62
ROUX Staying True PG 34 LA LA

Fidelity Magazine Layout

Embed Size (px)

DESCRIPTION

Magazine layout design for a fabricated music magazine titled Fidelity.

Citation preview

Page 1: Fidelity Magazine Layout

ROUXStaying True PG 34

LALA

Page 2: Fidelity Magazine Layout
Page 3: Fidelity Magazine Layout
Page 4: Fidelity Magazine Layout
Page 5: Fidelity Magazine Layout
Page 6: Fidelity Magazine Layout
Page 7: Fidelity Magazine Layout
Page 8: Fidelity Magazine Layout
Page 9: Fidelity Magazine Layout

EATURESSTAYING TRUE

TO LAROUX

P34

METRIC

MEASURES

UP P40

FIDELITY

REVIEWS

P23

FIDELITY

RECOMENDS

P 57

Page 10: Fidelity Magazine Layout
Page 11: Fidelity Magazine Layout

SAYS

SHOWTIME

Page 12: Fidelity Magazine Layout
Page 13: Fidelity Magazine Layout

FFLLLOOOORRRREEEENNNNNCCCCCCEEE && TTTHE MMAACHINEE Liveee iinn LLoonnndddoonnnnnn pphhoottooogggrraapphhhh bbyyyyy JJJoohhnn MMMaarrksssoonn

Page 14: Fidelity Magazine Layout
Page 15: Fidelity Magazine Layout

AAAAAAAARRRCCTTIICCCCCC MMONKEYS PPhhoottooshooot aatt the WWalldorff Hotel phottoggrraapphh bbyy SSaaddiiee CCoopplinn

Page 16: Fidelity Magazine Layout
Page 17: Fidelity Magazine Layout

AUGUSTANALive at the Rablin Theatre

photograph by Patrick Dolt

Page 18: Fidelity Magazine Layout
Page 19: Fidelity Magazine Layout

THE DANDY WORHALSLive at the Mavrickphotograph by Sasha Hogan

Page 20: Fidelity Magazine Layout
Page 21: Fidelity Magazine Layout

REVIEWS

Page 22: Fidelity Magazine Layout

FREVIEWS

Humbug - Arctic MonkeysTurns out Planet of the Apes was right: Monkeys can evolve.

The band’s most experimental and mature outing was recorded in the California desert and produced by none other than Josh Homme, the red-headed stepfather of Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal and, most recent-ly, the supergroup Them Crooked Vultures with John Paul Jones and Dave Grohl.

As you might expect from the man behind albums like Lullabies to Paralyze and Death by Sexy, Hom-me gives the Monkeys extensive sonic surgery -- dosing their hyper post-punk with plenty of sedatives, stripping their spiky guitars down to the core, and covering every-thing with a thick, warm blanket of murky fuzz, dusty smoke, clang-ing reverb and hallucinatory psy-chedelics.

Sonic Boom - KISSThere are no ballads,” the demon bassist growls down the phone from L.A. when asked about the band’s fi rst studio disc since 1998’s Psycho Circus. “There are no key-boards. There are no synths. There are no girl background singers.”

Of course, there’s also no Ace Fre-hley and Peter Criss. The former lead guitarist and drummer have been replaced in the studio once again by touring members Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer. But a lack of original members didn’t stop Gene and longtime partner Paul Stanley from taking an old-school, back-to-basics approach to their 19th album, eschewing outside songwriters, musicians and pro-ducers for a DYI MO

Back Space - Pearl JamAfter nearly two decades as the most earnest, serious and impor-tant American band in rock -- and after the impassioned political content of their last couple of al-bums -- Eddie Vedder and co. ac-tually sound like they’re enjoying themselves on their ninth studio set Backspacer.

Reuniting with producer Brendan O’Brien for the fi rst time in a de-cade and putting politics aside, the Seattle grunge icons have produced their shortest, sharpest, simplest and most streamlined set to date: A fat-free 36-minute CD divided between punky three-min-ute fi recrackers and slightly longer midtempo rock ballads. As Eddie puts it: “I wanna live my life with the volume on full.”

Them Crooked Vultures - Them

Crooked VulturesThere there’s Them Crooked Vul-tures. You can’t quibble about their pedigrees: You’ve got Led Zep bass-ist-keyboardist John Paul Jones. Nirvana drummer / Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl. Queens of the Stone Age singer-guitarist Josh Homme. Each is a bona fi de rock star; more importantly, each is an MVP with a track record of extracurricular collaboration.So whaddaya get when you put them all in Homme’s desert studio and hit record? You get an album of hard-driving, shape-shifting, crotch-centric guitar epics that sound a lot like QOTSA’s ominous robo-rock crossed with Zeppelin’s swaggering blues-metal.

Vitalic - FlashmobEven if Flashmob’s title feels a little dated, suggesting mid-2000s trends a few years after they peaked, the same can’t be said about its music. While the elec-tro foundations of his sound re-main the same after more than a decade, these tracks are sleek and innovative -- proving that Vitalic spent the years between OK Cow-boy and this album uniting every-thing he learned making ground-breaking singles like “Poney” with what’s been going on since his last album. While there are more than a few cuts that are classic Vitalic, all masses of synths and hard-edged beats (see the sunny expanses of “See the Sea [Red]” and the interstellar closer, “Sta-tion Mir 2099”), he’s not afraid to change things up, most strikingly on Flashmob’s singles.

Horehound - The Dead WeatherSo now we also have The Dead Weather, another blues-punk out-fi t with Ranconteurs bassist Jack Lawrence, Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Dean Fertita and Kills vocalist Allison Mosshart.Like everything White does, their album was reportedly dashed off in a week or two this spring. And like everything White does, it smokes. Horehound’s 11 cuts chase the hoodoo down with a posse of snarling guitars, crash-bash drums, chicken-shack organ and transfi xing grooves, while evil seductress Mosshart’s witchy vo-cals lend a PJ Harvey-meets-Royal Trux vibe to the whole affair. Oh, and just to make his triumph even more annoying, White plays drums in the band (though he apparently contributes guitar, keyboards and vocals on the disc).

2

1 3 5

4

6

Page 23: Fidelity Magazine Layout

1

3

4 6

5

2

Page 24: Fidelity Magazine Layout

Raditude - WeezerRaditude is full of gloriously cheesy Weezer tunes, led by the ridonk geek-love anthem “(If You’re Won-dering If I Want You To) I Want You To.” He teams up with Jermaine Dupri and Lil Wayne for the hi-larious “Can’t Stop Partying,” and he veers into dance-pop produc-tion with Dr. Luke for “I’m Your Daddy,” wowing the ladies with his moonwalk moves and cheese fondue. His willingness to make fun of his psychosexual damage only makes it more poignant. The not-quite-ironic melancholy of “Can’t Stop Partying” may refl ect a uniquely twisted relationship with his twisted audience. But from the sound of Raditude, Cuomo savors every minute of it.

Cosmic Egg - WolfmotherIf AC and DC had a baby, Andrew Stockdale of Wolfmother would be their rock & roll problem child. Cosmic Egg is wilder, earthier and freakier than his band’s 2006 debut — he has recruited a new crew of hairy backup henchmen, but he’s still chasing his Seventies blue-denim obsessions with no shame. “Sundial” is a doomy stomp with a Tony Iommi guitar grind, but “In the Castle” is the epic, with Stock-dale hitting Valhalla-scale high notes, wailing, “Would you like to walk into the kingdoms of the sun?” There isn’t a boring moment when’s the last time you could say that about an album with Cosmic in the title?

Real Estate -Real EstateWith titles like “Atlantic City” and “Let’s Rock the Beach,” it’s not hard to tell where these Garden State guitar pastoralists are com-ing from. Real Estate play lush, ambient surf rock that re-imagines the Beach Boys’ “Kokomo” as a Yo La Tengo dronefest. “Fake Blues” fl oats a bright jangle over an after-shock from a Dick Dale rumble, “Black Lake” has an airy Hawaiian slack key vibe and “Suburban Bev-erage” is a whirlpool of sun-dazed murk. Singer Martin Courtney’s mumble is barely audible, and it all sounds like it was recorded on a boombox in someone’s mom’s pool house, but the band gets a lot of mileage from a silvery sunbeam of inspiration.

Zero - Yeah Yeah YeahsIn an interview track on this hour-long career retrospective, Karen O says that she and guitarist Nick Zinner fi rst got together playing “really beautiful acoustic songs, some soul stuff.” They still are. The fi ve acoustic takes on old songs here crank up the poignancy that touches even the band’s scuzziest punk moments. A string trio on “Maps” and “Runaway,” though lovely, fl irts with heart-yanking overkill, but “Dull Life” stays hard, a pogo-ing rocker redone as a gyp-sy-folk whirlwind. The underdog killer: “Our Time,” a soft obscurity from the YYY’s torrid fi rst EP in which Karen scrawls “It’s the year to be hated/So glad that we made it” in our cosmic yearbook.

Embryonic - Flaming Lips”I wish I could go back in time,” Wayne Coyne yelps on the Flam-ing Lips’ 12th record. In a sense, he has: These psych-rock mystics haven’t sounded so off-the-wall since they were Oklahoma acid-heads in the Eighties. Most of Embryonic sounds like laid-back echoes of Miles Davis’ early-1970s skronk jazz, with distorted funk grooves undercutting pillowy vi-braphones and zonked electronics. Despite tons of studio chaff (fi ve songs are fragments named after zodiac signs), a theme emerges, something about keying into the cosmos by relinquishing control. Hippie hokum? Maybe. But the Lips have always been able to sub-vert pie-eyed whimsy with a sense of homespun beauty, and there’s plenty of that here too.

Stir The Blood - The BraveryOn 2007’s The Sun and the Moon, neo-New Wavers the Brav-ery took a shot at guitar-oriented meaningfulness. They’re back in synth-and-eyeliner country here, working Duran-Psych Furs-J&MC pantomimes with a dedication so complete you could almost mis-take it for invention. But frontman Sam Endicott subverts OK songs by breaking from synth pop’s vaunted girly-boy tradition and lamely playing a macho-rock stud on songs like “She’s So Bendable.” Fine as hacks, they’re somewhat less fi ne as humans.

8

7 9 11

10

12

FREVIEWS

Page 25: Fidelity Magazine Layout

2

1

3

5

4

6

Page 26: Fidelity Magazine Layout
Page 27: Fidelity Magazine Layout

Mark Janson sits down with the top new pop artist of this year. Selling over 2o million albums and with 4 hit singles shes on the way to the top. PG 25

Page 28: Fidelity Magazine Layout

My album is quite

gakky – not because of any-

thing being consumed but

from a love of that sound”

Page 29: Fidelity Magazine Layout

It’s morning, and 20 year old Ellie Jackson – or La Roux, arguably the biggest new pop star of the year – is on the Eurostar to Belgium, where she is heading to appear on a TV show. She is grateful for the coffee her press offi cer has bought her, but wonders if anything stronger is avail-able. “Have you got my gak as well?” she laughs.The hit singles and No 1 album have, evidently, not made her clam up for fear of adverse publicity. Within minutes of our meeting, she has dis-missed Take That as “gaylords” and compared today’s chart acts unfavourably with their 80s forebears.

“George Michael wrote Careless Whisper when he was 17,” she says. “I didn’t see Tinchy S t r y d e r writing a song like that when he was 17, but he still gets the same praise.” She blames a cul-ture that shuns criti-cism for the drop in standards. “It’s the media,” she says. “Everything is ‘amaz-ing, brilliant’.” Radio DJs, she con-tends, are “not allowed to slag any-thing off”, and any negative opinions are kept private.

She says she doesn’t want to “start a hate war” with anyone, but she does wish she could be more truth-ful about other artists. “I can’t pos-sibly like everything – how ridicu-lous is that?” she says, reasonably enough. But still people recoil when she speaks her mind. “They’re like, ‘Really, Lady Gaga’s not your thing?’ Have you listened to my album? Of course it’s not my thing!”

She’s aware that honesty comes at a price. “One woman thought I was being anti-feminist because I said I preferred girls with keyboards to girls with guitars,” she says. “So she messaged me on MySpace to tell me she wasn’t going to play my record any more even though it was her fa-vourite. That’s so dumb.”

Aware that her outspokenness is p r o v i n g increas-

ingly polarising, Jackson draws a dis-tinction between the artist and their art. “I’m still going to listen to Gary Glitter’s records even though he’s a kiddie-fi ddler,” she says. “Don’t let his problems ruin your life. You’re not buying their personality, you’re buying their music. Of course it’s never nice when you’re into an art-ist and you discover they’re horrible, and, yes, it would be disappointing if I suddenly found out that Annie Lennox was racist. But you’d still love the music. It wouldn’t matter

what I heard about Michael Jackson or Prince – you can’t just stop liking a song.”

Although the music on her debut album has more in common with the early-80s synthpop of Yazoo, De-peche Mode and Eurythmics, her heroes are Jackson and David Bowie, and her dream is to perform a duet with George Michael. “I love him,” she says. “I want him to be my dad! Even the Land Rover incident last year just made him more endear-

ing.”

Dressed in a green felt trilby, white winkle

pickers, drain-pipe jeans,

and a black-and-whi te jacket with shoulder pads, La Roux cuts a striking f i g u r e . She be-moans the

new con-servatism –

what she calls “the Ikea men-

tality” – that has led to everyone wear-

ing the same clothes from the same shops: Top

Shop, M&S and American Ap-parel. “It’s fucking boring. No one wants to look different.” With her notorious gravity-defying red hair – held in place this morning, she says, by “grease and dirt from not wash-ing, lots of mousse, wax and thick-ening spray” – and equally colourful personality, she might have fi tted in nicely in the era of Lennox, Boy George, Marilyn and Marc Almond. “No,” she argues, “I would have faded into the background because I would have been too like everybody else.”

StayingTrue to

LaRoux

Page 30: Fidelity Magazine Layout

62,6

Ellie exp

lains

that Lan

g-

maid, who

is co

nsidera

bly

older

and on

ly co

llabora

tes

with her

in the s

tudio, le

av-

ing the p

erform

ance

side o

f

things to

Jackso

n and h

er

tourin

g ban

d, is “te

etotal

,

and h

as bee

n for 1

0 years

.

He’s

fi nish

ed

partyin

g.”

He gets

annoy

ed w

hen sh

e

turns u

p to re

cord b

leary-

eyed fro

m the exc

esses

of

the nigh

t befo

re.

Not that

she p

arties

much

any

more – the

atten

tion

she g

ets m

akes

her unco

m-

fortab

le. “I

used to

go to

il-

legal

warehou

se rav

es for

three d

ays, b

ut it’s

no fun

going

out now

. Besides,

I

don’t

want t

o bec

ome

like

Peach

es Geld

of. I

take

my

job re

ally s

eriou

sly.”

She still

lives

at hom

e with

her mum (a

ctress

June A

ck-

land fro

m The Bill)

and dad

,

in south L

ondon

, but s

he’s

lookin

g for

her ow

n place

in the s

ame a

rea. “

Mov

e to

Kensin

gton?”

she

muses.

“I’d ra

ther liv

e in a

bin. I’ve

got

four

really

close

old

frien

ds, I c

an w

alk to

them

all an

d to m

y sist

er’s h

ouse.

No one r

ecog

nises m

e here

– the J

amaic

an m

an at

the

newsag

ents

isn’t

really

my

market.

If I l

ived in

Shored-

itch I’d

get rec

ognise

d all

the tim

e.”

Does s

he miss

anon

ymity

?

“Of

course

, yes

,” sh

e re-

plies.

“I have

to w

atch w

hat

I say,

even

when

I’m w

alk-

ing dow

n the s

treet,

in ca

se

there’s

someo

ne beh

ind

me who’l

l rec

ognise

me.”

Not that

celeb

rity

has re-

ally c

hange

d her – sh

e’s st

ill

candid to

a fau

lt. ing d

own

the str

eet,

in case

there’s

someo

ne beh

ind me w

ho’ll

recog

nise m

e.” N

ot that

ce-

lebrit

y has

really

chan

ged

her – sh

e’s st

ill ca

ndid to a

fault.

ing dow

n the

stree

t,

in case

there’s s

omeo

ne be-

hind me who’l

l rec

ognise

me.” N

ot that

celeb

rity h

as

really

chan

ged h

er – sh

e’s

still c

andid to

a fau

lt.

Not that

she p

arties

much

any

more

– the

atten

-

tion sh

e ge

ts mak

es her

uncomfor

table.

t . I

take m

y

job re

ally s

eriou

sly.”

Page 31: Fidelity Magazine Layout

2,650

copies of th

ier alb

um sold in the fi

rst week

of relea

se,

which beca

me the h

ighest fi r

st-week

sales

for a debut

album in 2009

Page 32: Fidelity Magazine Layout

It’s morning, and 20 year old El-lie Jackson – or La Roux, argu-ably the biggest new pop star of the year – is on the Eurostar to

Belgium, where she is heading to ap-pear on a TV show. She is grateful for the coffee her press offi cer has bought her, but wonders if anything stronger is available. “Have you got my gak as well?” she laughs.The hit singles and No 1 album have, evidently, not made her clam up for fear of adverse publicity. Within min-

utes of our meeting, she has dismissed Take That as “gaylords” and compared today’s chart acts unfavourably with their 80s forebears.

“George Michael wrote Careless Whis-per when he was 17,” she says. “I didn’t see Tinchy Stryder writing a song like that when he was 17, but he still gets the same praise.” She blames a cul-ture that shuns criticism for the drop in standards. “It’s the media,” she says. “Everything is ‘amazing, brilliant’.” Ra-

dio DJs, she contends, are “not allowed to slag anything off”, and any negative opinions are kept private.

She says she doesn’t want to “start a hate war” with anyone, but she does wish she could be more truthful about other artists. “I can’t possibly like ev-erything – how ridiculous is that?” she says, reasonably enough. But still peo-ple recoil when she speaks her mind. “They’re like, ‘Really, Lady Gaga’s not your thing?’ Have you listened to my al-

Page 33: Fidelity Magazine Layout

bum? Of course it’sAware that her outspokenness is prov-ing increasingly polarising, Jackson draws a distinction between the artist and their art. “I’m still going to listen to Gary Glitter’s records even though he’s a kiddie-fi ddler,” she says. “Don’t let his problems ruin your life. You’re not buying their personality, you’re buying their music. Of course it’s nev-er nice when you’re into an artist and you discover they’re horrible, and, yes, it would be disappointing if I suddenly

found out that Annie Lennox.Aware that her outspokenness is prov-ing increasingly polarising, Jackson draws a distinction between the artist and their art. “I’m still going to listen to Gary Glitter’s records even though he’s a kiddie-fi ddler,” she says. “Don’t let his problems ruin your life. You’re not buying their personality, you’re buying their music. Of course it’s nev-er nice when you’re into an artist and you discover they’re horrible, and, yes, it would be disappointing if I suddenly

found out that Annie Lennox was rac-ist. But you’d still love the music. It wouldn’t matter what I heard about Michael Jackson or Prince – you can’t just stop liking a song.”

Aware that her outspokenness is prov-ing increasingly polarising, Jackson draws a distinction between the artist and their art. “I’m still going to listen to Gary Glitter’s records even though he’s a kiddie-fi ddler,” she says. “Don’t let his problems ruin your life. You’re

Page 34: Fidelity Magazine Layout

It’s morning, and 20 year old Ellie Jackson – or La Roux, arguably the biggest new pop star of the year – is on the Eurostar to Belgium, where she is heading to appear on a TV show. She is grateful for the coffee her press offi cer has bought her, but wonders if anything stronger is avail-able. “Have you got my gak as well?” she laughs.The hit singles and No 1 al-bum have, evidently, not made her clam up for fear of adverse publicity. Within minutes of our meeting, she has dismissed Take That as “gaylords” and compared today’s chart acts unfavourably with their 80s forebears.

“George Michael wrote Care-less Whisper when he was 17,” she says. “I didn’t see Tinchy Stryder writing a song like that when he was 17, but he still gets the same praise.” She blames a culture that shuns criticism for the drop in standards. “It’s the media,” she says. “Everything is ‘amazing, brilliant’.” Radio DJs, she contends, are “not allowed to slag anything off”, and any nega-tive opinions are kept private.

She says she doesn’t want to “start a hate war” with anyone, but she does wish she could be more truthful about other artists. “I can’t possibly like everything – how ridiculous is that?” she says, reasonably enough. But still people recoil when she speaks her mind. “They’re like, ‘Really, Lady Gaga’s not your thing?’ Have you listened to my album? Of course it’s not my thing!”

Aware that her outspokenness is proving increasingly polarising, Jackson draws a distinction be-tween the artist and their art. “I’m still going to listen to Gary Glitter’s

records even though he’s a kiddie-fi ddler,” she says. “Don’t let his problems ruin your life. You’re not buying their personality, you’re buy-ing their music. Of course it’s never nice when you’re into an artist and you discover they’re horrible, and, yes, it would be disappointing if I suddenly found out that Annie Len-nox was racist. But you’d still love the music. It wouldn’t matter what I heard about Michael Jackson or Prince – you can’t just stop liking a song.”

Although the music on her debut album has more in common with the early-80s synthpop of Yazoo, Depeche Mode and Eurythmics, her heroes are Jackson and David Bowie, and her dream is to perform a duet with George Michael.

Dressed in a green felt trilby, white winkle pickers, drainpipe jeans, and a black-and-white jacket with shoul-der pads, La Roux cuts a striking fi gure. She bemoans the new con-servatism – what she calls “the Ikea mentality” – that has led to every-one wearing the same clothes from the same shops: Top Shop, M&S and American Apparel. “It’s fucking boring. No one wants to look dif-ferent.” With her notorious gravi-ty-defying red hair – held in place this morning, she says, by “grease and dirt from not washing, lots of mousse, wax and thickening spray” – and equally colourful personality, she might have fi tted in nicely in the era of Lennox, Boy George, Marilyn and Marc Almond. “No,” she ar-gues, “I would have faded into the background because I would have been too like everybody else.”

I can’t possibly like everything, how ridiculous is that?!

Page 35: Fidelity Magazine Layout

She admits that, in honour of Du-ran Duran et al, she and recording partner Ben Langmaid have a “gak channel” in their studio, which they use to achieve that distinctly early-80s treble-heavy sound – the sound of “everyone being coked out of their brains”. She refl ects on her own tre-ble-heavy sound. “My album is quite gakky – not because of anything be-ing consumed but from a love of that sound.” She adds: “There were abso-lutely no drugs taken in the making of La Roux’s album,” then pauses for comic effect. “Not while recording it, anyway.”

Dressed in a green felt trilby, white winkle pickers, drainpipe jeans, and a black-and-white jacket with shoul-der pads, La Roux cuts a striking fi gure. She bemoans the new con-servatism – what she calls “the Ikea mentality” – that has led to everyone wearing the same clothes from the same shops: Top Shop, M&S and American Apparel. “It’s fucking bor-ing. No one wants to look different.” With her notorious gravity-defying red hair – held in place this morn-ing, she says, by “grease and dirt from not washing, lots of mousse, wax and thickening spray” – and equally colourful personality, she might have fi tted in nicely in the era of Lennox, Boy George, Marilyn and Marc Almond. “No,” she argues, “I would have faded into the back-ground because I would have been too like everybody else.”

It’s morning, and 20 year old Ellie Jackson – or La Roux, arguably the biggest new pop star of the year – is on the Eurostar to Belgium, where she is heading to appear on a TV show. She is grateful for the coffee her press offi cer has bought her, but wonders if anything stronger is avail-able. “Have you got my gak as well?” she laughs.The hit singles and No 1 album have, evidently, not made her clam

up for fear of adverse pub-licity. Within minutes of our meeting, she has dismissed Take That as “gaylords” and compared today’s chart acts unfavourably with their 80s forebears.

“George Michael wrote Careless Whisper when he was 17,” she says. “I didn’t see Tinchy Stryder writing a song like that when he was 17, but he still gets the same praise.” She blames a culture that shuns criti-cism for the drop in standards. “It’s the media,” she says. “Everything is ‘amazing, brilliant’.” Radio DJs, she contends, are “not allowed to slag anything off”, and any negative opin-ions are kept private.

She says she doesn’t want to “start a hate war” with anyone, but she does wish she could be more truth-ful about other artists. “I can’t pos-sibly like everything – how ridicu-lous is that?” she says, reasonably enough. But still people recoil when she speaks her mind. “They’re like, ‘Really, Lady Gaga’s not your thing?’ Have you listened to my album? Of course it’s not my thing!”

Aware that her outspokenness is proving increasingly polarising, Jack-son draws a distinction between the artist and their art. “I’m still going to listen to Gary Glitter’s records even though he’s a kiddie-fi ddler,” she says. “Don’t let his problems ruin your life. You’re not buying their per-sonality, you’re buying their music. Of course it’s never nice when you’re into an artist and you discover they’re horrible, and, yes, it would be disap-pointing if I suddenly found out that Annie Lennox was racist. But you’d still love the music. It wouldn’t mat-ter what I heard about Michael Jack-son or Prince – you can’t just stop liking a song.”

Although the music on her debut al-bum has more in common with the ear-

ly-

80s syn-t h -p o p of Ya-zoo, De-p e c h e Mode and E u r y t h -mics, her heroes are Jackson and David Bowie, and her dream is to perform a duet with George Michael.

Dressed in a green felt trilby, white win-kle pickers, drainpipe jeans, and a black-and-white jacket with shoulder pads, La Roux cuts a strik-ing fi gure. She bemoans the new conservatism – what she calls “the Ikea mental-ity” – that has led to everyone wearing the same clothes from the same shops: Top Shop, M&S and American Apparel. “It’s fuck-ing boring. No one wants to look different.” With her notorious grav-ity-defying red hair – held in place this morning, she says, by “grease and dirt from not washing, lots of mousse, wax and thickening spray” – and equally colourful personality,

Page 36: Fidelity Magazine Layout

MEASURING UP WIT

Page 37: Fidelity Magazine Layout

TH METRIC

Page 38: Fidelity Magazine Layout

Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw are

Some-times you

have to leave everything behind to fi nd out who you are. This has been the mentality of artists for years, from Kerouac to Scarlet Jo-hansson in Lost in Translation. It’s safe to say that Emily Haines of Metric was lost, and in search of a spark to wake her from her spiritual and creative torpor. On the surface, everything was great and glittery for Haines. Metric had steadily been gaining fans and attention since breakout release Live it Out in 2005. A magnetic beauty, her high-energy live performances caught media at-tention from the start, and Haines could easily have become a publi-

cist’s dream pop

tart. Metric’s power hooks and infectious dance pulse

has always belied an undercurrent of melancholy and a constant ques-tioning of love, the creative process and fulfi llment. Thus is the dilem-ma of Haines, a songwriter with too much respect for her fans to bog them down in melodrama and the sad musings of a rock star. Rock ‘n’ roll should be fun and free, but Haines had lost that fun in her life. It took a solo sojourn to Buenos Aires to rekindle the spark she had lost. The lyrics to “Help, I’m Alive”, the fi rst single off Metric’s fi rst album in four years Fantasies, partially written in Buenos Aires, speak of re-birth. “My heart keeps beating like a hammer / Come take my pulse /

The pace is on

a runaway train”.

Haines and co. are busier than ever at the moment. For the recording of Fantasies, the band built their own recording studio in Toronto and started their own record label, Met-ric Music International. With solo releases and her contributions to fel-low Canadian supergroup Broken Social Scene, I fi nd Haines happy to be in New York during a break in the hectic touring schedule behind the new album. She is sunny from the start as she strolls down a busy New York street, speaking with me on a cell phone. She is also delight-fully existential, and it becomes clear that the spark she found in Buenos Aires still burns brightly.

Does Fantasies feel like a departure or a natural progression for you as a songwriter and as a band?

Page 39: Fidelity Magazine Layout

re like Canada’s Mick Jagger and Keith Richards

It feels like a natural pro-

gression. Our goal is to never repeat ourselves. I know it sounds a lot different from Live it Out, but our fi rst album sounds a lot differ-ent from Live it Out, so for us it feels like a natural progression, but we’re always pushing ourselves to try and create something new that doesn’t sound completely unrecog-nizable to the people who have al-ways been with us.

Was that always the goal? To experi-ment but keep it accessible?

Yeah. It’s weird, because I don’t know how accessible we’ve been up to this point. We’ve always been an underground band who makes little blips in the mainstream, but we’ve never been embraced by the main-stream, which is totally fi ne with us. It’s hard, and I’m sure you fi nd the same thing as a writer, it’s all well to look back at something you’ve ac-complished and postulate on all the magnifi cent, pre-conceived ideas you had and the way you developed

them, but writing

music is a mysterious and magical process, and

we didn’t even really know what we were making until we made it, which really followed the feel-ing that if it didn’t feel good, we ditched it. And that ended up being the litmus test.

How many songs ended up on the cutting room fl oor?

Easily ten or fi fteen songs. There was a bunch that we really liked, but just didn’t fi t into the narrative of what Fantasies ended up becom-ing. Before we started the album, we thought we’d already written the record. We did a tour of the US in fall 2007, and played songs that we thought would end up on the al-bum. It went over well and people liked it, but we just ended up say-ing, that’s not a record, or that’s not the record that we want to make. The content was just too much what happens with so many bands, where you spend so much of your time on a tour bus and living in hotel rooms and feeling disoriented. It was all those themes, and no one needs an-other indie rock record about how

hard it is being in

a rock band. We have too much respect for our fans to

ask them to listen to that, and franly that was a lot of the content so we just really pushed ourselves and I fucked off to Argentina, and ev-eryone did what they needed to do to reconnect to what’s interesting about life. I hate to take the glamour out of it, but the backstage scene is so fucking boring ultimately, after the fi rst little glimmer of glamour wears off.

Do you guys get pretty wild back-stage? Was there a feeling of burning out that led to the break?

It was more a feeling of missing the rest of life. I don’t feel like we were burnt out on the band or the music, but it was more esoteric like with anything creative. It was like, “What are we trying to accomplish exactly?” If the goal is just to get bigger, that works at the really early stages, but we were grappling with the question of “What is the actual goal here?” Because I really love my family and friends and lots of aspects of life that have nothing to do with being in a rock band or tour-ing, so it felt like a preventative as-sessment we took, because none of us ever felt like we wanted to leave the band or anything, but I felt like

Page 40: Fidelity Magazine Layout

I had to leave the civilization I was in, and I just had gotten so sick of myself. Actually, a friend of mine was telling me recently that there is a study on happiness that directly correlates to how much you have to focus on yourself and having your whole life be about you is a recipe for unhappiness. It sounds kind of counterintuitive but it’s interesting. I think all of us in the band felt like, we love this and we love the music and it’s important, but at the same time I want to have lunch with my mom and hang out with my niece before she has her sixteenth birth-day.

Reading about your trip to Buenos Aires really inspired me to take a similar trip.

Yeah, I defi nitely recommend it. As a writer, anything that gets you away from the conscious acts of writing, and I guess different people do it different ways, but writing has nev-er felt like a chore to me. I’ve never had writer’s block, because once it feels

like a conscious act, like Emily Haines from Metric is working on a new Metric song, I just think,

Early on, how did you approach marketing? Obviously you’ve got the looks to have been cast as a pin-up, did people ever try and project you in that light?

No, nobody seems to have ever wanted to. There was a point in my life where I thought, yeah, I guess I’m eligible for this role as a pop star, but no one’s ever been able to fi gure out how to sell me. I gotta say, in retrospect, I’m so grateful for that. Whatever it was about me that made me not a commodity, I’m re-ally happy about. (laughs) Because you start to realize when someone starts to get a lot of exposure, like you see someone on a big billboard, and growing up I would look up at those billboards and think, “Oh man, that’s so cool, imagine if I was up on one of those,” but being older and wiser you realize that

those people’s faces are someone’s investment, and all they’re doing is getting a return on their invest-ment which is your face and/or ass, and in the case of women it’s usu-ally both. So with all that exposure, you start to think what if you didn’t want that, and what if you want that privacy back? Maybe all you’re re-ally doing is lining other people’s pockets? I think I would still make a good pop star, but it’s just going to be with a different budget.

Have you ever felt a kinship to Deb-bie Harry? Her looks didn’t hurt the music, but she let the music speak for itself.

I never really did, but that’s interest-ing. In the early days, people would compare us to Blondie, but if you ask any girl in a band, it’s always a bit annoying because people always compare you to Blondie, because up until a few years ago it was hard to think of bands

Page 41: Fidelity Magazine Layout

with three dudes and a girl.

But now I feel that my situation is a bit like Blondie, and I feel some-what of a kinship to Debbie, and I can see the reference that people are connecting, in terms of this record and the look of the band. But grow-ing up, I remember liking her but never really connecting with her, and she wasn’t a big icon for me. But I’ll take my heroes wherever I can get them, and she’s a great one.

What’s the writing process like for you?

It’s a combination of things. It’s been different on different records. There have been periods in my life when it’s been very reclusive with just me

and a piano, and other

times where it has been cocktail nap-kins. Often I fi nd I write in a fashion of social commentary and observa-tions. Sometimes it feels like I’m staring at the wall in a bar, feeling alienated or whatever, which is kind of a certain tone that my writing has always had that I’m enjoying losing a little bit, so that I don’t have to ex-ist seeing things in one perspective for my entire life. With Fantasies, it was a lot of running away from my-self and tricking myself into think-ing I wasn’t writing which I highly recommend. I just tried living, and then you have experiences, and if it’s part of who you are then you’ll have the impulse to write. The last thing I would ever want in my life is for those things to get out of whack

a n d out of balance. The

point is to live and experience things to the point that you experi-ence things that are so interesting, moving and complex emotionally that the only way you can express it is in a piece of music, not the other way around by comeing the streets and writing out litle scraps of words ... desperately looking for inspira-tion. I just hope it never comes to that.

That spirit of inspiration is defi nitely refl ected on the record.

Oh, good. I feel really strongly about it, and I’ve already come to the point where I’m like, “Shit, what am I going to have to do for inspiration for the next record,

Page 42: Fidelity Magazine Layout

STRIPING OFF THE

WHITEJACK WHITES

NEW CONQUESTSBy Jeff Rand

Page 43: Fidelity Magazine Layout

It is morning, and 21-year-old Elly Jack-son – or La Roux, ar-guably the biggest new

pop star of the year – is on the Eurostar to Belgium, where she is heading to ap-pear on a TV show. She is grateful for the coffee her press offi cer has bought her, but wonders if anything stronger is available. “Have you got my gak as well?” she laughs.

The hit singles and No 1 al-bum have, evidently, not made her clam up for fear of adverse publicity. Within min-utes of our meeting, she has dismissed Take That as “gay-lords” and compared today’s chart acts unfavourably with their 80s forebears.

“George Michael wrote Care-less Whisper when he was 17,” she says. “I didn’t see Tinchy Stryder writing a song like that when he was 17, but he still gets the same praise.” She blames a culture that shuns criticism for the drop in standards. “It’s the media,” she says. “Everything is ‘amazing, brilliant’.” Radio DJs, she contends, are “not allowed to slag anything off”, and any nega-tive opinions are kept private.

She says she doesn’t want to “start a hate war” with anyone, but she does wish she could be more t r u t h f u l about other artists. “I can’t possi- bly like everything – how ridiculous is that?” she says, reason-ably enough. But still people recoil when she speaks her mind. “They’re like, ‘Really, Lady Gaga’s not your thing?’ Have you listened to my album? Of course it’s not my thing!”

She’s aware that honesty comes at a price. “One woman thought I was being anti-feminist because I said I preferred girls with keyboards to girls with guitars,” she says. “So she messaged me on MySpace to tell me she wasn’t going to play my record any more even though it was her favourite. That’s so dumb.”

Aware that her outspokenness is proving increasingly polarising, Jackson draws a distinction between the artist and their art. “I’m still going to listen to Gary Glitter’s records even though he’s a kiddie-fi ddler,” she says. “Don’t let his problems ruin your life. You’re not buying their personality, you’re buying their music. Of course it’s never nice when you’re into an artist and you discover they’re horrible, and, yes, it would be disappointing if I suddenly found

Page 44: Fidelity Magazine Layout

The hit singles and No 1 album have, evidently, not made

her clam up for fear of adverse publicity. Within minutes

of our meeting, she has dismissed Take That as “gaylords”

and compared today’s chart acts unfavourably with their

80s forebears.

“George Michael wrote Careless Whisper when he was

17,” she says. “I didn’t see Tinchy Stryder writing a song

like that when he was 17, but he still gets the same praise.”

She blames a culture that shuns criticism for the drop in

standards. “It’s the media,” she says. “Everything is ‘amaz-

ing, brilliant’.” Radio DJs, she contends, are “not allowed

to slag anything off”, and any negative opinions

are kept private.

She says she doesn’t want to “start a hate war”

with anyone, but she does wish she could be

more truthful about other artists. “I can’t pos-

sibly like everything – how ridiculous is that?”

she says, reasonably enough. But still people

recoil when she speaks her mind. “They’re

like, ‘Really, Lady Gaga’s not your thing?’

Have you listened to my album? Of course

it’s not my thing!”

She’s aware that honesty comes at a price.

“One woman thought I was being anti-

feminist because I said I preferred girls with keyboards

to girls with guitars,” she says. “So she messaged me on

MySpace to tell me she wasn’t going to play my record any

more even though it was her favourite. That’s so dumb.”

Aware that her outspokenness is proving increasingly

polarising, Jackson draws a distinction between the art-

ist and their art. “I’m still going to listen to Gary Glit-

ter’s records even though he’s a kiddie-fi ddler,” she says.

“Don’t let his problems ruin your life. You’re not buying

their personality, you’re buying their music. Of course it’s

never nice when you’re into an artist and you discover

they’re horrible, and, yes, it would be disappointing if I

The hit singles and No 1 album have, evidently,

not made her clam up for fear of

adverse publicity. Within

minutes of our meeting,

she has dismissed Take

That as “gaylords” and

compared today’s chart

acts unfavourably with

their 80s forebears.

“George Michael wrote

Careless Whisper when he

was 17,” she says. “I didn’t

see Tinchy Stryder writing a

song likpraise.drop inis ‘amaalloweare kep

She saone, bother diculopeopl‘Reallmy al

She’sthougferre“So sgoinfavou

Awapolaist ater’s“Do

Page 45: Fidelity Magazine Layout

ke that when he was 17, but he still gets the same

” She blames a culture that shuns criticism for the

n standards. “It’s the media,” she says. “Everything

azing, brilliant’.” Radio DJs, she contends, are “not

ed to slag anything off”, and any negative opinions

pt private.

ays she doesn’t want to “start a hate war” with any-

but she does wish she could be more truthful about

artists. “I can’t possibly like everything – how ri-

ous is that?” she says, reasonably enough. But still

le recoil when she speaks her mind. “They’re like,

ly, Lady Gaga’s not your thing?’ Have you listened to

lbum? Of course it’s not my thing!”

s aware that honesty comes at a price. “One woman

ght I was being anti-feminist because I said I pre-

ed girls with keyboards to girls with guitars,” she says.

she messaged me on MySpace to tell me she wasn’t

g to play my record any more even though it was her

urite. That’s so dumb.”

are that her outspokenness is proving increasingly

arising, Jackson draws a distinction between the art-

and their art. “I’m still going to listen to Gary Glit-

s records even though he’s a kiddie-fi ddler,” she says.

on’t let his problems ruin your life. You’re not buying

The hit singles and No 1 album have, evidently, not made her clam up for fear of adverse publicity. Within minutes of our meeting, she has dismissed Take That as “gaylords” and compared today’s chart acts unfavourably with their 80s fore-bears.

“George Michael wrote Careless Whisper when he was 17,” she says. “I didn’t see Tinchy Stryder writing a song like that when he was 17, but he still gets the same praise.” She blames a culture that shuns criticism for the drop in standards. “It’s the media,” she says. “Everything is ‘amazing, brilliant’.” Radio DJs, she contends, are “not allowed to slag anything off”, and any negative opinions are kept private.

She says she doesn’t want to “start a hate war” with anyone, but she does wish she could be more truthful about other art-ists. “I can’t possibly like everything – how ridiculous is that?” she says, reasonably enough. But still people recoil when she speaks her mind. “They’re like, ‘Really, Lady Gaga’s not your thing?’ Have you listened to my album? Of course it’s not my thing!”

She’s aware that honesty comes at a price. “One woman thought I was being anti-feminist because I said I preferred girls with keyboards to girls with guitars,” she says. “So she messaged me on MySpace to tell me she wasn’t going to play my record any more even though it was her favourite. That’s so dumb.”

Aware that her outspokenness is proving increasingly polaris-ing, Jackson draws a distinction between the artist and their art. “I’m still going to listen to Gary Glitter’s records even though he’s a kiddie-fi ddler,” she says. “Don’t let his problems ruin your life. You’re not buying their personality, you’re buy-ing their music. Of course it’s never nice when you’re into an artist and you discover they’re horrible, and, yes, it would be disappointing if I suddenly found The hit singles and No 1 al-bum have, evidently, not made her clam up for fear of adverse publicity. Within minutes of our meeting, she has dismissed Take That as “gaylords” and compared today’s chart acts unfa-vourably with their 80s forebears.

“George Michael wrote Careless Whisper when he was 17,” she says. “I didn’t see Tinchy Stryder writing a song like that when he was 17, but he still gets the same praise.” She blames a culture that shuns criticism for the drop in standards. “It’s the media,” she says. “Everything is ‘amazing, brilliant’.” Radio DJs, she contends, are “not allowed to slag anything off”, and any negative opinions are kept private.

She says she doesn’t want to “start a hate war” with anyone, but she does wish she could be more truthful about other art-ists. “I can’t possibly like everything – how ridiculous is that?” she says, reasonably enough. But still people recoil when she speaks her mind. “They’re like, ‘Really, Lady Gaga’s not your

Page 46: Fidelity Magazine Layout
Page 47: Fidelity Magazine Layout

Recomends

Page 48: Fidelity Magazine Layout

MIRAGE OMNIVIBE OMNIPOLAR DOCK AND SOUND FOR IPODThe elegant style of the OmniVibe ipod dock and its comprehensive connectivity options make it the perfect complement to any model of ipod, any brand of MP3 player, and even your computer. With this technology, the OmniVibe desperses the highest quality sound in a 360-degree pattern, creating an incredibly deep, tall, and wide soundstage.

NORTON INTERNET SECURITY Norton Internet Security delivers fast and light comprehensive online threat protec-tion. It guards your PC, network, online activities and your identity with innova-tive, intelligent detection technologies optimized to combat today’s aggressive, rapid-fi re attacks. Improved Norton Safe Web technology blocks Internet threats before they can infect your PC.

KINDLE the Kinlde Store currently has more than 350,000 titles, and Amazon is adding more every day. Using the latest in elec-tronic-ink display technology, Kindle’s crisp black and white 6 inch screen pro-vides the same appearance and readability of printed paper. Sharp and natural with no glare or backlight, reading on Kindle is nothing like reading from a computer screen.

F Recomends

Page 49: Fidelity Magazine Layout

PANASONIC BLU-RAY DISC PLAYER The Panasonic DMP-BD60 Blu-ray Disc Player combines high qualty images with enhanced networking functions. Con-tinuing its commitment to porducing products that stress ease of use, the 3009 line of Blu-ray disc players continue to incorporate VIERA Link, allowing con-sumers to operate their audio and video, via HDMI, with one remote.

FLIP ULTRAHD CAMCORDER The Flip UltraHD camcorder combines Flip Video’s signature shoot and share simplicity with the power of vivd, vibrant HD video. UltraHD could not be easier to use: Just power on and press record, and you’ll be capturing high-quality HD video in seconds. With 12o minutes of record time and an included rechargeable bat-tery pack, you’ll never miss another min-ute of vide again.

CANON VIXIA HF200 HD FLASH MEMORY CAMCORDER The ViXIA HF200, Canon’s smallest and lightest HD camcorder, delievers brilliant video and still photos through a Canon-exclusive 3.89-megapixels CMOS image sensor, It is ultra lightweight and brings the ease and convenience of fl ash memo-ry, allowing up to six hours of high defi ni-tion video to removable SDHC card.

Page 50: Fidelity Magazine Layout

STUFF WHITE PEOPLE LIKE: A DE-FINITIVE GUIDE TO THE UNIQUE TASTE OF MILLIONS By Christian Lander They love nithing better than sipping free-trade gourmet coffee, leafi ng through the Sunday New York Times, and listeng to Daivd Sedaris on NPR (ideally, all at the same time). Apple products, indie music, and vintage T-shirts make them weak in the knees. Fortunately, here’s a book that investigates, explains, and offers advice for fi nding social success with the Caucasian persuasion.

SHOPLIFTING FROM AMERICAN APPAREL By Tao Lin From VIP rooms in “hip” New York City clubs to central booking in Chinatown, from New York University’s Bobst Library to a bus in someone’s backyard in a Florida. Shoplifi t-ing From American Apparel explores class, culture, and the arts in all their American forms through the funny, journalistic, and existentially minded narrative of someone trying to “not be a bad person” and “fi nd some kind of happiness or something”

F Recomends

Page 51: Fidelity Magazine Layout

THE TWITTER BOOK By Tim O’Reilly and Sarah Milstein This practical guide will teach you everthing you need to know to quickly become a Twit-ter power user, including strategies and tac-tics for using Twitters 140 character mes-sages as a serious and effective way to boost your business. The practical information in the Twitter Book is presented in a fun, full-color format that’s packed with helpful ex-amples and clear explanations.

ARE YOU THERE VODKA? IT”S ME, CHELSEA By Chelsea Handler When Chealsea Handler needs to get a few things off her chest, she appeals to a higher power - vodka. You would too if you found out that your boyfriend was having an affair with a Peekapoo or if you had to pretend to be honeymooning with your father in order to upgrade to fi rst class. Welcome to Chel-sea’s world - a place where absurdity reigns supreme and a quick wit is the best line of defense.

Page 52: Fidelity Magazine Layout

PSP GO Introduction the smallest and mightest PSP system yet. With the PSp GO, users can download the best digital games and movies directly to the 16GB built-in Bluetooth sup-port and a wireless headset to more easliy use SKype and talk with friends. But best of all, you can show off content via the new ultra-crisp 3.8 inch LCD screen, maximized by the PSP Go’s new slide-out control de-sign.

DJ HERO RENEGADE EDITIONStart the party with the DJ Hero Renegade Edition, featuring Jay-Z and Eminem. In addition to the Dj Hero game, the Renegade Edition includes a premium turntable car-ring case that converts to a performance ready DJ stand, and an exclusive Jay’z and Eminem 2-CD pack featuring unrealeased tracks.

LIPS Take to a whole new stage with Lips for Xbox 360. Lips offers wireless motion-sensitive microphones and the ability to sing from your own music collection of DRM-free songs. Start channeling your favorite pop star because it’s you, your friends, and, most importantly, your music that turns Lips into the ultimate party experience.

F Recomends

Page 53: Fidelity Magazine Layout

AC/DC LIVE ROCKBANDlive lets you and your friends relive AC/DC’s epic 1991 live performance at Donington, UK through the eyes of Brian Johnson, An-gus Young, Malcolm Young, Cliff Williams, and Chris Slade.

THE BEATLES ROCK BAND The worlds leading music game meets the greatest band in histiry. The Beatles: Rock Band gives fans what they’ve been waiting for a chance to experience the beatles leg-endary story from the indes. Create land-mark records and conquer the world. For the fi rst time, you’ll be part of the band.

NINTENDO DSINintendo pioneered hand held entertain-ment in the 80’s and famously made it fully mobile and accessible to millions around the world with the Dame Boy and DS. Now Nintendo is taking things to the nest level with the Nintendo DSi system by trans-forming the way people access, experience, create and share content.

NINNNNNNNmmmmmmmmmmmmtttttt

Page 54: Fidelity Magazine Layout

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (TWO DISC SPECIAL EDITION) Set in America during the Vietnam War, Across the Universe is a powerful love story set against a backdrop of political and social unrest: Its self-doubt, and individual power-lessness cleverly conveyed through a multi-tude of Beatles songs.

FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS:SEASON 2 In its second season, HBO’s Flight of the Conchords soars to new heights, even as Bret McKenzie and Jemanine Clement, the down but never quite out New Zealand digifolk duo living beyond the fringe in New York City, reach new lows. In one episode, Bret’s pur-chase of a new cup puts them in dire fi nan-cial straits and leads Jemaine into prostitu-tion, albiet part time.

F Recomends

Page 55: Fidelity Magazine Layout

GIGANTIC Mattress salesman Brian Weathersby (Paul Dano) gets swept up in a romance with the lovely but misguided Harriet Lolly (Zooey Deschanel) when she comes into his store one day and falls asleep on one of the beds. To win her over, he must compete with her bear of a father , an art-collection loud-mouth with a bad back and deep pockets. Gigantic is a funny, surreal love story about the anxiety that resluts when two people with crazy families collide unexpectedly and fall for each other.

ADVENTURELAND Both a sweet coming of age drama and heartfelt comedy, Greg Mottola’s Adven-tureland is a winning look at the pleasures and frustrations of dead end jobs and teen-age kicks, as viewed through a fl iter of mid-80’s pop culture.

AWAY WE GO Away We Go has an incredible mix of in-gredients: director Sam Mendes, co-writter DAve Eggers, and the always excellent Maya Rudolph and John Krasinski as stars. As these talents blend together into a marvel-ous yet nontraditional romantic comedy.

Page 56: Fidelity Magazine Layout
Page 57: Fidelity Magazine Layout

FEATURESING ENCORE

Page 58: Fidelity Magazine Layout

PARTYROCKPEOPLE

L M F A Owith

Page 59: Fidelity Magazine Layout

How did you guys become LMFAO?

Sky Blue: A lot of factors played parts, you know, the late, great DJ AM was a big part in really introducing us to a style of music and something we re-ally fell in love with. We went to the Winter Music Conference in Miami [WMC], and really from there, from that trip, it changed our lives.

How do you think that trip informed your musical philosophy?

Redfoo: Well, because it was a week of partying and vacationing, and you know how like most travelers, they go on vacation and then they have to go back to work? It’s like, “Aw sh*t, back to work.” We were like, “You know what? There is no back to work this time. We’re gonna make this way of life, our new way of life, and make money doing what we just did at the WMC and just partying, play-ing music, you know… jump around like crazy fools onstage.”

Sounds like you guys have found the secret. Is there any sort of detracting element to that? Is there anything you see as a downside to living your life as always on?

Sky Blue: I think because our whole lives we spent, and we both have the same kind of attitude towards life, like, you know, we’re kind of clowns, we’re always just doing what we wanna do, and really having fun in life, you know what I’m saying?

Redfoo: So we’re kinda used to the attention, you know? And

it’s really like a

dream; it’s weird talking to you, there’s a camera in our face right now. Actually, I wake up to a cam-era in my face lately. And you know what, for me, Redfoo, I grew up with a mother who was a photographer and a videographer, so it’s just nor-mal to just be in the spotlight, always on, always having to entertain. And it feels good, to make people laugh, to make people feel good, actually feels good.

How connected would you say you guys are with your fans? How active are you in staying in touch online and at the shows?

Sky Blue: I think we’re as close with our fans as you could possibly be. We are online, we built partyrockpeople.com for our fans, we’re responding to all of the stuff. Some of the stuff, like Facebook, we don’t really do that much. We’re getting more into that, but our YouTube is our You-Tube, it’s our account. We still up-load everything to it. We realize that there are two types of shows we do, there’s one show where we do it at the club, and the other show where we do it at a venue. At a venue, we don’t get to touch the fans as much, like we don’t get to go in the crowd as much because of security, usually it’s a stage above everybody, and you can’t really get to us. But our favor-ite shows are ones that when we’re in the crowd, where we invite the crowd up on stage, and we’re one with the fans. Because, that’s what we make the music for, it’s for them. It’s a just a great feeling, it’s like a party… not so much like a concert,

but like a big ass party.

So you’re more into the interaction with the fans rather than standing above?

Redfoo: Yeah, more so than our fam-ily, I mean, my dad thinks that we shouldn’t crowd surf because we might get shanked, but we would say, who would wanna shank us, we’re LMFAO?

What’s the weirdest thing that’s hap-pened to you or been said to you while in the midst of crowd surfi ng?

Redfoo: Well, just the other day, we were at FIU, Tallahassee. I actually made the mistake of crowd surfi ng and jumping out onto my stomach, so they were grabbing my package, and squeezing hard on my member. And the weird thing for me is, I don’t know if it was a girl or a guy.

I guess lesson learned in Tallahassee.

Sky Blue: I got a fi nger in my anus one time, and you know, the thing about not knowing, it’s actually a beautiful thing, because in my mind, it was a woman, so I’m like totally fi ne with it. If I come to fi nd out it was a dude, then I might need to seek counseling.

So you defi nitely get up close and per-sonal with people. How much do you think the Internet has been a factor in your success?

Redfoo: I would have to say, 70-80% because we were able to launch our stuff on MySpace fi rst and then

Page 60: Fidelity Magazine Layout

YouTube. It is like having your own label; it’s having your own distribu-tion. We did the Kanye remix and we sent it out via email, this is all before we were with Interscope, and it got overseas on the blogs within three hours, all the way to the UK. Technically, it was there instantly, right when we posted it, but other people started posting it within three hours. That song became a global phenomenon basically over-night, and that’s because of the In-ternet. And the whole structure of the music business is actually living on the world wide web, because you have now the bloggers, who check new stuff and blog, and then DJs go to the bloggers for new songs, and it ends up on Limewire, or it ends up on the Bittorrents, and then the MySpace, and then YouTube. If you like a song now, you just go listen to your songs on youtube. You type in your favorite band and you can hear any one of their songs. It is instant, and it is free for the most part, and it’s amazing.

How do you guys feel about free mu-sic? How do you feel about the prolif-eration of free music on the Internet? Do you think it detracts from you guys or helps?

Sky Blue: I have to say, as a con-

sumer, I love it. You can always get what you want. I remember back in the day, I used to wait by the radio, to hear certain songs that I wanted to hear. It would take me all day, or I might not have heard it that day. But as soon as I hear a song, I go on the Internet, and I can get that bitch. I kinda like it.

As an artist, it’s kinda like damn, ‘cause you know record sales and single sales, it just forces you to become more creative and become more than just a musical artist with your music, you have to expand.

Redfoo: It forced everybody to have to change the model on how they make money doing music, and the people that are stubborn and fi ght it, kind of didn’t get a head start. So we decided to give our music for free to people and make remixes and give ‘em out for free, and what we do is we just sell our performances, and we sell things that you can’t down-load. You can’t download a shirt.

If you think about it, when you’re a kid, everything is for free because you got parents. When you’re a kid, you know, Pepsi’s for free. You know, you get a lot of stuff for free and it builds a brand, and you can become a fan of things, and a life-long fan

when you just always have them. That’s why I don’t frown upon people copying our music or sharing our music because that’s how it grows, and one day this person that’s a fan of our brand is gonna buy something, whether it’s a ticket, whether it’s an article of clothing, whether it’s an…

Sky Blue: LMFAO sex toy?

Redfoo: LMFAO sex toy.

Are those are coming out?

Sky Blue: Yeah, you know, we are in the development stage

of a lot of new and exciting, uh, pleasurable items.

That is awesome. So how do you achieve longevity in the club scene? How do you take your current suc-cess and extend it out over time?

Redfoo: You just have to be in the club. And you have to understand where it’s going and that’s what we did. We were DJs fi rst and we saw where it was going. We knew that the slower tempo of hip-hop, every-body was kind of dissatisfi ed about it. You would hear people talk-ing about, you know, hip-hop was dead, and it’s slow, and it’s boring, and it talks about drugs too much, and blah blah blah, you know, and all those things people were saying. Everybody’s looking for something new and the DJs found it fi rst. They found electro, coming from over-seas, coming from the Justice, and the French, and we all found that stuff as DJs. And it was really a race to who was gonna write songs to house and electro music and we just put heads down to the grind, and said it’s like betting on a stock, “we feel like this is gonna be the next thing so let’s see ahead of the curve, so when they come running around the curve, we’re gonna have the Ga-

Page 61: Fidelity Magazine Layout

torade and the water bottles waiting for them.” So now, we’re there, and you hear a lot of stuff on the radio, and there’s still a lot more to go be-cause in a pop song, before we did this stuff, you never heard a build up in a pop song. You never heard a jump-off, so to speak. Where there’s a big climax, and it jumps off, and it goes into a dance kick, and that’s one of the things that we were deter-mined to do and just hopefully in-spire the whole game... Go towards fun party and dance music, and so we gotta keep doing that and keep pushing the envelope, and keep ex-perimenting.

We’re big gamers here at IGN, and I just played some of the Tap Tap Revenge game today on the iPhone, have you guys played the game?

LMFAO: Yeah.

How do you guys feel about being involved with music videogames, and getting your songs in stuff ? Do you have anything on the way in that realm?

Sky Blue: Before we really got into this stuff, I’ve always wanted to have songs in videogames. I just thought it was so cool; it was always like a big deal. I didn’t realize when you have a popular song, it’s gonna end up in these things regardless, a pop-ular dance song is gonna end up in games, and I fi gure it’s great because it’s another way people are enjoy-ing your music and actually could be even more powerful than hearing it on the radio or at the club. When you play a game, and when you play the same game over a hundred times, you’re emotionally invested because you’re trying to win, and you’re com-peting with your friends, and you’re playing this game all to this song and it’s locked into your emotional struc-ture now. I mean, you could be on a date and play Tap Tap and it could be to one of our songs, and it could

be your wife, you know, that’s a mo-ment.

Redfoo: You could tap that.

Exactly, and get some revenge, I don’t know how that works in. So you guys mentioned DJ AM before, and he’s in the upcoming game DJ Hero, have you guys heard of the game or played around with it at all?

Redfoo: No, I haven’t messed with that.

Yeah, it’s like Guitar Hero but for the DJ culture.

Sky Blue: Oh, that’s dope.

Yeah, it’s coming out in October, so I didn’t know if you guys had an early peek yet. I was wondering what you think the impact of a game like that is gonna be on the kind of music you guys make? ‘Cause it’s all about DJ cul-ture, and mashups and stuff like that and being released by Activision who are the people that released Guitar Hero.

Redfoo: I think it might offi cially, es-pecially in the parents’ views, solidify the turn table as being an instru-ment, as being a tool to express your-self musically. That’s what a DJ really is. We’re living in a DJ culture cur-rently, because someone like DJ AM, he’s really responsible for changing music because of his DJ club style, all of the DJs basically were infl u-enced by him ‘cause he started play-ing rock and the 80s, and he started doing it successfully. I mean, maybe there were other people doing it, but he was the biggest one doing it. A game like this, now you’re gonna get kids wanting to [DJ]. You should probably buy some stock in Serato or turn tables because people are go-ing to want to become DJs more and more after this game.

So you’re more into the interaction with the fans rather than standing above?

Redfoo: Yeah, more so than our fam-ily, I mean, my dad thinks that we shouldn’t crowd surf because we might get shanked, but we would say, who would wanna shank us, we’re LMFAO?

What’s the weirdest thing that’s hap-pened to you or been said to you while in the midst of crowd surfi ng?

Redfoo: Well, just the other day, we were at FIU, Tallahassee. I actually made the mistake of crowd surfi ng and jumping out onto my stomach, so they were grabbing my package, and squeezing hard on my member. And the weird thing for me is, I don’t know if it was a girl or a guy.

I guess lesson learned in Tallahassee.

Sky Blue: I got a fi nger in my anus one time, and you know, the thing about not knowing, it’s actually a beautiful thing, because in my mind, it was a woman, so I’m like totally fi ne with it. If I come to fi nd out it was a dude, then I might need to seek counseling.

Page 62: Fidelity Magazine Layout