JIMMY EAT WORLD + THE LONELY ISLAND + EISLEY + SURFER BLOOD THE SIGHTS + SOUNDS YOU LOVE PORTUGAL. THE MAN SKYLAR GREY EMINEM’S HITMAKER PROTÉGÉ ISN’T LOOKING DOWN DAVID ANDERS TV’S FAVORITE VILLAIN GETS ROUGH WITH JOHN STAMOS + LAURA MARLING SOARS IN U.S. J. COLE THE BORN SINNER HAS COME FOR THE KING’S THRONE PRETTY LIGHTS VS. EDM VOL. 4, ISSUE 3 | JULY_SUMMER 2013 good music makes good times. Sweaty Dance Party Relaxing at Home Staying Up All Night Playlists by Music Experts. 100% Free. No Audio Ads. listen now at Songza.com good music makes good times. Welcome to the neighborhood myspace.com FIRSTTHINGSFIRST COACHELLA 2013 SUMMER IS HERE, FOLKS! music maker Skylar Grey, Eminem’s pro- And it’s here to stay—for a couple more months any- tégé, who’s finally getting her moment in uwway. With summer festival season in full swing, more the spotlight. up-and-coming bands are being introduced to audi- Our cover artist, J. Cole, recently ences all over the world. It’s a wonderful time to be a stunned the music industry by moving the musician, and an even better time to be a music fan. release date of his sophomore record, Born With festivals like Firefly and Bonnaroo already Sinner, to the same day as Kanye West’s done and gone, acts like Capital Cities and The Last buzzworthy new album, Yeezus. He dou- Royals are finally getting the recognition they de- bled on sales predictions and debuted at serve. They’re talking to us now about their journey. No. 2 right behind West. In a truly rare In this issue, we catch up with the timeless favorite scenario, Born Sinner this month climbed Jimmy Eat World, talking about the new record and its way up to No. 1, cementing his place why consistency works for them over the bells and as one of the year’s biggest stars. Writer whistles that many of their peers have fallen for. Weston Shepherd discusses the rapper’s Jack-of-all-trades actor David Anders, most notably role as a new leader within hip-hop and TV’s favorite villain on shows like Vampire Diaries why J. Cole is one of the best in the game. and Once Upon a Time, gives us the scoop on one It may be hard to believe that we’re of his crazier fan encounters; actress Katee Sackhoff more than halfway through 2013, but talks about working with Vin Diesel and how she we feel there are still plenty of incredible maintains balance in her life; Derek Vincent Smith of Sights and Sounds on the way. Keep those Pretty Lights tells us what he really thinks of EDM; eyes and ears open; it only gets better and we slip into the mind of the hauntingly beautiful from here. 4 4 4 SUMMER.13 MIXTAPE AVICII FT. ALOE BLACC MILEY CYRUS DAFT PUNK FT. PHARRELL “Wake Me Up” “We Can’t Stop” “Lose Yourself to Dance” by @prettyraver by @AlexanderGold by @MoleCertins MACKLEMORE & RYAN LEWIS J. COLE FT. TLC JOHN NEWMAN “Same Love” “Crooked Smile” “Love Me Again” by @Politicana by @ShowMe_Luv by @RyanHansonBoxer JAY Z FT. JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE ELLIE GOULDING THE NEIGHBOURHOOD “Holy Grail” “Burn” “$ting” by @CGGADD by @kaytlyn_rae by @tavukciyan KANYE WEST JANELLE MONÁE JOHN MAYER “Black Skinhead” “Dance Apocalyptic” “Paper Doll” by @AaronNagler by @gocabajic by @JasonHydra YOU CREATE THE PLAYLIST zz VARIANCE Summer_2013, Vol. 4, Issue 4 Editorial Director Jonathan Robles Managing Editors Rachel Faylene & Weston Shepherd Editor-at-Large CONTENTS Amanda Morad Features Editors Merlyn Hamilton & Emily Hulseberg Editorial Assistant Laurie Tomlinson Contributing Writers Noel Abas Chas Guy Katie Herald John Mouser Eli Provenzano Edwin Wilson Photography Mike Windle Contributing Photographers & Artists Chloe Aftel Bo Apitz Krystle Blackburn Jennifer Botello Dustin Cohen Robby Doland Michael Elins Rose Hardy Jim Herrington Benny Haddad Taylor Hatfield Thomas Hawk Eliot Lee Hazel Steve Laughlin Von Lohmann Frank Maddox Jeffrey Marini Dustin Meehan Jason Mongue Nan Palmero Felix Perez SUMMER MIXTAPE (PLAYLIST) 05 John Peets Chris Phelps THE 1975 08 Claire Reynolds EISLEY 10 Alexander Richter ARIEL ALEXIS 25 Cara Robbins KATEE SACKHOFF 30 David Roemer Mark Runyon CAPITAL CITIES 32 George Salisbury Joe Scarcini F. Scott Schafer John Shearer Aaron Stern g J. COLE 40 Steven Taylor Laura Wilson Kevin Winter SURFER BLOOD 50 Derek Wood MARSHALL YOUNG BAND 58 Tony Wooliscroft THE LAST ROYALS 59 Hayley Young CAZZETTE 60 Web Production & Design LAST NOTE 61 Nicholas Clayton JP Jones Jonathan Robles Project Development Bryan Norris THE SIGHTS AND SOUNDS YOU LOVE. www.variancemagazine.com PHOTO DIARIES 16 SHOTS FROM COACHELLA, BOTTLEROCKET & SASQUATCH FUTURESOUNDS: 36 THE SOUNDS YOU NEED TO HEAR THE LONELY ISLAND 12 The comedy trio returns with The Wack Album, and they’re proving they’re here to stay. PORTUGAL. THE MAN 22 Having worked with Danger Mouse, they’ve created their best record yet. JIMMY EAT WORLD 26 No need for shock value or left-field collaborations. They're just fine with consistency. LAURA MARLING 34 One of the brightest voices Britain has to offer is settling down in America. Fine by us! SKYLAR GREY 46 The hitmaking songwriter & protégé of Eminem is finally stepping into the stoplight on her own. DAVID ANDERS 48 He's TV's favorite villain. Now, he's getting rough with John Stamos. PRETTY LIGHTS 52 The electro hip-hop artist talks about his new record and his honest thoughts on “EDM.” Q + A the1975 BY EMILY HULSEBERG Manchester-based art-pop quartet The 1975 How did the band form? How has your sound evolved since are quickly climbing the charts across the Through a reaction to boredom to be you first started playing? United States and Britain. After a string of honest with you. Just me and my mates, It's manifested itself in lots of different sold-out performances, the foursome will we started playing in punk bands ways. We've gone from being a loud release their self-titled debut record this fall, when we were about 13 and we've kind of skate, punk band to almost followed by a North American headlining tour. never left each other's side since then like an ‘80s pop project. We wanted Vocalist-guitarist Matthew Healy took time really, so we've been together for about our records to feel like a John Hughes between tour stops to talk with Variance. 10 years. movie soundtrack. 8 VARIANCEMAGAZINE.COM excellence amongst four individuals. I record. I hope people fall out of love to suppose when we decided we were going our record. I hope people hate our record, to do it, we wanted people to really love I hope people love our record. Once it's our band as much as we love it. I think in released, it's not really ours anymore. It's order to acquire that you need a certain everybody else's. I just like the idea of it amount of material. We wanted to put framing genuine emotional situations. out records that were all bodies of work that kind of said something about who We've been hearing "Chocolate" we were, so people could make an emo- constantly in the States. What's it been tional investment. The more you know like for your music to have international about somebody, the more you invest in success? the relationship, the more rewarding it It's very, very humbling. And very, very is for both of you, so that’s the way we personally and professionally rewarding. thought about it. Something that we're catching up with cause as soon as everything started go- You mentioned how you guys had a ing…we left and went on tour and we've lot of different name changes. Why did been in a different foreign city pretty "The 1975" stick with you all? much since "Chocolate" came out. We've It was a time where we'd been tarnished a not really had much time to kind of take bit. Not tarnished, but we'd been around in and sit at home and listen to the radio, major labels that showed a lot of inter- and check the music channels. est and we ended up not getting signed to a major label and it wasn't really dis- What inspires you as an artist to write heartening, it just revitalized us and we and play music? realized what we wanted. We just thought The fact that I won’t eat if I don’t do it. it summed us up at the time, we didn't I don't know how to do anything else. really know our own identity. I've never been able to know how to do anything else, so I suppose that's enough Where did your love of John Hughes inspiration as it is. films come about? Do you have a favorite? What's your favorite thing about being a That’s what I was brought up on really, musician? what I would watch. I used to be ob- I don't know. It's such an all-encompass- sessed with Pretty In Pink and Weird Sci- ing thing for me, like it takes up my entire ence, Breakfast Club and all those kinds life. I think the fact that I get to express of movies. It's not necessarily stylistically myself, like straight up and arrogantly something that we've tried to parallel. for a job, and that is embraced across the We've not tried to make an 80’s sound- world, that's the best thing about being ing record, but it's the way those records a musician.