"I want to uplift woman, and show them that we can be out here, and be successful, and have careers, and be alpha females. I want to show that it's okay. We need women out there saying 'It's okay to be great. It's okay to run businesses.' " -Sharaya J Hip hop darling, dancer, and…
Month: January 2016
“Being onstage for me is a war. Self-consciousness is the enemy. I don’t think about being sexy – I think about freedom.” -Isabella Manfredi Isabella Manfredi, front woman of The Preatures is all about rock ‘n’ roll. Not only because the Australian group crafts infectious rock jams, but for her intellectual and modern beliefs about…
“I did not plan to go on The X Factor. It was a very spur of the moment thing for me as I decided to audition a week before. The moment I realized that I might actually be getting somewhere gave me real motive to grow up. I wouldn’t say that the show gave me a…
“The album is basically just a storybook. Each song leads into the next, and it all tells the story of this girl Crybaby’s life... it’s kind of like the transition from her being this emotional vulnerable girl to being comfortable with being absolutely insane... kind of unapologetic for being crazy, because she’s embraced that.” Twenty-year-old…
“I think that if anyone takes a step back and looks at what’s considered the norm, it’s all jarring. I mean the lack of female characters, the single digit percentage of female directors in this industry. The fact that women get paid less than men, the fact that roles for women in movies for the…
“We did this session, and I wrote this song called 'Home', and that was the first song that I wrote and recorded and listened back to that I felt like, okay, I feel like I know where I’m going now.” -Jess Glynne British breakout star Jess Glynne found her home inside a studio. Since then,…
“I was at home in Belgrade watching a match with Monica Seles, who was a big hero in Yugoslavia at the time. During the commercial break they showed an ad for a tennis school. It looked like so much fun. I remembered the telephone number, then wrote it down for my mum, and kept asking her…
“I can never put my happiness or my health behind fame or money. I don’t want that. It's not worth it to me at all.” -Bebe Rexha Bebe Rexha has been in the music industry long enough to learn that it's not as glamorous as it’s chalked up to be, laughing, “I stayed in my…
"Any time you put me in front on a stage, that I can perform for people, I’m fucking happier than a pig in shit. That’s what I love to do. I’m more comfortable on stage than in any other aspect in life. It’s a fucking blast!” -Ivy Levan That's Ivy Levan – cheeky, Southern, drop…
“Mystery, fate...” was what prompted Bianca “Coco” Casady to reunite with sister Sierra “Rosie” Casady in 2003 and form the avant-garde experimental “freak folk” group CocoRosie. They create songs that challenge one’s notion of every musical convention under the sun, just as their ethos challenges every beauty ideal, merging genders, generations and genres. Born into…
“It doesn’t feel like work. I love what I’m doing, and I think that helps me get through it because it’s fun.” -Camren Bicondova Such is the mentality that pushes sixteen-year-old Camren Bicondova through a grueling schedule in a career that’s only just begun. The actress honed her skills on the stage as a professional…
“It’s a connection,” explains Julie Budet, face of the French electro-pop group Yelle. “Mean what you sing, and I think people can see it, even if they don’t understand the lyrics.” The origin of the name Yelle is an acronym of YEL, “You Enjoy Life.” And perhaps that is the key to Yelle’s continued success…
"I think it is important for us to be individuals, and not rely too much on looking for something that someone else has and trying to replicate that. We all are on our own unique path.” Twenty-year-old Flo Morrissey certainly knows a thing or two about paving one’s own way. She is the daughter of…
“Practice your ass off and be better than most, and be remembered as a talented artist who has something to prove or give to the world.” -Dead Sara Emily Armstrong, lead singer of hard rock band Dead Sara, doesn’t mess around. The two lead females, Emily Armstrong and Siouxsie Medley, initially met growing up in…
"I think what happened was electronic music exploded in America. So really, our gigs and fans are what saved us. It was such a beautiful and bizarre feeling to meet fans because when you write for other people, you never have that. Whereas now we have people coming up to us and saying, ‘This song…
“If I ever conform to that, please shoot me down.” PVRIS front-woman Lynn Gvnn isn’t interested in traditional Hollywood beauty standards. “I like to mix masculine and feminine together with everything I do. I don’t want to be too masculine or too feminine; I like to be right in the middle and have both elements…
“Be true to who you are. Be the most you that you can be.” -Betty Who For bright blonde Australian pop star Jessica Anne Newham, a.k.a. Betty Who, standing at 6’1” with a deep affection for gummy bears, it is those distinct traits that give her strength. “Make two lists: one of all the things…
“My parents wanted me to study something academic at university, so I went to Oxford and I studied law. I had such a great time there...the life experience I got. I’m so glad that I just did the normal stuff of seeing a bit of the world before I went to drama school...” Raised near…
"We never intended it to be a love song originally,” says twenty-nine-year-old Grace Chatto of Clean Bandit, referring to their track, “Rather Be,” which went platinum twice and won her a Grammy for Best Dance Recording. “We kind of finished the instrumental track before we started working on the vocals. Then it became focused on…
San Francisco native, and model turned songstress Hannah Cohen left home for New York as a teenager and rooted herself in the city’s music scene, working at the iconic Village Vanguard while becoming a muse to the art world. Growing up with a jazz musician father, music was invariably in her midst. “It was just…