Jena Malone: Indie Ingenue

BY: JUSTINE GOODMAN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY: SETH KUSHNER

Would you like half?” Jena Malone asks me at the start of our interview, referring to her bottle of Vitamin Water. Sweet and soft-spoken (and extraordinarily polite), you may not know her name—yet—but chances are you’ve seen one of Jena’s films. From Into the Wild to Saved! the young starlet has already racked up over 35 big and small screen credits, and at 23-years-old she’s just getting started. That’s why we jumped on the opportunity to chat with Jena about her upcoming films, her burgeoning music career and her take on the world of fashion.

YRB: So, what projects can we look forward to seeing you in this fall?
Jena: The Go-Getter will still be out this fall. It’s this independent film with Zoey Deschanel and Lou Taylor Pucci. It went to Sundance two years ago, and it’s such a beautiful film about a road trip and coming of age. It’s the most, sort of, sexually deviant character I’ve ever played, just in the sense of a young woman understanding what sexual manipulation is within her own femininity. I think there’s a point when every woman realizes that her looks or her body or her temperament can win her certain things with men. And [my character explores] how to push those limits, and how empowering that feels, how strange that feels and how, in the beginning, it can be very innocent, and she kind of gives Lou Taylor Pucci’s character the ride of his life. And then I’m working on this film right now called The Messenger, which should be coming out in the fall/winter.

YRB: I had a chance to check out some of your music on MySpace. Can you tell me a little bit about that side of your career?
Jena: What song did you hear?

YRB: “New Year Come.”
Jena: Oh, that’s by Jena Malone and Her Bloodstains. All that music came from two demos that I made myself, produced myself, engineered myself with the help of musicians—like I recorded a friend playing guitar over the phone. For “New Year Come” I had a friend of mine from Lake Tahoe (where I live) come in and play violin and help me do an arrangement, and he also let me abstract it, cut and paste it and put it together. I wrote that two years ago on New Year’s Eve.

YRB: So you write the lyrics and the music?
Jena: Uh-huh. But I don’t know how to write music, and I don’t know how to read music. It’s just more intuitive, and working with ProTools and finding something that I like and trying to sort of re-edit that and shape it…but Jena and Her Bloodstains sort of disintegrated. Then I had this dream in January that I was gonna build a shoe—a sort of mobile, one-woman music cart—that I would be able to play anywhere, and I wanted it to be in the shape of an old leather shoe, you know, like the story, “There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe.” So I started doing these designs for it, and it ended up looking like this crazy contraption made of chicken wire and cardboard, with all this electrical equipment. I eventually realized, fuck, this is not gonna work. But then I bought this old steamer trunk and I was about to drive down to L.A., and I was looking at it in my bedroom, and I was like, “That’s it! That’s what I’ll build the instrument out of”—because it’s compactable, and I can wheel it around on a dolly. So I put all of my instrumentations in there—a little karaoke amp, a keyboard, a drum machine, a little mono-synth, some hand percussion instruments—and set it all up, and it was absolutely everything I could have wanted. I put it in my trunk the next morning, drove down to L.A., and started experimenting with it. I brought it over to a friend of mine’s house, and we set it up and we just jammed. I jammed on the shoe, he jammed on the piano, and we wrote four songs in one night. And I was like holy shit, I’ve never met a musician who’s able to follow my extractions and add a certain groundness to it; to make it a little more linear. So now we’re in a band called The Shoe, and we just finished an album called At Lemjay’s Garage. It’s a six-track EP. I also started a record label called There Was an Old Woman Records.

YRB: As an actress and musician, how do you feel about the stigma of “actors-turned-musicians”?
Jena: Well, I think the stigma just lies in how we define what an artist is.

YRB: What would you say you’re most recognized for, or would want to be most recognized for?
Jena: Well, the thing you’re most recognized for is never the thing that you want to be most recognized for. I mean when I got Punk’d I found that more people came up to me because of that than for anything else I’d ever done, which was very disheartening. But I think as an artist you want to be recognized for the most recent thing you’ve done because it’s the most personal to you, it’s the most intimate, and it’s what you’re saying at that moment.

YRB: You’ve worked closely with some pretty major celebrities—from Susan Sarandon to Sean Penn—is there anyone that’s been the most fun work with, or anyone you want to work with? What about a particular film that was especially fun to make?
Jena: I’ve wanted to work with Ben Foster for a very long time, and I’m getting to work with him now [in The Messenger]. I thought he was amazing in 3:10 to Yuma and Alpha Dog. I’ve worked with Emile [Hirsch] a couple of times and thought he was amazing. The most fun film I’ve done is probably Saved! because it was the first time I had done a film besides Cheaters where everyone was the same age. It’s like summer camp—we’re all there for the same reason, but there’s also free time, and you’re spending dinners together, you’re going out for karaoke together and throwing marshmallows off the patio.

YRB: Let’s talk about fashion for a minute. What kind of style do you have? What are you most comfortable wearing: high fashion or sweats?
Jena: I’m probably the most comfortable in something that makes me feel outside of myself, in a sense. I was a tomboy my entire life, and then I turned 21, broke up with my boyfriend and started finding that I was suddenly drawn to clothes that were a lot more girly and feminine.

YRB: What are some of your favorite labels or designers?
Jena: I love Sonia Rykiel, and I also love Linda Loudermilk.

YRB: What would you say are some of your greatest musical influences?
Jena: For music it’s been a very specific group of artists: Tom Waits, Neil Young, PJ Harvey…

YRB: As a young actress in Hollywood, how do you avoid falling victim to the Paris and Lindsay-type of existence?
Jena: The thing is, you are what you eat, you are what you wear, you are what you think, and that’s it. So I feel like whether that is for them a heightened sense of reality or not, what we get from it is some version of what their selling—to themselves, or to the public or to their mothers or to their friends. I’ve only ever sold who I am. They exist so I don’t have to. And I’m glad that they fulfill their space in the collective conscience; if they didn’t, other people would. And what they’ve been hawked as, and what the press has over-established them as, is helping to implode these crazy obsessions with celebrity. So in a way, whether we love them or hate them, it’s a very beautiful thing because they’re actually helping turn the tides. I think the public is a little bit sickened by our own interest, and what our interest has turned these women into, or allowed them to be turned into, and we’ve seen a lot of negative effects that our overindulgence has allowed.

TATTOO YOU: Linkin Park Frontman Inks a Deal with Etnies

BY JUSTINE GOODMAN
PHOTOGRAPHS / IMAGES COURTESY OF ETNIES

ONCE UPON A TIME, CHESTER BENNINGTON WAS BEST KNOWN AS THE LEAD SINGER OF LINKIN PARK AND THE CO-FOUNDER OF RENOWNED INK SHOP CLUB TATTOO. NO LONGER, AS HE STEPS INTO THE FASHION ARENA WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF A NEW LINE OF ETNIES SNEAKERS INSPIRED BY HIS LOVE FOR MUSIC, SKATEBOARDING AND TATTOOS. I HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO CHAT WITH CHESTER ABOUT HIS LATEST VENTURE, HIS OWN TATS AND THE SOUNDTRACK TO HIS LIFE.

JG: How many tattoos do you have? Do you have a favorite? Any particularly memorable stories about getting tattooed?

CB: I think I have about 18 tattoos right now. I guess my favorite right now would be my back piece, because it takes up my entire back and is made up of multiple tattoos and images. By the time I’m done with it, I will have put in close to 100 hours of tattooing on it. It’s been an undertaking because the back is the most painful place to get tattooed for me. So what usually happens is every time I go to get work done on it, I end up not working on it because I don’t want to deal with the pain. So I end up getting another tattoo someplace else instead! I’ve gotten a few tattoos while on the road on tour, so it’s great to be able to hook up with different tattoo artists in different parts of the world. It’s always fun to start the tattoo before the show, go play the show and then finish it afterwards. Every tattoo has a different story, location and memories behind it.

JG: What led you to make a connection between music, skateboarding, tattoos and, in particular, sneakers? In other words, what do tats have to do with sneakers? What do sneakers have to do with music?
CB: If you think about it, music, art and tattoos have always gone together, and similarly with skateboarding. Skateboarding has always been a place where a lot of bands can get exposure early on. Old school skate videos always had cool music on them. . .they’ve always had the best soundtracks, the coolest new bands that you may have never heard of before, everything from punk to hip-hop. They all just went together with the lifestyle. With skateboarding, the shoe is the most important thing after the board itself. We use them all together, so it was just a natural progression. With Club Tattoo going into clothing as well as tattooing, being able to offer a great sneaker for our customers was key. Our fans skate, motocross, snowboard – the whole bit. Plus it’s a huge part of the lifestyle. If you can incorporate all of that stuff together, it makes sense, which is what I think we’ve done really well here.

JG: What was your role in the actual design process? CB: We have about 14 tattoo artists working for us at any given time and we have a lot of talent there, so we approached the artists and told them to come up with ideas, things that they thought would be cool for tattoos, and what would work well on a shoe. My partner Sean Dowdell and I then went through them and tried them all out on the shoes, moved the designs around, mixed and matched them, then we picked out final designs and sent them to Etnies for their team to give their input on, and that’s how we ended up with the final designs. All of the designs on the shoes came from the tattoo artists themselves that work at Club Tattoo.

JG: If your new kicks (and/or your tats) had their own soundtrack, what songs might be on it? CB: That’s difficult. I like too many kinds of music to be able to pinpoint what I would use to represent mysef.... The shoes might be everything from the Descendants to David Bowie, and the tats would be everything from Motorhead to Zeppelin...that’s a tough one though!




WWW.ETNIES.COM

A Few Words With Lil' Jon

BY JUSTINE GOODMAN

Lil' Valentine
February 14th is Valentine’s Day, also known as the easiest day of the year to get laid. You’ll still have to pay for it - but with flowers and chocolate instead of by the hour. Hey, romance might be dead, but take solace in the fact that like sweet crunk music, love is alive and well - just ask Lil’ Jon. We did, and here’s what the original dirty South rapper had to say.

JG: In “Lovers and Friends” you talk about ‘knowing a girl for a long time, but fuckin’ never crossed your mind.’ Is that your definition of love?
LJ: Well, that was in the ‘friends’ context.... If you got a homegirl that’s your homegirl, sometimes you don’t never even think about crossing that line. That’s what that was about, just having a female that’s your friend. But sometimes, someone that you’re friends with, something might happen where you just look at someone in a different way, like, ‘Damn, this person been around me all this time, and now I see something else.’ When I first met my wife, I knew that was someone I wanted to be with. We was friends for a lotta years before we even started. And really, the friends in your life are the ones you end up settling down with, only because you known them the longest, you trust them the longest, they know everything about you, and they’re your friend.

JG: What are the most important qualities in a girl?
LJ: They have to be intelligent. They have to be able to listen, as well. Like women want us to listen, but sometimes women gotta listen, too, and know when to just sit back and be quiet and know when to listen to what somebody got to say. All women really want in a man is somebody that listens and tries to understand you, and really that’s one thing we like too – we like somebody that’ll listen too, show us some comfort. So I think a good listener. [Second], you wanna be able to have an intelligent conversation with somebody. You don’t wanna have someone that just is not on the same level. That’s the worst thing in the world, to talk to somebody and realize they an idiot. And personality is important – I’d say those are the three things. Personality, that’s what makes you laugh at someone, that makes them help you to look at shit in a different light, helps you to have fun.

JG: What do you think about dudes that rock the same clothes as their girlfriends?
LJ: Oh that’s the lamest shit in the world! Back in high school, oh my god…we’d see that and be like, ‘Oh, he in love,’ or, ‘He pussy-whipped.’ Cause what kind of man wanna dress up exactly like his woman? That shows you’re just blinded.

JG: How do you know if a girl is cheating on you?
LJ: It’s hard to tell with women because they the most cunning creatures in the world. You can never tell. A woman can make eye contact with a guy she see in the mall while she with her boyfriend, and her boyfriend never know, cause she’ll be cool – cooler than the other side of the pillow. While if it’s the guy, and he with his girlfriend, he gon’ get nervous, gonna walk the other way and start sweatin’. But with a girl, really there’s no way, it’s just hard to tell... Guys, they just suck at being cheaters. ‘Cause guys get lazy, they don’t cover their tracks. A guy will not even tell his homeboy and his girl might see the nigga at the mall and be like, ‘What ya’ll do last night?’ and he be like, ‘Shit, uh, I was at the crib, but what’s good with you?’

JG: Are you into a girl that can chill with your boys, or is it better to chill with your girlfriend solo?
LJ: You don’t want your wife to be best friends with your best friend. ‘Cause that can lead to all types of shit. Just like I was sayin’ before, how you might have friends you look at one way and then all of sudden you look at ‘em differently, like, ‘Oh shit,’ and they look at you different, too. You don’t want your girl being too close with your friends – that’s just like setting yourself up. For some people it’s cool, but I ain’t never really been a fan of that.

JG: So how did you propose to your wife?
LJ: Uh…I forgot. I think we were sitting down, eating dinner... I think it mighta been on Valentine’s Day or her birthday or something... yeah, I think it was her birthday.


ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN YRB MAGAZINE. COPYRIGHT © 2007

Interview: The Vincent Black Shadow

BY JUSTINE GOODMAN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEFF FORNEY

Listen to “Metro.”

The infectious lead single off The Vincent Black Shadow’s debut full-length Fear’s In the Water (Bodog Music) will turn metalheads and grunge enthusiasts alike into instant fans of the pop-punk rockers.

The Vancouver-based quartet, which pounced onto the scene in recent months, is fronted by Cassandra Ford (lead vocals) and the Kirkham brothers – Robbie (guitar, vocals), Chris (bass, vocals) and Anthony (drums).

Cassandra was always musically inclined. She attended school at a convent in England where students were required to play multiple instruments – everything from piano to recorder to xylophone. Yadda, yadda, yadda, a few years later she found herself in the Philippines being bred for a career as an Asian pop star, courtesy of Universal Music’s Philippines division. “I was like, ‘Why am I doing this, I don’t wanna do it,’ and everyone was like, ‘Oh, but it’s a foot in the door,’ and I was like, ‘A foot in the door for what? I don’t want a foot in this door, I wanna pick the door that I’m sticking my foot in,’ so I just bought a plane ticket and came back,” says Cassandra.

Shortly thereafter, Cassie, Rob and Tony formed The Vincent Black Shadow (Chris joined later). “We were already showcasing for labels on like our fourth show,” says Tony, the youngest member of the band. “We sent Bodog a five or six song demo, and they were really stoked on it.” Stoked indeed; Bodog called them back just a few days later. “We didn’t even really have a band together. It was me, Rob and Cassie. Rob played the bass and piano, and I played the drums and Cassie sang on it. And they were like, ‘We want to see you right away,’” Tony recalls.

“And it was funny because we were like, ‘Oh, sure, we’ll book a show,’ and the show we booked was at this shitty bar in the shittiest part of town, and then they ended up not being able to come!” says Cassandra. “But we ended up meeting with them anyway; they came to a rehearsal and we played for them, and they were like, ‘Well let’s talk contracts,’ and our second ever show was playing for Bif Naked.”

Although the band has yet to break into the mainstream MTV scene (not that they would necessarily want to), they have been blowing up the more alternative music television outlets, particularly Fuse, where they were featured on last year’s Fangoria Chainsaw Awards and went on to repeatedly earn the number one video for “Metro” on countdown shows like Oven Fresh.

As we talk in the hallway of the Park Central Hotel in midtown Manhattan, TVBS is preparing to play a sold-out show at trendy SoHo nightclub Crash Mansion to kickoff the CMJ Music Marathon. Next, they’ll return to a grueling tour schedule throughout the U.S. and Europe in support of Fear’s In the Water, which is flying off the shelves after its re-release in January.

So if you don’t know about The Vincent Black Shadow, here’s a piece of advice: Listen to “Metro.”

To learn more about The Vincent Black Shadow, go to www.myspace.com/tvbs


ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN YRB MAGAZINE. COPYRIGHT © 2007

30 Seconds to Mars

BY JUSTINE GOODMAN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROGER ERICKSON

It is a cold, gray, fall afternoon in suburban Maplewood, Minnesota, where, in just a few hours, 30 Seconds to Mars will kick off its Welcome to The Universe / MTV $2 Bill Tour at Myth Nightclub. The venue is curiously situated off a highway, betwixt a shopping complex and a cluster of chain restaurants, and the massive parking lot is already beginning to fill.

Yes, the lead singer of 30 Seconds to Mars is also a successful actor. And yes, Jared Leto may still be better known for his roles in American Psycho, Requiem for a Dream, Fight Club and lest we forget My So-Called Life than for his rock band. But with a record that recently went platinum, a huge international following, and three singles and music videos in heavy rotation, it is time to get over the fact that 30STM is a band with a famous frontman.

So get the snide Jordan Catalano remarks out of your system now, and if you’re only reading this in the hopes that it will provide details about Leto’s love life, go pick up a copy of Us Weekly. But if you’re interested in the story of a remarkable band that has relied on the quality of its music rather than its Hollywood connections to earn success, then read on.

Born in Louisiana, Jared and his brother Shannon were raised by their mother (in some 10 different cities) in an environment that encouraged creative expression and the arts. “It was always around, so it was just a natural progression,” says Shannon of being drawn to music at a young age. “We picked up some instruments and started playing; it just made sense.”

With Jared on guitar and vocals and Shannon on drums, 30 Seconds to Mars signed with Virgin/Immortal in 1998. Although their self-titled debut (released in 2002) was little more than a blip on the music industry radar, they began to build a fan base, thanks largely to constant touring.

The band was soon joined by bassist Matt Wachter and guitarist Tomo Milicevic. Born in Sarajevo and reared in Detroit, Tomo is living the dream – before he became a member of 30 Seconds to Mars, he was one of their fans. “It’s kinda crazy, you know? You listen to this music, you admire it, and then one day you’re on stage playing it,” he says.

The foursome’s first collaborative effort, A Beautiful Lie, dropped in August 2005. Technically it is not a new album, but as Tomo points out, “To most people it is. The first year that this album was out, we barely sold 100,000 records,” he says. Since then, that number has jumped to 1 million, “So to those other [900,000] people, this is a brand new record.”

In addition to writing all the lyrics, playing guitar and performing the lead vocals on every song, Jared also directed the videos for “The Kill” and “From Yesterday” (the second and third singles, respectively), under the colorful, Dr. Seuss-borrowed alias, Bartholomew Cubbins. “It’s just a way to have a little fun with it and be creative, and I really wanted people to be able to enjoy and experience the video without having any more preconceived notions or distractions, and just to let it be what it was. It wasn’t important for me to lay claim to it in that way. It’s nice to be recognized for it, but for the right reasons,” Jared says of his decision to direct “The Kill” as his alter ego. That video – a well-executed take on Stanley Kubrick’s classic film, The Shining – recently landed awards at the VMAs, The FUSE Awards and the mtvU Woodies.

30STM’s popularity has risen along with album sales, but they have also had to contend with the burden of the past; such predecessors as Russell Crowe, Keanu Reeves and Kevin Bacon haven’t exactly bolstered the public’s expectations of a band led by an actor. “We had a lot of middle fingers pointed at us for years and a lot of bad examples before us,” says Shannon, without naming names. “But we also knew we could play music, and we knew we had something – we knew it the whole time. So we knew we had to tour, tour, tour, and we knew we had to prove it to people, prove it no matter what. And we did that. And we love doing it. And now it speaks for itself. And Jared is the first [actor] to do it and do it well. We’re the first band to really overcome the challenges and become a legitimate band known for its music, and it feels amazing.”

As any fan will tell you, singling out Jared for any reason other than that he is the band’s frontman is totally taboo. Still, his high profile tends to obscure the fact that 30 Seconds to Mars is successful not because one of its members is a talented actor, but because all of its members are talented musicians. And while they could have easily taken advantage of the publicity generated by Jared’s fame, the band doesn’t want that kind of attention, even refusing to play any venue that uses his name to promote a show.

Instead, 30STM has opted for grueling schedules, life on a crowded tour bus, and a $20/day tour stipend in order to earn its own status. “A lot of people might think that we’re an overnight success because they just heard of us, which is fair, but we’re not. We’ve been around for a long time doing this,” says Matt, who describes the band’s method as organic. “We really took a grassroots approach, always for the fans, and we relied on touring to build a fan base as opposed to TV and radio. And now that we’ve got those things, our fan base has grown and grown and grown, and a lot of people are starting to know about 30 Seconds to Mars,” he says.

Fans are always important, but 30STM’s are something special – according to the online message boards, some even have tattoos in honor of the band. But in addition to scores of “regular” fans, the most die-hard belong to an exclusive group known as The Echelon.

On the one hand, like a typical fan club The Echelon serves as a “street team,” spreading the word about the band, calling local radio stations to request their songs and casting votes when 30STM is nominated for fan-driven awards. On the other hand, The Echelon isn’t so much a fan club as it is, say, a throwback to the Freemasons – with its use of Latin adages, symbolic characters, white costumes, secretive rituals (such as an induction process that requires prospective members to be nominated by two existing members) and an almost cultish devotion to 30 Seconds to Mars. But the feeling is mutual, and the band is also intensely committed to The Echelon; its members are the first to learn of any news or announcements involving 30STM, even communicating with them directly, via email. In a unique public display of affection, the deluxe edition of A Beautiful Lie (released in December) contains foldout artwork designed as a special tribute to The Echelon, which bears the actual names of more than 5,000 fans – “the most passionate believers,” as Jared describes them.

When it comes to the fans, perhaps Matt sums it up best. “They’re just true and true, through and through. They’ve been there since the beginning and they’ll be there till the end,” he says. But talking to Shannon, Tomo, Matt and Jared in their parked tour bus, it is clear that the end is nowhere in sight. As they gear up for six weeks on the road, the band has just returned from China, where they shot the “From Yesterday” video at a palace outside of Shanghai. “We had 500 extras, massive amounts of period wardrobe, 40 men on horseback…just phenomenal sets and design, and a period piece to boot. I don’t know how we pulled that off!” Jared says. They then flew to L.A. to play the Bamboozled Festival and the FUSE Awards before dipping to Minnesota – all in the last four days.

“It’s wild, it’s amazing, it’s great opportunities, no complaints – and thank God it’s what we’re doing,” says Jared, more ecstatic than exhausted. “You hear this stuff when you’re young: You better love what you do, especially if you call it your work, because that’s your life. It’s important to have an experience that is fulfilling and inspired, and it’s certainly that for us.”

The result is an album that, for better or worse, is disarmingly thoughtful without being overly angsty or condescending. “The songs Jared writes are purely from the soul – they’re the real deal. And we all get to be a part of that. It’s a real band, not in any way contrived,” Tomo says.

If it sounds intense, that’s because it is; and if Jared sounds intense, that’s because he is. If there were 30 hours in a day, Jared would probably squeeze in 40 hours of work. He is not the type to phone it in (no matter what “it” is), and he doesn’t mistake “good” for “good enough.” He is just as likely to use big words (correctly) as he is to use expletives (gratuitously), and like his bandmates, he doesn’t drink or do drugs. But just because you have nothing in common with the band, if you can judge them by their music rather than their eyeliner, you just might understand what all the fuss is about. “You either get it or you don’t,” says Matt. “And ultimately, the music speaks for itself… . Come to a live show – I think that speaks even louder.”

It does. At Myth Nightclub, the energy in the room is palpable, no less intoxicating than the glass of scotch in my hand - and both will remain with me well after the show has ended. As the lights go dim, signaling the start of 30STM’s set, the formerly sprawling crowd now stands tightly together, united by silent but eager anticipation. The calm soon gives way to shouts and chants, and finally, after a short but spectacular performance by Street Drum Corps, 30 Seconds to Mars takes the stage. And despite the theatrics of the scene – beginning with a pseudo-religious procession that features white masks and flags with the band’s insignia – there is no question that they own it.

In perfect step with his bandmates, Jared’s powerful voice reaches every crevice of the room as he parades around the stage, delivering each note with a fury and intensity befitting his character. He wears all black, save a white electric guitar with a blood-red strap – the same red color as the (dyed) tips of his otherwise (dyed) black hair. Perched atop a platform, Shannon kills it on the drums, his arms rising and falling with such speed and precision it’s a wonder they’re still attached to his torso. In the wings, Tomo and Matt supply sweeping guitar riffs and heavy bass lines, flexing their respective musical muscles on every song.

There is a mosh pit, and Jared indulges throngs of screaming fans by taking song requests (“What do you guys wanna hear? I’ll play whatever you want”) and crowd surfing on more than one occasion. And just when you think it’s over, Jared informs the audience, “We’re just fucking getting started,” and they play for another 30 minutes – but not before he performs a solo, acoustic rendition of the Nine Inch Nails’ classic, “Closer.” Jared is most definitely a natural performer, but right now, on stage with his band, he isn’t acting.

As at all 30STM shows, the set is followed by a signing, and every fan willing to wait in line has the opportunity to meet the band personally. And even though they’ll wake up in a new city tomorrow, tonight 30 Seconds to Mars will stick around until the last, lingering fans have had their moment.


ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN YRB MAGAZINE COPYRIGHT © 2007

Lukas Rossi & Rock Star Supernova

BY JUSTINE GOODMAN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ODESSY BARBU
CHAMPAGNE SUPERNOVA

After 15 years of struggling to make it in the music biz, Lukas Rossi is finally a household name – at least in Canada. But for the rest of us, Lukas (a Toronto native) was the winner of Rock Star: Supernova, a CBS reality show in which hopeful rockers vied to become the lead singer of a new “supergroup.” Also called Supernova, the band consists of guitarist Gilby Clarke (formerly of Guns N’ Roses), Metallica’s Jason Newsted on bass, and drummer Tommy Lee, best known for his work with both Mötley Crüe and Pamela Anderson.

For the duration of the 11-week taping, Rossi and 15 other contestants lived together in an L.A. mansion (or the “pretty prison,” as Lukas fondly refers to it), where they had various opportunities to prove themselves worthy of fronting Supernova. In keeping with the reality show prototype, the series also featured “celebrity” hosts Dave Navarro and Brooke Burke, and an interactive component whereby viewers could vote for their favorite rocker. After a grueling elimination and selection process, the fans and band members agreed that Lukas Rossi was their man.

So, how does it feel to go from doing commercial voiceovers in Toronto to pay the rent, to living the dream in L.A., preparing to go on tour with your new band? “I’m just taking it a day at a time; it’s really overwhelming and fast-paced,” says Lukas, the morning after completing work on Supernova’s self-titled debut last fall. “I did a lot of writing on the record, and obviously a lot of singing. I’m still taking a deep breath everyday. It’s exciting as hell though.”

Ladies and gentlemen, you heard it here first: Being the lead singer of a supergroup comprised of rock industry veterans is awesome, and if you also get to crash on Tommy Lee’s couch when you’re not living on a crowded tour bus, even better. Just one quick question: If you’re Jason Newsted, Gilby Clarke and Tommy Lee, don’t you, like, already know someone, anyone, who could front your band?

“In this day and age, we’re kinda running out of options,” Gilby says. “Radio isn’t what it used to be, MTV isn’t what it used to be, and for all of us, to start a new band and pick the cream of the crop – you know, Tommy Lee on drums, Jason Newsted on bass – and scour the world for the best new singer we could find, it was an opportunity that we had to take.”

If you look beyond the superficial, made-for-TV components of Rock Star: Supernova, and refrain from dismissing all the contestants as a bunch of angsty, black-clad, inked-up, would-be rock stars, what you’re left with is a seriously painstaking audition process. The rockers were subject to a level of public scrutiny that few prospective band members ever are. Given that Lukas prevailed, it would seem that he truly is the most qualified person to front the band (or at least the most qualified person who also screen-tested well). And just because the show might have been gimmicky doesn’t mean the band is.

But no one denies that the publicity generated by the show certainly won’t harm the band’s chances to find wider success. A large segment of Generation Reality Show have Ticketmaster on speed dial, and all they want for Christmas is tickets to a live Supernova performance near them. And while each member of the band brings his own preexisting fan base, it’s questionable whether tickets for the tour (which kicked off on New Year’s Eve in Las Vegas) would be selling out months in advance, as they are, were it not for the exposure afforded by Rock Star: Supernova.

Lukas emphasizes that the 27-city tour is not just a matter of fulfilling contractual obligations, and neither he nor his bandmates view Supernova as a temporary gig. “I don’t want anybody to get confused,” he says. “I don’t think we went through all this just for like a four or five month tour.”

On the contrary, just weeks after dropping their debut album, Supernova is already looking toward working on the follow-up – not because they’re dissatisfied with the first record, but because they’re amped about the possibilities they can explore as a real band, making an entire record in the more traditional way: together, from beginning to end.

“For me, Guns N’ Roses was the ultimate hard rock band. You never really knew what was gonna happen from day to day; it was the perfect hard rock band,” says Gilby. “We don’t really know what Supernova is until we get the record out and start playing as a band together. Ordinarily you would have done that before you made the record – this is a very backwards way of doing things. But the thing was, most importantly, we were all up for the challenge. We’ve all done it the conventional way; we’ve had other bands that have succeeded and failed. So this is just a new, different way to do this, and we were just so excited to try something new.”

Lukas agrees. “The circumstances were obviously unorthodox, considering the way that other records in the past have been done,” he says. “But in my opinion, the product is gonna blow people away.”

For some people, the feeling that Rock Star: Supernova is just a few B-list guest spots short of a VH1 Celebreality special is inescapable, undermining the possibility that the music might actually be great. But does it really matter that the band found its frontman by combining one part Making the Band with equal parts American Idol and The Surreal Life? The show was just a means to a greater end.

“One feeling we had about Lukas through the whole program was that he was a lot like us,” says Gilby. “He just wants to be in a great band, and make a great record and go on tour and be a musician. And that’s the one thing we were really trying to keep for ourselves through this: it’s just a television show, it’s just a process to find this person.”

And then in October, the media was informed via press release that due to a serious shoulder injury, bassist Jason Newsted would have to undergo emergency surgery followed by a long period of recovery, effectively terminating his place in Supernova, at least for now. It’s a setback, but the show must go on.

“When we started this project, I was handed a list of names – guys who could potentially anchor our rhythm section,” says Tommy Lee. “I responded by crumpling up the paper and asking, ‘Where’s Newsted?’ Jason was always the right guy for this band and we’ll miss having him with us as we kick off our album and tour, but we know he’ll be back as soon as he can pick up and play.” Until then, former Black Crowes bassist Johnny Colt will serve as Newsted’s temporary replacement.

Whether Supernova will succeed in bringing rock ‘n’ roll back to its golden age remains to be seen. But with his new bandmates backing him, thousands of fans cheering for him, and one hell of an audition tape to prove he’s the man for the job, Lukas Rossi and Supernova are poised to do big things.

“We’re all human, we’re all musicians, we’re different musicians, and that’s what makes it cool,” says Lukas. “I’m always gonna be the same person that came here. I just can’t wait to take on the world with the band and see all the fans out there that have put me here.”

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN YRB MAGAZINE COPYRIGHT © 2007

Interview: Nick Cannon

BY JUSTINE GOODMAN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROBERT CHAMORRO

LOADED CANNON
He arrives at Universal Motown’s artists lounge rocking dark denim, a gray hoodie and a N.Y. Yankee’s hat and jacket – never mind that he’s from the Left Coast. Ever the dignified baller, he doesn’t seem to be a man of excess. Today, at least, he wears only two pieces of bling – an iced out watch and a relatively modest gold chain – and it’s all he needs. He is, after all, Nick Cannon, and at just 25-years-old, he has already conquered the worlds of stand-up comedy, television, film, music and even fashion, after he “kinda’ just purchased” the PNB clothing line.

It’s enough to make even the most ambitious among us feel like slackers. It seems that anything you can do, Nick Cannon can do better, and he probably already has.

Born in San Diego, Nick moved to North Carolina at the age of 11, where he began using his father’s public access program as a venue to perform his own skits and comedy routines. He soon returned to the West Coast, and before long managed to work his way onto the stages of such famous Los Angeles clubs as The Comedy Store and The Laugh Factory. Still in his teens, Cannon was cast in the popular Nickelodeon series All That, before catching his first big-screen break in 2002, when he landed the lead in Drumline, exposing him to a much larger (and older) audience. “Kids knew who I was before Drumline – I was like ‘Mr. Nickelodeon’ before then – which I didn’t have a problem with…hey, their money spends just like everybody else’s.”

Even if you missed his stint on All That, it would be harder to miss Nick Cannon Presents Wild ‘N Out (it seems to be on television as often as Law & Order re-runs), the MTV sketch comedy series he created, directs and hosts. “I’ll give you two secrets about Wild ‘N Out. One is that we rehearse the actual games. We never rehearse any of the subject matters, or what the audience throws out there – you can’t rehearse that stuff. But we know the games back and forth, so we know the logistics of the games,” he says. “The other thing is, when they give us all the topics and stuff and you see us huddle – on the show you see us huddle for like 10 seconds. But realistically, in real-time, it’s more like 45 seconds. So we get a little bit of time to kinda’ come up with stuff.”

And then there’s his music career. Nick’s Can I Ball/Universal Motown imprint will release Stages (the follow-up album to his 2003 self-titled debut) on June 15th, by which time the single, “Dime Piece,” will have been getting heavy radio burn for months. In addition to Kanye West, who produced the track “My Wife,” guest appearances on Stages include Anthony Hamilton, Talib Kweli and E-40 -- what he describes as “an eclectic group of folks.” Cannon has also been busy searching for the perfect female co-star for his next video, hitting up virtually every major city in the U.S.

It’s difficult to classify Nick. Is he an actor with a hit record, or a singer with a hit show? When asked whether there is one talent that he identifies himself with more closely, Cannon cleverly responds that choosing one “is like choosing between your kids. You don’t really have a favorite, you love them all the same – and if you do love one more, you don’t tell the other ones!”

While he has tended toward lighter, coming-of age-type flicks in the past, Cannon’s latest silver screen roles will test his abilities as a dramatic actor. This summer, he’ll be appearing in a horror flick called Monster House, and, perhaps more surprisingly, in Bobby, a drama that tells the story of the 1968 assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Written and directed by Emilio Estevez, Bobby also stars Hollywood veterans Anthony Hopkins, Demi Moore and William H. Macy.

“I need to do a movie so I can go to Sundance… something small, something quick, just to get a ticket,” says Cannon, smiling. “Before I was in Drumline, Love Don’t Cost a Thing, it was kinda’ like one is good money, and two is like, just to get my face out there. But I feel like I’ve established a brand and a name thus far that I really now wanna’ take a step back and focus on the craft element of it, and not always be worrying about the biggest movie [or] box office and stuff, because I have stuff like my music career, the television show -- the things that kinda’ keep me out there, so when it comes to film...it’s just a little more challenging and exciting for me to keep it on the independent route,” says Cannon, adding, “Like I’ll do a movie with a $500,000 budget
if I believe enough in the script.”

If you watch HBO’s Entourage like the rest of the cool kids, then you know what he means. “Entourage is my life! When I tell you that’s my favorite show in the world, it’s because I could write that whole show in my sleep, because it’s just like they take elements of my life. Everyday, you know, I go to my agent, and it’s like, ‘Look, I don’t wanna’ do Aquaman, I wanna’ do Queens Boulevard!’” Nick says, referring to the Entourage storyline.

If Queens Boulevard is fictional movie star Vincent Chase’s opus, then Weapons is Nick Cannon’s. He says he was approached with various other scripts when this “phenomenal” one came along, and although some people were ambivalent (“A lot of people at my agency were like, ‘Why would you wanna’ do that? What about your youth audience?’”), he was determined to do the film. Weapons is scheduled to premiere at this year’s Toronto Film Festival. It may not be Sundance, but it counts.

With mentors like Will Smith and Jamie Foxx looking out for him (“Jamie Foxx, hands down, is the most talented person I’ve ever met,” he says), it’s not exactly shocking that Cannon was able to catch a break in Hollywood. In fact, he has often been compared to the Fresh Prince himself. “I joke around about that, because I love the fact that people compare me to the highest-paid movie star ever. If they were comparing me to Gary Coleman, then I would have some problems with that…[Will Smith] has been like a brother to me, always giving me advice and helping me in my career. He put me in my first movie, Men In Black II – if you blink, you miss me, but it was a wonderful experience at the time.”

Though the guy who titled his first hit single “Gigolo” is no longer the Nickelodeon poster child he once was, to a great extent Cannon has managed to retain his crispy clean public image. “I’m a good guy with bad tendencies. I think everybody has that in them,” he admits. “Ultimately, I feel like I am really a nice catch that you could probably take home to your mom, but I still have all those same thoughts as all the bad guys, I’m just maybe not acting on them as much as they do.”

With taping for the third season of Wild ‘N Out underway, and with three movies and a solo album about to drop, what other choice did Nick have but to buy the PNB clothing label? “I’m having a lot of fun with just designing denim. It’s the coolest thing you could ever do if you meet a girl and be like, ‘I could custom-make your jeans.’ They love that; ‘Oh, you’ll make me some jeans?’” he says, assuming a girlish voice.

At this rate, 10 years from now Nick Cannon will be running for President – and if the Constitution didn’t require that candidates be at least 35-years old, he’d probably be on the ticket in 2008. In the meantime, he hopes that in the future he’ll be able to get involved with “philanthropy” and “humanitarian work.” He’d also like to start a family eventually (though he remains single after a rather public break-up with former girlfriend, singer/actress Christina Milian).

So what’s the one thing the man who truly has everything simply couldn’t live without? “Magnum condoms,” he says, laughing (much to the dismay of his publicist). “Hey, that’s safe sex – I can’t live without ‘em! You don’t have ‘em, you won’t be livin’ too long!”

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN YRB MAGAZINE COPYRIGHT © 2007

Interview: Jamie Kennedy

BY JUSTINE GOODMAN

JAMIE KENNEDY'S RAP EXPERIMENT
Best known for his work in The Jamie Kennedy Experiment, the Scream movies and Malibu’s Most Wanted, actor Jamie Kennedy is now trying to add Professional Rapper to his resume. In his new reality show, Blowin’ Up (which premieres May 16th on MTV), Kennedy and friend Stu Stone (a.k.a., “Stu the Jew”) will try to convince everyone – from veteran members of the hip-hop community to Jamie’s agents and even his parents – that they have what it takes to be rappers. I sat down with Jamie to discuss Blowin’ Up and his quest to get a record deal and release a “quadruple triple platinum album.”


JG: What made you decide to pursue a career in the rap game?
JK: I’ve always wanted to do rap. After I finished my show [The Jamie Kennedy Experiment]…things were happening in my life that were, you know, kinda’ funny… and people were like, ‘you [and Stu] should just film what you do.’ And I was like, ‘that’s interesting,’ and it just became a thing.

JG: What are some of your influences in music?
JK: I love Wu-Tang, obviously; earlier hip-hop like EPMD, Run DMC, LL Cool J – that’s what I grew up on.

JG: Are your own songs mostly freestyles or written raps?
JK: Some are freestyle, off the cuff, and other ones we have and we just do out loud again. In terms of who does what, it’s pretty much like Stu…usually does the music and writes half the lyrics, and I write the other half of the lyrics. I was never into sampling, ‘cause I always thought you should try to do your own thing…and to be quite honest, you can’t really sample and have a show on MTV, because you have to pay all these royalties, so it actually forces you to just do your own stuff. But it’s amazing what you can do with just a board – there’s a billion sounds. You just make your own thing, loop it, whatever.

JG: A lot of people probably associate you with your roles in The Jamie Kennedy Experiment and Malibu’s Most Wanted. How does that affect you in terms of making the transition to rap?
JK: You’re only known for your last thing, and…I have so much baggage. I was the prankster, and I was in Malibu’s Most Wanted, and I was like a rapper – a guy who wanted to be a rapper but lived in Malibu and had no credibility and wasn’t that good. Now, I’m Jamie Kennedy who’s done that stuff, but who’s really trying to be a rapper. So people are like, ‘What the fuck?’…Like, I know I can pretty much get a hold of anybody because of my situation – ‘cause I’m an actor, and I’m in Hollywood and I’ve done stuff. But I can’t get a record deal because record companies don’t take me seriously; they don’t know what to do with me. So it’s kinda’ cool to see the world that we’re in, but you also kinda’ see the struggle that we can’t get past – the hurdles.

JG: Blowin’ Up has a lot of guest appearances – and not just rappers, right?
JK: It’s crazy how many guests we’ve had…we mixed shit up. I mean, we go and try to talk to the rap world, which is incredible, real guys, and then we end up also having part of my world, which is actors, which you wouldn’t find in the regular rap world, so it’s kind of an interesting mix.

JG: It’s most definitely a broad range – you go from a meeting with the RZA one minute, to chilling in your Hummer with Bob Saget the next.
JK: I couldn’t get anybody. Nobody wanted to fuck with us, so I called who I knew. I wanna’ bring in all of hip-hop and I also wanna’ bring in all of Hollywood too… hip-hop – you know, rap music, the culture – it’s got all types in it. And if you’re in it, I might try to get to you, no matter if you’re Brian Austin Green or the RZA, because everybody’s viable. They both had albums; it doesn’t matter who was considered more credible… . And [Brian Austin Green] can really flow…but [people] just look at him and see his character [from Beverly Hills, 90210] hanging out at the Peach Pit.

JG: So how much of Blowin’ Up is straight-up reality TV and how much of what we see is vaguely scripted or rehearsed?
JK: Everything you see in the show is real. We never really go into a situation knowing what’s gonna’ happen. We go, and, say, call up Method Man and tell him we need a meeting. And then we go meet him, and he doesn’t know what we’re gonna’ talk about…I don’t know how to describe it other than it is real. I bring it all in. People will be asking what’s real and what isn’t…I think once we get out an episode or two, people will realize it’s not a fake thing… . Basically, me and Stu are trying to become the next Nick and Jessica – but without the ending.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN YRB MAGAZINE COPYRIGHT © 2007