RIGHT: Chromeo
MUSIC
When Bruce Nathan, the alt pop-folk singer-songwriter who goes by the stage name everyBoy, sings about enduring love or living life, it’s as if you’ve heard it before—in a good way. Nathan wrote songs as a child, but didn’t truly focus on the genre until he was older. His debut album, The Last Lala’s, released in July, is a lyrical effort that reflects the thrill he gets from making music and reaching his listeners.
“If I succeed in getting them to listen to the lyrics, I can get them to hear what I have to say,” he says. “Communicating— thoughts, emotions, experiences—is what I believe art is really about.” Citing The Beatles as a major influence (“They were kind of all music for me for much of my childhood”), Nathan eventually moved on to reggae, ska and an avalanche of bands including The Police, The Velvet Underground, The Who and The Kinks. Fluent in Japanese and a student of Zen Buddhism, he also studied classical Japanese poetry in graduate school—an education that helped inform his introspective, holistic approach. “Haiku in particular continues to define a lot of what I believe is essential to a successful piece of art: precision, rhythm and serendipitous delight,” he explains.
Musicians contributing to The Last Lala's include Ben Peeler of The Wallflowers and Tom Freund, who is also a producer on the album. And although the life of a musician can be mentally, emotionally and financially draining, Nathan says he can’t imagine doing anything else. “From the writing process to the production to the live performance,” he says, “there’s not a piece I don’t enjoy.”—INGRID SKJONG
MUSIC
Dave 1, half of the dance-funk duo Chromeo, instantly refers to a mullet when asked about the fashion inspiration behind the band’s third album, Business Casual (out September 14). “To me, business casual was sort of the ’80s debonair mix between elegance and an air of laissez faire,” he says. “The mullet is… business in the front, casual in the back. It’s that really funny medium between wearing a suit and being not so uptight about it that I tried to convey with some of the musical textures on this record.” Following the success of their 2007 sophomore release, Fancy Footwork, Montreal-born Dave 1 (actual name, David Macklovitch) and longtime friend P-Thugg (Patrick Gemayel) blend soft-rock influences with their signature funk grooves in their newest effort, which features a Chaka Khan-esque cameo by Solange Knowles. The band is currently wrapping up a worldwide tour for the album, which is the first they recorded fully in New York.—MEGHAN BLALOCK
