INTERVIEWS
Judith Light on the Fascinating Scares of Shining Vale and Why She’s Not Opposed to Auditioning
In Starz’s critically well-received series Shining Vale, the “shit-com” (to quote co-creator Sharon Horgan’s invented term for the genre) blends horror and comedy for an unconventional story about a writer and mother (Courteney Cox) who thinks she’s seeing ghosts. Or she’s experiencing a mental breakdown? That’s just one of the show’s mysteries. The show’s stellar cast includes Cox, Greg Kinnear, Gus Birney, Merrin Dungey, Dylan Gage, and Mira Sorvino, but TV fans might especially spark to the inclusion of Judith Light, whose legendary career on screen and on stage has recently included a number of unforgettable performances in shows including Transparent and The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. These days, as the veteran actress tells Consequence, she mostly gets off...
On Middling Age, Tim Kasher Doesn’t Always Want to Be a 47-Year-Old Rocker
Sitting in the mostly-enclosed former midcentury Firestone Tire shop that has since been transformed into All Season Brewing in Los Angeles, Tim Kasher wouldn’t be anyone’s first guess when picking who was the biggest rock star among the crowd. On a Friday afternoon filled with LA’s finest yoga pants, tight t-shirts and oversized sunglasses, Kasher’s long baggy sleeves and slim stature don’t really give off the appearance that he’s arguably one of the most influential indie songwriters of the century. But two successful bands (and a couple of less successful ones), five solo albums and 19 years since he forever shifted the indie/emo/art-rock landscape with Cursive’s The Ugly Organ, that’s exactly who Kasher is. Middling Age, the 47 year old’s latest solo work (out now via 15 Passenger Reco...
Anitta Brings Brazil to Coachella With Versions of Me
Anitta is taking over the world. Last month, Brazil’s resident superstar became the first artist from her country to hit No. 1 on Spotify’s Global 200 chart. Today, she’s set to make her live debut at Coachella. To add to her recent successes, Anitta also released her new album, Versions of Me, earlier this week. Across most of the 15 tracks, she’s embedded Brazil’s funk carioca sound into Latin and American-influenced pop songs, which reflect the two major markets she’s broken through from Rio de Janeiro. “I’ve been the first Brazilian to do so many things,” Anitta tells SPIN over Zoom between Coachella rehearsals. “It’s been crazy times for me. The first Brazilian to be No. 1 on Spotify’s Global chart and then the first Brazilian to be performing on the main stage of Coachella. I’m reall...
Julian Lennon on Covering “Imagine” For the First Time in Support of Ukraine: It Was ‘The Right Occasion”
With two new songs just out and a full album, JUDE, coming later this year, Julian Lennon promises that his widely lauded performance of his father’s “Imagine” during Global Citizen’s Stand Up for Ukraine! Social Media Rally on April 8th is not a harbinger of things to come in that direction. “I don’t have a hankering for anything else. I really don’t,” Lennon tells Consequence by Zoom from Los Angeles. “I have a hankering to get on with my own life and my own work.” He adds that the “Imagine” performance — which took place on a candle-lit set, accompanied only by Nuno Bettencourt (Extreme, Rihanna) on acoustic guitar — “was ‘done. Now that’s over with.’ I’ve had a few requests to sing it live, and I’m going, ‘No, I’ve done my bit. That’s it. Onward with my work and my life now.” But Lenno...
Roar Star Alison Brie on How GLOW Changed Her Career: “It Just Emboldened Me as a Person”
Alison Brie‘s resume is packed with notable roles, from her breakout performance as Trudy Campbell, Pete Campbell’s spirited and long-suffering wife on Mad Men, her charming six-season run on Community as plucky and eager Annie Edison, and voice work in BoJack Horseman and The LEGO Movie. But as she tells Consequence, perhaps the most seismic project of her career was in GLOW, the Netflix comedy which fictionalized the creation of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling promotion from the 1980s. In the series, created by Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, Brie played Ruth Wilder, one of the operation’s founding wrestlers and creative influences, in a series that met with its share of behind-the-scenes controversies with regard to its treatment of people of color, but was unabashedly feminist in its st...
Chino Moreno on Deftones’ Return to Touring: It’s “Going to Be Cathartic” to Scream and Sing Again
After two postponements due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Deftones are finally set to kick off their North American tour with Gojira. Singer Chino Moreno expects the long-awaited excursion to be a cathartic experience after a couple of years off the road. The tour was originally scheduled for Summer 2020, then postponed to Summer 2021, and finally rescheduled for Spring 2022. The outing kicks off tonight (April 14th) in Portland, Oregon, and runs through a May 28th show in Minneapolis, with tickets available via Ticketmaster. Heavy Consequence recently caught up with Moreno to discuss his side project ††† (Crosses), but he also took some time to share his feelings about Deftones’ highly anticipated return to the stage. “I hate to say this, because it sounds very spoiled, but since I was 15-16 ...
We Sat Down With 2022’s Most Viral Piece of Music Merchandise, Chris Farren’s The Cup
Chris Farren knows a lot of music and merchandising. First, he served as the frontman for the Florida-based punk act Fake Problems for nearly a decade. For the past eight years, he’s been releasing indie rock albums under his own name, building up a rabid fan base via his captivating online persona and social media presence. On the side, he’s also created merchandise that’s been embraced by the internet, most notably his The Smiths parody shirt, which became so popular that Jimmy Fallon presented one to Will Smith during an appearance on The Tonight Show in 2014. However, Farren has never created a piece of merch that’s also a sentient being… until now. To promote his latest release for Polyvinyl Records, “Death Don’t Wait” (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) — which is itself a score to ...
Chino Moreno and Shaun Lopez Talk New ††† (Crosses) Songs, Musical Inspiration, Tour Plans, and More
Last month, ††† (Crosses), comprised of Chino Moreno (Deftones) and Shaun Lopez, released their first new original songs in eight years. The tracks “Initiation” and “Protection” are just a taste of what’s to come, as the duo plan to unveil more music in the coming months, after inking a deal with Warner Bros. Records. The first sign that Crosses were back in the studio came in late 2020, when the outfit unveiled a cover of the Cause and Effect track “The Beginning of the End.” A year later, a cover of Q Lazzarus’ “Goodbye Horses” followed, along with news that more music was coming soon. In March, the two aforementioned original songs “Initiation” and “Protection” were released, cementing the fact that Crosses were back in full swing. After releasing their 2014 self-titled debut album and ...
“A Bridge Between My Heart and My Family”: Qrion On Her Japanese Cultural Influence and Nostalgic Sound
Hot off of her Red Rocks debut and a breakthrough 2021, Qrion has laid the groundwork that is currently catapulting her to dance music stardom. Last year, she was named to EDM.com‘s Class of 2022, joining a prestigious list of transformative artists including ACRAZE, Anfisa Letyago and ISOxo, among others. Every artist on the list has positioned themselves uniquely within the industry, and Qrion is certainly no exception. Qrion. Julia Wang The San Francisco-based DJ and producer has graced leading electronic music labels like Anjunadeep, Ultra Records, Last Night On Earth and more, landing her a spot on Forbes Japan‘s coveted “30 Under 30” list. Her unique, hypnotic sound interweaves many different electronic sub-genres, often making use of soft, exquisite beats and...
Lucius Want Us to Dance Through the Pain
It’s late morning in early April and Holly Laessig and Jess Wolfe – otherwise known as Lucius – look like Holly Laessig and Jess Wolfe. This is only a notable thing because when they perform together, they don’t so much appear as themselves but as two arms of the same whole: voices twisted and wrapped around each other like structural vines, their matching hair and mirrored outfits like looking at one figure with over-rubbed eyes. Their physical presentation is just one part of how this duo of exquisite singer-songwriters toys with the idea of harmony, and how voices and music can blend to create its own new beating heart – how it all becomes, as their new album is titled Second Nature. “I’m in my pajamas,” says Laessig, looking down at her blue sleepshirt, Zooming from bed. Wolfe, in Nash...
How Madeon and a Team of Architects Designed the Hallucinatory “Good Faith” Experience—And Blew Everyone’s Mind
They say ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind—and Madeon has four of them. The French electronic music virtuoso, whose real name is Hugo Leclercq, is currently on his “Good Faith Forever” tour, where he’s been baffling ravers with a new, pupil-popping stage production. But just like any groundbreaking show, there’s more to it than meets the eye. Four visual artists, Shinichiro Fujita, OSEAN, Mollie Tarlow and Mike Kluge, function as the brainstem of “Good Faith Forever” as well as its illusory encore, which finds Madeon lifted atop a giant cylindrical structure as his silhouette morphs into the tour’s phantasmagoric imagery. Their cerebral work, Leclercq says, has shaped not only the tour, but also his own cre...
James Hong Gets Candid About Making the “Berserk” Everything Everywhere All at Once
James Hong is the living definition of a screen legend, having appeared in literally hundreds of films, TV shows, and video games as an actor. Some of his most notable roles include appearances in Blade Runner, Big Trouble in Little China, The Golden Child, and the Kung Fu Panda series — he memorably fought Wayne Campbell over the hand of his daughter in Wayne’s World 2, and just this spring provided the voice of local elder Mr. Gao in Pixar’s Turning Red. And then there’s Everything Everywhere All at Once, the genre-warping, mind-bending exercise in multiverse-hopping written and directed by Daniels. In the film, Hong, 93, plays Gong Gong, father to Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) and grandfather to Joy (Stephanie Hsu) — traditional in his ways and a disapproving figure in Evelyn’s life, Gong Gong...
