Be Creative

L’ARTISSUE 12

DL Publications

Page 4- Your editor’s choose a male and female fashion item must have for the present season.

Page 6- We speak to Masato Jones, a fashion designer whose ambition has got him very far. Find out who he turns to for inspiration, his first fashion memories and what Giles Deacon is really like in the studio.

Page 10- It was one capturing performance that got this band started and now they’ve never looked back. Learn more about this eight-piece group - Silas & His Band - and their future projects.

Page 12- 17-Year-Old Singer Songwriter Ella Martini – Growing up with a musical family, Ella has carried on the tradition.

Page 14- Word On The Street: Writer and poet Dean Atta prepares to release his debut collection next month.

Page 17- Move It 2013 returns for a new focus and an even bigger line up. Catch up with Creative Director Georgina Harper.

Page 20- Boy band JLS team up with charity Cancer Re-search UK to bring you The JLS Foundation.

Page 22- UK singer Daley is fresh off Miguel’s Kaleido-scope Dream Tour. See what’s next for this upcoming talent.

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Hi and welcome to the 12th issue of L’ART; the ‘Breakthrough’ issue.

Happy 2013 and we hope you have had a great start to this New Year.

We have had the pleasure of meet-ing even more local music acts that are all about being passionate with what they do. We have a band who recently joined forces for a show-case and have continued to work together by popular demand. We also caught up with a solo member from this band to learn more about her journey as a female singer.

Plus we have a young man whose work ethic got him his most amaz-ing working relationship to date. And make sure you take a look at an inspiring poet, a foundation led by one of the UK’s biggest boy bands and the return of Move It 2013!

Daniella & Letisha

D & L Style

Zara - £69.99

Image Source: favim.com, Zara UK, myfashionpolice.com

Topman £50.00

MASATO JONES

The London-based fashion designer with a lot of determination

MAKING ONE BOLD DECISION.. ..can end in excellent re-sults. Fashion designer, Ma-sato Jones knows this very well. One day he decided to approach Mr Giles Deacon with his portfolio and now he is called back every season to work alongside the Brit-ish fashion designer, which makes Masato very happy!

“It’s a really good studio,” said Masato. “There are so many things you have to look at if you’re a student and you

don’t know anything about making clothes.

“Giles is always around in the studio. He cares about people around him. He’s very tall with big glasses, so he has this huge impact on you because of how he looks, but he’s a very nice guy, very funny and makes jokes all the time.”

Masato studied fashion design in London, but during a gap year he wanted to gain some experience in the real world of fashion.

As a child Masato grew up with his mother and grandmother mak-ing clothes. He would always be wearing the same clothes as his brother and it was growing up around women who loved clothes that sparked his interest to do the same.

Every designer works differently when creating a new project and Masato simply looks to films for his inspiration. He likes creat-ing stories which then turn into an original design!

Image Source: Ann Charlotte Photography Masato Jones

“It is quite good exercise to watch films and get ideas of how to create characters of my own story.” He’s not nec-essarily watching the film, but he takes note of the individual stories within the production.

“If you watch a film ten or 20 times, you know the story and what is coming, so it’s a nice background to have. With my last collection I watched Har-ry Potter from the first one to the last. It’s a fantasy so it’s quite a nice combination.”

Rock and Roll music and pho-tography is also a big influ-ence of his. Images captured from the 1920’s to the 1940’s reflect the style he is very much into.

Until recently, Masato’s main focus was on women’s fash-ion, but this month in Ger-many, expect to see some glimpses of menswear.

“I never try to be different, I don’t know what different is. I try to be myself and al-ways believe my first insight. Trends do somehow encour-age you subconsciously, but I just create something that I like.”

And when creating something he likes, Masato prefers to be on his own. He concentrates a lot more when creating those all important designs, that re-flect a unique side of fashion.

“Individual designer’s outfits are quite different compared to the high street. People buy-ing these outfits may be very quiet but want to be a bit dif-ferent and try to get attention by how they look.”

When working with Giles Deacon they sure do fulfil the British public’s fashionable needs and future projects will include new t-shirts, print de-signs and tunics as well as a menswear collection.

Masato reveals that they have also been asked to do a charity event and create some costumes for a few

music artists, but that is all he can say at this present time. What an exciting project if all plans go ahead!

All this hard work is the result of one bold decision. And be-cause of this, Masato Jones is working in his desired envi-ronment. Pretty inspiring!

INSPIRATIONAL MOVIES

BE YOURSELF

GILES DEACON

Image Source: vogue.fr, Masato Jones

SILECTA & HIS BAND

A Word From Joe..“There’s a real mix of characters in the band. I write and produce stuff with Silecta and we’ve had a musical partnership for quite a while. Last summer Silecta de-cided he wanted to put an EP out. We wrote the tracks and

MembersSilecta - MC.

Ella Martini - Vocals.Patrick Amos (P. boy) - Guitar

Adrian Reid (KnowledgeJams) - KeysAlan Metcalfe (Bass Mental) - Bass

Andy Smith - TromboneEd Sobczak (Edolution) - Trumpet

Joe Porter (tBeat) - Musical Director & Drums

Their sound:A positive, hip-hop, dance mix with deep lyrical content

Visit www.silectamusic.com for upcoming gig dates

Image Source: Jeff Slade http://w

ww.flickr.com

/people/madjeff/

organised to do a launch at the Cellar and one of the things we said we’d do is get some sup-port acts in. A mix of acoustic, songs with backing tracks from a DJ and tracks with a live band. We put the band together for that live event and it turned out to be very popular.“A lot of people that came to support Silecta that night really enjoyed it. It picked up from there. I pulled together artists that I knew in Oxford and eve-ryone gets on really well. It’s a lucky coincidence.

“We mostly perform our own stuff but we do have one specif-ic melody with a Calvin Harris track and ‘Drop The Pressure’ - we put our own flavour into it.”

Future projects: Festival ap-pearances, Oxford gigs and music releases.

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“I got into singing by jamming with my cousin and my brother, then I went on to doing concerts at school and got really serious about it.

I like performing my own stuff. I do like performing covers but I like making the covers my own. I’d mix around with the structure of it and I can relate to my own stuff a lot more and I get a kick out of writing my own stuff because you get an honest reaction of what people think about your music.

“I grew up listening to old school R&B like LL Cool J, Motown and a lot of Jackson 5. Now I’m open to all types of music. I

like listening to how it’s produced and listening to the stories behind the song. My own music has more of an Electro, Garage vibe with an R&B twist.

“I play around with the structure of songs which is quite different and I like experiment-ing and not necessarily sticking to a certain sound, like making someone really feel a song.”

Working with Silecta“We bounce ideas off each other really well and we’re both very deep with our lyrics. We get each others concept of a song and working with Silas & His Band is the best ex-perience ever. There’s never any money in it

and that’s what makes it so nice, because it’s pure pas-sion. Everyone is unique-ly talented and work to put on the best show.”

Musical Future & Idols“I want to work with an-other local female singer who also writes. Me and

17 Year Old Singer Songwriter Image Source: Ella Martini

Joe (musical director for Silas & His Band) and I was gigging all last year with solo performances and working up in Lon-don more.

“I love Jessie Ware and Emeli Sande on a songwriting level is just amazing. As an all round performer with pres-ence, one of the greatest is Michael Jackson and Beyonce.

“I would want more of a fan base by the end of this year with singing, gigs and working with different people. I grew up around a musical fam-ily and really enjoy it.”

Word On The Street

How do you feel when de-scribed as ‘the Gil Scott-Heron of this generation’?There are so many poets I look up to such as Benjamin Zephaniah, Lemn Sissay and Ursula Rucker, but Gil Scott-Heron and Maya Angelou are my ultimate inspirations.

What career moments stand out for you?Definitely signing my book deal with The Westbourne Press in August to release my book this year. It marks ten years of me writing po-etry and validates the dedi-cation and sacrifices I had to make to follow my calling as a poet.

What message do you like to leave with your work-shop pupils?The most important thing is not to be afraid of your first

draft. Don’t expect it to be perfect; don’t even expect it to be good. But you won’t get to the good stuff un-less you put pen to page, be brave and write.

Love or Money, what was the inspiration and thought process behind the EP?The EP was created with a small group of musicians in their spare time. It was actually at the launch for Love or Money that my publishers saw me perform and decided to offer me a book deal. If I hadn’t been so proactive in getting my work out there (for free) I don’t think I would have a book deal now.

How has the reception been with ‘Nobody’s Nig-ger’ (a Stephen Lawrence

I Am Nobody’s Nigger is the highly anticipated release from writer &

award winning poet Dean Atta. We caught up with Dean ahead of his March 4th release.

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Returning for its 8th annual show, Move It, London’s

biggest dance platform week-ender is back and promises to change any preconceptions made from previous years.

With dance workshops in dif-ferent styles on offer, teacher advice sessions, live perform-ances and clothing and dance school stands around, the three day dance showcase re-turns March 8th-10th at Lon-don’s Olympia.

Speaking on the event that

she has been a part of since its first show, Creative Director, Georgina Harper has enjoyed watching the show grow and develop into the platform that attracts thousands each year today.

“I really love it when an unex-pected performance comes on and captures the audience,” Georgina says, as she express-es her love for the talent seen on the main stage; what some would describe as the events main attraction.

tribute)? Over 75,000 people have watched or listened to the poem online. The reception has been positive and the sentiment of the poem is shared by a lot of people around the world. A lot of people have thanked me for writing the poem because it’s something they felt uncomfort-able to bring up. They would instead play my poem to people as a way to express their own feelings. The main themes of the book are identity and rela-tionships and I have drawn a lot of inspiration from London life.

How did the birth of your show Come Rhyme With Me occur?It started in July 2010 when fellow poet Naomi Woddis told us Cottons Caribbean Restau-rant, London were looking to host new nights. With Deanna (Rodger) and I having Jamai-

can heritage, the Caribbean food was the main attraction. We designed the night to be a dining experience and present the performers as a menu. Eating and watching the poet-ry, there’s something to please all your senses. We have now launched a second in Bright-on.

Where can we get a copy of your book?It will be available from online stores such as Amazon and it will be an e-book as well, so anyone with an e-reader can download it. All performanc-es I do from March onwards, the book will be available to purchase on the night.

No matter who you are there will be something in this book you will relate to and a lot I will shed light on for you.

www.deanatta.co.uk

Describing the line up as ‘the most spectacular thing’, this year sees a huge focus on con-temporary and ballet dance.

“It’s such a big buzzing event and sometimes it comes to a standstill,” and these are the moments that make Move It for Georgina. The times where people are captured by some-thing that they weren’t expect-ing and you can see their live responses to something that you’ve helped bring to the stage.

This year will see a new piece from company Boy Blue who are premiering at the show; a piece that is that bit more excit-ing to see, as they have been ab-sent from the stage for a while. Plus their Artistic Director was working on the Olympic cer-emonies last summer.

British choreographer Wayne McGregor | Random Dance and his technically talented danc-ers and BBC 1’s Strictly Come

Dancing judge Darcey Bussell will also be present over the March weekend.

It was actually during the ear-ly days of the BBC show that Move It was born. A chance meeting with a business man wanting to start a dance exhi-bition, saw Georgina and her new business partner feed off the nation’s new found love.

After an early career in drama, film and media, the exposure to dance saw Georgina fall in love with the art form and she hasn’t looked back since.

Thinking back to one of the first shows, Georgina remem-bers a time where they only of-fered one room for dance work-shops to take place, something she feared would have a nega-tive effect on the visits of all. Luckily the want to dance was bigger than the lack of space available and today they have up to eleven dance classes with 30,000 places available.

Admittedly, Georgina admits with so many opportunities on offer, things can get a bit overwhelming, but tools are available on their website to help you ensure you get the most out of your day. Book-ing classes early and leaving time in the day to wander around and soak in the atmos-

phere are also top tips which remain high on her list.

So with all that said, who’s looking forward to the con-temporary inspired, premiere featuring, raw energy filled dance event? “I think you’ll be surprised.”

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Since rising to fame after the fi-

nal of X-Factor 2008, boy band JLS have released four studio albums, toured cities and won numerous awards (most recent-ly the MOBO Best

THE JLS

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Video for ‘Do You Feel What I Feel’); all just within five years.

Of course member Aston Mer-rygold is currently on your TV screens in Sky One’s Got To Dance, sharing his love for the art, but did you know that

himself, Oritse, Marvin and JB also share another passion, seperate to that of their music?

The JLS Foundation was launched in 2010 and is some-thing JLS are hugely involved in, along with the charity Can-cer Research UK. Being the philanthropists that they are, the decision to use their mu-sical platform to raise funds and awareness for the charity came naturally.

Re-launching the Founda-tion in December, as it coin-cided with Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, JLS made it their mission to ‘energise, excite and empower healthy living in all young people’.

With an added focus on the well-being of children, teen-agers and young adults, the

group highlight healthy liv-ing, with a personal touch and have created advice videos, showing you how to enjoy life with healthy food, tasty juices and of course dance. Show-ing their moves in the studio and positively promoting diet and exercise, their audiences are shown how to enjoy lead-ing a healthy lifestyle.

If you want to get involved with the JLS Foundation, you can find out more about their work and how to donate by visiting www.jlsfoundation.co.uk, where you will also find a hotline number and links to Facebook and Twitter.

As Cancer Research relies on donations, you can be part of the aim to keep doubling sur-vival rates and bring forward the day all cancers are cured.

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D A L E Y

He’s toured with US singer Miguel, released a 2012

single with Jessie J and his debut album Those Who Wait dropped last summer.

Manchester born singer and songwriter (Gareth) Daley ap-peared on the scene back in 2010 and has wowed with his covers (Maxwell’s ‘Pretty Wings’ and Usher’s ‘Climax’) and features with Gorillaz (‘Doncamatic’) and Wretch 32 (‘Long Way Home’).

We caught up with him ahead of his London show to discuss the KD experience and all things Daley.

“It’s amazing, it’s the best sup-port tour I’ve ever done,” he revealed, as supporting Miguel particularly stands out for him.

With each day being a fun expe-rience and genuinely feeling au-dience members were as happy to see him as they were Miguel,

Daley definitely sees similarities in them both; being their fan base and what they want to achieve in life.

As for the tour bus and any pre-show rituals, what does the UK’s rising star stand by to ensure a smooth running show?

“Generally don’t get horrendous-ly drunk the night before a show,” he laughed, but other than that, eating healthily, having a steam and drinking water, honey and lemon are top of his list.

Fortunate to have worked with many artists early in his career, Daley recalls on working with Jessie J. Stating that “she put the cherry on top” of his current single release. The pair wanted to work together for a while but were adamant to wait for the right song. As soon as he wrote ‘Re-member Me’, the result was “per-fect”.

As for his duet with Marsha Am-brosius, ‘Alone Together’ hap-pened on the realisation that they

were in New York at the same time. A phone call from his manager to hers led to Mar-sha taking a chance on “an unknown artist” and there you have it.

“I like performing ‘Alone To-gether’. I can really get into it and lose myself on stage.” ‘Love Lost’ is also a song Da-ley likes to perform, as he en-joys doing a mash up of R&B favourites with some of his own tracks.

So what’s next for the 23-year-old? In time he would like to collaborate with greats like Prince and Chaka Khan & UK talents Lianna La Havas, Emeli Sande and Imogen Heath. But for now he will focus on him-self, starting with new single ‘Broken’, due out this month.

Being as this is the month of love, just how will Daley be spending Valentine’s Day? A potential working trip to LA is actually on the cards, “If not, ironically I’ll be writing love songs”.

@DALEYmusic

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