was your thought process when creating this song? ​ Well, I was super happy that people received it so well. It was basically my experience growing up in the South all rolled into one kind of Psychobilly song. It's a weird mix of rock and roll..kind of like Rockabilly Southern Gothic, all rolled in this angry ball that I needed to get out of my system and that became evil. How is your new upcoming debut album coming along and the transition from the band, The Skeleton Krew? As a part of The Skeleton Krew, we went to Summer Fest which takes place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We played the emerging artists stage and to our biggest crowd. It was life altering. So, I look forward to getting back to that. We were supposed to go back in 2020 but couldn’t due to COVID. Currently, The Skeleton Krew is on an extended hiatus. I am working on projects that I started a long time ago and writing a new chapter in my musical journey that is a completely different flavor than the Skeleton Crew. It's a much brighter uptempo story. The plan is to start pre-production at the end of February. My Patreon page and YouTube channel will be releasing February 16. Obviously with COVID, touring has been put on a pause, but when everything’s back to normal again, where do you plan to tour? Any specific city/country you’d like to visit? Yes, of course. I plan to tour internationally. That’s the end goal is to be able to go anywhere I want, whenever I want. For now, I think it would be time well spent focusing on places like Nashville, Arizona, California, and parts of New York where alternative music and rock music is more celebrated. As a co-owner for the record store, what are your plans for the future? I plan to keep it open indefinitely whether I am able to operate it myself or if I turn it over to somebody that is just as passionate about it. I think in order for me to focus on my career, as an artist will require me to relinquish that control to somebody that can see it through better than I can. Because I'm so focused on my musical career, I'm limited on how far I can take that business..but at the same time, I want to see it succeed and I'll do everything that I can to keep it open. Do you have any specific goals for 2021, whether that’s music or personal goals? I'm working on building the community on bringing people together who love art and music. That's what makes me happy. That's more of a payoff than you celebrating me as an artist. I don't really care about that. I just care about building a community of people that love music. What are your long-term goals? I want to be able to tour internationally, whenever I want is a goal. To be able to sell out arenas, that's a goal of mine. To open for some of my favorite artists, such as Jack White and Kings of Leon. Just to name a few, I think that's totally doable if I put my mind to it. I would love to open my own studio and be able to record upcoming artists. If you can give one piece of advice to the world, what would you give? Don't let naysayers get to view. Don't let people don't let negativity mess with your dreams. Check out what Hunter Cross has done with The Skeleton Krew. Follow him on this new solo project journey and expect the unexpected.

Orchee Sorker | February 13, 2021 The positive, energetic hip-hop pop artist Jack Omstead is a “jack of all trades” who is doing much more than just songwriting and singing. He also records, produces, mixes/masters, and creates his own cover art/videos for every released song. With over 41.2k followers on TikTok and nearly 570k likes, Jack is looking to influence a larger audience through his captivating upbeat lyrics. Some of his top hits include “Pink Whitney”, “Back”, “Cookie Monster”, and “AEIOU”, which was released on January 26. ​ Calling his parents Mama Omer and Big Omer, he refers to himself Little Omer and his older sister as Mere Bear. This Amsterdam-born and Toronto-raised artist speaks passionately about the connection with his family. Their constant support has allowed him to grow as a musician. Through the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine, his family has gotten closer. Jack says, “family is not something I take for granted. Having their support is everything. And I know that not all musicians and people in the artistic world can say that. They've always been by my side.” Through his music, he wants to continue to express his family’s love through his music. ​ Growing up, if he wasn’t doing schoolwork or in sports (specifically baseball and hockey), music was always his passion. Jack remembers the first song he wrote in fifth grade. He mentions the first line was “sitting on my dirty bed..so cold, dry, and wet”. Throughout middle school, he played around with GarageBand and began using Logic when he started high school which he still uses to create his music. Jack indulges in music outside of the type he creates with influences like Justin Timberlake, Andy Timberland, Mike Posner, Frank Sinatra, and Doja Cat. ​ His creative process begins with creating the instrumental first. Then, he feels the vibe and writes to that emotion. He tries to write scenarios that everyone can relate to by creating storylines that appeal to all ages. He loves to play around with his voice by creating dynamic sounds like in his songs “Cookie Monster” and “Apples”. ​ His daily routine encourages him to keep his creativity flowing. It involves waking up early around 4 o’clock in the morning and editing music until lunch. After lunch, he takes his dog, Cooper, out for a walk. During his walk, he writes his lyrics. He comes home, takes a nap, eats dinner, works out, and uses the rest of the night to create content for TikTok. Jack explains how TikTok has helped how artists write and approach their creative process. When creating content for TikTok, he states, “Personally, I usually think about how my lyrics might catch people's attention. When you do post, you get instant feedback on whether or not people interact with your ideas.” Currently, his most-streamed song is “Pink Whitney” with over 200,000 streams on Spotify. Ironically, he mentions that never drinks and isn’t big on alcohol. Jack wrote this song with his best friend, Callan. In the concept of “Pink Whitney”, they used Whitney as a metaphor for a girl. ​ His new collaboration song “Better With U” with DJ Diddy & Parker Bata released on February 12. For the making of this song, DJ Diddy reached out, and they worked remotely on it. They worked on countless versions of the song and were very satisfied with the final version. ​ In 2021, his goals include reaching a larger audience with his music through Spotify and TikTok and pursuing his music full-time. He would love to go back to the Netherlands and Europe to tour one day. ​ If Jack could leave the world with a piece of advice, he reveals the importance of “staying true to yourself. Whatever that means to you. Just be the authentic you because everybody else is taken. Be the best you, you can be.” ​ As Jack keeps releasing new music and reaching more people, be sure to stream his songs and make his dreams come true. Go check out his newest collaboration “Better With U” with DJ Diddy & Parker Bata.

Orchee Sorker | February 13, 2021 Delaware-raised pop singer-songwriter, Olivia Rubini began singing covers at the age of fifteen. This year, twenty-one-year-old Olivia released her debut LP ‘Silhouettes’ on January 29 which featured ten original songs with lush arrangements about an emotional journey after the end of a significant relationship. ​ Tell me about yourself ​ My lifelong hobby was always singing, but I guess now it's more of a job. So, I would say my hobby now it'd be like, you know, drawing and like other little artsy things. Growing up and stuff, I grew up in a super musical family. My dad's a producer and he actually is the one who produces all my music. I was just always around creative people. I would get picked up from school by my dad and like go straight to the studio cause he was producing other people. So, I'd be doing my homework in the studio and just like fun stuff like that. I'm an only child which says a lot about me because I feel like I wouldn't be doing any of this if there were other siblings around, because all the attention was always spotlighted on me. ​ Describe your music genre. Who are your musical influences? Is there another genre of music you’d like to try that you haven’t? ​ When I first started doing music as a teenager, I was much more like pop and slightly RnB. Influences that I had when I was a kid were more classic rock genre like the 60s and 70s, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Willie Nelson, and Johnny Cash. I feel like I'm just starting to like to play around with genres and stuff and I'm just kind of. Be down and do anything. ​ How do you get inspired to write your songs? Every song on the album was definitely like a little bit of a different process. For some of them we would have a super basic vague idea of a song ever and I'll just call with a bunch of lyrics and we would throw it all together at a later time. Or we would have a full-blown arrangement, but I just didn't have any lyrics yet. So, it would kind of be tossed back and forth depending on the song. For some, I wasn't feeling that I couldn't write anything good and would revisit it later. For others, it was like lyrics and arrangement in twenty minutes. The creativity is just going. It was just a different thing for all the songs. I wrote probably about like 90% of the lyrics for the album. There were a couple of collaborative efforts. How would you describe your creative process? Is there anything you’ve done differently due to COVID? ​ I think COVID definitely altered the process. I think it was for the best. Since I'm home and have been home for almost a year since COVID started, it gave me the opportunity to just be in the studio all the time which I wouldn't have been able to if I was on a campus full of college students, distractions, and craziness. I’ve also been having a lot of time alone which helped take time with my thoughts and write stuff. Writing the album, I didn't really put any pressure, like timelines, on myself. How was your experience writing your new “Silhouettes” debut album versus writing your past singles? I had 10 singles before the album and I feel like I wrote some of it here and there. And some of them were collaborative efforts where, you know, I would help move things along or like pitch little ideas. But for the most part, it wasn't like I have written 100% of this song. In this ‘Silhouettes’ album, this is totally my lyrics, my ideas, my vision, and everything. So I feel a lot closer to these songs because I was in a lot more control of this album. I was a lot more picky with everything. I'm just a lot more happy with the way that it came out in comparison to the stuff from when I was like 16. For this album, I was very particular, but I'm really happy that I was because there's like nothing that I would change on the album. Obviously with COVID, touring has been put on a pause, but when everything’s back to normal again, where do you plan to tour? Any specific city/country you’d like to visit? I hope that I get to a point where I start to have larger shows and get to travel a little bit outside to like the East Coast and all that stuff. I guess for right now, like the immediate future, I would say starting with doing places like Philly, New York, all that kind of stuff. ​ Your most streamed song on Spotify is “To You (Remix)”. What was your initial reaction to the feedback that this song has been receiving and what was your thought process when creating this song? I mean the original song is also on Spotify and pretty much the remix is just a little additional percussion and stuff. The guy who did it, did an amazing job. We knew him and really talked to him about doing it. After releasing in 2019, the song got put on a few Spotify algorithmic playlists by 2020. I was totally shocked because we didn't do anything. It just kinda happened like that. It was really crazy because the streams went up and the listeners went off, and it was like all over the world. As far as writing it, I wrote that when I was at school and I was just messing around with GarageBand on my computer, because I never do it because I have a studio and I'm not the one doing all that stuff. I was in my dorm room, just like using the Apple microphone to like do some lyrics. When I came back for spring break, we recorded the real version in the studio. The remix wasn't really that serious either. So we were like, it's really funny that this is the one that's popping off the most, but yeah, that was a shock. Do you have any specific goals for 2021, whether that’s music or personal goals? ​ I feel like I just want to keep releasing stuff and keep going. I would like to be able to do shows whether live or virtual. Another goal would be to make my social media a little better and kind of bolster it up a little bit. One of my personal goals is to get more flexible with my yoga. If you can give one piece of advice to the world, what would it be? Just put your mind to it and give 10000% and just do it. If it's something that you really care about and. But don't do something just because somebody else might want you to. Just do things because you truly want to. I've gotten myself way too caught up in all other people’s goals they gave me. Actually find your own goals, it's much more satisfying for your own life. So I'll just say, do things that you enjoy, that you're passionate about. If you're going to do it, do it like 10000% and just go, that's how I feel.

Orchee Sorker | February 13, 2021 Photo by: Orchee Sorker Country singer/songwriter Cassidy was originally born into a military family in Asheville, NC. She recognized her passion when she wrote her first song on piano, “Beautiful Day”, about finding positivity at home when her father was deployed in Iraq. She began doing music professionally at the age of twelve years old and moved to Nashville by herself when she was seventeen years old. Soon, she began performing in cities like Los Angeles, New York, and Nashville. In a few years, Cassidy caught the attention of Grammy Award winning songwriter, Liz Rose. In October of 2019, Cassidy signed a co-publishing deal with Liz Rose Music and Warner Chappell. In February 2020, she released her first self-titled EP. Following the release of her debut EP, Cassidy landed tour dates with Willie Nelson throughout Florida. Today, Cassidy continues to write songs and resides in Nashville, Tennessee. ​ Describe your music genre. Who are your musical influences? Is there another genre of music you’d like to try that you haven’t? Some of my biggest influences have to be Aretha Franklin, Miranda Lambert, Janis Joplin, & Carrie Underwood. I’ve been told my genre is if Stapleton & Janis had a love child, haha! I may want to try to break into the pop/rock scene one day, but country music has my heart forever. How do you get inspired to write your songs? Do you write lyrics or create music/beats first? Lots of times I’ll be talking to someone and I or they will say something cool. I’ll stop for a minute and think to myself, “hey that would be a cool title” and then I just jot it down as a song idea. Lyrics first, music second for me—but it’s different for everyone! How would you describe your creative process? Is there anything you’ve done differently due to COVID? ​ My creative process comes mostly from travel so as one can imagine COVID has definitely put a damper on that! During this time I’ve really just tried to rely on past experiences and music from other artists for inspiration! Has social media and audience feedback affected you as an artist and the type of songs you write?​ ​ Yes and no. Overall, my main goal is to write things that are real and raw. I want to write about things that have had an impact on me, but there is such beauty in the lives of others that most people look right past. Social media and/or a crowd really put that into a real-life perspective. ​ Obviously with COVID, touring has been put on a pause, but when everything’s back to normal again, where do you plan to tour? Any specific city/country you’d like to visit? Honestly, I’ve missed the road so much that I will literally go anywhere to play music! & I mean ANYWHERE. If I had to pick one place though, playing in Europe would definitely be on my list! Do you have any specific goals for 2021, whether that’s music or personal goals? My goals for 2021 are to be strategic in my career and release more new music for the fans who have stuck by me through this crazy year! Personally, a goal of mine for 2021 is to become more in tune with the energy in myself and around me! If you can give one piece of advice to your fans & the world, what would you give? My one piece of advice that I always offer to anyone is that hard work will always trump anything else. It doesn’t matter the hand you’ve been dealt, it doesn’t matter your past or background. Hard work always wins in the end. ​

Orchee Sorker | February 13, 2021 Photo by: James Foley Pop singer-songwriter Louis Knight was always singing his entire life. His parents always say that he was humming ever since he could speak. Born in London, he moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania when he was about ten years old. Growing up, his father always tried to put instruments in front of him and his brother. Louis started formal piano lessons when he was in seventh grade, but did not find interest in the traditional method of learning piano which involved classical music. He ended up giving up until he was fourteen when his mother bought him a piano for Christmas. At that point, he began teaching himself his favorite contemporary songs by focusing on pop chords. He wrote his first love song when he was fourteen. ​ Music has always been a therapeutic process for Louis. With influences like Ed Sheeran, James Bay, Shawn Mendes, and Coldplay, he expresses they have impacted his style of music. His creative process involves sitting down to play an instrument and processing his various life experiences. He reveals, “I figure out all the little nuances as I go along. I kind of just start with playing, like putting down a cool progression and then just kind of talking, singing out my thoughts and feelings at the same time.” He communicates, “Telling my stories that happened throughout my life and being authentic”. That is an aspect he brings out when writing his music. During COVID-19, Louis has gotten the opportunity to write considerably more overall, but also there were times where he didn’t write for a month. Not being able to play live has affected his creative process, so he started virtual live performances and virtual songwriting sessions with artists like Francisco Martin. Louis appreciates seeing his music resonate with people. Last year, in addition to his well-known journey as a Top 10 finalist in American Idol Season 18, Louis entertained fans through his “Save A Little Love” tour across the country where he sang in Walmart parking lots, fans’ houses, and businesses. He describes the tour as really intimate and loved connecting with each person who attended the shows. He recalls, “These are the moments which I'm going to remember for the rest of my life.” Louis’s most-streamed song on Spotify is 'Change' with over 640,000 streams. ‘Change’ was about going through the loss of one of his brothers and his best friend, Russell, to suicide. He explains, “As a tribute to him and everything that he brought to this world and as a message of hope for other people out there, that suffering, because there are too many people out there suffering and, and they need to know they're not alone and that it's okay. And that it's okay to seek help.” Louis tried to write about it for a long time but never could get the words until one morning. He got up early and his mentor at the time called saying “go to the piano and write.” Louis went downstairs to the piano and ‘Change’ was written in about half an hour. His most recent single “London” was released on January 8. He was inspired to write ‘London’' after experiencing the loss of a long-distance relationship while he began pursuing his career as a musician. The long-distance started to fizzle out. That Christmas, he went back to England to visit my family, which really helped me a lot. Louis mentions, “Through all the hardest times, I really think family is what we can turn back to...to our roots, to the people who've seen us and who've helped us and watched us grow our entire lives. Going back to that familiarity.” He began writing ‘London’ a year and a half ago, then ended up finishing the bridge about six months later. Finally finishing the song, he recorded it in August 2020. His main goal for 2021 is to keep writing, recording, and putting out music. With the right timing and deal, he is hoping to get signed to a record company. Once it’s safe again, he would love to tour this year to every city in America playing in venues and more of his fans. He also wants to have a tour in Europe so his extended family can attend. His biggest dream is to play Wembley Stadium in England and to play at Glastonbury Festival. ​ If Louis could leave the world with a piece of advice, he emphasizes, “Never give up at what you're working for and what your dreams are. Keep persevering. Believe in yourself. There are times where I don't believe in myself and then I realize you're being an idiot. Come on, you can do it. You gotta sort of keep pushing yourself. If you keep your head down, and if you keep working hard at whatever it is you want to do, you can create the opportunity you have of the success that you want”. As he continues to put out more music this year, follow and support his journey. Check out his recent single ‘London’.

Ezzah Rafique | Transcribed by: Isabel Elise | February 13, 2021 ​Hailing from Little Rock, Arkansas, joan perfectly infuses the essence of indie-pop with seasons of the year in their new EP 'partly cloudy'.​ ​ Alan Thompson and Stephen Rutherford sit down with ORENDA Magazine's Editor-in-Chief, Ezzah Rafique, to talk about their EP 'partly cloudy', bringing elements of the '80s and '90s hits to modern songs, and creating a sound that infuses the DNA of the band. Listen to interview here. E: Hi! A: Hi, how are you? E: I’m good! How are you? S: Hi, good! ​ A: How’s it feel outside, bud? S: Pretty good. E: How is it there? A: It's good. It's um, it's not too crazy with COVID. I mean, we definitely have like, not great numbers. But like, I'm sure like it is in Dallas. Like, it's still like, very open. For a lot of, a lot of stuff. But um, yeah, the weather's nice. staying busy. Everything's good. How about you? ​ E: It's good to here too. It's like the same things are starting to open up, but there's still like hesitancy among some people, you know about going out and stuff. S: Yeah. Hmm. Hoping the vaccines turn everything around. We’ll see. E: Yeah, I’m hoping. How was like for you guys, the creative process, like for music and stuff? How was that different due to COVID? A: I mean, we're probably writing more than we ever have. Which makes sense, I guess, because we're home. But yeah, it's just it's weird to not tour like, we're definitely a band who loves touring and sees like such the value in it and, and like have built… built our career largely on touring. And so, it's weird to like, really, like when we release 'cloudy', and then 'partly cloudy'. With no like touring. It was kind of strange, but also kind of cool. Because this year, other than not being able to tour we've been like, very busy, like we treat this like a day job. So, every day we're riding, you know, nine to five and or 10 to five, depending on when I wake up. But yeah, it's been I don't know it. It hasn't really stifled us, other than touring it to me, right, Stephen, you may have a different view on it. ​ S: Yeah, well, it's interesting, cause like, when we tour there, we don't have like a big team or anything to tour with us. So, we're kind of all hands-on deck. So, when we're on the road, we're not able, we're not really able to ride at all. So, it's interesting, because like, the creativity has been, I mean, I think we've been more productive as far as like writing songs than we ever have been, just because we haven't toured but it also sucks because we can't tour. But yeah, it's, it's, it's been cool. Because, like we released, we released the 'partly cloudy' EP, which was just, you know, alternate versions of 'cloudy'. And we made that because we weren't able to tour and we like wrote, you know, 'cloudy' with a live show in mind. And yeah, making 'partly cloudy' was like something we would have never done, but it's some of the best, like, my favorite stuff that we've ever made. So, it's kind of cool, you know, cool. Things are coming out of it. ​ E: I love ‘partly cloudy’. I think it's so cool that you guys reimagined like ‘cloudy’ and like matched it to a season. How was incorporating a season to a song like was that, was there a process behind that? Or like, do you guys always know that? S: So, what was interesting is I mean, we know whenever we wrote ‘cloudy’, we, we did not expect to like write an alternate EP. It's kind of something where we just were like, We… We thought about maybe doing like acoustic versions of it. But once we like started digging in, we basically ended up with an EP that was just six songs of alternate versions of it, which was cool. But no, it was like after we wrote it, and we were like, listening through the EP, and it just like kind of fell into place where it's like, man, this is this feels like, different seasons of like, the year and kind of like, fits with the whole. I mean, which was kind of the idea with ‘cloudy’ is like, I mean we, we wrote it in the fall, and we recorded it in the winter and like, you know, it kind of had a seasonal feel to it anyway. And so like, whenever we wrote ‘partly cloudy’, it just kind of fell into our laps and made sense even more. ​ A: So, it literally stretched like the writing through the recording. We started, well we had written some like the summer of ‘19. And then early, yeah, no, well, what year is it? ​ S: Yeah. The summer of 19. ​ A: Coronavirus, completely… My timescale is like nonexistent. Um, yeah. So, summer, fall of ‘19. Then went into recording it the next year. And then like, it literally like was a year process of like writing. So, I mean, we literally probably hit every single season. Yeah, I don't even really think about that. E: Yeah, so like, I really love the whole like vibe to all of your songs. Honestly, I've been listening since like, 2019. And so… ​ S: Thank you, that’s awesome. E: It's so good. And I feel like you guys always have... a specific sound [that matches a] mood. So a lot of your music has a lot of 80s and 90s elements to it and it also has a signature tone that makes it distinguishable to you guys. So, do you think that having that distinguished sound, is [it] important in your factor [when] creating music? And is there like a specific sound that you guys want to try making like a genre you haven't tried? ​ S: That’s a good question. ​ A: Thank you for saying that. That's really sweet about it being unique. I mean, that, that is the ultimate goal, I think, a constant conversation that we're having, like, just between Steven and I and our manager, Colin, like, and in the team in general is how do how do you make, like keeping the context like we're two guys in a band from Little Rock, Arkansas, writing songs in my bedroom, like, so we're like, very small, I mean, DIY from the perspective of like, you know, we're not working with like Big Top 40 producers, and we're not working in big studios in LA and all that. But like, we've been doing this for a while individually, and we work with friends that have been doing it for a while. So, it's not like true, you know, bedroom pop, or whatever DIY but how do we make [the song] commercially viable? Like, you go turn on the radio, and you hear a new Katy Perry track. And then you hear a Joan track I want it to be sonically and production value, and just overall similar, you know what I mean? Not necessarily, like, I want to sound like Katy Perry. I just mean, I want you to, I want it to be indistinguishable that like, ‘Oh, this could have been written and recorded by the biggest names in the whole industry’, and you record[ed] in the best view with the best gear like, because I do think that our especially our friends in our team, are of that caliber, and I hope that we've proved to be in the end, but… but that's kind of like the that's the yearning goal is like how do we make like commercially viable, accessible pop music that still has that Joan sound? And, you know, when I listen to like bands like Coldplay, like Coldplay can release a song like Paradise, or a song with like, Jay Z has a feature, or you listen on Yellow, and it's all you know, it may sound different song to song, but it's like consistently Coldplay. And a lot of that's, I think in his voice, like, it's a recognizable voice, you know, it's, you know, it's Chris Martin, the guitar parts, the drum part. It's just like they're infused in it. I hope, I hope I don't know that we are but I hope by you saying that it's somewhat indicative of what we're doing in that you're going to hear my voice on it, which is uniquely Joan, you're going to hear Stephen’s voice on which is unique is uniquely Joan, you're going to hear his drum ideas, you're going to hear my melodic, like keyboard parts, so we're like infusing the DNA of Joan and every song and at the same time trying to make it like to wear a 16 year old who is super into like, whatever, you know, like a, like a Clairo track or something would like it just next to like my dad, who is still listening to like classic rock, you know? And so... that's kind of why we do the retro thing to a certain degree is we want it to be both modern to where we pull in a new crowd, and honestly get to introduce like we've had sorry, this is long winded I get it. E: It’s alright! S: It's gonna be, it's gonna be a 20-page spread. E: Haha, it’s great information, though! A: I think there's been a really interesting few times where we'll be like at a show, and we're touring or whatever. And some like, really young person like sub-18 or something like 18 years younger, younger would say, like, ‘oh, man, I hadn't really heard this type of music before’. But maybe that song was derivative of like, an NSYNC song that maybe we grew up on or, you know, whatever. It's like they didn't they haven't even heard like that era of boyband music. Or like Spice Girls are like these, like, kind of 90s songs and 90s bands, 2000 bands. And so, it's like, interesting to be writing. Like, it's not like 90s are not retro, but they kind of are becoming that like the 80s are vintage. Now the 90s are becoming vintage. And so, it's funny, like we're at the same time that we're harkening back to something to some people that's still new, like that's new information to them. And so, it's this weird dichotomy of like, we're like introducing new stuff to some people but like revamping old stuff to some people and trying to do our thing while we're doing it. So anyway, I'm done. I'm done talking. E: I think you guys did a great job at that, too. Like, I read about how you guys like listen to 90s pop while growing up. So, do you think there's a specific band or artists that like influenced your style in any way? A: Oh, man. Several. On the top of my head. I mean, I was a huge fan of Third Eye Blind… literally NSYNC like their No Strings Attached record. I remember playing baseball. And like we would like warm up you know, before the game. And we're like playing catch and I'd have my like Walkman CD player on and like listening to that record. And so, I wanted to be Justin Timberlake. You know, I wanted to be at like all those guys… So, to cap what I was saying basically Yes, like Third Eye Blind, a lot of the boyband era stuff. And we're just trying to like take nuggets of that like take a little man, how did they treat the vocal and that one song? Let's do that. How did why did Third Eye Blind's melodies just always capture my attention and like how can we like learn from that because we study, we study this stuff like this is it's like it's like being in school and studying science or math. Maybe is a better analogy, like learning all the building block fundamentals get you to like being able to figure out the formulas that you have to learn those building blocks. So, we listen to music like science. I mean, it's leisure but it's also like I'm listening to go how did they get that kick drum to sound like that? Why did that vocal melody like make me get excited? Like and so yeah. Stephen, do you have any 90s 2000s bands that you… ​ S: Yeah, I mean we I felt like we were a little bit all over the place as far as like influences went but they all like came together really well. Like I mean, like Jewel and you know, Backstreet Boys and insane, obviously but even like, did you say Third Eye Blind? Like Third Eye Blind was a big one for one, you know, one of the songs so yeah. A: It's awesome. It's also interesting when I think back to music of that era, like pop music then I feel- and this isn't one of those like the older you get your like ‘music back in my day was the best’, I don't mean like this- I mean, like music back then I feel like was more diverse. I don't mean I don't mean racially I don't mean any sort of like, like identity kind of thing. I mean, like genre. S: Like, sonically. A: Yeah, like, you could have a Jewel song next to a Third Eye Blind song next to like a, like a Tim McGraw country song that crossed over on the radio next, like a Christian song that would cross over the radio. So, I just felt like less people trying to do the same thing. I think diversity of genres was celebrated a bit more so that that kind of felt natural to us to just be like, ‘let's pull from here, let's pull from here let’s pull from here’ and it can kind of conglomerate into one thing. So, yeah. E: It was really well like, like both Cloudy and Partly Cloudy. I think like, each of them have such a great like sound to them. That's unique to them, to me at least. So, you guys are doing a really well job like doing all of that. And I recently saw that you guys hit 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify. So, congratulations! A & S: Yay! Thank you! ​ E: So, do y'all have any, like specific goals for 2021? Like music-wise or personally? ​ A: I mean, man, Stephen, I want to tour. ​ E: Of course! ​ S: Touring would be fun. ​ E: I can’t wait until concerts come back. ​ A: I know. I'll see you there. ​ S: Yeah, I think we would. We're like having a great time writing and I would love to see us release, you know, a healthy amount of songs this year. I don't know exactly the number. But I would like to see us like just release more than we have in a while. So. Yeah, it'll be fun. E: Okay, to anybody who hasn't heard your music before? Is there like a setting you would describe that would like match the mood of your songs? ​ S: Oh, hmm. Well, I think it depends on the like, EP, you listen to. ​ E: Yeah, true. ​ A: Um, so really, oh my gosh, I think a lot of our music. God, that sounds so cliche, but like, a Drive All Night. We literally wrote with the thought in mind of like, you're in a car with the top down or the windows down, like driving with the person you love, or your friend, you know, like, yeah, so, I mean, we try to write songs from like that, that kind of question like, where would this take place in someone's mind like that? Where would this take someone fanatically? And I think a lot of our I mean, obviously, a lot of our songs are about like the ebb and flow of love. Because like, it's such a crucial, like, fundamental thing in humanity like yeah, finding love, loving your family, loving your friends, loving your significant other, all that stuff. So, a lot of our songs revolve around that with different twists and turns. So, I would, I would say like, a lot of our songs are either like, I envision holding hands with someone, or, or letting go of someone, like one of those two, you know, like, obviously, “brokenhearted” is a sad song. But yeah… ​ S: I think Partly Cloudy is probably the most different like a scene from all of our other music. Like I can see like, you're like in your apartment or whatever. It's like raining outside, you have like a little fire going or something and just like, just like home and you're just like there and maybe it's a little bit of a sad mood but like that's what I keep kept seeing whenever we were making Partly Cloudy and like in and kind of putting the EP together, we just like, it feels a little bit like home. And I really liked that. ​ A: And I think it's also like we've always like when we first started everyone thought because we didn't really have a lot about us out there in like 2017/2018, like bio-wise and a lot of people just assumed we were like L.A. based, New York-based, London based wherever. Not definitely a Little Rock, Arkansas. That would have been like nowhere on the list. But I've always kind of like prided us on that like that we have I hope we have like a big city music field. Even though we're just two guys, two guys from a small state. And so, I always imagine like New York in our songs like I could see. I don't know, I don't know why. But so that's kind of a goal, I guess in our writing is to make it feel like a big, big city. That sounds so cool. ​ E: I definitely see that though. Like I feel that when I listened to it, too. ​ S; That’s good, that’s awesome! ​ A: Yeah, you hear it? You hear Little Rock. That's what you hear when you listen to. E: Haha yeah, so this is kind of like not really music based, but like if there was a new movie based on your duo who would you cast like play each other? S: Ooh! A: Well, I would definitely cast Brad Pitt for me not because I feel like I look like him, I just want to look like him. So, I would hope that they would see him and then see me at that point. S: Mine would definitely be Danny DeVito. E: I love Danny DeVito! S: He's my, He's my spirit animal. A: You’re about the same height. S: He’s me in two years. A: Stephen, just shrinking by the second. What a duo! Danny DeVito and Brad Pitt as a cast. S: It’d be an interesting movie. I’d watch it. E: Oh yeah, in like a heartbeat I’d watch that. A: Like there’d be one that like Arnold Schwarzenegger is in as well. Just random people. ​ E: Okay, similar to like, a random question. Like, if you were to remake any song in the world could be like an old song or a new song, which would it be? ​ A: Hmm. never gotten this question before. Remake any song in the world? Oh God. S: Oh man! E: Sorry, I put you on the spot. A: Huh. I would say that it's not the same answer. And we couldn't do it better. Well, like a song that I wish I would have written, which I kinda I guess would be the same essence, is uh Boys of Summer by Don Henley. Like one of the greatest songs ever written. And every time I listen to it, I'm like ‘golly I wish I thought this one up’. Of course, it was released like, in the 80s. But I think that would be one of my top answers for sure. S: Yeah. Oh no. Oh, I don’t know either. That’s so… It’s hard to pick one. E: It's true. Sometimes. It's like, it’s so good that you don't want to remake it. Like, I get that, too. A: Yeah, cause that yeah, that could be my answer, because I don't want to remake it. S: Oh, yeah, it's perfect how it is. E: Yeah, I guess that makes sense. S: What's a song you hate Alan? S: Sometimes I listen to our older songs and go oh, man, it'd be nice to remake this one now with the knowledge that we have. But that's true. But oh, man, I'm gonna have to pass on this because I genuinely [think] it would take me. I would obsess over this question for like, three days. I'm not gonna… E: I thought about this, too. I was like, I don't know if I could pick one song because I know there [are] so many good songs. A: I do hear a lot of songs. I couldn't name any right now. But I listened to them and go like ‘how did a major artist release this?’ E: Yeah, I get that. A: The production or something. Just like how did this mix pass the quality test? I don't understand. Anyway, but yeah, that's another question. I guess. I'm sorry, I don't have an answer. ​ E: That’s alright. And then lastly, what I have is if things were to open back up, and you were to go back on tour, is there like a city or a country you guys are looking forward to like going to or visiting? A: I can't wait to get back to Asia just in general. We did a far east tour last fall, uh not last fall, 2019 fall. And like hit Philippines, Thailand, Singapore. We were supposed to do Hong Kong, but it was around the time that all the protests are going on. So that festival got canceled. But um, and man I mean, gorgeous cities in completely kind wonderful warm people that somehow know about our tiny little indie-pop group from Little Rock, Arkansas, but so I can't wait to go back to Asia. I think that Asia holds a special place in our hearts, especially these places we've toured to before. S: I really miss Germany, actually. I've been thinking about Germany a lot. And I kind of fell in love with Boston on the last tour. We haven't been able to see a lot of Boston like whenever we would go there. And we did like the last time we're on tour. We got to like hang out there for a bit. I want to go back, man! A: Me, too. E: Yeah, well, thank you guys so much for doing this. A: Oh, thanks for having us! E: When you guys do go back on tour, if you come to Dallas, I'll be there. S: Sick! A: We’ll be in Dallas for sure. Thank you it was good to meet you! E: It's nice to meet you guys too. You guys have incredible music. You guys are always killing it. S: It was good to meet you! E: You, too! Have a good day! A: You too!

Ezzah Rafique | Transcribed by: Isabel Elise | February 13, 2021 Born in Chicago and raised in Nashville, Josie Dunne sits down to talk to ORENDA MEDIA about the process of creating her new collaborative song, "Last Day," with Two Friends, what she learned from living in Nashville, how artists like Amy Winehouse and the Old-R&B Soul sound influence her. ​ Heavily inspired by Motown music, Stevie Wonder, and Ray Charles, Josie Dunne flawlessly creates a blend of Soul and Pop sound into her artistry. Although born in Chicago, Josie calls Nashville her home since she was 15 when she started taking regular trips to the song-writing city. Through her early experiences in Nashville, Josie learned how to write songs with Nashville songwriters. Recently, the pop singer worked with Los Angeles-based duo, Two Friends, on their new single, "Last Day." ​ HAZZE MEDIA Editor-in-Chief, Ezzah Rafique, sat down with Josie to talk to her about not only the creative process behind the song but also about creating a distinguishable sound in music, living in Nashville, influences, and performances. E: How are you doing? JD: I’m doing good! I’m doing good. I’m in Nashville. I live in Nashville, so I’m just, ya know, hanging here, writing. I just got done with whatever random like meetings and stuff and, uh, after this I’m probably gonna write a song. E: Wow! JD: That’s like the course of my day! E: Yeah! I’ve been looking forward to doing this for a little bit. I love your energy and I love your vibes, so I’m really grateful that you’ve been able to take time out to do this. JD: Thank you! Thank you. E: I’ll jump right into it! I want to start off by asking, your vibe is primarily geared more towards pop, so, is there a particular goal that you had when you started music that you wanted to do pop, or did you like want to try out different genres? JD: I think honestly I grew up listening to like a total range of music, but a lot of what my parents just like played around the house because they weren’t like music people. Like nobody in my family was like in the music industry or even was really a music nerd. They were just like normal people, so they just played what was on the radio at the time. You know, as I was growing up, which was like Britney Spears and NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, and Avril Lavigne, too! E: Love her! JD: And so I think, I’ve always found – yeah, love Avril Lavigne! I’ve always like I think because of that found a way to like I just ended up listening to music that was pop music. I think through pop I’ve discovered, and Top 40, I discovered like what I actually, the music that I really love. So like I think with my music it was more just like I wanted to make music that I liked and I think because I liked pop music it turned out poppy. But I think also living in Nashville, which is just such a songwriter town, like it’s so, it’s all about telling the story in the song. I feel like I’ve really had an appreciation for lyrics and storytelling. And so like, that also I feel like is a really big part of like – especially in the last, late teens early twenties, with my last EP, like that was really something that I wanted to focus on. It was like more of a story with lyrics and making sure that that was, you know, equally at the forefront of the songs, than the production. E: Yeah so, primarily, your career is like in Nashville, right, so like is there a lesson you learned from being in the city? It’s a huge city, known for music and stuff. Is there like a lesson you pulled from the city itself? ​ JD: Oh my gosh, so, so many lessons like... honestly, a million different ways I could answer this because I feel like I’ve really like grown up in Nashville. Like I started coming down here and I got signed out of Nashville. When I was like really like 15 and 16, that’s when I started taking regular trips down to the city. So like I really learned how to write songs, through writing songs with Nashville songwriters, and like being in the city. So I think the biggest thing I would take out of it is being super authentic to who you are and being super like honest in the story telling. The lyrics really are at the forefront of all the songs here, you know, especially it being such a center for country music, where it’s all about the story. Um, I think that was like the biggest lesson I’ve taken out of living here is like just making sure the lyrics are super, super honest and, you know, you take time on the lyrics ‘cause that’s like to me, that’s the most important part of the song. So, yeah, I think that’s a big thing that the city has taught me. E: Was there something different with your writing process, or creative process, especially like with COVID and stuff going on that you learned, that you did differently, [or] that you wished you did before? JD: Yeah, I wish now and being in COVID, I feel like its given me…I’m writing, I’m in the middle of writing an album right now that I’m really excited about. But, it’s been a totally different process than I would’ve thought it would be because a lot of it I’ve had to write alone, so like I’ll you know even if I start a song with a friend over Zoom or whatever like in a distant, socially-distant, safe session, which I’ve only been really writing with one person, in-person. And, um, we will like really most of the time, I’ll take the song and then spend a couple weeks on it just sitting by myself and writing by myself and I think now I’ve learned so much about myself and like the way that I write from doing it alone. Whereas like in the normal world that existed like a year ago…I would be like going into sessions with writers and co-writing all the time and touring too! So you’re like always on the go, always around people, and being influenced by other people like in the way that they see you, like seeing yourself through their eyes, just naturally that’s like I feel like people do. And so this has taught me, this whole pandemic has taught me to like slow down and figure out who I am from my perspective and the way that I word things and the way that I say things, you know. And writing alone as been like the only way to do that. And so, um, a lot of this album that I’m working on right now is from me, in my room, and um, yeah, I think that has been like a huge, huge, uh, learning…I’m continually learning that lesson of like slow down. It’s okay to write by yourself and take your time and like say what you want to say, you know? Instead of just like I’m in a session with somebody and we gotta get the line quick, you know? ​ E: Yeah, yeah. Was there something like that affected, I know you have like the collaboration with Two Friends Last Day coming out…I think it’ll be out by the time this interview goes up. So, was it different with COVID and everything and like the filming process of everything? Like how is that affected? JD: Oh my gosh, it was completely different from any song I’ve ever put out. [In] the process of it, we rewrote a lot of the parts and we wrote a lot of the parts, like we wrote the bridge just over Zoom and Facetime and sending each other voice memos over text back-and-forth. Which I’ve never done, I’ve never co-written a song that’s like come out where it’s completely just written over the Internet, like it was really weird. We did the music video apart from each other, too. I was in Nashville and they’d film their part in California. I didn’t even know what the video was going to look like at all. I didn’t even what the overall vibe of the video was going to be before we shot the parts. So, it was a very….we recorded the vocals in this room, on this mic, just in my bedroom over zoom. The whole thing, it was mixed, it was written, the music video was made, the whole kit and kaboodle was done remotely. It was just really weird like, it was fun because they are really fun people so I felt like very collaborative and like we were working on it together. It was a totally different process than I’ve ever done before. E: Do you think you prefer like the process of doing everything remotely compared to like, being in a studio? I mean, obviously, there [are] things to being in a studio that make it like… JD: there's something about the energy, like in-person working with somebody writing with somebody that's like, so infectious of like just being in the room and being excited about something where you can, like physically feed off of their excitement. But I don’t know it is really cool, because there's, like, there's something really nice about being in your own space, and being able to do it. Like, you know, being able to let just roll out of bed and be like, cut the vocal, you know what I mean? Like, there's something that's really comforting about like, you're just in your own zone. And you can go down to your kitchen and make a sandwich halfway through if you want to, you know, like you're not like at somebody's house or at somebody's studio where there's like just a level of like, you're a guest there. And now it's cool because like, yeah, I can like water my plants and write the song at the same time. E: I think it's like definitely different compared to like...even just like a year ago, this time around last year, like you wouldn't have expected it to become what it is now, especially with I know you released your EP around this time last year. I know, you probably didn't see this coming, but, how do you plan on like, tour and stuff with this? JD: I was literally the other two meetings I was in today. We were talking about like live stream events and stuff and I've done a little bit of that, like even especially early on and in quarantine when kind of everybody was doing like the Instagram Live thing, right. And it's super exciting to me the idea of like being able to do, like a live stream that's like super, it's almost like a live music video, you know, like, because it's something that you can film, you can curate kind of every aspect of it and make it look you know, like really cool and different and make it sound really good on like, it would be in like a music venue. And so I think that's really cool. And I'm like, excited to do more of that, especially as new music is coming out. But this year, but yeah, I really miss touring a lot. Like I'm not gonna lie. It's like, hit me this week, a little extra hard. And I've been like going back through my videos and watching stuff from tour last two years ago and whatever. Yeah, I miss it a lot. I'm really, really ready to get back out whenever it's safe and okay to be doing that. E: Yeah, definitely the same way I feel with like concerts just going to one it's definitely like, the vibe is different, like in-person concerts compared to live stream ones. JD: Totally. E: So, I completely get what you say. JD: It's cool. Because like, as a fan, I'm like, even me watching my favorite artists. Like it's cool. Because I feel like I can you can connect with people at a different level. Like you just see them in their pajamas or whatever in their room. Like, there's, there's a level of like, casualness that goes on that's really cool with live streams, I think but there's room to be like really creative, you can do it a million different ways, you know. And so I think that's really, really cool and exciting. But I'm excited to get back to like, real live shows, you know? E: Of course, yeah. I also want to touch a bit on your influences, too. So, was there an artist or like a group that influenced your writing style or your creative process or any of your songs in general? JD: Yeah, I growing up I realized, like, I love Motown music and like old r&b soul from like, the 60s and 70s. And so I think that that has been this constant influence in artists like Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles, are like, some of my favorite artists of all time. I also love I think Amy Winehouse like really changed the game for me like listening to her music. Just because her lyrics are like, I keep talking about lyrics, but her lyrics are so so honest, and like raw, and you can tell that they're, you know, really coming from like, from inside of her. And so I think that that was like a huge influence. She also has a really cool way that she blended genres, like, now we're so used to it because everybody genre blends all the time. Everything is like a blend of different things, you know, but back in the day, she was really one of the first people that I feel... she had like, hip hop drums in a song with like jazz guitars, and kind of Motown trumpets. And it was like, it just blended to make this mix of a lot of different things that were like a lot of my favorite genres of music. So I think that even her production is like, super cool to me. E: I feel like you have like an aesthetic that makes a song recognizable to you. JD: That makes my day, that is so awesome to hear! E: I love finding artists who like have a sound to them. Do you think it's important to have a distinguishable sound? JD: I mean, this gets into like a deeper, like, I'm gonna go deep for a second. But I think the whole role of being an artist is to create this world around, whatever you do. So like, I think Tyler the Creator is like really, really amazing at that. It's like, he has his clothing and the colors that he chooses. And his artwork and his music videos and his sound and lyrics and everything makes you feel like you're in this other aesthetic. And that's always been my goal. That's always been my goal is like, to kind of create this other little world that like people could live in because I don't know, I'm really happy with the way that I see the world like I['m] a really happy person. And to bring a little bit of that to people is like, the most rewarding thing. It's like why I do this, you know, even bigger than like, it's fun to write songs and it's fun to sing and play the guitar. It's like it's fun to make people happy and if my songs can do that and like be this little alternate world for people. That's like the greatest thing. E: Yeah, so is like looking back now would you like tell your younger self something different or like a piece of advice to like create like, I guess geared more towards like your career process? JD: Oh, dang, I would say I would say, 'sis you need to write more alone'. And I would say, 'trust your gut'. Like, there's so many things that like, for whatever reason, you're like, Oh, this feels a little inauthentic to who I am or whatever, and you just let it go. And I would just say, like, always stay true to that and fight for what you think is cool, you know, because that's the most important thing is like, if I think it's cool, then maybe other people will think is cool. E: Right! Yeah, I'm gonna kind of like wrap this up. Is there like a setting yet that you would describe to like people who maybe don't listen to your music, like, kind of a setting that describes what your songs would sound like, like, you know, how people curate, like playlists specifically towards like a mood. Kind of based on that. JD: What would mine be? E: Yeah. JD: Mine would be like, it's hard to put into words. I have like many Pinterest boards that would do the trick. But I feel like it would be like, it's very colorful, and like pastel colors all around. And I love like mid-century modern vibes. So I think, like, if you can picture like a Wes Anderson movie. And but there's, but I'm wearing glasses and a sweater vest. And people I don't know. And it's happy people are like dancing around and like having a good time. I would say that. I love Wes Anderson. He's the, he's the man. E: Absolutely. Thank you so much, have a great day! JD: Yeah, it's so great to meet you. Have a great rest of your day!

Ezzah Rafique | March 13, 2021 Masked Wolf garnered attention with his global hit "Astronaut In the Ocean" this year. With HAZZE MEDIA, Masked Wolf talks about the process of creating the song, his reaction to its success, and how social media has impacted him. Hi! How have you been so far into the year? Honestly, it's been very interesting, a lot of it has just been writing music and trying to continue the growth of Masked Wolf, I think throughout everything that has been going on I have tried to stay as me as much as possible and not let the exterior affect me. Your song 'Astronaut In The Ocean' skyrocketed globally on charts and has over 130 million streams on Spotify, what was your initial reaction to how popular the song became? I think I was a bit in this numb state and still am, it’s like this, ‘is this really happening feeling’? It’s hard to describe because so much is going on, but I’m just in grind mode and not able to soak it all in yet. When creating 'Astronaut In The Ocean' what was the message you intended to portray with it? I know the song dives into themes of depression, did you know going into creating the song that you wanted it to revolve is that? I don’t think I ever wrote to be like I’m going to speak about one specific message, it was more about me being open with myself and the listeners who would listen to the song, to kind of say you can talk about the real things in life and still make a really good song at the same time. What was the writing process like for you for 'Astronaut In The Ocean'? Did COVID-19 affect it, and if so, how did you go tackle any issues COVID caused? Astronaut was made in 2019, I wrote the chorus in my car while driving home from work, it was cool because I thought of the title and I was like ‘that is such a dope name’. Covid for me especially being in Australia hasn’t been extremely hard, I’m thankful for that. I was still working my job and was only at home for about 2 weeks only then went straight back to the office. I think Covid actually made my music more known because people were forced to be in lockdown be stuck at home listen to music, cook, read and watch Tv and repeat it all over, so in my opinion, it actually helped. You've released a couple of songs over the past year, how has the release process been for you especially with a lot of press and stuff being remote? And of the works you've put out, do you have a favorite? I’m socially fine when it comes to press etc, I embrace [it], I have always wanted some type of recognition so now that I am getting it and am able to spread my word and meanings behind the song it is a blessing. I would have to say Night Rider is my favourite, the whole build-up and transition to me is epic. How has social media impacted you personally? Especially given that Tikok has majorly helped with growing your song? ​ I think the impact all stems from the meaning of the song, the fact that platforms like Tik Tok, Instagram, and more, etc can pick it up which I never expected is just another blessing in disguise. Ever since a boy you dream for your music to be heard so if another platform is going to help do that you aren’t going to complain about it, especially if it is about something meaningful. Every artist has a different method of making music, how do you tackle a project? What's your creative process like or how would you describe it as? ​ I always focus on the chorus first and most importantly finding a beat that can tell a story by itself. I think putting myself into a state of emotion is very key so I can speak about the real things that matter. Is there any artist in particular that you wish to collaborate with in the future? ​ I am a big fan of Joyner Lucas, so it has been a long dream for mine to work with him. Where do you pull your inspiration from when sitting down to write or record a song? Who influences your style when it comes to making music? I try not to get overly inspired and more tap into my dark side of my emotions etc. Artists however like Joyner Lucas, Hopsin & Kevin Gates did help me a lot though. I learnt flow and cadence from them and that you can still speak about serious things and make a good song. Lastly, do you have any plans for releasing more music this year? ​ There will definitely be new music out this year, so get ready!