aliceroxy

Recently I (Daan) bought a little book called 'Buttoned-Up'. It is part of a series by Penguin Books celebrating the 150^th anniversary of the London Underground. The book consists of great articles, interviews and photos. It is composed by Gert Jonkers and Jop van Bennekom, the founders and editors of Fantastic Man, a great bi-annual magazine about men and men's style.

It's an interesting book about the East London fashion to button up a shirt up to the final button. One of the reasons for doing this lies in a rebellion to avoid wearing a tie, but still buttoning up. Another aspect of buttoning up is mysteriousness: it leaves one button more to open and it shows one button less chest. This is opposed to, for example, the guys in Jersey Shore showing off their chests with deep v-neck T-shirts. The book includes many other reasons and well-written interviews and articles, so I would strongly recommend getting the book because it's a great read about men and their clothing. I especially love the alternation between the matte pages with text and the glossy ones with photos!

One of the articles, on Veronica Falls-drummer Patrick Doyle, can be found here. Awesome band by the way ;)

I've made a Spotify-playlist with some songs mentioned in the book: Buttoned-Up.

Charlotte is in London right now and I'm extremely jealous of her. We had a lovely time there in September and I had so much fun with my best friend last year in April when we went to Fabric two days in a row. Whenever I think of London, I get a very warm feeling and I'll definitely go back soon. It might as well be my all-time favourite city.

Last Monday, Aliceroxy had the chance to go to the exclusive listening session of MS MR's new album in Ghent. We also had a nice interview with them at the Sony Music headquarters in Brussels. MS MR is a Brooklyn-based duo consisting of Lizzy Plapinger (MS) and Max Hershenow (MR), who describe their music as a mix of "Tumblr glitch pop, soul fuzz and electroshock". Their new album Secondhand Rapture will be released on the 14th of May. We heard it and must say that it is a very strong album. The combination of Lizzy's amazing voice and Max's producing skills makes the album sound perfect. Listen to their EP Candy Bar Creep Show in order to get a little glimpse of the unique MS MR sound!

We walked into the Sony Music Building in Brussels, approximately half an hour before the interview was set. Daan was kind of nervous, I was too - less, but still! When we walked in the room where Max and Lizzy were, we immediately lost our stressy feelings because of their warm and open personalities. They were so kind and nice! Lizzy and Max were both wearing really cool outfits, so I gave them a compliment as soon as we walked into the room.

Aliceroxy: God, I love your outfits! What are your favourite stores?

MS MR: We like vintage and high street brands such as Topshop, Topman, H&M. Mostly vintage. When we're on tour, we go vintage shopping in every city we stop!

Aliceroxy: You've been to Amsterdam right? We live there temporarily.

MS MR: We had an awesome weekend there! We went vintage shopping, clubbing, drinking, smoking and walking around, we went to the park...It was really a full weekend, it was good. We did all the things you're supposed to do when you go to Amsterdam.

Aliceroxy: Which club did you go to?

Max: We went to Club NYX. We had a weird showcase there on Thursday and since it's so cool inside, we had to go back over the weekend! So we stopped by on Saturday as well.

Lizzy: I like dancing, it was nice.

Aliceroxy: How did you meet and when did you decide to make music together?

Lizzy: We both went to university together in upstate New York but we didn't really know each other and didn't actually get together until Christmas the same year we graduated. We connected because Max had sent me an e-mail over the Summer looking for a new artist to work with. I had sent him a list of some people but also sent some things that I had been working on on my own. He didn't hate it, so that was great haha! Then we got together in December just to experiment as we were both excited about writing and creating music, but didn't really know what we were capable of doing to be honest.

The cover of 'Time of My Life' was the first thing we ever recorded. It felt fun and safe to start with a cover. We really liked what we had made but more importantly recognized in one another that we were a good team and that we were comfortable with one another and that maybe we should keep writing and experimenting. That's how it started and then we kept writing as regularly as we could. Just writing on a track by track basis. Max would say to me: “I have this idea for a song I just wrote, is this appealing to you and are you connecting with it?” And then I would most usually LOVE it! Or I would have a lyrical line and ask him: “What do you think about this or this?” That's pretty much how we wrote for a year and we didn't necessarily know that we were a band or going to be a band. It was just about writing and recording and playing with that.

Max: It was not premeditated in any way and I think we were both very casual about wanting to continue experimenting. We recognized that the other person was driven in the same way. It was funny when I think about where we were two years ago, not knowing each other at all and we met once a month, then once a week and twice a week, and now we spend 24 hours a day together, sharing a hotel room at night – it's full on. So it's been a gradual amping up to where we are now.

Aliceroxy: We loved your Tumblr video for 'Hurricane'. Do you get inspired by Tumblr and why did you decide to use it?

Lizzy: Totally! That video came about in a funny way: we had just signed to Columbia and the person who signed us wanted to show a video with the music to present the newly signed band to the company. We were very nervous and said: “You can't put just anything to the music. We're quite protective of our image, give us an hour to let us think about something.” And we immediately recognized that we had curated all of this material through Tumblr. We literally had a folder with thousands and thousands of images. We had this idea that it would be really fun to flash them together and putting our name on top of it. There was a punk video by this band called Pink Skull and they had done a similar video a few years ago which we found on Vimeo and we really liked it. That inspired this idea. We put it together and this woman at Columbia who wasn't even in the video department – she had a secretarial job – happened to have experience with Final Cut Pro and she helped us out to put it together. We got it done that night and we loved it. We gave it to them to play the next day and everyone got very excited about it. Much to our surprise!

Max: It felt so easy to put together that we were surprised that it evoked such strong reactions.

Lizzy: We did that and everyone was like: “You should put that online, that's really special.” So we used it as our initial video launch into the public sphere and I think it makes so much sense now in hindsight that we did. I like the idea that it's completely schizophrenic as if you'd literally dive into someone's mind and it's all the flash things that you're absorbing on a day-to-day basis. And it worked really well with the song. It definitely played a huge role in the reason why a lot of people did come to the music. But I hoped that the music would also be able to stand alone without the video, because for us the music is the most important piece of the project.

But Tumblr definitely is a source of inspiration. It's such as democratic space for people to share ideas and images that they are creating and sharing from nostalgic past experiences or putting out new material. I think more and more it's becoming solely just visual artwork more people are sharing. And sharing music and videos in interactive ways. It's a place we do keep going back to and touching on. And something that's developing alongside as we are developing music.

Aliceroxy: Why did you decide to make a new video for 'Hurricane'?

Max: I think for us many of the songs should have multiple videos. In a couple of weeks, 'Bones' will have three videos and the visual component of it is really important. I think for us it's about identifying where we are at that point in time. I want to be very current and open about our process and I think having the videos coming out over a period of time form different snapshots of our mental state at that moment. The other reason is that we could have never gotten the first video of 'Hurricane' to pass legal as we don't own any of those images in it. It was an exciting experience for us to try creating our own material using the same process of bringing together these disparate images or things that don't seem to make sense in one package. Then letting it loose and letting people to put their own narrative over it and think about it in how it reconnects to them in whatever way and whatever emotions it evokes. Not being precious about that and not predetermining how people are going to feel about it. Or being to heavy-handed about the narrative. Just putting out as many ideas as we possibly could. The processes are the same; it was just a different experiment for us.

Lizzy: We're so glad that first 'Hurricane' video worked and came together as it did, but we always imagined that we would do a fully realized version for that song. Trying to challenge and develop ourselves as artists, it was a unique opportunity for us to first-hand create our own content for the first time and on a different level.

Max: We'd only been on camera in the 'Fantasy' video before that, so that was a whole new exciting thing.

Aliceroxy: Was it nice?

Lizzy: It's weird.

Max: It's different.

Lizzy: I personally don't like it so much.

Aliceroxy: Did you have bodypaint?

Lizzy: I think what was fun about the 'Hurricane' video was that it didn't necessarily feel like us on the camera, but us becoming these other creatures. And it's a little bit in costume, so it didn't feel like you're meeting Lizzy or Max. I'm getting more comfortable in front of the camera, but it's not a natural place for me. I like coming up with the back-end, the creative and the visual, but it's hard putting myself in front of the camera like that.

Max: I like and enjoy it and have a good time.

watch the 'Hurricane' music video here

Aliceroxy: What inspires you to write lyrics and who writes them?

Lizzy: The most black-and-white would be that Max produces and I write the lyrics, but I think we couldn't complete these ideas without the other person. So there's a lot of back and forth on it. I'm definitely experimenting as a lyricist and still finding my footing on it. It's not something I feel incredibly confident about and I think that's why maybe the lyrics have happened as they have and they are quite introverted and questioning and insecure. And that's what nice about them. I do most of my writing walking around New York, that's when I for whatever reason emotionally feel like taking notes. But there's definitely a lot of back and forth between the both of us.

Aliceroxy: What can we expect from your upcoming album?

Max: The first songs that we released are a good introduction to the band. They represent the core music identities that we think about as the most 'us'. As we were writing the album, we never thought about it as one kind of music or us as one type of band. It was much more experimental than that and we wrote with whatever inspiration struck that day. So the album pulls from all these different genres and time periods. We're both big music fans and listen to a lot of different types of music. The album is much rounder and more multifaceted than the EP. There's a song that's like a power ballad and one that we think of as our country song and some might be more rock-influenced. We're bringing all of these different things together in one package and I'm really proud that we have succeeded in putting all of these different elements of our personalities in one album. We both have a lot to offer from many different genres and have listened to so much different music for all of our lives that it would be a shame to let any of that go. So it's good to have an outlet for all these different things.

Aliceroxy: We love the 'Pilgrim' remix of MØ. Are there any other songs you want to remix?

Max: We're working on quite a few, with Lizzy as my sounding board. I did one for Charli XCX and have a few more in the works. It's really fun for me to continue to push myself as a producer. Remixes are a different challenge: it's harder in some ways because you have to create a whole sound for just one song. For us, we're constantly honing the sound and we have an opportunity of a whole album to give lots of different parts of the sound. For remixes I feel like you have to reference the artist a little bit and your own material, but you still want it to sound totally unique and original. I did the 'Pilgrim' remix four times before it felt right and then when it finally feels right that's an amazing moment. But it's cool to push myself forward as a writer and producer.

Aliceroxy: The song feels like Summer!

Max: Oh good! I've been making a video for it, which should be out soon.

Aliceroxy: Who do you work with for the visuals and artwork?

Lizzy: We really like collaborating with other people because it's awesome. And when you live in New York City and are in our age group, it's natural to be excited about a lot of other artists. The satisfying piece of this is to seek out other artists that are also trying to get their name out and be an outlet for them in that way. One of these people is Tyler Kohlhoff. He did the photographs for both the EP and album artwork and he's become a dear friend but also more importantly is a really interesting and unique photographer and has a real vision for what he does. This was one of the rare opportunities when you meet someone and feel like you're on the same artistic pages. He lets us be as directive and specific to what we want as possible, while still leaving room for him to put his own personal spin on it. It's a nice balance, because Max and I can be quite controlling in that way, so it's nice to be able to back and forth. And it's nice to know that when we need photographs, we can trust in him.

Max: He's starting to get some attention as well, so it's nice to see that we started at this same level and are both growing up together a little bit.

Aliceroxy: Which upcoming bands would you advise our readers to listen to?

Max: Oh God! (laughs)

Lizzy: Oh, there's so many. I'd say St. Lucia - he has an amazing album coming out this Summer - and HAERTS.

Max: MØ of course, Charli XCX's album just came out – I think she's pretty awesome. I could keep going, but I think this is the right core for our group.

Aliceroxy: Are you looking forward to playing at Pukkelpop this Summer? It's a really nice festival!

Lizzy: Yeah, that's what everyone keeps telling. I think it's going to be fun! We have good experiences playing in Belgium: we played at Leffingeleuren and Botanique last year. We heard Pukkelpop is really fun and outdoors, it will be really good! This Summer is all about festivals, so it's going to be nice to be outside. It's very different experience between playing in a dark city club and on an outdoor stage.

I hope you enjoyed this interview! If you like their music, do as we did and buy your tickets for Pukkelpop, they will play on Friday the 16th of August!
Charlotte & Daan

18.5.13

Holga pt.1

13.5.13

Buttoned-Up

10.5.13

sixties dress

8.5.13

Boho or chic?

5.5.13

MS MR interview

2.5.13

Amsterdam | Pont 13


shorter hair in October