YRB Magazine

LOS ANGELES

by Nate Santos

Photography by Gray Hamner

Today's popular music isn’t easy to define. It consists of many elements from different genres that coexist in our iPods to create catchy tunes that travel through our ears, relating to our everyday lives and thus, capturing our attention. Enter 2AM Club, a new breed whose perspective, according to their emcee Tyler Cordy, is “that pop music can still be smart.” 

After forming in L.A. circa 2007, the sextet played the town for a year organizing their own special venue. The band cooked up a four-month residency dubbed “Tiny Porno” at The Derby located in the city's Los Feliz neighborhood. “We just wanted a place that was sweaty, sexy, loud and intense,” recalls lead vocalist Marc Griffin. “It was just a little black box that we could go wild in.”  

“We threw it as a party rather than like another group of dudes tryna hustle their band and their flyers,” adds Cordy. It was during “Tiny Porno,” which hosted a number of opening bands, odd sponsors and drink specials, that record labels began to pick up on the noise, leading the group to a deal with RCA.  

Since signing to a major, the guys moved to NYC, toured with Philly duo Chiddy Bang and hip- hop crooner Mike Posner and even opened for Questlove and Too $hort. Soon, the blogosphere buzz was built after Chiddy Bang’s Xaphoon Jones remixed 2AM’s first iTunes release, “Nobody’s In Love,” and Yacht put their own flare on a remix to “Flashing Room.”

NEW YORK CITY

by Kristie Bertucci

Photography by Randee St. Nicholas

First look at Matisse and one might guess that she’s a model. While that’s partly true, Matisse is more than just a strikingly beautiful girl – she’s a talented singer/songwriter, carving out a name for herself in the music industry.

Even with roots based in acting and modeling (at six months old being in the spotlight on One Life to Live and, by the time she was 15, seen as the face for John Frieda’s popular “Sheer Blonde” hair products – along with her twin sister), it’s her singing career that’s her real passion. Now, the 23-year-old’s Madonna-inspired single “Better Than Her” is climbing the charts – something that sort of shocked the pop-centric Matisse.

Naming influences that range from Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and Prince to contemporary acts like Lady Gaga and Beyoncé, Matisse has been interested in music since she was a little girl growing up in Toronto, Canada. “I have such a musical family that it just comes natural to me,” she says. “My dad played in a band, so music was always around the house. As I got older, my sister and I would sometimes sing with my dad at his gigs.”

Although music was what she initially intended to do, it was modeling that deterred her when Matisse and her sister won a Seventeen magazine modeling contest after a family member submitted their pictures. “It was all a fluke,” she admits. “But, really, it was a great vehicle to get into the music world as it turns out.”

By 16, she was working with music in conjunction to her modeling career, learning the business and perfecting her songwriting skills. However, it wasn’t until she moved out to Atlanta that she really began to experience the music world and her enthusiasm to succeed grew.

“It was the most creative, artistic environment I’ve been in,” Matisse describes. “I began writing more, learned to produce and definitely learned a lot about sticking to your guns. People are going to try to pull you away from what you want, but in the end, it’s important to stay true to yourself.” That’s exactly what she plans to do no matter how much people want her to be something else. She’s been working with and learning from some of the biggest names in the industry, such as Dallas Austin, Tricky Stewart, The-Dream, Ne-Yo, Stargate and Kevin Rudolf.

When asked what sets her apart from other female pop artists, Matisse took no time to respond. “That I’m me, and I’m not trying to have any angle beyond that.” While other newcomers feel the pressure to be the next big pop star, Matisse is satisfied with showing the world her true self. “Musically, I don’t try to fit the mold. I just feel that being myself is enough.”

And being herself is what makes her so unique in a time where cookie-cutter reigns supreme. While she may admire other top girl acts at the moment, she’s not opposed to one day collaborating with them. However, for now, music is her top priority, and she’s doing everything possible to make her debut album a real testament of who Matisse is. ”[The album] will mostly be pop, but with some dance elements and a bit of R&B thrown in. It'll be a fusion of things. Really, I want to make music that I like and that I can be proud of.”

LONDON

by Gina Ponce
Photography by Chris Baldwin

Although just recently flooding the States with his anthems and dance club beats, Taio Cruz isn’t entirely new to the game – the 27-year-old heartbreaker has actually been a behind-the-scenes player since starting to write and produce music in college. Once other artists caught on to his talents it was inevitable that Taio become in-demand in the studio, resulting in collaboration credits that include artists such as Britney Spears, Usher, Brandy and Flo Rida. Now, Taio finds himself in the spotlight, and although he appreciates the attention, it seems he wouldn’t mind too much if he was still the name behind a song and not the face of it.

“I prefer the creativity of being in the studio,” he discloses, “but I do enjoy the creativity of making videos and the firsthand experience of seeing the reaction of fans to the music.”

The release of 2008 U.K. debut Departure began Taio’s career outside of the studio, and a quick follow-up with 2009’s Rokstarr sealed the potential for international success. After teaming up with so many mainstream artists Stateside, the London-born singer/songwriter/producer found it uncharacteristically easy to enter the U.S. market with his breakout single, “Break Your Heart,” which climbed the Billboard Hot 100 chart to #1 earlier this spring. Writing the song from personal experience and enlisting Ludacris to help re-record the song for his U.S. full-length debut (also titled Rokstarr) got things off to a straightforward start.

“[The song] is kind of an exaggeration of a real situation,” he explains. “I wanted to be single after breaking up with my ex-girlfriend and [it seems] whenever you go out and you meet new girls they kind of want to hook you into a new relationship, and sometimes you have to let them down lightly. They might get a little bit heartbroken. That’s essentially the idea for “Break Your Heart,” but there’s definitely room for interpretation on that.”

Staying true to his roots, Taio insists that other than a few new tracks on the American Rokstarr release, he hasn’t found any reason to change up his style for his newest audience.

“I’m keeping it British,” he claims. “On this album people will definitely hear an electro-pop record. I’ve never ever called myself urban, even though a lot of people do. I just make good pop music and that’s what it is. I think I read in the press somewhere that Usher or someone said that I’m messing with urban music; I’ve never said I was urban once in my entire career. There’s a lot of pop-rock, a bit of hip-hop influence, a bit of R&B influence, but just good pop music.”

Adding to his caliber in the music industry, Taio is also the founder/CEO of his own record label, Rokstarr Entertainment Division, which is naturally progressing into a quality brand that also encompasses fashion and accessories (sunglasses, watches, luggage). And making sure he’s as involved in his other projects as he is with writing and producing his own music, Taio has final say on all the designs of Rokstarr products and knows exactly what he’s looking for when it comes to signing an artist to his label. 

“I’m very picky,” he admits. “But I’m definitely looking for that amazing artist… I kind of operate from the music first standpoint. Other people operate from the [image]. You know, they want pretty girls… Where I come from it’s not really about the image or anything as much, it’s more about that people just love my music. More people know my songs than know me. [So] someone who plays me amazing songs is the person I want to find.”

MAINE

by Nate Santos
Photography by Josh Madson for Madson and Kojima

BROOKLYN

by Nancy Dunham
Photography by Lloyd Bishop

It's not uncommon for small town folk to look wistfully at interstate signs pointing to New York and other seemingly exotic locales. Stephen Hindman of The Golden Filter perhaps took such signs more to heart than most others while growing up in Youngstown and Columbus, Ohio. As soon as he could, he left a dead-end job in Columbus, headed to the city and never looked back.

“I was making music and talking to some other people and talking about New York,” says Hindman. “When you are in Ohio, there is always a road sign that says New York. It's far away, but it's right there.”

Such insights into the personality of the duo that are the core of The Golden Filter are rare because the band subscribes to the “less is more” philosophy, preferring to move themselves out of the limelight so as not to disrupt listeners' internal processing when they absorb the group’s electronic music. “We really want the listeners to be able to kind of disappear into some other world that they would create for themselves [through our music],” says vocalist Penelope Trappes. “That's why we don't get too caught up on specifics of individuals. We want people to explore their own imaginations.”

It’s a rational mentality considering the two built their musical vision from their private sensibilities. For Hindman, that happened when his imagination was sparked by the punk music – think Siouxsie and the Banshees – that his older brother loved. For Australian native Trappes, early musical influences shifted among various formats, finally landing her in operatic vocal training before she visited NYC for a month, fell in love with the city and moved there. The two met by happenstance about five years ago when they moved across the street from each other and soon discovered they both had interests in film, photography and other arts.

“We both liked electronic music from the get-go. That's one of the mutual things we bonded over,” says Trappes. “Stephen had a home studio and had recorded and done some things on his laptop, and I had some things, too.” As the two began to share their independent work, a partnership began. “Basically, we worked together and collaborated on ideas,” says Trappes. “We would sometimes work together, sometimes we'd go off and work independently, maybe sit at a keyboard and then record what we had. We would sit in the room together and, to use an old '70s term, jam.”

The collaborations developed into recordings that were passed around the blogosphere and soon the duo were receiving something akin to fan letters from all corners of the world. Now with their impending U.S. debut album release, Voluspa – named for what Trappes says is the “poetic beginning of the earth and the story of life and eventual destruction and rebirth and cyclical nature of life and peaks and valleys” – the two are on the road touring, and the concerts themselves will be multimedia experiences using the pair's own photography and artwork to further develop their overall artistic visions.

“We try to use visuals as much as music,” says Trappes of how the duo creates its atmosphere. “That is always how we're growing and developing… Generally speaking, from our inception, we didn't really talk about ourselves. We want to keep an air of mystery about our music.”