When Alyse Vellturo, mastermind behind pronoun, released her newest track "run" into the world, she was a little nervous that the track would struggle to find its footing. "It was a lot of, 'This doesn’t sound like anything else,'" she explained, "but not in a good way, like, 'Oh wow!' It was more like, '...no one asked for this. But I was wrong, which is nice!"
Sure enough "run," the first track out from pronoun in over a year, made its debut on Stereogum and was quickly picked up by The New York Times and Pitchfork. Vellturo explained the release was more or less a challenge to herself to delve back into her archives of almost finished songs ("half finished, or I had verses but no chorus or had a guitar lick and nothing else") in order to drop something before heading off to SXSW this spring. But the road to the release was bumpy, filled with second-guessing and warring inner voices. Vellturo recalls, "I would go back and forth like, this is too rock, and then later be like, ugh who fucking cares, just put it out. I was just like YOLO WHATEVER, and dropped it."
With two other jobs within the music industry, Vellturo is able to see the more big picture realities of the minutiae other artists may overlook. As a label manager at The Orchard and founder of Sleep Well Records, she watches other campaigns play out in real time, a position she takes advantage of for her pronoun endeavors. "You see what things work, what things don’t work, what gets people excited, what pisses people off," she says. "It’s funny that now I have this attitude, 'Why don’t people just do it themselves!' which is just so unrealistic because it’s such a weird position that I don’t think anyone else is in." Though she began working in management, Vellturo has always wanted to dive into performing, and during a brief moment of reflection, notes "I knew where I wanted to be...which I guess is where I am now? Now that I think about it I’m right where I want to be, but it was very slow work." She first began writing songs for pronoun on the other side of a bad breakup, out of a desire for deliberate discomfort. Interestingly enough, this was also when her Twitter account, often tongue-in-cheek and self-deprecating, was born. She recalls, "That was the only platform I didn’t have any eyes on. No one is searching for this. So I would basically use Twitter to be a crazy person. I would just tweet stupid, immature stuff I would never want anyone to see. I couldn’t do it on Facebook, I couldn’t do it anywhere else. But it just started building up kind of a following. And now I’m just a loose cannon." As for what's next for pronoun, Vellturo says that she aims to complete her first full-length record by the time she hits the road with Citizen and Basement in May.
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some selections from the stage, the road and everything in between My first tour will always hold a special place in my heart. Here's to many more stints on the road.
Public took the stage at New York City's Mercury Lounge on 10/29/17
Learn more about the band here. Drop me a line if you'd like to see any of these available as prints towards the end of November. Live review of Colony House's set available here. All shots by Christina Casillo at Brooklyn Steel in New York on 9/20/17. Drop me a line if you'd like to see any of these available as prints towards the end of November. RomesColony HouseMutemath
The first time I saw Public, I was in my fall semester of sophomore year at Elon. Now, a college graduate, so much has happened between then and the most recent gig I've caught them at. I've fallen in and out of love, traveled to the other side of the world, and of course, graduated with my lifelong friends. And somewhere along the way, I got my hands on a camera I count my first time out shooting as Hopscotch 2016, not even a year ago. But I recently realized that the first time I shot a gig was actually a Public show -- a little college set in rural Virginia. After owning a camera for roughly a month, I decided to take myself, my friends, and my kit lens (18-135 f/3.5-5.6) (also--bars) to Ferrum College to see and shoot the show. I was very timid about the whole thing. I tried to shoot exclusively from the back of the area, as no one was really standing terribly close to the stage. I didn't own my work, or the fact that I was working. Below are some shots from that night (January 2016). Cut to August 3, 2017. A multitude of concerts, productions, events, and portraits under my belt and another Public show. I drag myself, my friends, and a slightly better lens (17-55, f/2.8) to Rockwood Music Hall for Public's first headlining New York show on their first headlining tour. The fun thing about growth is watching others grow beside you. Seeing Public release another EP, gain a dope fanbase and just give it their all as artists just a year or two older than me is truly restorative. I wanted to create the images to match the energy and love they put into their work. Almost two years since I first picked up the camera. I continue to grow and change with every passing day and frame. I'm not totally sure where I'll be in another two years, or even in two months. Working in a creative field is one-way ticket to uncertainty, but having an outlet that allows me grab snapshots of my life and the lives of others is a treat. And being able to somehow follow along with others on their journeys is a gift in itself.
I talk about growth happening in public to also acknowledge that without working hard and sharing my work and re-editing and so on and so forth I wouldn't be in the spot I am right now. It's so important to just make as much stuff as possible. Not at all of it will be good. Most of it will be kind of okay. But then you have your gems that rise to the top and keep your finder burning. Make a lot of stuff. Make a lot of shit. Then make more shit. Eventually, you'll have some not-shit. But you can't get to that point without constantly sharing and growing. Of course, a special thanks to Public for indulging all of my various journalistic and creative endeavors and supporting my silly, unapologetic behavior. Y'all keep my heart beating.
Originally published on Introspxct
Yesterday, Alex Garskarth, lead singer of All Time Low, posted a photo including all the support acts and crew to mark the end of the Young Renegades Tour.
In the caption of the photo, he lamented that they "need more ladies around !!!" and the backlash came quick. The wording of the tweet seemed as if it were almost preemptive damage control. However, acknowledging the problem in hindsight at the completion of tour doesn't do much good.
Therein lies the issue: The Boys' Club. When those in the industry, specifically in the plethora of successful male rock bands that litter arena shows and festival line ups only pick from their circles, they're picking people that are like them. When you're consistently aligning with people who have similar backgrounds, upbringings and social circles, more often than not, they physically resemble them as well. Note that in the photo, every single one of the men is white passing as well.
When Alex reacted to naysayers by asserting that they "tour with women all the time," it was clear that the diversity issue wasn't a matter of having the incredible number of female fans that follow ATL see representation on the stage or giving women in the music industry who are so often looked down on an opportunity. It was about checking boxes.
And when it comes to gender diversity, it goes beyond having a single female-fronted band sharing the bill. There are whole Facebook groups full of aspiring non-male sound techs, roadies, tour managers, and photographers just waiting for their big shot.
All of this leads to a broader issue in music. Many women trying to make it in the music industry simply aren't taken seriously. They're considered "fan girls" or "groupies" (both terms that are misogynistic and target the demographic of young women as a whole) who just want a way into the band's inner circle. The sooner that women are seen as potential colleagues, employees, coworkers rather than people that want to sleep with the band, the sooner that some of the rungs on the upward ladder to success can be repaired. More often than not, though, we still need a hand to reach down and pull us up (I say "we" and "us" as a woman who sees myself in this situation as well). This hand comes in the form of established bands who have the platform to allow us to grow. And while there are bands like Diet Cig who have taken active stances on diversifying their touring cohorts, they are in the minority. Proper allyship means using privilege to help others who may not have the same experiences and connections. Alex, women in the industry can absolutely put this on you. The onus is on you to make the change, rather than lazily caption a photo on Twitter. Proactive behavior by those in power are the only way to change up this Boys' Club of a scene. Originally published on Introspxct. Photo: Meredith Truax While John Vaughn and Ben Lapps were close friends and musical collaborators all throughout their Cincinnati school days, Matthew Alvarado took a bit longer to enter the picture. “I used to take the bass player of the high school jazz band’s bass and practice during lunch period. John and I talked between lunch periods once because he heard me,” Alvarado recalls. “We started hanging out and then he invited me to jam with Ben and himself in Ben’s basement. John started playing the tremolo pedal for I Need You [off of what would be their Red EP]. I sat and I thought about it and start playing.” Alvarado recounts that the rest of the evening was pretty routine, with the trio snacking and playing video games like any other group of teen boys. However, the events of that night had flipped a switch for the group as a whole. “I don’t remember if it was that night, or some time that week, but it was pretty late for high school, around midnight probably,” he said. “I got a one word text from John. It just said ‘Matt.’ And I said ‘Yeah?’ And he said, ‘Are you ready to heed the call?’”
Their newest release, the Sweet Lemonade EP, is a slight departure from the look and feel of their earlier releases, Red (2012), Let’s Make It (2014), and Let’s Remake It (2015). Drummer Lapps explains, “With Red in the beginning, the kind of drumming I wanted to do was like Grizzly Bear and Local Natives, very indie. But now I’m obsessed with stuff like Earth, Wind and Fire, and I love making dance beats. Our new record is a lot of dance beats, four-on-the-floor with auxiliary stuff sprinkled in. That’s just my drummer perspective.” The funkier, moodier tracks featured on the EP are a bit of a contrast to the lighthearted love songs of their last release, Let’s Remake It, but bassist Alvarado stresses that the path taken was a natural progression, rather than an outright pivot. “We had another five or six songs between Let’s Remake It and Sweet Lemonade that we scrapped. Maybe from the outside in, people are probably like ‘Wow, that’s kind of a big shift in their sonic space,’ but it’s been a pretty gradually transformation. We’ve been writing a lot; we didn’t just jump to this conclusion.’” Though the EP was recorded in the same space as their previous EPs, Moonlight Studio, there were a couple of key differences in the production process that the group believes set this project apart from the rest of their body of work. For one, the producer brought on for the project, Austin Nivarel, is a contemporary of theirs. Having someone who had a finger on the pulse of pop music production who also respected the group’s vision was conducive to getting the best possible product out into the world. Vaughn, guitarist and lead vocalist, also explained their different pre-production process this time around. “One of the biggest differences between this and previous wor k is that we came in with super fleshed out demos. A lot of sounds that you hear on this EP were made on my laptop. We wanted to make sure we had everything together before we brought it to a producer or engineer.” And for the first time, the group welcomed collaboration in the writing stage, with Eli Maiman of Walk the Moon lending a hand with On My Mind. As for their visual identity, the group stressed that this release was all about stepping out of their comfort zone. The album cover features a hot pink background and a lemon fashioned into a grenade. The pink and yellow color palette of the cover, designed by Brandon Rike, carries through to their website, social media profiles, new merchandise, and the admat for their tour. Past motifs had stuck with black, with accents of pastel green, pink and blue. Vaughn elaborates that this shift not only sets this EP apart from rest of their discography but from other acts in their scene. “There’s so much noise nowadays, so much information people are taking in all the time. If you want to be an artist that does make an impact, being loud is something you have to do. We’ve not really gone for that yet,” he said. “In the past we’ve been more reserved and thought through things a thousand times before we execute it. Now we want to do things that are loud, make an impact, and leave a taste in your mouth.” The new approach is definitely effective for the group, as a number of opportunities have come their way in the past few months, including a licensing deal. It’s quite possible you’ve heard a tune from the group without knowing it, in an ad for Truly Spiked & Sparkling. Sure enough, the official audio on the band’s Youtube page is sprinkled with comments saying that they reached the band through the television spot. Though there was hesitation about a connection with a spirits brand, the three agreed that the deal was a great step at the end of the day. A day after Sweet Lemonade dropped, the group was able to debut the new tracks live in a very special way. Vaughn, Lapps, and Alvarado took the stage in front of 18,000 people to open for Twenty One Pilots’ penultimate show of the Tour De Columbus series at Nationwide Arena. A number of connections, as well as great timing and tunes, helped to get the trio on that stage. After the debut of 4Her, industry attention started to pick up and the band looked toward friends in the know. One of these friends was Michael Gibson, former tour manager for Twenty One Pilots. "We actually contacted Michael for business advice," he details. "With all the emails and stuff we’d gotten, we were like, we need to reach out to our industry friends that can provide us with knowledge." For Vaughn, it was probably something of a full circle moment. Alvarado described John’s texts as when he could discern the start of the band, but the lead vocalist had a separate moment of clarity. Back in 2012, the trio opened for Twenty One Pilots at a different Columbus venue, the LC Pavilion, now Express Live. It was their final show bearing the name Crown before they officially began to release music as Public. “The crowd was so happy, it was one of those magical things,” Vaughn said. “Afterwards, we were cleaning up, I was rolling up my cords. They started the music back up, the venue music in between sets. It was Come Together by The Beatles and I just had this moment where I thought, ‘I think we’re gonna do this.’” I had the pleasure of photographing some of my best friends from high school as the sun set on our little Long Island town. Beka and Kaden were about to head back to Utah, and Liana's preparing to migrate to Baltimore. I loved capturing these fleeting moments together as adults who have watched each other grow from weird preteens to mature wonderful Real People.
Click for full size Great Good Fine Ok headed home to New York City this past weekend for two shows, accompanied by Morgxn, a Tennessean with a soft spot for the Big Apple
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