Vito Acconci – Open Book

Listen: Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Round and Round

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Round and Round

Wakey! Wakey! cover Yeasayer’s Ambling Alp

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Wakey! Wakey! cover Ambling Alp

Photo: Cindy Sherman

Listen:

Neon Indian – Sleep Paralysist

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Sleep Paralysist

One of the best documents of deconstruction I’ve ever seen. Title by John Baldessari looks more traditional than his other films but probably has more commentary at the same time. If you are a fan of his work you can watch it here.

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Stills #3

Julien Vallée and Nicolas Burrows created a fun interactive film titled Danse Dance, check it out at http://dansedance.com

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Danse Dance

Washed Out – Track 7

The Dum Dum Girls –  Heart of Stone (Ravonettes Cover)

Light Pollution – Good Feelings

Cults – Go Outside

The Miracles Club – Light of Love

A preview of an upcoming feature appearing in the next issue of the zine. Keep up with the latest sneak peaks on our photo diary. Most of the music is from Gorilla vs Bear.

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Light and Sound

Are you an artist and want to be featured in our magazine? Our last issue has been seen by millions and the next one is going to be even bigger. There are a couple ways to submit work to Letter to Jane. You can add your images to our new Flickr group or our new Tumblr, and of course you can always email me. The only thing I ask is that you familiarize yourself with Letter to Jane and make sure you think it’s something that will fit our aesthetic. The best images will be featured here and may even make it into future issues of the magazine.

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Want to Be in Letter to Jane Magazine?

It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say that Washed Out was one of the biggest buzz bands of 2009. Out of nowhere Washed Out’s EP Life of Leisure was being talked about everywhere. First the blogs carried him, then Twitter and Facebook, and then the big boys like New York Times and Rolling Stone were calling him a rising star. Everyone seemed to get wrapped up in this EP that they forgot there was a person behind this great music. Washed Out is the creation of one man, Ernest Greene, whose eclectic interests and styles came together to make a set of music that could be pop and fun as well as serious and atmospheric. What I love about Greene’s music is that while some bands last year became famous by association I felt, Greene’s music stood on it’s own. While the kid’s in the city are partying to his jams Greene is probably at home in rural Georgia, working on his craft. To be honest I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this interview, I always viewed Washed Out’s music to be a kind of shield, a way for him to keep his privacy. What I found out is that Greene is a very humble and laid back guy that I’d love to have a beer with and just talk music with. This is definitely one of my favorite interviews that I’ve done and I’m thrilled to have it be a part of the next issue of Letter to Jane Magazine.

ERNEST GREENE: Hello, is this Tim?

Ya hello, how are you today?

ERNEST GREENE: Good, it’s kind of raining here, but that’s alright.

It’s raining here too, but I’m in Oregon so that’s not really a surprise. Well I’ll just get to it so you can enjoy your rainy day.

ERNEST GREENE: (laughs) Ok, sounds good.

Are you still unsigned, or are you connected to a label these days?

ERNEST GREENE: I’m still unsigned. I’ve been talking with a handful of labels about the next record and I’ve started working on new material, but I felt like there wasn’t a big hurry, especially when I’m about to go on tour in March. It just makes more sense to wait till after the tour to see where I’m at then.

So there’s new music on the way?

ERNEST GREENE: Ya, I’ve been making new music for the past month I guess. It’s kind of a slow process because this project is still pretty new, and I’m still figuring out what I’m going for and what I’m best at. So nothing right now, but I’m hoping to finish something as soon as possible and get it out as soon as possible. The whole promotional schedule, where let’s say I finish something, and then it takes 3 or 4 months till it gets an official release is really frustrating for me because generally I like to work on new material. Odds are that in 4 or 5 months from now I’ll be working on something entirely different, so that’s frustrating but that’s how it goes.

I’ve seen that happen a lot when I helped produce for an indie label. They’d hold a product for a couple months, and by that time we were all into something extremely different, and yet we’d have to go back and promote this old stuff that we weren’t excited about anymore.

ERNEST GREENE: Ya see I guess I understand when you go by the old school methods of print magazines and big things like that where they take a while, but I feel that now things move so quickly with Twitter and stuff, that it’s not that big of a deal. I mean people will know the record is coming out, and you can always come up with all these different schemes to build up hype for it. My situation is kind of an exception because I never thought it out or had those intentions; it kind of all fell in my lap. I’ve done a couple interviews where people ask me for recommendations about how to promote and sell and I just tell them I have no idea. It’s just complete luck that I am where I’m at right now.

You sure gained a lot fans quick. Is there anyone out there that you know who’s a fan that made you go, “Wow that guy likes me?”

ERNEST GREENE: (laughs) There have been a few, kind of “what the fuck?” moments out there. This is really early on in the beginning when a lot of the attention was going on, someone sent me a link to Ricky Martin’s Twitter page where he had wrote about how he liked one of the songs. It was one of the oddest things, but I guess he’s an avid blog reader or something so that was pretty funny. A friend told me once that Ashton Kutcher also wrote a thing about my music as well. Those are just a few of the odd ones. There are some people that I really look up to that I’ve been in contact with, so that’s been really cool. It’s definitely a surreal feeling. I guess I’m getting more used to it now, but it’s been pretty strange.

(laughs) I never would have guessed you were going to say Ricky Martin.

ERNEST GREENE: Ya I found it pretty odd, but who knows, maybe one day I’ll get to meet him.

I was reading yesterday about Swizz Beats sampling Justice for that track on Blueprint 3.

ERNEST GREENE: Ya I saw that…

So I was wondering if there’s any producer out there that you’d like to sample you?

ERNEST GREENE: Oh wow that’s a good question. There have been a handful of remixes where they did something similar to what he did in that song, where they took small samples and built up around it, but not like any hip hop groups. Most of the time it’s mashups, where it’s just 4 bar loops and they just drop an a cappella on top of it. I don’t know, let’s think about that one… maybe the Neptunes. I love their stuff but they’re really not into sampling.

I definitely love hip-hop, that was a big influence when I starting making music on my computer and sampling.

I thought it was really subtle and clever how he (Swizz Beats) did that song. I forget what the original words were in the Justice song but he cut it up and made it say something completely different. You can definitely see the connection when you put the two side by side.

Ya I know, I never made the connection till I read that article, then it was so obvious. This sort of leads to my question about your drums. It seems like your drums usually get overlooked when people talk about Washed Out, which is a shame because your drums are great. Is that because of your hip-hop background?

ERNEST GREENE: Definetly. You know, some people’s style is to really mix it up and have a lot of little drum fills and make it as complex as they can, but I’ve never really been into that. For the most part the beats have always been really simple, but always very important. I would say until the last couple years it was mostly instrumental stuff, so the beats were even more in the forefront and even more important. With the Washed Out stuff it’s mostly just “kick, snare, kick, snare,” you know, nothing really complex at all, but the sound is really important to me. I compress a lot and that gives it a distinct sound.

What’s your typical setup like? Are you using Reason or something like that?

ERNEST GREENE: Ya I’m using Reason and Cubase, which is a bit of an older program. I use Cubase for tracking vocal and live instruments and also for cutting up any samples I’d use. Then I transport all that into Reason, arrange everything. Then I add in some synths to make some melodies, bass lines, and beats. So ya, most of the work is done in Reason and that’s pretty much it. I have a couple little keyboards that I use on occasion, but mostly I just use the computer.

The beauty of software is that you can move pretty quickly from idea to having at least a rough draft recorded. That’s what I’ve been doing lately, not necessarily writing demos, but coming up with song ideas so that I can move really fast, which is exciting. I’ve definitely gotten used to working in that style and I think it would be really hard to move away to another software program, or even doing it the old school way of micing up instruments. It just takes so long and I’m pretty impatient with all that.

Since it’s so easy to translate your ideas into songs and you’re know for having these really simplified melodies…

ERNEST GREENE: Ya that’s definitely what I go for…

But can you start out simple or is it more of an editing process? I know when I used to make music in Reason I’d get all my ideas out, and end up with like 20 instruments on a track.

ERNEST GREENE: That is exactly what it was like early on when I first started using the program, I was the same way. I believe the virtual mixer on Reason has like 14 different tracks on each mixer and I would have 3 or 4 mixers on each project, which is a lot of tracks. I guess I was never that great at mixing down to where that many tracks would make sense. 3 years ago I was really into that Caribou album Up in Flames. It’s a great album and there’s just so many things going on at once. The guy used like a 1000 tracks on the album, and I was trying to achieve that but it just never worked, it sounded like shit; there was just too much going on. So I kind of figured out that if I limit myself and think more about what’s really essential for the song and how things compliment each other then it makes for a stronger song. I really try to limit myself to just one of those mixers, so like 14 tracks, and in most cases it’s 14 or under. I start with a bass line and a vocal melody and make sure I can get that as strong as possible. It’s all about adding a few layers of texture, and just simple little stuff that will compliment the melody and that’s it.

Would you say you’re a pretty consistent songwriter, or does it come in waves with the occasional drought?

ERNEST GREENE: It definitely comes in waves, and it’s impossible to predict. When I was writing Life of Leisure it came pretty quick, with everything I would sit down to work on would get me pretty excited. I guess now my mindset has changed a little bit. I don’t know if it’s just that I’m in a different situation where there’s a lot expectation and somewhat of a deadline. There’s this feeling that I’ve got to do something fairly quick, so it’s been a bit harder of a process. I also edit myself a lot more to really hold out for something strong, and just brush aside something that’s just not working immediately. In the past I would work a song or at least an idea every day, and then in a week one song would really stand out that was good, and I would work on that. A song a week is pretty good I think.

I would say that’s a very good pace.

ERNEST GREENE: Now that’s slowed down a bit. I have maybe 6 to 8 pretty strong ideas. In some cases though, the hard thing about making an album is that everything has to work together. So one song on one side of the spectrum isn’t going to work well with another song on the other side of spectrum, so I’ve had to edit while thinking in that context.

I read that in the beginning of all this you weren’t interested in performing live, but now it looks like you’re performing live fairly regularly, so what’s changed?

ERNEST GREENE: There were a couple reasons why I wasn’t too excited about playing live in the beginning. One was that I’ve never really performed live before. Any recording project I’ve done has been just myself in my bedroom as kind of a hobby. I have friends who are in bands and I’d always consider about performing live, but the right situation never came along. Songs to me are just better to listen to on some headphones, not just me standing up there by myself. So that was one reason I wasn’t too excited, and then factor in that people expect some kind of professionalism when you reach a certain level, and that was a bit intimidating. The other reason was that I just got married and I wasn’t really psyched about touring for 4-6 months or more. However, I do think it’s great on one level where you’re traveling and seeing the world, which is something that I’ve started to embrace with these tours coming up. I’m really excited to get out and travel and play the shows, but I’ve been up front with all the labels that I’ve talked with that I don’t think I’ll ever be that kind of band. I just felt like I should take advantage of this opportunity and go to Europe or whatever. And the place I’m in right now, yes I just got married, but I don’t have any kids, so there isn’t much holding me back. I’ve had a pretty good amount of time to rehearse and come up with some good stuff for the live shows. I think it will be pretty intense at the beginning because I am still pretty new to it, but after performing every night for 30 days I should hopefully kind of get the hang of it.

Are the live performances changing your writing process at all? When you’re making music do you think “Man, it would be easier live if I made it like this…”

ERNEST GREENE: It really hasn’t changed the way I work. I can usually tell early on when it’s going to be a live song that will work. I’ve really been thinking about this for the tour in March. I’m trying to get away from having the majority of the song happen on the backing track and moving towards building the track on stage with loops and stuff so I’ll be playing more, which I think will be more entertaining and more fun for me. So I’ve definitely thought about when I’m writing about just keeping things really simple. I’m going to try to keep things relatively upbeat because I’m not a big fan of going to see a show and just stand there with my arms crossed. Sometimes that can be cool to have those heady atmospheric parts, but my favorite stuff has a little bit of both.

Ya I know what you mean I went to a hip-hop show not too long ago, and it was nothing but arms crossed all serious and mean muggin and it just looked like no one enjoyed anything.

ERNEST GREENE: (laughs) Ya you might as well just be sitting in your house smoking a joint with a really great sound system. I’m sure that would be much more entertaining if you’re going to be like that.

Since you have a background in so many different genres, if you wanted to do more of a rock album would you keep it under the Washed Out name or would that be a different side project?

ERNEST GREENE: Ya actually before I was doing the Washed Out stuff I was doing more of a rock thing called Lee Weather. So I had about 5 or 6 songs and I wanted to try to make something out of it, but it never really worked out. I’m thinking about doing a small run of 7” because I have a little online store, and all of this stuff has been pretty small numbers so it’s all sold out rather quickly. Also, it’s going to be awhile till this next record comes out so I’ve been thinking I’m going to do something with those tracks. There’s been some interest with a few labels that have heard some of it, but I think I might just go ahead and do it myself, it’s just easier that way. Anyways the sound and vocals are pretty similar to Washed Out where there’s a lot reverb and vocal harmonies, but it sounds like a rock band with the drums, guitar, and bass; that’s at the heart of it. It’s really fun when I get burned out working with synths; it’s fun to work with something completely different, it’s refreshing. I’ve written maybe two new Lee Weather songs this past month that just came about at random. Generally they work out really good when I’m not trying to write a hit but just playing around.

I’ve heard you describe yourself as a pretty stubborn person when it comes to making music, has that changed at all?

ERNEST GREENE: I’ve reached out a little bit to people; that’s another thing I want work on for the new album. I want to mix things up a bit. I don’t want the same vocal sound on every song, or ya know, a copy of one song on five other songs. I’ve reached out to a couple of musicians and sent them some songs. I’m trying to work it where someone could sing a melody or sing a part of a song, and I think it might work out but it’s really hard. In most cases these people are busy doing their own thing, and some people don’t have the means to just sit down and record a vocal part. I hope it works out, but I really don’t know how it would work. I am really stubborn in most situations where I’ve sat down with someone else and tried to write a song; it’s just been a disaster. It might be something like I haven’t sat down with the right people or something, but in most situations it just seems like nothing gets done. It will be like one person will be playing a riff, and then they won’t budge from that, and then another person is playing a different riff, and it just doesn’t work. I don’t if you’re familiar with Toro Y Moi?

Oh ya I think he’s really going to blow up this year.

ERNEST GREENE: Ya, we’re really good friends, I used to live in Colombia where he still lives, and we had a little project for a week. Someone asked us to do a show only a week in advance so we sat down and wrote 8 or 9 songs, and even that was really frustrating and he’s a great musician. He can come up with a hundred different ideas for whatever you’re playing, but ya even that was frustrating for me. I don’t know, I guess I should be more flexible, but we’ll see how that will work in the future. Maybe I’ll bring some more people in.

You still live a fairly rural lifestyle and you’re not tied down to any label or deadline. Do you view those things as ways to keep the control over your music?

ERNEST GREENE: Ya, I got married in October, and before that we didn’t really have any plans about where we wanted to be. I guess the music was taking off at that point but we really weren’t sure where we’d be 6 months down the road. I was living in a really small town called Perry Georgia, which is about 20 minutes from where I’m living now in Macon. It’s a little bit larger but it’s still a pretty small place, and we did that for a couple reasons. One of them was that I kind of wanted to be away from all the hype and the hoopla. I think moving to someplace like New York would be just too much to deal with and I wouldn’t get any work done. That’s kind of just the way I’ve always been, I’m pretty shy, and I’m a bit of a homebody. I would rather just like to stay at home and do my own thing, and work on my little projects. We’ve considered about moving to Athens Georgia which isn’t very far from here, and it’s a college town, so there’s a lot more going on with music. It would be a lot easier to do a couple one off shows there, but it still would be a situation where it would be relatively small and I could get things done. I feel that with the tour I can get all of my craziness out of me and it’s nice to do that and then come home.

I think that’s a benefit to you personally. I mean let’s take where I’m from, Portland. Every band that comes from here has that “Portland” label on them, or someone will say they’ve got that New York sound, etc. With you being away from that, you can just be you.

ERNEST GREENE: Yes! I mean I’m sure there are certain things where that helps, such as getting inspiration or bouncing off ideas people. The hardest thing for me is that this is rural Georgia, not that progressive. People for the most part just want to listen to southern rock, something like the Allman Brothers, and that’s pretty much par for the course. I would love to get a band together and try to make that work, but I honestly don’t think I could find three other people that would be interested or had the freedom to do that. But I have friends in Atlanta, and I can just drive down there for the weekend and meet with people. I’ve had a couple business meetings up there, and it’s nice to come back here and be anonymous. It’s kind of a little haven, and that’s pretty cool.

What do you like to do outside of music? I know you are a photographer as well.

ERNEST GREENE: Ya I carry a small digital camera around, and it’s kind of just whenever the inspiration strikes sort of thing. For me, it’s more about trying to capture random things that happen; it’s more of a diary for me. I love looking at pictures. I would definitely say that I look at pictures online more than I listen to new music. I have a handful of blogs that I read. Honestly, it’s been a really boring month lately because I’ve just been in my bedroom working on music stuff, so I haven’t been out and about. That’s another thing I like about photography is that it works best when you’re around other people or actively engaging life, whereas music for me is being held up in a room. Other than that my wife and I watch tons of TV on the computer. We just finished Mad Men and Breaking Bad, and that’s about it, it’s a pretty boring life (laughs).

That doesn’t sound too bad to me.

(Washed Out is a musician from Georgia, to learn more about Washed Out and Ernest Greene, visit: http://ernestgreene.blogspot.com and http://www.myspace.com/thebabeinthewoods)

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Interview with Washed Out

We’ll be starting a new project for the next issue of Letter to Jane Magazine. Starting soon we’re going to start shooting short, 30 second videos and there’s a lot of them to get through so if you live in Oregon and want to help us out let us know. They are going to be silent and not too involved, many of you will just have to stand and look at the camera. There is no set date on when shooting will start but you can email us at lettertojanemag@gmail.com and we can work something out.

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Open Casting Call

If you’ve ever seen one of Sophomore’s lookbooks, or had the opportunity to get a hold of some of their clothes then there’s no need to read this introduction because you’ve already been won over. There’s an inviting warmth and openness in their attitude that makes you feel comfortable. These aren’t the cool kids who sit at their own table at lunch, these are the cool kids who threw the great parties. There’s an undefinable quality to Sophomore that just makes you want to like them, and that quality is derives from designer and owner Chrissie Miller. Miller started Sophomore in 2002 designing t-shirts and with the addition of designer Madeleine Von Froomer has expanded the line to become one of the coolest brands out there. There is a genuine nature to Miller that makes you a fan. She never comes off as trying to be cool, trying to sell you something, or trying anything at all except just being herself and doing what she loves. There are so many genuine people out there, but they get lost in the hype machine that the blogs and pop culture create and they come out looking like a token figure for some fad. Miller and Sophomore sidestep those potential traps by keeping things simple and only make what they themselves would want. Their clothes are comfortable, affordable, never serious, and always fun. It was a pleasure to sit down with Miller to talk about fashion, music, and of course Woody Allen for our next issue of Letter to Jane Magazine.

I want to start with your recent lookbook for the spring 2010 because I really do love this film, I would have paid money to see it.

CHRISSIE MILLER: Aww thanks so much.

How do you avoid the usual clichés that most fashion videos suffer from? I think most companies still think it’s cool to have two star crossed lovers magically find each other while they’re spending millions across Europe?

CHRISSIE MILLER: You know what I think it is? It’s that the clothes are secondary. It’s more about making something artistic and being creative; that’s more important to me than just showing the clothes and trying to sell to somebody. I’m not trying to do that, it’s more about creative expression. We make t-shirts so we don’t take ourselves too seriously and if people like the clothes they’ll buy them. I mean I really liked the thing Levi’s did, but it was so much about the jeans that it ruined it. Everybody wants Levi’s or buys Levi’s already; you don’t need to show them.

Now the film is comprised of interviews of people telling stories of how they got in trouble in high school, first loves, etc. Was the dialogue taken from your own lives or were they actually the characters own words?

CHRISSIE MILLER: Well originally we thought it was going to be more planned since a lot of the people in the film are actual actors, but what the editors mostly wound up using were their real stories. I mean obviously those two girls aren’t twins and there’s some other funny stuff, but ya those moments are real.

Any stories of your own match the ones in the film?

CHRISSIE MILLER: [laughs] Oh my God, how much time do you have?

If the story is good I have all day…

CHRISSIE MILLER: [laughs] I’ll just say I wasn’t too good during my high school years. I wasn’t a good teenager, but once I got to college I really got into it and got good grades and really turned it around.

You went to art school right?

CHRISSIE MILLER: Ya I went to SUNY Purchase.

What were some of your heroes to study?

CHRISSIE MILLER: Well I studied film when I was in school and they were really geared towards independent filmmaking there so we were watching Hal Hartley and stuff like that, but oh man it’s hard to remember all of them. To be honest, I mostly just watch rom-coms these days [laughs]. Once you get out of film school you just don’t want to watch films like that anymore. I studied you know Godard, Mike Nichols, stuff like that.

I know what you mean I used to TA film classes in college and now the only thing I watch is sitcoms, which is kind of embarrassing since I named this magazine after a Godard film.

CHRISSIE MILLER: Oh really? I don’t remember that one.

Ya not too many do, I don’t think it was supposed to be remembered but I loved the name and it just stuck with me.

CHRISSIE MILLER: That’s cool.

As I was preparing for this interview I noticed you’re a big Bowie fan, what’s your favorite?

CHRISSIE MILLER: Hunk Dory for sure, that’s my favorite.

I think what Bowie album a person likes says a lot about them as a person.

CHRISSIE MILLER: So what does that say about me?

Early Ziggy means you’re a pretty fun and outgoing person, but if you said something like Low I would be led to believe you’re a bit of a shut in.

CHRISSIE MILLER: Ha, well good then, I think it’s more to do with I just didn’t find those albums till a lot later.

Do you play any instruments?

CHRISSIE MILLER: No, no I wish I did.

Well why don’t I actually ask a question off my list here… what’s the one thing you hope to find when you go into a vintage store?

CHRISSIE MILLER: You know it’s funny, I just went to LA and went vintage shopping, and I realized that what I do is look for things that I already own, which is so stupid [laughs]. I’ll always go straight to the jean jacket section and it’s like “How many more jean jackets do I need?” I feel like your brain kind of does that, you go with what is familiar to you. So my goal next time is to get something I don’t have. I also just moved into a smaller apartment so I’m trying to be more selective with what I buy.

I read one bio that mentioned there were a lot of obstacles to overcome with creating Sophomore. Is that true? What were some of those struggles?

CHRISSIE MILLER: Well yes and no. I started really early in 2002 and everything just happened very organically. I would make some shirts, they’d make some money, so I would make more shirts which would make some more money. So things were going really smoothly, but owning your own business is really difficult which is why I realize not a lot of people do it. There were times where I would be wondering how I was going to pay for my office or my rent, and I really didn’t have the time or the energy to get another job while I was doing it so just financially it was hard. But the great thing is that the stuff has always sold well and we always get good feedback so that’s kept me going.

How many people are involved in the day-to-day operations of the company?

CHRISSIE MILLER: There’s only three of us. I design together with Madeleine Von Froomer. She’s a technical designer but the collection is a lot of her vision. Then there’s Leah Dell who runs the office for us and she’s actually in the film, the girl with dark hair who says the line like, “because you’re my brother’s friend…” It was actually her idea for the movie. She grew up in Wildwood New Jersey and we saw this documentary about it and took a lot of ideas from that.

And when you teamed up with Madeleine to extend the line, what clicked with her, what made her the perfect partner?

CHRISSIE MILLER: That’s a good question. It’s funny, sometimes you meet someone in life and you just know right away. It was a total instinct thing, I didn’t really see a lot of her work, but when I met her she looked like the person I was thinking about, it was really strange. It’s like when you’re looking for an apartment and you just know you’re going to live there. Her interview was just her bringing over clothes she really liked and that was it. It wasn’t that I was so blown away with what she brought, it was just her, I really liked her. She is really talented, I’m really lucky to have found her because she was a designer for Proenza before. She had this amazing job already but with this she has a lot more freedom.

Well it’s a great partnership. What I love about Sophomore is how everything can be so simple but it has that little twist to it, that little something extra.

CHRISSIE MILLER: Ya that’s totally her, if it were me alone it would look more basic. She had much more of a fashion background so she would say things like, “we have to make these things have little details,” she’s always been really attentive to the little things.

Going with that, it seems like with every new season you implement some new element into the collection.

CHRISSIE MILLER: Ya that’s absolutely right we do a different fabric group every season. We do t-shirts in jersey, ah I hate that word, then a French terry, and then we add in a different group. So we did leather that one season, then we did oxford for spring. For fall we’re using this material called ponte. We actually did a lot of new stuff for fall, there’s a few different fabrics. It’s fun to do something special ya know?

Speaking of fall, fashion week is pretty much here, what are you looking forward to?

CHRISSIE MILLER: We usually don’t do anything for New York fashion week, but this year we’re doing Gen Art, so I’m excited about that,. We threw a party in Paris a few times. This year we’re throwing a party in London. I’m excited; I haven’t been to London since I was a kid.

Sophomore is dedicated to basics and sportswear, but are there other places you’d like to expand, maybe some collaborations? it doesn’t have to be clothes, would you like to extend Sophomore into film, music?

CHRISSIE MILLER: Ya I really enjoyed doing the film, I would like to do more of that. I guess I don’t necessarily consider myself a fashion person. I’ve gone into it more recently, but I think that’s just sort of what comes through. It’s just clothes, it’s just simple stuff that I felt like I couldn’t find. I want to do more things soon like bathing suits, especially for men. It’s really hard for men to find good bathing suits.

Yes that’s completely true.

CHRISSIE MILLER: Right? They’re all really sporty or really long so that’s something I’d like to design.  As for collaborations, I feel that so many designers do that. If we did one I’d want it to be special; I don’t want to do it just to do it.

If I could say something about the swim suits. If you make one keep in mind that it’s impossible to find a suit that doesn’t make you look like an old man or like you’re flaunting something, both scenarios that do not work well on someone like me.

CHRISSIE MILLER: Ya like in the 70’s they made really nice ones that just looked like shorts that you could just wear, they didn’t look like a bathing suit at all.

Ya know there is always a lot of talk about a sort of New York 70’s vibe around Sophomore.  Are there any specific scenes or eras from New York’s past that you love?

CHRISSIE MILLER: I think designers come back to the 70’s often because it’s such a flattering silhouette; it just looks good on people. I think that classic look with the higher waist jeans, a t-shirt, and a jacket is just more flattering.  The bodies look so disproportionate in the 80’s and 90’s. In the 70’s everyone looked so long and lean.

I was just thinking the same thing the other day when I was watching some of the early episodes of Saturday Night Live and everything just seemed more natural, I was a bit jealous.

CHRISSIE MILLER: That’s funny I recently watched some of those too; ya the clothes are really good. Did you notice their old logo? We were going to make that into a t-shirt but I think originally the show was just called Saturday Night.  So for fall I just made a t-shirt that says Saturday Nights.

What would you say inspire your t-shirt designs more: your day-to-day life or things you see such as books, movies, tv?

CHRISSIE MILLER: I feel like the key for me is to not look too much at what other designers are doing. I don’t mind to look after we’re done and I have my antennae out there to think about what is coming next. Also living in New York is a big inspiration almost to a fault; I feel like that antennae goes off in other places. It’s really hard for me to get inspired unless I’m in New York because I want to get my inspiration from the people around me. I don’t want to guess what is going to be hip.

I was thinking your “Girls Girls Girls” t-shirt kind of looks like a New York Dolls album cover.

CHRISSIE MILLER: That one came from an old Motley Crew t-shirt I had.

Ah yes of course, the old stripper anthem.

CHRISSIE MILLER: The hardest part to me is designing the graphics. It’s weird you’d think the other stuff would be harder. I have a really hard time doing the graphics, but they sell really well.

No I can understand, you don’t want it to come off as a Hot Topics shirt. You got to find that perfect touch that makes it unique.

CHRISSIE MILLER: Ya it’s like this weird thing where it has to have mass appeal, but with a little bit of an inside reference to it. What you were saying earlier about vintage shopping, I always go through the t-shirt section so a lot of the stuff comes from that. There are some shirts that I’ve just scanned and redone, like old random graphics. Remember the one from spring that has a yin yang thing on it? That was a Yoko Ono t-shirt. We changed a few little things so we wouldn’t get sued but that’s really just Yoko Ono. I really love graphics; I started with graphics so I’m always on the hunt, but there will be months where I don’t feel like wearing a graphic t-shirt. But I think guys really like graphics. Every guy I know has a graphic tee in their rotation so I feel like it will always be popular for them.

Is there anyone in the industry that you’re jealous of?

CHRISSIE MILLER: That’s a good question; I guess I get jealous of people that are making money because we’re not making a lot of [laughs] if I can be totally honest. I look at someone and go, “those guys got a Target deal? They’re so rich!” Not that I want to be rich, but it would be very nice to not have to stress about money.

Thank God somebody is honest about this. I get asked all the time why I do this and I tell them it’s because I it’s what I love to do, I just wished it made money so I never have to work in another office.

CHRISSIE MILLER: Ya I know it’s true, a real motivator for me was that I couldn’t imagine working for someone else.

You’ve developed this close circle of friends around Sophomore that you work with. Are you socially outgoing or do you just like to stay within that social circle?

CHRISSIE MILLER: Ya I’ve always been a social person I think and it’s always been important to be around my friends, it’s my inspiration too. That’s just a priority for me.

That’s good, I have a real problem with staying in touch some times.

CHRISSIE MILLER: We’re all working harder and harder when we get older but I try my best.

Do you like to take vacations or is it pretty much work all the time?

CHRISSIE MILLER: I have a boyfriend so I like going away with him. We went away to Miami for new years and that was nice. I wish I could go on vacations more for sure.

Miami, nice your’s was a lot better than mine, I got stuck in the Portland airport for mine. Hey this is random, but what is your favorite Woody Allen film?

CHRISSIE MILLER: When I was in school I took a whole class on Woody Allen so I’ve seen them all. My favorite? That’s so hard. This is random but I love Deconstructing Harry. You know one of the newer ones?

Oh ya, it’s been a while since I saw that that, but he’s great in that one, he’s just so angry.

CHRISSIE MILLER: Ya and that thing about the out of focus is so genius.

People usually say Annie Hall but there’s really nothing wrong with that.

CHRISSIE MILLER: Stardust Memories is another one I like. I just don’t think there’s one that you can’t like. Interiors is the one that people give him a lot of shit for, but I think they’re all good, I love him.

I haven’t seen the last one with Larry David yet, have you?

CHRISSIE MILLER: Ya I did, it was good but it was a little like Larry David trying to be him, and I would rather it just be Woody Allen.

Ok last question. You seem to have the insider’s connection to The Virgins. Have you heard of any new music coming our way?

CHRISSIE MILLER: Yes they are recording new music at home right now. I used to live with them, and I grew up with Nick.  I love them they’re the best guys ever. They’re really three of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet.

(Chrissie Miller is designer and owner of Sophomore. you can find out more about them at their website www.sophomorenyc.com)

Post from: Letter to Jane

Interview with Chrissie Miller of Sophmore