#he also sold smaller venues in more places. like... this is not the same situation at all

[sockgate]

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[devil-in-those-eyes]

Professional Part 3-Roger Taylor

Hi guys!! so this isn't smut, but part 4 will be! I had to split up part three and four because it ended up being eight pages in word and I wasn't going to put you through that. But enjoy!

           A couple weeks later and the tour was in the starting stages. It was their first big world tour and it was your first world tour with them, when you started with them you only went on tours in the states and then separate tours in Europe, but now it was one big ass tour and you were excited to be right along side them. The tour started three weeks ago in the states and it would eventually end in England in five months or so. But this one would be different though because the boys were playing for stadiums, not smaller arenas, and they were selling out every seat available. By the fourth show, as you stood on the side of the stage and watched the boys give their all, you wondered if you should have tried to find bigger venues for them but you, Jim and Paul decided that the venues you got were good enough.

           You took a sip from your water bottle and watched as the boys started singing the opening lines to Fat Bottomed Girls. You laughed when you saw Deaky bust out in dance moves with his bass, shooting you a wicked smile, and Brian start in on his guitar. You loved their music; every line, every guitar solo but nothing hit you quite like when Roger played his drums. You believed that the best part of a song laid where the drums were, it was what carried the songs in the best way. Sure Brian’s guitar playing was legendary and Freddie’s singing was iconic but when Roger started banging on the drums, that’s when you really started to feel the music.

           You would never admit that to anyone, certainly not Roger, but as you started swaying to the music Deaky looked your way and grinned. Unable to help yourself, you looked away from Deaky and at Roger, watching him hit the drums and enjoy the crowd that was singing along with him and Freddie as he sang the backup vocals. Something made him turn his head and he instantly found you, swaying along to his music with a soft smile on your face. Before you could look away, you saw something gleam in his eyes but you couldn’t make it out through the dim light of the stage.

           “Almost regret the venues we picked,” Paul said as he slid up beside you, looking from you to Freddie, who totally had the crowd.

           Paul had no say in the venues you secured for the band, but to save another argument between the two of you, you kept your mouth shut and nodded. “I’ll never underestimate the demand to see Queen again,” you said, smiling while the boys finished up the song and continued on to another one.

           “Only a hundred and some more shows to go,” Paul said and you nodded, which meant a hundred and some more nights of watching them perform.

           You tried to keep your relationship with all the boys professional, but sometimes it slipped to being more friendly. You couldn’t help it, after working for the band for the last few years you liked Deaky’s slight dorkiness and inability to stay still for long, or Brian’s small rants he went on when he heard about something slightly interesting or Freddie just as himself. Even Roger reeled you in before you kept each other at a safe distance. It just so happened that you didn’t have to have a talk with the other boys because they did a better job at hiding the way they all liked you more than the bands’ manager.

           Half way through their set list, during Killer Queen you couldn’t help but sing along to the song that basically made them famous, you were pulled away from watching the rest of the set and having fun was forgotten about as your real job took over.

           Hours later you had wrangled up the boys, pulling them away from the backstage party and playing the mama hen. They needed to get as much sleep as possible, it was only the start of the tour and they needed to start strong, not start off with a bang and end up hating every second of this tour. All four men loved booze, alcohol and warm bodies, you didn’t like pulling them away from fun but you had your reasons.

           “What do you mean there is only three rooms?” You echoed, bewildered at the receptionist. You motioned to the five people behind you, who all hung back in hushed conversation. There was something about being in the lobby of a hotel after one in the morning, it was quiet almost eerie. “I called two months ago and made reservations for six rooms, I got a call a week ago for confirmation.”

           The girl behind the desk gave you an apologetic look, “I’m so sorry, Miss. Y/L/N, there must have been a mix up.”

           You sighed and leaned into the mahogany counter top, “is there really no other rooms available. Miss, I don’t even care if they aren’t on the same room.”

           She frowned, “I can check, but I can’t promise anything.”

           It’s the middle of the summer in New York, Queen was in town for two shows and there was always something big going on in New York. You nodded at the girl and she walked off to check for more rooms. You sucked in a deep breath and lowered your head into your hands.

           “You all right, Y/N?” you felt Roger’s hand slid to your middle back and felt his chest brush your shoulder.

           “No,” you grumbled. You could smell the beer on him, not because he drank so damn much but because he had gotten into the habit of pouring beer onto the top of his drums, all because he liked the sound and it also looked extremely cool. He smelled like beer, sweat and smoke, but the smoke was something that gave you comfort because it was all Roger. You dropped your hands and looked at Roger, “they only have three rooms for us.”

           His dark blonde eyebrows pulled together, “But you said you called.”

           You pursed your lips together and nodded. You motioned towards the girl, who was talking to another worker, “She’s checking for more rooms.”

           “Y/N, it’s okay,” Roger promised you softly just as the girl came back to you.

           “I’m sorry, Miss. Y/L/N, there are no more rooms available.”

           Roger must have felt you three seconds away from a breakdown before his hand touched your arm, “It’s okay, love. It’s one night, we’ll manage.” He looked at the woman and smiled, “Can we just have the keys for the room?”

           The girl nodded, her cheeks flushing from Roger Taylor speaking to her, and she slid three keys over to him. You followed Roger back to the group and he took over, not giving you any time to think of sleeping arrangements.

           “So, we’re going to be crammed tonight. Paul’s in with Fred, Bri and Deaky.” He looked my way, “guess you’re stuck with me.”

           So much for professional.

           By the time you and Roger reached the room, you felt wired. Suddenly all the exhaustion from being up at six am, and starting your day while the bus driver drove into New York, seemed forgotten about. It was disgustingly cliché because your room only had one king sized bed, the windows overlooking the streets of New York, and when you stared at the bed you realized you were in for a long night and morning because no one had to be anywhere tomorrow until their show late at night.

           It was the reason why you guys were staying in a hotel, because New York demanded two shows instead of one because they sold out Madison Square Garden in minutes and you guys were able to squeeze in another show.

           “Hope you’re a cuddlier,” Roger smirked your way as both of you looked at the bed.

           “You know,” you started, “Brian told me you sleep naked, is it true?”

           Roger’s eyebrows lifted, “and if it is?”

           “You’re sleeping in sweats,” you answered swiftly, causing Roger to laugh.

           You placed your suitcase on the side of the bed, closest to the window, and felt your nerves kick up speed. It had been going really well between you and Roger since the night in his car, he actually spoke to you and made it a point to make sure you didn’t feel like he was being cold towards you or keeping you out of his life.

           But that wasn’t helping the situation.

           “I need a drink,” you grumbled.

           “I think the bar is still open, want to grab a drink?” Roger asked after he came out of the bathroom after changing out of his sweaty clothes and showering so he no longer smelled like the beer he bashed when he drummed.

           “You know what, why not.” You answered and Roger smiled.

           A couple minutes later you sat at the bar with Roger, he had a whiskey while you had a rum and coke. You looked at him through the corner of his eye and watched as he relaxed into the barstool, “You played a good show.”

           “Playing in Madison Square Garden is probably my new favorite venue,” Roger said, turning his head so he could look at you. His eyes drinking in the black dress and your legs peaking out from under the skirt of the dress. He loved the way you got fed up with your hair and twisted it into a bun at the top of your head, little strands of hair fell over your neck and your shoulders.

           “You get to play there tomorrow too,” you smiled before taking a sip of your drink, feeling your muscles slowly relax.

           He placed his arm on the back of the chair and turned towards you so he could look at you better. He smirked, “Also get to watch you dance while I play.”

           Your cheeks flushed with a deep red as you glanced back down at your drink, “you saw that?”

           “Hard not too when you’re the only thing I see.” He grumbled lowly, making you lift your eyes back up to his. You felt his low grumble all the way down in the pit of your stomach, the look in his eyes made your thighs clench together just so it could stop the tingling sensation.

           After a couple silent seconds of looking at one another he looked back down at the beer in his hands and looked almost sheepish as he asked, “Can I ask you something?”

           “Am I going to regret saying yes?” you joked, half expecting him to laugh with you and promise you that it was a silly question but he didn’t.

           Instead he continued to look at the label on his beer bottle while he asked, “Did you ever feel what I feel between us?”

           His thumb nail began picking at the labels edge while you stared at him, hoping you hadn’t heard him right. When your silence wasn’t good enough for him he looked back up at him and cleared his throat, “I mean, was it one sided?”

           “Rog,” you started with a soft and barely there shake of your head, lips parted in shock and unable to form any other words than his nickname the boys gave him.

           You watched as he smiled softly and leaned closer to you, hanging his arm on the back of your chair and holding himself up with his other hand against the bar. “I mean, fuck, you’ve got me going mental. I know you feel it between us, I just want to hear you admit it. Tell me I’m not going crazy.”

           Was he really doing this? Inside the hotel bar, where someone could easily hear him or Paul could easily stroll down from his room and see what was happening.

           You shivered as you felt the warmth of Roger’s hand touch your back. “I’ve felt it for years, Y/N. We’ve both been lying to ourselves, love.” He whispered, “Tell me you want me as much as I want you.”

           What would telling him your darkest truth achieve? You and Roger had always been so opposite, it wasn’t even entertaining. He was a rock and roll star, touring the world and constantly at the attention of hundreds of women. He had already mistaken lust for love and had a three year old daughter, that you loved dearly. But you were this pretty, but normal, girl. You were in charge of Roger and his mates, who you had form friendships with. You were the settle down kind of woman, Roger loved the free spirited women.

           So for him to come and beg, pleaded, with you to own up to your truth when nothing would really come out of it was stupid. It was reckless. One night with Roger so he could work out his four years of pinning after you, just so you could risk your job for one night, wasn’t worth it. When was he ever going to get that?

           Frustrated tears filled your eyes and you quickly got off of the chair, you dodged his hands as they tried to stop you, and raced towards the elevator. “Y/N, wait!” Roger called out as you pressed the button to go up, crossing your arms over your chest. The hotel was quiet, almost eerie but there was always that chance that someone would see you two and someone would say something. The elevator opened and you stepped inside, continuously pushing the button of your room number and considering running to Deaky and Brian, but then they’d ask questions. Just as the doors shut, Roger slipped into the elevator and suddenly the two of you were alone again and your frustrations blew apart.

           “What do you want from me?” you exclaimed.

           “I want you to admit it!” Roger yelled back.

           “What good would it do for us?” you asked him. “Of course I have feelings for you, but it wouldn’t change anything!”

           Of course I have feelings for you. It was the words Roger had been waiting to hear you say for the past four years, you admission was like hearing the angels speak as he entered the gates of heaven. Those words were all he needed to press you into the elevator walls and seal his lips over yours. A surprised squeal was swallowed by his mouth as his tongue brushed over your bottom lip and licked its way inside your mouth, his hands grasping yours and bringing them up and over your head. 

A/N: thoughts??

Taglist: @brianandthemays @asquiresofftime @reedusteinrambles 

[lifeinahole27]

CSJJ Day 5: “Hidden Agendas” (au)

Summary: Working together for as long as they have, Emma and Killian have spent plenty of time sharing rooms on work trips. That’s what happens when you’re the only two single members of the seniority team of security. This time, however, with a sold out hotel to blame, they’re sharing more than just a room.

Rating: E

Warnings: Mild riot somewhere in the middle there, and obviously sexual situations. 

A/N: This was one of two requests I got this year for “bed sharing” and this one kind of... accidentally became a whole fic. Dedicated to @captainstudmuffin with all my heart, for all the reasons you already know. I can’t wait to see what adventures 2019 has in store for us, both separately and together. A secondary dedication goes to @distant-rose on this, the day of her birthday. Hope it is everything you hoped it would be, filled with love and smiles as bright as yours!

Find it on Ao3 or FFN!

-x-

“Oh, fuck me,” she grumbles. It’s not quite under her breath but not purposefully loud enough for her partner to hear.

“That’s a little more direct than I expected from you, Swan. Should I close the door, at least?”

Emma turns, giving Killian a look that she hopes is the definition of withering. Unfortunately, he’s not deflating. If anything, he’s puffing up more, his eyes twinkling with his humor as his smile grows. He nudges her a little to move out of the doorway, taking care to wheel in both their suitcases while she has both their garment bags over her arm. He gets caught on her laptop case, trying to separate his own from hers as they struggle in the doorway. Finally, he’s free, and he stops just inside when the rest of the room becomes visible, his chuckles from their little dance in the entryway dying immediately.

“Oh, bloody hell.” And, there it is. He finally catches the reason for her immediate disdain a moment ago, staring at the one king size bed that dominates the room.

“Mmhmm,”she hums, turning and letting the door swing shut. It would be more satisfying to slam it shut but she doesn’t need the hotel chewing out their head of ops because of damage to a doorway thanks to Emma… again.

“I thought they said we had a double when they booked it for us!”

“Well, either someone doesn’t know what a ‘double’ means or someone fucked up our reservation. Either way, I’m placing my bets on Wendy.”

“Maybe Nolan got our double by accident?”

“He posted to the group chat about twenty minutes ago. He’s definitely in a king.”

“Give me a key. I’ll come back up after I get my own room and grab my items.”

“They don’t have any,” she says before he can even reach for the key jacket. With an air of defeat, she drags herself over to the foot of the bed and drops onto it, immediately falling back with their garment bags in tow. “Nolan called to try to block three more rooms the other day and they were oversold. We can do this, Jones. It’s only four nights.”

He looks uneasy, and she feels the same way, but not because she’s worried about two adults sharing a king size bed. It’s because she has wanted her security partner for longer than she wants to admit and after three nights in a row with wet dreams, Starring Killian Jones, she’s not really sure how she plans on relaxing enough to sleep.

“Right, just four nights,” he finally echoes. He sighs, loudly, walking around one side of the bed, the one he’s apparently claiming as his, and hoists his suitcase up. There’s a single chest of drawers beneath the television, and Emma watches half-interestedly as he quickly and efficiently unpacks. She’s not used to seeing the process, because when they do share a room, they’re not usually so… on top of each other, so to speak. He seems to have a system, some set order that he has to follow as he empties the small carry-on that’s identical to her own.

That’s a perk of being security to Governor Mills, she supposes. Their travel items and wardrobe for events are all provided, since Regina has this thing about aesthetics and matching. God forbid someone show up with a different suitcase, or wearing a jacket she doesn’t approve of.

Whatever, she can’t really complain, especially when she finally hauls herself off the bed to start her own unpacking. They have a property sweep tonight, a briefing in the morning, and then the rest of the day will be spent looking menacing and quietly fucking off with Jones, Nolan, Lucas, and the others. The rest of the trip will all be smaller jobs, but tomorrow’s Town Hall is the main event.

They’re always the odd ones out – Emma and Killian – because the rest are all paired off and, on the occasions they have longer trips, they bring their spouses and significant others with them. This trip is too short, and there’s a good chance that the only one with a significant other is Mayor Mills herself, since she does have her “personal security” of Robin. No one’s allowed to say it out loud but the two of them have been banging for at least two years now.

David has his charming little Snow White at home, Ruby has her girlfriend Mulan who also works security gigs like they do, and then they’re the two castoffs, Emma and Killian.

Emma’s unpacking is a little less refined than Killian’s. She’s doing little more than chucking her clothes into the top drawer on the side that Killian left empty for her, and he scoffs when he sees her method. It’s just her street clothes and under garments. It’s not like it’s a big deal.

“This is who I am, Jones. You know this,” she says, heaping the last of the fabric – a bundle of bras and underwear and tights and socks – into the last of the space available. The next drawer down sits empty, waiting for her to shove dirty clothes into. Her casual shoes all go in the bottom drawer, because she can.

“Indeed, love. Indeed.” At that, he takes his toiletry bag and shaving kit and goes to line them up on the vanity, probably with a ruler so nothing is out of line.

With a raised eyebrow and a quick glance to make sure he’s going to be occupied for a minute, she silently pulls open the top drawer on Killian’s side and has to stop herself from slamming it back in with a groan. His boxers are all folded and lined up, his socks in neat little bundles beside them. She knows for a fact that if she were to open the next one, it would have his undershirts and the bottom one would have his jeans, and probably a hoodie. This is just who Killian is. Using extra care as to not disturb his precious work, Emma closes the drawer and turns away from the dresser.

Next comes out her own toiletries bag, and she closes the suitcase before tucking it into the closet. In an attempt to appease the master of organization, she makes sure to hang each of their garment bags, putting his suit on one side of the closet with room below for his own carryon, and hers on the other side.

They each have laptop bags to unpack, still, but with less space it’s going to be tricky. She tries to make sure she doesn’t take up too much room on the small desk, placing her headset and her laptop on the smooth surface and tucking her bag next to the nightstand on her side of the bed.

It’s all worth it to bring a little of his style to their shared space, because when Killian finally does exit the bathroom, he sees the closet and nods in approval, going to retrieve his own bag to place in the space left so he can close it up. He sees the desk set up, giving another small sigh but smiling at Emma as he putters on.

“Thanks for leaving room for me, Swan,” he says as they switch. He starts to plug in his chargers next to his side of the bed and takes out his laptop as Emma takes her toiletries to the bathroom, not even really looking as she gives him a nod of acknowledgement.

Sure enough, Killian’s items are already lined up, and she sweeps her eyes over each one, wondering which one of the unmarked bottles (a color-coded system, for fuck’s sake, Jones) is the one that makes him smell like heaven, or sex appeal, or post-coital bliss. She doesn’t touch any of them, just ripping open her own hanging bag to extract her deodorant and throw her travel bottles in the shower. She leaves out her toothbrush and toothpaste, settling her own perfume next to them, and lets her make-up tumble to her side of the vanity in a pile of disarray. Whatever, it works.

When she walks out, Killian is sitting in the spot she vacated to start unpacking, a change of clothes in his lap while he scrolls through something on his phone.

“Are we meeting the team up at the venue or here at the hotel? As soon as I change, I’ll be ready to go.”

“The lobby, then out to eat, then to the venue,” Emma says, moving back to the drawer she just stuffed full of her half-folded clothes. “Don’t come out until I give the clear,” she tells him, turning her back as he gives an affirmative, and she starts digging in earnest. When she hears the door click shut, the race is on.

They do this every time they work together, but usually it’s in separate rooms. Usually it’s whoever can make it to the lobby first. One time, she took the stairs, skipping whole sections and feeling the rush of victory when she went barreling into the lobby two seconds before the elevator doors opened and Killian stepped out assuming he’d already won when he shut the doors on her face on the tenth floor.

Off go the shoes and socks, left in a pile with her yoga pants and t-shirt. For the sake of comfort, she even grabs a new pair of underwear, doing her best to put on all the new items while simultaneously chucking the worn stuff into the middle drawer. She’s just finished zipping her other boot when Killian wrenches open the door, hoping by looks alone that he got the win.

“You didn’t reapply your perfume,” he says. She also hasn’t touched up her make-up, but she won’t concede.

“It’s optional. I don’t need to do it in order to be ready to go.”

She smiles sweetly, especially in the face of his scowl, and she waits by the door for him to stash his dirty clothes and grab his wallet and phone.

“Call it a draw,” she says, finally, reaching for the leather jacket he grabs from the back of the chair at the desk.

“Aye, fine, whatever,” he still grumbles, but he’s smirking this time.

They’re still down in the lobby before the others, and they verbally harass each other with each new turn they play in Words with Friends until they’re joined. They’ve always found their groove in small competitions.

The rest of the night is easy. They all get dinner, a meeting of camaraderie that comes with people who have worked together for so long, before heading over to the venue for a security sweep.

They eyeball the places they’ll all be stationed tomorrow, as well as where they’ll position the rest of the security team. She remembers being one of the younglings, being one of the ones that didn’t have a choice or say in the matter, being one of the least informed members of the team. Now, she’s one of five minds that runs the whole operation, even if Hood stays closer to Mills instead of spending time with them anymore.

As David and Ruby complete the backstage sweep, Killian drops into one of the plush chairs in the theater Governor Mills will be speaking in tomorrow. It’s all old, but everything is still luxurious and well-maintained, and she’d love to see something more like a musical in this place if she could. She wanders over to where Killian is sitting, slouched down and leaning back with his eyes closed. She drops onto the seat next to him, easily resting her head on his shoulder. They’ve been on the road since six this morning, and the day has not only caught up to them, but surpassed them.

It’s still bound to take time before the other two finish up, especially when she hears Robin’s voice join the others. She tunes them all out, instead shifting as Killian does so they can find the perfect napping position. It happens to be his head resting against her own, his coat bunched up on the arm rest so it doesn’t dig into her ribs. She’s curled up and angled towards him, her head still on his shoulder and his arm easily looped around her waist. She thinks his prosthetic is resting on his thigh but she doesn’t bother to open her eyes to look, just reaches out to find it and happens to leave her own hand resting on it.

For security team leaders, they sure are oblivious to the looks and whispers directed at them from the stage. Ruby takes out her phone and snaps a few pictures, making sure to post one to her private Instagram using the Superzoom with hearts on it. David makes sure to snap one of his own and send it to Snow, making up for the thousands of times Emma and Killian have called the other couple Prince Charming and Snow White.

Robin just sighs, wishing the two idiots out in the audience would wake up already and figure out they’re together, that they’ve been together as long as he and Regina have been together. At least he and the Governor accepted their feelings and did something about them. These two, on the other hand, have been living firmly in denial. He wonders if Wendy really messed up their reservation or if she did it on purpose to try to spark them into acting on their attraction to one another.

Whatever it was, the other three finish their sweep, going over details and making sure they’re all locked and wrapped up before going to wake them.

“Off we go, you two,” Robin says gently, resting his hand on Killian’s free shoulder. Ruby heads for Emma, shaking her awake and pulling her from her seat.

Emma does her best to shed the sleepiness until they can get back to the hotel, but it’s a difficult task. Ruby pulls her along, whispering in her ear something about how adorable they looked curled up in the theater together, but she waves it off with a small smile.

“That’s just how Jones and I work.”

It feels like a hollow excuse. It feels like she’s trying to convince herself, and that it’s not working… desperately not working.

Thankfully, she’s too tired when they get back to the hotel to worry about how this is all going to work. Even Killian, Mr. Folds-his-dirty-underwear, barely spares a moment to change into what looks like the softest pair of flannel pants known to mankind and leaves his clothes to the side of the dresser. They take turns getting ready for bed in the bathroom and then Emma extinguishes the last light when she crawls into the bed after making sure her phone alarm is set and everything is charging.

They’re both gone from consciousness as soon as their heads hit their pillows.

A loud clatter next to her wakes Emma up, but not that full-wake you get when you think someone is breaking into your house. It’s that startled sleep that you’d rather sink back into. That’s where she’s at, when she hears the mumbles and grumbles from Killian coming from somewhere behind her, and she rolls towards him, reaching out a hand to see where he is before cracking one eye open when she finds the sheets beside her devoid of one Killian.

“What are you doing?” she croaks, her voice unsteady from the way she was probably snoring.

“Didn’t take off my brace,” Killian says quietly. “Sorry I woke you, love.”

She hums, unable to form words, instead settling back into her pillow. When Killian stretches out again, her hand is still on his side of the bed. They both make noises, some fusion of content and accepting as her fingers tuck under his bicep. His skin is warm, and she sighs as it starts to fight off the chill she gets in her fingertips at night. She drifts back off to sleep just like that, a sense of peace settling over her features.

The next time she wakes, it’s just before her alarm, and she opens her eyes despite desperately wanting to curl up under the covers for another hour. Tomorrow – tomorrow they’ll sleep in as late as they want to before it’s time to meet in the afternoon. The other side of the bed is empty, and it takes Emma a second to recognize the sounds of the shower running, and the very faint sound of Jones humming through the soft cascade of water.

Torture, she thinks. Utter torture, and no one to blame but the both of them, and nothing to be done until they can figure out what they want.

Upon further inspection, Emma wonders just how long Killian has been awake. His clothes from the day before are gone from sight, and she can see he’s pulled both of their garment bags from the closet in preparation for their day. She sits up, the blankets bunching in her lap as she rubs at her eyes and reaches for her phone, but there’s a knock on the door.

“One moment!” she hears Killian call from inside the bathroom. She doesn’t have a chance to move from the bed before he’s whipping open one door and reaching for another, nothing but a towel wrapped around his lower half as he speaks with someone beyond where she can see. “No, no. My partner is sleeping. I’ve got it,” he assures them, and then the door shuts a moment later.

When Killian turns, Emma is still unable to really string together even a bare minimum “good” and “morning” and yet she still manages a husky “Your towel is coming undone,” nearly causing him to drop the whole tray that’s balanced on his left wrist and forearm.

“Bloody hell, Swan, don’t give a man a heart attack!”

“Sorry,” Emma says, trying to keep the humor out of her voice as she swiftly moves from the bed and goes to retrieve what definitely smells like breakfast if the heavenly scent coming from under the cloches is to be trusted.

Killian doesn’t even hesitate in letting her take it, instead turning his attention back to securing his towel and telling Emma to dig in while he gets changed. She can’t help it; she stares after him as he walks back to the bathroom, the towel hugging his ass so perfectly that she just wants to press her hand against it once to see what it would feel like; warm wet terry with a touch of firm muscle, she believes.

“Fuck, I need coffee,” she mutters, maneuvering the tray onto the desk between their computers and reaching for the small pot that will begin her caffeine intake for the day. Once she has a cup poured and sugared to her specifications, she moves about the room, turning on lights and shoving her glasses on her face before picking up her phone and checking her mail.

She doesn’t touch the food until Killian comes out of the bathroom, a t-shirt and boxer-briefs and socks in place this time. His hair is combed, parted on the side and swept so it doesn’t fall in his eyes. She wordlessly holds out a coffee cup to him, which he shows gratitude for with a smile and a wink. She hides her wobbly smile behind her coffee cup as she takes a large sip.

“You ordered, you divvy. I’m gonna use the bathroom.”

She still has to shower, but for right now she just tries to get her eyes to stay open and her mind focused. She needs to stop ogling her partner, first and foremost.

When she comes back out, Killian has two plates revealed, and he’s sitting on the edge of the bed in just his slacks and undershirt as he grazes his food and checks his emails. He motions to the chair and her own food, and she grins down at the filling breakfast that awaits her. Normally, she would just grab a packet of Pop Tarts on her way out the door, but he always seems to make sure she’s fed and caffeinated when they’re on these trips together.

As soon as she’s full, Emma offers the rest of her plate to him. Normally this would go the other way around, but she’s behind in getting ready, even if they are up a little earlier. By the time she’s out of the shower and has her hair and make-up done, Killian is fully dressed except for his jacket.

They’re all required to wear the tailored black suits that they get from Regina’s tailor, but it’s Emma’s choice to wear the tie and heels. Those were never specifications that Regina made, but ones she and Ruby decided on and stick to for a large majority of the jobs they work.

She’s not tooting her own horn but she knows Ruby is going to lose her shit when she sees Emma’s new Jimmy Choo heels that she got on sale. Just like Emma and Killian have their weird competitions, she and Ruby have one with their footwear choices.

It takes the two of them working together to get their headsets on and tucked away, adding their jackets last. Emma waits until the very last second to slip on her shoes, knowing she can handle the whole day with them on but wanting to give her toes as much relief as possible. When they get back to the room tonight, she’ll likely spend a couple minutes soaking in the tub to chase away all the aches.

The Town Hall was going really well, in all their opinions, but then the unexpected came to play. There was a scuffle in the back, a lot of shouting, and then pandemonium broke loose when someone pulled a fire alarm. The surge of the crowd nearly knocked her on her ass for a couple terrifying seconds, but even worse, she loses Killian for a few minutes. She does her best to regain her balance and instead calm down the people closest to her and stop them from stampeding.

Killian finally reappears behind her what feels like hours later, his hand warm and immediately comforting on her back, and he whispers that he’s going to check in with the others as she ushers out the last of the audience. She nods, barely registering why he’s telling her in person instead of calling over the radio, but she feels him place his jacket over her shoulders before he walks away.

It’s only then that she realizes she left her jacket in the wings of the stage somewhere, and her shirt ripped almost all the way open from when she almost fell and someone’s hand connected with the fabric. She takes a second to loosen her tie and throw it to the ground before she turns to do the same with the remains of her shirt. She fastens the buttons of Killian’s jacket over her bra and turns back to business, finally hearing from Ruby out front that the entrance is clear.

“Theater is all empty,” she says back, listening for the others to keep reporting.

The local police are finally here, and David and a few of the younglings have the culprits involved in inciting the riot. Robin and Regina got out of here as soon as everything started getting chaotic. In fact, they get their all-clear message from Robin just as they’re all reconvening.

“What happened to you?” Emma asked, finally getting a better look at Killian. His tie is loosened but still in place, his sleeves rolled up to expose his forearms. He grimaces as an EMT checks his pupils and affixes a butterfly bandage to a now-clean cut above his eye.

“I went running for the back when Nolan sent out the first distress call, but a man on the end panicked and shoved me out of his way as he turned to run. I lost my earpiece somewhere out there,” he says, nodding his head towards the theater. “What a bloody mess.”

“Thanks for the jacket,” Emma says when he’s released from being checked out.

“Of course, Swan. As much as I love seeing all the benefits of how hard you work at the gym, I wasn’t sure how much you wanted to show off.”

“Normally? I’ll show the world if I feel like it. While dealing with a crisis? Not so much.”

Over her radio, David announces that they’ll have to give their statements to the police and then they’re free for the rest of the evening. Everything else is rescheduled for later the next day so they can all recuperate from this adventure.

It’s a short ordeal, their statements, and then David waves them off. “I can take care of the rest from here. You guys are free to go.” He gives them a pointed look, his eyes darting down to their hands, and it’s the first time Emma realizes they’re holding hands. Have been. For like, an hour now.

Oh boy.

They’re silent on the way back to the hotel, one of the hired cars taking them back after Emma had collected her discarded tie and shirt and jacket. Once back in the room, she immediately kicks off her shoes (thankfully coming out of the whole ordeal unscathed) and throws the tattered and trampled garments onto the floor. When the door shuts behind her, she feels that irrepressible sensation well up in her and realizes that Killian is asking her something about ordering more room service but she can’t concentrate on that.

Instead, she turns and tugs him towards her by his tie and kisses him. His phone drops to the floor, and while he’s initially shocked, it doesn’t really take long for him to catch up. Soon, his left arm and prosthetic are holding her body close, his hand anchored on the nape of her neck above the collar of his jacket.

There are no words, only actions, and her actions right now are focused on unbuttoning his shirt and removing his tie before going for his belt buckle. He’s not a passive participant, but all he’s really managed is to get his hand under the fabric of the jacket, his palm hot on her bare skin, feeling like he’s searing his handprint onto her mid-back.

She’s just managed to get his shirt off his shoulders when he catches one of her hands in his own.

“You… Swan, you’ve got to give me a moment. It’s about bloody time, but I need to catch my breath.”

All Emma can do is nod, a smile blooming on her lips as they breathe in each other’s space. The hand he’s not holding is resting on his chest, and she kicks herself to actually open her eyes and look at him again.

The second their eyes meet, Killian’s smile glows brighter, matching her own.

“You okay?”

“Aye. You?”

“Yeah, just… You disappeared. You’re always right there and you disappeared and I kind of panicked when I got thrown into that wall.”

“I wouldn’t have moved from your side if I’d known the crowd was going to panic that much.”

She’s shaking her head, because the last thing she wants is for him to be anything less than perfect at his job by worrying about her. “No, you did what you were supposed to. We both did. But I just… I’ve lost everyone I’ve ever been with. I can’t lose you, too.”

“You don’t have to worry about me, love. If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s surviving.”

She chuckles, because she’s heard him say this so many times before, but this is only the second time she’s seen it in action. Or third. Or fourth? Maybe he doesn’t have to keep proving it to her, then.

“Killian,” she whispers, his name some question and answer all in one. Instead of saying more, she goes back to unzipping his pants. He’s just nibbling the pads of her fingers when his breath stutters out.

“This is a bit of a fast progression. Are you sure, Swan?”

“Does it feel like we should slow down?” she asks. Her fingers glide along the cleft of his ass over his boxer briefs, pushing his slacks the rest of the way off his hips as she does so. Because she hasn’t broken contact, she gets to watch the way his eyes darken as her hand continues its exploration, the way the tip of his tongue plays at the corner of his mouth, and then how he shakes his head. “Would you like to sleep with me tonight?” They can ignore the fact that it’s barely evening yet.

“Aye,” he says, the single word husky and so, so low. Her other hand strokes along his cheek, moving briefly to the cut above his eye and the butterfly bandage still in place.

“Good,” she responds, using that verification to urge him to sit at the foot of the bed – their bed – the one that had seemed a minor inconvenience just over 24 hours ago but now eliminates the possible question of “Yours or Mine?” Instead, she helps him lay back, her body hovering over his, her knees on either side of his thighs, her hands on his cheeks and framing his face as his hand glides along her thigh.

She’s still wearing his jacket, but she’s in no hurry to remove it besides taking a moment to sit up and flick open the button. He watches with rapt attention as she does so, allowing him more glimpses of her skin. This is how she prefers to show off the hours she spends training. Not by accident when someone claws her shirt in panic. Killian lifts his hands, urging her to stand once more.

Teetering for a second, she steadies herself with her hands on his shoulders, with Killian’s soft chuckle pressed against the smooth skin of her stomach. “Do you have protection?” he asks, looking up at her from his sitting position, his hand going to the fastenings of her slacks before he eases them off of her.

Emma hums in pleasure, her eyes fluttering closed as Killian’s fingers trail along her own ass, mimicking her actions from before. The only difference is that she’s wearing a thong, so he’s already skin on skin contact and her brain is short circuiting as she gets closer to nirvana.

“Swan?”

“You can’t expect me to function properly when you’re doing that,” she finally responds, remembering that he’d even asked a question in the first place and breaking away with a disappointing noise echoing from both of them. She goes for her shower essentials, finding the line of foils that she stashes in the front compartment when she’s heading out of town. Now, she knew she was rooming with Killian this time around, so she can’t even pretend she didn’t bring them for this exact purpose.

“I only asked if you had any because otherwise, there are some in the second drawer,” he says when she returns, leaning back on his elbows and spread out for her explorations. His shirt is off, so he’s left in just his underwear which suits her just fine. When he moves to sit back up, she stops him with a hand on his chest and a kiss to his lips.

“Don’t move,” she instructs, stepping back for a moment to slide his jacket off her shoulders and hang it over the back of the computer chair. While she’s at it, she reaches back and unsnaps her bra, leaving that draped over the chair, as well. When they’re even in their states of undress, she turns to him again, and Killian’s eyes wander across each of her features. From her skewed ponytail to her face, from face to neck and décolletage, and down across her now-bare chest. His eyes linger at her waist before looking further down where she wants him right now, but his eyes sweep right back up to meet with hers again.

“You look stunning, Swan.”

She blushes under the weight of the compliment, knowing full-well that he’s seen her in just about every state of unkempt to dressy, but that this compliment is different than all the others. It’s not just because she’s mostly naked, because he’d be looking below her neck if that’s how he meant it. But it’s the sincerity of the words that causes a lump of emotion in her throat, causes her to move forward again and climb into his lap to kiss him all over again.

They settle on Killian being on top after several minutes of kissing and touch, and Emma willingly settles back against the pillows in the middle of the bed while he divests her of her underwear, shedding his own before reaching for a condom. He seems to get distracted, however, and instead of rolling one on, he sets it close by in favor of drawing his fingers around her clit. He spreads her open for just a moment in order to taste and tease her there, his tongue flicking rapidly over her as her hands find purchase in his hair.

With any other man, she was lucky if she managed one half of a good orgasm, but Killian is doing his best to give her one whole, fantastic, mind-blowing one before he even starts to fuck her, which is pretty damn phenomenal in her book. Conscious of the fact that they’re in a hotel and it’s still early enough that people are going to and from dinner, Emma grabs one of the pillows and holds it over her face as she comes, calling his name with each wave of pleasure that rocks through her.

After a few moments, she reaches back down to simultaneously drag him away from where he’s still bringing her down and to pull him up to kiss her again as she flings away the pillow with her other hand. As her tongue flicks around his mouth to thank him without words, Killian presses the condom into Emma’s palm, silently asking for assistance. She breaks the kiss just long enough to partially sit up, watching her own actions as she tears, and places, and rolls, and strokes – watches the way Killian bites his lip against the pleasure he could probably come from.

When he’s closer than he wanted to be, he grabs her hand, bringing it up to his chest to place against his racing heartbeat as he moves forward and finally sinks into her.

“Fuck, you feel amazing,” she whispers, and Killian returns the sentiments as he hitches one of her legs higher on his waist, opening her up in order to fully settle between her thighs. When he bottoms out, they both swear and sigh, and then he starts moving.

He doesn’t fuck like some wild animal; no, there’s a system to it – it’s thrust, thrust, circle, thrust, circle, circle, thrust. It’s slow and deep and steady as he builds her closer to climax once more, somehow staving off his own in the process of wanting to make it count. It only takes a couple repeats of that cycle for Emma to pull him down, to hide her rising volume by kissing him breathless all over again.

He’s just begun to toy with one of her nipples when she hits her capacity again, arching up to meet him and calling his name just once, loudly, as her eyes slide shut with blinding pleasure. It’s only then that Killian speeds up, losing the pattern he’d been building for her benefit in order to bring her over the edge. He still doesn’t hump her like a dog in heat, though, but rather pumps into her like a man on a mission as his fingers glide along her throat.

Just as she’s losing the ability to hold her legs around his waist any longer, she bits her lip and looks up at him, holding eye contact as he keeps moving. His expression is one of deep concentration, and when he reaches his hand between them to stroke her clit once more, she knows he’s determined to give her one more to coincide with his own. Her own fingers find her breasts, triggering one more sated flutter, and that’s enough for him; the noise he makes is desperate and broken, and he thrusts harder than before, burying himself inside her as they both ride out the pleasure.

When he rests on top of her, she drops her feet back to the bed, bracketing his hips with her legs and enjoying the solid weight of him for as long as he needs to rest there.

“Swan,” he says as he lifts his head again, his hair mussed up from her hands and sweat beading across his forehead – he doesn’t continue, just looks at her, drinking in the details.

“Yeah,” she murmurs breathlessly, reaching up to push his hair off his forehead as she smiles at him. “I know.”

He gives her another slow kiss before pulling away, pulling out, and rolling off the bed to clean himself up. She takes another minute to make sure her legs will work when she stands up before she follows him into the bathroom. He’s just washing his hand when she moves to stand behind him, her hands splayed across his chest as she hugs him from behind. With cool water still dripping from his skin, he rests his fingers on top of hers. She kisses his shoulder, peering over it to look at their reflections standing there.

“So, room service and more sex?”

“Absolutely,” she agrees, shuffling around as he turns and accepting the soft kiss he bestows upon her. “Order us some food while I clean myself up?” His response is lost somewhere in her hair as he embraces her again, and she never wants to put on clothes again if this is what he feels like pressed against her, skin to skin. With another kiss pressed to her temple, he leaves her to her own and pulls the door shut behind him.

Emma washes her face quickly, not caring about getting it all but focused on getting the smudges off. It’s only then she realizes she’s famished, having skipped lunch in order to prep for the Town Hall. She’s just thankful they were in some small town instead of one of the bigger cities, or else they’d likely still be tied up at the venue trying to give statements and going through security procedures. But this worked out much better, as far as she’s concerned.

Killian is lounging across the bed, sadly already dressed in his pajama pants again. He’s looking at his phone, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

“What is it?”

“David sent a group chat for us to join him in the lobby restaurant.”

“Did you order our food already?”

“I was just about to when I checked my phone.”

“Well, let’s go?”

He looks at her, one of those eyebrows now raised.

“Do you not want to?” she asks, starting to fidget beneath his gaze.

“I’d love nothing more, but I wanted to be sure you wanted to, first. Swan, I have no intention of hiding my affection for you from this point forward. You understand that, correct?”

She nods, a little enthusiastically if she says so herself. “Yeah. And same. So, what time are we meeting?”

“He just got back to the hotel. Said he wanted to change and would meet us down there in a half hour.” He pulls himself off the bed again and approaches her, using the fingers of his prosthetic to tilt her face up to his. “I suppose that means you and I should both put some clothes on.”

“Cancel with him. That’s just unreasonable,” Emma jokes, laughing as she lifts up to kiss him again as his arms wrap around her. She hums contentedly before they break away, letting her hands linger on his shoulders for another moment more before she finally turns to rummage through her clothes.

She’s looking for fresh underwear and a bra, trying her best to untangle several items that seem to have knotted together while she was unpacking. She’s so focused on her own situation that she barely notices Killian slide up next to her and extract his own clothing. It’s not until she holds up a pair of underwear in victory that he coughs, and she turns to see him fully dressed, perched on the edge of the bed. The asshole is even already wearing his shoes.

“Anytime now, Swan,” he drawls, and if she didn’t have to immediately put them on, she’d throw her clothes at him in aggravation.

“Okay, fine! You win this one!”

Behind her, he chuckles as she mock-pouts and slides into her under garments. She finds a pair of leggings and slips those on, as well, before she grabs his dress shirt off the floor and slips that on.

“I look forward to removing that shirt from you later,” he comments as she collects herself, and she makes sure to throw an appropriately saucy smile over her shoulder at him as she ties her hair into a messy bun and slips into her heels again. She’ll be damned if she’s wasting their inaugural trip because of a scuffle.

No one blinks an eye when they walk into the restaurant hand in hand, not even the two younglings that have been invited to join. Henry did always seem much too keen to be safe, and Grace is his partner in crime as far as she can tell. They smile knowingly as Emma and Killian settle in on the other side of the table.

They’re all a little bruised and battered, besides Killian’s cut forehead. Henry has a bruise forming around his eye, Grace has an icepack resting on the table for her elbow, Ruby has a splint around two fingers on her right hand, David’s knuckles look like they got in a good swing, and Emma knows for certain there’s a bruise forming on her ass from the contact with the wall. It’s not even for a good, sex-related reason.

Overall, their dinner is quiet and full of some of their worst and best jobs. The longer time goes on, the closer she and Killian get, until his arm is looped over her shoulders and Emma is pressed against his side. It all just feels so natural, and that’s probably because she’s been claiming this is how they work for ages now. It was all just a precursor to dating.

When they head back to their room, Emma swipes through social media while Killian deals with a call from Robin to figure out if his headset was ever located.

A noise of annoyance creeps out without her knowledge, and Killian turns towards her as he listens to the man on the other end of the phone call. Emma shakes her head, unable to stop the smile on her face and handing over her phone. Killian looks down on the image and smiles, winking before he turns back to his call.

Meanwhile, Emma texts Ruby and asks for the original image, a shot of them standing and waiting for the elevators. Emma’s tucked against him, his lips on her forehead, her eyes closed as her hands rest on his back. Ruby has applied bright, glowing letters that say “Finally!” in front of the image, but really, she feels the same way.

When their work is all wrapped up for the evening, Killian shuts down his laptop and plugs in his phone. Emma does the same, ensuring that the alarm is set for a decent hour but otherwise silencing it. From that moment on, she only wants Killian pulling at her attention, and he clearly feels the same way.

When they fall asleep that night, they’re in the middle of the bed instead of on opposite sides, perfectly comfortable and content.

Maybe she owes Wendy a gift basket.

[gldncge-blog]

         ❝  ----------- 𝖆 𝖌𝖔𝖑𝖉𝖊𝖓 𝖈𝖆𝖌𝖊 𝖎𝖘 𝖘𝖙𝖎𝖑𝖑 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖌𝖊

                                    illya masnik. luke hemmings. twenty four. bianchi aligned.

【  ✞ ———— 𝕒𝕡𝕡𝕝𝕚𝕔𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 】

◟ * ◊ ─  luke hemmings + cis male + he/him » * believe it or not illya masnik is working for the bianchi family. they are 24 years of age and are known to usually spend their time around buena vista apartments. the singer, who has been a part of the alliance for 2 years, has been living in victoria for 5 years. the people closest to them describe the pansexual + pisces to be + stolid and + conscientious as well as - equivocal and -resentful » ◦ ° delphi, twenty, she/them, est◝

【  ✞ ———— 𝕠𝕠𝕔 】

first name illya. last name masnik. middle name regret. which,, honestly same. wow hi i’m super excited for this. this is what ive been waiting for and y’all look hella talented. hi hello i’m delphi and as expected i’m late to the party :’) this is my bb illya who should probably be dead by now. yeehaw. my muses??? they exist to suffer. thats the sparknotes version of it. but ill put a whole unnecessarily lengthy thing about him below sdlkjsald. i’m in the est and i’m currently working full time but im so happy opening is on a sunday because i can actually be here for it sjkdas but enough about meme !! 

【  ✞ ———— 𝕙𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕠𝕣𝕪 】

BORN IN KIEV, UKRAINE - illya would be the eldest of four children. his mother an adventurous american woman, and his father a man who had never left his homeland. their son was a happy child who spent most of his days and nights at the local church. a fate one could not avoid when their father was the church’s ever dutiful music director. it shocked no one when the eldest masnik boy soon became a constant fixture in the youth choir. looking like he may have found his niche, his parents pushed him to hone his talents. his free time not spent in worship was reserved for vocal lessons. in time, illya outgrew the pews. as a teenager, he instead chose to perform in festivals, cafes, and the venues that would have him. while he was successful in ukraine, he’d soon decided he’d like to finish his studies in the united states, believing there to be better and bigger opportunities in america. 

AT NINETEEN - he found a home in victoria, florida. his mother’s hometown. his studies never truly panned out like they should have, wasting a year majoring in theology before officially throwing in the towel and returning to music full time. the next few years were spent building up a resume. odd jobs that barely paid the bills. things only began to turn up when he began landing jobs as the backing vocals for groups. it had started small, not much money in it nor recognition --- but he slowly climbed the ladder. an undeniable talent. in time he landed a job as the backup vocals for a band famous enough to earn him some status. the band embarked on a small tour around the states, and while it had been fun, illya quickly came to realize it wasn’t the life for him. in actuality it was not the spotlight he desired, no, he’d come to miss the little things about his passion. the smaller cafes and venues often led to tighter bonds. a more humbling experience that allowed him to truly connect with his audience. like the days back home, under god’s watchful eye. 

TWENTY TWO - and life as he knows it ends. for better or for worse. a flame in his life plants the idea in his head. the bills were starting to pile up again and desperation seemed to be a constant state. PLAYERS. it’s no place he’d normally be found. the sort of joint he’d sooner cross the street to avoid. but his lover promises security. stability. burdened with a touch of naivety, he’s sold.

PLEAD IGNORANCE - all he wants. he knew what he’d stepped into the moment he crossed the door’s threshold. there were no gods here. no savior. no salvation. you’d be eaten alive.

IT PAYS - wasn’t that all that mattered. most days he’s good at turning a blind eye to what happens behind closed doors. a false picture of innocence. skin with no traces of ink or metal, liquor that never makes it to his lips. the constant struggle to not lose the boy he was back home. but no one there was innocent, innocence was a lamb to the slaughter. two years in and he regrets it. of course he does. three long years since he’s seen his family. the masnik’s youngest now refuses to speak to the long-departed illya. birthdays, graduations, holidays, funerals, he’s missed them all. bitter, he longs for home, but fears he’s found himself in too deep. innocence was a lamb to the slaughter, and he could not afford to be the lamb amongst wolves.

【  ✞ ———— 𝕤𝕡𝕒𝕣𝕜𝕟𝕠𝕥𝕖𝕤 / 𝕕𝕦𝕞𝕓 𝕤𝕙𝕚𝕥 】

essentially illya was born in ukraine. his family was super religious and he spent a lot of time in church, also due to the fact his father was the music director there. he obviously had a natural talent in the choir and his family helped him pursue music by getting him lessons and stuff. he does a good handful of cool stuff in ukraine and decides he wants to study in america ( where his mother and her family are from ) and also sees it as an opportunity to grow musically. obviously the scene in america is pretty hard to get into, so he still does small cafe like things until he starts doing backing tracks/vocals for bands. starts off really small but he starts to work for bigger bands/companies until eventually, he gets enough recognition to go on tour with a well-enough known band. don’t imagine them to be super famous, but enough to have a handful of radio hits. 

decides he’s not crazy about the touring band life and wants to return to working in smaller more personal venues. works for a bit until the money starts to run out and then his partner at the time suggested applying at players ( they would have been part of the gang so it was his in ). he does so ( obviously ) gets in and likes to play innocent but he has a pretty good idea of what he’s getting into, don’t be fooled. still kind of churchy / anal, doesn’t do the whole tattoo, piercing, drinking, wild life. he’s more reserved if anything. he’s really still trying to hold on to that holy life. newsflash, asshole. it’s gone.

now he’s starting to regret everything :) #somerugrats but obviously, he’s going to be super tightlipped about that and just carry on. in reality, he’s super homesick and he knows his family life is suffering. he’s missing giant milestones for his siblings back home and now his youngest brother won’t even talk to him so yeehaw. but uhh he’s not really sure he’d be good to just up and walk away because he’s in a bit deep now, two years deep. he’s probably seen some shit. 

if he was brave enough to tell his family something was up it would probably go something along the lines of “ mom, i think i joined a cult ” 

he wants to be that peace out gif THIS one,, yeah

he’s gonna die,, dumbass is 100% gonna get himself killed. but for now, he’s gonna fake that shit till he makes it. no chill. 

【  ✞ ———— 𝕨𝕒𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕕 𝕔𝕠𝕟𝕟𝕖𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟𝕤 】

pen pals / old friends ; okay since his mother was american - i’d imagine he’d come around as a kid to see her family ( his grandparents and stuff ). give me something cute like they hit it off as children and kept in touch all these years. or maybe his mom used to be friends with your muses parents so they met that way. 

someone toughen him up ; he’s awful. there’s a murderer out there and god i hope these string bean legs can run because self-defense???? we don't’ know the meaning of the word. gun?? not in my good christian server. someone just hELP him.

someone he takes home / travels with ; head out of the gutter. could be someone at players or they live in a similar location, and with a string of murders, it���s probably safer to not travel alone. so maybe they drive each other home on occasion or walk together. just keeping each other safe. 

 bad / good influence nonsense ; obviously he’d probably be the good influence on someone because he’s not really the bad type. so he might try to look out for someone he really sees burning out and going down a super bad path. vice versa, give me someone who really wants him to get a tattoo or take that shot. someone remind him to live a little or do bad things. honestly,,, i’m a sucker for angst and stuff so it could even be more like getting him to stop being so paranoid about the darker aspects of the gang. if you think he isn’t turning around and hauling ass outta there when he sees a back room being used for beating someone or some other violent nonsense

someone who is suspicious of his doubts ; obviously he’s trying to play his cards pretty close to his chest and doesn’t voice his concerns to anyone. but i’d love to see some people who question his hesitance or might be on to him having doubts about continuing to be in the gang. he’s not going to own up to any accusations but this could add some interesting tension and make for interesting interactions.

people he avoids at all costs / fear ; these would be the more violent members of the gangs. maybe your muse has a reputation. this is probably suitable for characters who are out there committing murder in the name of the gang or commit violent acts. he tries to steer pretty clear of that but they’re likely passing through players and stuff. they’re bound to run into each other. bonus points if they’re not actually as dangerous as they seem - illya’s just paranoid, maybe he walked in on something he shouldn’t have and i- OOP

the flame that got him involved in the gang ( 0 / 1 ) ;  really i was just gonna throw this up as a wc but sdjsadj ill stick it here as well. really this could be an exes plot, probably with a lot of resentment on illya’s part. he may have been open with them about wanting to go back home, and blames them for his situation even though he knew what was happening. its just bitter bitter bitter. 

[orbemnews]

Another Unlikely Pandemic Shortage: Boba Tea A panic erupted on the West Coast this week. Over a drink. It happened when beverage aficionados learned that tapioca, the starch used to make the sweet, round, chewy black bubbles — or pearls — that are the featured topping in the popular boba tea drink, was in short supply. “I was shocked,” said Leanne Yuen, a longtime boba drinker and a student at the University of California, Irvine. “What am I going to do now?” The impending boba shortage is yet another sign of how the pandemic has snarled global supply chains, upended industries and created scarcities of goods from toilet paper and ketchup to electronics. In this case, a surge of pent-up demand for products assembled abroad, coupled with a shortage of workers due to coronavirus cases or quarantine protocols, has caused a monthslong maritime pileup at ports in Los Angeles and San Francisco and left ships delivering goods from Asia — including tapioca — waiting out at sea. Boba or bubble tea, a drink that can be made with milk or fruit-flavored green or black tea, originated in Taiwan and has grown in popularity and prominence in the United States throughout the 2000s. Boba suppliers in the San Francisco Bay Area who are running low on tapioca said their shipments of fully formed boba came from Taiwan, while supplies of cassava root, which is used to make tapioca, came from Thailand and islands in the Pacific Ocean. “It’s all being held up at the docks,” said Arianna Hansen, a sales representative for Fanale Drinks, which is based in Hayward, Calif., and supplies boba to thousands of stores around the country. Ms. Hansen said that shipments had been backed up for several months, and that the company’s existing stockpile of tapioca was running dangerously low. “It’s definitely been frustrating — some people have been upset with us, but at the same time it’s not really our fault,” Ms. Hansen said. There’s no sign that the ship delays will abate anytime soon. The number of container ships waiting at anchor to dock in Los Angeles or Long Beach peaked at 40 in February, according to data from the Marine Exchange of Southern California. That declined to 19 ships on Thursday, still a far cry from the usual zero or one ship that was the norm prepandemic, said Kip Louttit, the exchange’s executive director. Massive cargo ships can take a week or longer to unload, Mr. Louttit said. Five additional ships are drifting out at sea, because there is no room to fit them in the bay. He said it was a nearly unprecedented backup; vessels have not had to drift while waiting since 2004. The situation is similarly cramped in San Francisco, where 20 ships are waiting at anchor and 19 more are “cruising around” offshore, compared with the usual eight or nine at anchor, said Capt. Lynn Korwatch, the executive director of the area’s marine exchange. “The situation is extremely unusual,” she said. Leadway International, another large boba supplier in Hayward, also said its stock of tapioca was low because shipments were coming in slower than usual. The company’s business development director, Edward Shen, said he did not want to call it a “shortage” over fears that might spook boba shops into hoarding tapioca and make matters worse. “Store owners get panicked, so they probably order more than what they need,” Mr. Shen said. Ms. Hansen said she expected supply to return to close to normal by the summer. In the meantime, anxious boba store owners are scrounging for tapioca anywhere they can. “It’s very stressful — no boba means no sales,” said Aaron Qian, the owner of Tea Hut, a boba store with three locations in the Bay Area. “If you don’t have boba, they don’t want the tea. They just leave.” Mr. Qian, 32, said that two of his suppliers were already sold out, and that the other two had been rationing the tapioca he could buy each week. If he does not find more boba soon, Mr. Qian said, his stores will be out within two weeks. Updated  April 16, 2021, 3:55 p.m. ET Despite the pandemic, Mr. Qian said, business had been booming, because with other entertainment venues closed, drinking boba is one of the few avenues for “cheap fun.” Now, he might have to temporarily close and lay off employees. Brian Tran, a co-owner of Honeybear Boba in San Francisco, said he had also been searching desperately for more tapioca. He expects to run out by the end of next week if he cannot replenish his supply. “A boba shop without boba is like a car dealership without cars to sell,” Mr. Tran said. “It’s like a steakhouse without steak.” Boba Guys, one of the most successful boba chains in the country, said in an Instagram post this month that some boba shops had already run out of tapioca balls and that others would follow in the next few weeks. The owners of Boba Guys also operate the U.S. Boba Company, which produces and sells tapioca pearls to other stores around the country. The boba shortage, which was reported earlier by The San Francisco Chronicle, has boba fans in a panic. A post sharing the news in the Facebook group Subtle Asian Traits, a gathering place for Asian people around the world, attracted 10,000 comments and messages of dismay and sadness. Boba is “something that translates across a lot of Asian cultures,” said Zoe Imansjah, a student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an administrator of the Subtle Asian Traits group. “Something so simple can bring a lot of people together.” Ms. Yuen, 21, gets boba once or twice a week and sells boba stickers online. She said she had grown up visiting a boba shop near her house in South San Francisco with her parents, and now considers getting boba a great way to socialize with friends. “A lot of my Asian-American friends will bond over boba,” said Ms. Yuen, whose family is from Hong Kong. “Hong Kong has a lot of good milk tea. It brings us back to our roots, in a sense.” Boba isn’t just a California treat, however, and news of a shortage reverberated around the United States. Khoa Vu, a 28-year-old Ph.D. student at the University of Minnesota, said he drinks boba two or three times a week — peach oolong tea with boba is his go-to order. He was dreading having to break the news of the shortage to his 4-year-old daughter. “It’s a weekend thing after we’re done with dinner; I tell my kid, ‘If you eat well, I’ll take you to the boba shop,’” Mr. Vu said. “It’s going to be a shock to her.” All hope is not lost for boba fanatics. Smaller boba suppliers like iBEV, which sells to about 100 stores, might be able to weather the shortage. Carley Olund, an office manager at iBEV, said the company had prepared for shipping delays and had enough tapioca stockpiled to get through it. And Sharetea, a boba chain with dozens of stores across 20 states, said it was not experiencing a shortage. For those boba drinkers who are affected by shortages, this may be a chance to try different toppings in their tea, like cheese foam, fruit jellies or egg pudding. “Maybe I’ll try to take a break from the tapioca to relieve that pressure,” Ms. Yuen said. Source link Orbem News #Boba #Pandemic #shortage #Tea

[elleywestbrookexf]

8.Work experience. 10/03/21

A bit of background...

To date I have had a wide and varied work life/ career. From front of house situations in restaurants and bars, to opening my first business aged 19- a ballgown and lingerie shop. I made all the ballgowns (This was the ‘80′s in Cheltenham...there were a lot of Balls). I worked with young offenders and care leavers in a hostel in Cheltenham, run by Stoneham Housing association.

I helped set up a charity when I was about 18/19 called direct aid to Kenya and organised a massive bed push around Cheltenham for its initial fund raising push, taking in a route of 14 pubs, the rules were that every team member had to have a drink in each pub. It was carnage but I raised £3,000 which was not an inconsiderable sum in 1989. I liaised with the police for temporary road closures (but there was no real policing if I remember rightly). Fancy dress, buckets for collecting, Sponsorship forms. About 20 pubs in the town fielded beds. On reflection it was a massive undertaking and it was just me doing it ...enthusiasm and blind belief that everything would of course turn out brilliantly. Which it did. We built a couple of wells for the village we were supporting. I didn’t do anything else with them after that I don’t think, but I basked in the bed-push success for a while. I like big projects.

After having my first two children I set had a business called Architectural Fireplaces. I was basically a niche antique dealer selling original fireplaces. I grew up in Devon, my parents owned a reclamation yard which is where I learned all about fireplaces (among other things). My ex husband had a surf brand, Slaam, which he ran with his partner Ben. Basically a printed T-Shirt company - Ben did all the designs. That branched out into Big Boys toys and we owned a surf shop in (land-locked) Cheltenham called Ocean Deep. I sold the fireplace shop (stupidly) and helped them run their business. At one time we had three shops, with three different businesses in Cheltenham and 3 kids.

Mayhem but never boring.

We set up a toy company called Bionic putty - sunk all our money into it, very successful for 18 months and then the bottom fell out of the putty market! 

Divorce pushed me in another direction and I moved to Herefordshire with the kids (now 4 of them) and became an Aga demonstrator and recipe developer. for about 6 years I wrote monthly columns in various local Magazines. Most notably Welsh Border Life and Live 24/7 (as Betty Twyford).

So far (and this is the edited version) I have had a varied work experience. I am a keen supporter of refugees and have volunteered in 3 of the camps in Northern France, ‘The Jungle’, The Dunkirk camp (Grand Synthe) and a much smaller camp in Norrentes Fonts. I still raise awareness about the refugee situation, volunteer when time permits for a local charity called People in Motion and organise a fund raiser at least once a year to benefit PIM and RCK (refugee community kitchen). My latest events have been held at Cup Ceramics in Hereford where I got ceramicists to make me a bowl/s or cups and then I filled them with soup, charged £10 and the customer kept the bowl. This was a huge success and really enjoyable. I like working with people and am very community focused. 

I must admit to being a little bit all over the place on the run up to deciding what to go for in terms of work experience in the art world. To date I have organised or helped organise two venues during Hereford Arts Week: h.Art. The first was at my place of work in Leominster (Aga Twyford). We had 7 artists showing, majored heavily on cakes and coffees, raised lots of money for PIM, but looking back it was a horribly curated event and that was down to my inexperience and wish to people please. There were positives however and uppermost is the very real desire to be far more professional in the future. Ian Pennell and I headed up an h.Art venue in 2019 at All Saints Church and Ian secured the backing of the college. Again we had about 6 exhibitors all linked to HCA. That was a more professional outfit I believe, however...exhibiting in a cafe is awful because who wants to stand, hovering over people eating their lunch in order to look at the art? People did come but it was a tricky thing to negotiate the tables. I did at least sell some work so that was a plus and it was another learning curve. 

I would like to learn how to curate successfully, how to run a Community Interest Gallery and studios without it ending up looking like a church craft market. I already know how to run a cafe, cook for it and devise a really good menu (so there’s that).The community interest gallery and studios I am hoping to start learning about on a zoom call with Brendan Barry. He has generously suggested this and I just need to approach him with some dates. Dan is sounding out Meadow Arts, meanwhile and in a completely different turn I have approached the Foundation Course here at HCA and Mandy Pritchard in particular (fine art tutor) asking for some work experience. At the very same time Dan approached Mandy on my behalf and it was agreed in seconds. I’m probably going to be presenting my work and shadowing Mandy next Thursday and Friday (and possibly on the Monday). I will need to ok this with Mark whose Thursday lecture and teaching day I’ll be missing and Simon as I will be missing his Friday afternoon session. Given that it is a completely different direction to what I have been outlining I wonder why I am so ridiculously excited? I actually cannot wait (which is interesting). 

Dan’s email approach on my behalf to Mandy and her reply to me. (Dan’s was the better written approach).

Hi Mandy,

Would you guys be up for hosting Elley Westbrook for some sessions to get some experience for her Exploring Futures module?

She is keen to come over to talk to Foundation and Portfolio students about her work and theirs, to get some tutoring experience at FE level.

Thanks

Dan

Mandy:

You’re in

X

Start next week

Me:

Fab!

Thanks... but should we discuss what days? 😁

Elley

Hi

Thursday or Friday is best - Portfolio days. I'm in on Mondays too, but only FAD students. I'm going to start some informal seminars on a range of themes to kick start the final major project. You could talk about your work. When would you like to do that Elley?

Hope the family are well, sending best wishes, Mandy

Me:

Monday is good for me and I expect I could get Mark to agree a Thursday off next week.

So potentially Monday/Thursday and Friday.

I can talk about my work whenever you like. Give me a day or two’s notice to make up a power point.

I’ve been working in projection photography and finding out about camera obscura recently. Also stitch. So quite diverse but always narrative led.

Elley

So that is the story so far...

11/03/21 Update: work experience at Foundation has to be put off until after the Easter break. I may join on teams.

[asfeedin]

How Data Is Boosting Everton FC’s Fan Communication During Lockdown

General view of the closed gates from outside Goodison Park, home of Everton Football Club, … [+] following Friday’s announcement that the Premier League has suspended all matches until Saturday April 4, 2020. PA Photo. Picture date: Monday March 16, 2020. Photo credit should read: Martin Rickett/PA Wire (Photo by Martin Rickett/PA Images via Getty Images)

PA Images via Getty Images

How does a soccer club engage fans when there’s no soccer to talk about? That’s the conundrum facing Everton and every other team during this period.

The coronavirus-enforced lockdown has led to a suspension in competition in leagues across the world with Belarus, and its new broadcast deals, one of the notable exceptions.

This unprecedented situation has placed new challenges on clubs and their fan outreach programs. Although soccer clubs command unparalleled loyalty from fans, the biggest teams have dedicated marketing and communications departments tasked with maintaining engagement levels and driving revenues.

Everton is one of the most storied clubs in English soccer with nine league championships to its name and a top-flight presence dating back to the 1950s. The Toffees are one of the best-supported teams in the country and are preparing for a move from the historic Goodison Park stadium to a brand new waterfront arena in the mid-2020s.

The importance of engagement

The club’s communications department is tasked with the twin roles of maintaining and expanding this fan base through content and paid campaigns. Typically, fans would receive information about players, fixtures and ticketing through direct channels like SMS or email, or through digital platforms and social media.

Danny Harris, senior customer relationship manager (CRM) at Everton tells me the club is agnostic when it comes to the method of communication, just so long as the message gets out there: “Digital is important. We try to announce news on our platforms at the same time. Wherever you want to be spoken to – we have no preference, we just want the right channel for you.

Social distancing has resulted in significant changes for soccer clubs. In the lower leagues, staff have been furloughed and in the upper echelons, players have been training alone as clubs shut their doors indefinitely. The pause in competition has also required a rethink of how clubs engage with their supports during what is a difficult time.

“Over the next few weeks were not marketing as such and our focus is on engagement,” says Harris. “We’re obviously making important communications about coronavirus but also about the club. We’re currently in the season ticket renewal process but that deadline has been pushed back.

“We’re creating content that the fans want and keeps them entertained. Social is so important at the moment because there’s no soccer or ground to go to. What clubs have done over the past few weeks has been great, such as pushing out messages to stay at home or exercise content. Social media is great to engage fans quickly and easily.”

Like organizations in other industries, Everton’s communications efforts are increasingly data-driven, with information from various touchpoints aggregated into a single repository.

“I think the scale of what we do is quite good. We bring [all these activities] into Salesforce CRM so we have a single view of everything from online purchases, ticketing, social, digital engagement preferences and the emails people are opening. It takes into account age, location and other data so we can filter and personalize communications.

“We’ve always had good data and Everton but having a really good platform that we can interact and action with is great.

“Things in football can change all the time and we might have some news that needs to go out within a few hours. Salesforce allows us to do that quickly with drag and drop emails and from a data perspective, we can personalize it.”

General view from outside Goodison Park, home of Everton Football Club, following Friday’s … [+] announcement that the Premier League has suspended all matches until Saturday April 4, 2020. (Photo by Martin Rickett/PA Images via Getty Images)

PA Images via Getty Images

Commercial opportunities

These processes are becoming more intelligent and automated so what a season ticket holder sees is significantly different from a casual visitor or a corporate customer.

“For a hospitality campaign, we have self-generated interest forms. We’re in a lucky position as a club where our tickets and hospitality tickets sell out in advance. That’s something that’s going to change when we move to our new stadium and that will be a priority. For hospitality, it’s going to be … people who spend a lot of money or people who work in a certain business.”

In the early years of soccer sponsorships, brands wanted nothing more than to see their logo on the front of a shirt or on an advertising board on the side of a pitch. These days, such associations are more about partnerships, with both sides looking to benefit from the arrangement in ways that go beyond marketing.

The more data a club has about its supporters, the more valuable the partnership is to both parties. Competitions are particularly effective at capturing information. If Everton signs a new player, it may hold a giveaway of a new shirt. This helps attract people that might not have been in their database before.

“It’s about understanding a partnership, the partner’s target market and overlaying our data with that. It’s about understanding a partner’s values. Database sizes are important metrics for our brands.”

Charitable initiatives

This data is also essential for the club’s charitable efforts. Everton revels in its reputation as ‘The People’s Club’ and its work with the community and having detailed information about its supporters helps boost the effectiveness of its projects.

“I think we’re best community club in the league … we do a lot to help people in Liverpool and the wider area,” explains Harris, adding that data plays a role in identifying the best initiatives for certain demographics.

“We have a good idea which campaigns are relevant to which groups. At smaller events we might not see fans traveling the whole country, they’d be tailored to local fans. We do events for our charity all year round and have activations to support that.”

“For example, Andre Gomes is a popular player among fans so last year we hosted a ‘hugathon’ where fans could pay to meet him and give him a hug. This sold out within minutes and was supported by all our channels.

“The main driver behind these charitable initiatives is that it’s the right thing to do. Our club CEO [Denise Barrett-Baxendale] was previously the chief executive of our [charitable foundation] Everton in the Community. It’s important to give back where we can.”

The club has played an active role during the pandemic. Volunteers are delivering parcels to vulnerable people while players and coaching staff are making phone calls to isolated supporters. The data at the club’s disposal is invaluable in identifying which fans need help. Manager Carlo Ancelotti even got involved, making several phone calls.

“We’re adapting to the current climate and remind fans were here and that we care,” says Harris.

Future plans

When the Premier League PINC does get back underway, matches will likely be played behind closed doors. Digital content can never entirely replicate the feeling of being at Goodison Park, but it will at least compensate for the absence.

Meanwhile, work connected to the new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock will continue. For such a historic club with such a historic stadium as Goodison Park, the move is a huge deal for the club and its supporters. Stadium moves can be traumatic experiences when a beloved old ground is traded for a soulless arena that lacks character but the proposed design had the potential to become an iconic part of Liverpool’s historic waterfront.

Meanwhile, the success of recent new-builds such as the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium provides several lessons that can be applied. After many false dawns, such as the failed King’s Dock project two decades ago, the club is ready to move to the next stage of its evolution. For Harris and the CRM team, the technology that will power the new venue provides an opportunity for even more data-driven activities that bring fans and the club closer together.

“The new stadium allows us to tie-in the CRM and event experience,” he says. “There are ways we can use our data to improve a person’s matchday – If we know someone likes beer then we can give them a discount.

“More seats means more revenue and greater sponsorship potential. We’ve sold out our stadium for several years and as lovely as Goodison is and as popular as it is with fans, there is an understanding that there are benefits from moving to another ground.

Source link

Tags: Boosting, Communication, Data, Everton, fan, FCs, lockdown, salesforce, Soccer, Sports

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[boredout305]

Gerard Cosloy Interview, Part Two

Ryan: How were you first exposed to New Zealand music? When I think of early adopters to Flying Nun and Xpressway I think of Tom Lax.  

Gerard: I’m not sure who the first person was. Around ’87 and ’88, I started hearing a lot of the Flying Nun stuff around New York. Patrick Amory, who is now one of my partners at Matador, likely turned me on to a lot of that stuff. Patrick did the Too Fun Too Huge zine back in the ‘80s. Patrick managed the band Sorry. For a long time, Patrick was the music director at WHRB in Cambridge. Some of Patrick’s predecessors at WHRB, Jim Barber and Geoff Weiss—they may have been some of the earliest guys to start playing those records on the radio. College radio in the Boston area, WMBR and WHRB, were big proponents of Flying Nun. Venus Records in New York started importing Flying Nun records. That was one of the first places I saw The Chills, Verlaines and Clean albums for sale. I remember Venus Records even had a New Zealand bin. Venus was on 8th Street and 6th Avenue. They were getting them before everyone else. Very few people knew about those records then in the United States It was revelatory. I started writing Roger Shepherd after that: “How do we get more of these records?”

Ryan: Matador Direct carried records from a lot of amazing labels including Flying Nun. The roster was really exceptional. Nevertheless, I know that for some labels, like Siltbreeze, the relationship didn’t pan out well.

Gerard: Yep. We were buying a lot of really good records from third-party vendors. I wish we were still doing stuff like that. It was a lot of fun. There were things about it that were not sustainable. We were doing manufacturing and distribution for a number of independent labels. That was a disaster for us and it was certainly a disaster for them. The fact that those episodes didn’t put those labels out of business is a testament to how smart and dedicated those people are.

Ryan: Jumping back to 12XU, I realize End of an Ear had put out a Stick Men with Ray Guns album previously. But how did the two live records (1,000 Lives to Die and Property of Jesus Christ) you released in 2016 come about?  

Gerard: It was all thanks to Uber. I would personally like to thank that guy Travis (Kalanick), the head guy at Uber—whose company condoned sexual harassment of female employees; the same guy who’d harass his employees for asking for health insurance. Travis, you’re responsible for bringing Bobby Soxx’s misanthropic visions back to the world.

About two and a half years ago, I called an Uber. I’d now like to apologize for that. Anyhow, this guy comes by and picks me up. He says, “Oh, yeah, we know some of the same people. I’m Jack Control.” And Jack—who sings for the band Butcher and has been in a lot of great bands over the years—he’s an excellent producer and mastering engineer. Jack happens to be my Uber driver. We’re talking. Jack says, “Hey, I have a few Stick Men with Ray Guns live recordings. Would you be interested in hearing them?” I told him, “Oh, yeah. I’d be very interested in hearing them.” So that’s how that happened. Jack got me in touch with the band’s guitarist, Bobby Beeman. We worked out a deal. That wouldn’t have happened without Jack. That was a situation where you totally lucked into something.

Ryan: You’ve been uncomfortable with 12XU being categorized as an Austin label.  

Gerard: It’s a double-edged sword. On one hand, I do love living in Austin. And I can’t deny that there are a lot of Austin musicians on the label. It would be ridiculous for me to say, “Oh, the label has nothing to do with Austin.” I guess the problem I have with it is twofold. One, I don’t think the rest of the world takes Austin that seriously. So much bad, commercial, mediocre, KUTX-type music comes out of the city that people don’t take it seriously as a source of meaningful music. Two, I think when it comes to underground music—be it punk, hardcore or experimental—people outside of the city think there’s a ceiling on how good it can be because it’s from Austin. They think, “Well, if they’re any good why aren’t they in New York or Los Angeles? Well, when they’re serious they’ll move to Brooklyn.” That enrages me. Obviously, I’m biased. But you can’t tell me that Downtown Boys are a more serious band than The Gospel Truth. They’re not. But the idea that they’re connected, that they have an agent and are based in a different region gives them a running head start—that doesn’t work for me. I mean, there’s probably some resentment on my part. But there’s also a lot of bands on the label who aren’t from Austin. I’ve put out records by artists from Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Having 12XU identified as an Austin label—I’m not a cheerleader for Austin. I’m a friend and champion to the bands I think are good. They’re not good because they’re from Austin. Sometimes they’re good in spite of the fact they’re from Austin.

Ryan: At least once, someone locally has asked me to put out their record and I didn’t have the resources to do it. A short time later their album appeared on 12XU. There have always been a few good labels who will pick up records that otherwise would have fallen through the cracks. It was a different business model, but Homestead was like that too.  

Gerard: It’s was different world then. In the early days of Homestead, there was the mentality that, “If we don’t put this out, nobody else will.” That surely informed the early creative choices at Matador, and it has informed a lot of the choices at 12XU. If there’s a band that has five labels chasing them, they really don’t need me. I’m probably the worst person they can talk to.

Ryan: Oh, no. I’m a few rungs below you. It gets worse. (laughs)

Gerard: Yeah, yeah. (laughs) I want to work with people who I enjoy being around and have a similar vision. If it’s a band that says to me, “Oh, we’re talking with Modern Outsider and Richard Lynn.” My response is, “Well, enjoy your conversations, guys. That has nothing to do with me.” I don’t need lawyers and managers. I put out records by bands I can work with directly. I’m not interested in people who are “auditioning” for labels or are being courted by them. 12XU is not part of that universe and it never will be. Good luck to the people who do that. I hope they’re very successful. That’s not for me. I’m not being disingenuous. It’s not like I’m not trying with 12XU. I’m trying to do something in a different way.

Ryan: It says something about your commitment to the label that while still a co-owner of Matador, you’re regularly at the post office getting 12XU’s mail order out promptly.

Gerard: I buy a lot of records. I always appreciate it when people send me stuff promptly. I also like ordering direct from labels so the money goes directly to them. I’m not going to tell you that I enjoy having stacks of boxes at my house. I don’t have any assistants with 12XU.

Ryan: It seems to me that the indefatigable drive that a lot of these smaller labels have has really kept a lot of things moving. How many years has Gabriele Di Gregorio kept Goodbye Boozy going now? It’s pretty incredible considering how difficult it is to simply get records made nowadays.

Gerard: Yeah. It can be very discouraging. It’s hard to get records manufactured. It’s hard to get them in stores. When you get paid, the margins are so razor thin. For 7”s there are no margins at all.

Ryan: I wholesale them at cost. Occasionally, it’s been ten cents below cost.

Gerard: Yeah. For LPs, the margins are very thin. The only place where there are serious margins is in download sales. And the market for download sales is completely in the toilet thanks to our good friends in the streaming world. Although streaming is the future and everyone loves its convenience, being able to press a button and have all the music in the world at your fingertips—which in reality isn’t all the music in the world—the economics of that is potentially lucrative because there’s no inventory. But until you’re in that hundreds of thousands of plays range the revenues are so pitiful. It doesn’t even cover your costs for getting the music on the service. We’re seeing this thing right now with the big labels pumping out the hits—Sony, Universal and maybe even Matador—that streaming could be a lifeline: “Hey, there’s potential light at the end of this tunnel. We’re going to be okay.” The problem is—what happens to all the small labels and weird bands and record stores that are being supplanted by streaming? What happens to college radio stations whose licenses are sold to Muzak stations? You get rid of all those things—small record stores, small record labels, college radio stations, fanzines, the weekly newspapers—where’s your so-called incubator? Where is your next fantastic artist of the month coming from? I think it’s a fallacy—this notion that, “Hey, it’ll happen on Bandcamp or SoundCloud.” And there are some good bands coming out of that universe. But the notion that, “Oh, just put that song on BandCamp and everything will be fine.” It’s not that simple. There’s one-seventh the amount of record stores in existence currently and their buying habits are much more conservative. It’s much more of an uphill battle.  

Ryan: There could also be conceivable issues with archiving. What happens when SoundCloud goes away? Unlike owning a physical format that’s gone into hundreds of hands, there’s a chance a lot of the music on the site will disappear with it.

Gerard: Yeah, what happens when SoundCloud goes away? And it will go away. Where will that stuff go? Where’s it backed up? That’s a very good point. The fact that some kid in the Midwest can be sitting in front of his computer, listening to some insane, hip-hop, drone guitar piece that was done in West Africa and recorded on a cellphone—there’s no gatekeeper there. That’s cool. I’m not going to say it’s punk rock. We’re always seeing things through this prism of punk rock and DIY culture. It’s very limiting. The next cool thing to excite us will likely not remind us of 1975 or 1967 or 1991. That’s the way the world works. It’s constantly changing. And we can either change with it or sit around and bitch and moan. But that experience that I’m talking about—“I stumbled across this and it’s amazing”—that doesn’t happen so often anymore. Now what we’re getting is the PR thing you were talking about. So much of the online content you see, on sites both big and small, the gatekeeper is now the PR person. Spotify is the single most powerful way for people to discover music now. But access to Spotify is limited. Small labels can’t deal with them directly. They need to go through a middleman who takes a cut. Spotify’s playlists—I mean, who needs DJs and rock journalists now that we have playlists.

Ryan: Right. So many radio stations aren’t even manned nowadays.    

Gerard: Yeah. The thing with these playlists, they’re not being programmed by music fans. Spotify is programming their playlists by meetings they’ve had with labels’ marketing departments. It’s just another version of commercial radio. It might even be tighter and more limiting than commercial radio’s programming. But now there won’t be community radio to compete with them. The whole experience of listening to KALX, WHRB or WFMU and having your mind blown, or having a record clerk force you to listen to a record that opens up new doors—that’s not going to happen. It may sound old fashioned, like an older person bemoaning the passing of the manual typewriter. But that stuff was cool because it was human. I get worked up over it because a lot of the best friendships in my life came across in situations where I was surrounded by kooks and creeps in record stores and weirdos with late-night radio programs. By people who put on their own gigs and put out their own records. Of course, men and women of all background. You get rid of all this—music gets controlled by a larger entity than I think people recognize. It’s dangerous.

Ryan: On a more optimistic note, what do you have coming out on 12XU? And before I forget, I want to mention that the recent Gary Wrong double LP collection you released was excellent.

Gerard: Oh, thank you. Chad (Booth) is one of the great figures of underground music. I wish he was better recognized and put one of his bands on the road for seven months. He’d just destroy everyone. Whether it was the Gary Wrong Group or Wizzard Sleeve—he’s one of the best. To my mind, he’s a real evil visionary. Whatever he does next will be killer for sure. Next up is a 7” collaboration between Spray Paint and Ben Mackie who is in Cuntz. That should be out in a couple of weeks. The Golden Boys will have a new LP out in October. They recorded it with Stuart Sikes. It’s their first album in five years. Early next year we’ll have a record by Charnel Grounds which is a collaboration between Kid Millions of Oneida, Chris Brokaw and James McNew of Yo La Tengo. There’s a new Unholy Two album that’s getting finished. And a single from Austin band Missing Pages will be out, featuring Steve Svacina formerly of Sweet Talk.  

Ryan: I wanted to ask you a couple more questions. Did you ever have any in-depth conversations with GG (Allin)?

Gerard: Yes. I think I played three shows with GG. I recorded an album (You Give Love a Band Name, 1987) with him. I spent a substantial amount of time in his company. While fully acknowledging GG’s many faults—he did do a lot of nasty things to people—he was a somewhat complicated person. I don’t want to speak ill of the dead; GG isn’t here to piss all over the lunch I’m eating. GG could be very, very funny, extremely lucid and even reasonable to hang out with. But there were other moments that were a little more unhinged. I think there were two things going on with him. He did a lot of drugs, which obviously affected him. GG also liked attention. There was a certain point where he really liked being egged on. People were going to shows wanting to see him be GG Allin. At that point, it began to lose a lot of appeal to me.

Ryan: That period where GG was going on Geraldo.  

Gerard: Again, I know this sounds terrible because it appears as though I’m condoning violence against audience members. I’m not. I’m just saying that people who were going to GG’s shows thinking, “Oh, I hear he’s the rock ‘n’ roll wild man. It’s supposed to be the New York Dolls meets blah, blah, blah.” I mean, having a dude in a jock strap stand next to them, and then having him throw shit on them before getting the plug pulled after fifteen minutes—that’s kind of an amazing moment. I don’t want to see anybody get hurt. But there was something very funny about these folks who supposedly were into dangerous rock ‘n’ roll. “I like punk.” And they go to GG’s show and it’s a total disaster. That had some appeal to me. But when it switched to, “Oh, I want to go to the show because GG’s going to throw shit at somebody, or GG’s going to punch somebody in the face. I hope it ends in a riot.” And then when it doesn’t end in a riot, they’re disappointed—that’s when I began to lose interest. At that point, you might as well check out the Rolling Stones at your nearest stadium.

The other thing about GG, he wasn’t a phony. He wasn’t Perry Farrell or Marilyn Manon trying to get their shit into Hot Topic. GG owned it. He was a scared and messed up person, and he’d show you it on stage.  

Ryan: I remember in Hated it’s mentioned that he showed up to high school in Vermont in the early ‘70s dressed up in drag. He wasn’t going to the Mercer to play to a bunch of Velvet Underground fans. That was pretty hardcore.

Gerard: Anybody at that time doing that in rural America, he was an absolute American original.

Ryan: And I’ll ask for the last time: when’s that Conflict anthology coming out?  

Gerard: Never. It just wasn’t very good. There was some passable stuff in the last two years of the magazine. But the first few years were really, really bad. There were people who really liked the magazine and that’s flattering. But I don’t think it’s worth an anthology.

[laurawritesbooks]

Virginia City, better known as Dry Gulch Junction, was a wild west attraction in Wytheville, Virginia. Dry Gulch was situated on the edge of Jefferson National Forest, around ten miles from Wytheville. The attraction became most notable for the wrong reasons. Debt and death plagued everyone who attempted to make it an attraction. So, did the Curse of Dry Gulch really exist, or was it just a series of wildly unfortunate events?

  History

Stuart Thomas Kime was originally an engineer. After working on an Ozark tower in Arkansas, the Pennsylvania native decided he wanted such a place of his own. As World War II came to a close, he found the perfect spot for a tower. He purchased some land on the Wythe-Bland county border.

He first opened a gas station and gift shop in 1947. He constructed the original 50 ft. tower by himself, around 1953. He then hired a crew of steelworkers to add another 50 ft. The Big Walker Lookout was ready for guests.

Kime’s wife, Abigail, opened the Pioneer Dining Room Restaurant nearby. The restaurant had a 4,000 square-feet basement that became the Kime home. Sadly, the restaurant and Kime home burned to the ground in 2003.

Kime added a chairlift in the 1960s, but the insurance became too expensive. They had to close it. They also had a poisonous snake attraction, but that too disappeared.

Kime wasn’t through building, nor ready to give up the notorious Appalachian Tourism Gambit. He wanted another attraction. He decided to purchase a train, and bought the Shay Engine #19 from a company in West Virginia. He laid a half mile of railroad track and wanted to eventually lay four miles. He named the attraction “Dry Gulch Junction and Tombstone.”

  Dry Gulch and Tombstone

Kime knew it was going to be risky venture, but attempted it anyway. He even went to Roanoke, in June of 1966, to request more funds for the highway. Kime was the president of a group called the Great Lakes to Florida Highway Association. This group was devoted to growth and development along Route 21, the main road connecting Ohio with Florida. The Great Lakes to Florida Highway Museum is in Wytheville.

Dry Gulch was originally just a scenic excursion, somewhat of an extension of the Big Walker Lookout observation tower a few miles away. Kime launched the attraction in 1966. Dry Gulch Junction became a notable county attraction in the 1970s. The train was added to demonstrate the typical logging trains used in the Appalachians at the turn of the Twentieth Century. Kime moved an old chestnut mill from Little Creek. The machinery was still functional.

Ownership of the attraction was never an easy task, even at its inception. Highway US-52 would be its undoing. The highway opened in 1972, and directed traffic away from Kime’s efforts. As if that wasn’t hardship enough, his old Shay engine derailed and he died on November 8, of that same year.

The attraction closed while the family considered their options. One year later, Dry Gulch re-opened with a different engine. Kime’s wife, Abigail, and son Ron were the managers. It was then that Ron considered expanding the attraction. He eventually developed plans for constructing a proper town around the tracks. The historic town opened in 1977, as Dry Gulch Junction. There were “Wild West” shootouts and similar performance artists throughout the town. Sadly, the bad luck didn’t stop.

The site then featured numerous 19th Century structures, such as a general store, chapel, and a jail. The structures in Dry Gulch each have their own history.

  Bad News, Worse News

Stephen Hamilton was a Chicago native, who worked at Dry Gulch Junction for two years. He was a graduate of Ball State University. He died when the train ran him over on July 15, 1979.

According to historians, Dottie West sang in Dry Gulch during the late 1970s. During this period, Dry Gulch hosted singers Helen Cornelius and Jim Ed Brown. They also claim the latter concert drew around 3,500 attendees.

Just when it seemed the little park might actually be a success, flooding came. It rained every time a show was put on. Once, historians claimed, it even snowed.

The Kime family was not to see success. They paid a great deal for major performers, when the attraction barely paid for itself. Several years later, family had a trustee’s sale, and lost Dry Gulch Junction. The train was dismantled, but the structures remained.

The place was abandoned and left to the elements, and vandals. It was privately owned for a time as a hunting sanctuary, but trespassers were common.

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Old Sign for Dry Gulch.

Shay #19 when it was in the logging business.

The Buildings

The town’s saloon came from Broadford. Many of the structures came out of Pocahontas. As years passed, the windows were broken and the paint faded. Thieves stole the copper from the buildings. It seemed like the end had came for the old venue.

  Rising from the Ashes

A North Carolina couple, Michael Hill and Jeanne Davis, stumbled across the forgotten destination in 1998. The native North Carolinians had been searching for a place in Southwestern Virginia. They fell in love with the property, and the price was too good to pass by. Once they assumed ownership, they brought in a crew to restore the town to its original state. Their hard work paid off and they opened in 2000.

Eventually, they expanded to feature the Virginia City Gem Mine. This sheltered sluice allowed visitors to purchase buckets of ore to search for gems. The sluice was imported.

  The Curse Strikes Again

Unfortunately, their hard work seemed to be just as futile as the Kime family’s hard work. The Curse of Dry Gulch never really left. Davis admitted they never received pay for their efforts. They estimated their investment was somewhere between $1-$2 million. They worked on the attraction daily for ten years. They borrowed money, with their own home as collateral, and even sold off family land to support it.

Tragedy came again a few years later. Hill was on his ATV in 2006, and suffered an injury. He thought it was something trivial that would heal itself, like a torn ligament. His pain continued to worsen and, by the time he went to see a physician, it was too late. He died shortly thereafter. As if one loss wasn’t enough, Davis’s own father died the next year.

After her father’s untimely death, she lost any desire to work further on the attraction. She started to put it up for sale in 2008, but didn’t. The only portion that was successful was the sluice mine, but even that wouldn’t provide forever. The property went to the auction block in May of 2014. It was sold in September, and Dry Gulch once again became private property.

Was Dry Gulch cursed? Rumors of its haunted structures continue to spread, but perhaps the bad luck can be more aptly attributed to the wrong place at the wrong time. Like so many other attractions in Appalachian areas, Dry Gulch belonged in an era when the roads were smaller, and the traveler wasn’t in such a hurry.

  Engine #19

The Old Shay #19 had a history of its own before even coming to Dry Gulch. The engine was made in Lima, Ohio, in 1905. The first owner was the Tioga Lumber Company in Nicholas County, West Virginia. The Tioga became the Birch Valley Lumber Company in 1915, but engine ownership was not to last. The Shay was again sold to Hookersville’s Sutton Company in 1925. It was sold to the Cherry River Boom & Lumber Company about 1927. Cherry River operated out of Richwood, West Virginia.

The next owner was the Ely-Thomas Lumber Company, although dates for this transaction are difficult to locate. The engine then went to the Elk River Coal & Lumber Company, in 1957, where it became Engine #19.

While there, the engine, and the company, saw a number of new owners. First, the W.M. Ritter Company, and then Georgia-Pacific.

While working at the lumber mill, a fire burned the original cabin away. The workers just replaced it with a cab from a #18. It also froze to the rail during winter. One worker claims he had to open the throttle and reverse the engine to break the ice.

Stuart Kime purchased the engine in 1964. The train ran until 1972, when Kime died. It was replaced with a rod engine. The rod engine was sold in 1977, and the Shay returned to its tracks. The Shay remained running until 1979.

Life for the old Shay engine becomes sketchy after Kime’s ownership. It passed through a number of owners before being moved into storage, or so it was reported. It remains unclear as to where this information came from. According to several reports in the 1990s, the engine was in storage, pending restoration. It was supposed to become an exhibit piece. Several reports claimed the engine had returned to its original owner, the Lima Locomotive Works, which then operated as the Lima Trade Center. The primary issue is that the Lima Trade Center closed in 1981. During the 1970s, it was a branch of the Clark Machine Co.

The Shay #19 is believed to be the same model on display in Ohio today.

      The Curse of Dry Gulch Virginia City, better known as Dry Gulch Junction, was a wild west attraction in Wytheville, Virginia. Dry Gulch was situated on the edge of Jefferson National Forest, around ten miles from Wytheville.

[alexrflores-blog]

INTERVIEW WITH BROADSIDE - “WE’RE GOOFY GUYS BUT AT THE END OF THE DAY, WE’RE ALSO WEIRD DEEP ARTSY GUYS.”

Last night in London, Broadside had their first headline show and it sold out. I interviewed them before their show about their recent album, “Paradise”, projects outside of the band (including Dorian announcing something) and, comparing their band to McDonald's and sour cake.

So today is the beginning of your first UK headliner, how are you feeling?Ollie: I’m excited, it’s going to be a good time, a nice sweaty time. Dorian: Tonight is sold out which is cool and tomorrow night is apparently sold out too which is really neat. It’s kind of cool that we did a smaller venue just because the intimate setting and being able to have a room packed and have the energy up the whole time is really sick.

Yeah, today is quite a small venue but are there any other places in the UK you want to headline that are bigger? Pat: I want to headline The Underworld Ollie: Yeah I want to sell it out The Underworld is definitely one of those venue that everyone loves Ollie: It’s not too posh and it’s real as well. It’s just a really well-rounded place. Pat: It’s just shitty enough to not make it the high end of shitty Dorian: Exactly, the perfect amount of shitty. It’s in a nice location too. True, since it’s in the middle of Camden. It's close to Temple Of Seitan too which is always great. Pat: Oh yeah, now that’s there too! Ollie: Oooooohh baby, I love food. And cyber dog is wild.Dorian: How do I get a job a dancing? Ollie: You don’t even paint your finger nails black you’re definitely not getting the job there.Dorian: Oh man!

Last week was your first time playing Slam Dunk, how did that go? Pat: It was an experience. We’ve played warped tour before and a bunch of festivals but this was another level Dorian: The same thing that happen to us during the first time we played warped tour happened to us at slam dunk but just a lot more. We expected maybe 40 people to sing a word or three and then a sea of people were there and we were just like “Why are you here? State Champs are on in 20 minutes, seriously, what are you doing here?” Ollie: I paid them all to be there. Nobody’s a fan of music, people get payed to show up. Trust me. Dorian: That’s right, going to concerts is their job.Is that all bands or just you guys because nobody likes your music? Pat: It’s true for us at least Ollie: Just the best bands. I can’t speak for anyone other than us and Marilyn Manson but that’s the case for both of us.When are you paying me for being at your gigs then? Dorian: We already paid you, what are you talking about?

How was Slam Dunk comparable to playing Warped Tour two years ago? Did you pay people to go to your sets there too? Dorian: Well now I’m curious as to how warped tour is going to go because Slam Dunk is going to be hard to beat. That was absolutely insanity. So, I think as of now, as far as festivals go that’s been the best. Pat: It will be easier to compare once we do Warped this year because we’ve grown in the two years it’s been since we’ve done Warped so it will be interesting to see how it goes after this. Moving on to talking about your album “Paradise”, there was a theme in the lyrics about perseverance. Was that something you had in mind before you started writing? Ollie: With this album we wanted to write a poppy and uplifting sounding album but put some serious songs in there too. That’s just how Broadside is. We’re goofy guys but at the end of the day we’re also weird deep artsy guys. So we were just trying to put both efforts into that and we wanted to write an album for the people who care about us and that would directly relate to them. Obviously not everyone’s in a band and not everyone’s saying shit that people want to hear. They’re just saying things that are safe so we wanted to write an album that sonically is fun but if people want to dive past that, there’s substance there. Pat: Also, I think the poppy aspect of it will make it easier for people to listen to but the more they do, they’ll be like “Oh I’ll read the lyrics instead of just listening without paying attention” Dorian: It’s a trick. Like cake that’s sour on the inside. Ollie: We’re like McDonalds. It’s red and you’re like “OH MCDONALDS!” but then you feel miserable after. That’s what we are. Pat: What???I think that’s just you Ollie. Dorian: Yeah, you’re happy when you’re eating it but then sad when you’re done. Ollie: Yeah see, he gets it. Read a book Pat.

The last song on Paradise, “I Love You, I Love you. It’s Disgusting”, is completely different to anything else you’ve released. How did that come about? Ollie: I like cute stuff, I like couples I love romance I like the beach, and I had a ukulele lying around my apartment. I’ve always wanted to write a love song and I thought it would be cute to have a sort of beachy love song. People find elements of our music as “their” love songs but I Love You is a true love song in its purity. It’s just a straight up “hey man I’m in love and I’m feeling good” which is also the type of song that people end up regretting later. I listen to a lot of my favourite bands who say, “yeah I wrote this song about my ex-wife and now im fucking miserable and everyone loves it”. But you know what? “I Love You I Love You. It’s Disgusting” is CUTE… for now. Dorian: That was a lot of fun to write and it was cool because it was outside of our element because we always stick to guitars and “vroom vroom” noises so it was cool to slow down and mess with new chords and ideas.

Do you think you’ll have more songs like that on next album like that, or stick to you “vroom vroom” sound? Ollie: That’s a good question. I think we’re still trying to figure that out. Dorian: It will change the second we start writing. We love different styles and sounds every five seconds so we’ll see where we end up. Although, the new stuff we’re doing is also outside of our comfort zone a little bit and we’re excited about that.

Ollie has his solo project, Baxxter, and also writes outside of the band. Dorian and Pat, do you think you’ll end up doing something separate too or will you concentrate on Broadside? Pat: I’m going to put all my efforts into broadside because I’m not creative enough to think of anything else. Dorian: that’s not true. You came up with a smart way to hang the banner up just now.

You can be a professional banner hanger! Pat: …but that would be for the band. Dorian: This is also for the band, but you do have creative ways to wrangle everyone’s thoughts and say “hey guys, here’s a simple solution”. We’re all like “hey we should do this” “we should go here” “let’s go visit the Eiffel Tower” and Pat’s like “hey, here’s a list of things we’ll do. Pick.” Ollie: I can always count on Pat when I’m hungry and I’m like “Pat, tell them we need to eat”. And he’s like “HEY we need to go fucking eat. It’s feeding time, Ollie’s a baby”. Pat’s really funny too. So what I’m getting here is that you can be a personal assistant and a comedian. Pat: Yeah so no, I don’t think I’ll do anything else. Dorian: Well actually, I’m the vocalist of another band now. It’s with a bunch of friends because they ran into a situation, so I said I’d fill in and it ended up pretty cool. We’re dropping a single in three days

Oh really? What genre will that be? Dorian: it’s pretty, pop-punk stuff. Pat: I think it sounds like All Time Low Dorian: Does it? It sounds like all time low then, Sweet. But yeah, it’s cinematic stuff and it’s cool because when we started working with those guys it opened everyone’s mind into different directions because it provides different perspectives on areas that we can take this band as well. Like with Ollie’s solo stuff, we’ve started incorporating ideas from that into this band to experiment and become better creatives.So now Pat can hang banners for your band too. Maybe you can have Broadside headline with Baxxter and Dorian’s new band as support acts. 

Ollie: Honestly that’s not a bad idea, we’ll have a lot of fun but we’ll just be really tired. Pat: I’ll tell you what, you guys can open and I’ll do a comedy set, and THEN broadside. Yeah fuck every other band. Ollie: Yeah it will just be us, we can kick out the rest of the band because they’re irrelevant. Pat: No, Jeff can do sound and Dom will do merch. Dorian: Jeff can do sound and pyro for your comedy set. So other than your comedy tour, what’s happening after you leave the UK?Dorian: We’re going to do some writing so we’re pretty excited about that and then we have warped tour coming up. Very stoked about that. We have something lined up for the fall so we’ll see how that goes and then we’ll hit up the studio. I’m looking forward to that! Are there any last words you want to say quickly?Ollie: Make our band famous. Pat: If anyone knows how to equate people in a crowd to merch sold, let us know. Hit us up in the comments below but on a serious note, thank you for all the support. Ollie: sorry for joking so much but at the same time, it’s much better to joke than to cry. Dorian: I’ll also like to specifically thank London for being the first show we’ve ever headlined. We’ve never headlined a tour before which is crazy to think about, but we sold out our favourite city on planet earth so thank you for all the love and support.

[josephinequaas]

Ethnography: Fieldwork in a record store in Hamburg by Josephine Quaas

During the seminary- “Urban Audio: cities, sounds, scenes”

Introduction:

First coming into the record store around  seven pm, I recognized the salesman chatting with a guy both in the same age- I guess around 40- 50. They were laughing and joking around. One can imagine that they were friends, the guy asked the salesman whether he got that particular vinyl- determined the salesman walked to a specific corner, digging in a bunch of vinyls and all of a sudden he stopped his action. He had to disappoint him that the record he was searching for was not available yet- the men smiled, and left the store with the words “have a nice evening, see you!”

During my ethnographic research in a record store between St. Pauli and the Sternschanze in Hamburg I took a closer look at the store in general, the music that was played, the music that was sold, the people in the shop and the atmosphere in general

I went there at seven in the evening on a Saturday and I stayed about an hour. It was not my first time in a record shop because I am collecting vinyls and I have been listening to them on my own record player for about four to five years now, so I would consider myself being in the scene. Anyway, being in a record store and actually buying vinyls is more infrequently according to my financial circumstances as a student. In the generation of the digital natives- the haptics, the clicking noise and the imperfection are the parts that fascinates me about the black disk- in contrast to the fast moving world I live in. So my motivation, my cognitive interest and the challenge by doing an ethnography in a record store is to observe, recognize happenings that I may be used to as well new observations and facts.

My ethnography will be divided into two parts- like a Vinyl single. The A side will be the description and the B side will be reflective.

A side:

The store:

The record store I went to was reopened two months ago and is located between “St. Pauli” and “Sternschanze” in Hamburg. The quarters are the more alternative and “young” quarters in Hamburg with many bars, restaurants, clubs, concert venues and small independent shops. But the gentrification is already processing and the rents are extremely high especially in the “Sternschanze”. It is also important to mention that most of the record stores in Hamburg are located in that corner. The shop itself is subdivided into four parts, one smaller Room with books and CDs, two big rooms with mostly vinyls, books and CDs and one smaller darker room with books and vinyls as well. The walls are painted in white and the windows are high, so the rooms are light flooded.

The music:

The music sounded ambient. Soft electronic beats were mixed with classic elements, mostly without vocals. The volume was not too high but the music was present. I would consider the music as vanguard by mixing classical and electronic elements- not following the mainstream and the Pop economy.

The music that was sold:

By taking a closer look at the vinyls that was sold one can recognize, that the offer is very diverse. A big variety of music genres are represented and differ from old and new releases. Also, local artists from Hamburg especially Hip Hop artists included the offer. Also striking was that tapes, books and CDs were sold too. For instance the books dealt with the life of classical composers or had no music references and were about Artists like Ai Weiwei.

The people:

The average age of persons in the record store was about 35. It varied from 25- 50 I would say. Most of them wore “regular” clothes like a jeans and a basic t- shirt, no unconventional looks. I recognized that the costumers were mostly male and lonely so not with a friend or a partner in the store. Catching in their behaviour was that everyone seemed very concentrated and in their own zone. During searching after the perfect vinyl almost every costumer did not look up to recognize how other costumers act. On the two record player, where one can test the vinyl record by listening, the persons were very focused on the sound they were hearing. Although everyone is separate, doing their thing, they respect one other- by for instance not grabbing in the same section. I almost would describe the connection that is not visible between the costumers as familiar, due to situations like the talk between the costumer and the salesman I described in the very beginning.

Atmosphere:

I think the atmosphere in this record store is very special. Chilly and quiet despite the music that is played. For me as a student I kind of see a similarity between a library and the record store with the degree of concentration and quietness but it is way more relaxed and openminded in a record store.

B Side:

Reflection:

In my observations I find a lot of interesting points to reflect and to analyse, but I choose to focus on the characteristics of the costumers that are not as young and as “alternative” as one would expect in this corner of Hamburg. A statistic of the german website “Bundesverband der Musikindustrie” says that the average of persons who buy vinyl records are in their 40s and just 0.6 % of the German population (BVMI 2017). I considered the costumers in the record store I went to as a bit younger especially after the Vinyl Hype in the past years in the younger generation. Most of the records I saw in the record store cost about 15-20 Euros, in comparison to the free streaming services that compete against the vinyl market, the prize is comparatively high. It is common that adults in the late twenties and upwards have a steady income, are already graduated and financially independent so that it is financially possible to afford records frequently and I think this is a crucial point in this case. Due to the fact that the percentage of persons that buy vinyls is so low it is a niche market and I think that also reflects the familial feeling in the store. Bourdieus social theory says that every subject has a habitus, which is their immanent personal taste. In addition to this persons have social, economic, cultural and social capital which indicates their place in the so called social space, persons close to another in the social room feel more sympathetic than persons that are not so close to ones position (Bourdieu 1998).This is transferable to the situation in the record store: the love, appreciation and passion about collecting and the shared view over vinyl records, like the haptics and the sound is what persons connect apparently like the conversation I drafted in the beginning of this text or invisible like the relaxed, respectful atmosphere I described.

I will post a few more pictures and a costumer profile, I have created.

Sources:

Bundesverband der Musikindustrie (2017): Musikkäufer: [online]http://www.musikindustrie.de/musikkaeufer/ [25.7.2018]

Pierre Bourdieu (1998): Practical reason: On the Theory of Action, Stanford:Stanford University Press

[gessvhowarth]

These London Buildings All Used To Be Cinemas

Several of London's pubs, restaurants and churches used to be cinemas. We have only included former cinemas whose buildings still exist at least in part, or which have been repurposed. For information about former cinemas which have now been demolished, we recommend taking a look at Cinema Treasures. Tower Cinema, Peckham Photo: Londonist This colourful offering on Peckham's Rye Lane used to be the entrance to the Tower Cinema. The 2,150 seater auditorium was situated where the Choumert Grove car park now is, and opened in 1914. A marketing campaign billed it as one of the three towers to visit in London, along with the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. A young Michael Caine frequented the cinema on his days truanting school. In his autobiography, he tells of one particular incident in which, aged 14, he took up a female box office worker's offer: "Give us your chocolate and I'll show you me tits". Caine obliged, but was left disappointed. The Tower Cinema closed in December 1956, and the remaining structure, shown above, is not listed. King's Cross Cinema, King's Cross Better known these days as a live music and clubbing venue, Scala began life as a cinema. The first world war interrupted its construction, before it finally opened in 1920 as King's Cross Cinema. It designed by H. Courtenay Constantine, the same architect behind the Tower Cinema in Peckham. Constantine's cinemas all featured metre-high entrance towers. It was damaged during the Blitz, reopening as the Gaumont Cinema in 1952, going through various name changes and dabbling in adult film screenings, before closing in 1974. The building isn't listed. Angel (Odeon) Cinema, Islington 1983/2010. Photo: roll the dice This one completes the trio of H. Courtenay Constantine's London cinemas — again, his signature entrance tower features. It opened as Angel Cinema in around 1911, becoming the Odeon in 1963 before closing in 1972. This main building on Islington High Street is now occupied by a Starbucks, and is Grade II listed. The cinema had a separate entrance round the corner on White Lion Street, which has since been demolished. Carlton Cinema, Essex Road, Islington The then-empty Carlton Cinema building in 2012. Photo: Paul Wood Today it's available for hire and functions as a church, but the exterior of this building makes no secret of its past. It was designed by architect George Coles — whose other art deco cinema buildings include the Muswell Hill Odeon — in the 1930s, and operated as cinema until 1972, before becoming a bingo hall (at which point it was given Grade II* listed status). This closed in 2007, and it was left derelict for several years before reopening in its current incarnation in 2015. The Odeon Isleworth Image: Google Earth The former Isleworth Odeon, which opened in 1935, was also one of George Coles's designs, and ran as a cinema until 1957. It was converted into Isleworth Studios, but remained unlisted and was sold off in the early 2000s. It now forms part of a block of flats. You'll find it on the corner of London Road and Harvard Road. The Capitol, Forest Hill Photo: Laura Reynolds Now a Wetherspoon pub, The Capitol on Forest Hill isn't shy in shouting about its 1920s cinema heritage. It opened in 1929, becoming the ABC Cinema in 1968 before closing in 1973. It functioned as a bingo hall between 1978-1996 (it was given Grade II listed status in 1993), and has been a pub since 2001. The interior is as decadent as the exterior. The entrance is decked out as a ticket/refreshment booth, and the bar runs the length of where the screen would have been. In 2016, it was announced that The Capitol would be closing — although at time of writing (January 2017) it remains steadfastly open. The Coronet, Holloway Photo: Peter H The Capitol isn't the only former cinema to be commandeered by the Wetherspoon chain (you might say the company makes a habit of it). The Coronet in Holloway has been a pub since 1996. In 2015, the pub chain was ordered to pay £24,000 damages for refusing a group of travellers entry. Prior to this, it had been known variously as the Savoy Cinema, ABC Cinema and Coronet Cinema, and also acted as a snooker hall from 1984-1987. Coronet Cinema, Eltham The exterior in 2009, when it was derelict. Here's what it looks like today. Photo: LiamCH Another former outpost of the Coronet Cinema chain sits on Wells Hall roundabout in Eltham. It originally opened as an Odeon Cinema and had 1,028 seats in the stalls and 578 in the circle in its peak, before being split into two smaller auditoriums in 1973. It was renamed Coronet in 1981. It has been Grade II listed since 1989, and today is home to a Kinesis gym Eltham cinephiles also had the Gaumont on Eltham Hill (now Mecca Bingo) and the now-demolished ABC Eltham to choose from. Brixton Hill Bioscope Theatre The site of the cinema in 2016. Photo: Google Earth This one-screen cinema was a short-lived venture, opening in 1910 and closing just a year later, although South London Guide suggests it went on to operate as a cinema under different names. Elsewhere it's referred to as Brixton Cinematograph Theatre. Today, galette and juice restaurant Kata Kata occupies the building (next door to better-known Jamaican grill Negril). Rex Cinema, Stratford The building in 2015. Photo: Google Earth This one wasn't a purpose-built cinema — it was built as the Borough Theatre in 1896, before being converted into a cinema by George Coles. This is what the cinema interior looked like. It closed in 1975, and remained empty until it was reopened as a music venue in 1997, going through several closures and refurbishments, mostly recently functioning as Sync nightclub — a place which ruled: "All groups must be mixed or predominantly female." It closed in 2013. The Regal, Streatham The Regal Cinema — known variously as the ABC Cinema and Cannon Cinema — opened in 1938 and closed in 2000. Here's what the exterior looked like in 1960 (oh, to see Streatham High Road that empty these days). The building is still standing (the front is Grade II listed, the auditorium was not) after being converted into luxury flats in 2006. Here's the Mayor of Wandsworth attending the ceremony to switch the lights on the front of the building back on following the end of the war blackout — which had begun just a year after the cinema originally opened: Find it on Streatham High Road, opposite the junction with Broadlands Avenue. EMD Cinema, Walthamstow The cinema exterior in November 2015. Here's what it looks like today. Photo: Mirth, Marvel & Maud Mirth, Marvel and Maud is a restaurant, bar and events space which has taken up residence in the Grade II* listed former EMD Cinema on Hoe Street in Walthamstow. In its cinema days, it was frequented by Alfred Hitchcock. The 2,697 seater opened in 1930 as the Granada Cinema, and went through several name changes before closing in 2003. There were plans to turn it into a place of worship, but local objections were raised, and Mirth, Marvel and Maud opened in December 2015. There's a more indepth account of the cinema's history on Derelict London. Gateway House, Woolwich Photo: Google Maps On a roundabout on the South Circular in Woolwich sits the above Grade II listed building. Today it's owned by the New Wine Church, but it was built as the Odeon in 1937. In its peak, the building's neon exterior lights could apparently be seen from the other side of the Thames. Gaumont Palace, Wood Green The building in 2008. Photo: Geoff Holland Wood Green's Gaumont Palace opened in 1933 to coincide with the new Piccadilly line station in the area. Today it's Grade II* listed and functions as a church, but it's been used as a theatre, cinema and bingo hall during its lifespan. Here's an idea what the interior was like: Gaumont State, Kilburn Photo: Michael Caroe Andersen The remains of the Gaumont State Cinema, can be seen on Kilburn High Road. It was designed by George Coles to resemble New York's Empire State Building (hence the tower, and the name) and opened in 1937.  It doubled up as a theatre during its time as an entertainment, and was a Mecca Bingo hall until 2007, during which time it was grade II* listed. Today it's a church. This is by no means a complete list. Where have we missed? Let us know in the comments.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/londonist/sBMe/~3/JIS623EPO4k/london-s-lost-cinemas

[baileylaplata-blog]

URUGUAY POST!!!!!!!

So on Tuesday I got back from my first trip outside of Argentina!!! Uruguay was absolutely amazing. Montevideo is a beautiful city, the air was much cleaner and the streets felt safer. We rented bikes and rode to the southern most point of Uruguay which was really beautiful and tranquil. On our slow trek back to Buenos Aires, we stopped in Colonia for another 2 days and that was beautiful as well! My favorite part of the trip was being able to sit by the water on my last night and watch the sunset. It gave me time to be alone with my thoughts and process my travels so far and think critically about the things I have observed. 

The biggest theme that arose in Uruguay, I would say, was the HUGE economic differences between Argentina and Uruguay right now. To be quite honest I didn’t know much about the country of Uruguay before going there, but quick research in my spare time led me to learn that Uruguay is considered by many to be the most developed and progressive country in Latin America (it also has really high rankings on an international level as well). For example, did you know that 95% of the country’s energy use comes from renewable resources? Wow! 

What I don’t understand is why Uruguay is doing so visibly better than Argentina. In Uruguay, it was a luxury that we could take money out of ATM machines without a hassle. In Argentina it is a long process to withdraw money because a lot of the machines are empty- the country physically does not have the cash to fill them. This leads to the government printing more money, which leads to inflation, which leads to people not being able to pay for the things they used to factor in easily into their budget. A family from La Plata told us that this year their salary gets them about 80% of the things they used to be able to buy in previous years. In Uruguay life was much easier because we were able to pay with our credit cards- in Argentina many places don’t except them for fear of people not being able to pay the bill later. I took US dollars out while in Uruguay and already sold some to my host mom- she, along with many other Argentinians right now, prefers to keep her money in a more stable currency. 

Obviously I have seen tough economic times before- I lived through the 2008 collapse. But never have I actually experienced inconveniences caused by the economy of the government. It’s yet again another example of my previous thinking- “bad things happen, but they don’t happen to me.” or “government policies can hurt people, but they never really will affect me.” This mindset is the epitome of privilege- something that before coming here I thought I did a good job of taking into account. But it’s clear now that I haven’t. Not even close. I know in December I will come home and I will be in a country where the cash is stable and my house will always be warm and I can drink a big glass of milk (in Argentina, the cattle capital of the world, inflation has affected the price of dairy so much that I haven’t had milk in over a month!) and I will read something about the unstable government of Argentina in the New York Times and I will think about this experience. Something about this image makes me feel guilty and gives me the constant question of “what did I do to deserve being born a white rich american?” 

PART 2: DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ*

*Unless you’re reading this blog 

Yet another interesting aspect of my life here has been the constant questioning of things I used to swear were true. For example- the New York Times would never lie to me and would always give me (while albeit liberal) an informed and complete story. What I didn’t expect was for this trust in my favorite paper to be challenged while talking about the elections in Venezuela. While talking with a professor about the current situation there, the starvation and unrest against Maduro, the professor cut me (and the other W&M students) off and asked us “what’s your source?” 

Imagine being doubted on something like that!!!!!!!!!!! And when we followed with NYT, her only remark was “don’t trust everything you read.” Upon further investigation, we learned that in the perspective of Argentina and other countries in Latin America, the fault lies not only in the tyranny and corruption of Maduro (and, from their eyes, much less so), but also in the United States for imposing NeoLiberal tariffs on food and other goods that would have helped the starving people. Once again, I am shook by how much I don’t think about the modern day economic imperialism that my country uses to manipulate smaller powers abroad. Still spinning off of Pence’s visit to Buenos Aires, she continued with “the only reason the US doesn’t put tarriffs on Argentina is because our president [Macri] is doing Trump’s bidding now. If we weren’t, the US could use the same reasoning [invalid elections] to starve our people too.” To clarify, the reasoning behind this is because Macri is exactly like Trump- rich boy, only cares about wealthy, favors big business, doesn’t care about human rights (which, considering the history Argentina has, should be a priority).  It is because of this that reading Pence’s speech in Buenos Aires made me feel physically ill. 

I’m lucky, though, because Argentine people here hate the US government but LOVE us american students. They think our accents are the funniest thing. When I went to volunteer at an elementary school last week, I was treated like a celebrity- people were taking pictures with me, asking me questions, surrounding me. It was a really really amazing day because I spoke with kids from the ages of 13-18 about the history of the dictatorship and what they can do now to be more aware of human rights violations in their communities. In one section, they had to write a list titled “NUNCA MAS...” followed by all the things they want to eliminate from their daily lives- things like homophobia, police violence, xenophobia. My most powerful moment was seeing a kid write “USA” on his paper, then remember I was in the room and cross it out. He doesn’t know I saw him do this, but I wish I told him he should keep it there. If he really feels that way, which he rightfully should, he shouldn’t have to censor himself in his own space for my benefit. It was a moment that I continue to think about over a week later. I think I am going to continue volunteering with the kids for my internship. I will help them plan the big event in November in which 20-30 thousand kids from all over Argentina will come present projects they have been working on that bring attention to human rights violations in the past and the present. I will mainly be organizing food and supplies and venues and other logistics because this is not my history to share, but being around all these passionate kids is really inspiring. I think what my education in the United States lacks the most is an open dialogue about these topics in schools. Why am I still learning the scope of my country’s history and the real effects of this imperialism now? Why did I describe the United States as “post-racial” until my freshman year of college? Why does the United States still do nothing to commemorate the horrible things that happened on our soil? I’ve been to a concentration camp in Germany. I have been to numerous torture sights and prisons since coming here and studying the dictatorship. Why don’t we have a plantation museum that shows the atrocities slaves had to live with? Why don’t we have a museum that commemorates the genocide of Native Americans instead of celebrating Columbus day every year? 

This blog post quickly turned into more of a rant than anything else, so I think I will end this here. I am looking forward to a week of enjoying university classes and napping while I can. Stay tuned for photos of my first finished scarf!

[orbemnews]

Another Unlikely Pandemic Shortage: Boba Tea A panic erupted on the West Coast this week. Over a drink. It happened when beverage aficionados learned that tapioca, the starch used to make the sweet, round, chewy black bubbles — or pearls — that are the featured topping in the popular boba tea drink, was in short supply. “I was shocked,” said Leanne Yuen, a longtime boba drinker and student at the University of California, Irvine. “What am I going to do now?” The impending boba shortage is yet another sign of how the pandemic has snarled global supply chains, upended industries and created scarcities of goods from toilet paper to electronics to ketchup. In this case, a surge of pent-up demand for products assembled abroad, coupled with a shortage of workers because of coronavirus cases or quarantine protocols, has caused a monthslong maritime pileup at ports in Los Angeles and San Francisco and left ships delivering goods from Asia — including tapioca — waiting out at sea. Boba or bubble tea, a drink that can be made with milk or fruit-flavored green or black tea, originated in Taiwan and has steadily grown in popularity and prominence in the United States throughout the 2000s. Boba suppliers based in the San Francisco Bay Area who are running low on tapioca said their shipments of fully formed boba come from Taiwan, while supplies of cassava root, which is used to make tapioca, come from Thailand and islands in the Pacific Ocean. “It’s all being held up at the docks,” said Arianna Hansen, a sales representative for the boba distributor Fanale Drinks, which is based in Hayward, Calif., and supplies thousands of stores around the country. Ms. Hansen said shipments had been backed up for several months, and the company’s existing stockpile of tapioca is running dangerously low. “It’s definitely been frustrating — some people have been upset with us, but at the same time it’s not really our fault,” Ms. Hansen said. There’s no sign that the ship delays will abate anytime soon. The number of container ships waiting at anchor to dock in Los Angeles or Long Beach peaked at 40 in February, according to data from the Marine Exchange of Southern California. That declined to 19 ships on Thursday, still a far cry from the usual zero to one ships that was the norm prepandemic, said Kip Louttit, the exchange’s executive director. Massive cargo ships can take up to a week or longer to unload, Mr. Louttit said. Five additional ships are drifting out at sea, because there is no room to fit them in the bay. He said it was a nearly unprecedented backup; vessels have not had to drift while waiting since 2004. The situation is similarly cramped in San Francisco, where 20 ships are waiting at anchor and 19 more are “cruising around” offshore, compared with the usual eight or nine at anchor, according to Capt. Lynn Korwatch, the executive director of the area’s marine exchange. “The situation is extremely unusual,” she said. Leadway International Inc., another large boba supplier in Hayward, also said that its stock of tapioca was low because shipments were coming in slower than usual. The company’s business development director, Edward Shen, said he did not want to call it a “shortage” over fears that might spook boba shops into hoarding tapioca and make matters worse. “Store owners get panicked, so they probably order more than what they need,” Mr. Shen said. Ms. Hansen said she expected supply to return to close to normal levels by the summer. In the meantime, anxious boba store owners are scrounging for tapioca anywhere they can. “It’s very stressful — no boba means no sales,” said Aaron Qian, the owner of Tea Hut, a boba store with three locations in the Bay Area. “If you don’t have boba, they don’t want the tea. They just leave.” Mr. Qian, 32, said two of his suppliers were already sold out, and the other two had been rationing the amount of tapioca he could buy each week. If he does not find more boba soon, Mr. Qian said, his stores will be out within two weeks. Updated  April 16, 2021, 12:43 p.m. ET Despite the pandemic, Mr. Qian said, business had been booming, because with other entertainment venues closed, drinking boba was one of the few avenues for “cheap fun.” Now, he might have to temporarily close and lay off employees. Brian Tran, the co-owner of Honeybear Boba in San Francisco, said he had also been searching desperately for more tapioca. He expects to run out by the end of next week if he cannot replenish his supply. “A boba shop without boba is like a car dealership without cars to sell,” Mr. Tran said. “It’s like a steakhouse without steak.” Boba Guys, one of the most successful boba chains in the country, said in an Instagram post this month that some boba shops had already run out of tapioca balls and others would follow in the next few weeks. The owners of Boba Guys also operate the U.S. Boba Company, which produces and sells tapioca pearls to other stores around the country. The boba shortage, which was first reported by The San Francisco Chronicle, has boba fans in a panic. A post sharing the news in the Facebook group Subtle Asian Traits, a gathering place for Asian people around the world, attracted 10,000 comments and messages of dismay and sadness. Boba is “something that translates across a lot of Asian cultures,” said Zoe Imansjah, a student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an administrator of the Subtle Asian Traits group. “Something so simple can bring a lot of people together.” Ms. Yuen, 21, gets boba once or twice a week and sells boba stickers online. She said she grew up visiting a boba shop near her house in South San Francisco with her parents, and now considers getting boba a great way to socialize with friends. “A lot of my Asian-American friends will bond over boba,” said Ms. Yuen, whose family is from Hong Kong. “Hong Kong has a lot of good milk tea. It brings us back to our roots, in a sense.” Boba isn’t just a California treat, however, and news of a shortage reverberated around the United States. Khoa Vu, a 28-year-old Ph.D. student at the University of Minnesota, said he drinks boba two or three times a week — peach oolong tea with boba is his go-to order. He was dreading having to break the news of the shortage to his 4-year-old daughter. “It’s a weekend thing after we’re done with dinner; I tell my kid, ‘If you eat well, I’ll take you to the boba shop,’” Mr. Vu said. “It’s going to be a shock to her.” All hope is not lost for boba fanatics. Smaller boba suppliers like iBEV LLC, which sells to about 100 stores, might be able to weather the shortage. Carley Olund, an office manager at iBEV, said the company had prepared for shipping delays and had enough tapioca stockpiled to get through it. And Sharetea, a boba chain with dozens of stores across 20 states, said it was not experiencing a shortage. For those boba drinkers who are affected by shortages, this may be a chance to try different toppings in their tea, like cheese foam, fruit jellies or egg pudding. “Maybe I’ll try to take a break from the tapioca to relieve that pressure,” Ms. Yuen said. Source link Orbem News #Boba #Pandemic #shortage #Tea

[wtburadio]

INTERVIEW: Kevin Garrett

Kevin Garrett is a talented new artist steadily rising to fame. At 25 years old, he has already toured with many artists including Alessia Cara, Oh Wonder, and James Vincent McMorrow. WTBU DJ Christina Carpio sat down with Garrett after his final show on his first headlining tour for his new EP False Hope to talk about who inspires him, working with Beyoncé, and what is to come.

Christina Carpio: When did you know that you wanted to pursue a career in music?

Kevin Garrett: Well I’d always been around music. I started music when I was very young—4 years old or so—and I started writing songs when I was 11 or 12.

CC: Songs about what? What does an 11 or 12-year-old know?

KG: Nothing. I didn’t have anything to write about, so none of those songs really ever saw the light of day. I went through high school, did the talent show and all that stuff. It was always kind of just a hobby. I was recording myself at that point, and like looping, and doing all these cool things with my guitars and stuff; that’s when I started writing. Once I got to New York for school, as soon as I got there, I just started playing, and my first show was at 3 p.m. for two off-duty police officers on a Sunday. Then the venue asked me back, and the next time I went back, it was opening for Norah Jones, so it was pretty cool. Once I played a few of those shows at that venue, I kind of realized that I could hang with this circle, and then I just started hustling. New York, and Boston too, could do this because they obviously have a very vibrant music scene, sort of the bigger metropolitan cities—something about a place. Like when I moved to Brooklyn, that atmosphere makes you run so much harder. So I write everything at home in Pittsburgh, where I’m from. The phrase I like to use is “I work in Pittsburgh, and I run in Brooklyn.” I’ve obviously written elsewhere, since I’m not home enough, but the hustle is in Brooklyn.

CC: Who are some of your inspirations or idols?

KG: I was raised on classical music because of the violin, and then if it wasn’t that, it was classic rock, like Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd—pretty much every band except The Beatles, oddly enough, just kind of what my dad was into. Then once I was old enough to buy my own CDs, I got a Ray Charles disc, then found Sam Cooke. Sam Cooke—he’s obviously not been with us for a while, but he still is the person that everybody leans on for vocal inspiration. If you listen to enough Sam Cooke songs, they all start to sound the same. But he was the first person to do those set of runs, those set of melismas, those set of nuances in his singing, and it just took soul music and gospel music to a whole new level. [Also], Otis Redding, then really old country like Hank Williams, Willy Nelson before he had the ponytails, and Porter Wagoner. I like a lot of old stuff. I think idols—we all have the same idols: Beyoncé, Beyoncé, and Beyoncé. Sam Cooke would be really cool to meet, if I could figure out how to meet him and go back in time.

CC: How would you describe your music?

KG: When I first put out Coloring, it started as a joke, because it was a reference to my favorite MUTEMATH song, “Odd Soul.” I called my music “odd soul,” because it was supposed to reference the different palette of influences I was taking in around this sort of soul-centered pop sensibility, and I’ve always been attached to that type of phrase, “odd soul,” being my music. I talk to people about it, and I’m very lucky for them to say they can’t really put a finger on it. I’m kind of somewhere in between all the Franks and the Sams and the Jameses, and that’s pretty cool because in the same way the Franks and the Sams and the Jameses are between each other, I think I’ve worked really hard to sort of carve out this sort of niche for myself, and it all started with kind of a fake tag, but now it’s very real to me.

CC: You worked with Beyoncé on Lemonade, can you tell me more about that?

KG: Yes, I was very lucky to contribute to Lemonade. It was what I will continue to only refer to as a “right place, right time” sort of thing. It was very much an honor to be a part of that album, I would say more than any of her other albums, because it was just so impactful. There were two very strong messages she was giving for women and for equality. And you know, it’s a shitty thing for me to say that I’m lucky to be a straight white male. It feels stupid saying that, but like that’s the reality of the situation, and I think we need artists like Beyoncé to make albums like Lemonade to remind people that everybody should feel lucky to just be a human, because we’re all humans. I think she did a really good job of opening up on this album, and conveying a side of her that we never see, and I’m just happy to help set the tone right at the top of the record. It was really cool to be a part of that song, and I saw her perform it at the VMAs, the only time she’s ever performed it, and it was phenomenal. I remember when I first heard it, heard her record it, I was wondering how she would sing it. What it was going to be like? But she really stuck to the vision. I think we were tapping into similar headspaces, because she wanted to sort or channel that sort of vulnerability. You see in the movie, she’s in a bathtub beside herself. It made it very real. Long story short, [I’m] very honored to be a part of that album, and congrats to her on her Grammys.

CC: So you’ve been on a lot of tours with a lot of different artist; has that taught you anything? Have you learned anything as an artist from touring with other people?

KG: When I first started touring it was James Vincent McMorrow in late 2014—a short run across the southern states, and I didn’t know what I was doing. I’d gone on tour with my old band a couple of times, but it was all very much the type of shows where the venue might not have even known we were there. There was no advance; there was no anything, so it was the type of thing where, “Oh this is a legit tour, let’s do this.” And every time I open for someone—continually, because I’m going to open for Mumford and Sons pretty soon—I learn something from everybody, and every time I’m on stage with my band, I learn something from them every night. All three of them are in their own way influential to me, because we play the same songs every night for a month, and Sean, my drummer, he’s been playing the Mellow Drama songs for two and a half years. It’s not very common, I don’t think, for an artist to tour an EP for two and a half years. We did “Pushing Away” tonight and it felt like we were playing it for the first time. I think what’s important on tour is to think ahead, know until the last show, there is always another show. And if you’re opening, it’s kind of important to put yourself in the headliner’s shoes. Now that I’ve been a headliner one time through, I kind of sometimes just want to go right back to being an opener.

CC: How different was it doing your own tour this time?

Obviously the shows are very fulfilling, because they’re sold out and people are coming to see you. Some opening looks, people came to see me. Like on Alessia [Cara’s] tour, there were people who seemed to know who I was by then, and same with Oh Wonder. But when you are headlining, especially since we are doing some smaller rooms in certain cities, it’s the type of thing where I can take my ear[piece] out, or I can just listen to the crowd sing the lyrics to my songs louder than I even know them. All this is to say, touring is exhausting; I would not recommend anyone to do it, but at the same time, the only way I would pursue a career in music, is to stay on the road. It’s pretty old school to do it that way.

CC: As an up-and-coming artist, who are some other artists you think people should be on the lookout for?

KG: His album just dropped yesterday, Khalid. Homeboy is 19. He’s from El Paso. I was texting him the other day, because I think I said something about him in an interview when I was at the L.A. show, and he tweeted me. He was like “Oh my god, thanks man!” And I was like, “You don’t listen to me, you don’t know who I am,” and then he DMed me and he was like “No, no, I didn’t think you listened to me.” With artists like that, you’re always kind of wary, because there’s hype and then there’s talent. With Khalid, he’s got both, and it’s incredible. The same way when I first discovered Alessia, just as “Here” was going viral, before I went on tour with her, Alessia Cara was just kind of down-to-earth, surprised that things were happening, and she still is. Khalid, he’s on a rocket ship. It’s crazy, and he definitely doesn’t know it yet but, congratulations on the new album, if you’re listening. Also, Nick Hakim, he came to Berklee I think. He’s putting out new music. He’s signed to ATO, and I’ve been a fan of his forever. Brilliant, brilliant, young man, who just knows how to write a song better than you. No matter how you look at it, any song. You give him a song he’s already done [and he’ll say], “Oh I’ll do it better man.” And he’s not boastful about it—he’s just so smart with his decisions and anything that he puts out, even the songs he probably doesn’t like. I’m like “Come on, this is just not even fair.” There’s a British guy who I love, he’s a dear friend of mine, and he’s slowly sort of building a catalogue, re-releasing some songs and releasing new songs in this sort of Oh Wonder-esque, every month sort of thing. His name is Bruno Major. He has some pretty cool songwriting connects; he’s worked with some really awesome people, and I’ve been lucky to work with him a little bit, but I really want to work with him some more. He just put out a song called “Just The Same” and it’ll hit you where you need to be hit at any given moment.

CC: Lastly, what’s next for you? Is there an album coming soon?

KG: I’ve had the concept for my album for a really long time. I’ve never really given it up to anyone. I’ve told a few people what I know it’s called. The title has recently taken on a deeper meaning, which I’m really excited about, because I think I’ve also kind of found some design pieces within it that I’m really amped on. I’m a very visual, sort of tactile learner, like creator I guess. I see things when I hear things and smell things when I hear things, some kind of weird synesthesia thing. I don’t really know. I never really think about it, but like enough people say they have synesthesia, that I think, “Wait a second, I better look into this, because you’re saying things that I do.” Maybe I have synesthesia, and that’d be pretty cool. But anyway, the album hopefully comes out sooner than later. The same thing about touring an EP for two and a half years—I’ve been touring for a very long time, so I’m trying to take my off time to sort of buckle down. Obviously not being signed, not having a label and a marketing strategy, or really any sort of PR help, has been trying to say the least, but at the same time I relish being independent. I think it’s rare these days. Something that I’ve definitely noticed is that I’ve grown in the past two years, kind of more than I ever thought I would off of two EPs, so I feel really good about where I’m at. I’m not in any rush to put the album out, but at the same time, I know we’re all waiting for it, and I’m just as anxious as everyone else is, so sooner than later is probably the answer for that.

Check out Kevin Garrett opening up for Mumford and Sons this May, and listen to his latest EP, False Hope.